MBB: NESCAC

[toad22]

Please don't take that job, the worst D1 job in America. It is where coaches go to die!

[AmherstStudent05]

The d3hoops All-American team was just announced. Alex Sobel made the Fourth Team and Sam Peek made the Fifth Team. Alex and Sam are fantastic representatives of our conference. Congratulations to them and all the honorees.

I also want to thank Pat for replacing "Honorable Mention" with the Fifth Team All America. I'm not usually a stickler over language but the widespread use of "Honorable Mention" has always bothered me. By its terms it seems to be denoting college athletes who came closest to All American status without actually achieving that lofty honor. Much cleaner to just call it the Fifth Team to remove any possible confusion.

[Colby Hoops]

https://hoopdirt.com/official-markwood-named-head-basketball-coach-at-maine/

No Strahorn at UMaine.

[nescac1]

Now that it's officially the off-season, I thought I'd take a shot of putting together a list of the best 25 NESCAC players since NESCAC was eligible to participate in NCAA play (1994). Before that, it is really much tougher to judge. To be eligible, guys have to have played at least three years of NESCAC ball, and have completed their varsity eligibility (so, no Sam Peek or Alex Sobel, even though Peek and maybe Sobel has a shot of cracking the list with another big year; and none of the guys who played a year or two then transferred to D1, so no Duncan Robinson or Austin Hutcherson or Matt Hart).  I've looked to both absolutely peak level of play (so, anyone who was a first-team D3hoops all-American is almost certainly going to be in) and consistency of strong play (ideally, guys should have at least two, in most cases at least three, impactful years, so multiple first-team all-NESCAC picks is certainly a big signal) in putting this together.  This represents fewer than one player per year, so some really good players, including a good number of players who were NESCAC POYs, did not make the list ...   

First, the top five I think are pretty easy: 1. Mike Nogelo, 2. Andrew Olson, 3. Aaron Toomey, 4. Ryan Sharry and 5. Michael Schantz (Hamilton).  The rest of my top ten, in no particular order: Leo Jones (Wesleyan), Kareem Tatum (Conn College), Colin Tabb (Trinity), Blake Schultz (Williams), Ben Coffin (Williams). 

I have thirteen more locks: Tyler Rhoten and Keith Wolff (Trinity), Kena Gilmour (Hamilton), Jamal Wilson, John Bedford, Willy Workman, Steve Zieja (Amherst),  Mike Crotty, Michael Mayer, James Wang, and Troy Whittington (Williams), Lucas Hausman (Bowdoin), and Joey Kizel (Middlebury).  Very hard to order that group between 11 and 22, I view them all as fairly similar.

The last three I see as a total toss-up between Matt St. Amour and Jack Daly (Middlebury), Chad Rowley (Bowdoin), Zak Ray and Matt Garvey (Bates), David Stephens and Sam Clark (Colby), Chris McMahon, Chad Onofrio, Tom Palleschi, and Luke Rogers (Tufts), Sha Brown (Wesleyan), Andrew Harper and Andrew Schiel (Amherst), and Bobby Casey, Geoff Chapin, and James Heskett (Williams).  I think basically any of those guys can make a case, but I'll go with Chris McMahon and and Andrew Schiel, with St. Amour the first guy out, and Rowley and Ray just missing out as well. 

Curious who I have omitted! 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I will say, Luke Rogers was so impressive in the all star game this weekend. I really wish he'd been healthy all year.

[nescac1]

Injuries are tough to factor in. Zieja and Wang were shadows of themselves as seniors.  But they were so good as sophs and juniors that they earned spots. Rogers had only one really great year and I think was POY in one of the weaker POY fields.  (Yes he was first team as a senior but that seemed like a pretty major stretch ...). Had he been 100 percent this year he probably makes the list.  But same for Palleschi who was, I think, a better player when healthy ... so it's a tough call. 

