MBB: NESCAC

[Old Guy]

Midd escapes/survives at Westfield State 64-57. Phew. The Panthers were beyond rusty in the first half: 29.5% from the floor, 2-5 at the line, Stevens 2-10, Osher 1-9, very much out of sorts, Panthers down by 4, 33-29.

Better in the second half, looked like basketball, but in truth the Owls were better too. The constant was Sobel: 22 points, 16 rebounds, 5 blocks: they're a different team when he's on the floor. The difference overall was on the boards where Midd had a 61-45 edge (26 offensive!).  Westfield State drops to 0-5. Neither team shot well (Midd 3-13 from 3; Wastfield State 1-16).

Two frosh saw meaningful time: Jackson McKersie (6'8")spelled Sobel, who was in foul trouble, and had five points, and Even Flatz, a 5''9" waterbug. Good to get a win on opening day. Nichols next.

[nescac1]

Williams cruises to another win over a decent SUNY Dehli team (which shot the ball pretty well from deep and fought hard). 

The Eph guards were all spectacular today, Glatzer, Prowitt-Smith, Spivy and Alex Lee just dominating the entire game.  They are so versatile and such strong two-ways players as a group and give the Ephs at least two very capable ball-handlers on the floor at all times.  Cole so far this year is playing a very controlled brand of ball, picking his spots and looking really good. Spivy is the clear leader of the team.  Glatzer was fantastic today, best he's looked in his young career.  And Lee is already an excellent player and does not play at all like a first year.  It's been a long time since the Ephs had a first-year guard who was so polished as a player right off the bat (I honestly am having trouble thinking of who that would even be ....).  Declan Porter continues his absolutely scorching early-season shooting, and his all-around game has been very good as well. 

The Ephs have one more easy game before the schedule gets a lot more challenging.  Great chance for the young Ephs to get a lot of minutes while Roughley and Hansen are out.  Nate Karren has had to do very little through three games but nice to have the big man in reserve when he is needed - as he surely will be.  In the meantime, if teams crowd the lane the Ephs are more than happy to pour it on from three. 

The rest of the Little Three had a very rough day.  Wesleyan has its second blow-out loss of the season today, and clearly is just not close to the same team as last year.  Amherst lost to an 0-3 Lynchburg team.  Amherst scored 57 points vs. a team that had been giving up over 90 ppg (against very strong competition, but still) on the season.  Not a great early sign. 

Tufts, Middlebury, Colby, Trinity and Williams are all undefeated and looking like the class of the league right now. 

[jumpshot]

EPHS win today 95-68 over SUNY-Delhi while displaying excellent defense and good rebounding, which, if sustained, will be valuable elements this season.
Gotta like the toughness of Alex Lee, Evan Glatzer, and the veterans. As injuries heal and conditioning of a few improves, depth will also be an asset.

[JEFFFAN]

Williams cruises to another win over a decent SUNY Dehli team (which shot the ball pretty well from deep and fought hard). 

The Eph guards were all spectacular today, Glatzer, Prowitt-Smith, Spivy and Alex Lee just dominating the entire game.  They are so versatile and such strong two-ways players as a group and give the Ephs at least two very capable ball-handlers on the floor at all times.  Cole so far this year is playing a very controlled brand of ball, picking his spots and looking really good. Spivy is the clear leader of the team.  Glatzer was fantastic today, best he's looked in his young career.  And Lee is already an excellent player and does not play at all like a first year.  It's been a long time since the Ephs had a first-year guard who was so polished as a player right off the bat (I honestly am having trouble thinking of who that would even be ....).  Declan Porter continues his absolutely scorching early-season shooting, and his all-around game has been very good as well. 

The Ephs have one more easy game before the schedule gets a lot more challenging.  Great chance for the young Ephs to get a lot of minutes while Roughley and Hansen are out.  Nate Karren has had to do very little through three games but nice to have the big man in reserve when he is needed - as he surely will be.  In the meantime, if teams crowd the lane the Ephs are more than happy to pour it on from three. 

The rest of the Little Three had a very rough day.  Wesleyan has its second blow-out loss of the season today, and clearly is just not close to the same team as last year.  Amherst lost to an 0-3 Lynchburg team.  Amherst scored 57 points vs. a team that had been giving up over 90 ppg (against very strong competition, but still) on the season.  Not a great early sign. 

Tufts, Middlebury, Colby, Trinity and Williams are all undefeated and looking like the class of the league right now.

What am I missing here?  The NESCAC.com and Amherst sites both have Amherst winning today ...

[nescac1]

Nescac has the correct score now.  62-57.

[middhoops]

Wait for the smart guys to post on the Midd-Nichols game if you want keen analysis. 
But ... Midd's big 3 all scored 20-22 pts, Sobel added 15 boards (don't have blocks data yet), freshman Evan Flaks pushed the ball upcourt aggressively and added 11 points.  Jackson McKersie had another efficient game, often playing alongside Sobel.  Twin towers.
The Panthers looked like a very solid team, dominant in the paint, against a very good (if undersized) Nichols team.
Shaking off the cobwebs after the sloppy game last night, Midd looked very good for November.
Vandy?  OG?

