MBB: NESCAC

[Colby Hoops]

30 footer from Dorion ties it with 15 seconds to go, Spellman misses at the buzzer and we're headed to OT in Waterville.

[Colby Hoops]

3rd OT coming in Waterville, just an insane game.

[Colby Hoops]

Colby wins 102-94 in triple overtime. What a game! More to come later.

[Sticks11]

Wow, you are right Colby Hoops.  That was a WILD game in Waterville.  Bates pretty much dominated the game in regulation until the end when Dorion hit that huge 3 to send it into OT.  Whenever the game seemed like Colby would win, Bates would come back.  In the 2nd OT it looked bleak for the Mules until Will King hit that huge 3 to send it into triple OT with about 6 seconds left.  In the 3rd OT, it was pretty much all Colby at that point. 

King was an absolute beast for Colby with 32 points, 11 rebs and 5 assists.  Noah Tyson had a big 2nd half and hit some deep threes in the overtimes.  Matt Hanna had a relatively quiet game but made the big layup to send it into the second OT.

Interesting to see Jefferson get in the game - I wonder if it was to get him acclimated to game speed again?  The box score only had him as playing 1 minute and he looked stiff out there (rightfully so given the injury).  Hopefully he continues to improve and can give them some more minutes this weekend against Amherst.

Caught the very end of the Amherst-Williams game in regulation - that was also a wild end to send it into OT.  Curious to hear from those who watched it on the takeaways from that game.

[JEFFFAN]

Any write-up of Amherst Williams game would be welcome.

[SpringSt7]

Another instant classic at LeFrak this time belonged to the home team—Amherst beats Williams by 3 in the loudest LeFrak I had heard since the 2014 NESCAC Championship. Despite the fact that it had been a down year relative to expectations for both of these teams I will go as far as to say this was the best game between the two teams since App took over at Williams.

The Ephs jumped out to a 15 point lead in the first half behind the hot hands of both Spencer Spivy and Mickey Babek, but a Garrett Day 4 point play capped a 17-4 Amherst run in response to send it to halftime with Williams up 2.

The second half was played essentially to a tie the whole time until the Ephs opened up a 7 point lead with 4 minutes left, before Garrett Day quickly erased it. Williams was down 2 with 2.7 seconds left when Mickey Babek etched his name into Williams lore forever, crashing in from the perimeter to rebound Cole Prowitt-Smith's intentionally missed free throw for a reverse layup as time expired.

Amherst was able to regroup and had a 3 point lead needing a stop, Prowitt-Smith's three wouldn't go, and that was that.

An unbelievable game from start to finish—you could be forgiven for thinking these were the two best teams in the NESCAC tonight. A Williams team that certainly didn't play like a 13-11 team finally rounding into form, and an Amherst team that has done a terrific job remodeling itself and finding a somewhat newish identity on the fly, no one is playing better basketball in the NESCAC than Garrett Day right now.

[Colby Hoops]

Just a back and forth battle between Bates and Colby today. Bates looked like they had it won about five different times, but just couldn't quite close out the Mules. It wasn't the prettiest game of all time, neither team could hit a three for most of the day, but both teams left everything out there. Sam Jefferson tried to play on an ankle that he could barely walk on, Nick Gilpin played 52 minutes and Will King played 51 minutes, and a whole bunch of other players played well into the 40 minutes! The place was absolutely packed and it felt like every possession from about the 6 minute mark through all three overtimes was incredibly tense. One of those games that makes you love DIII basketball.

Colby looked dead in the water in regulation, down 5 with 35 seconds to go. They then missed 3 free throws after the backend of a missed and one, then a rebound putback foul. They got lucky with some Bates misses and Dorion hit a 30 footer to tie it -- a big time shot on a day when he couldn't buy a bucket. In the first OT, Colby needed a Matt Hanna bucket with 7 seconds to tie it and in the second OT they needed a Will King three with 6 seconds to tie it.

