MBB: NESCAC

[SpringSt7]

Given the success of last year's D3 transfers, who admittedly were probably better prospects, I would hope that there is more interest in these guys going forward. Matthew Schner and Sam Peek were both in and out of the starting lineup at Lipscomb and Stetson for two teams that finished in the top half of the Atlantic Sun after disappointing years prior, and Matthew Leritz was all NE-10 at Bentley, one of the best D2 leagues in the country.

[P'bearfan]

Whoops I forgot about Will King having another year left!  I saw that Tufts posted a video of Thoerner highlights, so I imagine he may also be looking for a fifth-year opportunity.  If I was a UAA coach I'd be all over both of those guys. 

To continue the list of players graduating:

6. Williams - Spivy - a huge loss, but the Ephs do return everyone who played in the rotation in the two NCAA games, giving the Ephs a jump-start on next year's team, which certainly looks loaded with talent; the question is how the pieces fit together as Spivy's versatility enabled him to play in lots of different sort of lineups. 

7. Bates - Baxter and Riley -- Baxter is the only loss from the top ten scorers, but was by far Bates' best player last year.  Another guy who may try to play a fifth year elsewhere.  Big loss for a team that struggled even with him last year, but some of the first-year guys figure to make a leap heading into next season. 

8. Trinity -  Redd, Smith and Hoch - losing a solid group of role players, including two strong wing defenders.  Trinity's offense won't miss a beat with the frosh coming up behind them, but those guys will be missing for their D and rebounding. 

9. Amherst - Phelan, Zarroug, Oranye, Schretter -- basically everyone on roster was in the rotation at one point but none of these guys were consistent regulars.  Since they probably didn't really fit into what Sears wanted to do, and Amherst just played too many guys period, this should open up more badly-needed minues for young players.

10. Bowdoin - Werkman - Bowdoin's best interior guy but there seems to be a lot coming up behind him in the rising sophomore class as well as one impact frosh big man. 

11. Conn College - everyone is back. 

Without taking into account transfers, defections, and rookies, Amherst, Bowdoin and Conn should be trending way up. Trinity, Williams and Bates (just because they can't get any worse) slightly up.  Coby way down.  Midd, Wesleyan, Tufts and Hamilton also will have a tough time overcoming their losses but all return a good amount of talent as well. 

So, what does that all mean?  Williams enters next year as the clear favorite, but also entered this year as the clear favorite and (while having by far the best overall W-L record of any NESCAC team) fell a bit short of incredibly high expectations.  Still, if the Ephs are healthier next year they do come into the season with the most overall experienced talent in the league.  Conn College, if they can add just one or two more real pieces in the recruiting class, could be a big riser next year; Murray looks like one of the top three players in the league next year (along with Nate Karren and Nicky Johnson). 

Amherst on paper should be dramatically improved after playing so many underclassmen big minutes; at the very least, they should be in the NESCAC tourney and above .500, as a floor.  Will Sears be on the hot seat if he can't contend in NESCAC with, I'd say, very clearly one of the three most talented returning rosters?   Bowdoin will be better but still looks likely to be a year away from being interesting.  Colby I think is sure to drop back a bit from this year's record, just so much to lose from one class.  Bates seems likely to have another rough year. 

As for the rest?  Feels very, very hard to predict and will probably depend a lot on first years players as well as guys taking unexpected fifth years.  Midd, Hamilton, Wesleyan, Tufts, Trinity all have the talent to be top-three teams in NESCAC but all of them could slide into the bottom 4-5 teams, as well.  Of that group I think Midd and Tufts have the highest floor, but Sobel for Midd, and all those playmaking guards for Tufts, will be very difficult to replace. 

If I was taking a wild stab at ranking the league heading into next season (without the benefit of seeing frosh classes), I'd say: 1. Williams 2. Tufts 3. Conn 4. Trinity 5. Midd 6. Amherst 7. Hamilton 8. Wesleyan 9. Colby 10. Bowdoin 11. Bates.  Amherst has considerably more upside than 6, but we first need to see a Sears team succeed before pushing them higher.  I do not feel remotely confident about just about anyone in these rankings, outside of Bates bringing up the rear, and Williams being comfortably in the top three.

Here's hoping you're right and the Polar Bears take a big step forward next year!