[Old Guy]

Wait for the smart guys to post on the Midd-Nichols game if you want keen analysis. 
But ... Midd's big 3 all scored 20-22 pts, Sobel added 15 boards (don't have blocks data yet), freshman Evan Flaks pushed the ball upcourt aggressively and added 11 points.  Jackson McKersie had another efficient game, often playing alongside Sobel.  Twin towers.
The Panthers looked like a very solid team, dominant in the paint, against a very good (if undersized) Nichols team.
Shaking off the cobwebs after the sloppy game last night, Midd looked very good for November.
Vandy?  OG?

Nice job, Middhoops. Succinct.
Midd looked as good today as they looked ragged last night. Nichols sure seems like a pretty talented team (I know they lost by 19 to Trinity). This was an exciting, well-played game. Midd got behind early, came back and led by 5 at the half.  They stretched that lead to 8-10 early in the second, but Nichols applied full-court pressure, went on a 14 point run and took the lead by 5 at the mid-point. With about 7 minutes to go, Midd put it all together and finished the game on a 20-2 run, made 12-12 free throws (25-27 for the game) when Nichols had to foul in the last three minutes.

Stevens cold shooting continued in the first half, but he broke out down the stretch, hit some big shots and led all scorers with 22 points. Sobel's line: 21 points, 15 rebounds, 3 blocks (and many altered shots) and 6 assists! Osher too shot the ball much better than last night (20 points). Brennan was Brennan, relentless, tough as nails: 8 points, 11 rebounds (8 offensive). Midd had a huge rebounding edge: 54-30 (but squandered some of that advantage with 19 TOs).

The two frosh made important contributions. Flaks played a lot (23 minutes) and was in there in crunch time, scored 11 points (2 threes). McKersie (10 minutes) spells Sobel but also played some alongside him. Different kind of player. He shows a nice touch: left open, he nailed three 12-15' jumpers. These two new guys are key pieces.

A nice start for the Panthers. This severely unbalanced schedule (7 at home, 16 away) is unfortunate. Even though there are not often large rabid crowds for the visiting team to confront, there's the long bus ride, the time away from class and schoolwork (increasing academic pressure), the unfamiliar gym. A road trip is exhausting compared to a home game. It would seem inevitable that this imbalance is reflected in the record.

It's a real challenge for Middlebury to find 15 non-NESCAC games with so few proximate opponents. Potential opponents cite distance — and "league commitments," which translated means "we don't want to play Middlebury in a non-league game and get licked." Castleton can schedule Colby (5-6 hours away) but not Middlebury (35 minutes away) — I know, the son of the athletics czar at Castleton plays for Colby (Tyson). But still. Norwich (an hour away) can't find a date to play Middlebury, a rivalry a century old, but can play non-league games against Northern Vermont - Lyndon; Northern Vermont - Johnson; Vermont Tech; and Castleton. So pusillanimous! There oughtta be a law!

Okay, that sounds like a whine. I will not discuss further, I promise. The games have begun. I'm a happy man.

[toad22]

As an Eph fan, it is great fun to see our first years playing so much and so well. Hudson Hansen was only able to play the first game before going down with an injury, but Alex Lee and Ben McGrath have played a lot of minutes. Hansen played 24 minutes in game 1 and scored 12 points. Lee averaged 17 minutes in 3 games, and scored 9.3 ppg, and McGrath averaged 13 mpg with 6.7 ppg. Lee and McGrath are 3 point shooters, so far shooting 40% or better.  These three players are good enough to play right away, and impact the team in a very positive way. I think it is fair to say that all four classes have impactful plays in them. Once the Ephs get healthy, they are going to be very difficult to beat. This team is a lot better than last year's team that lost the NESCACs in overtime and made it to the round of 16. Of course, you always need some luck!

[nescac1]

Got to see Amherst in person today.  Came back from down nine at halftime to win in exciting fashion -- Canin Reynolds calmly faked his man and buried a clutch three-pointer with three seconds left, and then Marymount quickly drove down to the the rim and Vance had a brilliant block at the buzzer to preserve the one-point win. 

In the second half, after playing 14 guys in the first, Coach Sears played something approaching a normal rotation, keeping his four frosh on the pine, and that definitely helped the team establish some rhythm.  Amherst used its massive size and strength advantage (Marymount is a VERY small team) to continuously punish Marymount on the interior on both ends.  Scherer, Vance, Helmke and Schretter are all just very big, strong dudes - Amherst must spend a LOT of time in the weight room - and they kept earning second chance points for Amherst by essentially just grabbing boards over or around much smaller or slighter guys. They also blocked or altered countless shots on the interior.  Vance is a very impressive athlete and seems like a guy who they need to get a bit more involved offensively if they can because he pops in a way that their others bigs do not.

