MBB: NESCAC

[WPI89]

Terrible about Toomey.  Speedy recovery.

You guys going to Hoopsville tomorrow - let me know how WPI looks against Chicago.  they will need to step up their play (especially the offense) significantly to compete this weekend.

[nescac1]

I'll add to the chorus of those wishing Toomey a quick recovery.  Horrible-sounding injury for a heck of a player/competitor. 

A few quick NESCAC notes related to the less talked about teams:

(1) Conn College won a triple-OT thriller vs. Yeshiva last night.  It looks like Conn received a desperately-needed infusion of young talent, as its top two scorers are both frosh, with a third frosh making substantial contributions.  Of course, this isn't the first time that Conn has had a wave of impressive newcomers, only to see many leave the program before they become upperclassmen.  Most impressive of the frosh so far is also the most acclaimed, Isaiah Robinson, who is averaging 16-6-2, plus nearly two steals, while shooting 53 percent from the field and leading the team in minutes.  The only red flag is that he is averaged 5 topg, which is probably just a product of being asked to do an awful lot for a guy just starting his college career.  But he is an early contender for NESCAC ROY, as he'll surely put up big numbers all season long in light of Conn's general lack of veteran talent. 

(2) Wesleyan's Joseph Kuo is making an early bid for NESCAC most improved player -- last year he didn't play a ton as he missed the start of the season with, presumably, an injury, but showed flashes of big-time ability, especially on the defensive end.  Kuo has an impressive stat line through three games: 17-10 plus 2 blocks per game (last year, he averaged 3.5 points and 3.7 boards in limited minutes).  Kuo and Rashid Epps are a nice inside duo for Wesleyan, combining to average nearly 20 boards a game and shooting efficiently from the field.  Both are particularly tough on the offensive boards.  That spells real trouble for a Williams team that is small up front and has yet to face a team with much of an interior presence.  The Kilcullen / Flynn duo will have to come up big defensively, particularly on the defensive boards, for the Ephs to knock off the Cards on the road.  And Williams will need both of their top two guys, Hayden Rooke Ley and Daniel Wohl, to have big games ... to date, they have been sort of alternating strong play, but both need to be on to topple good teams, which this year I anticipate Wesleyan will be. 

[grabtherim]

Best wishes to Toomey for a quick recovery.  Very scary injury.  Will be interested to see if Tufts has a better weekend vs Wentworth and Emerson.  Wentworth has a few Midd connections.  Joey Kizel's kid brother Ben is a freshman on the team and their coach Arlen Galloway was a Midd assistant for a few years including the Final Four run in 2011. 

[P'bearfan]

Terrible news about Aaron Toomey.  Hope he makes a full and speedy recovery.

[Vandy74]

Very sorry to hear the news about Aaron Toomey's injury.  Like all of you I wish the young man the speediest possible recovery to full health.

[amh63]

Amherst seems more comfy tonight in LeFrak as it beats Johnson State, 108-60.  After the first five minutes, it was evident that the visitors had little chance.  Playing a zone....learned not to leave shooters open as in the Williams game...Connor Green hits two open shots.  Amherst platoons it's players it appears.  Every dressed player scored.  Last group had only sophs and freshmen.  Both freshman hit from outside as well as Racy and three other sophs. 
Now watching the Tufts game in Melford

[grabtherim]

Tufts rebounds with a 20 point win over Emerson, but Sabety had a very rough night.  Fouled out in only 10 minutes of play after going 1-5 with 3 turnovers. 

[lefrakenstein]

Got to watch some of the Amherst game last night. A few thoughts so far:

Johnny McCarthy has the chance to be a really exciting two-way player. I like his effort and style of play a lot.

I'm not sure what's going on with Ben Pollack and his limited minutes. Either a) he's 100%, but they're easing him back into it, b) he's not 100% yet, or c) he's 100%, but he's just not the same player he was before he got hurt. I hope it's a. I haven't seen enough yet to know the answer.

Jayden Dawson seems to be struggling a bit to assert himself with just sheer athleticism. He looked a lot better last night, but not nearly good enough to justify 'next Toomey' talk. Maybe that's just a totally unfair bar to set (Probably is). speaking of Toomey, I wish him all the best. I've never heard of that injury happening to a basketball player. Hoping for a speedy and full recovery.

Nabatoff can shoot a little! The big man showed some range last night and the announcers discussed how his ability to shoot the three could really help the team's spacing. I completely agree.

Jeff Racy looks good too. We could have used some of what he's doing last year. I wonder if he  came a long way in offseason, b/c I would think Hixon would have played him last year if he was looking this good in practice.

It's exciting to know that this team has two full years to grow together!

[NothingButNESCAC]

anyone else (P'Bear Fan) trying to watch the Bowdoin game and have it say that you need to pay 11 dollars in order to access the video?

[middhoops]

anyone else (P'Bear Fan) trying to watch the Bowdoin game and have it say that you need to pay 11 dollars in order to access the video?

