MBB: NESCAC

[AmherstStudent05]

Congrats to the new NESCAC Champs. Played a great 3 games. A thing about the last post. Cosgrove has to be Coach of the Year. Take the whole season not getting hot at the right time like Riley's teams did. Trinity was picked 5th to start the year. Finish 9-1. Would be surprised if it wasn't him.

Who gets in the NCAA Tourney from the NESCAC in everyones opinion? Everyone wants Babson to win right now too. Peoples thoughts?

Cosgrove is certainly a worthy contender for CoY. No doubt about it.  But I wouldn't be so dismissive of Reilly's chances.  I don't know where Wes was "picked" at the start of the year, but I don't recall them even being mentioned as possible NESCAC title contenders.  Also, while they certainly did get "hot at the right time," it's not as though this was just a blip on the radar screen.  For the past 3 weeks (which, given the length of conference play, is not a trivial amount of time), Wesleyan has been in win or go home mode.  During that time they have had to beat Williams, Bates, Trinity and Amherst.  All on the road (or, on a neutral court).  They weren't gifted a thing.

And while Cosgrove rightly receives praise for having his team play solid defense and great team basketball relying on depth and teamwork rather than a particular star to shoulder the load, the exact same thing can be said of what Reilly has done with Wesleyan this year.  Reilly led Wesleyan to their first ever NESCAC Championship and first ever NCAA appearance.  And it may well be that he has done it without a single all conference player (though, as I said, I think Davis is worthy of consideration).  I would be very surprised if Reilly does not get serious CoY consideration here, and indeed, he would be my choice.  That is not meant to be a knock on Cosgrove in any way, who I think would have been the hands down choice had Wesleyan lost today (and who may still win).

Speaking of coaching.  I too am a little baffled about this recent criticism of Coach Hixon's performance today.  Obviously, coaching (as with playing) is an important ingredient in any contest, so I certainly don't discount the possibility that Coach Hixon may have done a poor job today.  But, I still don't know what your specific criticism of him is as to what he could have done better (other than the fact that his team lost, but, on that basis, I don't think Hix has much to worry about when you take the long view of wins and losses among NESCAC coaches).  I actually thought Hix did quite an admirable job today.

We are a team that lives and dies by the three.  Today it wasn't working.  Our three main shooters (Green, Racy and JMac) ended a combined 3-20.  Now Wesleyan deserves plenty of credit for that.  Particularly on limiting Racy's looks -- something Bowdoin really struggled with. I suppose we could have kept at it, and waited for things to turn around, but, in particular, it just didn't seem to be Green's night tonight.  Many times his shots rim out, but something was pretty off today.  Not sure if it was sickness, injury, or just a bad streak.  Not sure that it matters.  The point is that we needed to go with Plan B and I credit Hix for making the bold move to rely on a different lineup than usual.  We were able to play better D on Mackey (though he still hurt us), and ride Conklin and Dawson on offense.  It nearly worked.  Wesleyan was just a little too good today, but I am still not sure what Hix could have done differently.

Again, some of our shooters just had a bad night tonight.  We have actually had a few bad outings this season.  We are a streaky team and stuff like that happens.  I actually felt we battled as well today as we have all season.  And I have full confidence in Connor & Co. to get the job done next week (if we get a next week), and I am sure Coach feels the same way. 

[nescac1]

Congrats to Wesleyan.  Happy for the Cards and their fans, who made a really impressive showing on the road in both games this weekend, giving the team an extra jolt of energy.  It was really an appropriate ending to the least predictable season in NESCAC history -- a team with no history of previous success in the NESCAC tourney, that needed a win on the final day of the regular season, on the road as an underdog, just to make the tourney, ends up winning it.   I think the unpredictability of the NESCAC season will carry into the postseason -- any of these NESCAC squads are capable of making a deep NCAA run in a year with few true power-house teams, but also capable of losing in the first round to almost any team in the tourney.  But impressive that NESCAC will have at least 3, quite likely 4, teams in, despite a "down" year for the league following the graduation or transfer of a ridiculous amount of talent, including several of the best players we've ever seen in NESCAC.

