MBB: NESCAC

[amh63]

Old Guy...your memories has brought back old ones for me.  Toby Kimball, Wes B....impossible name for me ...but yes a smooth player, and Tom Penders...fine college players on a powerhouse team.  My wife remembers sitting behind Big Toby in a class...blocking her view of the blackboard .  Tom Penders went on to a HBC at Div. 1 schools, including the Un. Of Texas, I believe...even an AD at GWU in D.C.?
Yes, in that era, schools in NE played each other regardless of size or today's divisions.  Amherst would play Holy Cross in BB, Harvard with their Olympic caliber players in soccer and UConn in both baseball and soccer.  Remember watching an Amherst vs. UConn  baseball game in Storrs....another town that is not a town.
Anyway...nice to read your inputs.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

(quiz: what's the only other state whose flagship public university doesn't have a football team?).

Alaska?

[frank uible]

Actually in recent years UVM has had a club football team. It plays at the DIII JV level.

[gordonmann]

New York doesn't have a flagship public university, so I guess they're out.

[Gregory Sager]

New York doesn't have a flagship public university, so I guess they're out.

The University of Buffalo would call itself the flagship state university, since it's the largest by far of the four so-called University Centers of the SUNY system in both endowment and student body (with 30,000 students, it's certainly as big, if not bigger, than a lot of flagship state universities), and as a member of the MAC, UB is very much a part of the D1 Football Bowl Subdivision. Of the three other SUNY University Centers, Albany and Stony Brook are D1 FCS, and Binghamton, while D1, doesn't have a football program.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Speaking of strange college trivia - can you name the six NCAA d1 schools without either of the words "college" or "university" in their official name?

[GingerBaker]

The various military academies (Army, Navy, AF, VMI...and does The Citadel count?) ...and georgia institute of technology?

[GingerBaker]

Oh!  It's ITT Tech!

[amh63]

Ginger B.....read your posts and could not figure out what the heck was going on on this board[img]

Hoop Fan....think GB maybe the winner.  Will not strain my feeble mind without knowing what is the prize.   Read somewhere...in my wife's alum mag...that UCONN is the official logo...title of the flag ship state school.  A little confusing item in your contest.  The Huskie pix was also modified.  Yukon is closer to describing the weather in the location...wind chill factor.

As a follow up to Hoya's last post...saw Amherst's HBC's son....M. Hixon win the 3-meter dive at the Div. 1  NCAA meet last night on EspnU.  One of two titles...helping his Longhorn team compete for the Team Title.  In the interview he was modest and stressed helping his team.  Only a freshman but well spoken in his replies.   Wonder if his mother was at the meet.

[Vandy74]

Actually in recent years UVM has had a club football team. It plays at the DIII JV level.

Back in the day when the Catamounts played in the Yankee Conference Middhoops and I had a cousin who did rather well. 

www.uvmathletics.com/hof.aspx?hof=183&path=&kiok=

[gordonmann]

The University of Buffalo would call itself the flagship state university

Yeah, apparently that's a distinction some at UB covet.

http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2013/05/29/the-state-university-of-new-york

[middhoops]

Actually in recent years UVM has had a club football team. It plays at the DIII JV level.

Back in the day when the Catamounts played in the Yankee Conference Middhoops and I had a cousin who did rather well. 

www.uvmathletics.com/hof.aspx?hof=183&path=&kiok=

Whoa, Vandy; Bobby was a beast.
I was tending bar in Colorado in the mid 70s when a Broncos' scout came in.  He had watched Bobby play a few times and said he was too slow for the NFL but IF he had played, he would have ended some linebackers' careers.
Now, back to hoops; I'm not hearing much from the western MA posters about their recruits. We Midd fans are more than a little excited to welcome Nick Tarantino to our humble rural burg.  Jack Daly, as well.

[amh63]

Speed...so important in any sport enterprise.   Read about the VT football great....thought about the running backs at Amherst during the same time period...thinking why Vandy's family did not send Bobby south to play.   Amherst had very good backs then..many smaller and quick.  Some bigger and elusive.  First thought that came up when one looking at the size...was a lineman!  Really.

Anyway, closer to the business of this board.   In the Amherst website, there is a feature article wrt a conference held this week on "statistic analyses" efforts in sports...focusing on recent efforts in the NBA...a topic posted on this board earlier.  Seems there are several students on campus looking at whether the techniques/ approaches apply to D3 sports in general...soccer, bb, etc.  Focus by the students trend to basketball...looking at final 4 data.  One student is a star woman BB player who is majoring in statistics...a recent approved major.  Interesting in that her father is a MIT grad and works there.  "Money Ball" coming to the Nescac.  Walzy should be happy.

[magicman]

As a follow up to Hoya's last post...saw Amherst's HBC's son....M. Hixon win the 3-meter dive at the Div. 1  NCAA meet last night on EspnU.  One of two titles...helping his Longhorn team compete for the Team Title.  In the interview he was modest and stressed helping his team.  Only a freshman but well spoken in his replies.   Wonder if his mother was at the meet.

Regarding what hoya73 first mentioned and amh63 notes in his above post about Coach Hixon's son...in Sports Illustrated this week, cover date 4-14, with UConn's Shabazz Napier on the cover, Michael Hixon made the Faces in the Crowd feature on page 18 for winning those 2 Division I diving championships. Article mentions that he was the first Longhorn to sweep the springboard events since four-time Olympian Troy Dumais did it in 2002. Last year Hixon and Dumais finished 5th in the three meter synchronized dive at the world championship held in Barcelona.

Also in the same Sports Illustrated issue on page 22 there is an article about a 7'1" high school sophomore from the Sudan who fled that African nation with his family in 2002 because of the bloody civil war there and went to Uganda, before ending up in Australia a year later. His name is Thon Maker. In Australia he met a man named Edward Smith, a transplanted US citizen from Hawaii. Smith started a program called Next Level Basketball Program in Australia twenty some years ago. The magazine states "over the past two decades Smith has  helped develop an array of players who made the jump from Australian clubs to U.S. colleges. Luke Martin, a point guard, went on to play at UTEP; shooting guard JAMES WANG became the No. 4 alltime scorer at D-III Williams College; forward Ater Majok started 22 games at Connecticut. All three played professional basketball overseas."

That's twice in the same issue a NESCAC connection gets some ink. Good week for the conference.

Incidentally that 7 footer Thon Maker is supposed to be quite a talent and they compare his game to Kevin Durant. He also has a 6'10" younger brother. Both boys along with Edward Smith who is now their legal guardian moved to the US and live in Northern Virginia. (perhaps in nescac1's neighborhood?...who might know something about them) They attend the Carlisle School in Martinsburg, Va. According to Sports Illustrated....Rivals.com, Scout.com and ESPN all rank Thon among the top 3 sophomores in the country and he's being recruited by Duke, Kentucky, Kansas and Arizona.         

[jumpshot]

Still savoring the Ephs great season ---and epic win over amHerst on the big stage ....the most perfect game planned, coached, and executed for 40 minutes seen in d3 for many years.