MBB: NESCAC

[nescac1]

Jayhawk, his shoulder was wrapped in some sort of massive bandage on the sideline, so not a good sign. 

[nescac1]

Conts Fan, Williams is not a team that beats the better opponents with athleticism, no doubt. 

Speaking of athleticism I've been really impressed by how the Hamilton bench has improved over the course of the season.  Denloye, Osarenren and Kendall are a VERY athletic trio whose games are starting to catch up with their raw athletic skills.  Those three I imagine will be starters next year and all have shown starter-level skills at times.  Kendall had two of the nastier dunks I've seen in NESCAC this season (in the very limited minutes I watched) today.  And Lutz gives them another ace shooter.  Their energy and explosiveness of the bench makes Hamilton much tougher. 

[Conts Fan]

The second game definitely features a lot more size than the first game...Schneider is really challenging a lot of shots

[nescacfaninbos]

And Lutz gives them another ace shooter.  Their energy and explosiveness of the bench makes Hamilton much tougher.

And  Lutz is shooting a remarkable 48% from 3 on the year on 88 attempts.

[Colby Hoops]

Man, Amherst is TOUGH. Beating Williams three times in one season is impressive. Robinson is an absolute stud, crazy to think he's only a sophomore. Schneider was huge in that game, he controlled Karpowicz in the second half (Karp dominated the other Amherst bigs). Amherst as a whole guards so well, Allen is a pest and Che is perhaps the best defender in the league.

For Williams, there's just so much pressure on Casey and Heskett to score. Still going to be a tough out in the tournament, but I'm doubtful that they're a national title contender as they looked early in the season.

[nescac1]

Well, another tough loss for Williams vs. Amherst this year.  The Ephs have had their chances, and were up by 5 with only a few minutes left before it all sort of fell apart.  Late in the games, Amherst has just made more plays.  Grant Robinson was amazing for Amherst and carried the team on his back to the victory, he has one of the best individual efforts I've seen in NESCAC all year.  Only a sophomore, scary.  Schneider was a force on D, I thought he could have been called for a few more fouls as he seemed to make a lot of contact on a lot of plays, but he also had loads of clean blocks, and there were plenty of complaints about reffing to go around from both teams. 

Amherst an incredible 22-23 from the line.  Williams, a pedestrian 16-24.  That was the difference in the game in a game with a ton of fouls on both squads.  Ephs continue to struggle from 3.  Williams should be in the NCAA tourney but the shooting from both the three point line and the foul line will need to improve if they hope to get back on track.

[old_hooper]

Don't know when the last time Amherst beat Ephs 3 times in a year.  Robinson was spectacular today with tremendous help from teammates on hounding defense.  Big Joe played one of his best games of his career.  Very well played game that was physical on both ends.  Should be a grind-out game tomorrow with Hamilton.  Can the Ephs regroup for the tournament?

[jayhawk]

appreciate comments
NESCAC1 very classy in his insightful comments
Thought Williams was going to win with Sellew out and Che with early foul trouble in second half
Best game all year for Grant Robinson, Devonn Allen, and Joe Schneider
Williams has al ot of talent ,off night for Casey while I reallly feel that Karpowicz is a tough cover in the post
Of course Scadlock and Heskett talented they should get a NCAA bind

[amh63]

Had to review the box scores of the games in Clinton...did watch most of the games played, especially the last halves of both games.  Took a "timeout" for dinner.   Looked at the stats and box scores again after dinner...and read the comments on this board. 
Some random comments and initial thoughts.
Liked the announcer....he did his homework, though he initially associated Aaron Toomey with Williams on the subject of assist leaders in the Nescac .  I believe he will call the game on Sunday.
Amherst had a 5 point lead at the half and the game ended with both teams scoring 34 points in the 2nd half.
Amherst only missed one foul shot on the foul line and it was by the Amherst and game high scorer Grant Robinson with 32 points.   Amherst front court players neutralized Williams "bigs"...led by Big Joe who was credited with 7 blocks.  He even came out and blocked one of Casey's 3-pt shots.  The announcer praised his defensive play and noted that he made ALL his shoots for 10 points.
Interesting ...to me...was that Amherst used more of their bench than Williams; though the Ephs bench players were quite effective.
Finally, it is really hard to beat Williams three times in a season....maybe they will meet again in the post season.
Tufts play in their lost to Host Hamilton showed they will be a top team in the conference next season. 
Whoever wins the game on Sunday will Not hurt Midd's selection changes in the NCAA Tourny, IMO.

