MBB: NESCAC

[speedy]

  . .   As far as Bowdoin is concerned, they lose very little from last year, and people who saw them take Amherst down to the final buzzer AT AMHERST have to put them in the top four for this year. (In my opinion) Last year they were 3W 6L in conference, but I thought they looked better than Bates or Tufts in the NESCACS. Maybe they had issues and put them aside for the playoffs???

The "issue" for Bowdoin was that its outstanding young PG, Kevin Bradley, was injured for much of the season but recovered in time for the play-offs. .

[baller i b]

I agree with speedy and senatorfrost, Bowdoin was a lot better than their 3-6 conference record last year. I predict a very interesting year in NESCAC, with Bowdoin defintely finishing in the top three. As a sidenote, Bowdoin should have won their conference tourney game with Amherst.

Any other predictions??? And I am little disappointed with the poll results, no one is voting on the league's best player, any thoughts???

[formerbant10]

Baller, who's your top 3???  I'm guessing you have Bowdoin, Amherst and Trinity.  No Bates though?  As for the comment saying Bowdoin should've won their game against Amherst....they didn't win because great teams find a way to win no matter what and sometimes its just luck.  Just like Trinity losing 5 games by 3 points or less last year, you could say they should've won them all....but they didn't.  Does anyone know if a team has gone from finishing 8th in the conference to winning it the next year?  What's the biggest turnaround been?

[hoopsjunkie]

How can people pick bowdoin to be up in the top 3. They graduated Yakavonis, who was their only post player who played alot of minutes. It's going to be tough for them to win the NESCAC with out a low post threat. They going to be battling the Stockwell's & Rhoten's & Kelly's & Stone basically every night.  That's a lot of pounding for Fliegel and Arbour. 
Tufts 03-04 was 7th or 8th in the league then finished 2nd in regular standing this year, but I don't see Bowdoin making that jump. Tufts will be hard pressed to continue with their success from last year, especially after losing Stovell. Overall I think top 3 will be Amherst, Trinity, Bates. It will be interesting to see how Amherst will run their offense with out Schiel. How Trinity will share one basketball for all those players. How Bates will adjust to the loss of their senior class.

[formerbant10]

junkie- good post, only problem is Kelly from Wesleyan tossed out of school for this year.  I agree it will be tough for Bowdoin to win w/o a tough post player.  I'm still not sold on Stone though, Cohen is far better than he is. 
Reports on Amherst is their transfer is doing very well.  He adds some real athleticism to their team.  They have some very good players in Olson, Bedford, Corrigan, Casnocha and if Wheeler steps up into more of a go to player, they can be very good again.  Trinity will have 2 very dominant players this year, Rhoten and Martin, if the Bants can get some good chemistry early and stay focused late (last year's problems) they could be playing well into March.  Bates will be very good again, I believe.  Reilly has done a great job up there and has improved significantly in the last few years.  Top four finishes the last two.  I agree w/ you saying these are the top 3 teams pre-season wise.  But I don't think anyone outside of Medford had Tufts finishing 2nd last year.  The one game format makes for some interesting outcomes.

[jbergman]

What's the status of Williams for the coming year?  I see that no one here has projected them in the top half of the league.  They have the great recent history, excellent coach, etc.  Why wouldn't they at least be mentioned in the top half? Maybe they will have another great season, but they're just not getting any hype yet?  Or maybe the talent level just isn't there anymore? Can someone can shed some light?

[senatorfrost]

 Is Corrigan back? I know he has eligibility left, maybe a whole year since he was injured real early. Could have used him last year for depth. Speaking of Bates, who will play the post? Stockwell? Chudomel?
Any chance of learing any of the names of Trinity Frosh and where they are from?(Except for Clay Rhoten i.e.) ?

[formerbant10]

Senator-  Last I heard, Corrigan was getting a medical waiver to play this year.  I haven't heard if he pursued that or not.  Personally, I hope he did b/c playing 3 games your senior year is not how anyone should have to spend their final year doing.  As for the Trinity Frosh, I know of two other freshman Paul Rowe and Aaron Westbrooks.  Rowe was also recruited by Tufts, I believe he's from the Bronx but went to a prep school in Mass.  Westbrooks is the younger brother of Colby player Michael Westbrooks, from across the pond in Dublin.  Westbrooks has been playing at a very high level in Ireland and I've heard great things about Rowe.  And don't forget they now have Pat Martin who played at BU the last couple years.  He played at Cathedral High in Springfield with the likes of Derek Yvon and Kamari Williams, some other pretty good D3 players.  Trinity will have a very new look to the team this year, lost some familiar faces and gained some new ones...I'm excited to see them play this year.

