MBB: NESCAC

[mrmike88]

Amherst 69, Colby 58

According to the press release, this one was actually a one-point ballgame mid-way through the second half, before three-pointers from Olson and Baskauskas helped Amherst pull away.  Olson was 5-10, all 3pt attempts, and scored 19 with 8 assists.  Baskauskas chipped in 16.

Amherst's D held Drew Cohen to 8 points and 7 rebs.  Farrell scored 13.

Props to Kevin Hopkins who threw down a dunk over Cohen in the open court near the end of the game.

[Red1]

From the nescac scoreboard:  Bates 59 Wesleyan 56 1OT.  Does anyone have any details from Middletown?

Cheers,
Red1

[walzy31]

I am so confused by Bates right now it's not even funny.

[nescacfan33]

I was at the Bates-Wesleyan game tonight.....what a battle, it was a scrappy, at times sloppy game.....Starting with Wesleyan.......Kelly and Ashe did it all for WES tonight....Kelly had a game high 23 pts, Ashe the second highest with 14......Kelly is the best big man in the league with Cohen, has to be....He dominated Stockwell, it was embarrasing at times.....Kelly finished underneath again and again, he got great post position all night......Stockwell was so out of rhythm, Wes doubled him and he turned the ball over numerous times or gave up offensive fouls......Ray was shut down and played pretty poorly for most of the game, only 3-12 from the field, but come crunch time he hit some huge shots from 3, he is clearly they're leader but he is not a first team All Nescac guy....Ashe was the best guard on the floor I thought, 50% from the field, 14 pts, 5 steals, 8 rebs, and all over the place....Ray and Wholley were big down the stretch though, and Bates just toughed it out as a team, somehow found a way to win even with stockwell fouled out and playing poorly for his 25 minutes.....Bates had contributions from numerous guys, they just found a way to win it

The major difference in the game was 15 offensive boards for Bates, most of them in the end of regulation and in overtime.....and a shocking 23 pts from the Bates bench vs. 2 (yes only 2 points) from the WES bench

Wes needed one more scorer to step up in this game....Pelletier played his butt off, but shot miserably from the field......Shepherd has struggled with his shot as well....But Wes can play, they are no pushover

And Bates can certainly be beat, but they just never give up and have a winners mentality, you could see it tonight....they never had their heads down, they will be in every game they play and obviously win most of them

What a wide open race after Amherst at #1!!!

[eclinchy]

What a wide open race after Amherst at #1!!!

AGREED!

I'm with Walzy in that I'm incredibly confused by Bates.  Wes may be decent, but honestly, who beats them by three in OT after beating Tufts by 28?  Did that really just happen?

I'd be very curious to see where people rank the #2-4 teams right now.  All three have been very inconsistent, so it's sure to be a debatable topic, but here's what I'm thinking:

2. Bates
3. Tufts
4. Trinity

That might change if Tufts blows out Wes tomorrow, right after Wes took Bates to overtime.  But right now, my rankings are simply based on Tufts' head-to-head games -- a 28-point loss and a 17-point win are simply too huge to ignore.  Even though Bates beat Trinity, I think that game is more likely to be a fluke than the two blowouts.

Also, does anyone think Midd is better than any/all of these three teams?  It's a possibility at this point...

[Red1]

To shed a little light on the Bobcats:

Bates tends to be a very streaky team.  If people remember three years ago the bobcats started 8-0 and headed into conference play strong.  They dropped the opening conference game at home and went on an awful streak barely falling into the Nescac tournament at the bottom of the pack.  The bobcats did however win a couple games right at the end of the year leading them to a first round upset and the right to go to Williams for the semi-finals.  (Yeah, this was back when Williams was the best in NESCAC).  Williams won easily.

I was worried about a similar thing happening this year, especially when Trinity and Amherst swept Bates at home.  The games in the middle of the week against St. Joseph's (ME) and Husson weren't particularly spectacular and it looked like a repeat of the last time the bobcats had an undefeated fall semester may be in order.  The one difference is that three years ago Bates had little experience being winners in Nescac and didn't have as much confidence.  This year Bates knows they can win a lot of conference games, so they're bouncing back a little better.

What happened last weekend against Tufts is beyond me.  I was shocked to say the least.  I would say that last week and this weekend what we're seeing is the ups and downs of a team that is effectively restarting their season.  Once Bates' streak was ended they had to restart it.  As soon as the bobcats get in the flow again (and by next weekend they should be there) they'll look like the bobcats of old.  The downside is that it's much more difficult to get a streak going against Nescac competition then lower level NE teams that Bates frequently plays in the fall, thus the very noticeable bumps in the road that are causing lots of confusion about Bates.

Because Bates is considerably streakier than most teams how good or poor they are is much harder to determine.  The bobcats can ride on good momentum for a long time, and one or two losses can make it very hard for them to get that momentum back.  Most teams have a general playing level in relation to the rest of their conference/region/DIII, and can generally be ranked within a margin of error.  Bates can be at the level of a top 15 team when they're riding one their streaks, and then barely be at the level of a top 40 team just after the momentum ends.  This is where all the confusion comes from.

Does this help people make some sense of the mysterious bobcats?

