MBB: NESCAC

jumpshot · January 02, 2016, 01:49:55 PM

Anyone else see Duncan Robinson's excellent game as Michigan blows out Penn State today? Dunk has 9 points ---and 6 assists due to his outstanding passing, seeing the floor, and unselfishness when Penn State face-guarded all over the court following his early three -pointers.

He's really playing well ....and appears to be having lots of fun!

amh70 · January 02, 2016, 03:46:06 PM

Amherst slept walked through a 97-93 victory.

Bucket · January 02, 2016, 04:08:58 PM

Middlebury loses at Endicott, 82-76.

A five-point second-half advantage by the Panthers turns into a 17-point deficit, the wheels coming off for Midd following Matt Daley's ejection after picking up a pair of technicals minutes apart. I've never seen that happen with a Panther player before, and I've never seen the mild-mannered Daley so heated. Because I was watching the stream, I can only guess at what was happening. It seemed that Daley was getting hit hard in the paint, with no calls, only to be quickly whistled for fouls on the other end.

Midd attempts a valiant comeback with Matt St. Amour scoring 16 of his 21 points in the game's final five minutes—draining 5 of 6 attempts from three. Only torrid free-throw shooting from the Gulls (31-37, 84 percent) prohibited a miracle finish as the Panthers closed the gap to 4 points several times in the games' waning minutes only to get no closer.

amh63 · January 02, 2016, 04:27:25 PM

Glad someone paid the price to watch. Followed on Stats that could not keep up with the game Amherst had a big lead in the first half but it was only five at the half. Amherst goes up by double digits again for most of the second half. Rust closed out the game with a three for the final score.
Green played only 8 min in the first half and sat out with 2fouls. Racy was hot in the first but also sat with 2 fouls. George had big points but had no blocks and seemed to be unable to get RBs. Stats show that Rust had more blocks, steals and led in RBs. Rust's threes started to go in the second half. Fortunately, Amherst made its foul shots. Green and Racy both ended with 4 fouls. Rust had one player fouledl out and two others with 4 fouls. Score would indicate that little defense was played. However, both teams shot over 50 percent from the field. Rust scored points on the offensive glass...more OBs...while both teams scored about the same points in the paint. Read the write up on Amherst's website. Seems Amherst was up by double digits with 2.20 to go in the game when Rust started hitting threes.
Too cheap to pay 8 bucks to watch. Guess, I will miss the view on Sunday when Amherst plays host Rhodes College.

Old Guy · January 02, 2016, 05:54:11 PM

Midd came back hard after falling behind - and St. Amour really did an excellent Matt Hart impersonation, swishing four improbable threes in the last couple of minutes. Good to see.

Southern VT next at home in two days. That will be a test too - they have a recent win over Bates in Maine.

pinseeking1 · January 03, 2016, 07:04:09 AM

Bates beats Brandeis on a Strickland three pointer with seconds left in the game on a neutral court in Springfield, MA. Another big win for the Bobcats. The team is starting to gel just in time for NESCAC...

amh63 · January 03, 2016, 11:34:59 AM

Amherst got the feature lead in story on d3hoops today. Seems Amherst got the last point on the foul line. Things one miss ...even in Amherst's write ups. Format of write ups by the SIDS has changed....more fill in the box write ups.
Information out to the public at Amherst is getting more filtering...in today's social media communication lifestyle. Cannot wait to see the expected total new website being prepared by new in house staff coming soon

in Jan. Oh boy! A little sarcasm. Wonder if the athletic portion will be impacted much.
Back to BB. Nice win over Brandeis by Bates in the Springfield Tourny! In spite its record, Brandeis is a quality team that plays in the UAA. Amherst won a close game at Brandeis earlier in the season. Nescac teams are winning in general. Good to see before conference games comes around. Helps in getting CAC teams multi post-season slots. Glad to see Bates is playing at Springfield....a school that is reluctant to schedule Amherst recently.
Amherst is in Tenn for a tournament primarily for educational purposes, imho. The players see a different part of the country; play against teams with talented players and playing styles, etc. HC Hixon has taken previous teams to play NYC schools with inner city players; Philly city schools and even a D2 college in FL. Rust college in Miss. is 35 miles from Memphis and has played at Rhodes many times in the past. A small private college with no conference ties, it plays primarily in the South. Yet, it has won a D3 National title in WBB. Rust lost to Rhodes recently by almost 30 points. On paper, Amherst should handle Rhodes. A little concern with the tight refereeing. Should be an interesting game today....hope the stats keep up today

Oh, another thing....it always helps in recruiting to visit and play in new regions, imo

jumpshot · January 03, 2016, 12:12:06 PM

Williams fans ---

Video streaming of today's men's basketball game at 1 PM Eastern can be found at nsnsports.net in the column on the right of the front page.

and amH63 ...it's free

Dave 'd-mac' McHugh · January 03, 2016, 01:20:58 PM

The Amherst Athletics site is a Presto site... I highly doubt a) the school is taking over their site since they recently went to Presto and thus are under contract... and b) they would walk away from a site created, maintained, and hosted by Presto (or SideArm, etc.) based on the fact most athletics departments who had the experience of being hosted and designed by their schools have quickly bolted for actual greener pastures.

nescac1 · January 03, 2016, 02:41:40 PM

Easy 26 point win for the Ephs at a game but outmanned Castleton team today. The Ephs ran the offense crisply and shared the ball beautifully, accruing an incredible 26 assists on 32 made baskets. As that stat shows, basically every look for the Ephs was an open look today and Williams was incredibly unselfish, with nearly every basket coming off a kick-out for an open three or off-the-ball cuts to the basket. Five different players for Williams had at least three assists. The Ephs could have scored more points had they done a slightly better job finishing, as they did miss some open threes and once again had at least 3-4 missed layups. They will need to clean that up against better competition because they won't get NEARLY as many easy looks vs. any NESCAC defense. Individually, Cole Teal continued his hot shooting of late, leading the Ephs with 21 points on 7-9 from three point range.

