MBB: NESCAC

[AmherstStudent05]

I really, really do not want to step in anything here.  This is a simple question.  Not one to be smited for, I might add.
Is David Kalema more effective as a starter than he was coming off the bench? 
Mine is NOT a statistical question but rather one a coach would ask himself as he sought balance in a long season from a 8-9 man rotation.

Jeez, Coach Hixon really can't catch a break from Midd posters on his usage of Kalema!  Should he be starting in place of Toomey, benched for Berman? Guy can't win!

I kid, of course.  It is a very fair question.  Certain players, for whatever reason, tend to make more of an impact when coming off the bench.  It is certainly fair to say that Kalema has struggled a bit to start the year (am I allowed to say that, jumpshot?).  Not sure if we have much of a sample size yet to know (I would also note that Kalema got a few starting opportunities last year due to injury and generally played very well -- even if Amherst as a whole often did not).  As I said in my post after the Emerson game, personally (like Midd fans with St. Amour, perhaps), I am not terribly worried.  Sure, Kalema can play better than he has, but I fully expect him to.  He did a lot for us last year (albeit in a more supporting role), and I think he has already established himself as a critical piece for us.

More to the point, the question is pretty much moot, I think.  As has been discussed before, Amherst does not have a lot of established players in the backcourt right now (suppose that could change if Berman keeps getting minutes).  We really just don't have anyone who could be a plausible alternative in the backcourt.  That is, unless we can bring Willy Workman back.  In that case, I would agree, Kalema would make a fine 6th man.

[AmherstStudent05]

I've only seen him play once, but based on what I've seen and his level of performance vs. good opponents, Hart is totally legit, and will be named an all-NESCAC player if not this year then certainly as an upperclassman.  He is undersized as a two guard but otherwise can do it all, very quick and crafty getting to the basket and also a good shooter, a very difficult cover.  I think that he would start for every NESCAC team.  Too bad he doesn't seem to have a ton of help on the Hamilton roster ...

Out of curiousity, nescac1, if Hart joined this year's Williams team, would you start him over Duncan Robinson?  Not sure I would (though, to be fair, I haven't seen him play much, and I certainly don't mean to take anything away from an obviously fine player).

[amh63]

Amherst wins at Babson in a game, imo, of halfs.  More important to the team was HBC Hixon getting his 700 win in this his 37th season.  He becomes the 4th D3 coach to reach that milestone. 
In the first half, Killian scores Amherst's first 14 points from everywhere...outside and inside.  Amherst is hot from outside...but Babson matches Amherst.  Few fouls and turnovers by both teams.  Connor Green scores his points.  The fine announcer states that the fast pace game was one of the best he has seen.  Killian scores 20 points in the first half and the early shoot out was without Aaron Toomey getting a point.  He did not try to make a shot as the teams went back and forth.  Toomey in the last 5 minutes got into the shootout and quickly scored 11 points....still Amherst only led by 3 points at the half.   
The video did not come back on....technical difficulties...for the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half.  Watching stats,  Amherst could never get more than a 4-5 point lead, only to have Babson get a 2 point lead.  Amherst's foul shooting was terrible.  Both teams was shooting around the 45 % plus but at a lower pace.  When the pix came back on, it was still a close game.  Somewhere with about 6 minutes to go, Amherst got the stops, got turnovers and Green and Toomey started to hit from the outside again and went up by 14 points .Babson came back and it got dicey again when Babson scored 5 points in less than 30 seconds as Amherst made turnovers.  With less than 2 minutes to go, Babson started fouling and Conner Green who was 4-9, started to hit his foul shots and Toomey hit his foul shots, etc. and Amherst had 90 points and Babson had 77 or 79.  I did not care or remember the final score. 
Oh yes, George was a beast in the last 2-3 minutes blocking shots from behind the shooter.  Green and Killian were monsters on the boards.  Berman, Levine and Mussachia got PT. 
Need to check the stats to see if there were 4 players in double figures in scoring or just three starters with 20 or more points.....and how the rebounds were distributed.
Next game for Amherst will be in Florida!  There must be Alums to impress or possible recruits to watch Amherst play or something.  Maybe Coach Hixon wants to play golf?  Who knows....do know, that I am in the dog house again

[nescac1]

That's a fair point -- Hart might actually not break Williams' starting line-up.  But Williams has one of the most talented starting fives I've seen in D-3.  Hart is not really a point guard (he would probably start over Rooke-Ley if he was, although that wouldn't be an easy call) and Williams is insanely loaded on the wing with Epley, Wohl and Robinson.  I would not start him over Robinson, but that is no knock on Hart, because Robinson, if he stays healthy and improves as you would expect, will be a three-time all-American, and he may already be the second-best offensive player on the Ephs after a healthy Mayer, plus he has a lot of length on defense, whereas Hart is really small. 

