MBB: NESCAC

middhoops · March 13, 2015, 07:30:37 PM

Trinity staked themselves to an 11 point lead at the half, then fought tooth and nail in the 2nd to protect it from a gutsy Bates team that struggled to shoot from distance, to put it kindly.
I would love to see a Trinity vs Babson game in the round of 8.

Congrats to Bates on a great season. Hell of an improvement for a team that was at the bottom of the league last year. The Bobcats return serious talent for next season.

AmherstStudent05 · March 13, 2015, 07:31:22 PM

Congratulations to Trinity on a fantastic win for their program. Bates's season long woes from beyond the three-point arc were their undoing today. Still an incredible season. Interesting that they struggled (relatively, at least) against NESCAC competition all season, but performed very well against a very tough slate of teams outside of our conference.

Old Guy · March 13, 2015, 08:02:11 PM

Quote from: AmherstStudent05 on March 13, 2015, 07:31:22 PM
Congratulations to Trinity on a fantastic win for their program. Bates's season long woes from beyond the three-point arc were their undoing today. Still an incredible season. Interesting that they struggled (relatively, at least) against NESCAC competition all season, but performed very well against a very tough slate of teams outside of our conference.

Right. Bates has an early win over Babson at Babson.

middhoops · March 13, 2015, 10:02:16 PM

Babson needed a lot to go right at the end against a talented Johns Hopkins team. And it did.
The Beavers will face Trinity tomorrow in what will be a fascinating match up.

pinseeking1 · March 13, 2015, 10:42:15 PM

The Bates-Trinity game was really like a home game for the Bobcats. It seemed like half of the student body was there for Bates while Trinity had a small and quiet crowd... It was really like a road win for Trinity, so all the more credit to them.

In the end, superior talent won out as Trinity was strong inside and out and on the boards. Starks was simply amazing. He went 4 for 5 in threes and 8 for 8 from the FT line. If Papadeas didn't get into foul trouble, it would have been even worse for the Bobcats as he seemed to easily be able to score every time he got the ball. Add to that a 62% 3 point shooting performance for Trinity vs 10% for Bates and it tells the story. Both Depeches and Safford kept Bates in the game, but the Bantams had a much stronger bench as only one Bates non-starter managed to score.

Here's hoping that next year's recruiting class for Bates can bring some sharpshooting to the offense as the front line promises to be strong. (Outside shooting was really their Achilles heel this season.) It will be very difficult to replace the ball handling and scoring of Safford, so it will be a great opportunity for a young guard to step up and earn the minutes.

It was a great trip to the Sweet Sixteen while it lasted. I like Trinity's chances against Babson to get to the Final Four. Best of luck to them. They deserve it.

magicman · March 14, 2015, 05:41:10 AM

Quote from: WPI89 on March 13, 2015, 04:00:39 PM
Thanks Magic - with "my team" exiting early again this year - it was all I had left!

Funny - I did the same thing - thought I had a near perfect women's bracket picked and then realized there were some "wrong" picks not crossed out!

Good luck NESCAC (and Babson) tonight!

I told my wife when I pulled up my bracket that I was probably one of the top 3 in the country as I had 15 of the sweet 16 teams with only the Scranton women crossed out. Then I started comparing my bracket with the schedule of games on Friday and noticed some teams were playing that weren't in my sweet 16. I then had to give my wife the old Gilda Radner...never mind!!

amh63 · March 14, 2015, 11:35:58 AM

Happy "Pi" Day all! What will people think of next to celebrate.
Did a lot of switching around yesterday...watching D3 games of interest..both men and women games..as well as two semi final ACC men's games where the two top seeds and favorites to be No.1 seeds in March Madness... both loss to underdogs of a sort.

In the game which I have no favorites...Trinity vs Bates...caught the second half..I admit I was watching Trinity' s coach at times. I add my congrats to Trinity!...and their HBC that paced a lot and was relatively calm. He seem to insert the right players late in the game to hold off Bates.

Later, I switched off to watch the Babson vs JHU battle...yes it was a low scoring battle with JHU seemingly holding the upper hand, imo, for the greater part of the game. In the second half, the announcer pointed out two things of interest...first both teams was going for a long , long time and not scoring from the "field" in the second half...second, JHU was called for 5 fouls to 0 for Babson; therefore Babson must be careful for there will be calls on them coming up to make things even. Interesting perspective..do refs do that?

..impact games!?

I feel that Trinity has a good chance for an upset if they keep being aggressive. Go CAC!

