MBB: NESCAC

[nescacfaninbos]

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Outside of those two, you could also add Trinity's Donald Jorden and Tufts' Luke Rogers to the list.
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I didn't see Trinity play last year but saw Tufts a few times and would agree on Rogers. I saw him play in HS and he looked much improved to me, I think he has a lot of potential.

[SpringSt7]

Agreed nescac1, the Ephs should look like a much more standard lineup this year than they were last year. I still worry about this group's ability to stop the ball—not a lot of foot speed in this lineup besides Jones, and there's a good chance that he is guarding the best wings in the league every night. The sound team defense and length can get you far, but at the end of the day it's about keeping your man from scoring. Babek was great in spurts off the bench last year, but can he do it for 25 minutes while running the offense? Spivy could be their leading scorer this year, but the fact that he barely saw the court last year despite how badly they needed shooting as the year went on is, to me, a damming indictment from App on his shortcomings as a defender. Being a young team, however, surely they will improve as the year goes on—which has been another staple of App's tenure, especially the 16-17 and 17-1& seasons. But for now, they're a notch below Amherst and Midd.

[middhoops]

My completely unqualified take on the young Ephs is that while they lost a ton of talent and experience, they are picking up significant athleticism and versatility.
Sorry Eph fans, but as talented as Heskett, Scadlock and Casey were; that line up was flawed.
Casey was the only guard and speed/quickness was his weakness.  Scadlock was  obviously out of his natural position and never regained his previous level of play after the knee injury.  Heskett never appeared fully healthy to me. 
This "new" team has great talent and ridiculous size.  As they come together this season, the conference will see just how scary they could become in a year or two.

[toad22]

My completely unqualified take on the young Ephs is that while they lost a ton of talent and experience, they are picking up significant athleticism and versatility.
Sorry Eph fans, but as talented as Heskett, Scadlock and Casey were; that line up was flawed.
Casey was the only guard and speed/quickness was his weakness.  Scadlock was  obviously out of his natural position and never regained his previous level of play after the knee injury.  Heskett never appeared fully healthy to me. 
This "new" team has great talent and ridiculous size.  As they come together this season, the conference will see just how scary they could become in a year or two.

Having watched the new Williams team scrimmage, I would say that the talent lost to graduation has been fully replaced with new, young talent. I have learned my lesson about picking out particular new players, but I feel comfortable saying that there are at least three first years who will very quickly make their mark on the program. The senior class has several very experienced players in Feinberg, Karpowitz, and Babek. Karpowitz should have a big year for the Ephs, while Feinberg and Babek will have much bigger roles. A big question mark coming in to the season is how quickly junior Mark Taylor will completely recover from his season ending injury. Taylor was a very dynamic player coming off the bench last year. His return at full strength would be huge for the team. The final two players to mention are sophomores Spivy and Jones. Neither of these guys played a lot last year, but both are, in my opinion, going to be special players for Williams. Any team who sleeps on the Ephs, will be sorry they did. This team has talent.

[nescac1]

Interesting addition to Colby's preseason roster, C Dean Weiner returns after not playing last season. If the same player he was as a junior, that solves much of Colby's biggest concern, which was interior defense and rebounding.  With an elite rim protector in the fold, Colby to me now looks like the third best team in the conference heading into the season.

[Colby Hoops]

Interesting addition to Colby's preseason roster, C Dean Weiner returns after not playing last season. If the same player he was as a junior, that solves much of Colby's biggest concern, which was interior defense and rebounding.  With an elite rim protector in the fold, Colby to me now looks like the third best team in the conference heading into the season.

Was just coming here to post this, heard over the weekend that he's back after missing last year and is fully healthy. He was arguably Colby's best player two years ago, leading the conference in rebounds per game and blocks per game before missing the last two weeks of the season with an injury. Colby ran their offense through him at the high post quite a bit and he was second on the team in assists. He's a massive addition in Colby's biggest area of need -- an impact defender down low.

The one question mark is how it'll all fit together. Colby took the pace and space game to a new level last year and part of their success was having 5 guys on the court who could shoot it from deep. Weiner is athletic and quick for a big, so he should be able to run and provide a presence in the lane -- he'll just have adapt a bit. Either way, this is a big time addition for Colby.

[nescac1]

A Weiner-Jefferson-Tyson-Hanna-Tucker starting five is pretty darn tough.  Jefferson should be first team all league and the other four are above-average starters.  I actually see Weiner as the perfect fit for the group because he is a good facilitator, can pass it to the other four guys who are volume shooters, and he can score a bit without plays run for him.  And against bigger teams Colby can pair him with Gilmore and Colby suddenly has a sizable frontcourt.  Huge difference in how Colby will be able to defend.  Throw in three other senior guards off the bench, all of whom have seen a ton of floor time, I'd say if healthy that's a solid NCAA team and potential spoiler for Midd or Amherst in the league. 

[Colby Hoops]

It's the best Colby team on paper in quite a while. At least since 2009-10, and probably more like the early 2000s.

I've also heard good things about several of the incoming freshman (surprise, surprise more shooters), although I doubt any of them will be able to crack the rotation. Devin Davis, who had a promising freshman year, looks to be off the roster. He was one of Colby's best on-ball defenders, but wasn't looking at much of a minutes increase with all the upperclassmen ahead of him.

