MBB: NESCAC

whoarewebobcats · November 16, 2007, 11:08:38 AM

nescac1, I wouldn't expect the Bates game to be terribly interesting. From what I can tell about St. Lawrence, they're a veteran team (returning 12 of 15 according to their website) and are coming off a year in which they got to the second round of the tourney. I'm expecting Bates to hang with them early, but with all the kids they'll be playing, I don't think they'll be able to stick around all game long.

I'm most interested in seeing how some of the players look individually, as I think it's hard to expect much out of them as a team given how young they are and the fact that they will likely be running an entirely different style unless Reilly thinks O'Keefe can emulate Rob and Wilson can emulate Zak.

frank uible · November 16, 2007, 03:33:59 PM

From a football standpoint Carroll has that "without-bad-luck-I'm-going-to-be-way-too-good-for-this-level-of-play" look.

hoopjunkie · November 16, 2007, 04:22:52 PM

I can`t wait for the buzzing after games tonight , to see what happening in my favorite league .

Don`t think Amherst is unbeatable, although I know Hunter does not have a shot in hell to compete.

I also think that Williams will have a letdown after a great run at the end of last year.

I think Middlebury will beat either Amherst or Williams as will Tufts .

I don`t think Trinity will finish in the top 3 .

Just some random thoughts >>>>> LETS PLAY BASKETBALL !!!!

JustAFan · November 16, 2007, 09:06:33 PM

Williams wins its opener 88-73 against a good Ursinis team in the Rose City Classic at Drew University. The box score is at http://williams.prestosports.com/sports/mbkb/2007-08/stats/ursinus.htm. Ursinis appeared to be a 2 man team while the Ephs had balanced scoring from their starters and some good contributions from the bench. Williams led at the half by 6, 44-38. Shalvoy led Williams with 23 points on 9-14 shooting, 5 of 8 from 3-land, along with 4 assists but he also had 5 turnovers against what was reported to be a very good Ursinis backcourt, followed by Snyder (16), Rose (14) and Geoghan (11 pts, 10 boards). Schultz (8) was the only starter not to score in double points.

But the most pleasant surprise from the boxscore was 6-8 freshman Harlan Dodson, who had 12 points and 9 rebounds in 20 minutes of playing time. Looks like Dodson is not bashful about putting it up either, as he went 4-10 from the floor, and 0-3 from 3-land in his 20 minutes.

nescac hoops · November 16, 2007, 09:14:50 PM

Looks like a pretty good start for the ephs tonight just by looking at the box score. Shalvoy led the way with 23pts. and 4 assists while the other starters hovered around 12-15pts. I think as the season goes on the scoring burden needs to be lifted off of shalvoy at least a little bit for the ephs to be successful against the competitive teams. He can't be expected to put up those numbers every night. Good to see Snyder have a good start to the season. I think he is the "x factor" for the ephs this year and he can't merely be the "defensive stopper".

The Amherst game featured an 11 assist and 9 point effort from Oslon (I'm guessing he wasn't too injured) and another "kantor blunder"..."Hunter dropped to 1-0 on the year". By the time this SID is done writing, he may not want Pat Coleman to include his byline....

nescac1 · November 16, 2007, 09:47:40 PM

Good to see a double digit win over a very credible opponent to start the Ephs off. Much different than the first game last year ... Strange rotation going with four bigs off the bench ... I know Toad said Rubin (probably the top "2" off the bench) is somewhat injured ... is Golia (back-up point) as well? Can't expect Shalvoy to play 40 every night, and Golia proved to be a very solid reserve by the end of last year. Dodson must be pretty darn good to be getting sixth man sort of minutes ... he only averaged 11 points per game in high school last year, so I imagine he must be a late bloomer (late grower perhaps ...).

Bates, as predicted, went down to St. Lawrence ... looks to be a rebuilding year for the Bobcats as they develop young players.

Midd destroys an obviously overmatched team, but will probably play Stevens tomorrow, great early season barometer for them.

