MBB: NESCAC

[Mountain Man]

Endicott vs. Middlebury

Great game.   Noteworthy is Kyle Anderson who is a freshman guard who poured in 26 for Endicott.

Kyle is a left handed Steve Nash with floaters in the lane and smooth lefty threes and several stutter step and one drives to the left side.

This is the best freshman performance I have seen in 3 years of following D3 basketball.   Kyle was a cool as the other side of the pillow all game. Not sure any of his makes even touched the rim. He bumped knees in 2nd half which slowed him down a tad.

The board has discussed Perry DeLorenzo as being a talented player who has yet to find himself. Perry found himself today. Not just the results but the confidence to take shots that were there for him when Middlebury was trailing.. First two seasons he passed.  Look for DeLorenzo to see more playing time as an important part of rotation. Perry has the size and defensive ability to guard 1-3 positions.

Middlebury's defense was superb all day yet Endicott shot lights out until their legs were not underneath them in the 2nd half.
This was a HIGH LEVEL of play- ALL GAME.   This was a heavyweight brawl where Panther's inside power & defense were the slight difference.

Big win for the Panthers. 

[amh63]

It was indeed a revealing day of basketball games for Nescac teams playing out of conference teams.  The one I watched the most was the ECSU beatdown of a promising Cardinal team in Middletown.  Expect Wes to learn from their loss just as the Warriors gain confidence in their win over a taller talented team.
After their win over the Amherst WBB team in LeFrak, the Lady Warriors of ECSU lost at home...in the 4th quarter....against the Lady Ephs by double digits.  Early season games between solid opponents lets coaches evaluate their teams. 
Enjoyed the game up in Vermont....Midd battled back from a halftime deficit in a game that looked like BOTH teams would reach 100 points.  Midd won over a solid team that beat a highly ranked MIT team in Cambridge. 
It will be a Very Interesting season in the Nescac....a very competitive season...imho.

[nescac1]

With teams 2 through 7 and 10 in the first top 25 poll all losing at least once to teams outside the top 25, I would expect Williams and Hamilton (currently 8 and 9) to move up to 2 and 3 nationally in next week's poll, putting an even bigger bullseye on both moving forward.

I'd guess that Midd moves up around five spots to number 12 and might even squeeze into the top ten.  And Amherst should move into the bottom end of the top 25.  Based on early results those four are well ahead of the rest of the league. 

[Cactus Jack]

After 5 games it is clear Hamilton and Williams are the front runners for the NESCAC. The difference is Williams beats every team they play handily. Hamiltons style of basketball allows bad teams to stay in games and their Coach plays the entire team almost every game. Williams no surprise has dominated. My biggest surprise of the year has been Middlebury, but when you recognize who is Coaching (Jeff Brown) it becomes less surprising. Every year he finds a way to get the most out of the talent he has. Loses St. Amore and Brown and their team finds a way to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament, loses Jack Daley who was the POY if they made a deeper run in the NESCAC tournament, and now they start the year undefeated. Great Coach and players that buy in. Amherst is yet to be challenged, but I don't see them having the talent to be extremely successful. I see them as one of the first teams out once tournament time comes around. Wesleyan is a victim of circumstance. They have without a doubt had the most challenging schedule to start the season and are playing an extremely young roster outside of Bonner and Bascom. They are very talented but it seems it will take some time. Slow start but I think their talent will make them a very scary team once they adjust to their new team. These are the only teams that have any shot at the NCAA tournament and will represent the NESCAC come March.

[Old Guy]

The board has discussed Perry DeLorenzo as being a talented player who has yet to find himself. Perry found himself today. Not just the results but the confidence to take shots that were there for him when Middlebury was trailing.. First two seasons he passed.  Look for DeLorenzo to see more playing time as an important part of rotation. Perry has the size and defensive ability to guard 1-3 positions.
Big win for the Panthers.

