MBB: NESCAC

[Bucket]

Cool to see Jaden Bobbett on the roster for this USA East All Star team of mainly D1 players, with a few DIII, that will be traveling to Barcelona to play games this month.

https://pittsburghsportsnow.com/2022/07/12/pitts-john-hugley-to-compete-with-usa-east-coast-team-in-spain/

[nescac1]

Final recruiting update with a few more added guys.  Always a pretty big guess, but I put an * in front of guys who seem like they have potential to be impact players as underclassmen in NESCAC.  If I had to pick a pre-season all rookie squad, based on combo of talent and opportunity, I'd go with Poulton (Colby), Okorougo (Trinity),  Bernstein (Tufts), Morakis (Tufts), and Moran (Trinity), with Okorougo as ROY.  Bernstein was the top overall player at the Maccabi Games this summer, which is a great sign for his future at Tufts.   Amherst and Williams have some highly-regarded recruits as well, but they will have to beat out some tested veterans for minutes. 

Updated -- Tufts posted their incoming recruits and I've updated this accordingly.  VERY impressed with the overall quality of Linton's first Jumbo class, two guards, two wings, and a center, and all seem like guys who might well be starters or at least key reserves down the line.  I think if he keeps recruiting at this rate, Tufts is going to be a national powerhouse within 3-4 years, maybe sooner.  There is really no reason that Tufts, given its programmatic advantages (Boston location, bigger size, the ability to take grad transfers, and a great arena) should not be in the NCAA tourney nearly every year, and a real contender in some of those years.  Crazy to me that five NESCAC schools have made the final four since 1995, but not Tufts. 

Amherst:

Christopher Hammond, 6'6 G/F, Campbell Hall (CA)
*Drew Martin, 6'7 G/F, Rivers School
Giovanni Tam, 6'10 C, Cushing Academy, #37 in MA
*Charlie Randall, 7'0 F Berkshire School, #21 in MA, #59 in New England

Bates:

*Brady Coyne, 6'1 G, Falmouth (ME), #16 in ME
Elliot Cravitz, 6'3 G, Colorado Academy
Pete Psyhogeos, 6'3 G, Yarmouth (ME), #18 in ME
David Omasombo, 5'10 G, Lewiston (ME), #20 in ME
Chiwer Mayan, 6'8 C, Woodstock Academy

Bowdoin:

Alex Halpern, 6'0 G, NMH
Jaden Hill, 5'7 PG, Belmont Hill
*Nolan Bessire, 6'9, PF, Montgomery HS, CA
Kevin Reeves, 6'7, PF, Columbia Academy, OH
*Andrew Szwez, 6'6 F, Lee Academy, #10 in ME
Will Logue, SG, 6'2, Santa Rosa (CA) HS

Colby:

Miles Drake, 6'1 G, Darien HS
*Max Poulton, 6'4 G, Rivers School, #36 in MA
Tommy Mooney, 6'3 G, Haddonfield Memorial (NJ)

Conn College:

RJ Casey, 5'10 PG, Franklin Road (TN)
Elias Espinosa, 6'3 G, Bergen Catholic (NJ)


Hamilton:

Yashiya Crespin, 6'5 PG, Grace Christian (Raleigh NC)
Garret Keyhani, 6'8 F, Juniperro Serra (CA)
Sharif Nelson, 6'1 G, Milbrook School (NY)


Middlebury:

*Edward Witherington, 6'6 F, Fairhope H.S. (AL)
*Jackson McKersie, 6'8 F, Dexter Southfield (MA)
Mark Newell, 6'5 F, St. Sebastian
*Tristan Joseph, 6'2 G, Brunswick School
Evan Flaks, 5'9 PG, Taft School


Trinity:

Trevor McDonald, 6'5 G, Canterbury School
Drew Herer, 6'3 G, Beaver Country Day
Henry Vetter, 6'3 G, Canterbury School
*Dane Moran, 6'9 F/C, Lawrenceville (NJ)
*Jarrel Okorougo, 6'4 G, Brimmer and May, #22 MA, #61 in New England