JustAFan · November 16, 2007, 10:20:59 PM

As one poster predicted earlier, Bates hung with a very experienced St Lawrence team for a half, leading 29-28 at the break only to be outscored by 10 in the second half. St. Lawrence returns 12 of 15 players from last year's 23-6 team that lost to Brockport in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Bryan Wholey (18 points) and Jimmy O'Keefe (16 points on 8-10 from the floor) paced Bates. Bates faces Babson tomorrow, which was a bit of a surprise loser to Connecticut College, 52-50, in the homer.

Out in Amherst the Lord Jeffs beat Hunter 103-79.

Trinity beat Southern Maine 67-58. The Bantams were led by senior guard Patrick Hasiuk with 16 points.

And Middlebury overwhelmed the Merchant Marine Academy 113-67 after building a 53-18 halftime lead.

Unrelated note: It'll be an all-NESCAC championship game for the NCAA DIII field hockey final as both Bowdoin (19-0) and Middlebury (17-4) advanced to the finals today, with Bowdoin beating Lebanon Valley 1-0 and Middlebury beating 2d ranked Salisbury 2-1 in overtime.

lemonjello · November 17, 2007, 12:31:44 AM

Amherst only beat Hunter by 24? Fire Hixon! Drop them out of the #2 ranking!

Now that that foolishness is out of the way, my thoughts:
Nice to see everyone get some PT against a weak opponent, and it looks like Olson's ankle was ok (enough for him to play 20 minutes at least). Steve Wheeler had a great game, putting up 14 points on 6-7 shooting in only 12 minutes. The starting lineup (not that this is necessarily indicative of Hixon's future plans) was Hopkins, Walters, Coulibaly, Olson and Baskauskas, which seems like a logical starting 5 for the season. They must think a lot of Meehan, as he played 14 minutes, more than any of the reserves except for Jones. I wonder if Hixon is considering him for serious playing time.

eclinchy · November 17, 2007, 03:15:32 AM

Great games for Hasiuk, Harris, little Wheeler... and wow, Stone, 15 and 15. Some interesting box scores around the league.

I'll be at Brandeis for the Tufts opener tomorrow... I'll be back with thoughts tomorrow night.

And in case anyone's interested:

http://www.tuftsdaily.com/media/paper856/sections/20071115Sports.html

[end shameless plug]

old_hooper · November 17, 2007, 04:52:18 PM

Wash U goes down today to Calvin 87-82. Calvin led by as many as 16 but Wash U made a game of it cutting the lead to 4 with a minute to go. It would appear that Calvin is a very legit team and these two teams could play again come tournament time.

JeffRookie2 · November 17, 2007, 05:58:54 PM

Trinity held Maine-Farmington to just 38 points tonight. Maybe with no Pat Martin and Clarke, the Bantams will start winning with defense.

whoarewebobcats · November 17, 2007, 06:13:31 PM

It's going to be a long winter for Bates. Here's some quick amateur scouting on what I saw this weekend, and I'm going to focus individually because the team, given its complete lack of experience, is a mess.

Bryan Wholey: The best player on the team, and better than I give him credit for. He had a very good game against St. Lawrence, not just scoring, but doing The Little Things as well. He didn't do much in today's extremely depressing loss to Babson, but nobody did. As I was watching Wholey, I kept thinking the same things I've thought about Ray Allen watching him with the C's...a guy I normally think of as a spot-up shooter but sneakily is a pretty complete player with amazing ball control. Pretty much the only way the Bobcats get offense is if Wholey drives and kicks to an open man, or finishes himself. I have to say, Bryan played a really, really good game Friday night, and I felt pretty bad for the way I generally talk about him. He's a good player.

Brian Ellis: The bright spot of the weekend. Frosh from Braintree, plays the 4, very energetic and active on the boards, diving for loose balls, etc. Not much on offense yet, but very promising. He ended up starting the second game.

Jimmy O'Keefe: I really liked the way Jimmy played this weekend, and Bates needs to figure out how to get him the ball. It's tough because Reilly's offense is designed for the Wholeys and Hallorans of the world, but O'Keefe has moves underneath and is a smart player, so he passes out of double teams (which came almost every time he touched the ball this weekend) very well. Also very communicative on the defensive end, seems like a great competitor. I like him.

