MBB: NESCAC

[Mr. Ypsi]

amHerst's admissions and athletic policies are coordinated and explicitly, publicly stated to compete for national championships in a few select sports, obviously including men and women's basketball, soccer, etc. As long as the present key coaches, athletic director, president, and several influential trustees are around, the ljs will continue to pursue this policy, in part for "marketing" benefits and in an effort to compensate for the longstanding success of broader, deeper approaches deployed by Williams, Middlebury, Washington University, Emory, and a few others.

While my own view is that the broader, deeper, more participative approach is in the best interests of more students and aids in creating a better campus culture, each enterprise is certainly free to make its own choices ....

An obvious Jeff fan here to comment ... and with thanks to nescac1 for the compliments toward the Amherst athletic program, which I wholeheartedly agree is in a far better place than it was 10-15 years ago ... but I do not concur with jumpshot that it is marketing purposes and/or an effort to compensate for the "broader, deeper approaches deployed by [others]"   My thinking is as follows.

First, Amherst has, in reality, chosen some core sports to seek to excel in largely because it is smaller than the other NESCAC schools mentioned.   The student body is 14% and 25% smaller than Williams and Middlebury, respectively.   I think that smaller schools have no choice than to be strong in niches and not more broadly.   Recognizing that Williams alumns are likely not very happy about the school's performance in "major" sports, the Ephs continue to utilize their depth to win the D3 cup every single year.  Kudos to them - it is an extraordinarily strong athletic program.   But I don't think that Amherst can or does realistically aspire to win that D3 cup - the population numbers are just too different.

Second, I know that Amherst believes that it has a stronger, richer, more interesting, and happier campus with the combination of strong sports and strong academics than not.   This, too, might change over time, but frankly the current president and her two predecessors were hardly sports enthusiasts (although Biddy Martin may like sports more than most) and so if they had wanted to push a different agenda they could have.   They haven't because the administration and the Board believes that they are in a good place.

Finally, I don't believe for a second that Amherst is seeking to "compensate" for long-standing successes of other schools.   If that was their goal, then - yes - they might try to go even harder at Williams.   But they don't and they won't.   I don't believe for one second that they are looking at Emory or Washington University as models.   They are looking at Williams (harder than most!), Haverford, Swarthmore, Bowdoin and Middlebury.   Then they are looking at the schools that they lose the most accepted applicants to - Harvard, Yale, Princeton.  My strong suspicion is that Williams has a remarkably similar vantage point.

As an Amherst alumn, I am pleased with where the school is.   Strong academically, good culture but not without challenges, nice diversity, good athletics.   All good right now.

Good God!  You have fewer than 300 fewer students than Williams "yet the population numbers are just too different".  I'm amazed that you even bother to show up at national tourneys, where some opponents will have many, many times as many students!  Why even bother going to Salem for the basketball FF - everyone there is bigger than you!  (Including Williams in 2014; somehow you had already beaten them three times despite their monumental size, before they destroyed you in Salem.  Somehow Williams made it an even game right to the last second before UWW, several times bigger, won at the buzzer.)

Student enrollment has virtually nothing to do with athletic success.  (Perhaps some non-revenue sports still have open try-outs [of an actual meaningful sort; I know most schools do it even with the revenue sports, but it is usually just for show - maybe once a decade they actually add someone from the try-outs], but mostly athletes are recruited.)  If athletes are recruited (not, like in high school, selected from the student body), it matters VERY little whether the school has 1,500 students or 15,000.  The bigger school might have better facilities, but even that is not guaranteed.

[grabtherim]

As predicted quite recently, the Williams/Amherst portion of our show has begun again.  Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

To point out how student size has nothing to do with anything... the biggest state school in Division III (and I think biggest period) is hardly ever mentioned on a national scale in almost all sports (Buffalo State)... yet some of the smallest school in Division I is talked about all the time in premiere sports like basketball (Gonzaga, Butler, Seton Hall, etc.).

