MBB: NESCAC

[frank uible]

Mauro's stats are not available because Williams did not preserve them in those days - but I do recall that he lead his team in 1954-55 to wins over Dartmouth, Vermont, Rhode Island, Umass and probably some other "DI" colleges..

[Panthernation]

Old Guy, I think that a Sabety-Palleschi (assuming the latter is 100 percent) combo could be just as good as Sharry and Locke defensively and on the boards, and even stronger offensively.

Nescac1, while Sabety and Palleschi both had very impressive freshman years, the idea that they could be in the Sharry/Locke stratosphere defensively is a leap that cannot be made. The defense that Middlebury played with Sharry and Locke on the floor during the '10-'11 season is unlike anything Division III basketball, let alone the NESCAC, has seen in a very long time.

That year Middlebury held opponents to a Division III-best 34.7 percent shooting from the floor, held opponents to 28.3 percent from beyond the arc, allowed 56.3 points per game and held a +9.1 rebounding advantage. Locke and Sharry alone combined to block 170 shots. That's more than all but 5 teams have totaled this season.

Locke anchored a period of defensive dominance unlike anything seen since the turn of the century in Division III basketball. Here is the list of field goal percentage defense leaders by season since '99-'00 (which is as far back as the NCAA archives seem to go).

2013-14: Farmingdale State — 36.4
2012-13: Farmingdale State — 35.7
2011-12: Westfield State — 36.1
2010-11: Middlebury 34.7
2009-10: Middlebury — 36.7
2008-9: Middlebury — 37.1
2007-8: Stevens — 37.5
2006-7: NYU — 35.4
2005-6: Huntingdon — 35.4
2004-5: Lebanon Valley — 36.1
2003-4: Kean — 37.0
2002-3: Trinity (TX) — 37.1
2001-2: Rowan — 36.5
2000-1: Endicott — 36.6
1999-00: Baruch — 36.0

First of all, Middlebury is the only team that shows up three times on the list (corresponding with Locke's sophomore, junior and senior seasons), secondly no team over a 15-year span even comes close to matching Middlebury's level of defensive dominance during Locke's senior year and Sharry's junior season.

Now, obviously there were a number of great defensive players around Locke and Sharry (Timmy Edwards and Nolan Thompson both won NESCAC defensive player of the year awards), but Locke was clearly the defensive foundation of the '10-'11 team (which is a historical outlier), which came the year after Edwards graduated and during Thompson's sophomore year, before he made the leap as a true lockdown defender. (We would be remiss not to mention the impact Jamal Davis had on that team defensively, but Locke was in a different stratosphere).

Locke's individual statistics are no less impressive: He led the conference in blocks every single season, including his freshman year when he blocked 57 shots while playing just 8 minutes per game. Amherst's Kevin Hopkins was the only other NESCAC player to block more than 35 shots that year, blocking 47, while playing 400 more minutes than Locke. During his sophomore, junior and senior seasons, Locke accounted for more blocked shots by himself than every other team in the NESCAC besides Amherst and Williams.

Lest you think this is a one-man comparison, Sharry finished third in the conference in blocks his junior year and led the conference his senior season.

So, while Sabety was impressive defensively this year (he led the NESCAC with 67 blocks while playing 22 minutes per game), and Palleschi blocked a fair number of shots a season ago (45 while playing 25 minutes per game), in order to say they will compete with Locke and Sharry defensively you have to project them to have historically great careers defensively. That's an unfair assumption to make about any freshman tandem, especially when neither were as dominant defensively as Locke was his freshman year.

On a related note, since people are discussing the best players in NESCAC history, any assessment of the best defensive player in NESCAC history begins and ends with Andrew Locke.

Offensively, the big question is whether Sabety and Palleschi can complement one another as well as Sharry and Locke did. Sabety's game is essentially limited to the free throw line and down and while Palleschi has more of a face up game, he hasn't shown the range that Sharry did as a jump-shooter. If he develops that aspect of his game, then the Palleschi-Sabety combination may turn out to be better offensively than Sharry and Locke, but if they are *only* a high-post, low-post combination they may not eclipse Locke and Sharry offensively either, though they have a decent shot there, where defensively it would take a miracle.

[nescac1]

Fair enough, Panther Nation!

[TheHerst2and4]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLTl4tWMwWQ

Sorry, couldn't resist.
Those numbers are beyond impressive by both Locke and the Middlebury team as a whole. Kudos to PantherNation for pulling those numbers as well.

[Vandy74]

Nice mini-run by Bowdoin at the end of the half to cut the lead to 6.  Richard Stockton is doing a good job keeping Swords out of the offensive flow.  Bowdoin has to get him more involved.

[pick and roll]

Sorry Herst but couldn't resist reminding what happened two weeks after that dunk! 

http://www.nescac.com/sports/mbkb/2008-09/championship/championship_release

[lordofthejeffs]

Lots of great players in NESCAC history... nescac1, agree with your comments, just wanted to point out that the greatest "without question" is far too strong a label... as for the classic question of how much credit individual players deserve for team accomplishments, I tend to agree w/ lekfrakenstein that the championship adds value (although that same logic may send Eli Manning to the Hall of Fame...)

