MBB: NESCAC

[nescac1]

OK, Amherst schedule is out and it's safe to say this is the weakest slate of non-league opponents I've ever seen for ANY NESCAC team.  https://athletics.amherst.edu/sports/mens-basketball/schedule

Look at the records of these opponents, and most of these records were accrued in very weak conferences:

Elms - 3-22
Castleton - 3-21
Thomas - 3-21 or MCLA - 7-17 (in the "championship" of the Ken Wright invitational)
Westfield State - 12-16
Gettysburg - 16-11
Springfield - 7-18
RIC - 8-16
Albertus Magnus - 19-10
Anna Maria - 7-19
Rivier - 2-23
Stevens - 13-14
Colby-Sawyer - 10-16
Yeshiva - 16-10

What is the point of scheduling five teams (OK, four games, since Thomas and MCLA face off against one another) ranked 380 or below in Massey last year (out of 417 teams total in Division 3).  These are games Amherst, which is a veteran team with a lot of talent this year, is going to win by at least 40 points each.  It's fine to have one game like that to give your deep bench guys some real reps, or if you are playing a geographic rival, but I mean, not when half of your first-semester schedule is going to be totally non-competitive. 

It's also self-defeating, because unless Amherst wins the NESCAC league tourney or loses fewer than three games, total, on the season, they are almost certainly not going to be getting a Pool C bid with what is sure to be an abominable strength of schedule, even one bolstered by all those NESCAC games (including two Little Three games).  Other than Gettysburg, Stevens (if they even play them), Yeshiva and AMC, none of whom are likely to be world-beaters, I don't see ANY game against a team with a remote chance of playing in next year's NCAA tourney on this list. 

[SpringSt7]

Nice to see Amherst finally giving Coach Hixon a tribute of some kind.

[jumpshot]

Everyone knows amHurst has a long-standing tradition of scheduling only scrimmages against profoundly weak out-of-conference opponents. As a former player of multiple sports in NESCAC all four years, my view is that this policy is offensive to good competitors who play any sport in NESCAC. I, for one, value let's play anyone, anywhere, any time. Who benefits from a weak schedule ... coaches' records, administrators, fans? Certainly not players seeking a great experience.

[nescac1]

I THINK this is the full list of NESCAC alums/transfers playing elsewhere this year.  Should be fun to see how all these guys fare at different levels.  The newest addition is Bo Oranye, who is joining Aaron Toomey in Hartford.  I always liked his game but he was hurt a lot and caught in a numbers game up front at Amherst.  I think he could be a very solid leader for an extremely young team there.  Wirkala is another guy who figures to see a MUCH bigger role than he played at Colby. 

The King/Baxter/Maccoux group will all be key pieces on teams with very high expectations; all could be in a position to be in the NCAA tourney (especially Maccoux on a loaded Case team).  And then of course Sobel and Thoerner will get a chance to show what they can do at the scholarship level.  Otoo and McEachern are guys with some talent who weren't the right fit at Trinity but could make an impact at their new schools. 

All these programs' gains are NESCAC's loss.  While top teams in nearly every other conference have loaded up on transfers over the past two years, NESCAC has only been losing guys, and I believe it's impossible for NESCAC schools to even take grad transfers from other programs (and most NESCAC schools don't have graduate programs of consequence, in any event). 

Alex Sobel - Sacred Heart
Dylan Thoerner - UC Irvine
Will King - Claremont Mudd Scripps
Steph Baxter - Babson
Preston Maccoux - Case Western
Bo Oranye - Hartford
Cooper Wirkala - Thomas
Ethan McEachern - Rochester (transferred from Trinity before last year, but was injured all season)
Gilbert Otoo - Brandeis
Joe Hoch - Springfield

(edited to add Hoch, who is playing for Springfield as a GS)

[stlawus]

On the other hand, teams like Williams essentially have de facto 5th year players.   It's common for players to do a post grad year before matriculating, but if Declan Porter enrolled at Williams directly after high school this would technically be a 5th year.  He did a post grad at PEA, took the covid year off and then enrolled the following year.  He's very mature for a technical academic junior.  Of course, that's not a full comparison since he hasn't played 4 years of college competition.

[nescac1]

Plenty of NESCAC schools have guys who took a year off school so they get four full years of competition (at Williams, Porter, Roughley, Karren, Prowitt-Smith, among some others).  But LOADS of schools around the country have guys doing that, most of the top players it seems are either transferring or sticking around and taking that fifth year so they can four full years of competition.  And some of them have the advantage of having played a schedule at least to some degree during the "COVID year" so they are true fifth-year players. 

