MBB: NESCAC

[nescac1]

Rough start for NESCAC, 1-2 in early games.  Tufts barely hangs on as Salem throws the ball away down one in waning seconds.  Hope Midd and Williams have better luck ...

[JEFFFAN]

Yes as did their season!  Beaten by a three at the buzzer. Couldn't score the call all year, couldn't score the ball tonite!   Thanks to the seniors - a lot coming back!

[Bucket]

Nick Tarantino extremely limited in what he can do on a sprained ankle, Rams having to heir way inside. Rams lead in the first.

[Bucket]

Middlebury trails Farmingdale by 4 at the half in what has been a nightmare shooting night so far for the Panthers.

Just 2-11 from 3 and 38 percent overall from the floor (plus 2-6 from the line), has Midd visibly frustrated. St. Amour is 1-7 (1-5), and the length of Farmingdale's Riefenstahl has really made it difficult to finish at the rim. Rams also having way on boards (26-17) with Tarantino's spring noticeably absent.

Still, just a four-point game. Hope Midd's shooting form returns.

[pinseeking1]

St. Amour is almost incapable of maintaining that cold shooting pace. I have to think Midd will pull it out without too much difficulty by the end of the 2nd half when things return to "normal".

[nescac1]

Congrats to Coach App on his first NCAA tourney win -- hopefully the first of many!  Williams sure was happy to be playing at home, where the nets are a bit kinder.  The Ephs as the score indicated dominated a game-but-overmatched Becker squad.  Becker has four very good players, but that's about it -- just not nearly the depth of talent to compete with Williams when the Ephs are playing and shooting well.  And boy were they shooting well.  The Ephs went on a 27-0 (!) run in the first half and after that it was just playing out the string.

The Ephs were lead by the two guys who had been there before, as Greenman and Aronowitz both brought their A plus games, Greenman in particular: 21 points, 5 boards, 4 assists, only one turnover, 7-9 from three.  Greenman has been playing better and better as the season has gone along and his insertion into the starting lineup was a big factor in the Ephs' turnaround this season.  Aronowitz added 18-5-3.  Heskett, Casey, Teal, and Scadlock all had great games as well.  Really, everyone in the rotation played well.   

The Eph crowd was seriously fired up today, great to see Chandler rocking again.  Hopefully tomorrow is more of the same -- Scranton is obviously a much tougher and more battle-tested opponent and the Ephs will have to play great to earn a ticket to the Sweet 16. 

Go Ephs!

[Old Guy]

Survive and advance.

Quick post: I'm tired and I wanna go to bed. I had to work very hard to win this one 84-75. Midd did not shoot well (5-21 from three) and had to gut it out. Farmingdale State was well-organized and played hard. Reifenstahl (18/15) is a terrific player.

Midd played a sloppy first half, nothing seemed to go right, but was only down four (36-32) at the half. The objective observer in me thought - "we're okay. We're not gong to play another half like that," but the cautious partisan in me added, "I hope." And we didn't, scoring 52 points in the second half. But Farmingdale hung around and there was no breathing easy until the last minute. We didn't shoot free throws well generally, but did down the stretch to seal the win.

St. Amour was tightly guarded and off tonight (5-18, 3-9 from three), but hit some big momentum advancing shots in the second half - and played his usual stellar floor game (6 assists, 5 steals). You always want him on the court.

./The premier etoile definitely goes to Jack Daly for his fierce play. He kept us in the game in the first half with tough drives to the hoop. He finished with 18 points (9-13), 10 rebounds, 6 assists. Great game by a hard-nosed player. Adisa Majors was a bull at the hoop - 18 points/11 rebounds, both career highs.

Midd gets Lycoming tomorrow. I watched the Lycoming-Cabrini game. It was close throughout till Lycoming went on a 29-13 run in the last 8 minutes to come from behind and win going away. They play a very fast aggressive game. They were ranked #15 nationally coming in. It'll be a battle. Good team. Midd can play better than we did tonight - and will have to.

[nescac1]

A few notes on the Midd/Williams quarter today:

Williams is 5-2 against remaining tourney teams (wins vs. Union, Eastern Conn, Midd, Tufts, Hope, losses vs. Midd and Tufts)
Midd is 4-3 against remaining tourney teams (wins vs. Skidmore, Williams, Eastern Conn, Keene State, losses vs. Endicott, Tufts, Williams)
Playing a tough schedule helps! 

If Midd wins today they are guaranteed to play a CCC team (either Nichols or Endicott).  Would that be the first CCC team in the Sweet 16?  I think so, but I'm not sure.  Obviously Midd knows from experience that Endicott can play, and Nichols has already beaten Endicott twice this year.  Interesting year for New England, with the CCC and the Little East combining to go 4-0 in the tourney, while NESCAC and NEWMAC only managed to go 4-3 combined. 

The only player from Scranton in today's Williams-Scranton game will be the Ephs' Bobby Casey.  Even Ethan Danzig, the son of the Scranton coach, hails from a neighboring town.  Danzig, who is one of Scranton's two primary stars, and Casey know each other well, as they each starred for rival high schools that battled for the top of the same league.  Perhaps Casey can give Coach App a few extra pointers on how to contain Danzig, who shoots an impressive 45 percent from 3 on a high volume of attempts. 

The biggest challenge for the Ephs will be containing Scranton's star big man John Vitkus, who is the most productive offensive big man Williams has faced since Hope's Harrison Blackledge back in December.  The Ephs' centers-by-committee will need to all work really hard on defense as Williams as a team is loathe to double guys inside. 

Hopefully the Williams crowd, which was scintillating last night, brings the same energy tonight! 