Castleton only scored 16 points off of anything other than three pointers -- they were just so vastly outsized that they didn't stand a chance inside. Castleton did shoot the ball from 3 very well ... Coloutti and McGraw were both scorching hot, combining to hit 10-17 from three. Against Amherst's deadly shooters Williams will need to close out a bit better on the deep ball, but honestly most of those shots were contested and from very deep, so credit to the shooters.

Toughest week of the season ahead for Williams, at Amherst Friday and at Trinity Sunday. Williams will need to play as tough defensively as it did vs. Catholic and share the ball on offense, and shoot the ball from deep as well, as it did in the second half vs. Ursinus and today, if they hope to stand a chance. Amherst at home, with a far more experienced (and also at this point a more talented overall) team, will be a very tall order for the Ephs, but anything can happen when Williams and Amherst meet!

amh63 · January 03, 2016, 04:49:18 PM

Amherst loses toRhodes today 76-69, I believe. Amherst led by a couple at the half and most of the second half, but by the 6 minute mark, the host started to get hot from outside. Amherst had fewer fouls but Rhodes had 9 more attempts and made 7 more foul shots. Rhodes shot almost 60 percent from 3's, while Amherst made around 30 plus percent. Rebounds were about even and Amherst scored more in the paint area.
Rhodes played a better over- all game, IMO, and Amherst did not score when they needed....had more attempts. I wish I could figure out why Racy, the hot outside shooter never got the ball.
Good match up and hope the team shake the lost off and learn from it. Rhodes schooled them clearly.

Bucket · January 03, 2016, 04:56:06 PM

Quote from: amh63 on January 03, 2016, 11:34:59 AM
Amherst got the feature lead in story on d3hoops today. Seems Amherst got the last point on the foul line. Things one miss ...even in Amherst's write ups. Format of write ups by the SIDS has changed....more fill in the box write ups.
Information out to the public at Amherst is getting more filtering...in today's social media communication lifestyle. Cannot wait to see the expected total new website being prepared by new in house staff coming soon in Jan. Oh boy! A little sarcasm. Wonder if the athletic portion will be impacted much.
Back to BB. Nice win over Brandeis by Bates in the Springfield Tourny! In spite its record, Brandeis is a quality team that plays in the UAA. Amherst won a close game at Brandeis earlier in the season. Nescac teams are winning in general. Good to see before conference games comes around. Helps in getting CAC teams multi post-season slots. Glad to see Bates is playing at Springfield....a school that is reluctant to schedule Amherst recently.
Amherst is in Tenn for a tournament primarily for educational purposes, imho. The players see a different part of the country; play against teams with talented players and playing styles, etc. HC Hixon has taken previous teams to play NYC schools with inner city players; Philly city schools and even a D2 college in FL. Rust college in Miss. is 35 miles from Memphis and has played at Rhodes many times in the past. A small private college with no conference ties, it plays primarily in the South. Yet, it has won a D3 National title in WBB. Rust lost to Rhodes recently by almost 30 points. On paper, Amherst should handle Rhodes. A little concern with the tight refereeing. Should be an interesting game today....hope the stats keep up today
Oh, another thing....it always helps in recruiting to visit and play in new regions, imo

Amherst actually contracted with an outside vendor for the soon-to-be-unveiled redesign of amherst.edu, fwiw: https://www.fastspot.com/

jumpshot · January 03, 2016, 05:21:24 PM

After winning 8 scrimmages against teams with a combined record of 45 wins and 53 losses (46%) while scoring 100 points 3 times and more than 86 points 5 times, the moose loses to Rhodes who was 6 and 5 before today. The practice of weak non-conference scheduling has been standard for many years. Sometimes it helps, other years may be questionable.

By contrast, this year Midd has gone 5 and 6 so far with 10 of 11 opponents outside of Vermont, following past discussion here of relatively weak early/in-state scheduling. This strategy may benefit this year's Panthers as we head toward NESCAC play.

The EPHS generally play anyone, anywhere, anytime ....

AmherstStudent05 · January 03, 2016, 06:27:18 PM

Quote from: jumpshot on January 03, 2016, 05:21:24 PM
After winning 8 scrimmages against teams with a combined record of 45 wins and 53 losses (46%) while scoring 100 points 3 times and more than 86 points 5 times, the moose loses to Rhodes who was 6 and 5 before today. The practice of weak non-conference scheduling has been standard for many years. Sometimes it helps, other years may be questionable.

By contrast, this year Midd has gone 5 and 6 so far with 10 of 11 opponents outside of Vermont, following past discussion here of relatively weak early/in-state scheduling. This strategy may benefit this year's Panthers as we head toward NESCAC play.

The EPHS generally play anyone, anywhere, anytime ....

If my math is right, Williams's 8 wins have come against teams with a combined record of 35-50. Anyone, anywhere, anytime indeed.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch today's game. Even if it hadn't come on a football Sunday, I am with amh63, 8 bucks is too much for a webcast. I hope there were no delays with our flight home however. Not much time until we host Eastern Conn on Tuesday. Of course, I am already looking forward to our scrimmage against Williams on Friday (as always, I trust Coach Hix & Co. to be much more disciplined).

I hope everyone had a great New Year.

Dave 'd-mac' McHugh · January 03, 2016, 06:30:08 PM

Of course... you didn't mention who Williams played in their losses. LOL

Wesleyan (10-1), Oneonta State (6-3), and Catholic (8-4). Not too shabby a schedule compared to Amherst.