MBB: NESCAC

[amh63]

FYI and comments.  Amherst has launched a new "website" look with the help of Presto sports network.  Have to get use to it.  In the announcement, it states that 8 other conference schools also has linked with Presto...as well as the CAC conference office.  Guess the one year contract with NSN has been completed at Amherst.  Reason for a change not known.
Has any other poster been aware of the change on their school's website?  rumors, comments welcome here as well as facts .
Seems Presto works with 400 other schools.  Do not know much about the impacts to webcasts, etc.

[nescac1]

As with Midd, so too for Williams, beating Amherst, Wesleyan, Skidmore, and Springfield (plus OT losses to Amherst and Trinity, and a last-second loss to WPI).  Not bad for a down year for a program after losing its coach and three all-Americans in the off-season ...

A bunch of other thoughts:

One wrinkle that hasn't been discussed much, I think, at least not here: if Babson and Trinity meet, Babson's third-leading scorer, rebounder and assist-man Eric Dean, will be going against his former mates.  Just think how nasty Trinity would be right now if Dean and Varun Ram (who has played some non-garbage-time minutes for MARYLAND since transferring from Trinity) were still on the team ... wow. 

This was a crazy year in NESCAC in which just about anyone could beat just about anyone by 20 on any given day, and really, a crazy year in D3 overall.  Although two of the three teams I figured looked among the strongest, nationally, in pre-season, are still alive (Whitewater was stunned in a monumental first-round upset, but Augustana and Randolph-Macon are both loaded with veteran talent), and I think both are good bets to make the final four. Stevens Point was highly regarded as well, but to me are a bit of a surprise just because they lost two superstars with no major incoming talent to replace them.  There are, however, a number of teams who weren't really highly regarded in the pre-season left in the Sweet 16: 9/16 teams in the Sweet 16 were unranked in the pre-season, and only two from the pre-season top 10 are still alive.  Compare that to last year, when all four final four teams were pretty much loaded with talent from the get-go, and lots of other highly regarded teams made deep runs.  Only the Randolph-Macon bracket has four teams that are in no way surprising. 

I think next year is another year with few real heavyweights-on-paper returning.  Augustana will be loaded led by a ridiculous senior class.  Marietta looks like they will be really tough.  VWU always just reloads.  But many other top teams -- Whitewater, Stevens-Point, Randolph-Macon, Babson, St. Norbert's, Albertus Magnus, Hopkins, Wash U., Dickinson,  and so on -- are, like last year's top teams, getting decimated by graduation, leading to another likely wide-open D3 season.  NESCAC, which wasn't really loaded with senior talent this year, I think will actually be stronger-positioned vs. the rest of the country next year, when you consider that Amherst, Wesleyan, Colby and Tufts all return just about every player of consequence, and Trinity returns many of its top players.  Of the four NCAA tourney teams Bates suffers the biggest losses, but still returns three potential stars up front.  That group of teams all look VERY good on paper heading into the season, especially when you look at the rest of the country and what most of the top dozen or so squads are losing. 

I think Amherst will be a pre-season top 5 squad next year, right behind Augustana, Marietta, maybe one or two others, even if they finish entirely out of the top 25 (as is warranted) this year.  Wesleyan and Trinity also look like pre-season top-25 type teams to me, and Colby and Tufts are dark-horses if their four (combined) big guys with injury/health question marks are all 100 percent.  Bates will still be interesting, and Bowdoin won't be great as a team, but Hausman should be a pre-season all-American, perhaps even first-team. 

I'll toss one Williams comment in, just because I need to mention the Ephs somehow ... Eph recruit Miye Oni put up 32 points and 10 boards, including 7 triples, in a losing effort in a sectional championship game (vs. very strong competition) this past weekend.  Oni, who had a fairly quiet junior year on the court, grew several inches in the off-season and led his team in scoring, rebounding, blocks and steals, and was second in assists, this season even though a junior teammate of his has multiple D1 offers.  Hopefully those results will translate to the next level, as I expect he will be needed to step in for Wohl early on, given Williams' lack of any true "4" man at all on the returning squad -- the only guys above 6'4 are all centers. 

[nescac1]

Speaking of Trinity transfers, is there any doubt that a team composed of recent prominent NESCAC transfers would be the best starting five, by a significant margin, in Division 3: Taylor Hanson (an all-region player at Carleton last year, formerly of Conn), Ducan Robinson, Eric Dean, Matt Hart, and Varum Ram.  Three NESCAC transfers to D1 programs, two of whom are scholarship guys (Ram earned a scholarhip after a year of playing), wow.   

[Mr. Ypsi]

As with Midd, so too for Williams, beating Amherst, Wesleyan, Skidmore, and Springfield (plus OT losses to Amherst and Trinity, and a last-second loss to WPI).  Not bad for a down year for a program after losing its coach and three all-Americans in the off-season ...