[Old Guy]

Hopefully the Williams crowd, which was scintillating last night, brings the same energy tonight!

Should have mentioned the crowd at Middlebury - Big noisy crowd, a sellout, big student contingent, lots of townspeople. For old guys who have watched (or played) Midd basketball over the years, these home NCAA games are really exciting for this setting. Eight NCAA visits in the last 11 years - 13 victories. When we host, I buy extra tickets, anticipating the call for tickets that I have received more than once. That's a call I never thought I'd get. To be at a Middlebury game in a rocking full house was for a long time purely a fantasy. A thrill, even for jaded old guys, perhaps especially for them.

[Middfan]

Last night's game v Farmingdale was truly a tough win for Midd.  Although most fans remained confident that the Panthers would eventually turn it around, as Old Guy mentioned, nothing was assured until the last few moments.  Interestingly, I think the huge and raucous crowd had something to do with the rough start.  Midd seemed to be tight, not from nervousness but with excitement.  During warm-ups, every lay up, 12-footer, 3-pointer or dunk was cause for eruption from the hundreds of noisy MiddKids just feet from the court.  Buy the time the game started the players seemed to me to be a bit too amped up.  I expect them to be more settled into the scene tonight.  And having watched the Lycoming - Cabrini game, they will need to play better if they wish to keep going.

[middhoops]

Interesting perspective, Middfan.
In retrospect, your point seems apt.
The pregame adulation was something very new.

[amh63]

Watched a bit of all the CAC games except for the Wesleyan game.  Have several comments on the Amherst lost to a Fine Keene team that came to play under their relative new HC.  The LEC has been somewhat underrated this season, imo.  ECSU beat a good MIT team that was playing well and had given Babson some challenging games....beat them in their last mtg.
Anyway, thought about what to say about this Amherst lost and what is to me a "lost season". Here I go.  On paper Amherst had more height, higher ranking, etc. etc.  Keene just played harder and wanted the game more.  For me the game is summarized by the last few seconds of both halves. Amherst had a point lead as the first half was coming to an end.  Keene gets the ball while Amherst coaches wanted a timeout to organize.  No Time out received.  Keene scores to take the lead at the half.
Amherst plays a little better in the second half and had leads.  With the score tied, Amherst had the ball and there is 30 sec. remaining.  Amherst's play.....give Dawson the ball and let him decide what to do.  Made an offensive move with too much time remaining.   Keene gets the ball with 6 sec. to go and Keene's top scorer makes a last sec 3-point shot for the win.  Shades of JMac in the Bowdoin game.
It is just as well that Amherst lost to a more deserving team, imho.  This year's team had too many flaws to go much further in the Tourny...in this unusual year.
Watched much of the 2nd half of the Midd game.  Left when Midd had a solid lead as time was running out for Farmington State. 
Checked in on the Tufts' game...seems that Tufts Big Man made a solid contribution on the floor.
Saw that Chandler was full and the Ephs in full control.  Watched the Amherst WBB game and like Old Guy went to bed.
Oh yes, looked for all the Midd posters in the crowd at the Panther game...had the game on the big screen.   Yes to JEFFFAN and Card....the feed from Ramapo was on and off at times ...for me.

[maineman]

My take on the Middlebury game is that they did not play with confidence until the second half and made Farmingdale feel comfortable until then.  Their big men, Irvine and especially Riefenstahl were excellent.  Daly played great, especially when St Amour was cold and Brown was sitting due to fouls.  Foul shooting was awful.  The Lycoming team is much smaller height wise, but they play big with their speed and leaping ability.  Midd will have to protect the ball well because Lycoming constantly attacks the ball and causes turnovers.  It will be a challenge and I expect St Amour to "go off" tonight to help the cause.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Dave McHugh, here's a question for you. Is there a reason why you exclusively interview coaches for Hoopsville? Like, for some NCAA reason you are not able to interview players?

I won't answer entirely for Dave, but he does interview players from time to time - it's often more difficult to set up, schools are less likely to make them available, and players are much less likely to do a watchable interview.  It's not like D1 where they get lots of practice and coaching for media.  Some players are really great to talk to and others just aren't as able to express themselves in ways that translate to the screen.  Dave had the player from Carnegie Mellon on earlier this week and Gordon did an interview with Cam Wiley from Swarthmore as well.

Sorry for my delay... as you can probably imagine.. I am slammed with work... sometimes I wish this was a real job to then explain all the time I put in. LOL

Ryan hits a lot of the reasons on the head. We do end up talking to a few players every year, but it can be a real crap-shoot. Certainly the availability is a challenge and unlike our one-year-exploits with The #WhyD3 Show where we had more flexibility, I don't have as much flexibility with Hoopsville. Also, students tend to get overwhelmed by the idea of talking on a show even as minor as mine and end up being very coy or short-answered which can make an interview tougher. That said, we do tend to get a lot of great interviews and the Carnegie Mellon interview the other day was awesome. It is interviews like that which recharges me to make another go at student-athletes.

Honestly, I do want to get more SAs on... it is just that the challenge of arranging those interviews if far more work than getting coaches. However, I actually have a few in mind and one has been on the back burner for weeks now. We shall see how lucky we get in the coming weeks.

[grabtherim]

Survive and advance. Daly came thru when really needed last night. The team needs to match his grit or it could be a tough night. I think they are up to the challenge. Watched a bunch of the Amherst game. No excuses for the Jeffs in a down season. They simply were not as good as they were given credit for. Everyone including me kept on waiting for them to break out. Didnt happen. Did not see any of the other games so no comment on those. Against a quick smaller team tonight something tells me Folger and Majors should get the ball in position to do some damage. Both have been on a nice run.