MBB: NESCAC

[Old Guy]

NESCAC31Hoops:
The two comments about McGowan's tough night were hardly vitriolic. It may be that hype did him no favors.

Having grown up in Maine (Lewiston: Bates) and having had a brother-in-law who coached football at Bowdoin for a long time and worked there even longer, I root for Bowdoin. Again, a (mild) observation would be that he tried to do too much in the 2nd OT and might have involved his teammates further. Tiny sample size. He's a good player.

[quicksilver]

McGowan had an off-night in part due to picking up 2 quick fouls in the early going so never being able to get in a rhythm. His shooting was off as was Michael Simonds' shooting.

On the plus side, it was nice to see Kevin Reeves take over as Bowdoin's big. He had a nice double-double (16-13) and played some nice D in terms of blocks and showed great reach and athleticism (he is a very long and springy 6-8)

Concerning was the absence of the Lithuanian and quick PG Jaden Hill from the line-up. Both were in uniform and on the bench but perhaps one or both were nursing injuries . . Jaden Hill has very quick hands and probably could have helped handle the primary Husson scorer (Riles Neff) whom the rest iof the team could not stop.

[midrangepullup]

Colby is absolutely living and dying by the 3.

37 attempts last game against Emerson

58(!!!) attempts against Colby-Sawyer today

I'm not sure I've ever seen anything close to 58 attempts.

[SpringSt7]

Undermanned Williams down by 15 at half to open against WPI. Bruising John Adams and Aidan Callahan causing a ton of problems for Williams who is doing just enough to get by offensively despite playing sped up and scattered, but hard to understand their inability to slow down a WPI team that has never been known for offense. Hudson Hansen and Declan Porter aren't making THAT big of a difference defensively.

Williams has also continued its tradition of shooting the ball very poorly to open the season but it is really the defense that is hurting them. They are not let WPI score 80 and expect to win. Need to come out with more attention to detail to start the second half to avoid opening their season with a loss for the first time since 2015.

[Homer]

Amherst-Anna Maria.    You have a definite height advantage. You out rebound your opponent by 24 rebounds. 40% of your shots are 3s and you make 14% of them, so 40% of your shots are missed 3s. You would think with the height advantage you would get the ball to your big guys inside for a shot or a foul. How about driving in for a layup and/or possible foul. Wouldn't you coach some of that? 0 for 12 for 3s in the 2nd half. 17 points in the 2nd half compared to52 in the first. No points in the last 8 minutes with one time out at 3 minutes. Don't you call time outs and set up plays? Try to relax your players? Your big guy has 10 points and 5 rebounds in the first half and you play him 4 minutes early in the second half. You don't play him in the 8 minutes you don't score a point at the end of the second half and none in the overtime when your other big man is limping up and down the court? I don't get it. iMO, that's terrible coaching.

[midrangepullup]

Rough one this weekend for the NESCAC only ones to come out unscathed are Wesleyan, Trin, and Conn.

Trin looked very solid and Regan from Wes had himself a weekend. Conn appears to have been without Murray.

Everyone else is back to the drawing board

[nescac1]

Definitely a tough start to the season for Williams.  The Ephs went down by around 15 fairly early and although played better in the second half, never could really make it a game.  The Ephs definitely had trouble getting the offense in sync as there were a lot of turnovers on missed connections and some trouble handling the ball.  Williams also missed a few too many fairly open three point shots which could have kept the game more competitive.  The defense was much better in the second half than the first but the offense never really clicked.  Williams definitely missed Declan Porter and Hudson Hansen, both of whom were out, and Nate Karren is still working his way back from a pre-season injury.  But nevertheless, the Ephs will need to get a lot more in sync quickly to reach their potential.

WPI I thought looked very legit.  The WPI defense was absolutely stellar, tough, physical, and relentless, they were also relentless on the glass.  Not sure what was up with John Adams last year (maybe some injuries?) but he definitely looked like the national FOTY John Adams today, he was a dominant physical force on both ends of the floor.  Aidan Callahan was also stellar, showing nifty moves all game, making great decisions, hitting some very tough shots on the move, and generally controlling the game from the point guard position.  Sevilla also had a nice game on both ends for WPI.  The role players hit shots and made gritty plays.