[Old Guy]

An amusing Twitter on the Amherst website.  States that since it is 15 days to start of practice...the Amherst coaches challenge any other school with a 3 on 3 match game.  Afraid there will be few takers...in the d3 MBB world.  Believe the Amherst young assistant coaches are in pretty good shape.

That would be a fun tournament. I like the Midd unit with Kyle Dudley, Midd 2009 (he's fit and he can shoot!), Connor Merrill, Skidmore 2014 (1000 point scorer), then the old cagey guys, Jeff Brown UVM '82 (UVM Hall of Fame, New England Basketball Hall of Fame), and Rob Alberts, great player at Ohio Wesleyan, 1982. Russ Reilly, Bates 1966, provides strategic assessments off the bench. We'd give 'em a tussle.

Just got back from Cuba, watching baseball. Seven games in seven days. Bucket List stuff, for me.

[magicman]

Old Guy,

You really went to Cuba? You didn't waste any time once relations between the two countries were re-established. Africa last year, Cuba this year....it must be the Ernest Hemingway in you.   I'm jealous.

[JEFFFAN]

amHerst's admissions and athletic policies are coordinated and explicitly, publicly stated to compete for national championships in a few select sports, obviously including men and women's basketball, soccer, etc. As long as the present key coaches, athletic director, president, and several influential trustees are around, the ljs will continue to pursue this policy, in part for "marketing" benefits and in an effort to compensate for the longstanding success of broader, deeper approaches deployed by Williams, Middlebury, Washington University, Emory, and a few others.

While my own view is that the broader, deeper, more participative approach is in the best interests of more students and aids in creating a better campus culture, each enterprise is certainly free to make its own choices ....

An obvious Jeff fan here to comment ... and with thanks to nescac1 for the compliments toward the Amherst athletic program, which I wholeheartedly agree is in a far better place than it was 10-15 years ago ... but I do not concur with jumpshot that it is marketing purposes and/or an effort to compensate for the "broader, deeper approaches deployed by [others]"   My thinking is as follows.

First, Amherst has, in reality, chosen some core sports to seek to excel in largely because it is smaller than the other NESCAC schools mentioned.   The student body is 14% and 25% smaller than Williams and Middlebury, respectively.   I think that smaller schools have no choice than to be strong in niches and not more broadly.   Recognizing that Williams alumns are likely not very happy about the school's performance in "major" sports, the Ephs continue to utilize their depth to win the D3 cup every single year.  Kudos to them - it is an extraordinarily strong athletic program.   But I don't think that Amherst can or does realistically aspire to win that D3 cup - the population numbers are just too different.

Second, I know that Amherst believes that it has a stronger, richer, more interesting, and happier campus with the combination of strong sports and strong academics than not.   This, too, might change over time, but frankly the current president and her two predecessors were hardly sports enthusiasts (although Biddy Martin may like sports more than most) and so if they had wanted to push a different agenda they could have.   They haven't because the administration and the Board believes that they are in a good place.

Finally, I don't believe for a second that Amherst is seeking to "compensate" for long-standing successes of other schools.   If that was their goal, then - yes - they might try to go even harder at Williams.   But they don't and they won't.   I don't believe for one second that they are looking at Emory or Washington University as models.   They are looking at Williams (harder than most!), Haverford, Swarthmore, Bowdoin and Middlebury.   Then they are looking at the schools that they lose the most accepted applicants to - Harvard, Yale, Princeton.  My strong suspicion is that Williams has a remarkably similar vantage point.

As an Amherst alumn, I am pleased with where the school is.   Strong academically, good culture but not without challenges, nice diversity, good athletics.   All good right now.

Good God!  You have fewer than 300 fewer students than Williams "yet the population numbers are just too different".  I'm amazed that you even bother to show up at national tourneys, where some opponents will have many, many times as many students!  Why even bother going to Salem for the basketball FF - everyone there is bigger than you!  (Including Williams in 2014; somehow you had already beaten them three times despite their monumental size, before they destroyed you in Salem.  Somehow Williams made it an even game right to the last second before UWW, several times bigger, won at the buzzer.)