What is scary for the rest of D3 is that the top of NESCAC should actually be much, much stronger next year.  The two NESCAC finalists each return all of their significant players -- Amherst in particular will be beyond loaded next year, now that bench guys like Dawson, Conklin and Racy are emerging as guys capable of carrying the team in stretches, and other young players like Nabatoff and Berman should continue to make strides.  No one else in D3 will have a better second five next year than Schneider, Conklin, Racey, Riopel, and Dawson -- that's just unfair, two D1 transfers and a guy in Schneider who had multiple scholarship offers, that group is more talented than probably 90 percent of the starting D3 line-ups.  And McCarthy is going to be a major star next season to go along with Green.  If George can emerge as a star, as many similarly-talented big men do in their junior years (see Whittington, Mayer, Sharry, etc.), Amherst may well be the best team in the nation headed into next year.  Nabatoff is also someone who could make a much bigger impact as an upperclassman.  For George, the biggest issue is sustaining his early-season level of play later in the season, something that has been an issue his first two years.  His talent is undeniable, however.

Wesleyan will not be far behind next year.  They won't have nearly the depth of Amherst, but they return a really strong top 6 all of whom are multiple-year starters, battle tested, and very tough, relentless and athletic.  I also like Jordan Sears' potential as a break-out sophomore, he could be a big factor off the bench next year.  4-5  of those six guys will be all-NESCAC candidates -- because they are SO balanced, it makes it hard to pick any one as a star, but that also makes them so hard to game-plan for -- any of those six guys can beat you on any given night, so you can't really focus on any one in particular.  Kuo has the most upside and I also thing could emerge as a true star as an upperclassman, but Mackey is tough as nails and can shoot from anywhere, similar player to Hayden Rooke-Ley and may explode like Hayden did as a senior, and Davis has improved by leaps and bounds over the past few years and played at all all-league level in the second half of this season.

Also can't sleep on Colby -- returning basically everyone including a ridiculously experienced all-senior starting lineup filled with guys who have been playing major roles since they were frosh, Colby just needs better luck with injuries and to develop one or two strong bench players to contend, but their projected starting five is as good as any in the league, and Tufts -- also returns nearly everyone; if Sheldon can figure out how to employ Palleschi and Sabety together, they will be unguardable inside, and Trinity -- another team that returns a very strong senior class that has experienced a lot of success and will be hungry for a league title led by Starks and Ajayi. 

Meanwhile, things look somewhat bleaker for Williams (in particular, at least until what figures to be a large and impressive group of incoming frosh figure things out, but this is a squad clearly in full-on rebuilding mode that will be relying on at least 2-3 first year players for major impacts), Conn (will improve dramatically thanks to a great rising sophomore class, but still another year away from being interesting), Midd (probably a year away from returning to contention after losing two key contributors from a non-tourney team, unless Matt Daley finally stays healthy and plays totally up to his immense potential), Hamilton (will be tougher than their talent level as always, but the talent is just not there), Bates (great returning frontcourt, but lose all their backcourt production which is never a good sign), and Bowdoin (Hausman will be a pre-season all-American, but Swords and Hurley are both irreplaceable under the best of circumstances, and Bowdoin has no one on the current roster who can approximate what either does -- Bowdoin returns only two guys who averaged over 3.6 ppg; Hausman may face a lot of box-and-one defenses next season). 

Unlike this year, when every game was wide open, there appears to be two tiers of haves, and have-nots, in NESCAC next year.  But of course, a TON can change between now and November between incoming frosh, transfers in or out, injuries, coaching changes, etc.  Still, no matter what happens, Amherst looks historically loaded for the next two years, and Wesleyan looks poised to build on this NESCAC title, while Colby will be in now-or-never mode with a stellar senior class but not a ton behind them. 

Of course, still a lot of hoops to be played for a bunch of NESCAC teams this year, good luck to the them in the tourney and hopefully they represent the league as well as Amherst, Williams and Midd have in recent NCAA tourneys! 