Cheers,
Red1

[nescac hoops]

i was not at the wesleyan/bates game, but the box score can sometimes shed a little light on what is otherwise a very confusing game. stockwell and ray shot a combined 4-21 from the field, bates was 7-19 from the line (wesleyan shot 27 FT shots), and shot 35% from the field for the entire game (got off 62 FG for the entire game). wesleyan always manages to find the WORST referees, it is a tough place to play (williams almost lost there in crotty/coffin/abba's senior year), and wesleyan is a VERY far trip on friday from lewiston. i am not trying to blame refs, sore butts, etc. for their performance but they did get a good number of shots off (62) so it wasn't as if the wes tech defense was completely locking them down, they simply just didn't have their best shooting game. shoot the ball a little better, make more FT's, etc. and bates wins by 15 in an easier game. the things teams CAN control bates did - they out rebounded the cardinals and had fewer TOs. their biggest problem in the game seemed to be their shooting, which if you are going to have an off night they picked a good opponent. yes, bates can be streaky, but i don't know if ray and stockwell will have a shooting night like this again.

i am actually more confused by tufts and trinity. in the case of trinity, i am confused by the "hype" and their expectations. bates has one "bad" loss to trinity - perhaps in a game where they overlooked the bants for the following day's game with amherst. shame on them. tufts record (six losses?), their great performance against amherst and then their rather sub par game at bates is A LOT more confusing than a loss to trinity and a tight game on the road....a very far road....against a weak team.

trinity was able to upset bates. good for them. who else have they beat? nobody. they lost to springfield and nearly lost to williams at home. in the bowdoin game, the refs seemingly did not call a lot of fouls on either end. trinity was perfect from the line (8-8) and bowdoin was too (7-7). trinity shot 43% for the game - not great but should have been enough to beat the polar bears. either way, there were no glaring stats that can explain this loss - other than that their defense allowed bowdoin to shoot 56% - they just simply lost. i have often felt in the recent past that trinity should have been in the ncaa tourny. however, every year they have 1 or 2 REALLY bad losses and they really shoot themselves in the foot. this year it's springfield and bowdoin. i don't thnk the committee will get beyond that.

[walzy31]

Red1 and Nescac Hoops did shed some light. Thanks.
Hopefully Bowdoin doesn't play out of their heads again today.

EClinchy,

I wouldn't say Midd is better than Tufts, Trin and Bates, but I think they will finish ahead of at least one of them and host a quarterfinal game. If they don't take care of Williams today then their street cred severely diminishes.

[TUrighty14]

Absolutely nothing went right for the Jumbos against Bates. I dont think this game was a case of overlooking Bates or Tufts not coming to play, Tufts just couldnt do anything right and Bates made them pay. It was just one of those games, and anyone who has played sports has experienced this I am sure.

In this league its all about execution. IMO, Tufts is more talented than most of the teams in this league, but that doesnt mean anything. Sometimes the better team doesnt play up to its capability, and a lesser talented team plays above its capability. Bowdoin showed us this last night, as did Wesleyan. Thats why basketball is a great game, IMO. You dont see this in NESCAC football or baseball nearly as much, the parity just isnt there like it is in NESCAC hoops.

[whoarewebobcats]

Bates is streaky--I'll add to Red's story that last year they ripped off 16 in a row after two strange early losses (USM and Endicott), but couldn't carry the momentum through the Tufts, Trinity, Amherst stretch. I think this, like most of their problems, is tied to their wing players being undersized. When they can't get off good shots, it forces Zak to take too many shots, or Rob to force his way through double teams. The box score against Wes is certainly mysterious. Most teams I think are pretty mysterious--Tufts and Trinity both have had their fair share of strange things happened, which have already been mentioned.

Interesting about the winner's mentality, Red--do you think Bates really deserves this mentality? There's no doubt that the program has improved and Reilly has instilled a sense of pride and commitment in the team (Bobcat Pride, after all), but many of their "big" games that I've seen they've fallen short. Every time they appear ready to make the step forward to join Amherst at the top of NESCAC, they drop games against their chief competition. I'm glad they have the mentality, but I'm definitely concerned about their level of success this year. I truly thought this was their year at the outset because I have faith in Zak and Rob to get things done, and while I know they are 16-2, which is obviously great, I'm not nearly as confident in them. But, things are hard to project--they went to NESCAC finals two years ago, semis last year etc. etc. We can't even be confident based on recent performance if they do go on a tear, as I mentioned they dropped 4 of 5 last year after 16 straight. I just hope we don't look back in ten years and think of this Bates team as missing their chance, or being underachievers.

What does all this mean? I have no idea. Bates could lose by 25 in the first round of the NESCAC tourney to some crappy team, or they could knock off Amherst and I wouldn't be totally surprised. They, just like Tufts and Trinity, are a tough team to peg. Should be a great tourney this year.

I think they need a convicing game today against the Camels, just drub them like you should and go back to Lewiston, none of this overtime nonsense.

[mrmike88]

Amherst 73, Bowdoin 55

Brian Baskauskas led the way today in Brunswick - he had 18 points on 7-10 shooting.  Kevin Hopkins 16 points in 17 minutes, along with 7 rebounds.  Dan Wheeler chipped in 12.   Amherst was over 50% from the floor and over 40% from beyond the arc.

Jordan Fliegel had 15 for the Polar Bears, and Hippert added 13.

The good news is that Dan O'Shea played in both games this weekend.  He played significant minutes today.

[TUrighty14]

Tufts beat Wesleyan 94-69.

[mrmike88]

Williams 86, Middlebury 79

Was anybody there to see Chris Rose drop 30 on the Panthers?  The stat sheet shows that he and Shalvoy (21pts, 7 assists) were basically the two guys to carry the Ephs to victory.

Rudin played and had 10 points in 28 minutes on 5-17 shooting.  Ugh.  On the bright side, Harris was 6-9 from the field (3-3 from beyond the arc) and led Middlebury with 15.

[Bluesky]

Williams got terrific games from Rose and Shalvoy on the road. They also got a big lift from the Frosh (Schultz, Joe G and Rubin) and Weisbrot gave them some big rebounds.

[TUrighty14]

Congrats to Jake Weitzen for surpassing 1,000 points today in win over Wesleyan.