MBB: NESCAC

[dman]

lemonjello and nescac1,
   right on.  dean of admissions...and... dean of financial aid, "moneyball" parker.....

[MeOak21]

Let's all pull for Williams and Colby to pull off the upsets this weekend ... I mean, Trinity and Amherst are already locks, and NESCAC could use a third team in the tourney, right?  

I know it might be cool for some of you to see a third NESCAC team go to the NCAA's but I think you would all have to agree that the northeast would be better represented in the tourney if games play out as anticipated by seedings.

The Northeast really has to rely on the following group if they are going to compete late into the NCAA's:
(in no particular order)

Amherst
Trinity
WPI
Keene
RIC
Salem
Brandeis

By adding a NESCAC school (Williams or Colby) it could potentially rob one of these teams of an at large bid if something happens to them in their conference tourney.

nescac1- I'm not implying that you feel otherwise... just an observation

[nescac hoops]

I know it might be cool for some of you to see a third NESCAC team go to the NCAA's but I think you would all have to agree that the northeast would be better represented in the tourney if games play out as anticipated by seedings.

The Northeast really has to rely on the following group if they are going to compete late into the NCAA's:
(in no particular order)

Amherst
Trinity
WPI
Keene
RIC
Salem
Brandeis

By adding a NESCAC school (Williams or Colby) it could potentially rob one of these teams of an at large bid if something happens to them in their conference tourney.

williams lost to keene in an OT game on the road in keene so i don't think the ephs would necessarily be robbing them of a bid considering the two teams played each other pretty closely at keene. perhaps if they played on a neutral floor or in a game at keene where the ephs weren't call for 9 more fouls and blake shultz didn't foul out, the ephs may have even won the game. who knows? but i wouldn't call it "robbing" if the ephs made the tourney over keene by beating trinity and colby/amherst in the same weekend and having a close game with them before.

[nescac1]

MeOak, Williams and Colby are certainly not more deserving than any of those teams.  But, if you are looking at who has the best chance of advancing far in the NCAA's, I'd say no one from the Northeast outside of Amherst or Trinity has high hopes in that regard, at least not this year.  WPI and Salem have not impressed in prior NCAA appearances; both tend to accumulate gaudy records in weak leagues, then fall to weak competition early in the postseason.  Keene and Brandeis (like Williams) are both a year away from being contenders to do some damage, considering all three return basically their entire rotations.  But all three are a little green to do any damage this year.   RIC is solid but not a final four contender.   Williams took Keene to overtime at Keene, and the Ephs have been playing better and better as the season progresses.  Meanwhile Keene lost to Tufts, a middle-of-the-road NESCAC team, in overtime   And there is no way WPI or Salem would scare anyone more than Colby or Williams would at this point.  But the odds of neither Trinity nor Amherst taking the NESCAC title are probably about 1/10, so I wouldn't sweat it too much in any event.  

[eclinchy]

I think Williams is just as good as Brandeis or Salem.  If they beat Trinity and Amherst/Colby, that suspicion would only be confirmed.

[formerbant10]

How does beating Trin mean they are just as good as Brandeis or Salem?  Trinity has not played either team, so I don't really know how one could use that as a basis for judging those teams.

That being said, I haven't seen any of those teams play....but am very suspect of Salem.  I wouldn't be surprised if Williams is better than them. 

Beating Trin and Amherst in the same weekend is extremely difficult and would mean a great deal about the team that accomplished that....especially on the road.

[MeOak21]

...perhaps if they played on a neutral floor or in a game at keene where the ephs weren't call for 9 more fouls and blake shultz didn't foul out, the ephs may have even won the game. who knows?

if, if, if...

nescac hoops- you didn't make a strong point. I don't care about # of fouls or somebody fouling out or any of that... it doesn't matter. It was one game that could have gone either way. Keene is just better than Williams this year and you will be hard pressed to find an unbiased person who says otherwise. Williams does still have a minimal chance to win another game and a very far off chance to win two or more- just be happy with that.

nescac1- Just to make sure I was understood correctly. I didn't say that the northeast teams I listed had a strong chance of winning a national championship or of even getting out of the region. I just believe that they most strongly deserve the chance to play in the NCAA's based on their performances this year and that they will best represent our region.

Meanwhile Keene lost to Tufts, a middle-of-the-road NESCAC team, in overtime   

Yes, it is true... Keene lost to Tufts, but if memory serves me (actually the scoreboard on d3hoops), so did Trinity... and it wasn't in 3 OT's. The score was 102-85. So that point really didn't prove anything about Keene, except that they played Tufts more competetively than Trinity did. But I'm still not going to use your logic and go out on that limb and say Keene is better than Trinity because thats just not enough information to make a solid comparison.

I wasn't at any point attacking the improvement of Williams this year. They've done well to get to this point. Just not better than the other teams I had listed in my original post.

[walzy31]

The final weekend of NESCAC play has produced the final 20 spreads of the season. Please enjoy this. Purely for entertainment purposes only.


"The nescac1 long shot bet"
Williams wins the NESCAC tournament.

Yes +720
No -800

Drew Cohen and Nick Farrell combined point total (Saturday only).