[AmherstStudent05]

Now that it's officially the off-season, I thought I'd take a shot of putting together a list of the best 25 NESCAC players since NESCAC was eligible to participate in NCAA play (1994). Before that, it is really much tougher to judge. To be eligible, guys have to have played at least three years of NESCAC ball, and have completed their varsity eligibility (so, no Sam Peek or Alex Sobel, even though Peek and maybe Sobel has a shot of cracking the list with another big year; and none of the guys who played a year or two then transferred to D1, so no Duncan Robinson or Austin Hutcherson or Matt Hart).  I've looked to both absolutely peak level of play (so, anyone who was a first-team D3hoops all-American is almost certainly going to be in) and consistency of strong play (ideally, guys should have at least two, in most cases at least three, impactful years, so multiple first-team all-NESCAC picks is certainly a big signal) in putting this together.  This represents fewer than one player per year, so some really good players, including a good number of players who were NESCAC POYs, did not make the list ...   

First, the top five I think are pretty easy: 1. Mike Nogelo, 2. Andrew Olson, 3. Aaron Toomey, 4. Ryan Sharry and 5. Michael Schantz (Hamilton).  The rest of my top ten, in no particular order: Leo Jones (Wesleyan), Kareem Tatum (Conn College), Colin Tabb (Trinity), Blake Schultz (Williams), Ben Coffin (Williams). 

I have thirteen more locks: Tyler Rhoten and Keith Wolff (Trinity), Kena Gilmour (Hamilton), Jamal Wilson, John Bedford, Willy Workman, Steve Zieja (Amherst),  Mike Crotty, Michael Mayer, James Wang, and Troy Whittington (Williams), Lucas Hausman (Bowdoin), and Joey Kizel (Middlebury).  Very hard to order that group between 11 and 22, I view them all as fairly similar.

The last three I see as a total toss-up between Matt St. Amour and Jack Daly (Middlebury), Chad Rowley (Bowdoin), Zak Ray and Matt Garvey (Bates), David Stephens and Sam Clark (Colby), Chris McMahon, Chad Onofrio, Tom Palleschi, and Luke Rogers (Tufts), Sha Brown (Wesleyan), Andrew Harper and Andrew Schiel (Amherst), and Bobby Casey, Geoff Chapin, and James Heskett (Williams).  I think basically any of those guys can make a case, but I'll go with Chris McMahon and and Andrew Schiel, with St. Amour the first guy out, and Rowley and Ray just missing out as well. 

Curious who I have omitted!

Great stuff as always, nescac1!  You know I live for this best player/best team of all time stuff! I will note at the outset that when I initiate one of these sorts of discussions -- and I have been guilty on numerous occasions -- the cutoff I always adopt is the 2000-01 season.  My "principled" reason for this is that is when NESCAC tournament play began and also as far back as statistical and all conference records go back on nescac.com  My selfish reason of course is that more or less perfectly coincides with when I started following NESCAC hoops (I arrived at Amherst in the Fall of 2001).  In picking 1994 as your own cutoff you tied it to the advent of NCAA Tournament participation but I believe this also more or less coincides with your own NESCAC fandom.  Unfortunately, I know basically next to nothing about NESCAC hoops prior to 2001.  I obviously never saw any of it live, but I also have never seen videos or even been able to look at basically any statistics or all conference recognition for this period of time.  Bottom line, I admittedly in no position to judge some of your list in any way.

That said, I had a couple of reactions to your list.

First, in terms of omissions, the one obvious one to me is Adam Choice from Colby.  Adam was a three time all conference selection (second team as a sophomore and first team as a junior and senior) and that is an incredibly rare accomplishment.  I believe Rhoten, Toomey and Kizel are the only players to be first team three seasons.  Choice also made a d3hoops All America team (fourth team).

I'm not the least bit surprised that you put Nogelo as your top overall player.  I'm also sure it will not surprise you that I have Aaron Toomey as my greatest NESCAC player of all time.  As I said, I can't really comment on Nogelo one way or another and I have posted on the classic Toomey vs. Olson debate many times before (a true classic in my mind for which there really are no wrong answers!) but I do think Toomey is tops.  Three time First team all nescac, nescac rookie of the year, two-time nescac player of the year, two time first team d3hoops all american (with an honorable mention to boot), NABC player of the year, d3hoops player of the year, National Champion, three time NESCAC regular season and tournament champion) and basically willed an otherwise ok Amherst team to the final four in 2014.