For Williams, Alex Stoddard looked pretty good after missing an entire year.  The threes weren't falling but he was moving nicely and made a few going toward the rim.  Roughley although likewise didn't have the outside game going looked very good going towards the basket, he really needs more touches close to the rim where he can be very difficult to contain; he certainly looks more like himself after an entire year severely limited by injury.  Cole Prowitt-Smith had some really nice moves on offense and needed more shot attempts as the other perimeter players didn't have it going at all.  Ben McGraw hit a few threes off the bench, but Williams had to go pretty deep into the bench with two of their top seven out and it showed.  The Ephs need to do a better job staying in front of driving guards, which they already started to do in the second half, but they have a long way to go defensively.  And whenever Nate was out of the game there just wasn't much rim protection at all. 

Not an ideal way to start the year but credit to WPI, they played really well and certainly looked like a top-25 caliber team.  Hopefully the injured Ephs will return soon and give the team a boost and the team will get more in rhythm offensively.

Any yeah, tough weekend for NESCAC overall.  It really could be a down year for the league as a whole with so many teams elsewhere loaded up with transfers and grad students and NESCAC losing so much high-talent from last season.  But also, some of these teams off to slow starts are sure to improve, and improve very quickly. 

[Old Guy]

Good intense game at Middlebury: Panthers lost 68-62 to St. Joe's (CT). Midd won the first half 31-24, stood toe-to-toe with the relentless Blue Jays' pressure on the ball, but succumbed to that pressure at the beginning of the second half. (St Joe's had a 22-8 run to open the half). But the Panthers didn't fold and made it a good game, getting within one (46-45) halfway through the half and within three down the stretch. Biggest opening day crowd I've ever seen in Pepin saw an exciting hard-fought game. I think Panther fans were happy with the effort and encouraged, despite the result.

Senior Charlie Moore started with the returnees from last year's starting five (Brennan, Bobbit, Osher, Stevens). I thought it likely to be McKersie, Sobel's understudy last year, and he was the first player off the bench. Moore played 26 minutes and had 11 rebounds. He's very game, especially on the glass: he makes things happen.

Midd had a huge rebounding advantage (53-29)  That's misleading. St. Joe's doesn't even attempt to rebound offensively: they just get back, set their defense and ensure there will be no break coming the other way. Then, they create turnovers with their fullcourt ball pressure. Pretty effective: Midd had 21 turnovers (21-11). I was texting during the game (imagine that — Old Guy texting!) with my Bates friend watching on line, and he wrote as St. Joe's was applying the pressure, "Stevens is the only one not tentative."

That's the best news. The good news was that Midd hung in there with a fast aggressive opponent; the best was how well Stevens played — vintage, fully healthy Stevens. He was stellar, confident, wanted the ball. He hit the first hoop of the game, a three: just stepped into and let it fly. He was assertive and confident throughout. Kept us in the game: 28 points, 13 boards in 36 minutes. Often he brought the ball up against the player defending him, who was not one of the whippet quick other Blue Jay backcourtmen. He played a great game. If Midd is to make noise this year in NESCAC, Stevens is the key and today was encouraging indeed.

Midd has an exciting pre-holiday schedule, playing Clark next on Tuesday in Wuss-ta, and then next weekend in Springfield OH for a tournament, the Great Lakes Classic, playing Redlands (CA) and Wittenberg (OH). The Panthers then come back for games with Endicott (home) and New England College (away) before hosting Rochester, Chicago, Bowdoin, and CWRU in the UUA-NESCAC Challenge (we play Rochester and Chicago), and then three more games before the break.

Hoop heaven at Midd before the holiday break! Certainly makes this time of year not so dreary. Carry on, NESCAC fans!

[lumbercat]

Don't misinterpret my comments on McGowan---Im sure he's a fine player who had a rough night. Im not bashing the kid at all, I'm rooting for him.....I'm bashing the posters here that are casting him as the NESCAC version of Earl The Goat Manigault......No NESCAC kid needs that.

[lumbercat]

Colby is absolutely living and dying by the 3.

37 attempts last game against Emerson

58(!!!) attempts against Colby-Sawyer today

I'm not sure I've ever seen anything close to 58 attempts.

Don't believe Colby will shoot threes again like they did last year- look at the numbers. They were remarkable.

[nescac1]

Williams win 64-32 in a game which was not particularly pretty.  Both teams looked a bit tired-legged playing less than 24 hours after the first game of the season.  The Ephs certainly played better defense in this game but Dickinson's offense was god-awful, they simply missed from everywhere on the court (1-22 from 3, and even including the foul line, 3-14!) and mosts of their shots weren't close.  Their very good center (a D1 transfer from Dartmouth) accounted for 19 points, for the rest of the team, it was ugly, only six buckets total for the rest of the roster and it wasn't all just good defense from Williams.   

