MBB: NESCAC

[booyakasha]

Not Nescac but basketball related obscure factoid of the day:

In 2015, the Dallas Mavericks had three point guards on the roster: Deron Williams, JJ Barea, and Raymond Felton.

All three were born June 26, 1984.

[grabtherim]

Bucket:
Factoid that may only be interesting to me: The top three teams in the NESCAC tournament all lost to their first-round opponents this year.

Great point Bucket. 
For the first time in my memory, I will not be surprised by any road win in the 1st round of the NESCAC tournament.  This has to be the most wide open tournament among the 8 teams playing in many years if not ever. 
 

[MiddWatcher]

Much better ! Great to see some idle chatter going into the Tournament - and some remarkable tidbits of info, too ! I will stick with the local guys from Midd ! In a wide open tournament, it could be anyone, that's for sure. Will make it more fun. RE: Midd. Not the most talented Midd team, probably, but a very, very likable one. I do have a Midd connection and I see those guys around campus - and they are a Together, well-liked group. Outstanding recruiting efforts by Coaches Dudley ( previous assistant ), Coach Brown and now, Coach Merrill. Coach B has a way of putting together a group that flows well together. To that end, re: my comment about the Colby game. MMan mentioned Folger on Jefferson - and he was - but during the first half stretch midway through Folger's caddy was guarding Jefferson and caused 3 misses and the guy got so ticked off he pushed the Midd player to the floor and picked up a foul to boot ! And in the second half, the 15-0 Midd run that broke the game open came with the backup on the floor in a unique very small perimeter-based defensive lineup that challenged every shot from 20 feet out. The really cool " Team Thing" was that the guy leading the cheers from the bench ( he never sat down ! ), up and waving and cheering - was Folger. That is what Team is all about.  Probably everyone has some measure of that ( I know the Colby group is famous for it ), but I will submit that the teamwork aspect of this current Middlebury team might be enough to put them over the top. Who knows ? It is an intangible. And Pepin Gym will be rockin'.  ( the students have been away for every home game, it seems. finally, they will be in-house ! )  Good luck to all the fan - dom from each school.
It's anyone's tournament.

[NEhoops]

Quick snapshot and total guess of each teams tournament hopes heading into the conference tournament. NOTE: Wesleyan and Colby can't both make it to the final.

Wesleyan – need to get to the final 
Amherst – in no matter what    

Tufts – need to win the conference tournament
Middlebury – one win and they're in    

Colby – need to get to the final
Hamilton – in no matter what       

Trinity – need to win the conference tournament
Williams – one win and they're in

What do you think?

[ContinentalDomer]

No.  The game casts are the property of the schools.  Beyond occasional highlight tapes (Williams, Amherst and a few others do a decent job with these), there isn't much out there aside from services like NSN that sell individual game DVDs (not cheap).  You can find those here:  https://store.nsnsports.net/product-category/nescac/ However, NSN does not appear to cover all NESCAC games.  Perhaps others know more.

Is there anywhere online where you can watch archived games from this season? I know the NESCAC app on Apple TV has a few, but most of the games seem to disappear as soon as the game concludes.

[JEFFFAN]

Quick snapshot and total guess of each teams tournament hopes heading into the conference tournament. NOTE: Wesleyan and Colby can't both make it to the final.

Wesleyan – need to get to the final 
Amherst – in no matter what    

Tufts – need to win the conference tournament
Middlebury – one win and they're in    

Colby – need to get to the final
Hamilton – in no matter what       

Trinity – need to win the conference tournament
Williams – one win and they're in

What do you think?

That is a very good analysis.   I would almost think that three times - Amherst, Middlebury, Hamilton - are 100% in regardless of whether they win a game or not.   Williams is probably 90% due to SOS but this late season slump would have to worry the folks doing the seeding.

[Colby Hoops]

Quick snapshot and total guess of each teams tournament hopes heading into the conference tournament. NOTE: Wesleyan and Colby can't both make it to the final.

Wesleyan – need to get to the final 
Amherst – in no matter what    

Tufts – need to win the conference tournament
Middlebury – one win and they're in    

Colby – need to get to the final
Hamilton – in no matter what       

Trinity – need to win the conference tournament
Williams – one win and they're in

What do you think?

That is a very good analysis.   I would almost think that three times - Amherst, Middlebury, Hamilton - are 100% in regardless of whether they win a game or not.   Williams is probably 90% due to SOS but this late season slump would have to worry the folks doing the seeding.

I also think Colby has a decent shot to be in if they beat  Hamilton based on what I was reading on the Pool C board. I'm far from an expert on this stuff though.

[Old Guy]

Quick snapshot and total guess of each teams tournament hopes heading into the conference tournament. NOTE: Wesleyan and Colby can't both make it to the final.

Wesleyan – need to get to the final 
Amherst – in no matter what    

Tufts – need to win the conference tournament
Middlebury – one win and they're in    

Colby – need to get to the final
Hamilton – in no matter what       

Trinity – need to win the conference tournament
Williams – one win and they're in

What do you think?

That is a very good analysis.   I would almost think that three times - Amherst, Middlebury, Hamilton - are 100% in regardless of whether they win a game or not.   Williams is probably 90% due to SOS but this late season slump would have to worry the folks doing the seeding.

I also think Colby has a decent shot to be in if they beat  Hamilton based on what I was reading on the Pool C board. I'm far from an expert on this stuff though.

What a great story Colby is this year. At the beginning of the season, projections gave them no chance, maybe going winless in the league, in danger of relegation at season's end. Now nobody wants any part of them. Hamilton will have to bring its A game. They have a shot at the tournament, the big tournament, not the conference tournament. Any discussion of Strahorn as COY?

