MBB: NESCAC

[AmherstStudent05]

I have to say that I am very surprised by Bates's struggles so far in NESCAC play.  I expected much more out of them.  I wonder if the big win at Pepin to start the NESCAC year may have taken some of the edge off of their play.

[jayhawk]

In Amherst Bowdoin game  a fair number of unforced errors on both sides.
Amherst missed several layups perhaps in part due to Swords- though not always in  or trying to be too"fancy"

Saw at least several of the calls that should have Amherst gone way went Bowdoin- typical of a road game.

David George lots of potential used to swatting shots in high school, will need to learn to bend his knees on defense and not stand upright so he can be more mobile in blocking and defending --

Amherst always fears and has great respect for the Maine trip- tough games to win on the road.

[amh63]

Amherst beats Bowdoin in Brunswick? 70-67........led by the overall hustle of the Amherst team and the higher energy level. 
Lemonjello....thanks for the first half report.....clever, knowledgeable and well "spoken"..as expected...from an Amherst grad & player, I believe.
Strange ending to the game.  Amherst ahead by 1 point and the ball with just under 25 seconds in the game.  Like the first half with strange foul calls...and no calls...Bowdoin has only 2 fouls....Amherst has 6 fouls.  About the same in the first half.  Therefore, Bowdoin has to foul 5 times in order to send an Amherst player to the line.  Finally, and somewhat foolishly, IMO, Aaron is fouled with around 23 seconds and change on the clock.  Aaron makes the two shots for the 3 point lead.  Timeout......Amherst.....first of the half for Amherst, while Bowdoin is down to one.  Should Amherst foul or play tough defense.  Bowdoin has 3 shooters in with each shooting over 43% from downtown.  Amherst forces inside shot attempts and Bowdoin gets two offensive rebounds only to have time run out.  Announcers states that Bowdoin's coach was very angry at the refs....for ignoring him after the first rebound, callling for a time out

Both Killian and Green played at high levels and hit their 3's.....I was wrong...hoped that their combine point totals would exceed 46 points.......the Bowboin total in the Trinity game.  Green had 26 and Killian 13.  Close but no cigars as they say.  Aaron, he ends up with 16 points in 28 minutes...2 fouls in the first half had him sitting for awhile.  One was not on him....Announcers stated it was not a foul since two Bowdoin players bumped each other. 

Winner for the night was my wife.  Promised her dinner out if Amherst teams swept the Polar Bears

[middhoops]

HATE to admit it but I had a previous engagement that kept me from the Bowdoin/Amherst game.  The box score says Swords was 5-5 from the floor.  Anyone care to enlighten me why the PBs didn't get him the ball more?
I assume the answer was LJs filling the passing lanes in the disruptive fashion they're known for.

OG, good to see that your Cameroonian connectivity is serving you relatively well.  I'm told that YG did a very good job of announcing the womens game against Williams.  When one hails from a small town in VT, dynasties are rare and appreciated.  Kudos.

[Bucket]

Back to our regularly scheduled posting...


From around the league (while tactfully staying away from the beaten-to-death differences of opinion regarding how one should observe the Midd-Williams game)

Before tip on Friday, how many of us had:

• Amherst losing one game this weekend, and that loss coming to Colby?
• Colby sweeping Amherst and Trinity?
• Trinity, which had been on such a roll, going 0-2
• Wesleyan going 2-0 against Bates and Tufts
• Bates going 0-2--against Wes and Conn

Wow. Just wow.

[Old Guy]

Despite the loss Bowdoin certainly showed that they can play with one of the best teams in the country.  Hopefully they'll be able to re-group as they still have tough games ahead with Middlebury, Bates and Tufts (all on the road).

Bates is 18 miles away, but that small gym, crazy crowd. . .  who knows. When Bowdoin and Bates play, the records often can be thrown out the window. Bowdoin beat Bates in Brunswick on a last second bomb earlier in the year.

I have to say that I am very surprised by Bates's struggles so far in NESCAC play.  I expected much more out of them.  I wonder if the big win at Pepin to start the NESCAC year may have taken some of the edge off of their play.

They beat Middlebury coming from a big deficit on a Safford three, then lose to Wes in OT and to CC tonight. Fatigue. Don't look now but Wesleyan's playing pretty well. Shot the lights out tonight against the Jumbos. Midd beat Wes in 2 OTs, squeaked by CC. Every game's a toss-up. Till this weekend, Colby was a candidate for not making the tournament (1-4, tied for last place). Now, nobody wants to play them. Lot of tight games this weekend. It would be fun to see if Walzy could have handicapped these games - I suspect not.

Nice weekend for Colby, with an OT win over Trinity tonight to go along with the Amherst stunner. No recap yet, but I note from the box score that Trinity had two Ts. That can be tough in a tight game.

[lemonjello]

Thanks Amh63.  I am an Amherst grad, but not a former player (I wouldn't have even made my high school team, much less the Amherst squad).  Just a club athlete who enjoyed going to games at LeFrak while I was in school, and keeps close tabs on the Jeffs since graduation.