For Colby, Will King just announced himself. This kid is an absolute star. 32 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists and just 2 turnovers in 51 minutes. On a day when the rest of the team couldn't get it going, he was dominant. He ran the show for most of the game, hitting timely basket after timely basket. Noah Tyson was the other big star of the day. he had 0 points and 3 fouls at halftime and finished with 22 and 13 including some absolutely massive threes in the overtimes. He played every minute of the second half and the three overtimes -- huge game from him. Those two carried Colby on a day when Dorion and Hanna couldn't buy a bucket and Tucker fouled out in just 18 minutes. One crazy thing was that Dorion fouled out in the 3rd OT and freshman Alec McGovern had to come in having not played the whole game. Can't imagine coming into a game like that in that situation! And he had a key offensive rebound and basket, very impressive.

For Bates, Jeff Spellman was a machine trying to close out the game hitting an array of tough finishes in the lane. A great player, finishing his career with everything he had. Unfortunately, he couldn't get them to drop in the third OT. Omar Sarr was great and him fouling out in the second OT was a big loss for Bates. Iwowo was also impressive for most of the game. Kudos to the Bates seniors Spellman, Coyne, Gilpin, and Greenhalgh (out injured today) on great careers. Bright future in Lewiston with Sarr, Iwowo and Baxter.

Some other wild games around the league. Williams had Amherst on the ropes before Amherst came roaring back. Down 3 in regulation they converted the first free throw make, second free throw miss and putback to tie the game as time expired. A great play by Mickey Babek to rebound and score at the buzzer. The Mammoths (and particularly Garret Day) proved too much in OT. It was Williams first really good shooting day of the year (nice game from Spivy), but Karp was a bit quiet.

Surprising blowout win for Trinity over Midd, and Tufts looked dominant.

Colby-Amherst should be a good game next weekend -- will discuss that more later in the week. Jefferson will probably give it a go, but he didn't look close to being 100% today. Have a hard time believing he'll be his normal self next weekend.

[amh63]

Nothing much to add wrt the third battle between arch rivals.  The first two games was won by the Ephs by a total 5 points.  The third game was won by 3 points!
Amazing stats...Williams shot over 50 percent from 3 ball.  Rebounds were close.  Key for me was Amherst had fewer TO's....and went to the bench more...deeper bench.
Yet..Colby had to go to 3OT to beat Bates.
Do not know where the Colby. Vs Amherst game will be.  It should be another barn burner.....believe Amherst is a deeper team at this point of the season. 

[Bucket]

Do not know where the Colby. Vs Amherst game will be.

Tufts, as the number 1 seed, will be hosting.

Tufts v. Trinity, followed by Colby v. Amherst.

[Colby Hoops]

Nothing much to add wrt the third battle between arch rivals.  The first two games was won by the Ephs by a total 5 points.  The third game was won by 3 points!
Amazing stats...Williams shot over 50 percent from 3 ball.  Rebounds were close.  Key for me was Amherst had fewer TO's....and went to the bench more...deeper bench.
Yet..Colby had to go to 3OT to beat Bates.
Do not know where the Colby. Vs Amherst game will be.  It should be another barn burner.....believe Amherst is a deeper team at this point of the season.

Amh63 -- game will be next Saturday at Tufts at 7 pm (a rare Saturday night game in the Nescac). Tufts women are hosting as well, so it will be 4 semifinal games in a row. I also suspect games might get a bit behind schedule.

Agree with your thoughts that Amherst is deeper - seems they've found their game since turning over the keys to Garrett Day. They also have very good perimeter defense, critical against Colby's guards. I think this one will be a bit closer than the previous matchup, that was Colby's first game without Jefferson and that's been a big adjustment. Amherst jumped out to a huge lead in that game, before Colby got it close with 5 minutes to go, then Amherst closed it out.