Perry DeLorenzo had his best game as a Panther a week after his mom's Middlebury field hockey team won their second straight national championship and third in the last four years. Nice when a local athlete makes good and Perry has lots of fans at Midd games. He was an outstanding player as a 9th grader at Middlebury High, playing on a state tourney team (along with Young Guy), and then went off to play well on outstanding Exeter Academy teams before returning to his hometown to attend college. His dad, Gene coached women's basketball and baseball at Colby.

[JEFFFAN]

After 5 games it is clear Hamilton and Williams are the front runners for the NESCAC. The difference is Williams beats every team they play handily. Hamiltons style of basketball allows bad teams to stay in games and their Coach plays the entire team almost every game. Williams no surprise has dominated. My biggest surprise of the year has been Middlebury, but when you recognize who is Coaching (Jeff Brown) it becomes less surprising. Every year he finds a way to get the most out of the talent he has. Loses St. Amore and Brown and their team finds a way to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament, loses Jack Daley who was the POY if they made a deeper run in the NESCAC tournament, and now they start the year undefeated. Great Coach and players that buy in. Amherst is yet to be challenged, but I don't see them having the talent to be extremely successful. I see them as one of the first teams out once tournament time comes around. Wesleyan is a victim of circumstance. They have without a doubt had the most challenging schedule to start the season and are playing an extremely young roster outside of Bonner and Bascom. They are very talented but it seems it will take some time. Slow start but I think their talent will make them a very scary team once they adjust to their new team. These are the only teams that have any shot at the NCAA tournament and will represent the NESCAC come March.

It's the end of November and declarative statements about March are already being made?  Can you pick stocks for my portfolio PLEASE based on your clairvoyance!

[nescacfaninbos]

Hamiltons style of basketball allows bad teams to stay in games and their Coach plays the entire team almost every game.

I noticed this too in one of the games I watched but I don't think that it is a bad thing to get the younger guys engaged in the early season, especially in the first half of games - it will probably save some wear and tear and get everyone some experience playing close games. Carnegie Mellon is not a Top 25 team but that is a solid road win. I imagine the rotation/minutes will shrink as they get into NESCAC play. 

[nescac1]

Early season thoughts on the Ephs, and really it's hard to find much fault with a team that is 5-0, with a 32 ppg scoring margin.

Bobby Casey is the MVP so far.   He is shooting beautifully and also seems in total control of the flow of the game.  Averaging 16-5-5, shooting 45/45/75, and playing in my view PG at an elite level.  His defense is also very strong, an underrated aspect of his game. 

Kyle Scadlock, James Heskett, and Matt Karpowicz are right there with Casey.  Heskett I feel like is still figuring out his role after last year, when he had to shoulder so much more of the offensive burden and was the top option on most plays, but there will be some games when he carries the team, his offensive talent is just too great not to.  Scadlock is doing it all, rebounding, pushing the ball up the court, distributing the ball, playing the 2 while leading the team in rebounding, and finishing inside and out at a ridiculously efficient rate.  He gives whatever the team needs, some nights it will be scoring but he is a rare player who can control the flow of the game without putting up many points.  And Karp's per minute production on both ends of the court is ridiculous -- although it would be even better if he could improve his free throw shooting.

The challenge for Coach App will be in apportioning minutes among guys 5-12 in the rotation (especially as the rotation gets down to only 8-9 guys eventually).  Right now, that group is pretty hard to distinguish from one another in terms of impact.  Since 2003, I haven't seen a Williams team so deep in quality players after the top 6-7, a nice problem to have.  I think some of the younger guys have more talent (and certainly more upside) than some of the veterans ahead of them, but the veterans know their roles, do the little things that coaches ask, and are playing very well, so it will be very tough for the underclassmen to earn consistent minutes despite the early flashes of brilliance.  Still, it's clear that guys like Taylor, Kacmarek, Jones and Spivy will make a much bigger impact in future seasons, and may yet have a bigger role to play in 2019. 

