MBB: NESCAC

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Two Hamilton alumni, Peter Hoffmann and Michael Grassey, will play basketball and study in Ireland this year as Victory Scholars in the Sport Changes Life program.  Hoffmann will play for Cork IT, and Grassey will play for Waterford IT.  Here is a complete list of this year's SCL players:http://sportchangeslife.com/news/introducing-the-sport-changes-life-victory-scholar-class-of-2020/

Last year, former Trinity star Shay Ajayi (Ulster University) and two Amherst alumni, Johnny McCarthy (IT Carlow) and Mike Riopel (Ulster U.), were SCL Victory Scholars.  Matt St. Amour (Midd) and Jack Mackey (Wes) recently played in the SCL program as well.

I wrote a whole story about it last season:

https://www.d3hoops.com/columns/around-the-nation/2018-19/alumni-d3-ideals-ireland

[nescacfaninbos]

Looks like Hamilton's freshman class has arrived

https://twitter.com/hamcollmbball/status/1163948018900590592?s=21

[SpringSt7]

Jayhawk,

Williams was 2nd in the country this year--37.5% to Amherst's 37.3%. But interestingly enough, the Ephs were number 1 going into their Elite 8 game, in which Christopher Newport shot 26-54, or 48.1%. Had they lost in the sweet 16, they would have finished the season at 37.2%. Something tells me they wouldn't switch places with the LJs!

This is a category that the NESCAC has dominated recently. In fact, in the 2017-18 season, Amherst, Wesleyan, Trinity, and Williams were 1, 2, 4, and 5 in the country, with Middlebury not far behind in 14th. The season before featured Wesleyan (2nd), Amherst (7th), and Bates (12th) at the top of the leaderboards.

[amh63]

Hamilton's FYs' arrived first in the Nescac.  Wandered over to the MBB site and see that there are five new members expected to join the MBB team.  Nice size.  Interesting to me is that two of the players were coached by the Middlesex Magic HC....a fine player when he was at Williams.

[hopefan]

I collect all D3 schedules and put then into a huge spreadsheet... done manually, it keeps me quite busy, and entertained, in the late summer months and fall months....during the season I download scores of games and provide data to several of the boards, as well as communicate to D3hoops if they've missed a score...

At this time of the year, approximately 2/3 of D3 schools have posted their schedules...In Some conferences, every school has posted their schedule by now.

My question to NESCAC posters.... No NESCAC school has posted their schedule yet...Why?.. if one of you is an insider at one of the schools, what is the thinking?..... is there a conference policy that all the SID's are adhering to?  If I was a NESCAC fan and saw close to 300 schools outside of the NESCAC with schedules posted, I'd be Frustrated for sure, if not upset, that I couldn't yet see my favorite NESCAC team's schedule, even though classes have started or are soon to start....  and the answer that the SID offices are too busy with fall to spend time on Winter sports wouldn't satisfy me when I see other top notch conferences like the CCIW, the MIAA, the NWC, nearly or totally complete.....Don't get me wrong, I'm not condemning, I'm just curious as to why...

[nescacfaninbos]

And looks like Williams first-years have arrived as well, impressive size here in this class also..

https://twitter.com/CoachKevinApp/status/1165983384449011713?s=20

[amh63]

hopefan..I can only state "it is what it is".   The Nescac schools compete for two titles each year...the conference title and the national title....both men and women.  The teams travel across the country to play.  The regular season has a fix number of games... with few slots for out of conference games.  Often, former regular out of conference games are dropped by the opponent.  Opponents change coaches or in a rebuilding mode, etc, etc.  WPI is an example.  A regular season lost often impacts post season selection chances.  Amherst would play RIC each season.  RIC's coach moved up to D1 and the new coach dropped Amherst. 

[hopefan]

hopeful....I can only state "it is what it is".   The Nescac schools compete for two titles each year...the conference title and the national title....both men and women.  The teams travel across the country to play.  The regular season has a fix number of games... with few slots for out of conference games.  Often, former regular out of conference games are dropped by the opponent.  Opponents change coaches or in a rebuilding mode, etc, etc.  WPI is an example.  A regular season lost often impacts post season selection chances.  Amherst would play RIC each season.  RIC's coach moved up to D1 and the new coach dropped Amherst.

no offense, but I don't understand this answer at all, as far as putting out schedules go..
"The Nescac schools compete for two titles each year...the conference title and the national title"...... doesn't everyone?

"The teams travel across the country to play."    what does that have to do with getting schedules out? and, if you are talking about men's basketball, only 3 teams travelled across the country last year ....Colby played in California, Conn College played in Florida, and Williams went out to Whitman in the Tourney

"The regular season has a fix number of games... with few slots for out of conference games."  That's obviously not correct for basketball...

I don't know... I would think most men's hoops schedules are set by the time school starts... either that's wrong and the NESCAC goes into September filling their schedule, OR, for some reason, the teams just don't release the schedules on a timely basis....

[amh63]

hopefan...sorry about my error wrt to your handle.
More clarity wrt my post requires more understanding of the Nescac athletic programs.  The schools perform quite well in the post seasons....reflected in the Lear Cup D3 standings.  Therefore National Titles by Nescac schools in many sports are not uncommon....period....individual and team sports. However, football does not go into post season and there are academic limits on other sports too. A number of regional schools often will not schedule Nescac schools and will drop a Nescac school in a sport if the opponent coach projects it will hurts his team's post season chances.  Yes, there are HCs' with a strong team that will schedule a Nescac school in hopes of a win that will enhance post season chances.  It is what it is....the schedules will come out when teams start practices.