[SpringSt7]

If I'm Colby, I try my damned hardest to keep Jefferson and Weiner separate from each other on the court at all times. Jefferson is so lethal because centers who are not used to guarding shooters on the perimeter are forced to matchup with him. If you watch their highlights from their breakout weekend sweep of Amherst and Hamilton last year, Schneider and Groll would routinely get sucked too low under the hoop and left Jefferson with wide open jumpers at the top of the key--too easy. With all due respect to Jefferson, who has had a great career, he becomes another face in the crowd if he plays the 3 or 4 for Colby--a terrific spot up shooter who can't drive by anybody, especially not in the NESCAC. Obviously we have no clue what kind of shape Weiner will be or if he will be able to return to his 2017-18 form, but you build the rotation around your best player. If Weiner only plays 14 minutes a game because he doesn't fit the style, then so be it.

[jayhawk]

 a note on a former NESCAC player
Minnesota Timberwolves had an exhibition against the Maccabi Haifa, an Israeli team
Willy Workman formerly of Amherst played approximately 26. minutes ofr Maccabi and scored 11 points and five rebounds

[Colby Hoops]

If I'm Colby, I try my damned hardest to keep Jefferson and Weiner separate from each other on the court at all times. Jefferson is so lethal because centers who are not used to guarding shooters on the perimeter are forced to matchup with him. If you watch their highlights from their breakout weekend sweep of Amherst and Hamilton last year, Schneider and Groll would routinely get sucked too low under the hoop and left Jefferson with wide open jumpers at the top of the key--too easy. With all due respect to Jefferson, who has had a great career, he becomes another face in the crowd if he plays the 3 or 4 for Colby--a terrific spot up shooter who can't drive by anybody, especially not in the NESCAC. Obviously we have no clue what kind of shape Weiner will be or if he will be able to return to his 2017-18 form, but you build the rotation around your best player. If Weiner only plays 14 minutes a game because he doesn't fit the style, then so be it.

I agree with your overall point -- I don't think Colby should change their style to fit Weiner (and not sure they will need to). Agree that Jefferson's skills play up against opposing bigs, but think you're selling him a little short. He averaged more than 15 per game as a sophomore playing as a 3/4 alongside Weiner. And he played at least 25% of his minutes (that's an extremely conservative estimate) with either Ronan Schwarz or Sean Gilmore last year.

[SpringSt7]

Did not mean to insinuate that Jefferson was not a great player, language was probably a little too harsh. Overall point was more that against the top of the league, where Colby wants to be, he will have a much harder time against the Fru Che's and Matt Folger's of the league as a 3/4 than he would if he was being guarded by centers. His sophomore season he had 3 points against Williams and 2 points against Amherst. Obviously he has improved but that's what the difference is at the top of the league.

[nescac1]

A few more reported NESCAC recruits for 2020:

Charlie Campbell, Canterbury, 6'2 G, Trinity
David Brennan, Roxbury, 6'5 F, Middlebury
Julius Nagin, BB&N, 6'3 G, Hamilton

Those previously-announced:

Jay Dieterle, Tufts
Bobby Sommers, Amherst
Garrett Kirk, Trinity

[SpringSt7]

A few more reported NESCAC recruits for 2020:

Charlie Campbell, Canterbury, 6'2 G, Trinity
David Brennan, Roxbury, 6'5 F, Middlebury
Julius Nagin, BB&N, 6'3 G, Hamilton

Those previously-announced:

Jay Dieterle, Tufts
Bobby Sommers, Amherst
Garrett Kirk, Trinity

Can add Trace Gotham, a 6'5 swingman going to Bates, to this growing list of Middlesex Magic AAU alums committed to NESCAC schools. Senior at St. Sebastian's, the same high school as Williams' Matt Karpowicz and Amherst's Will Phelan. Father is Rich Gotham, the President of the Celtics.

[nescac1]

A shot at pre-season players to watch in NESCAC.  I feel like after Gilmour, Robinson and Farrell, the next 10-15 guys are pretty closely grouped.  The league isn't super top-heavy in talent this year, but is very deep:

1st team:
Kena Gilmour (POY)
Grant Robinson
Jack Farrell
Matt Folger
Sam Jefferson

2nd team:
Donald Jorden (toss-up between him, Jefferson and Folger for last two first-team spots)
Matt Karpowicz
Eric Sellew
Fru Che
David Reynolds

Other players to watch:
Eric Savage
Jeff Spellman
Brendan Morris
Luke Rogers
Zavier Rucker
Tommy Eastman
Spencer Spivy
Max Bosco
Dan Draffan
Noah Tyson
Matt Hannah
Kyle Padmore
Antone Walker
Nick Osarenren

All defense:
Kyle Padmore (POY)
Fru Che
Jovan Jones
Dean Weiner
Alex Sobel
(Grant Robinson and Devonn Allen are right there, as well)

All rookie (this is VERY speculative and certain to be way off):

Cole Prowitt-Smith (Williams) (ROY)
Casey McClaren (Tufts)
Nkosi Cooper (Hamilton)
C.J. Redd (Trinity)
Nate Karren (Williams)