MBB: NESCAC

[AmherstStudent05]

Tough weekend coming up for the Panthers. We always finish with Amherst and Trinity, such good teams year after year. After our 5-5 start (losses to Baldwin-Wallace, St. Lawrence, Oswego St., RPI, Skidmore - wins over Johnson State twice, SUNY New Paltz, Castleton, Plattsburgh State), how many of you thought that Midd would be a player in the final weekend with a 6-2 NESCAC record, with its two losses to Conn College and Hamilton, neither of which (like us) made the NESCAC Tourney last year, by two point each.  If you raised your hand, you're lying. I know I was guilty of some pessimism. Young Guy, with the optimism (innocence?) of youth, reassured me and told me to focus on the last game before the break, a blowout of Plattsburgh.

I think we have to give credit to the quiet one, Coach Jeff Brown. I don't go to practice and I'm years away from having played seriously or coached, but my sense is that he has done a terrific job, building on the experience of that killer early schedule (eight or ten games on the road, far away), just as the players have learned from those early setbacks. Middlebury has 10 players making significant contributions, playing in every game (unless hurt or sick): that's some skillful prestidigitation. He incorporated the three freshmen (Baines, Dahleh, McCord) into the rotation in effective roles. He increased the playing time of Adisa Majors, who gives the Panthers some needed bulk and aggression (and has a nice touch around the hoop and the line): Majors wasn't even in the rotation at the beginning of the year.

Most important is how hard the Midd players are playing. Credit to them, of course, but also to Coach Brown. Everybody on the team seems to play with confidence - I was shocked at how un-tentative the frosh were, indeed all the players: Dahleh misses a shot or two but goes right back to the basket hard; McCord or Majors turn the ball over, but go for the steal at the other end or get a big rebound - neither mind bumping into people; Bryan Jones takes off his warm-up and shoots a three. Players know if they miss a shot or make a mistake, they won't be yelled at or yanked.

I guess Jeff Brown can take credit for recruiting his outstanding backcourt, Jake Brown (his nephew) and Vermonter Matt St. Amour. They play so hard, put such pressure on the defense. Jake takes the ball into the teeth of the defense, always challenging without turning it over (3-1 TO%). Matt moves so well and aggressively with and without the ball, always now with a defender in his shirt. I think it's safe to consider them in the company of the great backcourt players at Middlebury in the last ten years - Rudin, Harris, Dudley, Edwards, Wolfin, Thompson, Kizel.

Good luck to the Panthers in this stern test this weekend.

Nice post, Old Guy.  Midd has certainly enjoyed a very nice turnaround here in 2016 after a tough last few months of 2015.

Entering NESCAC play, if I were a Midd fan I would have been looking/hoping to see two things above all else: (1) dramatic improvement in MSA's play (particularly in the areas of shooting efficiency and just overall consistency) so that he would go from a player who flashed All-NESCAC talent to someone who actually was a First-Teamer and who has put himself in the PoY mix --next year if not this one; and (2) a broad and varied array of solid contributions from the freshmen and sophomore classes.

So far, I would say Midd has delivered on both in spades these past 6 weeks -- MSA in particular.  I have to think that Midd fans will enter next season with more optimism regarding their team than they have had in quite a few years -- an optimism that may only be tempered by the knowledge that there appears to be a ton of talent returning to the NESCAC across the board next season.

As for this season, as today's rankings make clear, Midd almost certainly took on too much water to start this season to be a viable Pool C contender.  It is probably Pool A or bust.  That is somewhat odd to say considering that, entering this last week of the regular season, Midd can lock up the top seed by winning out.  When was the last time a team that was the top seed in the NESCAC Tournament missed out on a Pool C berth?

nescac1, I completely agree with your comments regarding other teams in New England.  I remember thinking about this when I looked over Amherst's schedule and saw that usually strong teams like RIC and Brandeis, and even to a certain extent ECSU, were down this year.  I was wondering who else in New England I wished we had played instead -- it was hard to come up with great choices.  And, again, I think it is a great credit to our conference that the top team outside our conference, Babson (a very fine team, I think), is winless this year against NESCAC competition. 

[amh63]

AmherstStudent05.....beat me in giving kudos to Old Guy's post.    Must say that your post reflects your education. 
In another way of looking at the FIRST rankings......the "hard luck" team in the CAC...COLBY...has its only win in conference over the top ranked team, Amherst.   In the present ranking, WPI has to play MIT in a regular season game and maybe Babson again in the NEWMAC tourny.  ECSU, has the lead in the Little East and lost to RIC recently.  They could meet again in the Little East tournament.  In short, the NE rankings will shift and the final ranking will not be public.
Old Guy....several comments on your post.  Your praise of MSA reflects a comment I posted earlier that MSA would have a breakout year like Hausman last year.  Looking at Midd's game against Bowdoin in Vermont, both players were outstanding on the offensive side, but recalling the game and reviewing the stats, I feel MSA was the better player overall...especially on the defensive side. 
Last comment....your post also reflect your education.  However some of your words does have me running to the dictionary .  Just kidding OG!

