MBB: NESCAC

[amh63]

I would rather wait for after the Nescac Tourny to "select" Players and coaches for seasonal awards.
Nescac1, imho, tends to over promote his school's players and schedules and injuries, etc, etc. 
In the late season run by Amherst, there were solid wins and yes, the Wes Little Three lost in Middletown was a stinker.  The Little Three lost to Williams was closer and could possibility be different if the shot clock watcher was more alert .  This season to date has seen the influence of homecourt, the impact of injuries to key players on many teams.  It has also seen the rise of bench players and FYs.  To say that the play of Amherst junior Geoff...who.grew several inches since his FY...was only due to his outside shot is shortsighted, IMO.  The play of Groff on defense..his rebounds, blocks...kept him on the floor.  The other bench players got more floor time also due to their defensive efforts.  Amherst's coaches do not put you in games if they do not think you can contribute on both sides of the game.  I believe this applies to all the coaches in the conference.
In short, there remains some More games to play.  A week of rest should help all the teams. 
Let the games begin!

[ContinentalDomer]

Some upstate NY basketball history and the story of Adam Stockwell, his father, and their connection to former Hamilton coach Tom Murphy:

http://highschoolsports.syracuse.com/news/article/-1213394406204008515/top-75-basketball-players-jim-and-adam-stockwell-father-and-son-greatness/?utm_content=bufferf8442&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer#incart_river_home

[Mr. Ypsi]

Duncan Robinson went 6-8 from downtown in the win last night over Iowa.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Some upstate NY basketball history and the story of Adam Stockwell, his father, and their connection to former Hamilton coach Tom Murphy:

http://highschoolsports.syracuse.com/news/article/-1213394406204008515/top-75-basketball-players-jim-and-adam-stockwell-father-and-son-greatness/?utm_content=bufferf8442&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer#incart_river_home

Adam mentioned the connections on Hoopsville when he was on the show.

[ContinentalDomer]

Good show.  Your passion for the game and D3 hoop is appreciated.

Some upstate NY basketball history and the story of Adam Stockwell, his father, and their connection to former Hamilton coach Tom Murphy:

http://highschoolsports.syracuse.com/news/article/-1213394406204008515/top-75-basketball-players-jim-and-adam-stockwell-father-and-son-greatness/?utm_content=bufferf8442&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer#incart_river_home

Adam mentioned the connections on Hoopsville when he was on the show.

[nescac1]

I remember the powerhouse Hamilton teams from the mid to late 90s.  Seems like Stockwell has returned the program to that level, especially considering that next year the team returns nearly every major contributor.  The Conts are one more big man away from being REALLY scary.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

And these are facts. Agree.

Not only did Amherst's frosh improve as the season went on, but JMac got healthy, the team overcame the loss of Timmy Mac (who'd been a significant contributor until his injury), and they adjusted further when Sellew went down.

Any team that can beat Williams and Middlebury, arguably the 2 best teams in the conference in back to back games is a solid team. Scheduling had less to do with Amherst's finish then is being represented. They simply showed up against solid teams. You can make the argument for any of the top 5 teams being worthy of the top spot, but numbers are numbers.

I talked to Hixon this week for Around the Nation (which should be up later today) - at different times he mentioned Tim McCarthy as one of the special ones and the best player on the team.  I don't think those are things he says about freshmen too often.  I didn't get a chance to see him play before the injury, so I can't comment, but it stuck out to me for sure.

[nescac1]

Wow -- I'm pretty surprised that Hixon would say that Tim McCarthy was the best player on the team.  Are you sure it wasn't "most talented"?   In all events, assuming he gets back to 100 percent quickly and stays healthy (he also had bad injury luck in high school which is probably why he wasn't hyped as much as Johnny), his future is very bright.  In the little bit of him I saw, he looks a lot like his older brother although I think Johnny is (as of now) a tad bigger and more athletic, but Tim looks like a much better shooter with more upside as an offensive player.  He will surely take his brother's spot in the starting lineup next year and probably make a big impact. 

Listen, every team has injuries, some more serious than others.  Amherst has certainly had to overcome some adversity on the injury front this season.  Amh63 apparently believes that it is "overpromotion" of Williams' injuries to be very impressed by the coaching job Kevin App has done after losing the team's clear star and likely all-American seven games into the season as well as its senior starting point guard half-way through conference play, pushing two top bench guys into the starting lineup, but I guess we can agree to disagree.  Certainly, a number of NESCAC coaches have done a very good job this year ... besides Hixon and App, Hamilton's massive leap forward can't be ignored, Wesleyan has been tremendous despite heavy reliance on frosh, the unexpected departure of Salim Green and O'Brien long illness, and Middlebury just did what they always do. 

[D3HforLyfe]

Im too excited for NESCAC Quarterfinals action not to post! While I'm proud of how my pre-season predictions turned out, I have been the ultimate jinx since the season started. In other words, if you are able to find a good bet in opposition to what I say below, you should probably take it!

Wesleyan over Middlebury (complete homer pick)
Williams over Tufts (feel confident about this one)
Hamilton over Trinity (feel good about this, but Trinity always scares me)
Bowdoin over Amherst (has an 8 ever beat a 1 in the first round of the CAC Tourney? If not, this would be the year)

Short detour comment: Let me preface by saying I have a great deal of respect for everyone at NbN - I love that site and also respect that they picked Midd over Wes tomorrow. That very well could happen - its going to be a great game...But to try to make the case for Matt Folger for DPOY over Jordan Sears is blasphemy! I know how bias I am for the Cards, but I feel strongly about this one. I have watched a lot of Midd too because I really like Coach Brown and, while Folger is really good on the defensive end, Sears is the best d3 defender I have seen since I started following this level close to a decade ago. Get to a game in person and watch, he is incredible.

[Bucket]

While I'm proud of how my pre-season predictions turned out

You picked a five-way tie for first??!!

[AllStar]

Saturday matchups:

[D3HforLyfe]

Oops, the five way tie (for which I most certainly didn't predict, Buckets. haha) had my match-ups wrong - I was going off of how the teams appear in the standings on the NESCAC website front page. Thank you, AllStar, for the help (and great graphic) and my apologies for the confusion...

Wesleyan over Middlebury (complete homer pick)
Hamilton over Tufts (Feel confident about this one)**
Williams over Trinity (Still feel confident about this one, but Trinity still scares me)**
Bowdoin over Amherst (has an 8 ever beat a 1 in the first round of the CAC Tourney? If not, this would be the year) 

[lumbercat]

With the application of these tie breakers does anyone think there is a possibility that any further consideration will ever be given to playing each NESCAC opponent twice?
I'm sure that has been bandied about before but seems to make a lot of sense.

[quicksilver]

With the application of these tie breakers does anyone think there is a possibility that any further consideration will ever be given to playing each NESCAC opponent twice?
I'm sure that has been bandied about before but seems to make a lot of sense.

The NESCAC has been doing it for men's hockey for some time now and its a great success. However, one NESCAC (Bates!) does not have a hockey team, meaning that there are 18 league games and room for 6 OOC games in the hockey world. The numbers would be 20 and 4 for men's basketball so a very limited OOC schedule. In hockey, the NESCAC also dives directly into league play on the first weekend of play in mid-November, with no long OOC warm-up as there is in basketball . .

[middhoops]

Jeff Brown went on the record with Dave McHugh saying that scheduling OOC games is so hard that he'd consider home and away conference games.
Do other NESCAC coaches struggle to find opponents or is Middlebury's difficulty an outlier?