A bunch of other thoughts:

One wrinkle that hasn't been discussed much, I think, at least not here: if Babson and Trinity meet, Babson's third-leading scorer, rebounder and assist-man Eric Dean, will be going against his former mates.  Just think how nasty Trinity would be right now if Dean and Varun Ram (who has played some non-garbage-time minutes for MARYLAND since transferring from Trinity) were still on the team ... wow. 

This was a crazy year in NESCAC in which just about anyone could beat just about anyone by 20 on any given day, and really, a crazy year in D3 overall.  Although two of the three teams I figured looked among the strongest, nationally, in pre-season, are still alive (Whitewater was stunned in a monumental first-round upset, but Augustana and Randolph-Macon are both loaded with veteran talent), and I think both are good bets to make the final four. Stevens Point was highly regarded as well, but to me are a bit of a surprise just because they lost two superstars with no major incoming talent to replace them.  There are, however, a number of teams who weren't really highly regarded in the pre-season left in the Sweet 16: 9/16 teams in the Sweet 16 were unranked in the pre-season, and only two from the pre-season top 10 are still alive.  Compare that to last year, when all four final four teams were pretty much loaded with talent from the get-go, and lots of other highly regarded teams made deep runs.  Only the Randolph-Macon bracket has four teams that are in no way surprising. 

I think next year is another year with few real heavyweights-on-paper returning.  Augustana will be loaded led by a ridiculous senior class.  Marietta looks like they will be really tough.  VWU always just reloads.  But many other top teams -- Whitewater, Stevens-Point, Randolph-Macon, Babson, St. Norbert's, Albertus Magnus, Hopkins, Wash U., Dickinson,  and so on -- are, like last year's top teams, getting decimated by graduation, leading to another likely wide-open D3 season.  NESCAC, which wasn't really loaded with senior talent this year, I think will actually be stronger-positioned vs. the rest of the country next year, when you consider that Amherst, Wesleyan, Colby and Tufts all return just about every player of consequence, and Trinity returns many of its top players.  Of the four NCAA tourney teams Bates suffers the biggest losses, but still returns three potential stars up front.  That group of teams all look VERY good on paper heading into the season, especially when you look at the rest of the country and what most of the top dozen or so squads are losing. 

I think Amherst will be a pre-season top 5 squad next year, right behind Augustana, Marietta, maybe one or two others, even if they finish entirely out of the top 25 (as is warranted) this year.  Wesleyan and Trinity also look like pre-season top-25 type teams to me, and Colby and Tufts are dark-horses if their four (combined) big guys with injury/health question marks are all 100 percent.  Bates will still be interesting, and Bowdoin won't be great as a team, but Hausman should be a pre-season all-American, perhaps even first-team. 

I'll toss one Williams comment in, just because I need to mention the Ephs somehow ... Eph recruit Miye Oni put up 32 points and 10 boards, including 7 triples, in a losing effort in a sectional championship game (vs. very strong competition) this past weekend.  Oni, who had a fairly quiet junior year on the court, grew several inches in the off-season and led his team in scoring, rebounding, blocks and steals, and was second in assists, this season even though a junior teammate of his has multiple D1 offers.  Hopefully those results will translate to the next level, as I expect he will be needed to step in for Wohl early on, given Williams' lack of any true "4" man at all on the returning squad -- the only guys above 6'4 are all centers.

And don't sleep on Elmhurst - all NINE of their rotation players were juniors this year!  Going to TRIPLE OT in the late game against St. Norbert allowed Northwestern to pull their second consecutive huge upset.  The Blue Jays should be preseason top 25, and perhaps much higher.

[7express]

As with Midd, so too for Williams, beating Amherst, Wesleyan, Skidmore, and Springfield (plus OT losses to Amherst and Trinity, and a last-second loss to WPI).  Not bad for a down year for a program after losing its coach and three all-Americans in the off-season ...

A bunch of other thoughts:

One wrinkle that hasn't been discussed much, I think, at least not here: if Babson and Trinity meet, Babson's third-leading scorer, rebounder and assist-man Eric Dean, will be going against his former mates.  Just think how nasty Trinity would be right now if Dean and Varun Ram (who has played some non-garbage-time minutes for MARYLAND since transferring from Trinity) were still on the team ... wow. 