[lumbercat]

Just a back and forth battle between Bates and Colby today. Bates looked like they had it won about five different times, but just couldn't quite close out the Mules. It wasn't the prettiest game of all time, neither team could hit a three for most of the day, but both teams left everything out there. Sam Jefferson tried to play on an ankle that he could barely walk on, Nick Gilpin played 52 minutes and Will King played 51 minutes, and a whole bunch of other players played well into the 40 minutes! The place was absolutely packed and it felt like every possession from about the 6 minute mark through all three overtimes was incredibly tense. One of those games that makes you love DIII basketball.

Colby looked dead in the water in regulation, down 5 with 35 seconds to go. They then missed 3 free throws after the backend of a missed and one, then a rebound putback foul. They got lucky with some Bates misses and Dorion hit a 30 footer to tie it -- a big time shot on a day when he couldn't buy a bucket. In the first OT, Colby needed a Matt Hanna bucket with 7 seconds to tie it and in the second OT they needed a Will King three with 6 seconds to tie it.

For Colby, Will King just announced himself. This kid is an absolute star. 32 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists and just 2 turnovers in 51 minutes. On a day when the rest of the team couldn't get it going, he was dominant. He ran the show for most of the game, hitting timely basket after timely basket. Noah Tyson was the other big star of the day. he had 0 points and 3 fouls at halftime and finished with 22 and 13 including some absolutely massive threes in the overtimes. He played every minute of the second half and the three overtimes -- huge game from him. Those two carried Colby on a day when Dorion and Hanna couldn't buy a bucket and Tucker fouled out in just 18 minutes. One crazy thing was that Dorion fouled out in the 3rd OT and freshman Alec McGovern had to come in having not played the whole game. Can't imagine coming into a game like that in that situation! And he had a key offensive rebound and basket, very impressive.

For Bates, Jeff Spellman was a machine trying to close out the game hitting an array of tough finishes in the lane. A great player, finishing his career with everything he had. Unfortunately, he couldn't get them to drop in the third OT. Omar Sarr was great and him fouling out in the second OT was a big loss for Bates. Iwowo was also impressive for most of the game. Kudos to the Bates seniors Spellman, Coyne, Gilpin, and Greenhalgh (out injured today) on great careers. Bright future in Lewiston with Sarr, Iwowo and Baxter.

Some other wild games around the league. Williams had Amherst on the ropes before Amherst came roaring back. Down 3 in regulation they converted the first free throw make, second free throw miss and putback to tie the game as time expired. A great play by Mickey Babek to rebound and score at the buzzer. The Mammoths (and particularly Garret Day) proved too much in OT. It was Williams first really good shooting day of the year (nice game from Spivy), but Karp was a bit quiet.

Surprising blowout win for Trinity over Midd, and Tufts looked dominant.

Colby-Amherst should be a good game next weekend -- will discuss that more later in the week. Jefferson will probably give it a go, but he didn't look close to being 100% today. Have a hard time believing he'll be his normal self next weekend.

Colby Hoops-

I want to commend you on very classy post in your account of the Bates- Colby game. There is something to be said about knowing how to win....I tip my hat to you and a great Colby team.

One of the classics today in a long history of a great Maine rivalry. The CBB often plays second fiddle to the NESCAC elites in Football and to a lesser extent in Basketball but for my money this game today is another example of the great history of the CBB. It's priceless.

Good luck to Colby next Saturday.

[JEFFFAN]

AMH63 or any other Amherst fan ... did Garrett Day replace Robinson because the latter has been hurt or the former better?

[jayhawk]

Garrett Day replaced Grant as starter because Grant has not fully recovered from his preseason surgery
Coming of the bench gives Grant to see what is going on and integrate himself into the game and see what happens

Another change in line up over the last week few weeks is that Tim McCarthy has started to add some size and outside shooting with Devonn Allen coming off the bench to add defensive intensity, rebounding -very good rebounder for his size and a streaky outside shooter

[nescac1]

I saw most of the Williams-Amherst game, but missed the very end and OT.  Tough for the Ephs to end the season early after three years of deep runs (Final Four, second round, Elite 8), but Eph fans are certainly a bit spoiled and this was always going to be transition year.  Kudos to Karp, Feinberg, and Babek, who all played the best ball of their careers down the stretch of the season, particularly Babek, who made huge strides over four years to become a key player for the Ephs after barely seeing the floor early in his career. 

