MBB: NESCAC

nescac1 · March 16, 2020, 09:50:50 AM

Gotcha. On its face, the reported story sounded ... a bit off to me, so not surprised that there is more to this. Just strange that the same team has had two high-profile incidents in the same year ...

nescac1 · March 17, 2020, 03:17:15 PM

Congrats to Jefferson and Rogers for first-team and Karpowicz, Farrell and Gilmour for fourth team all region nods! And to Tufts, Colby and Middlebury for finishing in the final D3hoops top 25.

SpringSt7 · March 17, 2020, 03:44:46 PM

In addition to d3hoops.com, the NABC has also released their All-District teams. Rogers and Jefferson are again 1st-Team selections, and Kena Gilmour is also a 1st-teamer. In addition, Bob Sheldon was named Coach of the Year.

If I was to offer an opinion, I would say the d3hoops.com recognitions are more accurate.

https://nabc.com/nabc_releases/2020/d3_all_district

NEhoops · March 17, 2020, 04:55:55 PM

I would have added Fenton Bradley (Western CT) to the D3hoops first team and swapped him with Gilmour on the NABC first team.

Great to see Gilmour get the NABC recognition and he had a great career, but Bradley had the better overall season.

Impressive to see the two sophomores for St. Joseph (CT) make the list - that back court will be strong for the next two seasons.

Pat Coleman · March 17, 2020, 05:19:20 PM

Quote from: NEhoops on March 17, 2020, 04:55:55 PM
I would have added Fenton Bradley (Western CT) to the D3hoops first team and swapped him with Gilmour on the NABC first team.

We stick with just five on our teams. Who would Bradley replace?

SpringSt7 · March 17, 2020, 05:32:32 PM

Quote from: NEhoops on March 17, 2020, 04:55:55 PM

Impressive to see the two sophomores for St. Joseph (CT) make the list - that back court will be strong for the next two seasons.

Despite the fact that we only have one offseason of attrition to base this off of, it's hard to imagine both Martin and Jackson finishing their careers at St. Joe's, right?

Greek Tragedy · March 17, 2020, 11:41:10 PM

Quote from: SpringSt7 on March 17, 2020, 05:32:32 PM
Quote from: NEhoops on March 17, 2020, 04:55:55 PM

Impressive to see the two sophomores for St. Joseph (CT) make the list - that back court will be strong for the next two seasons.

Despite the fact that we only have one offseason of attrition to base this off of, it's hard to imagine both Martin and Jackson finishing their careers at St. Joe's, right?

Why do you speculate that?

nescac1 · March 18, 2020, 02:57:37 AM

St. Joe's lost two guys to JUCO (supposedly hoping to then go D1) after last year, including one of the two key returning guys. Their top frosh, Taelon Martin, was talking about St. Joe's as a springboard to D1 even as a recruit. My guess is that Calhoun is kind of selling the program that way to recruits. Who knows though. Jaecee Martin came FROM a D1 school last year. Jackson didn't leave after his frosh year. So maybe both stick around. If those two, Powell, and T. Martin stick around next season, and St. Joe's can add two more pieces (need one more big guy and a three point shooter, ideally, or even just any two guys who can shoot), they should be viewed as a legit national title contender. Those guards at that good. But that does seem totally up in the air.

NEhoops · March 18, 2020, 09:10:34 AM

Pat - I would replace Demers with Bradley

Colby Hoops · March 19, 2020, 12:17:02 PM

Nothing like a being cooped up to spend some time posting. Stay safe and healthy everyone out there.

Looking at next year, I think the league breaks down into a few pretty clear tiers.

Rogers and Farrell are the two elite players (maybe Robinson if he's back to form) at the top of the league. After that I think there's a whole lot of players who you could find in the all-league discussion next year. Have noted some players I see as potential all-league players next year.

Top Tier

National contenders

Tufts -- Despite losing Savage (literally the only senior on their roster), who did everything for them and was their go-to-guy in any clutch situations, they are in a great position to replace him. Rogers will be an absolute handful and they'll still be deep in perimeter talent with Aronson, Thoerner, Morris, Brady, Cohen. Each of those first three guys all seem very capable of handling a larger load on offense.