[SpringSt7]

Useless Williams basketball stat of the day: with St. Joe's loss in the Sweet 16 to Wheaton, this will be the first time since 2007 that the team that defeated the Ephs will not advance to the Final Four, when they lost to Brockport in Dave Paulsen's final D3 tournament game.

[lumbercat]

Love to see the NESCAC passion of a guy crunching numbers but I totally agree it's truly useless.

[Old Guy]

Just watched Swarthmore-Nichols in the Elite 8. Very exciting game. Nichols was up the whole game, leading by 7 at the half (44-37) and led the entire game, up by 11 at the halfway mark in the second half, ahead by 6-8 till the last two minutes. Swarthmore won 78-77 on a bucket with about six seconds left.

I went into the game not really caring about the outcome, I thought, but found myself rooting hard for Nichols. What a gutsy crew! They play just seven guys and play very hard at both ends, applying a lot of pressure. This game looked like the Rochester and Middlebury games (which I attended) last weekend, except Nichols never fell behind in this one till the very end. After they beat us (Middlebury), they traveled this weekend to Swarthmore and beat Stockton last night by 18 in order to play the hosts (27-3) in a packed gym. Nichols came into our Taj Mahal of athletic facilities, and then to Swarthmore, also a well-heeled bunch, and exhibited not an ounce of intimidation. They wear outer shirts that say "Nobody Cares Win Anyway" and they appear to be right (they brought about a half-dozen fans to their games at our place and probably about that many to PA judging from crowd noise) and play with abandon, confidently, relentlessly, before big hostile crowds. Pretty impressive.

[Greek Tragedy]

So Nichols brought 6 fans?

I've never seen Nichols in person, a few clips on Twitter etc. They seem like a fun team, scores a lot, real athletic. Nice to see them make a run in the NCAAs.

[Hamilton4]

Definitely sad to see sour grapes from such a proud program like Hamilton. In my opinion, JHU guard play was so much better than Hamilton's with James, Windley, Yeutter, and Nixon beating their man so often that the Continentals struggled to stay in front and resorted to fouling. Just watched the entire game back on demand and I don't think legitimately any of the fouls called were incorrect or at least not very debatable, weren't too many head scratchers. Hamilton shot 29% from 3 and 46% from the free throw line, if they were going to beat the better team (Hopkins) Saturday, they probably should've played better. Thank you for these gems though:

"NESCAC is looking like the league that we all know they are"
"Wouldn't be surprised to see all 4 teams advance today"
"I watched Hopkins play last night and was not impressed at all by them, I expect a Hamilton win tonight on Hopkins home floor"
"Iron sharpens iron so let's just say that the 4 NESCAC teams are 4 of the sharpest in this tournament"

Hilarious post that I will remember for ages because of how bad it backfired! Better luck next year!

Centennial, I was at the game in person, I had the luxury of sitting next to one of the JHU players older brother and even he was saying that the JHU was getting bailed out by the refs. The game was not called evenly on both ends plain and simple, JHU shot 39 free throws, Hamilton shot 13. Every time Conner Rood or Eric Anderson drove to the basket they were getting creamed and no whistle. Every time Yeutter or Johansson drove the refs would wait to see if it went in and if didn't they would blow the whistle. Late in the 2nd Half we closed out on a corner 3 and the JHU player flopped with no contact and of course the ref blows his whistle 3 free throws. So many what should've been stops resulted in free throws of which JHU is a good free throw shooting team. I can give credit to JHU HC for being in the head refs ear the whole game to include timeouts. And even with all of that it was a 4 point game with a little over a minute left. If that game is played on a neutral floor the better team would have clearly won. After watching JHU twice in two nights, in person, I'd say they'd be a middle of the pack NESCAC team, very similar to Trinity.

[Bucket]

Definitely sad to see sour grapes from such a proud program like Hamilton. In my opinion, JHU guard play was so much better than Hamilton's with James, Windley, Yeutter, and Nixon beating their man so often that the Continentals struggled to stay in front and resorted to fouling. Just watched the entire game back on demand and I don't think legitimately any of the fouls called were incorrect or at least not very debatable, weren't too many head scratchers. Hamilton shot 29% from 3 and 46% from the free throw line, if they were going to beat the better team (Hopkins) Saturday, they probably should've played better. Thank you for these gems though:

"NESCAC is looking like the league that we all know they are"
"Wouldn't be surprised to see all 4 teams advance today"
"I watched Hopkins play last night and was not impressed at all by them, I expect a Hamilton win tonight on Hopkins home floor"
"Iron sharpens iron so let's just say that the 4 NESCAC teams are 4 of the sharpest in this tournament"

Hilarious post that I will remember for ages because of how bad it backfired! Better luck next year!