To me, the most improved player on the team is Mickey Babek, who looks far more aggressive and confident as an upperclassmen.  He is very versatile as he can play the 1, 2, or 3.  Last year, he made little impact on the floor, but this year he is putting up 6.8/2.4/1.8 in only 16 mpg, on scorching shooting (67/60/80).  I imagine those shooting numbers will come back down to earth a bit, but he's clearly earned the back-up PG spot and should continue to see some time at the 2 as well unless Spivy or Jones play so well that they simply can't remain on the bench.   

Williams has a few areas it can improve on: cleaning up some careless turnovers, doing a better job of getting right in the face of 3 point shooters consistently (make those guys put the ball on the floor, especially since there are so many long arms inside on defense), and improving free throw shooting.  But those things should all come in time. 

[Cactus Jack]

It's the end of November and declarative statements about March are already being made?  Can you pick stocks for my portfolio PLEASE based on your clairvoyance!

Do you disagree with those teams?

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

It's the end of November and declarative statements about March are already being made?  Can you pick stocks for my portfolio PLEASE based on your clairvoyance!

Do you disagree with those teams?

To be fair ... it was two years ago when people were predicting Amherst was going to make another run to the final four ... thanks in part to a thrilling victory, in overtime and at home, against Babson.

Amherst was 10-8 after that ... lost four of their last five including backdooring their way into the NCAA tournament and losing in the first round.

While I agree that Williams and Hamilton are certainly pretty good teams and most eyes are on them this season, there is still a LOT of basketball to be played.

BTW Tufts and Middlebury won the regular season two years ago...

[Old Guy]

Early season thoughts on the Ephs, and really it's hard to find much fault with a team that is 5-0, with a 32 ppg scoring margin.

The Ephs are playing as predicted. Could one find "fault" perhaps with the schedule (32.2 pp scoring margin)?

[nescac1]

I think the Ephs' early schedule is fine (not great but in line with the rest of NESCAC).  Two of the five teams made the NCAA tourney last year, and a third (Salem) won 22 games.  Yeshiva in particular is better than its record suggests.  I wish MCLA were better, but as the Ephs' closest geographic competitor (by a significant margin) the two will always play.  That massive blow out contributed a lot to the skewed statistical margin to date ...

[Mountain Man]

Early season thoughts on the Ephs, and really it's hard to find much fault with a team that is 5-0, with a 32 ppg scoring margin.

The Ephs are playing as predicted. Could one find "fault" perhaps with the schedule (32.2 pp scoring margin)?

They have not been tested in any way.  It sure looks like Wesleyan game on Saturday is less daunting with their struggles.

[Mountain Man]

DeLorenzo is very easy to root for. Very unassuming but talented. Great to see him aggressive and comfortable.
This was not a one game cameo. This was a product of hard work & patience that he can build on.

Keith Brown posting up Farrell for most of the game was a winner for the Panthers.
Trade 3s for 2s all day with the Gull's best 3 point shooter.
Perry provides an answer on defense to taller stronger guards posting up Farrell & Bosco.

One more note on Gulls. No cheap 3s at all. Several 27-29 footers had Coach Brown perplexed.

[nescac1]

Williams-Wesleyan games tend to be ugly, physical, closely-contested affairs, and the Cards do get the Ephs at home.  They have split the last six games with three of them coming down to essentially the last possession, and two of last year's games went to overtime.  Wesleyan does seem to be struggling a bit finding an identity (for the third straight game, an awful assist-to-turnover ratio), but that will make them even more desparate.  Wesleyan will be the first team Williams plays that can essentially match the Ephs' size, so Williams will need to modify its approach.  I would expect that to be a very competitive rivalry game, even if right now Williams looks stronger on paper. 

As for Wesleyan, the Cards will need to right the ship soon if they hope to be a Pool C contender come February ... with two losses already, the Cards play, within the next eleven games, Williams x2, Amherst, Middlebury, Hamilton, SUNY-Plattsburgh, and Johnson & Wales.  Wesleyan needs to win probably four of those seven games, which will be no easy task, before the schedule lightens up a bit.