MBB: NESCAC

[P'bearfan]

The accolades continue for Lucas Hausman who has been named a First Team Academic All American.  His 25.3 ppg average has been well publicized but his 3.53 grade point average as an Economics major is also quite impressive.  He is one of many great true student athletes playing in NESCAC.

Yes this is a well deserved accolade for Lucas Hausman!  I understand that he will look to play in Europe next year.

[magicman]

Duncan Robinson's stat line after Sunday's game. He leads the team with 336 total points. He also leads the team with 83 three pointers and his .964 free throw percentage is also tops on the team. Would be nice if Michigan gets to the NCAA tournament. Then Duncan would be among a very limited number of players (maybe the only player) to have went dancing in D3 and D1 during his college career. And also a star on both teams...that may be a first.



                                gp-gs  min avg   fg-fga   fg%  3fg-fga 3fg% ft-fta  ft% or dr  tr   rpg pf-dq a  to blk stl pts  avg
22 Robinson, Duncan 30-21 836 27.9 113-239 .473 83-178 .466 27-28 .964 18 78 96 3.2 65 0  50 28 6 21 336 11.2

[middhoops]

Perhaps what is most remarkable about Duncan Robinson is how much he improves each year and at each level.  From high school to prep school to Williams and now Michigan, the kid just keeps elevating his level of play.  Is "the Association" is his future?

[AmherstStudent05]

All-NESCAC teams just announced.

First Team:

Ajayi
Aronowitz
Hausman
Palleschi
MSA

Second Team:

Davis
Green
Hudnut
Ogundeko
Pace

PoY: Ajayi
DPoY: Ogundeko
RoY: Simonds
CoY: Brown

[AmherstStudent05]

I think the overall list of selections went pretty much as expected (my proposed list contains the same ten people that were selected by the Conference coaches).

However, the massive surprise was of course Ajayi being selected as PoY over Hausman.  Much earlier in the year I asked whether there was a chance that Bowdoin's team performance might adversely affect Hausman's PoY chances.  This was back when Bowdoin was in some danger of missing out on the Conference tournament entirely.  While I personally do think that team success should be a factor, I thought that the fact that Bowdoin rallied a bit at the end of the season and the fact that Hausman just seemed to play head-and-shoulders over everyone else this year would be enough to lock Hausman in as PoY.  I was wrong -- again.

I will try to look this up later, but I am curious to find out how well the teams past PoYs played on did in the Conference standings.  Maybe a top 4 or so finish has always been something of an unwritten rule. I don't know.  Ajayi is a fantastic player, don't get me wrong, but I have to think that team performance was a huge factor in PoY voting.  Anyway, winning one PoY award is difficult enough.

The other thing I got wrong was that Green did not sneak on to the First Team.  I am not too surprised by that.  I had thought that coaches would look to reward a senior (on a team that performed very well) who was also a returning First Teamer, as this is something they have seemed to do in the past, but I think Palleschi is a tremendously impressive player so I can't argue with that pick at all.

Anyway, congrats to all the players (and Coach Brown) who were honored today.  Thanks for giving us another great season of NESCAC hoops. 

[nescac1]

First, belated congrats to Middlebury on winning the conference title.  The most surprising title team since at least the 2006-07 Williams squad that likewise upset Amherst (but that was of course a FAR superior, future national-titlist, Amherst team they beat!).  Middlebury was more than the sum of its parts and received contributions from virtually every man on the roster, many of whom made big improvements even over the course of the season it seemed.  Kudos to Jeff Brown for a well-deserved COTY honors.

As for the all-NESCAC squads, I agree with AmherstStudent05.  I have no issue at all with the five guys placed on each team -- I think it was a toss-up between McCarthy and Green for the last spot, but Green as a senior is certainly deserving of recognition.  However, Green I thought barely warranted a spot on the second team, let alone the first, he was just too inconsistent this year, at his best he was better than anyone save Hausman, but many times he could also be the 4th or 5th most valuable guy on his own team.  McCarthy's mid-season slump probably just barely cost him, and I'm sure he will have one or two all-conference nods in his future.  Vinny Pace I feel had a first-team all-NESCAC type season, but really, six guys did, and he will surely be recognized as an all-league guy and quite possibly POTY in future years.

The main issue I have is Ajayi over Hausman.  Maybe they could have given Ajayi defensive player of the year over his teammate.  Certainly, I think the first-team honors were sufficient to recognize his two-way contributions.  But Hausman was a force of nature this year despite being the focus of every single defense he faced.  Simply ridiculous that he was not POTY.  It's not his fault that Bowdoin had only two credible offensive threats from game-to-game, as opposed to Trinity, which had 4-5. 

