MBB: NESCAC

[JEFFFAN]

I'm watching this Amherst-Wesleyan game.  It appears Wesleyan has an actual child as an assistant coach.  He's short and young and wearing a suit.  Is there a story there?

Speaking of that game.  Man.  Have you ever seen two teams try to give a win away at the end as badly as those two did?  Wow.

Not sure I saw that same ending other than Amherst almost losing a five point lead   Amherst doesn't have any three point shooters but they were good inside in the last two minutes   The defensive work on Hutchinson (sp?) at the very end was terrific   That kid can play   Amherst moves to 6-2 and for what it's worth wins the Little Three!

[toad22]

I'm watching this Amherst-Wesleyan game.  It appears Wesleyan has an actual child as an assistant coach.  He's short and young and wearing a suit.  Is there a story there?

Speaking of that game.  Man.  Have you ever seen two teams try to give a win away at the end as badly as those two did?  Wow.

Not sure I saw that same ending other than Amherst almost losing a five point lead   Amherst doesn't have any three point shooters but they were good inside in the last two minutes   The defensive work on Hutchinson (sp?) at the very end was terrific   That kid can play   Amherst moves to 6-2 and for what it's worth wins the Little Three!

Not so fast, Williams is 2-1 in Little Three play so far, and so is Amherst. The winner take all game is Friday in Williamstown!

[nescac1]

I've been impressed with Eric Sellew's recent play.  He seems dramatically improved over the past year. 

These Little 3 games this year have all been ugly, incredibly hard-fought defensive struggles.  All three squads are better on D than on O.  I'd be surprised by anything different on Friday.  Chandler should be hopping. 

[SaintPaulite]

I'm watching this Amherst-Wesleyan game.  It appears Wesleyan has an actual child as an assistant coach.  He's short and young and wearing a suit.  Is there a story there?

Maybe they hired Mark John Jeffrey? (who is probably an adult now)

[jayhawk]

NESCAC1 appreciate your thoughtful and fair comments
Agree Eric Sellew has been playing better more like he did in high school where he scored off dribble drivoes
Was a guard initially and between sophomore and junior year I think he grew 6 or 7 inches
In general has tended to have close to a double double in scoring and rebounds  each game

Joe Schneider also with a good game with 12 rebounds
Like the Williams players as seniors trying to go out on a winning note

[Conts Fan]

Not sure I saw that same ending other than Amherst almost losing a five point lead   Amherst doesn't have any three point shooters but they were good inside in the last two minutes   The defensive work on Hutchinson (sp?) at the very end was terrific   That kid can play   Amherst moves to 6-2 and for what it's worth wins the Little Three!

That game was non-league - Amherst still 5-2

[jayhawk]

In viewing the total picture for Amherst is that the win against Wesleyan was non-conference. In non-conference games Amherst has had wins against Williams, and Wesleyan, and Eastern Connecticut State, 3 quality teams.  Eastern Connecticut State has started to move up in the rankings in the Northeast with a solid 16 wins -5 loses

Obviously the three next games on the road against Williams, Middlebury, and Hamilton are all excellent teams and present a real challenge

[JEFFFAN]

With apologies to the Wesleyan and Williams fans for jumping the gun on the Little Three championship, I admit to finding the whole conference / non-conference scheduling absurd for small, liberal arts basketball.   Teams play 25 plus games a year - what difference does it make whether it is in conference or not?   Silly.

If the Jeffs can go 1-2 in the next three games, that would be a reasonable result.   Brutal end of regular season schedule!

[amh63]

Several comments wrt the Amh vs Wes game on Tuesday. 
..Both teams high scoring Soph stars were held in check wrt to scoring, etc.  Was it the defense and/or the pressure?
..Both coaches inserted FY guards that contributed points and made defensive stops.  Amherst had two FY guards on the floor for significant minutes.
..Amherst has a "3-point Challenge" in play and Amherst made more 3-points last night though shot a lower field goal percentage.  Amherst made all their foul shots, including the last two by Sewell that gave Amherst 61 points.
..Great Defensive stop on Wes's Star in the last 15 plus sec. that helped in the win....missed 3 point shot.
..Amherst broke a seven game Wes winning streak over the JEFFS last night.
...last season Amherst won over both Midd and Ham in home games.
...A win in Willytown will put Amherst in a good position in many ways including SOS .