Tufts:

*Josh Bernstein, 6'10 C, Berkshire School
*James Morakis, 6'3 G, Salisbury School
Scott Gyimesi, 6'5 F, Rumson Fair-Haven (NJ)
Theo Liu, 6'5 F, Blake School (MN)
Sidney Wooton, 6'1 G, Phoenix Prep

Wesleyan:

Alex Justh, 6'3 G, Berkshire School
Michael Astorino, 6'6 G/F, IMG Academy (FL)
*Sam Pohlman, 6'2 PG, Perkiomen School (PA)
Jackson Cormier, 6'3 G, St. John's School (TX)
Fritz Hauser, 6'8 C/F, St. Johnsbury Academy, #3 VT

Williams:

Ben McGraw, 6'3 G, Bolles (FL)
*Alex Lee, 6'2 G, Clear Lake (TX), #30 Greater Houston
*Hudson Hansen, 6'8 F, NMH, #35 MA, #100 New England
Sammy Cooley, 6'4 G/F, South Lakes (VA)
Isiaha Dickens, 6'7 F, Hun School (NJ)

[amh63]

Nice "bit" of info nescac1..wrt recruits for Amherst.  Want to point out that the HC at Amherst Sears just hired two new coaches.  Maybe all the activity wrt to naming the Amherst court after former HC Nixon put a little pressure on Sears on the upcoming season.  In any case...thinking about making some trips up to view the team playing...."court side"....live.

[nescac1]

Tufts is playing a really interesting first semester non-league schedule this year, highlighted by a game v. D1 Harvard.  Linton clearly is not afraid to play ANYONE.  Very impressed with his first recruiting class (see my edited post above) and the direction he has that program going in; the team had a slew of bad luck in the first semester last year, but didn't quit and improved dramatically over the course of the season.  Tufts is going to be doing some real damage, nationally, within a few years I suspect.  Even with the loss of Rogers to graduation, I think they are a team to watch this year, as well. 

On the non-league schedule:

Emerson (which I believe has its stars back for a fifth year) on the road to start the year, very tough opener then ...
Babson, big four title/consolation game (which will be a tough game most likely), MIT, Framingham State, St. Joe's, UMD, Harvard, Clark, Suffolk, Yeshiva, SUNY Old-Westbury, until things get a lot easier during league play in the second semester with New England College, U. Maine Presque Isle, and Colby Sawyer. 

[Pat Coleman]

I did a sweep of NESCAC mbb team websites yesterday and there were only two schedules posted:

https://d3hoops.com/teams/Tufts/Men/2022-23/index
https://d3hoops.com/teams/Wesleyan/Men/2022-23/index

Everything else on here is something a NESCAC team's opponent has provided:
https://d3hoops.com/conf/NESCAC/men/2022-23/schedule

[Painter66]

The Middlebury schedule is posted and it is very tough. 23 games, 7 home games, with only 4 of 10 NESCAC games at home. At Williams for 2nd consecutive year. They should be good but this is really difficult.

[nescac1]

Wow, that is brutal.  At Williams, Rochester, Keene, Endicott, Wesleyan, Skidmore, Amherst, Trinity and possibly Eastern Conn. Those are all very lose-able road games.  Some tough neutral court games as well.  And starting the season v Nichols on a neutral court, really jumping right into the schedule.  At least they will have a killer SOS!

[nescac1]

Big Jazz - Cavs trade ... good for both Koby Altman (he's built a future contender) and Will Hardy (he can safely bottom out for 2-3 years with his job safe ...). 

[Greek Tragedy]

I don't know anything about anything, but why is it a 6 road/4 home conference split? Hardly seems fair. I presume it's an annual thing.

[toad22]

I don't know anything about anything, but why is it a 6 road/4 home conference split? Hardly seems fair. I presume it's an annual thing.