Player of the game for Amherst was Canin Reynolds who hit some very tough, very clutch 3's in the second half and seemed to be the only guy creating on his own for Amherst on the perimeter.  He definitely wanted the ball late. Noah Helmke also hit a decent share of jumpers as Amherst's only other outside threat. 

For Amherst, they are gonna punish a lot of teams inside with all that height and muscle.  On the downside, they seem not terribly skilled on the perimeter outside of Reynolds.  No one else seemed to create a ton off the bounce (Sommers and Mitchell a bit but neither are close to elite guys going to the rim), and other than Helmke, no one seemed to be looking to shoot from deep.  This is also probably the slowest Amherst team I can recall seeing, all those big dudes are pretty lumbering but again, if they can get 2-3 chances every offensive possession, they are going to win their fair share. 

Were I setting a rotation for Amherst, I'd have Scherer and Schretter alternate at center (I like Oranye too but he is injured), and play Vance, Helmke and Reynolds all legit starter minutes, with Sommers and Mitchell as the other guys in the primary rotation, Sommers as a fifth starter because he's the only traditional two-guard I really see on the roster, and Mitchell as the first guard off the bench.  Then play one more big guy, either Schlackman or Randall (probably Randall just due to his upside which needs to be developed), behind Vance, and Alausa as a wing who can give a spark off the bench.  That's a nine-man rotation that makes a lot of sense and gets all of their shooters -- and they badly need as much shooting as they can find, because it's gonna be a struggle from deep all year -- solid minutes. 

[JEFFFAN]

That is a great write-up, NESCAC1, as always - but this time in person!   It is impossible to have a feel for this team and program given Covid and Hixon being gone, so this write-up is helpful.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

[amh63]

Nice write-up Nescac1 wrt the Amherst games in Arlington, Va.  Caught the Games on-line this time around.  Attended the games in Arlington a number of years ago.  My perspective/thoughts wrt the games Amherst played....now with a new coaching staff.
First, the Wash/MD/Va area is a "rich" recruiting area for Amherst....also home to many alums, etc. 
The opponents played were good tests for a generally bigger...somewhat slower Amherst team. Good tests for evaluating Amherst players and combinations.  Amherst won the game with the host team with a somewhat "shorter" lineup.  It was a quicker lineup that matched better against the shorter and often quicker host team playing on its home floor.  In any case, it was a tense but enjoyable game to watch.
I believe that Amherst's coaches used the games to evaluate player combos' mainly.  The key games follow later in the season at home and away.

[AmherstRules]

Really looking forward to returning from Fiji missionary trip to watch some NESCAC hoops. I have to stop in Milwaukee during holidays so I suppose I'll check out some WIAC ball there. Probably Oshkosh or Whitewater or maybe Stevens Point.

[amh63]

Finished home chores.....scouting some Nescac games to watch today/tonight.  The Williams' game with the Mass. College of Liberal Arts ...just down the street... is a big miss match.  No interest...maybe a game that Williams can evaluate their bench .  Will plan to watch the game where Eastern Conn. State Un. plays a Nescac team.  Know the President of the school.....she is married to a classmate of mine.  My classmate was one time head of Northeastern Un. and moved on to become a "big wig" in the Mass. public Un./college system. 

[nescac1]

Williams finishes the easy portion of its schedule with another blowout, 87-59 over MCLA.  The Ephs were missing five guys today, with Glatzer added to the LONG list of apparently injured guys, but it was such a mismatch that it did not matter.  The Ephs will hope to see some of those guys come back soon as the schedule is about to get a LOT tougher -- St. Lawrence, RPI, Wesleyan and SUNY-Oneonta is a very tough four game stretch ahead; three of them are undefeated to date, and while Wesleyan has been struggling, anything can happen in Little Three games.   

No live stats, but I think the Ephs were led by Nate Karren, Cole Prowitt-Smith, and Declan Porter, each of whom scored with ease today.  Declan had 5 or 6 treys, including one from about 28 feet and one that he banked in as the shot clock expired.  Guy is just a pure shooter.  Nate had his way inside and out in the second half.  The Ephs were a bit lethargic overall as is typical of the pre-Thanksgiving game and yet still cruised v. a game but outgunned MCLA squad. 

Ryan Moon got the start and made a ton of hustle plays on both ends, drawing fouls and getting to loose balls.  Brandon Arnold continues to work very hard on the glass, he's a presence on the offensive boards.  The frosh had some good plays and some bad plays, but I like that all three (Cooley, McGraw and Lee) stay very aggressive even after a missed shot or two, and play with a lot of confidence.  Cooley had some good moments today, he is a strong finisher and looks like he will be a very tough defender in time. Lee didn't have his best shooting day but still showcased his flashy offensive game. Really impressed with the contributions of this frosh class to date and look forward to seeing more of what Hansen brings to the table as well. 

Now things should get a lot more interesting for the Ephs!  Just hopeful that we see fewer guys in street clothes going forward ...

[Colby Hoops]

MIT played just 5 players in the game against Tufts -- can't say I've seen that much before.