[Panthernation]

I guess Jeff Brown can take credit for recruiting his outstanding backcourt, Jake Brown (his nephew) and Vermonter Matt St. Amour. They play so hard, put such pressure on the defense. Jake takes the ball into the teeth of the defense, always challenging without turning it over (3-1 TO%). Matt moves so well and aggressively with and without the ball, always now with a defender in his shirt. I think it's safe to consider them in the company of the great backcourt players at Middlebury in the last ten years - Rudin, Harris, Dudley, Edwards, Wolfin, Thompson, Kizel.

Matt St. Amour might be as good as any Middlebury player of this era. Matt has only played in 64 games in his career, thanks to a torn ACL and a lack of postseason play (Joey Kizel had played in 88 games by the end of his junior year, for comparison). But his career scoring average (13.8 points per game) is already higher than that of Kizel, Ryan Sharry, or any other recent Middlebury player. His separation from those players should only increase next year. St. Amour's career free throw percentage (82.3%) is currently the best in Middlebury history, and his 69 made threes this year is already third all-time for a single season. In addition to his 19.3 points per game this season, St. Amour leads the conference in steals, with 2 per game.

This year's NESCAC tournament will be Matt's first postseason game as a Panther. That's probably not what he expected when he chose Middlebury over UVM, but it is of no fault of his own. He has lived up to, and surpassed, the hype.

As others have noted, St. Amour has a better all-around game than Lucas Hausman -- in addition to leading the league in steals, he excels off the ball and is a brilliant passer -- but that should not make up for Hausman's lead in scoring and efficiency when it comes time for player of the year voting. Hausman's 25.0 points per game is incredible. The top scoring average in the NESCAC archives (back to '02-'03) is 22.8 points per game, to put Hausman's accomplishment in perspective. He is scoring almost one-third of his team's points, despite only playing 30.1 minutes per game. That Hausman is sustaining a 47/41/87 shooting line despite a bleak complementary offense makes it more impressive.

[nescac1]

I like St. Amour.  He's in the conversation with Rudin, Kizel, Thompson, Locke for second best Midd player I've seen.  But as good as Sharry?  Come on.  That dude was a two way monster, a legitimate first team all- American who led his team to the Final Four.  St. Amour is not there yet. 

[Bucket]

I like St. Amour.  He's in the conversation with Rudin, Kizel, Thompson, Locke for second best Midd player I've seen.  But as good as Sharry?  Come on.  That dude was a two way monster, a legitimate first team all- American who led his team to the Final Four.  St. Amour is not there yet.

I love MSA, too, but I'm with nescac1. PN—you know better than to use scoring averages as a barometer in this comparison. I bet Ryan didn't average more than 8 shots a game. If he wanted to—or if the teams he played on needed him to do so—he could have averaged 25 ppg easily.

Matt's right up there with the rest as nescac1 astutely notes, but Ryan Sharry is in another category.

[polbear73]

I haven't seen Matt St. Amour play very much before Sunday when he was the major factor in the win over Bowdoin but it's easy to understand why posters are so high on him.  He was every bit as important to Middlebury as Hausman was to Bowdoin and I have to agree that his game appears to be more complete than Hausman's, although his contributions in areas other than scoring shouldn't be completely overlooked.  I applaud the objectivity and fairness on the part of Middlebury posters in this discussion and I can only say that we are lucky to have been able to watch both over the last few years.  As for POY, each is deserving and I, for one, would be good with either. 

[NothingButNESCAC]

I'm not a huge fan of St. Amour's game honestly, so let me be the one to pump the breaks a little bit here. The main contender for POY honor besides Lucas Hausman is not St. Amour but Dan Aronowitz. Overall, St. Amour leads Aronowitz in PPG 19.3 to 17.3, though St. Amour shots 40.2 percent from the field compared to 49.1 percent for Aronowitz.

However, when you go to conference games (I think we can agree those games matter more), Aronowitz has the edge barely in PPG 18.5 to 17.9. The difference is Aronowitz is shooting 46.5 percent and St. Amour is shooting 37.3 percent from the field. Basically, the score the same amount of points per game but Aronowitz shots the ball three times less per game. Aronowitz also accounts for a higher percentage of his team's points than St. Amour since the Ephs play at a slower pace.

