MBB: NESCAC

[Painter66]

This is sad news. As a basketball player in the late sixties, Butch was a constant and inspiring part of our lives. His story has been well chronicled by several writers and publications. But he was more than a story to hundreds of us, and always in view on the streaming Midd games every winter. He was at several games this past season. Given his challenges, he lived a long time. He gave us a lot, and I believe his relationship to the players, coaches, and fans enhanced his life as well.

[nescac1]

Nice commitment for the Ephs, Matt Devine, yet another solid Berkshire School player headed to NESCAC. 

https://twitter.com/jexlernerrhoops/status/1582563767975829504?s=46&t=z7Msj7GEBfnIw3JBc3ylWA

Devine, an athletic wing, had multiple D1 offers. 

[nescac1]

Pretty cool seeing Will Hardy get the game ball after his first NBA head-coaching victory:

https://twitter.com/utahjazz/status/1582945979799437314?s=46&t=-IdGda_XhTjpwPJFVHmrQA

[nescac1]

Williams, Midd, and Wesleyan ranked in pre-season top 25:

https://www.d3hoops.com/top25/men/2022-23/preseason

[SpringSt7]

https://d3hoops.com/top25/men/2022-23/preseason

The d3hoops preseason top 25 is out. Overall, I think they accurately ranked both the NESCAC and New England as a whole:

6. Williams
8. WPI
13. St Joseph's (CT)
14. Middlebury
22. Wesleyan
34. Keene St.
37. Babson
42. Nichols
44. UMass Dartmouth
52. Emerson

While there are some easy nitpicks per usual (for example, with Jarred Houston returning I think Emerson will be firmly in the mix for a Pool C bid), Williams, Middlebury, and Wesleyan do seem like a clear top 3 in the NESCAC at this point.

[amh63]

The recent "preseason poll" of top teams brought a smile.  Looking forward to the season ahead.  Expect the Amherst's coaches to use the "poll" to challenge the returning and new players.  Amherst has, imo, some talented backcourt and front court returning players.

[nescac1]

When was the last time that Amherst received no votes in the pre-season top 25? I figure it has to be decades.  I don't think they DESERVED to receive any votes based on last year's caliber of play plus the guys that graduated.  However, there is no doubt plenty of talent on the roster, and it would not shock me to see them in the top 25 at some point, as the odds of a 10-0 start are decently high given the terrible non-conference schedule they play.  The biggest names in their first ten games are Yeshiva and Babson, both of whom were absolutely decimated by graduation / attrition.  They go from that to Wesleyan/Williams/Midd/Tufts/Bates/Williams to start January, quite an abrupt change. 

Amherst posted its roster ... six centers, including one who is 7'1 and three who are 6'10.  I am quite sure I've never seen anything like that in NESCAC (or probably D3, period) before ... https://athletics.amherst.edu/sports/mens-basketball/roster.  But, most likely, they can only play one of those guys at a time (although Randall as more of a floor spacer might be able to be a 7'1 PF, which would be kind of crazy to see).  Amherst is just going to tower over and physically dominate teams (their wings / forwards are massive too), especially in the first semester, but in league play, they will only go far as their young guards can carry them because teams are gonna make them prove it from outside. 

Regarding the rankings, I think my pre-season New England rankings would go something like this: Williams, St. Joe's, WPI, Midd, Nichols (absolutely loaded with high-level transfer talent and could be a lot higher), Keene State, Emerson.  That seems like the top tier of teams with potential to make a deep run, with Wesleyan, Tufts, Colby, Trinity, and Eastern Conn all in the mix as well as teams who could emerge but have more question marks. 

[JEFFFAN]

Yes, NESCAC1, the Biddification of Amherst athletics continues apace!   We will see how it plays out but someone probably needs to remind me the last time a NESCAC basketball program was highly successful with a bunch of tiny guards and big men who weren't good enough for their height to go D1.   Never mind - the answer is never.

Alas.

[nescac1]

Forgot Keene in the pre-season rankings and edited accordingly.  They look loaded, return all of their NCAA starters including several key fifth-year guys and added a solid transfer from Endicott.  The top six in New England (covering two regions) look rock solid. 