[polbear73]

Congrats to Wesleyan.  Happy for the Cards and their fans, who made a really impressive showing on the road in both games this weekend, giving the team an extra jolt of energy.  It was really an appropriate ending to the least predictable season in NESCAC history -- a team with no history of previous success in the NESCAC tourney, that needed a win on the final day of the regular season, on the road as an underdog, just to make the tourney, ends up winning it.   I think the unpredictability of the NESCAC season will carry into the postseason -- any of these NESCAC squads are capable of making a deep NCAA run in a year with few true power-house teams, but also capable of losing in the first round to almost any team in the tourney.  But impressive that NESCAC will have at least 3, quite likely 4, teams in, despite a "down" year for the league following the graduation or transfer of a ridiculous amount of talent, including several of the best players we've ever seen in NESCAC.

What is scary for the rest of D3 is that the top of NESCAC should actually be much, much stronger next year.  The two NESCAC finalists each return all of their significant players -- Amherst in particular will be beyond loaded next year, now that bench guys like Dawson, Conklin and Racy are emerging as guys capable of carrying the team in stretches, and other young players like Nabatoff and Berman should continue to make strides.  No one else in D3 will have a better second five next year than Schneider, Conklin, Racey, Riopel, and Dawson -- that's just unfair, two D1 transfers and a guy in Schneider who had multiple scholarship offers, that group is more talented than probably 90 percent of the starting D3 line-ups.  And McCarthy is going to be a major star next season to go along with Green.  If George can emerge as a star, as many similarly-talented big men do in their junior years (see Whittington, Mayer, Sharry, etc.), Amherst may well be the best team in the nation headed into next year.  Nabatoff is also someone who could make a much bigger impact as an upperclassman.  For George, the biggest issue is sustaining his early-season level of play later in the season, something that has been an issue his first two years.  His talent is undeniable, however.

Wesleyan will not be far behind next year.  They won't have nearly the depth of Amherst, but they return a really strong top 6 all of whom are multiple-year starters, battle tested, and very tough, relentless and athletic.  I also like Jordan Sears' potential as a break-out sophomore, he could be a big factor off the bench next year.  4-5  of those six guys will be all-NESCAC candidates -- because they are SO balanced, it makes it hard to pick any one as a star, but that also makes them so hard to game-plan for -- any of those six guys can beat you on any given night, so you can't really focus on any one in particular.  Kuo has the most upside and I also thing could emerge as a true star as an upperclassman, but Mackey is tough as nails and can shoot from anywhere, similar player to Hayden Rooke-Ley and may explode like Hayden did as a senior, and Davis has improved by leaps and bounds over the past few years and played at all all-league level in the second half of this season.

Also can't sleep on Colby -- returning basically everyone including a ridiculously experienced all-senior starting lineup filled with guys who have been playing major roles since they were frosh, Colby just needs better luck with injuries and to develop one or two strong bench players to contend, but their projected starting five is as good as any in the league, and Tufts -- also returns nearly everyone; if Sheldon can figure out how to employ Palleschi and Sabety together, they will be unguardable inside, and Trinity -- another team that returns a very strong senior class that has experienced a lot of success and will be hungry for a league title led by Starks and Ajayi. 

Meanwhile, things look somewhat bleaker for Williams (in particular, at least until what figures to be a large and impressive group of incoming frosh figure things out, but this is a squad clearly in full-on rebuilding mode that will be relying on at least 2-3 first year players for major impacts), Conn (will improve dramatically thanks to a great rising sophomore class, but still another year away from being interesting), Midd (probably a year away from returning to contention after losing two key contributors from a non-tourney team, unless Matt Daley finally stays healthy and plays totally up to his immense potential), Hamilton (will be tougher than their talent level as always, but the talent is just not there), Bates (great returning frontcourt, but lose all their backcourt production which is never a good sign), and Bowdoin (Hausman will be a pre-season all-American, but Swords and Hurley are both irreplaceable under the best of circumstances, and Bowdoin has no one on the current roster who can approximate what either does -- Bowdoin returns only two guys who averaged over 3.6 ppg; Hausman may face a lot of box-and-one defenses next season). 

Unlike this year, when every game was wide open, there appears to be two tiers of haves, and have-nots, in NESCAC next year.  But of course, a TON can change between now and November between incoming frosh, transfers in or out, injuries, coaching changes, etc.  Still, no matter what happens, Amherst looks historically loaded for the next two years, and Wesleyan looks poised to build on this NESCAC title, while Colby will be in now-or-never mode with a stellar senior class but not a ton behind them. 