Really looking forward to the Amherst student section chants tmrw... for all those who haven't seen it done at Utah State, enjoy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARpzavb7PQk

[nescac1]

Williams up by six at the half.  Mitchell has two REALLY good players, Joshua Ford and Parris Hill, both of whom average over 20 ppg.  Each would both be top-tier NESCAC players.  They don't get a lot of help, however.  Williams has not played particularly well -- Mitchell seems to have no way to stop them defensively, but the Ephs have missed a lot of wide open threes (including a few where Duncan Robinson had about three seconds to line up the shot, one of those too-much-time situations, perhaps.  Generally, I like the Ephs' chances if the strategy is to leave Duncan unguarded) and were a bit sloppy at times on both ends.  Ford and Hill are both too quick for the Eph big guys, but going zone helped limit their effectiveness a bit.  Ephs should be throwing the ball in the post almost every possession because Mayer and Epley had their way down there.  I'm guessing Coach Maker will emphasize getting the ball inside on offense, and a bit more defensive focus/intensity in the locker room. 

Sorry to see Bowdoin go down.  I watched a few minutes and Stockton seemed to be making a lot of really deep threes.  Hard to overcome that.  Surprised Babson went down in the first game.  Gordon does have a tough 6'9 center who played very well. 

[nescac1]

Congrats to the Ephs on surviving and advancing.  Michael Mayer played like the first-team all-American he is: 25-15-4 plus 5 blocks, 11-16 from the field.  Wow.  He was utterly unstoppable.  If teams are playing him one-on-one, he should touch the ball almost every possession in the half-court sets.

As for the rest of the team, it was not the Ephs' best day, but better to learn from an easy win than from a loss.  Williams will need to shoot, rebound, defend, and handle the ball a lot better collectively if they hope to beat better teams deeper in the tourney.  But, a win's a win! 

[Vandy74]

As for the rest of the team, it was not the Ephs' best day, but better to learn from an easy win than from a loss.  Williams will need to shoot, rebound, defend, and handle the ball a lot better collectively if they hope to beat better teams deeper in the tourney.  But, a win's a win!

I wouldn't be too concerned.  Obviously except for Mayer your team didn't play up to the standard that a serious fan like yourself expects from them but the game was never in doubt.  Two very good players for Mitchell in Parris Hill and Joshua Ford but very little else.  Tonight at least.  As a Panther fan I'm all too aware that Williams can step up it's game when it needs to.  Congratulations to the Ephs.  On to the next round.

[booyakasha]

upset watch... UWSP tied with Marian late in game

[nescac1]

Considering that IWU and Stevens Point each BARELY held on in toss-up games, I am feeling a heck of a lot better about the Ephs' 15 point win!  Wow, crazy night. 

[Vandy74]

If there is a DVD available of the Bowdoin/Richard Stockton game every coach ought to buy a copy to impress upon their teams the importance of mistake free basketball.  Bowdoin shot 26-56 (46.4%) from the field.  RS shot 25-53 (47.2%)  Bowdoin was 14-34 from the three point arc.  Stockton shot 9-23.  But Bowdoin's last lead was 9-7 and they never closed the gap to less than 3.  They were always playing catch-up even though they outscored R.S. 66-59 from the field.  The difference was that Richard Stockton only committed a single turnover.  ONE.  And they only committed 8 personal fouls that sent Bowdoin to the stripe for an 0-3 result.  About the only thing Richard Stockton did somewhat poorly was shoot free throws (13-20) but they only missed one in the second half and none down the stretch as Bowdoin was forced to foul repeatedly in the closing minutes.  A fine performance from Swords.  16 points and 16 boards.  A tough loss for the Polar Bears.

[Chantastic]

Congrats to the Ephs on surviving and advancing.  Michael Mayer played like the first-team all-American he is: 25-15-4 plus 5 blocks, 11-16 from the field.  Wow.  He was utterly unstoppable.  If teams are playing him one-on-one, he should touch the ball almost every possession in the half-court sets.

As for the rest of the team, it was not the Ephs' best day, but better to learn from an easy win than from a loss.  Williams will need to shoot, rebound, defend, and handle the ball a lot better collectively if they hope to beat better teams deeper in the tourney.  But, a win's a win!

Miersma-Mayer will be a fun matchup of 6'9" center in rd. 2

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Congrats to the Ephs on surviving and advancing.  Michael Mayer played like the first-team all-American he is: 25-15-4 plus 5 blocks, 11-16 from the field.  Wow.  He was utterly unstoppable.  If teams are playing him one-on-one, he should touch the ball almost every possession in the half-court sets.

As for the rest of the team, it was not the Ephs' best day, but better to learn from an easy win than from a loss.  Williams will need to shoot, rebound, defend, and handle the ball a lot better collectively if they hope to beat better teams deeper in the tourney.  But, a win's a win!

Miersma-Mayer will be a fun matchup of 6'9" center in rd. 2

Miersma is conference defensive player of the year three years running now.  He's a very solid defender.  Offensively he doesn't have as many weapons as Mayer, but I'd say they play similar styles.

To me the real test (for Gordon) will be on the perimeter.  They play a very tight defense, trying to minimize outside shots and drives to the basket - they're trying to force interior passes.  I don't think they'll be able to hold their shape against the size and speed of the Williams guards, though.

Too much to handle.

If Mayer decides to be aggressive and go at Miersma, it will be over in a hurry.  Mayer is just so much more physically imposing.  He could end the game himself.