MBB: NESCAC

[amh63]

7Express...nice to read your post here, my friend.  Cannot help you wrt past Amherst double hosting in the post season.  Have reached the age, where "selective memory" pops up more frequently.....as posters pointed out wrt to travel partners resulting in Sunday conference games.
Amherst's games this weekend....Fri-Sat...are in LeFrak.  The "Team" appears to be ready to win the games against Bates and Trinity.   The Nescac Tourny seeding will be what it will be...the path to the NCAA post season  is also in the hands of the Amherst Team.  Toomey and his assistants have used a lot of players in many combos.  More players taking the outside deep shots.  Younger front court players keeping Sellew..returning from injury...fresh and out of foul trouble.  Robinson returning from injury is playing better as he  comes off the bench.  A duo of Robinson and Day in the backcourt  is hard to beat,IMO.

[nescac1]

While Bates loses a boatload on the wings to graduation, they really seem to have a nice young core in the Iwowo, Sarr and Baxter.  Huge upside there to build around going forward ... with the Sarr / Iwowo pairing backed by Snoddy and Aruwajoye, Bates is pretty much set at the 4/5 for the next few seasons.  Add a few strong perimeter shooters on the wing to the mix in recruiting, and Bates could be very interesting in a few years ... Bates, Williams, Colby and Hamilton all seem to have very strong frosh classes this year. 

[Cards Fan]

Wesleyan sealed their own fate early in games in these past few weeks. Game in and game out, the cardinals began their games with hefty deficits to overcome. Hamilton, Amherst, Williams, and Middlebury all yielded the same result for a reason - their inability to compete early in games. Sure, that's a tough stretch, but you can't go from beating Amherst followed by a down to the wire loss to Tufts down to domination repeatedly. The Cardinals are burned out. This may sound completely frank and harsh, but their playoff chances are very slim. I'd love to see it happen, but without a win over Colby, it's not possible at this point. Even after, they would have to beat a resurgent Bowdoin squad, which is no easy task in itself.

The NESCAC is a funny place. There is so much constant change in it that you cannot miss a year of watching if you want to truly follow it. A team that finishes at the top can easily finish at the bottom the next year (Hamilton / Wes), and a team that finishes at the bottom can easily finish towards the top the next year (Colby). There are some stable pieces (Amherst, Williams will always be contenders, and Conn in recent years at the bottom) and some rotating ones (Trinity, Tufts seem to never be the same teams as the year before). It's what makes the league exciting to watch, and it's what makes you want to watch the same team over and over again. Sure, I'm sure it's great to be a fan of Middlebury or Amherst, where you know you're going to have a good season every year, but I love watching my Cardinals. Even though this may not be their year, I'm absolutely roped in to watch next year, and it's why I will never stop watching NESCAC basketball.

[amh63]

Middhoops...got/read your PM...thanks.  Suggest you read my latest post on the LEC board.
Never met ECSU but am aware he and his wife stayed at the Lord Jeff Inn and took in a game in LeFrak. There is a connection between ECSU's alma mater and one of my classmate.  The prez of Eastern Conn. is married to a classmate.  Both attended my 55th class reunion.   My classmate was a Mass. higher education big shot...prez of Northeastern Un. and later in charge of all Mass Colleges like UMass/Dartmouth...except for UMass/Amherst....home of Doctor J.
Value your opinion of Amherst's MBB team.  It has been an unusual NESCAC season to date.  Remember last season when a smaller Nicholas team beat Amherst in a NCAA Tourny game.  Smaller quick guards controlled the flow of the game.  Midd and Colby have such players.  Defense and the three-point shot controls the outcome of games more today...at all levels of  basketball.   Maybe these factors have been around for awhile...but I never saw them clearly.

[NEhoops]

Cards Fan, tip of the cap to your loyalty for Wesleyan and passion for the NESCAC. Very few teams can lose a player like Hutcherson and be right back in the mix, especially in this league. Coach Reilly will build it back up sooner than later.

lumbercat, Strahorn is a Whitmore disciple, we should expect nothing less.

All-conference projections, keeping in mind that seniors are heavily favored when it comes to the voting. Not sure who I would drop from the first team, or the second team, to get them to five players each. This final weekend could factor into who is recognized.

