MBB: NESCAC

[amh63]

Came back from dinner out and saw the Williams vs Wesleyan game in OT!  Surprised that No body reported yet that The Cardinals won the game in OT by five.   Announcers giving the stats pointed out the LOW foul shooting percentage by the Ephs.  Bonner made his foul shots....even after the Ephs HC called TIme Outs....twice in hopes of icing  the foul shooter..  This Little Three game does not count in the conference standings.  The one in Ct. does.  Same situation for Amherst...when Williams comes to LeFrak in Feb., it could be the one that determines the hosting site for the Tourny.  Still too early to speculate.  Amherst also has a low foul shooting percentage presently
Tufts lost another game today at Cousen.  Guess that is another team in progress.
Oh yes, Amherst won a road game today at Emerson.  JEFFFAN gave highlights but not the score...it was implied I guess
Watched the Amherst game in a Starbucks place in Annapolis, Md.  Ate breakfast and Lunch out too! Did some holiday shopping without my better half.

[toad22]

It is safe to say that Williams needs to shoot better than 52% from the foul line against a tough defensive team like Wesleyan. In the last 5 minutes of regulation plus the OT, the Ephs were 5-11. That will lose you a lot of ball games. They also missed a bunch of uncontested 3s, so with their shooting not good, they needed to rely on defense to win. They came close, but couldn't hold off the Cardinals. The Ephs will learn a lot from this game, and continue to get better as the season moves on. They always do.

[Conts Fan]

Watched a little of the Amherst game today online...that Emerson gym is tiny. It was claustrophobic just watching it.

[Old Guy]

RE: Williams-Wesleyan and the Colby-Bowdoin games. So much for preseason prognostications. How do the Las Vegas bookies now see the eventual NESCAC tournament seedings? Always hard to predict the Little Three and the CBB outcomes.

This is fun though. There was a time not that long ago when it was Williams and Amherst and the other guys; then it was Williams and Amherst and Middlebury and the other guys (Middlebury had a four and a half year spell when they didn't lose a single game against a NESCAC team other than Wms and Amherst (40+ wins in a row). A more balanced league is better.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Watched a little of the Amherst game today online...that Emerson gym is tiny. It was claustrophobic just watching it.

They carved it out of the ground, literally.  They've only had a gym about ten years or so (maybe less) - they dug it out of the basement of one of their buildings in Boston.

[middhoops]

Recently back from the long drive to and from Williamstown.
Agree with most of what's here already.
Wesleyan played defense with an intensity that was amazing to watch.  Late in the OT, Williams could not get off a shot.
BigMike is right.  The smaller Eph guards were at a disadvantage late.
Wesleyan is for real.  They certainly will get some love in the ratings this week.

Do NOT (sorry, Bucket) think because of this loss that the Ephs aren't a top shelf team.  Yup, they got to make free throws and Karpowicz needs to play a lot more.  But they will win a ton of games and be in the hunt come March.
This may be an example of what happens when you play too many cupcakes early in the season, then meet up with a really tough team that is just dying to beat you.

[JustAFan]

Williams is a talented but soft team at this point in the season, much like it was at this time last year. The better team (at this point in the season) won tonight even though Williams could/should have won if they had shot better from the foul line or shot a normal percentage from outside the arc.  Hats off to to Wesleyan for playing with more intensity and being a lot tougher than the Ephs tonight, and hats off to Coach Reilly for getting them to play like this on the road--it is not easy to teach guys to be and play tough.  I think you need to recruit that attribute.  Middlebury always has. And a special tip of the hat to Jordan Bonner, who was outstanding tonight. 

Williams continues to be unable to stop the ball at the top of the key and push the player to the wing and prevent penetration. No matter who was defending the point, Wesleyan was able to beat the Ephs off the dribble and penetrate at will tonight.  This continues to be a real issue for the Ephs--it's not just the lack of lateral quickness, it's the lack of commitment.

Like last year, at this point in time Williams is extremely soft on defense and on the boards.  Wesleyan is not stronger than Williams and certainly not as big but they pushed the bigger Ephs all over the boards and in the key tonight and they were much more physical than Williams. Wesleyan's length and athleticism also resulted in a bunch of blocked shots tonight, and with few exceptions Williams was unable to draw a foul on the block.

I am of the view that Coach App's shuttle substitution system also needs to be re-evaluated. It's almost as if he has ADD and thinks that substitutions for substitutions sake represents good coaching. Williams once again was unable to get into any offensive rhythm given the constant shuffling of players in and out.  It's very hard for any player to relax and get into any offensive flow, especially on shots from behind the arc, when they are being rotated in and out every 90 seconds, and I suspect that this is contributing to the Ephs' poor outside shooting. In addition, Williams may be paying the price for having too many good players, or at least players of equal ability, which is forcing the coaches to try to find minutes for too many guys.

