MBB: NESCAC

[nescacfan33]

From williams side havent heard much yet, except that shalvoy is looking very solid, maybe he can breakout with rose this year.....and that Leary is still a monster in soccer....

From Wes, I heard they have a few young big men in the '09 class....a 6'8" guy from Mass and another 6'6" guy from NY....both strong and athletic, but very raw, slow, and need a lot of work. Should be all backcourt this year....yea I agree with you formerbant, Wes won't have much pressure on them now, and could again surprise some ppl/teams with a decent year...Ashe is a great soccer player, saw him play against williams, Leary and him are scary athletes out there...he should be one of the better all-around guards in the league, and Peletier, Griffin, and Rubenstein are good supporting guys, but again, not very worrisome without Kelly...and yea I saw the new facilties at Wes, cant wait to catch a bball game there....but we will all miss that fieldhouse i guess....anyone hear anything about Tufts recruiting class?

[nescachoopsfan]

tufts had 3 kids signed sealed an delivered coming into this season.  A 6'8" kid from arizona, a 6'6" kid from salem mass, and a transfer guard from univsersity of montana.  All three kids backed out and tufts has no real freshman class.  on a different note for tufts, i feel like a lot of people are sleeping on them.  dont get me wrong reggie stovell was a special player.  he dominated the boards and was a great scorer on the block and a lot of times tufts could just dump it down to reggie and he could make things happen.  but what everyone might not realize, is that their pg david shepherd lead the league in assists as a sophmore.  tufts also held their oppenents to the worst field goal percentage in the league, and also has a core group of young talented players.  shephard along with classmate brian kumf are a dynamic athletic duo with 2 years of starting experience.  And the number 2 and 3 leading scorers for tufts were 2 freshman ryan okeefe and jake weitzen both avgin about 11 ppg.  With these guys getting more time, plus 6'9" senior center dan martin, tufts looks like they might not miss stovell as much as everyone says.  should be an interesting year for the jumbos

[formerbant10]

Hoopsfan....that's pretty crazy about 3 players backing out.  Talk about bad luck.  Everyone had written Tufts off last year and they shocked pretty much everyone outside of Couzens Gym.  Weitzen is a very tough matchup.  Shepherd is a solid PG, must look to score more though.  Kumf is a tough player who plays very hard and shoots pretty well.  O'Keefe was okay, but has the potential to be pretty good.  After last year's team, don't count them out of anything.  Trust me.

[hoopsjunkie]

I heard one of the Tufts recruits was given a late scholarship by Assumption. Martin is a good player but he's doesn't command the double team like Stovell did. Kumf will be better he might even command the double team when he posts up the smaller guards. It will be tough for them to surprise teams like they did last year.

[polarbearmeephs]

I agree with you all, I think the Martin kid is going to be a dynamite player for the Jumbos, he showed me a lot last year.  I do think they will miss Stovell more than some of you think.  He really presented a tough guy attitude and carried the team on his back.  I don't think they have anyone to take that role, but they will certainly win games just based on their ability.

[formerbant10]

Tufts also has a very good home court advantage.  They can keep all those big guys out on the floor because they don't have to sprint back on defense...their court is 10 feet shorter than most others.  The close walls underneath the hoops can be a little intimidating for slashers to find their way through the giants they have roaming around the paint.  How long has Martin been there, seemed like he was playing for them before I was...maybe its just the fact that they continually put out 6'8" and 6'9" behemoths on the floor that I've gotten confused.

[swish]

Trinity to play in Franklin and Marshall "tip-off" tounament. Rhoten should be good four 40 in both games.

[formerbant10]

What's F&M supposed to be like this year.  I thought Trinity was playing Suny Cortland in the first round of that tourney, who do the Dips play?  The last two years Rhoten has started off with big games, we'll see how they progress the rest of the fall.  Remember that the NESCAC teams start a little over 2 weeks after everyone else.  With only 16 days of practice before the first game, they could be a little rusty in the first semester.  But it wouldn't surprise me if Rhoten goes big.

[swish]

Bant,
You're correct. Trinity opens up with Cortland and F&M plays Gwynedd-Mercy. It's too bad GM graduated Badou Gaye, their all-american center from last year. That would have been a great match-up between he and Rhoten. Gaye was a beast at a solid 6'8', 245lbs. and ripped. He didn't just dunk the ball he slammed it with ease from under the basket.
F&M should be decent this year. They have a strong backcourt and 3-4 guys in the 6'4"-6'5" range that can play. What they don't have is a center unless they get a freshman to step up big time. That's why Rhoten should have no problem scoring should Trinty end up playing F&M in the final. We need to get by GM first as they have some good players coming back.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

The F&M-GM game is a great early season matchup.  One of the two, if not both do well regionally each year and Trinity being guaranteed a game this early on against a top quality, tournament calibre opponent can be nothing but a benefit for them.

[formerbant10]

How is Cortland supposed to be?  I heard they have a lot of players returning and Trinity has always had trouble with SUNY schools.  The Bants need to get their roles figured out pretty quickly in the practices.  Would the F&M/ GM winner be a regional game for Trinity?  After all, regional wins is really all that matters.  Or have the criteria changed now that there are more spots in the tourney?

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

F & M would not be a regional game for Trinity, but Gwynedd-Mercy should be.  According to msn maps (I believe the official NCAA determinant) its 192 miles from Trinity.

This could be good for Trinity either way.  F&M would be a chance to meet great competition early on without any repurcussions from a loss.  On the other hand, G-M provides a solid team with a big bonus for a win.  As pointed out earlier though, without Gaye, they may not be the power they have been recently.

[Pat Coleman]

MS Streets and Trips is the official arbiter of NCAA mileage, and it says the schools are 200.5 miles apart. Sounds like no dice.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Did you have it on quickest trip or shortest? and does that matter?  Because I found quickest trip to be over 200, but shortest was 192.

[Pat Coleman]

Shortest, which is what the NCAA uses.