[midrangepullup]

Pretty new here - Does the NESCAC ever do a preseason poll?

If not anybody have any predictions?

[middhoops]

Welcome, Midrange.
You are in the right place.  nescac1, and others, will be posting forecasts soon.

[names jaismith]

Off the top of my head without checking rosters, just based on losses to graduation
Williams
Midd
Wesleyan
Trinity
Tufts
Amherst
Conn/Colby
Bowdoin
Hamilton
Bates

Likely to not be very close to the final result - 

[nescac1]

I'm pretty close to you, names.  I see the league as having three tiers:

Williams
Midd

Trinity
Tufts
Colby
Wesleyan
Amherst
Conn

Hamilton
Bowdoin
Bates

Within each tier, I see it as mostly a toss-up, but took my best guess of ordering. I'm a bit higher on Colby than you - they had bad injury luck last year and I love their senior class, and a bit lower on Wesleyan - Peek and James are both elite talents who are very hard to replace.  But again, I see it as very, very close from Trinity through Conn.   

[nescac1]

The weirdest stat from NESCAC hoops last year, other than Williams (which shot a scorching 39 percent), EVERY team in the conference shot either 31 or 32 percent from three point range.  For an elite conference like NESCAC that is pretty bad - the national median team last year shot 33 percent.  I wonder if that 33 percent number, nationally, is low historically (can't figure out how to find historical D3 statistical data), due to the weird lack of continuity over the past few years due to COVID.  And NESCAC teams were probably the most adversely affected by that -- none had ANY sort of year in 20-21, and due to the league's very strict protocols, a ton of guys were in an out of lineups for lengthy stretches of the season, and lots of practice time missed - hard to build any sort of offensive flow or continuity under those circumstances.  But still, it's not great to see 10 teams in the conference shooting it below (albeit slightly below) an average team nationally.  Even Wesleyan, which had an awesome year otherwise, struggled to shoot the three, and it game back to burn them in the NCAA tournament when they made only 6 threes the entire game in the loss to RPI. 

The good news for NESCAC is, I expect teams to shoot it MUCH better this season. First, it should be a relatively normal season, without such incredibly strict COVID protocols across the league (though surely some guys will miss some time).  Second, NESCAC teams were permitted to start practicing much earlier than a typical season this year, so I think the teams won't exhibit their typical early-season rust.  Third, 17 of the top 20 players by made 3's per game, and 9 of the top 11 by three point shooting percentage, all return this season.  Of the 11 teams, only Amherst took a massive hit in terms of its primary three point marksmen graduating.  I'll bet that at least half the league is at 35 percent from 3 or higher this year. 

[ronk]

The weirdest stat from NESCAC hoops last year, other than Williams (which shot a scorching 39 percent), EVERY team in the conference shot either 31 or 32 percent from three point range.  For an elite conference like NESCAC that is pretty bad - the national median team last year shot 33 percent.  I wonder if that 33 percent number, nationally, is low historically (can't figure out how to find historical D3 statistical data), due to the weird lack of continuity over the past few years due to COVID.  And NESCAC teams were probably the most adversely affected by that -- none had ANY sort of year in 20-21, and due to the league's very strict protocols, a ton of guys were in an out of lineups for lengthy stretches of the season, and lots of practice time missed - hard to build any sort of offensive flow or continuity under those circumstances.  But still, it's not great to see 10 teams in the conference shooting it below (albeit slightly below) an average team nationally.  Even Wesleyan, which had an awesome year otherwise, struggled to shoot the three, and it game back to burn them in the NCAA tournament when they made only 6 threes the entire game in the loss to RPI. 

The good news for NESCAC is, I expect teams to shoot it MUCH better this season. First, it should be a relatively normal season, without such incredibly strict COVID protocols across the league (though surely some guys will miss some time).  Second, NESCAC teams were permitted to start practicing much earlier than a typical season this year, so I think the teams won't exhibit their typical early-season rust.  Third, 17 of the top 20 players by made 3's per game, and 9 of the top 11 by three point shooting percentage, all return this season.  Of the 11 teams, only Amherst took a massive hit in terms of its primary three point marksmen graduating.  I'll bet that at least half the league is at 35 percent from 3 or higher this year.

Why the change?