But the schools that have been really killing it, and will likely kill it this year as well, are those that can do that AND poach good players for a graduate year.  Last year, I think Swarthmore and RMC were the only schools that had deep tourney success without the benefit of transfers (like NESCAC schools, they both have relied on some five-year guys in their own programs, but that's it).  But if you look at who the top teams are (or teams that have vaulted from also-rans into solid contenders) in the current era of D3 hoops, schools like Case Western, John Carroll, Nichols, Oswego, CNU, Mount Union, NYU, Whitewater, Wheaton (IL), North Park, Rowan, Hopkins, and on and on have taken advantage of the liberal COVID-era transfer rules to ADD veteran talent not merely retain it.  Not that there is anything wrong with that! 

I do think that NESCAC has fallen back just a bit from where it was from 1996 through 2019 (one of the three most dominant leagues, year in and year out) for two reasons: (1) Amherst losing Hixon and going from perennial national contender to perennial non-tourney team, without any NESCAC program rising up to fill that gaping void and (2) the COVID-era rules benefit a lot of D3 powers in a way that NESCAC simply can't take full advantage of.  It will be interesting to see whether NESCAC can once again regularly produce legit contending teams after next season, which is the last season in which a huge number of impact graduate transfers should dramatically alter the fortunes of non-NESCAC D3 programs. I think the end of mass transfers will help the league, but I also think NESCAC is always going to be a bit less strong in the top of the league without a nationally elite Amherst program. 

[nescac31hoops]

Would not be surprised to see McGowan have a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander type of breakout year. Or a season like the last 35 seconds of Tracy McGrady's performance against the Spurs where he scored 13 straight points. I am very excited to watch him control the hardwood this year.

[nescac1]

This seems like a very good commitment for Wesleyan, a highly skilled big man who can shoot the 3:

https://newenglandrecruitingreport.com/recruits/oscar-edelman-2024

[westcoastnescac]

Would not be surprised to see McGowan have a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander type of breakout year. Or a season like the last 35 seconds of Tracy McGrady's performance against the Spurs where he scored 13 straight points. I am very excited to watch him control the hardwood this year.

I agree. James "Jimmy Basketball" McGowan is a junk yard dog out there. I expect a 22+ ppg season. Lots of young polar talent - particularly in the front court where they look to replace two guys with a lot of talent and experience.

[stlawus]

Any Williams fans know if non-conference games at Williams will have live streaming?  I know they took the links down for soccer until the athletic department was notified, wondering if the same thing is at play here. 

[nescac1]

As I understand it, stlawus, all games will be streaming, including non-conference games.

So this is weird: Rivier and Elms no longer appear on Amherst's schedule.  Not sure if that was a mistake before, or something changed, but eliminating those two games against god-awful teams shifts Amherst's schedule from historically awful to merely pretty bad.  Amherst now only has 23 games listed, so presumably, one more will appear on the schedule at some point ...

Williams, Amherst, Tufts, Colby, and Hamilton all have rosters posted.  No major surprise additions or defections that I can see.

[stlawus]

As I understand it, stlawus, all games will be streaming, including non-conference games.

So this is weird: Rivier and Elms no longer appear on Amherst's schedule.  Not sure if that was a mistake before, or something changed, but eliminating those two games against god-awful teams shifts Amherst's schedule from historically awful to merely pretty bad.  Amherst now only has 23 games listed, so presumably, one more will appear on the schedule at some point ...

Williams, Amherst, Tufts, Colby, and Hamilton all have rosters posted.  No major surprise additions or defections that I can see.

Excellent, thanks for the update.  With the streaming uncertainty I've had half a mind to make the trip to Williamstown for the weekend of the purple and gold classic to see SLU play, but you never know with the weather and holiday season ramping up so wanted to be sure it would be streamed.

[westcoastnescac]

Hearing reports that James McGowan has put on 10 pounds of muscle and is looking quicker than ever coming off last years injury. Wow. the kid just won't stop working..

[nescac1]

Word on the street is that fully half of NESCAC teams are planning to forfeit their scheduled games against Bowdoin, rather than show up and be humiliated. 

[Bucket]

Word on the street is that fully half of NESCAC teams are planning to forfeit their scheduled games against Bowdoin, rather than show up and be humiliated.