[nescac1]

Greg St. Jean, former Wesleyan player, was recently named to the Lakers' coaching staff.  I've significantly updated the list of NESCAC alums (of all stripes) affiliated with the NBA and/or NESCAC basketball alumni currently working in professional sports.  Thanks to those who shared some names on this site!  As you can see, the list is very long and while the Little 3 schools are particularly well-represented, every NESCAC school has at least one entry.  This is good news for any current NESCAC hoops players (or fans!) hoping to work in professional sports, and in the NBA in particular -- reaching out to someone on this list, in particular someone from your institution, to network is a very smart idea.  I'm amazed just how many familiar NESCAC names are on this list!  I've put an * next to anyone who played varsity hoops (to my knowledge).  This list only includes those with a hoops connection; obviously, the list for all professional sports (especially the NFL) is much longer.

You can put together a pretty nasty all-star team from this group, by the way.  A lineup of Andrew Olson, Sha Brown, Duncan Robinson, Tucker Kain, and Zuri Pavlin, with John Halas as a sixth man and St. Jean as a glue guy, coached by Will Hardy, could do some serious damage vs. pretty much any other group of former D3 players ... and that group could probably outshoot the average NBA team!     

Amherst:
*Connor Johnson -- head coach of Delaware Bluecoats (Sixers G-League affiliate)
*Glenn Wong -- senior executive lead for executive leadership and GM, OKC
Ezra Van Negri -- Strategic Planning Analyst, OKC
Ken Catanella -- Kings' Assistant G.M.
David Wasserman -- minority owner of Atlanta Hawks
*Andrew Olson -- Cleveland Cavaliers shooting coach
H. Irving Grousbeck -- Co-owner Boston Celtics

Bates:
Peter Meisel -- Manager, Player Health, NBA

Bowdoin:
David Mandlebaum -- Senior Manager, Business Development, Global Partnerships, NBA

Colby:
*Artie Cutrone -- Director, NBA

Conn College:
*Zuri Pavlin -- Emerging Media, Production, NBA
Rob Hale -- Owner and Director, Boston Celtics

Hamilton:
Gillian Zucker -- President of Business Operations, L.A. Clippers

Middlebury:
*Koby Altman -- Cavs General Manager
Flint Reilly -- Senior Manager, Business Development, Global Partnerships, NBA

Trinity: 
*John Halas -- Scout, New York Knicks

Tufts:
Gautum Kapur -- Senior Analyst, Basketball Strategy, NBA
Kayin Cherry -- League Operations Senior Production Assistant, NBA
Ed Tapscott -- Vice President of Player Programs (and former interim coach), Washington Wizards

Wesleyan:
*Shasha Brown -- Coordinator, Youth Development, NBA
*Greg St. Jean -- Player Development Coach / Advance Scout, Lakers
Theodore Dalton --  Senior VP, Celtics
Dipali Ottaviani -- Senior Director, Team Marketing and Business Operations, NBA
Michele Roberts -- Executive Director, NBA Player Association

Williams:
*Duncan Robinson -- Miami Heat player
*Will Hardy -- Spurs assistant coach
*Rafael Stone -- Executive VP of Basketball Operations and General Counsel for Houston Rockets
*Tucker Kain -- CFO, Los Angeles Dodgers
*Will Kuntz -- VP of soccer operations and Assistant GM of Los Angeles Football Club (MLS)
Mark Kossick -- VP, International Programming, Global Content & Media Distribution, NBA (longtime NBA employee but I believe recently left to found a startup)
Alexandra Roth -- Associate Counsel, League Governance & Policy, NBA

[JEFFFAN]

Thanks, NESCAC1.   A few additional Amherst names to add to your impressively comprehensive list:

John Middleton - Owner of Philadelphia Phillies
Don Smolenski - President of Philadelphia Eagles
Neal Huntington - General Manager of Pittsburgh Pirates
Ben Cherington - Vice President - Baseball Operations - Toronto Blue Jays
Dan Duqette - now former GM Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles
Dave Jauss - Bench coach - Chicago Cubs

Pretty absurd connection to the baseball world.

[nescac1]

Thanks Jefffan, impressive list.  I was just sticking to folks with a hoops connection (either as undergrads or professionally), but there seems to also be a massive NESCAC contingent in football, baseball and MLS as well! 

[booyakasha]

hopefan...sorry about my error wrt to your handle.
More clarity wrt my post requires more understanding of the Nescac athletic programs.  The schools perform quite well in the post seasons....reflected in the Lear Cup D3 standings.  Therefore National Titles by Nescac schools in many sports are not uncommon....period....individual and team sports. However, football does not go into post season and there are academic limits on other sports too. A number of regional schools often will not schedule Nescac schools and will drop a Nescac school in a sport if the opponent coach projects it will hurts his team’s post season chances.  Yes, there are HCs’ with a strong team that will schedule a Nescac school in hopes of a win that will enhance post season chances.  It is what it is....the schedules will come out when teams start practices.

Hopefan - let me translate for you:

Amh63 has no clue why the NESCAC schools are late publishing schedules, but would like to point out the NESCAC's superiority in all things academics and athletics.

Yes, a bit ridiculous. I agree.

[Pat Coleman]

Hopefan - let me translate for you:

Amh63 has no clue why the NESCAC schools are late publishing schedules, but would like to point out the NESCAC's superiority in all things academics and athletics.

Yes, a but ridiculous. I agree.

Amh63 must have thought you were new and had never heard of the NESCAC before.

[hopefan]

Hopefan - let me translate for you:

Amh63 has no clue why the NESCAC schools are late publishing schedules, but would like to point out the NESCAC's superiority in all things academics and athletics.

Yes, a but ridiculous. I agree.

Amh63 must have thought you were new and had never heard of the NESCAC before.