Williams and Amherst were, obviously, dead-even this year, but this game was played at a higher level than the prior two.  The Ephs ended the season playing at a much higher level than they were even in mid-January, but unfortunately it took most of the season for a lot of guys on the team entirely new to the rotation to figure things out.  I felt like Jovan Jones, Cole Prowitt Smith, Mickey Babek, Ryan Moon and Nate Karren all played their best basketball of the season over the past few weeks, and Spencer Spivy certainly saved his best game for last.  Garrett Day is immensely improved for Amherst since last year, and is the engine that makes them run.  He has been the man.  Josh Chery is not talked about enough, he's had a great senior year and is a rock-solid two-way player, just the ultimate glue guy.  Grant Robinson looks to me like he is getting some of his mojo back, still not 100 percent but when he and Day are out there together, that is a tough backcourt to deal with.  Sellew and Che are excellent players, as always, for Amherst as well. 

Final thoughts on the Ephs going forward:

The Ephs should be a really interesting team next year.  There is no shortage of size, talent, and now experience returning.  The rising senior class is thin in talent, but I do think the Ephs will get some important minutes out of them, and hopefully they will be good leaders for a still fairly young roster overall.  Kacmarek will again be in the mix for back-up center after seeing some minutes there this year, Myers will be a solid role player at guard, and Marc Taylor, after basically losing a year and a half to injury, will hopefully be a big part of the rotation at forward and help out as a stretch 4.  The Ephs really need the rising sophomore class to make the kind of leap that Amherst and Midd got from their sophomore groups last year.  That seems very realistic.  Cole Prowitt-Smith had a lot of big moments in big games, but also struggled with consistency at times.  Still, at his best he looked like a future elite player, and I think after a year of experience, starting out next year as the established starting point guard, he will be ready for a big season as (surely) a top-2 scorer and assist guy on the team.  Nate Karren really came on late in the year and he looks like he will be at worst a quality starting center even as a sophomore, and if some of his outside shots start falling, watch out.  Brandon Arnold was just starting to play really well when he got injured late in the year, but he looks like a guy who will see a lot of minutes at the 4 next year, gives the Ephs another big athlete who can get buckets inside or out.  Alex Stoddard struggled a bit down the stretch, but also had some really impressive moments during the season, and he seems to have a ton of unrealized upside.  He will surely be counted on a lot more as a sixth-man type next year.  David Elien is kind of a x-factor, it would be great if he could emerge as a strong back-up center and big-time rim protector with a big off-season, but the Ephs have the luxury of enough veteran big guys that if he needs one more year to be ready, that's OK. 

The rising junior class is the biggest mystery to me.  Frankly, as recently as a month ago I had big concerns about the progress of that group.  But they started to come on late in the season.  Those three guys will need to be key players and on-court leaders next season, and on Saturday at least, it certainly looked like they can be.  Ryan Moon gave consistently strong minutes the last few weeks in the season.  The aggression, and speed with which he plays gives the team a real energy boost, and he can really handle the ball.  If he can improve his outside shooting a bit, he can be a very capable point guard.  He's small, but fearless.  Jovan Jones, like CPS, could make some jaw-dropping plays, but struggled with consistency.  He tended to play his best in the biggest games against the better opponents (his best five games of the year were probably the Little 3 games and the Tufts game), and will hopefully bring that level of locked-in play throughout the entire season.  He is already an excellent rebounder and defender, and will only get better at both.  If he can play aggressive offense while cutting down on the turnovers, a balance that was challenging, and shoot the ball a bit better from 3 and the line, he could develop into a true top-tier player.  After struggling with the 3 ball for 3/4 of the season, he finished 9 for his last 18 down the stretch, a very encouraging sign.  Finally, Spencer Spivy looked like a star against Amherst on Saturday.  But that version of Spivy has shown up only sporadically.  It was a tough year for him with injury and illness, which didn't help.  If he plays with the kind of confidence and most importantly aggression he showed on Saturday, he can be a special player offensively.  The Ephs will certainly need him to be next season, because the team simply needs to score more points, especially from the perimeter. 

