MBB: NESCAC

[nescac1]

Now that NESCAC season is finally over, never too early to look forward to next year!  I'll toss this out, my thoughts on the top returning players to watch:

First team: Hudnut, Sabety, Green, Hausman, Starks (that is a really solid group, and I think Hausman at least should be a pre-season all-American for sure).

Second team: Palleschi, Ajayi, Boornazian, McCarthy, BJ Davis

Third team: Marcus Delpeche, Aronowitz, St. Amour, Westman, Mackey

Also on the radar: M. Daley, George, Ogundeko, Jann, Kuo

Poy: 1. Hausman, 2. Hudnut, 3. Green
Rookies to watch: TBD, although a few early names to watch seem to be Schneider (Amherst), Baines (Midd), Oni / Casey (Williams), and Simonds (Bowdoin).  Once the RD results come in, there will be a lot more info on potential rookies of note. 

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

You are correct that we were shipped to Rochester in 2011, even though we were a "higher seed." St. Mary's of Maryland was the reason, as they were driving distance to Rochester, but not to Middlebury. (I believe they were 50 miles or so outside of the limit.) I was one of the Midd partisans who was fiery mad about this "injustice." However, to Pat's point, that was the year that we won two games and advanced to our only Final Four. And that trip is one of my fondest memories as a Middlebury fan. Winning on the road is more fun than losing at home.

It would have been interesting to see who actually hosted if geography wasn't an issue. SMC and Middlebury were #1 regionally ranked and both have very similiar criteria. Who would have hosted would have not been cut and dry and Middlebury certainly wasn't the higher seed by default. Neither team could get to the other inside of 500 miles (though, both would have been allowed to bus - the NCAA can't make that decision for them)... and thus a more geographic centric location had to be found... i.e. Rochester.

It happens often and this year had Calvin men won... they would have been hosting a pod where Augustana was arguably the top seed.

People can argue that it isn't "fair" that a team hosts all the way to Salem... but to get to Salem you have to beat the teams in front of you whether you are at home or on the road. This year 7 of the 8 final four teams for men and women were at home the final weekend - that is actually very remarkable considering only 46% of the men and 49% of the women have done that in recent history.

The NCAA is not going to "reward" a lower ranked team the chance to host unless there is geography or extenuating circumstances at play. Teams earn the right to host, as well as play in the tournament, by what they have done all season. It isn't exactly fair to say to the top team in the country they can't play at home because it isn't far to those who didn't have better seasons - unless, of course, those other factors are at play.

We also aren't going to have neutral court games for a litany of reasons (see @d3hoops posts on this via Twitter to get a better sense of why) including the cost of doing such a thing - FAR more money than hosting at a home school participating in the tournament. Also, bracketing would be much more difficult to pull off without causing horrible match-ups early or costing too much money... again.

By the way, this hosting thing isn't unique to Division III... believe it or not... it happens in ALL divisions and in ALL sports except men's and women's Division I basketball - but considering those tournaments bring in the vast amount of revenue generated by the NCAA and that Division III gets a small percentage which then is the budget for all of it's championships... they can have whatever rules they want... the rest of the NCAA has the same rules seen here and that isn't going to change.

[Pat Coleman]

Yep -- I posted a series of tweets about this this morning. Starts here:

https://twitter.com/d3hoops/status/577123544112480257

[gordonmann]

It may only be tangentially related to Pinseeking's point, but this weekend's atmosphere for the women's sectional at Thomas More College in Crestview Hills, Kentucky was fantastic. There was basically standing room only on Friday night when the Saints played Washington U. and less than that on Saturday night when they played St. Thomas. On Saturday there were students standing on the concession stand counter so they could watch the game because the standing room space with site lines was gone.

After both games I asked the visiting coaches and players what they thought of the environment and they all spoke positively about it. They commented about how much they enjoyed the crowd and the atmosphere even though it wasn't their gym. Coach Fahey at Wash U who is arguably the most accomplished active coach in D3 women's basketball said it was one of the best environments (and most exciting games) she's seen. Sydney Moss who played her first season at D1 Florida said Thomas More's court is louder than anything she saw in the SEC because of the size.

The opposite is also true. Hope has a wonderful gym that has been largely empty every time they've hosted the women's Final Four. I suspect the same will be true in Calvin this weekend, but we'll see. No team will have a significant home crowd advantage, but they probably won't have much of a crowd at all. And that's a little deflating for the national quarterfinals, semifinals and championship game.

So there's a lot to be said for letting participating schools host the finals, though I do agree with Pinseeking that it's a less fair system to teams in Texas and the NWC who will not get those opportunities often.

[Bucket]

You are correct that we were shipped to Rochester in 2011, even though we were a "higher seed." St. Mary's of Maryland was the reason, as they were driving distance to Rochester, but not to Middlebury. (I believe they were 50 miles or so outside of the limit.) I was one of the Midd partisans who was fiery mad about this "injustice." However, to Pat's point, that was the year that we won two games and advanced to our only Final Four. And that trip is one of my fondest memories as a Middlebury fan. Winning on the road is more fun than losing at home.

It would have been interesting to see who actually hosted if geography wasn't an issue. SMC and Middlebury were #1 regionally ranked and both have very similiar criteria. Who would have hosted would have not been cut and dry and Middlebury certainly wasn't the higher seed by default. Neither team could get to the other inside of 500 miles (though, both would have been allowed to bus - the NCAA can't make that decision for them)... and thus a more geographic centric location had to be found... i.e. Rochester.