The other posters have covered the rest of the game well, but I will add that David Kalema made several game-changing hustle plays, tipping at least 2 missed shots out for offensive rebounds that saved Amherst possessions.  He also flashed his hops on an audacious attempt to save an out-of-bounds ball by jumping over the Amherst bench.  He was unable to save the ball, but fortunately he wasn't hurt after a hard landing.

It was nice to see Green come back strong after a subpar shooting stretch by his standards.  As we saw this wekeend, Amherst's 3-point heavy offense can be feast or famine, giving weaker opponents a chance to upset them when the shots aren't falling.

As for why Bowdoin didn't feed Swords more, I think  Amherst, and particularly Ben Pollack, did a good job denying the entry passes to the big man.  This led to several steals and turnovers, and Pollack was able to use his physicality to keep Swords from getting position.  They also occasionally brought double-teams to harass Swords when he had the ball.  Bowdoin was also shooting well from outside, so they may not have wanted to force it inside to the big man, particularly when he's not a great foul shooter.

Bowdoin can play.  Madlinger shot the lights out, Swords was a big presence on the interior (and managed to stay out of foul trouble), and Matthias is a fun, energetic player to watch.  They'll be another tough out in the NESCAC tourney, I feel like I say this after every game.  There's lots of parity in the conference this year, I wouldn't be surprised to see an upset or two in the conference tournament.

[middhoops]

Back to our regularly scheduled posting...


From around the league (while tactfully staying away from the beaten-to-death differences of opinion regarding how one should observe the Midd-Williams game)

Before tip on Friday, how many of us had:

• Amherst losing one game this weekend, and that loss coming to Colby?
• Colby sweeping Amherst and Trinity?
• Trinity, which had been on such a roll, going 0-2
• Wesleyan going 2-0 against Bates and Tufts
• Bates going 0-2--against Wes and Conn

Wow. Just wow.

Amen.

[Old Guy]

The box score says Swords was 5-5 from the floor.  Anyone care to enlighten me why the PBs didn't get him the ball more?

Lemonjello points are apt. Keep in mind Bowdoin shot 55% from the floor. 7-11 from three. Swords, if he's low enough on the block, has a nice move, either hand - a fake, a long stride, and a baby hook/sweep. If forced away from the hoop at all, facing the basket, he's not as effective. I think Bowdoin uses him on offense just right. His foul shot is not bad looking (shoots 50%): his misses were close.

His effectiveness is on the other end. Bowdoin plays that tough zone and he stands back there, a goalie, a presence. We're familiar with the defensive blessing that is from the Andrew Locke years. It's apparent that Amherst's offensive strategy was to beat Bowdoin from the outside, and they did (37 three attempts), to get 50% more value for their buckets. Green is a shooter, cold-blooded. He hit a couple and then had a dry spell, but kept shooting and was magic when Amherst needed it in the second half.

Bowdoin had 40 rebounds; Amherst 19. Amherst took 60 shots, Bowdoin 47. The reason for the differential in shots was Bowdoin's 18 turnovers. The reason for the turnovers, I think, was the pace of the game, which was faster than Bowdoin likes to play (the night before they beat Trinity 47-39). Wearing a big knee brace, Hurley unfortunately didn't appear ready to play at that pace. Mathias played confidently and well (32 minutes).

The Bowdoin kids will be upset with the loss, but they had fun. They stayed right with one the the very best teams in the country, went toe-to-toe, and passed the test; they got down early (9-0) in the first half, and then again in the second half, and came back; they electrified their fans, full house (I have family in Brunswick and have been to 3-4 games a year at Bowdoin for the last five years and seen some games in a pretty quiet gym). Bowdoin this year has hoop fever. This was a close game, well-played, highly competitive, the kind about which my coach once said, "fans may be disappointed, but they're not asking for a refund."

Bowdoin, down three, had 21 seconds to tie the game at the end, took three cracks at it if I'm not mistaken - Amherst played great D, chose not to foul (do NOT bring up Willie Workman here). Why did Bowdoin foul Aaron Toomey with 21 seconds to play, down one? Because he had the ball. The last thing you want with time running out is Toomey playing keepaway, hoping he'll pass it to someone else - Gach?). Here's my imagined conversation in the Amherst huddle before that foul sequence: Coach Hixon to inbounder - "Get the ball to Aaron." Coach to Toomey - "Aaron, get open."

I like the Bowdoin announcers too, mostly. They're very friendly, have a good time, older guys I assume, who know the program well. Two minor quibbles. The lead guy (ironically named "Toomey") has a nice Maine accent, but he seemed not to know the Amherst coach's name - referred to him throughout as the "Amherst coach" (as in "the 'Amherst coach' has taken off his jacket; the tie will go next"), and the only time I heard him refer to Hixon by name he called him "Hilton." And the other fellow, who knows his hoop and has a nice manner, must have told us five times that" Grant" (that would be Grant White) was the "best athlete in NESCAC." I think he must be "Grant's" uncle. Okay, White plays football too. But we all have our own candidates (mine might be Sinnickson, who bats lead-off on the baseball team at 6'5", plays centerfield, leads the team in hitting, and is built like Lebron. I can hear amh63 saying, "the guy with the Prince Valiant haircut?" Yes, that guy, not the one with the yellow shoes, who also plays baseball).