The Ephs could really use one more big-time perimeter recruit who can play a bit right away, ideally, a guard with some quickness.  So far, that has not materialized.  Brandon Roughley looks like a very good recruit up front, and it will be an interesting battle between Roughley, Taylor and Arnold for minutes at the 4 next season.  That trio gives the Ephs a great mix of size and perimter shooting to work from, but none have seen much time on the floor. 

The downside scenario for next year's Williams team is, without an impactful senior class, the Ephs struggle to find an identity early, Spivy, Cole, and Jovan are still another year away from being a true go-to trio on the perimeter, Karren and the other centers struggle to replace Karp's production in the paint, and the team is a middling team once again in NESCAC (and outside of it).  The upside is that the team gets even stronger defensively with a much more experienced (and very deep) rotation, plays with more confidence and poise a lot earlier in the season, and shoots and makes a LOT more 3's (as we've seen over and over again with guys throughout NESCAC, three-point shooting tends to improve a lot after guys have a year or two to acclimate to the college game), as guys like Karren, Cole, Stoddard, Spivy and Jovan benefit from all the minutes they received this year.  While the team is surely another year away from being a national contender, I'm betting on the upside, and I think the Ephs will have a more characteristic W-L record, but who knows!

Good luck to the remaining NESCAC teams, the New England region should be absolutely wide open in the NCAA tourney, so anything can  happen ...

[nescac1]

A few other NESCAC thoughts:  Trinity seems like the most hard-to-figure team in the league right now.  The Bants, in their last eight games, suffered blow-out losses to Tufts and Hamilton, and needed a miracle to defeat Conn, but beat Midd twice (including a blow-out on Saturday), Williams, and Amherst, and hung 114 on Bates!  Crazy.  Clearly, Trinity can easily win the league.  They could also get destroyed by Tufts next weekend.   

If Amherst wins the league, NESCAC is very likely a four-bid league.  If Trinity wins the league, could NESCAC be a FIVE bid league this year?  It's certainly possible, especially if Springfield and St. Joe's each win their respective leagues. 

Looking at last week's regional rankings, Midd was first, so even after a loss, it seems like they are in, how much can they really fall?  Tufts and Colby probably each need one more win to be an absolute lock, but I think they are likely in regardless.  WPI lost two straight, including a bad loss to MIT, and they probably fall below Tufts and Colby unless they win their league.  If Amherst beats Colby, but then loses in the NESCAC final, they end up, I think, ahead of the WPI-Babson loser.  So, when all is said and done, if Trinity wins the NESCAC and Springfield the NEWMAC, the New England rankings could conceivably end up something like this: Springfield, Tufts, Middlebury, Colby, WPI/Babson winner, St. Joe's, Amherst ... under that scenario, certainly plausible that New England gets five Pool C bids, including four from NESCAC.  Wild.  Would St. Joe's stay ahead of Amherst if Amherst fails to win the league and St. Joe's loses to AMC in the GNAC final?  Hard to say ... a close call for sure.  A second game against Colby certainly helps Amherst's SOS!   

1   Middlebury   20-4   20-4
2   Springfield   20-3   20-3
3   WPI   19-4   19-4
4   Tufts   18-6   18-6
5   Colby   21-2   21-2
6   Babson   19-4   19-4
7   St. Joseph (Conn.)   19-2   21-2
8   Amherst   17-7   17-7
9   Brandeis   15-7   15-7
10   Albertus Magnus   18-4   18-4
11   New England College   18-6   18-6