Though I guess Middlebury put to rest who the better team was, at least that weekend.

[grabtherim]

You are correct that we were shipped to Rochester in 2011, even though we were a "higher seed." St. Mary's of Maryland was the reason, as they were driving distance to Rochester, but not to Middlebury. (I believe they were 50 miles or so outside of the limit.) I was one of the Midd partisans who was fiery mad about this "injustice." However, to Pat's point, that was the year that we won two games and advanced to our only Final Four. And that trip is one of my fondest memories as a Middlebury fan. Winning on the road is more fun than losing at home.

It would have been interesting to see who actually hosted if geography wasn't an issue. SMC and Middlebury were #1 regionally ranked and both have very similiar criteria. Who would have hosted would have not been cut and dry and Middlebury certainly wasn't the higher seed by default. Neither team could get to the other inside of 500 miles (though, both would have been allowed to bus - the NCAA can't make that decision for them)... and thus a more geographic centric location had to be found... i.e. Rochester.

Though I guess Middlebury put to rest who the better team was, at least that weekend.

Amen
http://middlebury.prestosports.com/sports/mbkb/2010-11/releases/273394.html

[nescac1]

Congrats to a slew of all-region honorees from NESCAC: Hausman, Wohl, Swords, Safford, Green, and Starks:

http://www.d3hoops.com/awards/all-region/2014-15/northeast-men

All richly deserved. 

[polbear73]

http://athletics.bowdoin.edu/sports/mbkb/2014-15/releases/20150318osqqoh

Congratulations to Lucas Hausman: third team NABC All American.

[Old Guy]

Hausman sneaked up on us this year, great second half. I look forward to seeing him in the spotlight next year. He will draw some attention.

[polbear73]

He did and and even more will be expected from him with the losses of Swords, Pieri, and Hurley.

[P'bearfan]

http://athletics.bowdoin.edu/sports/mbkb/2014-15/releases/20150318osqqoh

Congratulations to Lucas Hausman: third team NABC All American.

Yes congrats!  Glad his incredible play was recognized.....and boy is he just fun to watch.  Hausman just sees the floor differently.  Glad we get to watch him for one more year.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/105372/maryland-terrapins-varun-ram-can-defend-anything


Found this on ESPN.

[nescac1]

On the one hand, incredible that Stevens-Point won the title yesterday playing only seven guys (only six of whom played major minutes), no starter over 6'4, no starter who averaged even 13 points or 5 rebounds, with one fourth-team all-American, and after losing their three top scorers (including two all-Americans) from last year's squad!  Whitewater returned a ton from the title squad, but I figured that Stevens Point would finally fall off a bit this year.  On the other hand, as a Williams fan, I've learned NEVER to bet against a WIAC team in the Final Four ... once they make it, they simply don't lose, and three really, REALLY good Williams teams lost three extremely close championship games to Stevens-Point (twice) and Whitewater.  They know how to close out games, and seasons.  The Ephs also lost in the Final Four to one of the Bo Ryan Plattesville juggernauts. 

All those teams tend to play brutally tough man-to-man defense, are very well coached offensively (making you work to guard them for the entire shot clock and expert at off-the-ball motion, screening, and finding the open man), can really shoot the ball across-the-board, and somehow are consistently fearless down the stretch in tight games.   Why a D1 team hasn't hired Stevens Point's coach by now is a total mystery to me, especially with the Bo Ryan success at the highest levels of D1.  Maybe his second title will do the trick.  I think that Williams is the only NESCAC team who has faced a WIAC team in Salem -- Amherst should consider itself lucky they've never had that pleasure ! 

A sure-to-be-hungry for the title, loaded Augustana team returns almost everyone and will definitely be the pre-season number one next year.  Stevens Point loses four of its top five guys, but I imagine will find some way to reload around Pelkoffer as the centerpiece.  Alas, I think Amherst will once again be a title contender from NESCAC next year after getting to the second round with an underclassman-dominated team.  Similar to Augustana last year, they have two years of contention in their future after relying on so many young players who are bound to improve -- junior year is when guys tend to make the leap and a least a few from the crazy-deep George/Conklin/Dawson/Berman/Nabatoff/Racy group are bound to emerge as true stars for the next two years.  Trinity, Bates, Tufts, Colby and Wesleyan could all also make some noise next year, although Trinity and Bates both have some key pieces to replace. 

Babson in my view will be hard-pressed to make a return engagement to Salem, even with all-American Flannery returning, after losing Wickey, Dean and Mack up front to graduation. 

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

That was one of the best defensive teams I have ever seen in Salem... period. UWSP was incredible, holding both VWC and Augustana to about 20 or so points below their average.

As for Semling... there is a chance he isn't interested in a Division I job.

[JEFFFAN]

Thanks, NESCAC1, for that writeup - really appreciate it.   I had not realized that the Ephs faced that conference so often in the playoffs.  One aspect of NESCAC play that is not well above average, at least IMHO, is defense.  Some teams some years are good at defense, but rule of thumb seems to be that great offensive NESCAC teams tend to go deeper in the NCAAs.  The Eph team from last year is an example - great offense, average defense.   

Really good write-up - thanks.