Watched some of the Amherst game and was impressed by Killian, that was a career game for him and he seems to have made the leap forward in his senior year that Williamson and Kalema did last season for the Jeffs.  Much more assertive / aggressive on offense than he has been in the past and obviously was feeling it tonight.  He is also Amherst's top individual defender it seems.  Reid Berman is also fun to watch -- he is very difficult to keep out of the lane and has a lot of tricky change of pace / direction moves with the ball in his hands, he is a true natural point guard.  So far though he is kind of the Ricky Rubio of NESCAC -- great passer and ball-handler, but he looks extremely hesitant to shoot from anywhere outside of two feet from the basket.  Although on a team with so many scoring threats his playmaking is a big asset, at some point he will need to look more for his own offense just to keep defenses honest.  Has he even attempted an outside shot yet this season? 

Toomey is obviously not 100 percent physically and it's scary how good he is despite that -- he is able to score effectively with his deadly quick-release outside shot and his court savvy, even when he lacks explosion and quickness going to the rim.  And he plays 40 mpg in close games, just about, despite the fact that something is clearly bothering him. 

[AmherstStudent05]

Great call on Berman, nescac1.  When I made my initial post I was trying to determine what I thought of Berman's outside shot, and then it occurred to me that I am not sure I have really seen him take an outside shot.  I assume he must have attempted a few so far, but even if so, it obviously isn't a big part of his game.

This is obviously looking WAY far ahead, but it has been some time since Amherst has not had a PG that was also a top scoring threat.  Toomey and Meehan were obviously their respective teams' top scorers, and even Olson, while perhaps not technically the top scorer over Walters/Wheeler or Bedford was obviously a guy Amherst fans were thrilled to see take a shot during crunch time.  I think that scoring threat from the PG position has been a wonderful luxury and a key component of Amherst's success.

Again, still way too early to tell what kind of scorer Berman could or will become.  He certainly has a nice handle and a nose for getting to the hoop.  If he gets bigger and plays with better body control, maybe he can become a Meehan like scorer attacking the basket. Or maybe, as I am sure Amh63 would remind me, I should just hope that he can become a true, top-notch, pass-first point guard who takes care of the ball and sets up offense for his teammates (with his own scoring just being gravy).  Oh well, this should be a topic for another time, I suppose.  Should probably just appreciate this win for now!

[jayhawk]

nice note about Coach Hixon. Nice for the coach that his parents were there tonight, His father was a former coaching legend at Andover and is in the New England Basketball Hall of Fame.  Good news that both Ben Pollack and Jacob Nabatoff traveled to the game and was on bench.
Nescac1 good pickup Toomey not 100% , some time off is all he needs

[lefrakenstein]

Congrats to Coach Hixon on #700! Does anyone know the D3 record?

[amh63]

Jayhawk....nice post to note the presence of Hixon's parents.  Remember meeting them during my first trip to Salem. They were staying at the same hotel as me.  Remembering that they were coming up from Florida.
Did see Pollack dressed.  Saw Toomey's support "group" gather at the end of the game.  Guess they were waving at Toomey's Dad at home   Based on the happy face of Aaron's mom, and others, agreed that Aaron just needs to get some rest.
Will wait a few days to post here my thoughts on the Amherst's team to date...end of the developing phase so to speak.  Will try to answer Middhoops question wrt to Kalema who is a "local boy" of the team then and even some observations about the play of Toomey and others.

[magicman]

nescac1
I wondered if you noticed that Southern Vermont was beaten rather decisively by Union College Thursday night 95-75. With Southern Vermont's upset of Williams and opening with 6 wins in their first 7 games it looked like the Mountaineers were going to have a very good year. However this was a bad loss as Union is not a very good team this year. They are currently 3-5 and will struggle to win 10 games. I don't think they will make the Liberty League playoffs, and see them finishing with something like a 5-11 conference record . Southern Vermont may still have a great season but I would consider that loss last night a fairly big upset. (That sure sounds strange, after recent history, that a Southern Vermont loss would be an upset.)   

[nescac1]

magicman, I'd say that strange things happen in basketball sometimes, especially on the road -- Emerson, after all, beat Amherst but lost to Wesleyan, Lesley, and Framingham State, none of whom figure to be hoops powers this season.  Southern Vermont is legitimately a good team -- they are just very young and will be inconsistent -- but going from ONE win last year in the ENTIRE season to a 6-2 start (and I still think they are likely to win around 20 games, which would represent a turnaround of historic proportions) is quite impressive.  They will have some bumps in the road but the coach is really building something there and I think they were the second best team Williams has played this year, following Springfield, and ahead of Wesleyan and Salem State.

SVT beating Williams was sort of the perfect storm: it was Williams' first game of the season following only two weeks of practice, one of which was totally disrupted by scheduling issues with the gym.  The game was moved at the last minute to a different gym.  Southern Vermont was totally fired up and brought a rabid group of fans with it, and Williams definitely came out lethargic and had no idea what Southern Vermont had in store; the Ephs failed to bring the necessary energy, attention to detail, or intensity to match SVT in that game.  The Ephs were also simply off in terms of shooting, in particular Epley and Rooke-Ley, who combined to go 0-7 from three, missing shots that are very easy for them, and have since combined to shoot well over 50 percent from three in subsequent games.  It was a similar formula to Emerson beating Amherst, and I'd rate Emerson roughly even with SVT in terms of talent -- both energetic, very well-coached teams who are capable of stepping up if you don't bring your A-game.  And I still believe that SVT will be at or near the top of its (admittedly very weak) conference this year and, with one more good recruiting class and some more experience, develop into a legitimate regional contender. 