This happened to Williams a couple of years ago. In Williams' 4 home game season they played Hamilton away for a second consecutive season. This makes the season somewhat tougher. Also, one team plays without a travel partner for a year. I thought that was a disadvantage. An 11 team league has some disadvantages.

[toad22]

I should add that every team goes full cycle with this format, and gets a 6 home games season, and also gets to play some team at home for two consecutive seasons. It just feels bad when your team experiences the difficult parts.

[nescac1]

Thought I'd take a shot at what, based on who is reputed to be returning, a pre-season top ten in New England might look like.  This is one of the most loaded groups at the top I can recall -- lots of teams with very few losses to graduation and loads with 5th year players.  I think that anyone in the top 7 is capable of a real NCAA run this year if things break right and I believe that group is more closely grouped than some folks might expect.  Williams and WPI should both be top 10 teams to start the season.  Midd and Keene should be in the top 25.  Emerson, Nichols, and St. Joe's likely won't be ranked, but are certainly teams to keep an eye on. 

1. Williams - returns all but one guy from the top 9 players of a team that made the Sweet 16 despite a ton of COVID-related adversity.  The three frosh who played big roles down the stretch of the season are now seasoned and ready to make much bigger impacts.  Could well be the biggest team in D3 with a D1-sized 6'9, 6'8, 6'7, 6'6, 6'4 starting lineup, and those dudes can all shoot the lights out.  Plenty of depth everywhere.  Only concern is how they will deal with speed and quickness, especially after losing their best one-on-one perimeter defender. 

2. WPI - Elite 8 team returns best big man duo on the country in Adams and Lowther.  Should have solid depth behind them as well.  But the backcourt, which wasn't a real strength last year, is now a real concern with two 5th-year senior starters graduating.  Aidan Callahan will be strong at the point of the attack but they need to finds guards and wings who an hit the open shots that collapsing defenses will surely generate. 

3. Middlebury -- entire roster back from a team which exceeded expectations last year with three first-year starters.  Depth should be much less of a concern with a solid recruiting class coming in to back up the starting five.  Sam Stevens and Alex Sobel are as good a 1-2 punch as you will find anywhere, but after third banana Osher, who was also great, there was a massive drop-off in production last year.  Midd needs other guys, either rising sophs or incoming frosh, to provide some scoring punch because they were so top-heavy last year that they were easy to game plan for if you had the horses to deal with Sobel.

4. Keene State -- with UMD decimated by graduation, seemingly the class of the Little East.  They do lose (unless back for a fifth year) some key players but Jeff Hunter could be one of the best bigs in the country (a common theme in the New England region, Adams/Lowther, Karren/Roughley, Sobel, Jarred Houston, etc., just loads of talented veteran big guys on the top contending teams).  Brito, Siow and Baptiste offer a ton of perimeter quickness. 

5. Nichols -- my surprise team in the region and maybe nationally; would not be shocked to see them rising into the top three here.  Posted their preliminary roster and all but one guy from their top 6 are back, with 4 of those 5 in their 5th or 6th year out of high school.  Jakigh Dottin should be one of the best players in the region.  Watch out for Tilquan Rucker, a very exciting player who missed all of last year with an injury suffered in an early scrimmage.  They bring in yet more high-profile transfers, Quincy Ferebee and Tavon Jones, both of whom have been scholarship players, and Devin Wade-Henderson, who was at one point on a D1 roster and may have been as well.  Last year they only played 6 guys but this year they should be much deeper with only one real loss and at least three-four major additions (possibly more depending on the other new guys).  They may play no one over 6'5 in the rotation so how they deal with size will be a question mark. 

6. Emerson -- another team that is going to, it appears, benefit mightily from the extra COVID year.  Stars Jarred Houston and Zach Waterhouse are both supposedly back, and along with third-leading scorer Max Davis, that gives them a very strong big three.  The question will be depth, especially on the perimeter where several key role players graduated, and overall quickness.  But Houston is such a force inside that he alone makes them a team to watch.   