Finally, I also do not understand how Karpowitcz only played 2-3 minutes in the second half , 12 total for the game, while Kempton played 31 minutes.  I admire Kempton for all of the work he's put in this past summer, but Williams effectively plays 4 on 5 on the offensive end when he is in the game, and Wesleyan recognized this and played off of him and clogged up the middle tonight whenever he had the ball.  On a day when Willliams struggled to score, the failure to give Karpo more minutes mystifies me.  If it were me, Karpo would be playing 20-25 minutes and Kempton and Soto would be splitting the balance. 

In sum, hats off to Wesleyan. They played on the road with real intensity and determination tonight. They were very well prepared and out-game planned Williams. Most importantly, they mirror their coach and buy into his system. And, to my eyes, Williams finds itself in much the same position as it was this time last year--somewhat talented on the offensive end but extremely soft in terms of intensity and toughness on both ends.  And not yet willing  to make some hard choices about shortening the bench, developing some continuity and better defining the roles of some players. Hopefully this game will be a learning lesson for both players and the coaching staff.  If not, I fear that the Ephs could end up #4-5 in the final league standings, behind Wesleyan and Middlebury (both much tougher), and Amherst (equally as talented even though young), and maybe Bowdoin as well.

Am I reading too much into an overtime loss that could easily have been a win with "normal" free throw shooting and/or shooting from the arc? Perhaps. But the weaknesses on display in tonight's game are ones that have been on display in other games this season as well, and it's very difficult to coach toughness and commitment on the defensive end. Hats off to Coach Reilly for his success in this regard. Time for Williams to double down in terms of intensity and commitment and stop looking at its rankings and relying on last year's performance or else the Ephs are going to find themselves on the short end of more games than it will like when league play commences in January.













 

[toad22]

Williams' defense was pretty good tonight. Wesleyan was very tough and determined. To translate that into calling Williams "soft" is bs, plain and simple. Wesleyan scored way below their normal offensive output. The same for Williams. This was a pure defensive mud wrestling match. Wesleyan won (in OT!). I don't think you can read anything else into this.

[FanOfNescac]

Wesleyan played with sensational intensity and imposed its will on Williams. Big props to coach Reilly and the Cardinals, who look like a 20-win team. Williams has issues, but inside 5 minutes in regulation, missed six consecutive free throws and at least three open threes. Make half those FTs and one of those threes and the game probably doesn't even go OT. That doesn't diminish Williams's problems, which look a lot like their problems in January of last year -- minus Aronowitz, a big minus -- but this was a very close game that could have easily gone the other way. Still, Wesleyan was better and more determined and will be a very tough out every night.

[nescac1]

I saw only a few minutes here and there of last night's game, but I do think there is a bit of an overreaction to an early-season loss to a very good, tough, defensive-minded team in which a lot of things went wrong for Williams.  First of all, Wesleyan can play -- keep in mind they destroyed Nichols, which killed Trinity and Endicott.  Also, for whatever reason, pretty much every Williams-Wesleyan game is the same -- ugly, physical, low-scoring slogs with little rhythm that go right down to the wire.  And lately Wesleyan has won more than its share.  I don't understand why, but Williams on offense struggles vs. Wesleyan, whatever the personnel is year after year, more than vs any other team. 

Also, in addition to the well-chronicled awful free throw and three point shooting, Wesleyan scored two threes on the first half on aboslutely ridiculous deep, contested threes as the shot clock expired by its frosh point guard; one of those banked in.  On both those possessions, Williams played perfect defense, and sometimes that's just the way it goes.  I think much of the criticism of App below is unfair.  I know because I had some of the same concerns last year and the team, obviously, figured things out as the season progressed.  And I think the complaints about the Eph defense are especially misguided.  Wesleyan, like every other team Williams has played this year, struggled in a major way to score most of the game.  The Ephs don't have the quickest backcourt and do allow more dribble penetration than is ideal, but they make up for it with so much length up front and the ability to contest shots everywhere.  The Eph D has been very good all year including last night.  I'm not worried at all about that side of the ball, nor about toughness, more generally.