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

With apologies to the Wesleyan and Williams fans for jumping the gun on the Little Three championship, I admit to finding the whole conference / non-conference scheduling absurd for small, liberal arts basketball.   Teams play 25 plus games a year - what difference does it make whether it is in conference or not?   Silly.

If the Jeffs can go 1-2 in the next three games, that would be a reasonable result.   Brutal end of regular season schedule!

Because the NESCAC isn't playing a double-round-robin, then the second game against a conference opponent isn't going to be considered a conference game. And aren't all conference games actually played on the weekends while all those not related to the conference are played during the week?

And it makes a difference because of standings. Going to screw up the standings if you count extra games.

[NEhoops]

When WES was sitting at 4-1 in league play I was thinking that they would cruise to a regular season conference title. At that point they had already defeated MID/HAM/AMH and had, what most would agree, the easiest part of their schedule coming up.

They've since lost three straight (one of which was the non-league AMH game) and are fighting for a top four seeding. Their tie-breakers will go a long way. They end with BOW/COL in CT, but will clearly need to start playing better to make any post season noise. It's interesting to see the scoring discrepancy for Hutcherson in wins (25ppg) and losses (15ppg).   

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Here are the first rankings for the men this season: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2019/02/men-regional-rankings-first

[nescac1]

Interesting regional rankings (listed below from Dave's link).  These do not reflect Amherst's win over Wesleyan this week, which will likely flip those two teams in the rankings, essentially.  Amherst still has work to do to get into the Pool C mix based on these rankings, but has three huge opportunities to do so over the next week ... going 2-1 in those three games would probably be enough.  Wesleyan will probably need a big run (at least three straight wins, including at least one NESCAC tourney win) to have any kind of shot at a Pool C bid, that last second loss to Amherst is huge for them.  Williams will be rooting hard for Wesleyan to sweep the Maine teams this weekend, which would probably keep the Cards' in the regional rankings and preserve two wins versus a ranked team for the Ephs ... (their only others as of now are vs. Yeshiva and Montclair State, although of course, two more opportunities this weekend).  If any NESCAC team OTHER than Amherst/Midd/Wesleyan/Hamilton/Williams wins the league title, then that would REALLY muck things up. 

It will be interesting to see if MIT holds the top spot if it wins out.  Probably yes, unless Williams wins out (won't be easy), in which case I think the Ephs would likely jump over them.  Williams is a virtual Pool C lock but needs one more win to feel really comfortable.  Midd probably needs at least one more win (either this weekend or in the NESCAC tourney) and Hamilton two to feel comfortable, but both clearly control their own destinies.   

I imagine that these rankings could change dramatically based on the outcome of the Midd/Williams/Amherst/Hamilton showdown.  After those four games, we will have a much clearer sense of where things stand.   

       
   Northeast       
1   MIT   19-2   19-2
2   Williams   19-3   19-3
3   Nichols   19-2   19-2
4   Middlebury   16-5   17-5
5   Gordon   19-2   19-2
6   Hamilton   19-2   19-2
7   Eastern Connecticut   16-5   16-5
8   Wesleyan   15-6   15-6
9   WPI   16-5   16-5
10   Keene State   15-7   15-7
11   Amherst   17-3   17-3

[middhoops]

The regional rankings look similar to the RPI rankings posted recently. 

Dave, it appears that the D3hoops.com weekly rankings are based more on wins and losses than these regional rankings which would seem to rely more on SOS by comparison.  Is that accurate?

[Pat Coleman]

I don't think there's a blanket statement to be made either way. Our voters are not as enamored with Gordon College, for example.

Over the past few years, you used to, for lack of a better term, be able to cash in .030 of your SOS and get two losses knocked off your record. The committee has been instructed not to do that any longer, so you may actually find SOS means a little less this year than it has recently.