This was a crazy year in NESCAC in which just about anyone could beat just about anyone by 20 on any given day, and really, a crazy year in D3 overall.  Although two of the three teams I figured looked among the strongest, nationally, in pre-season, are still alive (Whitewater was stunned in a monumental first-round upset, but Augustana and Randolph-Macon are both loaded with veteran talent), and I think both are good bets to make the final four. Stevens Point was highly regarded as well, but to me are a bit of a surprise just because they lost two superstars with no major incoming talent to replace them.  There are, however, a number of teams who weren't really highly regarded in the pre-season left in the Sweet 16: 9/16 teams in the Sweet 16 were unranked in the pre-season, and only two from the pre-season top 10 are still alive.  Compare that to last year, when all four final four teams were pretty much loaded with talent from the get-go, and lots of other highly regarded teams made deep runs.  Only the Randolph-Macon bracket has four teams that are in no way surprising. 

I think next year is another year with few real heavyweights-on-paper returning.  Augustana will be loaded led by a ridiculous senior class.  Marietta looks like they will be really tough.  VWU always just reloads.  But many other top teams -- Whitewater, Stevens-Point, Randolph-Macon, Babson, St. Norbert's, Albertus Magnus, Hopkins, Wash U., Dickinson,  and so on -- are, like last year's top teams, getting decimated by graduation, leading to another likely wide-open D3 season.  NESCAC, which wasn't really loaded with senior talent this year, I think will actually be stronger-positioned vs. the rest of the country next year, when you consider that Amherst, Wesleyan, Colby and Tufts all return just about every player of consequence, and Trinity returns many of its top players.  Of the four NCAA tourney teams Bates suffers the biggest losses, but still returns three potential stars up front.  That group of teams all look VERY good on paper heading into the season, especially when you look at the rest of the country and what most of the top dozen or so squads are losing. 

I think Amherst will be a pre-season top 5 squad next year, right behind Augustana, Marietta, maybe one or two others, even if they finish entirely out of the top 25 (as is warranted) this year.  Wesleyan and Trinity also look like pre-season top-25 type teams to me, and Colby and Tufts are dark-horses if their four (combined) big guys with injury/health question marks are all 100 percent.  Bates will still be interesting, and Bowdoin won't be great as a team, but Hausman should be a pre-season all-American, perhaps even first-team. 

I'll toss one Williams comment in, just because I need to mention the Ephs somehow ... Eph recruit Miye Oni put up 32 points and 10 boards, including 7 triples, in a losing effort in a sectional championship game (vs. very strong competition) this past weekend.  Oni, who had a fairly quiet junior year on the court, grew several inches in the off-season and led his team in scoring, rebounding, blocks and steals, and was second in assists, this season even though a junior teammate of his has multiple D1 offers.  Hopefully those results will translate to the next level, as I expect he will be needed to step in for Wohl early on, given Williams' lack of any true "4" man at all on the returning squad -- the only guys above 6'4 are all centers.

Eastern Connecticut only loses 1 player from a team that was top 20 this year....and it wasn't even one of their 3 or 4 best!

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

There are A LOT of teams not losing much, if any, production for next year.  It's like there was a one year recruiting blip for the class of 2015.  I'm guessing at 40% of the Top 25 will be better next year than this year.

[P'bearfan]

There are A LOT of teams not losing much, if any, production for next year.  It's like there was a one year recruiting blip for the class of 2015.  I'm guessing at 40% of the Top 25 will be better next year than this year.

Agreed and I think the same trend exists in the NESCAC.  All of that is not encouraging news for Bowdoin fans!

[ronk]

There are A LOT of teams not losing much, if any, production for next year. It's like there was a one year recruiting blip for the class of 2015. I'm guessing at 40% of the Top 25 will be better next year than this year.

Yes, that when I switched my emphasis from scouting boys to girls summer AAU bball. It took a year for the men's programs to adjust.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

FYI and comments.  Amherst has launched a new "website" look with the help of Presto sports network.  Have to get use to it.  In the announcement, it states that 8 other conference schools also has linked with Presto...as well as the CAC conference office.  Guess the one year contract with NSN has been completed at Amherst.  Reason for a change not known.
Has any other poster been aware of the change on their school's website?  rumors, comments welcome here as well as facts .
Seems Presto works with 400 other schools.  Do not know much about the impacts to webcasts, etc.

Presto is a pretty common web company for athletics... you might notice the D3sports.com group is a Presto partner. If anything, the NESCAC joining Presto is great for Division III because of the affiliation in terms of schedules and whatnot that can go across to other sites like those in the D3sports.com group. It's a win-win from our bias opinion LOL.

[pinseeking1]

If you only play 10 to 13 games vs. teams in your league, how much should the league finish actually count?

Excellent point, Pat. 

With a 10-game league season, it means that MOST games are non-league. I think people need to look at the whole season and not just league games to evaluate any team's success, particularly with NESCAC teams because of the short league schedule. That evaluation should include credit for beating strong non-league teams and subtract credit for beating up or losing to weak non-league teams.