Student enrollment has virtually nothing to do with athletic success.  (Perhaps some non-revenue sports still have open try-outs [of an actual meaningful sort; I know most schools do it even with the revenue sports, but it is usually just for show - maybe once a decade they actually add someone from the try-outs], but mostly athletes are recruited.)  If athletes are recruited (not, like in high school, selected from the student body), it matters VERY little whether the school has 1,500 students or 15,000.  The bigger school might have better facilities, but even that is not guaranteed.

No one else on this Board will care so I will make this brief.   In the 2014-2015 Learfield Cup athletic standings, Williams had .51 points per student.   Amherst had .51 points per student.   Just saying ... do the math.

[30 for 30]

Matt Hart continuing to open eyes in DC

http://www.finestmag.com/#!George-Washington-Mens-Basketball-Scrimmage-Recap/c6f8/562cedb20cf260076d1cf58d

[Mr. Ypsi]

amHerst's admissions and athletic policies are coordinated and explicitly, publicly stated to compete for national championships in a few select sports, obviously including men and women's basketball, soccer, etc. As long as the present key coaches, athletic director, president, and several influential trustees are around, the ljs will continue to pursue this policy, in part for "marketing" benefits and in an effort to compensate for the longstanding success of broader, deeper approaches deployed by Williams, Middlebury, Washington University, Emory, and a few others.

While my own view is that the broader, deeper, more participative approach is in the best interests of more students and aids in creating a better campus culture, each enterprise is certainly free to make its own choices ....

An obvious Jeff fan here to comment ... and with thanks to nescac1 for the compliments toward the Amherst athletic program, which I wholeheartedly agree is in a far better place than it was 10-15 years ago ... but I do not concur with jumpshot that it is marketing purposes and/or an effort to compensate for the "broader, deeper approaches deployed by [others]"   My thinking is as follows.

First, Amherst has, in reality, chosen some core sports to seek to excel in largely because it is smaller than the other NESCAC schools mentioned.   The student body is 14% and 25% smaller than Williams and Middlebury, respectively.   I think that smaller schools have no choice than to be strong in niches and not more broadly.   Recognizing that Williams alumns are likely not very happy about the school's performance in "major" sports, the Ephs continue to utilize their depth to win the D3 cup every single year.  Kudos to them - it is an extraordinarily strong athletic program.   But I don't think that Amherst can or does realistically aspire to win that D3 cup - the population numbers are just too different.

Second, I know that Amherst believes that it has a stronger, richer, more interesting, and happier campus with the combination of strong sports and strong academics than not.   This, too, might change over time, but frankly the current president and her two predecessors were hardly sports enthusiasts (although Biddy Martin may like sports more than most) and so if they had wanted to push a different agenda they could have.   They haven't because the administration and the Board believes that they are in a good place.

Finally, I don't believe for a second that Amherst is seeking to "compensate" for long-standing successes of other schools.   If that was their goal, then - yes - they might try to go even harder at Williams.   But they don't and they won't.   I don't believe for one second that they are looking at Emory or Washington University as models.   They are looking at Williams (harder than most!), Haverford, Swarthmore, Bowdoin and Middlebury.   Then they are looking at the schools that they lose the most accepted applicants to - Harvard, Yale, Princeton.  My strong suspicion is that Williams has a remarkably similar vantage point.

As an Amherst alumn, I am pleased with where the school is.   Strong academically, good culture but not without challenges, nice diversity, good athletics.   All good right now.

Good God!  You have fewer than 300 fewer students than Williams "yet the population numbers are just too different".  I'm amazed that you even bother to show up at national tourneys, where some opponents will have many, many times as many students!  Why even bother going to Salem for the basketball FF - everyone there is bigger than you!  (Including Williams in 2014; somehow you had already beaten them three times despite their monumental size, before they destroyed you in Salem.  Somehow Williams made it an even game right to the last second before UWW, several times bigger, won at the buzzer.)