That being said, I do think Williams needs to do some things differently.  First and foremost, like everyone else it seems, I simply don't get why Karpowicz, a guy who is a force on offense and who is shooting 85 percent (!!!), doesn't get more than 12 minutes playing time.  We said it last year, we've said it this year, it's really cryptic.  He seems in shape and should be able to play at least 20 mpg, maybe as many as 25.  No one can stop him one on one.  To have one of, clearly, your three best offensive weapons play 12 out of 45 minutes in a game in which the team is struggling to score seems really strange.  And it's not like, despite the occasional lapse (which everyone is guilty of) he is a defensive liability -- he is the best shot-blocker on the team (two in limited minutes last night) and a very good rebounder to boot.  He's one of the few Williams guys who really hits the boards hard on the offensive end, too.  The Ephs need more second chances for a team with so much size. 

Also, at the end of the game, and I see this ALL the time in NESCAC, I don't get why you don't go for a 2-for-1 with the ball in a tie (I believe, maybe it was a one-point) game and a minute left on the clock.  Take a quick shot to make sure you will get an extra possession there, that is the percentage play.  I see this all the time in games I watch in NESCAC and I think it's a really odd strategy.  Also, I get that some of the Williams guards are better on offense and better on defense, but I don't love the constant substituting of guards in the last few minutes. I do think it hurts continuity and oftentimes defensive specialists end up on offense, or vice versa, after a turnover or other change of possession, so the match-ups don't work out as hoped in any event.  Unless it's the very final play of the game, I'd rather just pick my best five guys at the end of the game and stick with them.

The biggest concern for me about Williams right now is shooting, and no amount of coaching can get guys to stick fairly open 23 footers -- either you make em or you don't.  We are a quarter of the way into the season and Williams hasn't shot well from deep in a single game, including vs. far inferior opponents.  Teams are packing the paint and Williams is not making them pay from deep NEARLY enough.  The team has too many good and capable shooters to keep struggling like this, I hope, but game after game the team is missing wide open threes, and it's starting to be a concern.  Cole Teal is in a major funk and he is the best shooter on the team -- he always starts slow, but this season he has taken longer to get on track.  If he hits just two of his open threes last night, it's a very different game.  The Ephs desparately need to get him going, and soon.  Some other guys who are competent deep shooters -- Feinberg, Scadlock, and Soto -- need to also give the Ephs more spacing from outside, too.  Right now, Casey, Greenman and Heskett, only two of whom are typically on the floor at once, are the only guys hitting from deep at all.  Just adding Teal to that list would make a HUGE difference for this team.  But what would really open things up is if some of the front court players other than Heskett started hitting at around a 35 percent clip, even (none are close), just to keep defenses a little honest.  Still, right now I'd settle for Teal lighting it up as we are accustomed to seeing.

Finally, I want to address BigMike's comments on Scadlock, which I thought were ridiculous.  Last night wasn't his best game (even still, he finished with a respectable 15-10-1-2-2 as the main focus of the opposing defense, vs. a very athletic frontcourt).  The style of play didn't suit his open-court skills as well as faster-paced, more up-and-down games, certaintly.  But judging him on one game is a little silly.  To pick BigMike's favorite player, Jack Daly, had I judged him based only on the first Williams-Midd game last year, where he struggled, I would have said he is a below-average D3 starter, not one of the best guards in D3, which I actually do believe him to be and which he showed in the Elite 8 game vs. exactly the same team. No one brings their A plus game every night.  But Scadlock is putting up all-American numbers this year and has carried the team on his back.  Folks talk about Aronowitz in justifiably glowing terms, but as good as he was, it's easy to forget that he had at least half a dozen games last year in which he provided significantly less than Scadlock did last night.  And Scadlock was the Ephs' best player in the NESCAC and NCAA tourneys last year (yes, even a bit better than Aronowitz during that stretch), including some HUGE moments vs. Midd, so he's proven his bona-fides.  I still would not trade him for any player in NESCAC and I'm sure he will bounce back.  The only thing that's been missing from his game so far this year is the 3 ball.  But again, he had shown he can hit 3's in big situations.  Even without that, he is going to be a force finishing inside all year, notwithstanding one tough night.   But if he can get his 3 point shot humming the way it was during the post-season last year, he will be unstoppabble.  I just hope SOMEONE on Williams can start hitting outside shots -- this team is too good to be mired at right around 30 percent from 3 all season long. 

[FanOfNescac]

Bucket,

Would you prefer italics or Bold for emphasis.

Content incredibly accurate

I do think sometimes we're all getting trolled by some high school classmate of a Middlebury player who isn't big, or Mike.