Also, Aronowitz is the BEST non-big man rebounder in the NESCAC. Some of this is because the Ephs aren't great up front, but still give credit for Aronowitz being 6th overall in the NESCAC for rebounding with 7.5 RPG. St. Amour has 5.0. Those numbers don't change much in conference. They are basically the exact same in every other category except for steals per game where St. Amour has 2.0 per game and Aronowitz has 1.0 per game. Personally, I would give the edge to Aronowitz on the defensive end also where he has to run the gamut in guarding power forwards to shooting guards.

This could all change this weekend if St. Amour shots the ball incredibly well and Middlebury gets home court advantage by winning both games. It is equally as likely though that Midd loses both games AND Williams gets to 6-4 in conference, making any difference in team records between them inconsequential.

Adam Lamont

[Bucket]

It is equally as likely though that Midd loses both games AND Williams gets to 6-4 in conference, making any difference in team records between them inconsequential.

Adam Lamont

Except for that pesky head-to-head outcome.  I kid, I kid.

You make a great case for Aronowitz—though it's not enough to change my mind, but valid points nonetheless! Regardless, I think we all agree that Hausman should be player of the year, and that Aronowitz and MSA are both first-team all-conference selections.

Let's reserve the real teeth-nashing for Matt and Dan's senior seasons next year!

[amh63]

Some random MBB comments before the last regular season games this weekend.
The NCAA mentioned that the D1 Big Dance will have a 64 first round format....no more 68 teams with a play-in format.  Was worried that the business side of the NCAA was trending to every other team would get a play in game and March Madness would become April....Something .
For the Berkshire fans on this board, my favorite WSJ sports writer...Jason Gay of Brooklyn....wrote an article today..."The Popovich for President Movement"!  About right in this strange world of college basketball these days.  Some pundits wishing for 4- year players when college coaches can develop players and fans enjoy the results on the floor.  Guess we have it in D3 and in particular the CAC.

Watched some NE regional ranked teams play last night.  WPI beat MIT last night in Cambridge.  Both teams now tied for the second seed with Babson the top seed in the Newmac.  MIT was not like the team I saw when they beat Tufts at Tufts early in the season.  Appear they are short handed with a number of players not available to play.
ECSU beat WCSU in Danbury handily last night and "locked up " the top seed in the Little East.  They still need to win the title and AQ into the post season as the conference may only be a one- team bid this season.  The team looked like they have got their mojo back.  The team can play with any team in the CAC, IMO.  Can be a hard out in the post season.

[Bucket]

Some random MBB comments before the last regular season games this weekend.
The NCAA mentioned that the D1 Big Dance will have a 64 first round format....no more 68 teams with a play-in format.  Was worried that the business side of the NCAA was trending to every other team would get a play in game and March Madness would become April....Something .

No, the field is still 68 teams, and the tournament will still feature those play-in games—they're just going back to calling those games "First Four" and referring to the Thursday-Friday games as the "First Round." For two years, the play-in games were called the "First Round."

The only thing changing is semantics.

[amh63]

Bucket!....thanks for the correction.  You are becoming my " spell check" friend on this board.  Not the auto correct feature that at times can be fustrating .  Went back and read the article again and saw that the 2nd round was associated with the field of 64.  Plus K

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Some random MBB comments before the last regular season games this weekend.
The NCAA mentioned that the D1 Big Dance will have a 64 first round format....no more 68 teams with a play-in format.  Was worried that the business side of the NCAA was trending to every other team would get a play in game and March Madness would become April....Something .

No, the field is still 68 teams, and the tournament will still feature those play-in games—they're just going back to calling those games "First Four" and referring to the Thursday-Friday games as the "First Round." For two years, the play-in games were called the "First Round."

The only thing changing is semantics.

I actually hated how they called the four games the first round. So dumb. Nice to know they are going back to the system that won't confuse people.

[grabtherim]

Nice to hear from Panther Nation but I think you are falling into a stat trap versus the old simple Al McGuire eye test.  82.3% free throw really, pleasant stat?  13.8 ppg OK that's nice.  Both those said with all due respect to Matt, if you watch Sharry play 5 of his best games or even 5 of his mediocre games versus the 5 best Matt has played, any astute baskeball man or woman would pick Sharry.  I would go out on a limb and say with the intangibles and lock down defense he brought the same could probably be said for Thompson. As good as both of them were, they were selfless as were the rest of the players on those squads, a big reason those teams won as much as they did.       

I guess Jeff Brown can take credit for recruiting his outstanding backcourt, Jake Brown (his nephew) and Vermonter Matt St. Amour. They play so hard, put such pressure on the defense. Jake takes the ball into the teeth of the defense, always challenging without turning it over (3-1 TO%). Matt moves so well and aggressively with and without the ball, always now with a defender in his shirt. I think it's safe to consider them in the company of the great backcourt players at Middlebury in the last ten years - Rudin, Harris, Dudley, Edwards, Wolfin, Thompson, Kizel.