Of course, still a lot of hoops to be played for a bunch of NESCAC teams this year, good luck to the them in the tourney and hopefully they represent the league as well as Amherst, Williams and Midd have in recent NCAA tourneys!

Nescac1: A terrific summary of this season and a concise and realistic preview as we think about next year.  Thank you. Still a lot of basketball to be played by perhaps 4 NESCAC teams, good luck to all.

[CatCountry2013]

Congrats to Wesleyan.  Happy for the Cards and their fans, who made a really impressive showing on the road in both games this weekend, giving the team an extra jolt of energy.  It was really an appropriate ending to the least predictable season in NESCAC history -- a team with no history of previous success in the NESCAC tourney, that needed a win on the final day of the regular season, on the road as an underdog, just to make the tourney, ends up winning it.   I think the unpredictability of the NESCAC season will carry into the postseason -- any of these NESCAC squads are capable of making a deep NCAA run in a year with few true power-house teams, but also capable of losing in the first round to almost any team in the tourney.  But impressive that NESCAC will have at least 3, quite likely 4, teams in, despite a "down" year for the league following the graduation or transfer of a ridiculous amount of talent, including several of the best players we've ever seen in NESCAC.

What is scary for the rest of D3 is that the top of NESCAC should actually be much, much stronger next year.  The two NESCAC finalists each return all of their significant players -- Amherst in particular will be beyond loaded next year, now that bench guys like Dawson, Conklin and Racy are emerging as guys capable of carrying the team in stretches, and other young players like Nabatoff and Berman should continue to make strides.  No one else in D3 will have a better second five next year than Schneider, Conklin, Racey, Riopel, and Dawson -- that's just unfair, two D1 transfers and a guy in Schneider who had multiple scholarship offers, that group is more talented than probably 90 percent of the starting D3 line-ups.  And McCarthy is going to be a major star next season to go along with Green.  If George can emerge as a star, as many similarly-talented big men do in their junior years (see Whittington, Mayer, Sharry, etc.), Amherst may well be the best team in the nation headed into next year.  Nabatoff is also someone who could make a much bigger impact as an upperclassman.  For George, the biggest issue is sustaining his early-season level of play later in the season, something that has been an issue his first two years.  His talent is undeniable, however.

Wesleyan will not be far behind next year.  They won't have nearly the depth of Amherst, but they return a really strong top 6 all of whom are multiple-year starters, battle tested, and very tough, relentless and athletic.  I also like Jordan Sears' potential as a break-out sophomore, he could be a big factor off the bench next year.  4-5  of those six guys will be all-NESCAC candidates -- because they are SO balanced, it makes it hard to pick any one as a star, but that also makes them so hard to game-plan for -- any of those six guys can beat you on any given night, so you can't really focus on any one in particular.  Kuo has the most upside and I also thing could emerge as a true star as an upperclassman, but Mackey is tough as nails and can shoot from anywhere, similar player to Hayden Rooke-Ley and may explode like Hayden did as a senior, and Davis has improved by leaps and bounds over the past few years and played at all all-league level in the second half of this season.

Also can't sleep on Colby -- returning basically everyone including a ridiculously experienced all-senior starting lineup filled with guys who have been playing major roles since they were frosh, Colby just needs better luck with injuries and to develop one or two strong bench players to contend, but their projected starting five is as good as any in the league, and Tufts -- also returns nearly everyone; if Sheldon can figure out how to employ Palleschi and Sabety together, they will be unguardable inside, and Trinity -- another team that returns a very strong senior class that has experienced a lot of success and will be hungry for a league title led by Starks and Ajayi. 