[amh63]

Several loose end and random thoughts on Nescac games to date. 
Agreed with Old Guy thoughts on a more balanced league, though I would use "interesting" vice "fun".
Hoops Fan (Ryan Scott)..thanks for the history of Emerson's gym.  Though Amherst has played there before, I had wondered about the size of the Named Gym...had a posted 150 in attendance in the shadows.  A sort of Rabbit Hole for opponents.  One enters and sees TWO towering men.  One the former BC HC that remains big.  The other, the 7'1" hugh Emerson Center.  Somewhat slow and not in the best of shape, the center takes up a lot of space and impacts the low post game of opponents. He is a solid foul shooter.  Though it did not count, it was good to see Amherst's center slam a dunk over the Emerson center.  It was also good to see Sellew begin to pick up his low post play and dominate the boards.
The season is still young and the games played whether "cupcakes" or not, are mostly for player/ team evaluation, IMO.  I have noticed a trend in recent Amherst games...maybe my imagination.  It is a particular Amherst coach take the lead in games...talking to players on the floor, pulling a player aside during a pause in the action on the floor, etc.  In the Emerson game, Coach Toomey seemed to take the lead.  HC Hixon still was the one communicating with the refs.  In an earlier Amherst game, I thought the new assistant coach...a former HC...take the lead in talking to players.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Emerson didn't have a gym for a long time.  When I was in school, they'd play at community centers and any open space, really, around the greater boston area.  I remember watching three-time GNAC player of the year, all-american, and one-time Orlando Magic, GM, Rob Hennigan play at a community center in roxbury with two rows of bleachers.

[Old Guy]

I saw only a few minutes here and there of last night's game, but I do think there is a bit of an overreaction to an early-season loss to a very good, tough, defensive-minded team in which a lot of things went wrong for Williams. . . . Wesleyan scored two threes on the first half on aboslutely ridiculous deep, contested threes as the shot clock expired by its frosh point guard; one of those banked in.  On both those possessions, Williams played perfect defense, and sometimes that's just the way it goes. 

SOMETIMES THAT'S JUST THE WAY IT GOES. Some nights everything you throw up to the hoop goes in — you're in the "zone." It's serendipity, and unforgettable. Anyone who's played knows that feeling. Other nights, you have two left feet, the ball feels like that unbalanced ball the Globetrotters used to trot out. The ball is round, the backboard is flat, the rim sticks out and creates caroms that cannot be anticipated, which go to the other guys. You can blame the bus ride, the pre-game meal, lost sleep, academic intensity, girlfriend problems, illness, minor injury, the coach's substitution decisions, but IT'S JUST THE WAY IT GOES.

Give me points and I'll take the Ephs in the rematch with Wes, even without points. It's early! I understand that Midd-Endicott is not Wes-Wms, but I think of Midd's four point defeat at the hands of Endicott early last season and Midd's 30 point win against Endicott later: same pre-game meal, bus ride, etc.. SOMETIMES THAT'S JUST THE WAY IT GOES. I'm not intending to minimize coaching expertise and other inherent critical factors, but not everything can be reduced to rational, critical analysis.

I think it would be foolish not to think Williams will proceed as last year and be better at the end than at the beginning. Isn't that the idea? All Teal needs, from the perspective of Middlebury fans, to warm up on the three point line is a game against the Panthers (11-20 in the last four games). If the past is a guide, he'd get healthy fast. I'll not bite on this one, the thought that Williams' is not what they're cracked up to be.

[magicman]

Panthers are now off until Tuesday, Dec 5, against Plattsburgh at home and then take on Skidmore there on Friday, Dec.8. We always have good games against those two teams. Skidmore is 3-0 with a 88-62 road win against Plattsburgh: their preseason All-American Edvinas Rupkus is off the a fast start (averaging 23+ ppt).

Wonder if Magicman will venture over the Champlain Bridge for the Cardinals-Panthers game.

Yes he will!  There is a pair of rabid Midd fans that owe me burgers, fries, and at least one drink at the local watering hole. 

Wish I could bring our best player with me but Middlebury gets lucky and he will miss that game. Still, looking forward to a good time with friends and hopefully a competitive game. It will be good to see Coach Brown again and say hello. One of the best coaches in the game, the Panthers are lucky to have him. The Cardinals are very athletic and explosive. If they bring their best game, the Panthers will be challenged. If the team that got off the bus against Skidmore shows up, I will be disappointed. The Cardinals looked good disposing of St. Lawrence last night by a 95-79 score. Hoping to see more of that this weekend as we begin conference play.

Hope to run into the "Old Guy" at the game.     

magicman......seeing as how you're the one with the road trip home, it's probably for the best that you don't bring the Patron.

I know you're high on Nick DeAngelis but you didn't bother to mention the young man's athletic pedigree.  DAMN!

I was hoping to keep DeAngelis somewhat undercover. And his pedigree is partly from his in laws and not his immediate family. But yeah, it is kind of neat to be able to say... my uncle won the Heisman Trophy. However the aunt  that was a DI track athlete at Georgia, does contribute to his gene pool.