The Williams offense continues to be spotty and not nearly where i would expect it to be in a few weeks.  The Ephs' definitely miss Declan Porter's outside shooting and the three point percentage was again poor, especially from the corners, where the Ephs can't seem to buy one through two games.  Williams also had, again, some careless turnovers and missed a few bunnies at the rim as well.  Williams played a huge rotation with everyone getting a shot.  Player of the game was Alex Lee, who was really attacking, scoring some at the rim, drawing fouls and creating for other guys.  He finished with a 14-4-3 against only one turnover.  Ben McGraw and Alex Stoddard both showed off their smooth shooting strokes and both look like they will be rotation guys for sure this season and Sammy Cooley had some nice moves towards the rim.  Congrats to Matt Devine and Tyler Van Gorp each of whom scored his first collegiate basket.  Hopefully the first of many but we will see how fast they can develop this year as there seem to be a lot of guys ahead of them, for now, in the rotation. 

Roughley had a pretty quiet game and I'd like to see him get the ball closer to the basket so he can really go to work rather than so far out by the three point line.  The Ephs will need a lot more paint scoring out of him, Nate Karren, and eventually, Hudson Hansen as the season goes along.   

Hopefully Nate is fully back in rhythm and Declan and Hudson Hansen can get healthy soon as the offense has to play a lot better for the Ephs to meet their goals this year.  But at least this was a good chance for some of the deep rotation guys to show what they can do. 

[ItsATuftSituation]

Was able to get over and watch the Jumbos play today against a solid Endicott team, and Tufts didn't disappoint as they were able to take care of business with a 15-point win. Things that I noticed from today. No one outworks Scott Gyimesi, the guy sometimes seems to be literally everywhere. Also, Josh Bernstein is a major problem for other teams defensively, as the Jumbos can just funnel things to him. He alters shots left and right. Khai Champion came off the bench, which was somewhat surprising I guess, but he must just be comfortable in that role as he scored 12. Last thing, James Morakis...played really well today. Was very impressed...very impressed. He gets downhill really well, and his shooting is underrated. Excited to see what else happens with this Jumbo team, but a good start.

[nescac1]

A few VERY early season notes ...

Players looking like they may be taking a leap (none of these are surprising and all were very much on the radar before the season):

James Morakis and Scott Gyimesi, Tufts
Shane Regan, Wesleyan
Henry Vetter, Trinity
Charlie Randle, Amherst
Elias Espinosa, Conn College
Alex Lee, Williams


Early-season rookies to watch (so far, a pretty thin-looking group):

Marcos Montiel, Colby (there's always one from Colby!)
Babacar Pouye, Bates
Natrel Allen, Bowdoin
Ben Lyttle and Josh Cameron, Wesleyan


Early-season injury situations to watch:

Conn College - no David Murray and Andrew Hartel (hopefully Murray does not have anything serious as that would be a massive loss for Conn if he's out for any significant period, and his back-up is out as well)
Williams - no Declan Porter and Hudson Hansen
Amherst  - Charlie Randle, injured an ankle during the Anna Maria game
Tufts - no Trumann Gettings


Big games ahead:

Nov 14: Middlebury at Clark - big game for Midd with a lot more tough games ahead
Nov 15: Bowdoin at Bates - two teams looking to stay out of the NESCAC basement
Nov 17: Redlands at Midd - clash in styles, Redlands looks very good this year; Colby at St. Joseph CT; Worcester State at
Williams
Nov 18: Trinty at St. Joseph CT; Williams v. (potentially) v. St. Lawrence, 


TBD: Hamilton, yet to play a game! 

[Maine Hoops]

After years of reading this message board I just signed up.

I missed a webcast this past week-end and bought it for $11.

Does anyone know, does this get me only that particular game or does it buy me more?

if only the one game, is there a way to access more past games for a less pricey fee than $11 per game?

[JEFFFAN]

After years of reading this message board I just signed up.

I missed a webcast this past week-end and bought it for $11.

Does anyone know, does this get me only that particular game or does it buy me more?

if only the one game, is there a way to access more past games for a less pricey fee than $11 per game?

You should not have to pay anything to watch the NESCAC games.   Head to the NESCAC scoreboard when there is a game to watch - click through to video.

https://nescac.com/scoreboard/