On the Amherst front the only other thing I would mention is that I would have liked to have seen some love for Brian Baskauskas.  To be clear, I am not saying he necessarily deserved a spot on your top 25 but I do think he deserved at the very least "honorable mention."  Baskauskas gets hurt a bit because he wasnt flashy and he played with a lot of other talented guys, but he really was a key player for us (and apparently a Hix favorite). He could shoot, drive, rebound, defend.  Really was the total package.  He was a three year started for us and started on teams that went 3-1 in Salem.  Going into his senior year there was some question about whether he was just a "Robin" and if he ever could be "Batman" but he quickly put those to rest with a great senior year that ended with all american recognition.

I'd be curious what Trin posters think (if there are any stilll left), but to me Tyler Rhoten is clearly ahead of Colin Tabb (Tabb was barely a contemporary of mine but I got to see Rhoten play a lot) and I would think he has a strong case even for top 5 recognition.

Finally, I have to think MSA deserves on the list (instead of first one out), but again it is a little tricky for me because I cannot evaluate the pre 2001 guys at all.  Anyway, thanks for a fun post!

[AmherstStudent05]

Injuries are tough to factor in. Zieja and Wang were shadows of themselves as seniors.  But they were so good as sophs and juniors that they earned spots. Rogers had only one really great year and I think was POY in one of the weaker POY fields.  (Yes he was first team as a senior but that seemed like a pretty major stretch ...). Had he been 100 percent this year he probably makes the list.  But same for Palleschi who was, I think, a better player when healthy ... so it's a tough call.

Wang was definitely a shadow of himself his senior year but I dont think the same really can be said of the great Steve Zieja.  After all, Zieja was NESCAC Player of the Year as a senior and was also a Jostens finalist.  It is true that he and Fitzy battled some niggling injuries throughout their senior year and I'm sure that didn't help matters at the tail end of a long season, but frankly we (sadly) just ran into a buzzsaw that second half in Chandler. 

[nescac1]

I must be misremembering on Zieja.  Clearly if he POY that year, it was not the entire year, but I seem to recall him really struggling with a significant injury towards the end of the 2003 season.  But again, it was a long time ago so maybe I'm confused in my old age! 

As for Nogelo, there, I think he is a rock-solid number one, and no one else even has a case.  He was a three-time all-American, three time New England POY, by far the dominant player on two Williams final four teams (neither of those teams had anything close to an elite player, other than Nogelo), national player of the year, and was a much better player deep into the NCAA tourney than Toomey (2x all-tournament at the Final Four).  Nogelo set the record for most points ever in a D3 tourney and held it for several decades.  He averaged 23-14-3 during his NCAA career.  That's utterly ridiculous.  He was absolutely dominant in many tourney games and certainly never had anything like the game Toomey did in the Final Four vs. Williams.  His supporting cast in 97/98 was similar to Toomey's in 2014, but Toomey had an all-time great team around him in 2013, and those guys certainly get a good deal of the credit for the national title - it wasn't all Toomey!  Nogelo went on to a really strong pro career at the top level of professional hoops in Spain. 

Nogelo was also a far superior statistical player than Toomey.  He played a lot fewer games (no NESCAC tourney in those days, smaller NCAA tourney, and Nogelo missed a big chunk of his first year recovering from a serious knee injury) but like Toomey exceeded 2000 points and also is second all-time in rebounds at Williams, while also being an elite passer.  Toomey, as great as he was, was not an incredibly efficient shooter (other than from the free throw line) for his career, 43, 44, and 46 from the field in his last three years, although of course he did take a very high volume of 3's.  Yes, his last year he was truly spectacular considering he got all the defensive attention, but his first three seasons, he did play with a ton of talent around him and was actually kind of meh as a shooter for a guy in the conversation as best ever.  Toomey never averaged 20 ppg in a SEASON.  Nogelo averaged 20 ppg for his CAREER.  Nogelo's senior year stats: 22.6 ppg while shooting 55% from the floor, 82% from the line, and 46% from three-point range.  Nogelo shot the same from 3 as a senior as Toomey did from the field!

A great summary of Nogelo's accomplishments here: https://communications.williams.edu/sports-news-archive/1998/03/26/nabc-selects-williams-nogelo-gte-division-iii-player-of-the-year/

Just based on the eye test, which I realize AmherstStudent05 isn't privvy to, it just wasn't close.  Nogelo could have started on nearly any D1 team; he was bigger, stronger and more athletic than Toomey, he could really throw the ball down.  Toomey could not have.  Toomey is a great player but I'd say the gap between Nogelo and whoever you want to put at number two (for me, it's Olson) is massive.