[amh63]

Scanning the weekend WSJ journal before going to Disney World to have lunch with my daughter and family.  Caught an article about NET the newest evaluation "tool" being used by the NCAA to select teams for March Madness so to speak.  Had mention the term in an earlier post.
NET ....NCAA Evaluation Tool...is being used this season for Men's basketball.  RPI will still be used for WBB and other sports..for now?  Anyway, it was evaluated during the 2017-2018 season.  Seems it will bring some order to all the other polls around.
Question not answered?  Will NET be used for D3 MBB?   Was it used in the recent NCAA regional rankings/ratings?
Good comments being posted on this board...without the use of analytic tools, I believe

[nescac1]

Great win for the Ephs over a very determined and much-improved Trinity team.  The Ephs dominated the paint on offense  but made it tough on themselves with a slew of missed free throws (24-40) which kept the game closer than it should have been.  The Ephs did, however, hit clutch free throws late to ice the game.

For Williams, the player of the game was definitely Karp, who had I'd say the best overall game of his career going up against a very tough opponent in Donald Jorden ... 19-9-5 (including some really gorgeous passing) plus 2 steals and 3 blocks, in what I'm almost certain was a career high 29 minutes.  Williams will need more games like that from him if they hope to win against Amherst, in the NESCAC finals, or in the NCAA tourney.  As predicted by a Midd fan, Kyle Scadlock was massive down low down the stretch, he banged hard and was relentless today.  Henry Feinberg continues his fine recent run of play, he has really improved and is doing a great job finishing plays.  Bobby Casey couldn't make the easy ones tonight but hit a bunch of brutally tough layups in the paint.  And Heskett made some really clutch shots at dangerous points of the game, hopefully he will be all the way healthy next weekend. 

Concerns for Williams -- several times guys over-helped on drivers leaving open shooters in the corners/wings, a consistent issue in recent weeks.  Unless the paint is WIDE open, stay home on those shooters and make dudes convert a driving shot in the paint instead.  The bench only scored one point.  The bench doesn't need to contribute a lot on offense, but does need to give Williams something.  And Trinity got a lot of second-chance points in this one, 17 offensive boards is way too many to give up and Williams needs to get to more loose balls.   

Joe Bell was on fire for Trinity, making some very tough outside shots.  Jorden had some very nice plays on both ends but was in foul trouble all night.  He is going to be a monster as an upperclassman, very Whittington-esque in how he uses his strength, long arms and jumping ability to score and board over bigger guys.  Trinity is going to be much improved next year with all but one guy returning.  They still lack that consistent go-to scorer but they have a lot of tough, relentless athletic guys and are rarely fun to play against. 

Hopefully Williams can play a bit looser now knowing they are a virtual lock for the NCAA tourney.  Middlebury will have to sweat it out (as NESCAC continues to be crazy this year) but I think they probably squeeze in and play on the road in round 1.  No one else stands a chance. 

[old_hooper]

Wild day in CAC!  Tufts pulls out monster upset over Midd.  Next week at Hamilton.  Got to give so much credit to Colby for an amazing year.  Could not stop Continentals down the stretch.  Williams put it together to hold off a gutsy Trinity team.  Amherst builds up 14 point lead against Wes and jacks up 3s with 25 seconds left on shot clock and 8-9 minutes to go, do not understand why Hixon allows them to do that.

Home court will be slight advantage for next week.  Does Hamilton get Tufts since they are the high seed and Tufts the low seed or is it 1 & 4 bracket?

[nescac1]

Hamilton will play Tufts, and Williams will play Amherst.  Tufts needs to win out, but the other three teams are virtual locks at this point for the NCAA tourney.  If one of those three wins the league tourney, they will be hosting two rounds and I think very likely hosting all the way until the Final Four.  I think Williams-Amherst winner likely hosts in the first round of the tourney as well. 

Always fun to have a bonus rivalry game, Williams will need to figure out a few new wrinkles to throw at Amherst as the Mammoths seem pretty locked in right now ... Fru Che hasn't been talked about enough, to me he is the DPOY in the league and his shooting has become a weapon as well, sounds like he had quite a game today. 

[jumpshot]

Ephs earn an important win over Trinity, as well described by NESCAC1.

Trinity fouls the Ephs 52 times in two games this season, resulting in 62 points for Williams in winning both games. Today four Trinity starters foul out ....

Current coach and long-standing culture of rough play really not always helpful ....resulting in losing margin in the two games of 47 points.

Need to be a bit more nuanced and flexible in style of play to fit the opponent rather than simply complain, taunt and hack style ....

[Old Guy]

Tufts couldn't miss, Midd couldn't spit in the ocean, hit the broadside of a barn door (my dad's favorite), couldn't hit a bull in the ass with a fiddle (my high school baseball coach): the Panthers will not beat many NESCAC teams shooting 4-24 from the arc. We had the shots we wanted and the shooters taking them (Folger 1-6, Farrell 0-3, Bosco 1-5, Leighton 1-4), but they didn't fall (I know, I know, credit Tufts for some of that, but still, 4-24?)

Midd was up five with about 5:00 minutes to play, committed a four point foul and Tufts went on an 18-4 rout to end the game. Folger was called for foul #5 with about three and a half minutes left on an utterly clean block and the game still tight, but that happens.

I thought it was an ugly, ugly game for the Panthers until a Middlebury parent, showing remarkable restraint, explained to me that Tufts was a tough matchup for us, with enough speed in the backcourt that Middlebury's guards could just run by them, and enough length in the front court to neutralize Midd's thin front court (both McCord and Folger were in foul trouble throughout).

A game with a lot on the line, and the Panthers fell short, not their finest hour. But they played hard as they always do. Big crowd, unaccustomed to disappointment of this sort, hoping for some magic. Not to be today.   

[AllStar]