7. St. Joseph's -- the backcourt duo of Jaecee Martin and Delshawn Jackson have seemingly been around forever, and are supposedly both back for one last run.  Jackson has really struggled with injuries and conditioning the last few years but if finally healthy, St. Joe's backcourt can match up with any in the country. If Jackson is the Jackson of old, I'd bump them up a few spots.  I believe Tyree Mitchell is also back for a fifth year so the wing and perimeter are loaded. However, there are big questions up front (never a huge strength) with Jordan Powell among others graduating. 

8. Tufts -- you could convince me of anyone from Trinity, Tufts, Colby, Amherst, or Wesleyan, maybe even Conn College, being worthy of this spot.  There will almost surely be (at least) a third NESCAC team emerging as a potential NCAA team and top-8 team in the region, but which it will be is anyone's guess.  All of these teams save for Colby suffered huge losses to graduation but all have plenty of young talent to step up.  Wesleyan still has a lot of veteran talent, but I think the 1-2 punch of losing both James and Peek is just too much.  Colby seems a guy short but could surprise, they were brutalized by COVID last year and have a loaded senior class.  Amherst has the most talent of any of these teams but can they find guys to make outside shots, and how fast will the underclassmen improve?  Amherst feels a year away to me. Trinity has a great incoming class as well, but hard to rely on frosh.  I like Tufts the best because they found a tough defensive identity late under Linton and have a lot of capable big bodies to fill in at center for Rogers, and there is a lot of veteran talent on the perimeter, plus bring in a lot of new talent. They will be hungry after a jinxed, disappointing season. 

9. Babson -- Babson loses quite a bit to graduation but they always find new guys to step up, and there seems to be a big drop-off in NEWMAC (yet again) after the big three.  Dorney and Amado should be one of the best one-two punches in the region, I really like both, and highly-ranked recruit Parker Mason may be ready to have a bigger impact up front after a year in the program.  No matter what, Babson will always, always play tough. 

10. Eastern Conn -- seems like at worst the second best team in the LEC and could well be the best.  They were a different team with Meiklye Murray and Jalen Williams and with both those guys for a full season, could easily end up higher in these rankings.  But they do lose some key pieces and seem not to have very much at all coming back on the interior. 

Other teams to watch outside the top 10: Plymouth State, RIC, Amherst, Trinity, Colby, Wesleyan, AMC, Suffolk, Westfield State (the class of the MASCAC, but hey, it's still the MASCAC). 

[nescac1]

A few early class of 2023 recruits.  I would expect Amherst to go heavy on shooting and ball-handling at the guard and wing spots in this class and Pablis looks like a pure shooter. Kennelly gives Tufts a small but crafty pass-first PG who can help get the ball to all the wing scorers and bigs they have loaded up on.  Colby as usual loads up on guards from New England prep school ranks, led by Lamy who looks like the most potentially impactful player of this list below.

Amherst:

Nate Pablis, 6'6 SG, Flint Hill (VA)

Colby:

Marcos Montiel, 6'3 G, Brooks School
Sam Hinman, 6'0 G, St. Sebastian's
Matt Lamy, 6'4 G, St. Paul's School (#20 in N.H.)

Tufts:

Liam Kennelly, 5'11 PG, Millbrook School

[nescac1]

Another Amherst 2023 recruit, a distance shooting specialist.  Clearly the Mammoths are focused on shoring up their one glaring need ...

https://twitter.com/johnnycash___23/status/1573467769424707607?s=46&t=7a3T2fIv4EbGXHn7aMmvQA

[ronk]

Another Amherst 2023 recruit, a distance shooting specialist.  Clearly the Mammoths are focused on shoring up their one glaring need ...

https://twitter.com/johnnycash___23/status/1573467769424707607?s=46&t=7a3T2fIv4EbGXHn7aMmvQA

Johnny Cash? May have been better off with Eddie MONEY as a distance shooter