MBB: NESCAC

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

William Patterson
Stevens Point
WashU
Marietta
Ohio Wesleyan
Wooster
Hopkins
Trinity
Amherst
Bates
E Conn
VA Wesleyan
St. Olaf
IWU

Those are the only teams I can talk myself into as locks right now.

So then we've got a table with: Brooklyn (.786/.507), Plattsburgh (.704/.534), Catholic (.846/.506), Springfield (.704/.584), Elmhurst (.731/.551), John Carroll (.769/.527), Centre (.800/.512), and Whitman (.792/.519)

Behind them you've got Bethel (.704/.552 - plus a potential loss to St. Thomas today), North Central (.667/.588), Hope (.680/.558), Hardin-Simmons (.741/.531), F&M (.769/.517), Rutgers-Newark (.667/.572), NYU (.680/.544), and Bowdoin (.692/.571)

Possible stranglers: WPI (.808/.515), PSU-Behrend (.885/.469), Buena Vista (.720/.528)

Obviously, I don't know the ranking order, so they could get moved around.  I don't see anyone not on this list getting in though.

By the way, if you're asking me, I think the final five are: Springfield, Elmhurst, Bowdoin, North Central, and Catholic.

This is what I posted on the Pool C National Board.  I've been told perhaps Bethel will go up first in the West - those are hard to tell, but all the teams at the bottom will be in play for the last five spots.

[JEFFFAN]

Is there any plausible reason that Conor Green sat on the bench for a good 15 minutes of the second half?  Clearly the kid from Wes was playing good D on him but taking the best offensive player on your team off the court?  Not sure I agree with Hixon on that one.

[jayhawk]

I do not think Wesleyan's defense was the reason Connor Green's shots were missing. For some reason Green was totally out of sync today both in his shooting and playing. Not sure he was ill but I have rarely seen him miss the entire basket with a shot and bounce it off the backboard
So for whatever reason he was not contributing
Tough day for shooting -shots that were typically made were just being missed and it appeared to take a toll on the players
Amherst fortunate that Conklin, Nabatoff and Dawson were able to make some shots

Conklin had a fine game, he  has not been at full strength.

[toad22]

Wow, it appears that the NESCAC will get a few teams in. I think that's great, but I am most happy for Wes, who won their way in. They appear to be the hottest team right now, really deserving to go. Wes is so scrappy, that they are a total pain in the a** to play. Trinity also plays that way. Both teams are somewhat of a departure from the typical "offensive machine" type teams that have done well in past years. Let's face it, Amherst and Williams haven't played a lot of defense in quite a few years, most years they just try to out score you. Wes and Trinity are quite different. They want to be in your face all the time. It is nice to see a different side of the league.

[CatCountry2013]

Impressive showing by the Wes students. Amherst looked to have more fans but Wes was louder...glad to see the support from the students rewarded with a victory. Frankly the Wes  fans looked a little confused about what to do after the game. Maybe it was the intimidating NESCAC security...or maybe it was because we haven't been there before. Would love to be more experienced in these matters.

Was watching on the webcast and it was hard to see into the stands that well. Were there a lot of Amherst fans? Students also? You could the Wesleyan students making noise and that was it. At the game yesterday I think there might have literally been zero Amherst students at the game which is pretty disappointing.

There was no security at the start of yesterday's game but as the fans started trickling in during the first half against Trinity the Wes fans were getting especially rowdy. There were two female security guards who were attempting to keep the front row student supporters against the bleachers but they were disregarded. Two Trinity football coaches and Trinity security guards had to come over for the rest of the game. At one point, AD and Wes football coach Mike Whelan had to come over and talk to his football players to keep them in line. Was all this necessary and was anything bad going to happen ? Doubtful. But the Wes students were loud, vocal, sometimes in good ways and other times in extremely vulgar ways, with kids and parents all around.  I would have been happy with a little classier appearance from the Wes student body, but that takes nothing away from their team's great showings the past few weeks.

[lumbercat]

Congratulations to Coach Reilly and the Wesleyan Cardinals- They struggled a bit this year but got hot at the right time- they shot 3's extremely well throughout the NESCAC tourney while their front court stepped up big time. I gotta go back and look at their 3 pt percentage for their 3 game run to the title- beleive it was very good.