That "whole season" concept should obviously include the NCAA tournament.  This means that a poor showing in the postseason can turn a great regular season into a disappointment.  Or, it can turn a good regular season into a "dream" season as it did for Bates and Trinity... You don't get to close the book on a team until they've played their last game.

[grabtherim]

League games and finish should count the most for two important reasons.  First, most teams schedule a few games which are in essence scrimmages, so those games mean almost nothing.  Second and most importantly, coaches and players point and gear most of what they do to getting ready for regular and post season league play.  Often even when playing against better teams before NESCAC gets going, rotations are being established, coaches are finding out what they have in kids, and sets on both offense and defense are being tested for one reason and one reason only:  to get your team geared up for league play.  These games not only mean the most to the teams (coaches and players), but more importantly show what they have worked to get to.  That's why I see league games standing head and shoulders above the rest, and although certainly not the only, they are the best representation of who you are.   

Bates getting in was surprising to me.  I get the regional ranking stuff, but also think how you do in your league should count more than it apparently does. 

If you only play 10 to 13 games vs. teams in your league, how much should the league finish actually count?

[nescac1]

Hoops Fan I disagree.  NESCAC had a relatively weak class of 2015, with only Bowdoin and Williams having really strong senior classes, and Bates having a very solid one. But the top teams in general? By my count 12 of the top 15 lose several or all of their most productive players.  Augustana, Marietta and Whitworth are the exceptions so I imagine all will start out as top five teams.  Virginia Wesleyan and St. Thomas each return a lot but can't say either looks better on paper.  Babson does return Flannery but graduates its other top three guys.  The bottom of the top 25 I didn't check into all of them, but that group has been very much in flux all season.  And at least Stockton, Wooster, WPI and Scranton I know are losing really key guys.  That's why I think the five Nescac squads who return most or all of their impact players are well positioned.

One team to watch at bottom of top 25 is Catholic.  A power program which had a very young team this year, they could skyrocket. 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Hoops Fan I disagree.  NESCAC had a relatively weak class of 2015, with only Bowdoin and Williams having really strong senior classes, and Bates having a very solid one. But the top teams in general? By my count 12 of the top 15 lose several or all of their most productive players.  Augustana, Marietta and Whitworth are the exceptions so I imagine all will start out as top five teams.  Virginia Wesleyan and St. Thomas each return a lot but can't say either looks better on paper.  Babson does return Flannery but graduates its other top three guys.  The bottom of the top 25 I didn't check into all of them, but that group has been very much in flux all season.  And at least Stockton, Wooster, WPI and Scranton I know are losing really key guys.  That's why I think the five Nescac squads who return most or all of their impact players are well positioned.

One team to watch at bottom of top 25 is Catholic.  A power program which had a very young team this year, they could skyrocket.

Maybe half's too much or maybe I should have extended it to the Top 40.  All I know is in preparation for the tournament this year I was overwhelmed by the number of teams featuring underclassmen in top positions.

You also have to look at the whole roster - Yes, WPI is losing their two best players, but the team is deep and talented and full of leaders already.  I don't think it will be difficult to replace that production and improve for next year.

You add successful teams near the bottom of the Top 25 (or just off it) - Elmhurst, Chicago, Franklin & Marshall should all be significantly better next year.  I'll be interested to see the numbers next fall, but I suspect there will be a lot more returning starters next year than there were this year.

[amh63]

ronk.....so it was you!   +K   Now, I need to get the inside scoop on Amherst's WBB recruits.  Ms Ford seems to be progressing well.

D'Mac, I believe the "linkage" aspect maybe the primary reason....in particular with mobile devices.  Went out yesterday and got me a new IPad for the occasion .   Side note....was annoyed about the linkage to an Amherst game being late...emailed my complaint to the new Amherst AD...hope he still is a friend.  Linkage came about shortly.  Assumed the SID was being overwhelmed with Amherst hosting several conf. events.  Fear now the AD will send me the bill!...for Presto....been after me for a new press box somewhere  

[ronk]

ronk.....so it was you!   +K  Now, I need to get the inside scoop on Amherst's WBB recruits.  Ms Ford seems to be progressing well.

D'Mac, I believe the "linkage" aspect maybe the primary reason....in particular with mobile devices.  Went out yesterday and got me a new IPad for the occasion .   Side note....was annoyed about the linkage to an Amherst game being late...emailed my complaint to the new Amherst AD...hope he still is a friend.  Linkage came about shortly.  Assumed the SID was being overwhelmed with Amherst hosting several conf. events.  Fear now the AD will send me the bill!...for Presto....been after me for a new press box somewhere

If you give me the names(in a PM), I'll tell you if I've seen them. Right now, I only know about 1 going to Williams and another to Wesleyan.