[madzillagd]

The NSN announcers all year have talked about Daniel Wohl being from La Canada, CA and pronounced it like the country. It's so noticeable that a few students have been bringing a Canadian flag to the games and waving it when Wohl makes a play. The only problem of course is the city is La Cañada, pronounced La Canyada.   Makes you wonder if they give the NSN announcers any type of cheat sheets for these games on the player names etc. or if they are completely on their own to figure it out.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Another episode of Hoopsville is slated today at a special time... 1-3 PM EST... and Colby MBB coach Damien Strahorn will be on the show along with the following guests:

- Eastern Mennonite WBB coach Kevin Griffin
- Morrisville State MBB coach Joe Smith
- #10 UW-Whitewater MBB coach Pat Miller
- Staten Island MBB coach Joe Petosa
- MacMurry MBB coach Todd Creal

Show starts at 1 PM EST and runs about two hours.

You can tune in here: www.d3hoops.com/hoopsville/archives/2013-14/feb2

You can also follow us on social media
- Twitter (@d3hoopsville and #Hoopsville)
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And don't forget about the Hoopsville Fundraising Project! We may have hit our goal, but there is still a week left in the campaign to continue raising money to improve the show. Please considering contributing: http://igg.me/at/Hoopsville/x/6029509

Thanks and enjoy the show!

[Bucket]

The NSN announcers all year have talked about Daniel Wohl being from La Canada, CA and pronounced it like the country. It's so noticeable that a few students have been bringing a Canadian flag to the games and waving it when Wohl makes a play. The only problem of course is the city is La Cañada, pronounced La Canyada.   Makes you wonder if they give the NSN announcers any type of cheat sheets for these games on the player names etc. or if they are completely on their own to figure it out.

As the Middlebury PA announcer, I asked Daniel before the game if his hometown was pronounced the way it was spelled. "Actually, it's not," he said. The program was lacking the accent mark over the n, and he explained, as you have, that it's pronounced Canyada. "You're the first person all year who's asked," he said. "Thanks so much." He seemed genuinely pleased, and while it's a small thing, I believe it's important to get these things right.

[amh63]

Old Guy.....Enjoyed your last post....especially your views of the last 30 seconds of the game.  Yes, Bowdoin tried three shots.  Is it not fun to play "coach" for a moment when watching a game.  See that you associate great athletes with baseball and basketball.  Not surprising for some reason.   One of reasons that I refer to the haircut of a player is that I cannot remember the name of the player...personal fault of mine from way back really.  Last post on a Midd. game, I had not recognized it was Jensen on the line.....and gave credit to Prince Sinnickson.  Seems that the Panther's team likes to wear long hair.  Speaking on hair, enjoyed the video of the Middlebury BB team.  Learned that there is a reason for living up in "farm boy" VT.  One is the cost of a haircut...15 bucks...Nice.  Does that include the tip?  Really.  My sons call me cheap when I do not leave a 5 dollar tip...bringing a haircut cost to 20 big ones.  Clarification here....the farm boy is not a put down.  My local HS has great football teams.  Many state championships in the big school classifications.  A neighbor and a former player stated that many of the best players, linemen were farm boys really.  They were lean hard players with great strength gained from working on farms and moving hay bales.
To close this rambling post,  I must admit that I too replayed the game last night and this morning...thinking on what I would have say to the Amherst team in the huddle.  I even wondered if I would have put Swords in the game and get the ball to him.  During dinner last night, I discussed the last moments of the game with my wife and yes, even explained the options to her by mentioning the play of my favorite player of last season.  Sorry...OG. ...I'm weak.

[jumpshot]

A final comment on Williams' memorable win at Middlebury following season long-hype and speculation---

Coming back from 18 points down in fewer than 20 minutes with only 30 possessions in the second half on the road is clearly a tribute to the resiliency and determination of the Williams players.

Down 10 with under 6 minutes to play required big plays by five different Williams players.

As has been accurately pointed out by Toad and NESCAC1, the game was a story of two different periods. In the first half, Mid shot 50% including 7 of 13 threes (54%) against a zone defense, in the second half only 1 of 8 from distance, and 20 total points against man-to-man defense. In the final 20 minutes, Williams shot 48%, including 6 of 11 three-pointers and 13 for 13 from the foul line, and 39 total points.

Lots of life lessons in this experience for all ....

[toad22]

A supporting fact about the difference in the two halves in the Middlebury-Williams game is that at the beginning of the game, Middlebury scored on 7 of their first 8 possessions (I think)  against Williams' man to man defense. My guess is that Coach Maker went to the zone because their man was so ineffective. I didn't feel as though the zone was so bad, as much as Middlebury's shooting was so good. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised when the Eph man worked out well in H2. You certainly wouldn't have predicted that from the first half action.