Student enrollment has virtually nothing to do with athletic success.  (Perhaps some non-revenue sports still have open try-outs [of an actual meaningful sort; I know most schools do it even with the revenue sports, but it is usually just for show - maybe once a decade they actually add someone from the try-outs], but mostly athletes are recruited.)  If athletes are recruited (not, like in high school, selected from the student body), it matters VERY little whether the school has 1,500 students or 15,000.  The bigger school might have better facilities, but even that is not guaranteed.

No one else on this Board will care so I will make this brief.   In the 2014-2015 Learfield Cup athletic standings, Williams had .51 points per student.   Amherst had .51 points per student.   Just saying ... do the math.

How many points did each have per student-ATHLETE?

[nescac1]

Yeah, the difference in size between Amherst and Williams (or between any NESCAC schools) is really immaterial to athletic success, because all basically operate under the same system of recruiting constraints.  In fact, Williams, Amherst and Wesleyan have it toughest, because they each only get 66 TIPS (heavily-recruited athletes with significant admissions concessions) while the rest of the league receive 72.  And while Williams benefits in terms of Directors Cups from having so many varsity sports, it has to spread out its limited pool of recruited athletes to varsity sports that many other NESCAC teams (women's golf, skiing, wrestling) may not field varsity squads in. 

Back to hoops, the first NESCAC season preview is out, well done Conn College!  I think Conn has a very nice young base of talent and should be the most-improved team in NESCAC this year. Of course, they have a long way to come from, but they are still a year away, most likely, from putting a scare into the top tier NESCAC squads, and that's assuming all the key guys stick with the program, which has been a perpetual issue for Conn.  I wouldn't be stunned if they squeezed into a NESCAC playoff spot this year. 

Pavlin, Messier, Robinson and Tonzahy can all really play, and between Henton (last year's quick midseason transfer, who should be much better), McKinley, and Swenson, Conn has a lot of experience and options at the point guard spot now.  Pacoe and Janel are nice glue guys with size.  A lineup of Pavlin, Robinson, Tonzahy, Messier and Henton/Swenson could be very, very interesting by next season, and maybe even by the end of this season if the rising sophomores make major strides ... nice balance of physical interior guys in Pavlin/Robinson and ace shooters in Tonzahy/Messier. 

http://camelathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2015-16/releases/20151025x13l2e

[sac]

Duncan Robinson update:

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[nescac1]

Looks like the Captain America before and after shots ...

[Mr. Ypsi]

After seeing DR in Salem in 2014 (and after his transfer was announced), I posted that he has the skills to be a good D1 player, but it is fortunate that he has to sit a year because in his D3 body, he'd get killed.  Thank God for the UM strength coach (and, of course, DR's work ethic)!  He looks now like he could flat-out by a star in the toughest D1 conference in the country!

[iwumichigander]

After seeing DR in Salem in 2014 (and after his transfer was announced), I posted that he has the skills to be a good D1 player, but it is fortunate that he has to sit a year because in his D3 body, he'd get killed.  Thank God for the UM strength coach (and, of course, DR's work ethic)!  He looks now like he could flat-out by a star in the toughest D1 conference in the country!

With the strength and conditioning he will compete and see some playing time. I think will struggle with some of the more physical Big 10 teams - MSU , for example.  Another year hitting the weight room - he should be a handful.  I do think his quickness and shooting skills will offset size on the offensive end but he may struggle a little this season on the defensive end.  It is a problem Michigan has as a team - not a lot of big physicals bodies to practice against at UOfM.

[NJBalla35]

Former Amherst player and assistant Matthew Goldsmith getting some love here: http://hoopdirt.com/ranking-the-2015-ncaa-diii-coaching-changes/

[Old Guy]

Duncan Robinson update:

click to make bigger

Holy s . . . smokes! I would not be kicking sand in his face (period reference).