Meanwhile, things look somewhat bleaker for Williams (in particular, at least until what figures to be a large and impressive group of incoming frosh figure things out, but this is a squad clearly in full-on rebuilding mode that will be relying on at least 2-3 first year players for major impacts), Conn (will improve dramatically thanks to a great rising sophomore class, but still another year away from being interesting), Midd (probably a year away from returning to contention after losing two key contributors from a non-tourney team, unless Matt Daley finally stays healthy and plays totally up to his immense potential), Hamilton (will be tougher than their talent level as always, but the talent is just not there), Bates (great returning frontcourt, but lose all their backcourt production which is never a good sign), and Bowdoin (Hausman will be a pre-season all-American, but Swords and Hurley are both irreplaceable under the best of circumstances, and Bowdoin has no one on the current roster who can approximate what either does -- Bowdoin returns only two guys who averaged over 3.6 ppg; Hausman may face a lot of box-and-one defenses next season). 

Unlike this year, when every game was wide open, there appears to be two tiers of haves, and have-nots, in NESCAC next year.  But of course, a TON can change between now and November between incoming frosh, transfers in or out, injuries, coaching changes, etc.  Still, no matter what happens, Amherst looks historically loaded for the next two years, and Wesleyan looks poised to build on this NESCAC title, while Colby will be in now-or-never mode with a stellar senior class but not a ton behind them. 

Of course, still a lot of hoops to be played for a bunch of NESCAC teams this year, good luck to the them in the tourney and hopefully they represent the league as well as Amherst, Williams and Midd have in recent NCAA tourneys!

Great write up!  Sad to see league play come to an end.  Hopefully a team can make a run in the tourney.  Let's talk in a few hours to see who gets in!

[grabtherim]

Thanks, you are truly the master of the obvious.  Here's another sage one for you to remember: the team that scores the most wins. 
Amherst was well prepared, had a good game plan and simply ran into a team running with the needle in the red at the right time.  It happens. It doesnt mean the losing coach is at fault unless you can point specifically to details which support your statement.  If you watched this game, scapegoating whichever coach ended up on the losing side is sour grapes.  Please enlighten all of us who know far less than you with specifics on how the game plan was wrong and what you saw which indicated their preparation was below par.  I will give you an example of a good if not great coach screwing up.  Pete Carroll passing from the one yard line when he has the toughest son of a gun in the league standing in his backfield ready to ram it down New England's gut.  Tell me how Hixon screwed up.  Please.     

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

[Bucket]

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.

Grab The Rim is about as far from being a "Mighty Jeffs" partisan as nescac1. Or me, for that matter. You might want to check your assumptions on this one, lumbercat. Most folks know that GTR has a familial affinity with the Middlebury program, and I know from personal experience that he doesn't exactly have warm feelings for Coach Hixon. I also know that he holds Joe Reilly in the highest regard. Which is why I find his commentary—which is based on logic and an understanding of the game, not emotion or personal bias–to carry a lot of weight.

[amh63]

Interesting chatter going on wrt to Amherst and its coach.  Not enough about the number of conference teams...4 and maybe more?...when posters thought there would only be one or two.
Yes, I was disappointed by the lost yesterday.  I was surprised how well the Cardinals were shooting. Was not aware that Mackay had that outside shot...made six 3's and scored 18 points.  Was also impressed how Wesleyan caught the LJs' defense lacking with back door cuts, etc.  The Cardinals seized the moment so to speak in their historic win.  It has been a LONG time that a 5th and 6 th seed played for a title.  The fine announcer repeated often that there has never been the possibility of such low seeds winning a Nescac title.  The seeding was the result of the regular season play! It reflected how close ..squeezed...is the word...the race for the title would be this year.  I remember the interview that Coach Hixon had with the Hoopsville host.  Coach Hixon indicated it would be a tight race.  Coach Hixon also knew he had an overall young inexperienced team....lots of potential...yes, but lots of building/ coaching to do. 
Several more thoughts....announcer pointed out that the ref crew was all D1 officials...if true, must congrat the conference officials on the matter...as well as the policy of the broadcasters.  Now on the matter of ticket fees
Was very happy that Nabatoff, Conklin and Dawson played well...stepped up so to speak...in an important game.  Connor was off in his shoots but had 8 rebounds and a block shot and hustle on defense.
Lastly....was looking at possible regional hubs that the CAC teams would be going to.  Dickerson and Richard Stockton were mentioned as sites.  For selfish reasons, want Amherst to be shipped to a location I could get too via a short drive.  Last season got stuck at the Airport due to weather...returning home after the CAC tourny.   Randolph Macon was also cited as a hub/pod site for the post season.
Got my fingers crossed.  Good luck to all the selectees...may they all make deep runs and meet in the final eight or higher!