[speedy]

. . .As for the Trinity Frosh, I know of two other freshman Paul Rowe and Aaron Westbrooks.  Rowe was also recruited by Tufts, I believe he's from the Bronx but went to a prep school in Mass.  Westbrooks is the younger brother of Colby player Michael Westbrooks, from across the pond in Dublin.  Westbrooks has been playing at a very high level in Ireland and I've heard great things about Rowe. 

Follow this link and you will find ome info on Paul Rowe. He's a native of the Bronx who played for St. Mark's in Massachusetts the past couple of years and seems to be a bit of a defensive specialist:

http://www.boston.com/sports/schools/allscholastics/winter2005/preps/

[nescac1]

Wow, it sounds like Trinity and Amherst are both really loading up for next year. 

To answer the question re: Williams, in terms of returning talent, on paper, they are probably no better than fifth after Bowdoin, Bates, Amherst, Trinity, probably about even with Tufts in the middle of the pack.  The big problem is that the Ephs have very few upperclassmen who have been major contributors in the past: Andrew Newton is the only potential impact player from the junior and senior classes.  A few other guys are contributors, but all in specific roles (rebounder, defender, shooter, etc.).  The Ephs do have a talented rising Sophomore class and, it sounds like, a large frosh class coming in, but they just don't have a lot of experienced upperclassmen like they did in the championship years.  I believe they may well overachieve due to coaching, tradition, home court, being overlooked, being fired up after last year, etc., but, honestly, thinking they can compete with Amherst and Trinity this year may be a stretch.  Just lost too much from the class of 03 through 05.  Considering that 3 of their top 4 guys are gone from last year's middle-of-the-pack team, they are going to need some big improvements from some of the returnees (Kuntz? Gibbons? Rose? Shalvoy?) and at least two impact recruits to have any shot of cracking the top 3. 

As for Bowdoin, I think they are being slightly overhyped.  Petrie is awesome, but last year's team was really thin, particulalry up front, and they will likely be very vulnerable to injuries or foul trouble.  Bates may have the same problem after losing half of the guys in their rotation from last year.  The best 3-4 guys from both those teams are solid, but they don't have anyone to compete against who Trinity and Amherst have as their 5th/6th/7th/8th options. 

[formerbant10]

nescac- right on about Bowdoin, a lot of times the league games get decided by role players stepping up.  Russell Lee against Trinity in the Semi's two years ago and Wheeler in the NCAA's.  I think Williams will struggle this year, Rose is a good player but I'm not sold on Shalvoy just yet.  Losing Kain, Cole, Graham will hurt b/c those were the last players to play at the championship level Williams attained.  But nothing in this league is guaranteed, 4 years ago Williams lost to a lowly Bates in the final game of the season to give Trinity the #1 Seed and home court.  Williams would have had a much easier road going through the NCAA's that year if they had won the conference.  Trinity lost to Hunter in the last week of the regular season 2 years ago dropping their status in the NCAA's and forcing them to travel in the 2nd round where they ultimately lost.  And last year, the very talented Bantams lost to Bates and Tufts in the final weekend setting up a semifinal game vs. Amherst as opposed to a finals match up and a NCAA berth for both teams.  Its a crazy, crazy league....and that's why they play the games.

[hoopsjunkie]

 Aren't we forgoting that Trinity actually finished 4th in the league, behind tufts and bates. I don't know if I would say it was suppossed to be a Trinity vs Amherst final.  Last year any given night many of the teams thought they could have been playing in the finals, but there were only two teams that were good enough to actually be playing in the finals.

[formerbant10]

Junkie--- What I was saying is that in the pre-season, everyone was picking Trinity-Amherst 1&2.  So before the season started it was supposed to be those two squaring off in the finals.  I agree with you saying that many teams thought they could've played in the finals, and as we learned it was not the two that many thought were going to be in the finals.  As I stated in an earlier post, great teams find the way to win, no matter what.  Like Amherst against Trinity both times and against Bowdoin in the tourney.  Just like Williams coming back from a large deficit at Wesleyan relying on Chuck Abba's game tying 3 to give the Ephs a chance to win in OT.  So no matter what the teams look like on paper, they still have to win the games night in and night out.

[formerbant10]

Tough to believe only 17 people have an opinion on who the POY will be.

[fpc85]

Who is the best overall coach in the league? Who is the best recruiter? Who gets the most out of the available talent? Which school has the best group of assistants.