[polbear73]

Shay Ajayi is a fine player and deserves a tremendous amount of recognition.  And while I am a Bowdoin graduate and fan, I think I am being objective when I say that Lucas Hausman deserved POY honors this year without being disrespectful to Ajayi for all the reasons mentioned above. 

I would like to thank all of the posters this year for making a great NESCAC season even more enjoyable.  Great comments, funny observations, and heartfelt sentiments were all part of this group's repetoire and it made for very enjoyable reading. 

[nescac1]

This has to the be the most surprising / controversial POTY in NESCAC history, right?  I mean, Hausman will likely be a first-team all-American, and Ajayi is unlikely to make an all-American team.  It also leaves Toomey and Olson as the only recent players to go back-to-back as POTY (Mike Nogelo from Williams did as well, back in the late 1990s).  Looking at the archives:

2015: Hausman, easy pick
2013-14: Toomey, easy pick
2012: Sharry, easy pick
2011: Whittington, easy pick
2010: Schultz, easy pick
2009: Rudin, no dominating individual player that year, and not a controversial choice
2007-08: Olson, easy pick
2006: Rhoten, there was a huge Rhoten/Bedford argument, but it was basically a toss-up
2005: Schiel, that one might have been iffy over Rhoten and Bedford who I'd say were substantially better players, but he was a senior and the leading scorer on by far the best team, so not a huge surprise
2004: Coffin, easy pick
2003: Zieja, easy pick
2002: Tabb, easy pick
2001: Clark, pretty even among the top four guys that year, but certainly a solid pick

Wow. 

[middhoops]

With no disrespect toward Shay Ajayi, a great player, I am astounded that Hausman was bypassed.
What more could he have done?
How long may it be before anyone posts as high a ppg number?
Wow.

[JEFFFAN]

What a "NESCAC travesty" that Hausman didn't end his career as player of the year!   Every team that plays Bowdoin knows exactly who they have to stop and yet no one stops him.   I watched him almost by himself beat Amherst in the NESCAC playoffs.  On an earlier post I noted that I thought Bowdoin didn't do  good job in the last ten minutes in getting a touch for Hausman every time.   

As the saying goes, this just aint right!

[AmherstStudent05]

Thanks for collecting all that data, nescac1.  Very interesting stuff.

I haven't "run the numbers" but from a cursory glance it seems that every previous PoY recipient played on a team much stronger than Bowdoin was this year (with the caveat that I cannot speak to Clark or that Colby team as that was the year before I got to Amherst).

Again, I would have voted for Hausman this year, but I have to think team performance was the overriding concern.  However, if that were the case, I would have thought that MSA would have gotten a fair number of PoY votes as well.  I would love to be able to see the PoY voting breakdown this year.  Also, does anyone know if the coaches caucus on these results or do they just do their own thing and mail in their ballots to the NESCAC office?   

[gordonmann]

Which of the Middlebury gang is headed to Stockton this weekend?

[Bucket]

Which of the Middlebury gang is headed to Stockton this weekend?

Bucket and Little Bucket plan on making the trip.

[Old Guy]

Which of the Middlebury gang is headed to Stockton this weekend?

Bucket and Little Bucket plan on making the trip.

Big crowd gathering at Old Guy's for the game on the big screen Friday (and Saturday!), young and old, male and distaff. Sure hope the video transmission is reliable and good - lots at stake at my house. Panthers get little love even here: Stockton is 370 miles away, long bus ride tomorrow (Amherst and Tufts get home games). Well, Midd has shown they can handle these challenges in this most unusual year. Seems there's is something to be said for not having a cupcake early schedule.

[Old Guy]

All-NESCAC teams just announced.

First Team:

Ajayi
Aronowitz
Hausman
Palleschi
MSA

Second Team:

Davis
Green
Hudnut
Ogundeko
Pace

PoY: Ajayi
DPoY: Ogundeko
RoY: Simonds
CoY: Brown

I am as surprised as others that Ajayi was the POY, not Hausman, but have no real gripes with other choices. Congratulations to Jeff Brown, richly deserved.

I was hoping that Jake Brown would find himself with a second team all-league spot. He's so important to Midd's success, with the ball in his hands so much of the time. I can't begrudge BJ Davis that spot - and he isn't really a point guard (Mackey was) - more of a 2 guard. Davis scored 16+ points a game, true, 5th in the league, but Jake's numbers were the league's best overall for pgs - 5.3 assists per game (tops in the league); nearly 3-1 assists to turnovers; 1.7 steals per game (second). He played 31 minutes a game, but I hated to see him leave the floor - he plays so hard at both ends, loves to play D harassing the other team's point guard. He's the motor, the fast motor, of the Middlebury team. He establishes and maintains the tone. In my book, he and Matt St. Amour share equally the distinction of Panther MVP.