MBB: NESCAC

[30 for 30]

Steph Curry, the biggest recruiting miss of all time, proved that coaches miss and kids get better. Nine years ago Steph was overlooked out of high school by all the top dogs despite playing ball under their nose. Now he's the NBA MVP. Matt Hart lit the transfer fuse out of the NESCAC and now others have followed. For kids with great skills and late growing bodies it makes sense especially if they have passion for the game and want to be tested at the highest level. Hart and Robinson will contribute a lot at GW and UM respectively this season and beyond. They are in really good programs with coaches that will use their immense skills appropriately. Sabety is bound to follow next year. These guys will be the answer to the question of who has moved from III to I and put up numbers! More will follow as the perception ceiling will be broken. 

[Old Guy]

There is another NESCAC player, in addition to Robinson, Hart, and Sabety, who will be playing D1 basketball next year – and he's not transferring!

Midd's Dylan Sinnickson will be playing for the University of Vermont. He graduated from Middlebury today, but he lost a year of hoop to injury, so he has a year of eligibility left.

The interest in Dylan by UVM coach John Becker is genuine. Stony Brook also was in the mix.

It's a win-win for Dylan, as he will be pursuing graduate work in Environmental Studies. He's a good student and interesting young man of diverse talents. It will be fun next winter to drive the 35 miles to Burlington to watch him play for the Catamounts. A remarkable athlete.

UVM is a successful mid-major club, contesting every year for the America East championship: at least 20 wins the last four years, NCAA appearance in 2012.

[P'bearfan]

Midd's Dylan Sinnickson will be playing for the University of Vermont. He graduated from Middlebury today, but he lost a year of hoop to injury, so he has a year of eligibility left.

Great opportunity for Sinnickson.  Given his size and athleticism it will be interesting to see what position the coaching staff slots him into as well as how much playing time he gets as the season progresses.  Best of luck to him. 

[jayhawk]

NY Times article about when Colby played Stephen Curry at Davidson
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/25/sports/basketball/slow-stephen-curry-down-this-division-iii-college-did.html?ref=sports

[nescac1]

Congrats to Tufts on winning its third straight national title in softball, going an incredible 51-0 in the process.  Tufts also won its second straight title in men's lacrosse this weekend.  Tufts has really amped up the quality of its athletics across the board of late.  Midd and Trinity fell just short of national titles over the last week.  Still, this year, NESCAC teams (so far, women's crew still to come!) have collectively won an incredible six national titles (women's tennis, softball, men's lacrosse, men's ice hockey, women's golf, men's soccer) along with four more second-place finishes (women's lacrosse, women's soccer, men's tennis, field hockey).  Tufts led the way with an incredible year, including three national champs and women's hoops in the Final Four.  Williams boasts two national titles and a near-miss in women's soccer (losing in the penalty kick shoot-out), plus a third place showing in women's swimming.  Trinity won the men's hockey title and has a second-place finish under its belt, plus an elite eight appearance by men's hoops, and is also favored to win the women's crew title.  Crazy good year for NESCAC overall!  And it looks like Amherst (which didn't earn any top two finishes, but was incredibly consistent across the board with success in nearly every sport), Williams and Midd will all end up in the top five in the Director's Cup standings. 

[WPI89]

NESCAC1 - that is incredible - congratulations to all the teams.  Truly amazing.  I do not know with absolute certainty......but to put it into perspective, I am pretty sure the next NEWMAC (a decent conference in its own right, at least regionally)  National Championship in anything, will be the first one!

[madzillagd]

At my work we routinely get emails about our parking lot being used on the weekends because there's some sort of event at the Sac State aquatic center which is about 2 blocks away.  Received one yesterday and as usually I deleted it without even opening it.  Surprised to see a tweet this AM from the NCAA account however with a link to the DIII Rowing National Championship. I guess I should be pay more attention to my emails. 

If anybody is interested here's the stream link to the event going on right now:  http://www.ncaa.com/championship/liveplayer/player?gameId=844341&date=2015/05/29 

Funny that 5 of the 8 teams are from the NESCAC and they have to compete all the way out here in Sacramento. 

[jayhawk]

Another Groff off to Amherst
Dylan Groff from Pittsburgh will be attending Amherst and played basketball in high school  as 6'4" shooting guard (http://www.shadysideacademy.org/page.cfm?p=4228&newsid=2005&ncat=8,10,9,7,6,4,13,15,12,14,5,1,2,3,11)
Dylan's Dad Yram played basketball  at Amherst and professionally in Israel.
Dylan's sister is on the swim team at Amherst

[amh63]

Old Guy.....just got around to your post wrt to Sinnickson...did I get his name right?  I had thought about him just the other day while watching a little of the NCAA Div1 Baseball playoffs.  Seems Stoney Brook was playing.  I remember he was from that part of Long Island.  Dylan could have played in two sport !  Will he have to wait a year to play?...at UVM.....like Hart at GWU...given he is a grad student.

[amh63]

Jayhawks....thanks for the link.  Seems to be a solid player.  There is also a younger brother..an upcoming junior who also has some talent...both picked to play in the upcoming "JewishOlympics" this Summer...though in different divisions due to age.  Hope the Games complete without incident in that part of the world.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Old Guy.....just got around to your post wrt to Sinnickson...did I get his name right?  I had thought about him just the other day while watching a little of the NCAA Div1 Baseball playoffs.  Seems Stoney Brook was playing.  I remember he was from that part of Long Island.  Dylan could have played in two sport !  Will he have to wait a year to play?...at UVM.....like Hart at GWU...given he is a grad student.

I'm not 100% positive, but I'm pretty sure grad students do not have to sit out a year.

[P'bearfan]

Old Guy.....just got around to your post wrt to Sinnickson...did I get his name right?  I had thought about him just the other day while watching a little of the NCAA Div1 Baseball playoffs.  Seems Stoney Brook was playing.  I remember he was from that part of Long Island.  Dylan could have played in two sport !  Will he have to wait a year to play?...at UVM.....like Hart at GWU...given he is a grad student.




I'm not 100% positive, but I'm pretty sure grad students do not have to sit out a year.

That's my understanding as well.  For example, Greg Paulus was able to start at QB for Syracuse after he graduated from Duke without sitting for a year b/c he was a grad student.

[jackson]

Why did Miye Oni of Calabasas, CA throw Williams College under the bus by re-opening his recruitment in search of Holy Cross???

[nescac1]

Oni is going to prep at Suffield next year.  I imagine his sights are set much higher, from a hoops perspective, than Holy Cross ... Giving up a chance to play right away and earn a Williams degree is certainly a risk.  But if he ends up getting a full D1 scholarship, that's 240,000 reasons right there (just speculating of course). I certainly would not bank on him, were I recruiting him, until he set foot on campus.  Fortunately for the Ephs they still have a strong recruiting class with lots of length, skill and shooting, just no super dynamic athlete like Oni.

[Bucket]

Folks, please send positive thoughts and support to former Williams coach Mike Maker; his wife, Erica; and their three-year-old son, Jack.

Mike and Erica's second child, Declan, born prematurely 30 days ago, passed away early Sunday morning.