With all due respect to the Amherst dynasty Hixon got out coached today badly......Like another poster I gave the Cards little chance today. I look at at the Amherst roster and I see talent and great depth- no dead wood on that Amherst bench.

The most talented and skilled team team in league got beat by a hungry and better coached team

[pinseeking1]

Well, as a new poster this year, I have to give a lot of credit to the experienced posters who predicted a NESCAC Conference that was totally up for grabs. Who would have thought that the Amherst-Williams-Middlebury Triumvirate of recent years would be de-throned? It made for a great and interesting season that gave a lot of this board's posters a lot of credibility! Well done!

Best of luck to the NESCAC participants in the NCAA Tournament!

[grabtherim]

I will never be confused with anyone who is a fan of Dave Hixon, but I think your statements are way off.  Tell me what he could have done differently to change the result of a game which went to OT and was up for grabs to the very end?  If you point to the playing time of Green in the 2nd half, you really don't get it. Sometimes a kid steps up and plays better than one of your better players.  That was the case with Green today.  He had a tough day. 
By any measure, this is not the Amherst team of recent vintage in terms of talent and experience.  Everyone who knows this league knew it was a wide open season, and the results in the regular season and the post season proved that to be true.  If you are an Amherst fan this is sour grapes, if not, it's a lack of seeing the league for what it was this year.     

With all due respect to the Amherst dynasty Hixon got out coached today badly......Like another poster I gave the Cards little chance today. I look at at the Amherst roster and I see talent and great depth- no dead wood on that Amherst bench.

The most talented and skilled team team in league got beat by a hungry and better coached team

[lumbercat]

Wesleyan stepped up and over achieved today to beat Amherst. Comparisons to past Amherst teams are irrelevant. This year,  Amherst had the most talented and deep team in the league and they got beat by a better coached team.

[grabtherim]

Wesleyan stepped up and over achieved today to beat Amherst. Comparisons to past Amherst teams are irrelevant. This year,  Amherst had the most talented and deep team in the league and they got beat by a better coached team.

Why even play the games?  If Amherst was the most talented and so deep why did the lose any league games? So I guess Reilly outcoached Furbush and Cosgrove as they were higher seeds and more talented. Did Brown outcoach Reilly when Midd trounced Wes this season?  The point is most of the result is on the players and they have good and bad days. Blaming the coach for losing this game is ridiculous. Anyone who knows me is chuckling hearing me defend Hixon, but to quote John McEnroe: You can't be serious!  Wesleyan went on a late season run. Its OK to give them credit without looking to blame someone else. Finally, not sure how past teams are irrelevant. The point being made was that with the experience and talent they had recently, they would have won this game, despite Hixon according to you Im guessing.

[lumbercat]

Today- a Wesleyan team who got pounded by the Amherst arsenal twice this year mounted a great attack to defeat the Lord Jeff's-- The Cardinals and coach Reilly came into todays game with a plan that stymied the mighty Jeff's.
Kudos to Reilly and the Cards- they bottled up the Jeff's today- no easy task.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Dave says WPI is ranked ahead of Bowdoin, so only four NESCAC teams, I guess.

[nescacobserver]

Lumbercat why do you refer to this team as the "Mighty Jeffs"?  I think you are confusing the past tradition of Amherst with this year's squad.  Remember this is a team that finished 5th in the league, and only has one upperclassman (a very good one, albeit) that plays, with the rest of the team consisting of freshmen and sophomores.  I actually think this team over-achieved this year by getting to the Nescac finals, and probably getting an NCAA bid.  Whether your intentions are deliberate or not, you seem to be over-hyping this "mighty" Jeffs team.  Next year, maybe they will be mighty, but this year was a quasi-rebuilding year for this Amherst team, and their season isn't over yet.

[lumbercat]

Grabtherim-
When it comes down to one game for all the marbles coaching, game plan and preparation are very important.

[lumbercat]

Grabtherim-
You are the mighty Jeff's-look at what Amherst has accomplished in D3basketatball in the past decade-
today Wesleyan won their first NESCAC title ever and they beat a very talented Amherst team so I applaud the Cardinals.
In the past 10 years I have never seen the Jeff's as a definitive underdog in terms of their contention for a NESCAC crown. You are sandbagging the Jeff's this year as a NESCAC underdog, regardless of season record, they are stacked as always and should have won it.