Speaking of Springfield and Emerson, I agree with others who have said that the NEWMAC is much improved this year and clearly has supplanted the suddenly-weak LEC as the second-best conference in New England.  RIC has not played to its usual level this season, surprisingly, and other than Eastern Conn no teams in the league look terribly impressive right now.  Meanwhile although MIT is down, NEWMAC is much deeper than its been in recent years, with Babson, WPI, and Springfield all looking very good, and MIT, Emerson, and Clark all dangerous as well.  A very balanced league, unlike in past years when the top few teams were able to be fairly dominant.   

[middhoops]

I've only seen him play once, but based on what I've seen and his level of performance vs. good opponents, Hart is totally legit, and will be named an all-NESCAC player if not this year then certainly as an upperclassman.  He is undersized as a two guard but otherwise can do it all, very quick and crafty getting to the basket and also a good shooter, a very difficult cover.  I think that he would start for every NESCAC team.  Too bad he doesn't seem to have a ton of help on the Hamilton roster ...

Out of curiousity, nescac1, if Hart joined this year's Williams team, would you start him over Duncan Robinson?  Not sure I would (though, to be fair, I haven't seen him play much, and I certainly don't mean to take anything away from an obviously fine player).

Small sample size, but I haven't seen a player yet this season I'd start over Duncan Robinson.

[madzillagd]

A few comments on Kalema...

- His production is basically where it was at last year and improved in some categories.  Last year:  25.2 mins, 9.0 ppg, 2.7 rbs, 2 asts, 2.3 tos.  This year: 26.0 mins, 9.4 ppg, 2.5 rbs, 3.1 asts, 2.0 tos.  We aren't talking about a huge drop off or anything, he just hasn't make a big leap forward that some may have expected him to make.
- The biggest difference statistically at this point is his FG % which has taken a dive, so he's taking more shots to get the same production.  48% last year compared to 36% this year.  That I think can be attributed to who he is playing with and against.  He no longer has the luxury of Workman's assists and Kaasila's picks.  When Pollack gets back that should help him.  On the year he's shooting 46% in the games Pollack plays and 30% in the games he has been out.   
- I've only seen portions of 3 or 4 games, but one thing that I've noticed is it's hard to be a change-of-pace guard when there is no change of pace.  Last year he was great coming off the bench and things loosened up a bit and the game was played differently than when the starters were on the floor.  He was able to score and make plays in transition etc.  This year as a starter he isn't able to do that so he isn't really playing to his strengths.  As someone pointed out though, it appears that Hixon has decided there isn't another viable option to start at the moment so Kalema will have to adjust to playing a different role for the time being.

[gordonmann]

Congrats to Coach Hixon on #700! Does anyone know the D3 record?

The record holder is Glenn Robinson at Franklin and Marshall. He has 857 wins and counting.

[madzillagd]

This is as of the end of last season....

http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/m_basketball_RB/2014/Coaching2.pdf

Maker the #1 Active Winningest Coach by %
Hixon #7 in that category

Total Victories(Active): Hixon #4

All Time % (Active/Retired) -  Min 10 yrs:
Sheehy #5
Hixon #7
Ogrodnik #14

All Time Wins (Active/Retired) - Min 10 yrs
Hixon #4
Whitmore #8
Murphy #9
Ogrodnik #40

[daoustian]

Congrats to Coach Hixon on #700! Does anyone know the D3 record?

The record holder is Glenn Robinson at Franklin and Marshall. He has 857 wins and counting.

Since the 1996-97 season, Coach Hixon has out-won Coach Robinson 398 to 344.  At that pace, assuming both men keep coaching, Coach Hixon will pass Coach Robinson at some point in the 2062-2063 season, right around Coach Hixon's 109th birthday.  Robinson has 8 years of life and 6 years of head coaching on Hixon, but has also averaged 1+ win per season more than Hixon over his career, thanks in large part to an amazing run of Diplomat squads from 1987 to 1996 where his worst winning percentage for a season was still a gaudy .828. 

Lost in the Hixon accoloades is that Toomey passed Jamal Wilson last night for # 2 all time in the Amherst scoring book.  At his current pace, he will become Amherst's all time leading scorer at some point during the first half of the tilt in Williamstown on January 22, at which point I'm sure play will stop in Chandler and the Eph faithful, sober from a long and cold WinterTerm, will drop to their knees and begin mooing.  At Toomey's current pace, Amherst would need to play 5 postseason games (between the NESCAC Tourney and NCAAs) for Toomey to crack the 2,000-point mark.  Has any NESCAC player broken the 2,000-point barrier since Tyler Rhoten? 

Both Toomey and Green are averaging more than 20 ppg so far this season.  Amherst hasn't had a single player average more than 20 ppg in at least 15 years. 

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