[toad22]

Like a lot of teams these days, Amherst relays a lot on the 3 point shot. Given their personnel, that makes a lot of sense. Amherst had a terrible shooting night, and lost, in a close game, to a very strong Wesleyan team. It was a very entertaining game, but trying to dissect it, without knowing what was going on in the huddles, with the players, and with the coaching strategy, is really guessing. Both coaches in that game made decisions based on many factors that we as outside observers have almost no knowledge of. It is fine to have opinions about the game, but don't believe for a minute that we have enough information to make definitive statements about the performance of coaches.

[JEFFFAN]

I am the one who raised the question about Hixon re use of Conor Green so let me clear up my question and likely my mistaken understanding of the Amherst team.

I view and have viewed Conor Green as the go-to guy at Amherst, not exactly the heir to Toomey and Olsen but their 2014-2015 best player.  In my simplistic view of basketball, the best player rarely leaves the floor and if he/she does it is for a rest.  In the case of Green yesterday - and acknowledging that none of us know whether he was sick, tired, etc - I just was surprised to see him on the bench for virtually the entire second half.   If that is questioning Hixon, so be it - the man's record certainly stands far above any post from D3Boards - but my guess is that Green is not that full go-to player that I viewed him as being.

[TIAJeff]

I don't think there was anything untoward/scandalous re Green - I think he's just a 20 year old kid who had a bad shooting day.  I was never a star basketball player, although I am a stud bowler, but it seems to me that anyone with a star's responsibility would put winning above personal performance - even Green's one 3-ball that went in was backboarded - he just seemed really off, and some of the Green-less configs Hixon arranged simply worked better. 

Also, Toomey and Olson were point guards - the way a star point guard takes over/runs a game/acts as a go-to player is not the same as the way a star swingman/whatever position Green plays does. 

Dawson seems to have come along.  He still runs quite often into four opposing defenders rather than pass, but did anyone see the bullet he sent to Conklin?  I am much more satisfied with the Berman/Dawson rotation now as compared to the beginning of the year.  Across the board - ha - folks seem quite confident re Amherst's chance at an at-large - if they do make it, I am very interested to see how this recently-gelled team faces off against teams they don't have any experience against. 

[lumbercat]

GTR-
I didn't say Hixon was a lousy coach I said he got out coached yesterday.
Wes was a heavy underdog who was playing for their first ever NESCAC  title against a program that has been there many times before.

I believe most of the set plays and back door plays Wes executed are reflective of a successful coaching strategy that worked very well for them yesterday. The back door dunk in OT was a pivotal play and maybe the turning point of the OT. That was a set play that Rielly would have called.

Coach Reilly took a 6 seed against an Amherst team who beat them by 20 in Middletown 3 weeks earlier and looked unbeatable the day before against a very good Bowdoin team.

Often when a heavy underdog gets in crunch time in a championship game you'll see mistakes or an overall lack of poise from the program that hasn't been there before. I didn't see that yesterday from Wesleyan. They executed so well when the game was on the line. I believe that kind of performance is
greatly influenced by coaching.

Cosgrove did a great job this year but I think Reilly is the COY.
The 6 seeded Cards beating a Bates team that was undefeated at home, beating 1 seed Trinity in Hartford and capping it off with an OT win against a heavily favored Amherst team.

[madzillagd]

I found it to be an odd choice sitting Green down the stretch given the fact that Racy wasn't doing much.  Even if Green isn't hitting shots he's still more of a decoy that the defense has to pay attention to than Racy is.  He only had 8 pts but he also grabbed 8 rebounds on the day. All that being said, when he did finally come back in both back door cuts for dunks happened off of his side of the ball, not sure what the defensive rotation was supposed to be and who was to blame but I'm guessing he had something to do with those easy looks.

[JEFFFAN]

Amherst and Trinity in so far with at large bids.   

Not finished yet

[grabtherim]

4 teams in.  Happy to say I was dead wrong.  Good luck to all the NESCAC teams. 

[CatCountry2013]

Congrats to all teams, go Bobcats!