Adam Choice was definitely someone who I should have at least mentioned, good catch AmherstStudent.  As for Rhoten vs. Tabb, I just personally thought Tabb was a better overall player, he could do so many things on both ends of the court.  But Rhoten was certainly great, too .... Keith Wolff (who led Trinity to a Final Four along with Troy McKelvin, who I also should have at least mentioned) is right there with Rhoten and Tabb, too.  He could flat-out score. 

[Pat Coleman]

Nogelo would be at the top of my list as well.

[toad22]

I applaud NESCAC1 for this list. I am such an Eph homer that I could not compile a list of great opponents. I do have a couple of comments. The three Williams plays not mentioned that I would highlight are: Matt Hunt, Taylor Epley, and Dan Aronowitz. Hunt played with Nogelo, so was naturally overshadowed by him. Matt was a great shooter and scorer, and save for Nogelo,  might be on this list. Taylor Epley had better numbers going into his senior year than Blake Schultz did. He fell off a bit in his last year, partly because Duncan Robinson showed up. Dan Aronowitz had a great career and led his team to a final four. I would also mention that he was the best player I have seen for being a terrible practice player!
The best three or four year players from Williams include Nogelo, Hunt, Schultz, Crotty, and Mayer.

Among the opponents, the players I would highlight are those that actually scared me.  Those include: From Middlebury, Sharry and Kizel, plus Andrew Locke, not on this list, but a truly astonishing defensive presence. From Amherst, Toomey, Olson, Workman and Zieja. From Bowdoin, Hausman, from Conn, Tatum, and from Hamilton, Gilmour.

[mathteacherjedi]

Some non-statistical memories of Nogelo:

1. His senior year, fairly late in the year at home against Trinity, he got an elbow to the forehead and had to leave to get stitches. Came back a little later in the game and came back in like he had never left. Those Trinity guys were physical, but he was tougher.

2. Game at Springfield (playoffs?) he had the most heads up basketball play I've ever seen in person. It was very late in a very close game. He took a 3 from the top of the key that clanged off the rim and ricocheted to the deep left corner. The ball should have been out of bounds, but Nogelo was somehow there to grab the rebound and hit the follow-up three. It was a remarkable example of seeing where things were going to go before they happened. Reminds me of the Jeter scoop. You wouldn't believe it if you didn't see it. 

While not an all-time great, anyone who watched those late 90s teams had to love the heart of Jimmy Frew...

[JEFFFAN]

More heads up than this?  Still my GOAT play!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3xeop5q-Pk

[nescac1]

Toad, those are all great additions for the list of Ephs worthy of consideration.  The lesson is, there are a LOT of great players from Williams (and NESCAC more generally) over the past 25 years!  Andrew Locke was also a good addition, he was certainly a unique player as a rim protector, you just don't see many 6'11 dudes with that sort of athleticism playing in D3.  By his senior year, he was a dominant force on both ends, but it took him a few years to really grow into that sort of player, so hard to say where to place him. 

mathteacherjedi, Jim Frew is certainly one of my favorite Eph players to watch, he's definitely on the Eph grit/toughness/intangibles Mount Rushmore with John Botti and Chuck Abba.  The Ephs could really use a guy like that -- who couldn't - but they are very tough to find! 

Great Nogelo memories, also.  One of my favorite wasn't something he did exactly, but watching a game against an overmatched opponent where he was just having his way, the opposing coach loudly told his players on the sideline "smahhhtt player, Nogelo" before demanding that they play more like Nogelo does.  I enjoyed their credulous looks in response - he might as well have said "OK, now go out there and start shooting skyhooks exactly like Kareem does it!" 

[Greek Tragedy]

Oswego honored 7 players at their last regular season game, but only one starter, Mulson, who splits time in the paint.

They have 4 starters coming back from this years team, and 13 returnees overall.

So Crittendon and Simmons (didn't start, but 4th in scoring at 9.9 ppg and over 5 rpg) are returning seniors?