Savage (SR) – best all around player on the best team in the league
Jefferson (SR) – one of the best seasons for a shooter that we've seen in recent memory
Farrell (JR) – the engine that makes them go
Reynolds (SR) – trying to carry his team on his back into the NESCAC tournament
Glimour (SR) – next level talent that can take over games
Karpowicz (SR) – versatile big man that impacts the game in so many ways

Rogers (JR) – a force down and huge reason for his team's success
Sellew (SR) – he has missed a few games but very solid when he plays and he is a senior
Eastman (JR) – impressive three game stretch and will look to add to that this weekend
Dorion (SR) – one of the many weapons that makes his team so dangerous
Spellman (SR) – one of the better one on one players in the league
Day (JR) – he has been there best player of late as they challenge for the two seed
Jorden (JR)/Seretta (SR)/Padmore (SR)/Donovan (JR) – one of these players will be recognized just not sure who

As for COY, I think it's Sheldon no matter what happens this weekend – eighth place to first place turnaround. 

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

The men's first regional rankings are out: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2020/02/men-regional-rankings-first

[Colby Hoops]

The men's first regional rankings are out: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2020/02/men-regional-rankings-first

Pretty close to how NEHoops laid it out the other day. Babson and Brandeis slightly higher, but all the NESCAC teams about where we thought they'd be. Tufts, Midd and Colby all seem to be fairly solid Pool C selections at this point.

Although, if Colby is without Jefferson (and King/Weiner), I'm not sure games against Wesleyan and whoever they might face in the first round of the conference tournament would be more than coin flips. Lose those two and they're pretty squarely on the bubble.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I don't get the Tufts over Springfield decision.  Springfield has better numbers.  I wonder if they put Middlebury over Springfield because of the head to head and then Tufts won out with better numbers than Midd?

[NEhoops]

My crystal ball was coming in very clear that day.

I was going to say that I thought Tufts/Middlebury/Springfield/Colby/WPI were the top tier, with somewhat of a drop off after that. Based on the new rankings, and I'm not surprised, but Babson would have to be in that discussion too.

The rest of the teams will need some help to get an at-large bid. I don't see Albertus Magnus or Endicott having a shot no matter what happens. Unfortunately for St. Joseph CT and the GNAC, the conference tournament winner will probably be the only team dancing. Brandeis at 7 was a surprise, keep in mind that the UAA doesn't have a conference tournament, the regular season winner gets the league bid. They're currently in a 3-way tie with Emory and Wash U.

Colby Hoops, any injury updates? Hopefully they are not anything long term. Wesleyan will be playing like their season depends on it Friday night. Fortunately the USM game on 2/17 is rather meaningless at this point, an ideal load management opportunity.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I don't get the Tufts over Springfield decision.  Springfield has better numbers.  I wonder if they put Middlebury over Springfield because of the head to head and then Tufts won out with better numbers than Midd?

Maybe, but the committees don't tend to look at just two teams in comparison... they tend to look at three, four, or more ...

Not sure overall on the decision, though.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I was a little surprised about Babson as well.  I'm not sure they compare favorably to the resume St Joe's has.  There must have been multiple teams being compared at once to have this result.  I'm glad we've got a few more weeks to sort it all out.

[NEhoops]

I think Tufts deserves the top spot - beat MID head to head and they have better non league wins than Springfield.

Springfield could climb as they still play WPI and Babson again.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I think Tufts deserves the top spot - beat MID head to head and they have better non league wins than Springfield.

Springfield could climb as they still play WPI and Babson again.

But they can't consider "non league wins" in the process - at least not until next week.  I won't argue Springfield is the better team, just that they have a better WP and a better SOS than Tufts.  They must not have been compared to each other head to head in this process.

[NEhoops]

Babson is deserving of the #5 spot, but still have to finish strong to stay there.

St. Joseph CT reminds me of Gonzaga, beating up on their conference opponents, but not having a signature win. They could easily make a run to the second weekend or get bounced in the first round. I hope they get in to the tournament one way or another. 

The difference between Springfield/Tufts is very small. Two great teams representing the region.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Babson is deserving of the #5 spot, but still have to finish strong to stay there.

St. Joseph CT reminds me of Gonzaga, beating up on their conference opponents, but not having a signature win. They could easily make a run to the second weekend or get bounced in the first round. I hope they get in to the tournament one way or another. 

The difference between Springfield/Tufts is very small. Two great teams representing the region.

Babson is 18-3 with a .511 SOS; St Joe's is 17-2 with a .502.  Those are very similar resumes.  Now Babson will look a lot better next week because they've got more good wins, but right now there's not a clear favorite.  They're all very close in the middle.  That should spread out over the next couple weeks.