Matt St. Amour might be as good as any Middlebury player of this era. Matt has only played in 64 games in his career, thanks to a torn ACL and a lack of postseason play (Joey Kizel had played in 88 games by the end of his junior year, for comparison). But his career scoring average (13.8 points per game) is already higher than that of Kizel, Ryan Sharry, or any other recent Middlebury player. His separation from those players should only increase next year. St. Amour's career free throw percentage (82.3%) is currently the best in Middlebury history, and his 69 made threes this year is already third all-time for a single season. In addition to his 19.3 points per game this season, St. Amour leads the conference in steals, with 2 per game.

This year's NESCAC tournament will be Matt's first postseason game as a Panther. That's probably not what he expected when he chose Middlebury over UVM, but it is of no fault of his own. He has lived up to, and surpassed, the hype.

As others have noted, St. Amour has a better all-around game than Lucas Hausman -- in addition to leading the league in steals, he excels off the ball and is a brilliant passer -- but that should not make up for Hausman's lead in scoring and efficiency when it comes time for player of the year voting. Hausman's 25.0 points per game is incredible. The top scoring average in the NESCAC archives (back to '02-'03) is 22.8 points per game, to put Hausman's accomplishment in perspective. He is scoring almost one-third of his team's points, despite only playing 30.1 minutes per game. That Hausman is sustaining a 47/41/87 shooting line despite a bleak complementary offense makes it more impressive.

[Panthernation]

Nice to hear from Panther Nation but I think you are falling into a stat trap versus the old simple Al McGuire eye test.  82.3% free throw really, pleasant stat?  13.8 ppg OK that's nice.  Both those said with all due respect to Matt, if you watch Sharry play 5 of his best games or even 5 of his mediocre games versus the 5 best Matt has played, any astute baskeball man or woman would pick Sharry.  I would go out on a limb and say with the intangibles and lock down defense he brought the same could probably be said for Thompson. As good as both of them were, they were selfless as were the rest of the players on those squads, a big reason those teams won as much as they did.       

I guess Jeff Brown can take credit for recruiting his outstanding backcourt, Jake Brown (his nephew) and Vermonter Matt St. Amour. They play so hard, put such pressure on the defense. Jake takes the ball into the teeth of the defense, always challenging without turning it over (3-1 TO%). Matt moves so well and aggressively with and without the ball, always now with a defender in his shirt. I think it's safe to consider them in the company of the great backcourt players at Middlebury in the last ten years - Rudin, Harris, Dudley, Edwards, Wolfin, Thompson, Kizel.

Matt St. Amour might be as good as any Middlebury player of this era. Matt has only played in 64 games in his career, thanks to a torn ACL and a lack of postseason play (Joey Kizel had played in 88 games by the end of his junior year, for comparison). But his career scoring average (13.8 points per game) is already higher than that of Kizel, Ryan Sharry, or any other recent Middlebury player. His separation from those players should only increase next year. St. Amour's career free throw percentage (82.3%) is currently the best in Middlebury history, and his 69 made threes this year is already third all-time for a single season. In addition to his 19.3 points per game this season, St. Amour leads the conference in steals, with 2 per game.

This year's NESCAC tournament will be Matt's first postseason game as a Panther. That's probably not what he expected when he chose Middlebury over UVM, but it is of no fault of his own. He has lived up to, and surpassed, the hype.

As others have noted, St. Amour has a better all-around game than Lucas Hausman -- in addition to leading the league in steals, he excels off the ball and is a brilliant passer -- but that should not make up for Hausman's lead in scoring and efficiency when it comes time for player of the year voting. Hausman's 25.0 points per game is incredible. The top scoring average in the NESCAC archives (back to '02-'03) is 22.8 points per game, to put Hausman's accomplishment in perspective. He is scoring almost one-third of his team's points, despite only playing 30.1 minutes per game. That Hausman is sustaining a 47/41/87 shooting line despite a bleak complementary offense makes it more impressive.

You're right. Sharry was unquestionably better than St. Amour is now. Meant "might be as good as any Middlebury player of this era" in that he's already in the conversation before the end of his junior year, as those (admittedly selective) stats indicate. But that wasn't conveyed clearly. Right now, he's behind at least Sharry, Kizel, and Thompson -- maybe Locke, too -- but he has another year-plus to make his case. Sorry for the poor wording. And agree with NbN that Aronowitz is having a better season.

(For the record, St. Amour does pretty well in the Al McGuire eye test: he is a selfless player, and there is a lot more to his game than scoring.)

[Bucket]

For those interested in recruiting info:

New England Recruiting Report brings news of 6-8 Matthew Folger of Williston Northampton committing to Middlebury.

http://www.newenglandrecruitingreport.com/news/folger-is-nescac-bound?platform=hootsuite