Centennial, I was at the game in person, I had the luxury of sitting next to one of the JHU players older brother and even he was saying that the JHU was getting bailed out by the refs. The game was not called evenly on both ends plain and simple, JHU shot 39 free throws, Hamilton shot 13. Every time Conner Rood or Eric Anderson drove to the basket they were getting creamed and no whistle. Every time Yeutter or Johansson drove the refs would wait to see if it went in and if didn't they would blow the whistle. Late in the 2nd Half we closed out on a corner 3 and the JHU player flopped with no contact and of course the ref blows his whistle 3 free throws. So many what should've been stops resulted in free throws of which JHU is a good free throw shooting team. I can give credit to JHU HC for being in the head refs ear the whole game to include timeouts. And even with all of that it was a 4 point game with a little over a minute left. If that game is played on a neutral floor the better team would have clearly won. After watching JHU twice in two nights, in person, I'd say they'd be a middle of the pack NESCAC team, very similar to Trinity.

Just stop. You're embarrassing yourself.

[Hamilton4]

30-30 at halftime at Hopkins, foul count is 10-3 in hopkins favor, worst home cooking I've seen in quite some time and yet the game is still tied. Singh may be out for the game with a leg injury that happened with about 6 mins left in half. This is a real dog fight playing 5 on 8 but I guess it's to be expected on the road in the post season

Bucket, I called it out as the worst home cooking during halftime when the game was tied. I've been watching college basketball for 45 years, and I called it out as the worst before the game was over. Had Hamilton won I still would've called it the worst that I'd ever seen. And I stick by the fact that outside of Swarthmore the Centennial is a pretty pedestrian conference, shots fired lol  . 

[SpringSt7]

I have no idea why I'm wading into this at all but it's offseason mode so whatever: Hamilton ranked 301st in the country out of 412 teams in personal fouls per game. Hopkins ranked 57th in the country in free throw attempts per game. Make of that what you will.

[Hamilton4]

I have no idea why I'm wading into this at all but it's offseason mode so whatever: Hamilton ranked 301st in the country out of 412 teams in personal fouls per game. Hopkins ranked 57th in the country in free throw attempts per game. Make of that what you will.

You're right Spring St, at this point its all water under the bridge. It was a heck of a year for D3 ball, its too bad no NESCAC schools in the Final 4, but I will be watching nonetheless!

[Painter66]

The season is over. As a Midd guy, it was good but not what we hoped for, given Sobel and the returning players. In our case, we never really established a great wing/guard scoring punch, despite being an elite rebounding team. We did become a much better defensive team, partly because of Alex and also our entire team. It happens. This D3, not D1, so life goes on. Time to enjoy the "spring season". We always did. See you all next year.

[jumpshot]

Hamilton4: We understand your basketball frustration ... explain to us the anger ....

[Homer]

just think what i feel like as a mammoth fan. lol

[SpringSt7]

https://d3hoops.com/awards/all-region/2022-23/region-1-men

Despite the down year team wise, a very heavy NESCAC all-region group. Can't really complain. There aren't 7 players in the league better than Nate Karren but he averaged 13/6 and his teammate is already on there, it makes sense. I think they probably could've found room for someone from Hamilton if they found room for guys from 3 non tournament teams as well, with all due respect.

Next year will be very interesting all league wise. Nicky Johnson, Ben Callahan-Gold, and Nate Karren will be the headliners, and Teja Singh and David Murray will also be returning as all league guys as well. There are a lot of good young players headlined by Henry Vetter and Max Poulton, nor can you write off Sam Stevens, but on the whole there are a lot of teams who have a lot of question marks after their top 1 or 2 scorers that will be looking for breakout candidates, and I'm sure we will get a few from off of our radar.

And lastly---the Dylan Thoerner front is very quiet, especially seeing as the transfer portal is now open and hundreds of kids are entering by the day. He could have entered the portal and still elected to stay at Tufts after seeing what was out there. At this point you would have to wonder if it is more likely than not that he returns to Tufts for his last year, which would greatly change the landscape of the league next season.