[D3HforLyfe]

Board! Missed you guys.

   Didn't get to watch Tufts-Hamilton earlier, but what a great second semi-final between Williams and Amherst. Despite an atmosphere that seemed less than championship caliber in that airplane hanger of a gym, I thought it was a really well played game both ways. Let me just start with the obvious, as I'm sure everyone else will too: what a game by Grant Robinson. 32 points, only 1 turnover in 38 minutes as the primary ball handler, great defense throughout, and huge plays down the stretch (those back-to-back buckets after the Casey 3 had just pushed the Ephs lead 5 had to be the two biggest buckets of Amherst's season, right?). To throw the Mammoths on his back in a game where their second best player (Sellew) essentially didn't play after dislocating his shoulder and neither Che nor Day had particularly good offensive games should place Robinson's performance even higher in the long historical line of great Amherst basketball big-time efforts.
   While it was Robinson's day, Amherst did get very noticeable lifts from both Schneider and Allen. First, I was happy for Big Joe to have perhaps the best game of his career with 10 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 BLOCKS on a day that they really needed it. He simply dominated the paint against the monster front line that the Ephs own. For a player that was so highly touted coming into the NESCAC out of high school and has had to face some, I think, unfair criticism over his collegiate career, it was fun to see him do what he did today. On the other side, I can't say enough good things about how Allen played. He was so solid defensively, hit some big shots, and had one of the biggest plays of the day with a late defensive rebound off of a Casey bomb that would have tied it. Tyson from Colby should be ROY, but Allen proved something on a big stage today as a freshman. 

   Where does this game leave us? With Sellew most likely out tomorrow, I think Hamilton wins fairly convincingly on their home floor, which excites me. I love when one of the 'usual 3' don't win it and, as I have said before, Adam Stockwell is a very, very good coach who deserves to finally get a championship in his 8th year of revamping the Continentals program back to the level that its Godfather Tom Murphy would want it to be. Obviously, can't count it in the books for Hamilton yet - Amherst is so stingy defensively that it is possible they keep this game in the 60s, and if that is the case I wouldn't bet against Robinson down the stretch. That guy is cold-blooded.
   For Williams, I'm a bit perplexed. I think they will be the third (and, in my opinion) final NESCAC team to make the NCAA Tournament field, but I'm not sure they deserve it with how they finished the season. I just don't know what is going on. After these guys beat my Cards for the second time, I really thought they had an outside chance to run the table, probably would lose one somewhere, and would for sure not drop more than two. To end up with six losses overall, including four out of their last five, is one of the strangest droughts I've seen in my time following d3, especially considering I really believe this team has just as much, if not more, talent than anyone in the country (I do not watch enough d3 basketball to make this claim, but I will anyways). For that reason though, if they do in fact get in the tournament, I am not counting them out. Maybe this will light a fire, they will find their groove again, and then will tear off four in a row to end up in the inaugural Fort Wayne Final Four.