Last men's D3 game I turned to was the SJF battle against the N0.1 RMC game in Ashland, Va. Huge home crowd for the Yellow Jackets...bad webcast for viewing wrt to focus, etc. Anyway, SJF played a very competitive game....if they had shot as well against RMC from the outside as they did at home, there could have been an upset.
What to watch today?...beside the Trinity game that is

middhoops · March 14, 2015, 07:48:24 PM

Trinity forges an 8 point lead against the home team Babson Beavers at the half. Babson has early foul trouble with key starters and NO answer for Starks who leads all scorers with 15. The announcer is very capable and a serious homer.

middhoops · March 14, 2015, 09:18:34 PM

For the second day in a row, Babson needed a whole lot to go right to pull out a win. And again, they did.
Trinity ran out of offensive gas in the last minute and OT and the Beavers were spectacular down the stretch.
Babson is off to Salem after a truly hard won battle.
Congrats to the NEWMAC. Now win this thing!

WPI89 · March 14, 2015, 11:20:46 PM

Agree with all Midd. Great season for Trinity! Everybody in the NE is a Beaver fan next weekend!

gordonmann · March 14, 2015, 11:23:40 PM

Damn, well, that was painful. Takes me back to 1999 when the Bantams lost to Connecticut College in the Elite 8.

Nevertheless, congrats to the Clucks for going much farther than expected. They had a great season and represented the 'CAC well.

pinseeking1 · March 15, 2015, 12:30:16 AM

The Bantams and Starks showed they were human with some key misses down the stretch. Babson kept it from getting out of hand and then a clutch three by Droney finally erased the Trinity lead. Trinity never had any of these sloppy stretches last night against Bates and Babson took full advantage tonight.

Babson did have the unusual advantage of four NCAA tournament games on their home court. I suppose this has happened before, but to have all home games on the road to the Final Four seems to maybe put a (small) asterisk on the achievement. Great season for Trinity.

magicman · March 15, 2015, 06:00:46 AM

Quote from: pinseeking1 on March 15, 2015, 12:30:16 AM
The Bantams and Starks showed they were human with some key misses down the stretch. Babson kept it from getting out of hand and then a clutch three by Droney finally erased the Trinity lead. Trinity never had any of these sloppy stretches last night against Bates and Babson took full advantage tonight.

Babson did havethe unusual advantage of four NCAA tournament games on their home court. I suppose this has happened before, but to have all home games on the road to the Final Four seems to maybe put a (small) asterisk on the achievement. Great season for Trinity.

pinseeking,

It's not so unusual. I know there are a number of teams that have had 4 games on their home court on their way to the Final Four, including a couple of teams in the NESCAC in the past. That's why the NCAA has regional rankings to help sort out these kinds of things. There are also a number of teams that have had 4 games on their home court but didn't make the final four because they lost that 4th game.

You were right, though, it has happened before... like this year.

And what's better than having all 4 games at home? Getting a bye in the 1st round and then having the next 3 games at home.

Lets just take a look at this year alone.

Randolph-Macon had a bye, then 3 games on their home court. They lost the last game or they'd be in Salem as well. And then there is Augustana, who also got a bye in the 1st round followed by 3 games on their home court. They won all three and are facing Babson in Salem. And let's not forget Stevens Point, who got to play all of their 4 games at home. They, like Babson, just happened to win them all and also punched a ticket to Salem. I guess you might say it happens quite often.

There would be a lot of asterisks in the record books if we did as you suggested for Babson.

pinseeking1 · March 15, 2015, 08:50:07 AM

Magicman, unbelievable! Do you mean that the entire tournament is one game shy of having a Final Four who played all home games on their "roads" to the Final Four? Isn't it obvious that this type of thing has to end? It takes a lot of the fairness out of the whole thing...

It would perhaps be OK if this type of thing were related to the luck of the draw, but the teams from the outer edges of their regions (i.e., Maine, Vermont, etc) will never get this opportunity.

amh63 · March 15, 2015, 09:35:40 AM

Watched the Triniy and Babson game to the " bitter" end in OT. So tired that I did not get to see any Div1 tourney finals

. By the way, who won the Harvard vs Yale playoff in philly?
With respect to the newbie posters' topic of home court.....yes, it is one of the goals of teams to win a bunch of tough regular season games.....to get a chance to host! In Div3 there is little money from the NCAA to go to neutral venues.....like in the " big boys" division. On a relative scale, it would not take much money to do that....imo.

Home court helped Tufts women's team beat the defending national champ last night, I believe....but NOT Randolph Macon....in front of their packed home court. It should be noted that RMC and Virginia Wesleyan are members of the ODAC conference...that host the Div3 championship in Salem. The ODAC members have their tournament in the same place in Salem.

Guess this marks the end of the basketball season..watching and blogging on this board for me. Lots of fun and learning done here this season! Lots of pages churned out.
It's Spring Break for Amherst....but the Spring sports are going on as well as remaining Winter sports.
With respect to MBB .... I believe the Amherst squad will take an oversea tour later in the year...summer.? Italy comes to mind. Will post the news here when I get it.