0-14     +400
15-29    -110
30-44    -110
45-59    +250
60+       +650

"Block party bet"
Who has more blocks, Drew Cohen or Kevin Hopkins (Saturday only).

Cohen -2.5
Hopkins +2.5

Does the 4th pick in the 2007 All NESCAC All Crazy draft (Michael Westbrooks) receive at least one of the following: technical foul, flagrant foul, or intentional foul?

Yes +130
No -140

Timeouts called in Amherst/Colby game.

O/U 7.5

Timeouts called in Trinity/Williams game.

O/U 11.0

Who records the most assists this weekend (Saturday AND Sunday).

Andrew Olson   -130
Pat Martin    -110
Chris Shalvoy   +200
Nick Farrell    +400

Team with the most turnovers on Saturday.

Williams   -110
Colby    -120
Amherst  +240
Trinity   +220

Highest scorer in LeFrak on Saturday choosing one of the leading scorers from each team.

Chris Rose    +100
Russ Martin   +120
Dan Wheeler  +150
Nick Farrell    -110

First fan ejected from LeFrak on Saturday is a _____ fan.

Amherst   -110
Colby   +250
Trinity   +150
Williams   +150
No fans are ejected  +350

"Steal bet"
Who has more steals, Tim McLaughlin or Kino Clarke.

McLaughlin -1.5
Clarke +1.5

Phil Wall Field Goal Attempts (FGA) on Saturday.

0    -130
1    +100
2    +150
3    +400

Total 3Pt FGA by both teams COMBINED in Amherst/Colby game.

O/U 36.5

Total 3Pt FGA by both teams COMBINED in Trinity/Williams game.

O/U 39.5

"Western Mass Bet"
Leading scorer on Saturday who hails from the 4-1-3.

Russ (East Longmeadow) Martin  -150
Pat (Minnechaug/Cathedral) Martin  +120
Glenn (Deerfield) Wong   +8000

"California Bet"
Leading scorer on Saturday who hails from the Golden State.

Andrew Olson -130
Brian Baskauskas -110
Blake Schultz -110
Tommas Galia +300
Grant Meyer +714
Random dude on Colby (Justin Sherman) +800
Any other Cali guy (Eric Moore, Trin Players) +1500

Meghan O'Malley vs. Joe Goheghan - Total Points (Saturday only).

O'Malley -6.5
Goheghan +6.5

Back by popular demand:

"Williams Gunners bet"
Maggie Miller/Chris Rose COMBINED FGA on Saturday.

O/U 27.5

"First name is Chris bet"
First player to score a point for the Ephs has the first name "Chris."

Yes -250
No  +300

"Bladder bet"
Number of cups of water Coach Paulsen drinks on Saturday.

O/U 14.0

[nescac hoops]

MeOak21,
the williams-keene game was an overtime game. since the return of chris rose the ephs have lost 2 at home - one game to amherst and the other tufts (a team keene lost to in an OT game - kind of how williams lost to keene - and a loss they avenged on their homecourt last weekend). i won't get into why homecourt has its advantages but perhaps if keene played at williams that night, the game would have turned out differently. i'm sorry to "if, if, if..." but in a game that close, playing on the road, a foul differnce of 9, and having one of the ephs best scorers fould out and only play 17 minutes, and coming off of a trinity/amherst friday and saturday away game weekend three days before...yeah, i think the game easily could have gone differently. that being said, I DO NOT THINK THAT WILLIAMS IS BETTER THAN KEENE, but i don't exactly think they would "rob" keene of a spot if they won the nescac championship, albeit unlikely that they actually will.

[MeOak21]

The main reason why I used the word "rob" is to indicate that Keene had a very good all around season whereas Williams and Colby did not have such great seasons. Getting an automatic bid would basically rob Keene of a spot they had earned throughout the entire season.

But I guess if Williams is actually able to win out against such good teams, they would be pretty deserving as well.

[dman]

walzy,
really great work with the all-crazy team and the spreads.  funny stuff.  after his performance last saturday, brian "mcfilthy" fitzgerald will be a legend in nescac, at least in my mind, and belongs on the all-time crazy team. 

nescac 1,
  nice work in finding the recruiting info.  it really pumps up the fan in me and, if the world were perfect, i'll be watching some russell-chamberlain-like battles for the next 4 years.......

[JeffRookie2]

Walzy, I think he meant the final four of the NESCAC tourney.  Interesting article about Bennett, looks like he and Butler will be nice players for Amherst.  Bennett will replace the size lost from that strong junior class.  Does anyone know anything else about other NESCAC (especially Amherst) recruits?  And about Poly Prep as the farm team, it may just be referring to Amherst, because dean of admissions Tom Parker is an alum of Poly, and typically Amherst recruits many athletes from Poly.

Who is this Butler you speak of?

[columbianmaffia]

DAN WHEELER = DOMINATION

[lemonjello]

Jeffrookie, Billy Butler is a 6'6" Amherst recruit from Poly Prep in Brooklyn.  He's supposed to be a very good shooter.  Walzy had a nice description of him, I think on page 221 of this thread.

[lemonjello]

Whoops, make that page 220.