All-League Potential: Rogers, Thoerner, Aronson, Morris

Middlebury -- I'd probably peg Midd as the favorite next year if Sobel is back. With or without him they'll be extremely good. They are teeming with big-time upperclassmen players. They will face the same questions defensively next year on the wing (although Sobel helps erase some issues). But Folger and Delorenzo were two of their better defenders against wings and now they mostly have small guards or big guys. Brockport exposed them athletically a bit. They should be a ridiculously good offensive team.

All-League Potential:Farrell, Eastman, Bosco, Sobel

Amherst -- Hard to get a read on the Mammoths after a strange year. Still a lot of questions to answer going into the season. Is Robinson back to his 2018-19 self? Can Day improve is consistency? Will the young big guys be able to step up? But, with Robinson, Day, Che, Allen, McCarthy that's a lot of perimeter talent to start with. I think you could argue putting Amherst in the tier below with Colby, but I have to think Robinson returns to a first-team all-league type player, which makes them a much different team.

All-League Potential: Robinson, Day, Che

Second Tier

Proven talent, lacking depth

Colby -- Mentioned a lot about them in my post from last week, but a lot will come down to players 5-8 in the rotation, which will be players who have not played much or true freshman. The top four is very good. Big man should be even more of a question mark as well.

All-League Potential: King, Hanna, Tyson, Tucker

Third Tier

Talent, but plenty of questions.

Williams -- Plenty of talented players, but very unproven. I think Williams' season made it look a bit worse than it was given the extremely difficult schedule. The defense was elite, but may slip without Feinberg and Babek. The offense is still a big question mark. CPS, Spivy and Jones all need to take big steps forward. If all three of them do, I think they could compete near the top of the league. If they don't it could be another up and down year. And they just need to make some perimeter shots, the shooting this year was a big struggle.

All-League Potential: CPS, Spivy, Jones

Wesleyan -- They return a lot, but they need a few guys to take a step forward. Sam Peek looks the part of a great Nescac player, but the shooting comes and goes. Antone Walker has never been a portrait of efficiency, if he can improve his shot selection and cut the turnovers that will help a lot. But this team should defend at an elite level and take a step forward.

All-League Potential: James, Peek, Walker

Trinity -- They lose a lot of minutes from good players including Padmore, Porydzy, Serretta, Bell and Brooks. Yet, there's still some players to build around. Colin Donovan is an all-league level player, Donald Jorden continues to be a very solid interior player and Steven Lora had a nice freshman year. Will Dorion seems like the most-likely incoming frosh to make a big impact as well. I'd expect a similarly inconsistent year, with stretches of great play.

All-League Potential: Donovan, Jorden

Bates -- Perhaps, these two teams could be in a lower tier, but it's close. Bates is probably another year away. Sarr, Baxter and Iwowo are super talented but will only be sophomores and it seems fairly likely that Sarr will not be able to play huge minutes given his constant foul trouble issues. Still, the future is bright and there will be a lot of opportunity for these young guys to expand their game.

All-League Potential: Sarr, Baxter

Hamilton -- I still like a lot of the players on this roster, but it was a really disappointing year for the Conts. None of the secondary players stepped up in ways that we might've expected, and Gilmour was left trying to do too much. I think Hamilton is in a somewhat similar position to Williams. They have a lot of talented players who need to all take steps forward. Cooper, Tirbaso, Mogan, Osarenren, Kendall, and Anderson all have plenty of talent to step forward. Just very hard to say if they will.

All-League Potential: Cooper, Tirbaso

Fourth Tier

The cellar dwellers

Bowdoin -- Going to be a long year in Brunswick without David Reynolds. Some solid players, but scoring is going to be hard to come by.

All-League Potential: Grad

Conn -- Should be improved and will be interested to see what the freshman class looks like. But they have a lot of improving to do to get close to the rest of the league (excluding Bowdoin).