Yes.
Seems almost rude to ask someone to pay for live streaming, any more.
Same thing happened to me with a  UVM game on the road this week.
The nerve!!

[P'bearfan]

anyone else (P'Bear Fan) trying to watch the Bowdoin game and have it say that you need to pay 11 dollars in order to access the video?

Yes, I ran into the same thing.  Kinda crazy for a DIII game.

Bowdoin defeats St Joe's, 73-69.  St Joe's shot the lights out from behind the arc - 44.4% as a team on 36 attempts.  Steve Simonds was incredible, hitting 7-14 from downtown and many of those shots were contested.

Bowdoin fell behind early in the first half but was able to pull ahead 39-32 at the break.  Swords spent much of the first half on the bench after picking up his second foul.  Despite their size advantage, Bowdoin had trouble getting the ball in down low - Swords has just 2 points in the first half.

At the start of the second half Bowdoin looked sharper offensively and built a 7 or 9 point lead.  However, about mid-way through the second half the P'bears went a little flat and St Joe's was able to chip away at the lead and eventually tie the game with under 2 minutes to go. 

In the end it came down to free throw shooting.  Bowdoin shot 87.5% from the line to seal the game. 

Bowdoin was lead in scoring by Lucas Hausman (17); Matt Palecki (13); John Swords (11) and Keegan Pieri (11) who came off the bench but played 29 minutes.  Great to see Pieri back on the floor (also great to see him get up after hitting the deck hard as he drove to the basket - and that was clearly a blocking foul not a charge!).

Bowdoin dominated the boards, 38 - 24 and especially on the defensive end where the P'bears held a 27 - 5 advantage (vs St Joe's Orebs).  Swords had 11 rebounds, Fuller and Pieri each had 6 and Palecki had 5.

[nescac1]

Extremely, EXTREMELY dubious foul call enables Wesleyan to head to OT against Williams.  Wesleyan has dominated the boards all game, but at least a few of those have been very call-able over the backs.  Then, they call an off-ball rebounding foul on Kilcullen in a scrum going for the ball with seconds remaining.  Pretty awful.  To his credit, Joseph Kuo hits both ends of a pressure one-and-one to tie it.  Wesleyan has as expected killed Ephs inside all game.  Williams has countered with great games from Wohl and Greenman.  Ephs hurt by a lot of missed free throws of their own ...

[nescac1]

Great win for Williams, recovering from giving away a late lead to really kick it up a notch on both ends in overtime.  Ephs looked much, much more in rhythm and under control on offense than they have to date.  Even got a few good looks inside off of cutting action which was nice to see (still no post game to speak of, although Ed Fllynn had a really nice move in his limited minutes).  Nice to see Williams 1-0 in the Little Three!

Williams was, as expected, really outmatched on the interior ... the Cardinals just dominated the glass with their size and strength advantage.  I was surprised they didn't post Epps and Kuo more throughout the game because the Ephs don't have an answer for that right now.  Wesleyan also didn't help themselves by missing a ton of pretty decent looks from three, two, and one.  The Ephs did play pretty good defense in spurts and kept Wesleyan from getting very easy baskets for the most part. 

As for the Ephs, I think that was Daniel Wohl's best all-around game as an Eph.  Just truly tremendous making big play after big play on both ends, playing aggressively but never getting out of control.  25-14-2, with 2 blocks, 1 steal, only 1 TO, and only 2 fouls, while battling bigger guys all game, and only sitting for one minute in an overtime game, he was a beast out there.  Tremendous effort and frankly the Ephs will need more where there came from in future conference games.  MIke Greenman kept them in the game with timely shots including some great driving layups over big guys ... an area of his game he has really improved.  Hayden Rooke Ley was tough as nails and clutch from the free throw line.  Oddly, they were posting Hayden a lot inside which was an ... interesting approach.  The rest of the team struggled a bit but those three guys carried them today.  Nice effort for the Ephs, and 2-2 is a lot better than 0-2!  And really excellent play in overtime on the road ... hopefully a sign of continued improvement as Williams has gotten better with each game. 

[pinseeking1]

Bates moves to 3-0 with an in-state win over Husson in Bangor. Final score was 74-65, but the game wasn't in doubt down the stretch. (Bates had a 69-50 lead with 2:33 left in game.) Most of the scoring again came from the big three of Safford, Boornazian and Marcus Delpeche. Mike Newton was strong off the bench with 10 points. The team seems to be clicking now...

[Old Guy]

I couldn't get Midd-Medgar Evers - not sure why. A laugher from the opening ip. Sinnckson is post some impressive numbers in limited minutes: MVP of the tourney last week, 20 and 14 today in 20 minutes. Hope I can pull in tomorrow's finale with Clark (2 point win over host, Bridgewater State).

I did watch Williams-Wesleyan, a very entertaining game, well-played, I thought. Wes will be a tough out. nescac1 has provided the summary. I enjoyed watching Greenman - he's a confident player. Rooke-Ley too. Great on-line transmission from Wesleyan - good play-by-play guy, animated but not overbearing.