   Since I have been dormant on the board for a while (at the behest of an Old Guy request a few weeks back), I will quickly comment on my Fightin' Cards. They toyed with my emotions this season in a way that no team I have cheered for at any level of sport ever has in the past. On December 1st, at 3-3 after embarrassing home losses to Eastern Conn and Williams, I decided I was going to be content with making the NESCAC Tournament.  On January 12th, after a remarkable home conference win over Amherst, if you would have told me that they would be playing for their NESCAC tournament lives on senior day against Bowdoin, I would have called you crazier than my guy Mountain Man after a poor Middlebury performance. Heck, even just a few weeks ago, Wesleyan beat Bates on the road and were 5-1 in league, had won 12 of their last 13 overall, owned a real 'CAC POY candidate, and were staring down a matinee with an inconsistent Tufts Jumbos squad that seemed like it was going to be a win as well. What happened? The genesis of our crazy season is, I believe, the same one that plagues Williams and also what makes all of college basketball both so fun and so gut-wrenching at the same damn time: it's really hard to predict how stupid 18-23 year old college kids are going to perform on a month-to-month, week-to-week, and even night-to-night basis. My Cards were particularly youthful this season with 2 out of their top 3 and 7 of their top 9 underclassmen. While Austin Hutcherson is incredible, he is still only a sophomore. All in all, it was a season of growing pains that was most likely needed to produce what I think will be a really good two year stretch coming up. 16-9 and a NESCAC Quarterfinal Tournament exit feels like underachieving right now, but in reality I think Reilly's club is right on track for where it should be moving forward with this group.

AWARDS
   
POY: Gilmour
DPOY: Robinson
ROY: Tyson
COY: Stockwell

1st Team:
Gilmour
Robinson
Hutcherson
Casey
Jefferson

2nd Team:
Grassey
Heskett
Farrell 
Bonner
Simonds

FINAL NOTES

Note #1: Someone probably already reported on this, but I found out a few weeks ago that Jeremy Arthur is having a very, very good last season of eligibility at Franklin Pierce. He is averaging 11.4 PPG (46/43/85), 2.9 RPG, 1.6 APG and has started 20 of 27 games going into the Ravens regular season finale on Tuesday at Bentley. Those are impressive stats in the great conference that is the NE-10, and makes me feel even better about my pre-season prediction that Trinity would have been a serious contender had Arthur been back this season.

Note #2: While I haven't posted in much over the past couple of months, I have continued to be a frequent visitor. I just want to thank you guys (and potentialy gals) for another awesome season on here before I (most likely) sign off for a while again. Particularly to the 5-8 posters that carry this board, you guys do such a great job of covering this league and it makes it that much more fun to follow.

[D3HforLyfe]

One correction from my post...Forgot Stockwell won COY last year, and it feels weird to give it to him back-to-back years. Jeff Brown would be a fair choice, I would vote for Damien Strahorn and/or Dave Hixon though.

[nescacfaninbos]

Despite an atmosphere that seemed less than championship caliber in that airplane hanger of a gym

I watched both games and have never been in Hamilton's gym before but the atmosphere for the first game seemed great, place was packed. Curious how that compared to semifinals in the past. It appears the gym emptied out after the first game, probably to watch Hamilton's Men's hockey team beat Williams in OT.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Don't know when the last time Amherst beat Ephs 3 times in a year.  Robinson was spectacular today with tremendous help from teammates on hounding defense.  Big Joe played one of his best games of his career.  Very well played game that was physical on both ends.  Should be a grind-out game tomorrow with Hamilton.  Can the Ephs regroup for the tournament?

Don't know if they've done it even more recently, but in 2014 Amherst easily won the first three games against Williams, then was absolutely chased out of town in Salem.

[Conts Fan]

Despite an atmosphere that seemed less than championship caliber in that airplane hanger of a gym

I watched both games and have never been in Hamilton's gym before but the atmosphere for the first game seemed great, place was packed. Curious how that compared to semifinals in the past. It appears the gym emptied out after the first game, probably to watch Hamilton's Men's hockey team beat Williams in OT.

I imagine flipping the order of the games would result in a better crowd for the out of town teams.

[amh63]

Up early...for me..to check scores and weather on the East Coast.  Grandchild returning home from Florida today.  Found out that the Amherst vs. Hamilton game is at Noon!  Had it in my head that it was a 1pm start.
Some more random comments.
Old Guy's prediction of the scores yesterday and JEFFFAN's pre game trends were both great.
Host team having the first game allows more rest if they win.  Still the players are young and should recover.
Sellew's Injury is worrisome.  Amherst will need him in the games to come....though in the earlier lost to Hamilton his minutes on the floor  were limited. 
Lots of rain this morning in the DC area...temps to reach 60 plus!  Strange weather.  High winds sweeping the East Coast.