All-League Potential:Draffan, McPherron

Greek Tragedy · March 19, 2020, 01:14:18 PM

Quote from: nescac1 on March 18, 2020, 02:57:37 AM
St. Joe's lost two guys to JUCO (supposedly hoping to then go D1) after last year, including one of the two key returning guys. Their top frosh, Taelon Martin, was talking about St. Joe's as a springboard to D1 even as a recruit. My guess is that Calhoun is kind of selling the program that way to recruits. Who knows though. Jaecee Martin came FROM a D1 school last year. Jackson didn't leave after his frosh year. So maybe both stick around. If those two, Powell, and T. Martin stick around next season, and St. Joe's can add two more pieces (need one more big guy and a three point shooter, ideally, or even just any two guys who can shoot), they should be viewed as a legit national title contender. Those guards at that good. But that does seem totally up in the air.

You make some good points. I don't know much about the team other than they just started the program. I assume players transfer in and out and know they did lose Childs, among others. Being coached by a legend has to help keep some players though!

Quote from: NEhoops on March 18, 2020, 09:10:34 AM
Pat - I would replace Demers with Bradley

Wow. Really? On what grounds. I don't care if you're playing in the worst league (which the CCC is not), but putting up 32 a game at a decent 44.8% clip is pretty impressive. He also adds 5.6 boards a game. I understand stats aren't everything, but hard to ignore Demers' production. Not taking anything away from Bradley though.

Greek Tragedy · March 19, 2020, 01:18:33 PM

I enjoyed your write up, Colby Hoops +1

NEhoops · March 19, 2020, 01:41:07 PM

As I write this Demers has recently been named to the NABC All-American Third Team. The stats that he put up this season were very impressive and he deserves any recognition that he receives. He was POY in an above average conference (CCC), but his team finished 13-14 and in 8th place (out of 9 teams) in the conference and they did not participate in postseason play.

Bradley was also POY (in the LEC) and it is debatable as to which conference is better. He led his team to a conference regular season and tournament championship, and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

I guess a follow up question is if Demers is more deserving of an All-American spot than Jefferson. I think POY carries a lot of weight at the D3 level, compared to strength of conference and regular/postseason team success.

SpringSt7 · March 19, 2020, 02:11:05 PM

It would be hard to argue that a guy who averaged more points (32.4) than anyone else in all of college basketball, Divisions I II and III, on shooting splits of 45/41/89 does not warrant a spot on the 1st-Team All-Region team.

The Jefferson thing has been discussed at length, but for good reason. I would have had no problem with him as 3rd-team All-American, and as you said NEhoops, Gordon went 13-14---if Demers was left off, it's hard to argue that too.

It's also so tough to compare all of these things when you have different groups of people discussing them. Just last week we on this board were talking about whether or not Luke Rogers deserved to be First-Team All NESCAC (I would've had Savage, personally) and now he's a sure fire All-American. The same goes for arguing CCC honors, it probably should've been Bruton, especially when you consider they won the league.

Awards in D3 are always going to be an imperfect science. I could go on and on about it at length, but I think everyone is aware of the challenges it poses.

Dave 'd-mac' McHugh · March 19, 2020, 02:13:20 PM

Quote from: NEhoops on March 19, 2020, 01:41:07 PM
As I write this Demers has recently been named to the NABC All-American Third Team. The stats that he put up this season were very impressive and he deserves any recognition that he receives. He was POY in an above average conference (CCC), but his team finished 13-14 and in 8th place (out of 9 teams) in the conference and they did not participate in postseason play.

Bradley was also POY (in the LEC) and it is debatable as to which conference is better. He led his team to a conference regular season and tournament championship, and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

I guess a follow up question is if Demers is more deserving of an All-American spot than Jefferson. I think POY carries a lot of weight at the D3 level, compared to strength of conference and regular/postseason team success.

I don't necessarily agree. Maybe for the coaches' side of things it carries more weight ... but those of us on the other panel, we understand that sometimes those honors aren't because of the player, but something else going on in the voting.

Nothing against Demers, I think he deserved to be where he was no matter how his team played (I think we can think of a Hamilton player a few years back who was in a similar situation; that didn't demise his talent).