Pat Halloran: Great shooter, but pretty much only scores in bunches at the end of the game when the other team is not fouling. He's too small to get off his own shots very easily. Scarily, Pat is the go-to guy if Wholey is out. I hate to beat up on him like this--I like him a lot as a shooter off the bench--I just think playing as big of a role as he does will cause problems for this team.

Chris Wilson: I need to set my expectations way lower for Chris. He played pretty well today but was dreadful Friday. There's just too much pressure on him right now, he needs to get his feet wet a bit more. Looked a lot better today, and I still have really high hopes for the kind of PG he can be. He (like everyone on the floor except for Wholey, whose basketball IQ really stood out this weekend) needs to be more familiar with the offense and the various options in each play.

Too early to tell on a lot of the other guys. Reilly played 11 people in the first game and I think 12 or 13 in the second, so a bunch of them only got 8-12 minutes (Hatch, Creahan, Place, Gallant, Thayer, and Wirth, namely). Bates has no backup PG--they tried Hatch, Wholey, and Halloran at times when Wilson was out, and no scenario worked out well.

As a team, some major weaknesses include decision-making--the guys don't seem to have much confidence making passes other than from the top of the key to the wing about five feet behind the three point line--perimeter defense--Babson in particular killed them from three--and the aforementioned point guard play. I like a lot of the individual performances (Wilson will be very good, I love O'Keefe, and I think Ellis will be a major impact player), but it's definitely a rebuilding year.

JustAFan · November 17, 2007, 10:20:04 PM

I didn't see this one coming--Bridgewater St steamrolled Tufts tonight, 96-70 at Brandeis. BSU led by 10 at the half, 47-37, and outscored Tufts 49-33 in the 2d half. Looking forward to EClinchy's game report later tonight. Forward Jon Pierce led Tufts with 22 pts on 9-15 shooting and 11 rebounds, and Jake Weitzen (who fouled out) was the only other Jumbo to hit doublefigures with 10. Tufts only shot 1-6 from 3-land in the second half and BSU went to the line 30 times compared to 18 for Tufts, where Tufts shot a very poor 10-18. Tufts committed 27 turnovers, at least 16 by its backcourt. Tufts plays a good Kenyon team tomorrow. Kenyon lost to Brandeis 70-61 in the opening game.

JustAFan · November 17, 2007, 11:21:39 PM

Connecticut College hasn't received any ink in pre-season discussions of the 07-08 NESCAC season but their performance this weekend at the Babson tournament will certainly raise some eyebrows around the league. The Camels ran their record to 2-0 tonight with a 70-67 win over St. Lawrence in the finals of the Babson season opening tournament. This comes on the heels of last night's 52-50 win over Babson. Neither win was dominant, but both came over solid teams. Babson beat Bates 69-60 in the consolation game tonight.

eclinchy · November 17, 2007, 11:53:13 PM

Quote from: JustAFan on November 17, 2007, 10:20:04 PMForward Jon Pierce led Tufts with 22 pts on 9-15 shooting and 11 rebounds, and Jake Weitzen (who fouled out) was the only other Jumbo to hit doublefigures with 10. Tufts only shot 1-6 from 3-land in the second half and BSU went to the line 30 times compared to 18 for Tufts, where Tufts shot a very poor 10-18. Tufts committed 27 turnovers, at least 16 by its backcourt.

The numbers can't say enough about how great Jon Pierce was tonight. Pretty much every rebound in sight, he grabbed it. Flawless. He was also scoring at will in the first half -- he's a big reason they were still in the game in the early going.

Seemed like most of the team was a big sluggish... they didn't have the energy I was expecting for opening night. Frustrating night for O'Keefe, Weitzen, etc.

That 7 next to Black's name in the turnovers column is scary, but he showed flashes of brilliance on both sides of the ball. He was the most athletic player on the floor tonight, and it showed... he had a couple of beautiful steals and he controlled the ball really well for the most part (although he unraveled a bit early in the second half). I still think he has the potential to be a really good PG this season, but he has to have guys getting open looks more consistently... this will be a completely different team when Weitzen and O'Keefe are on.

I talked to Pierce after the game and he talked about how they were "settling for threes" a bit too much. Last year they lived and died with their three-point shooting, and 6-for-19 isn't gonna win you too many games. If they can get more of a multi-dimensional offense going, they should be fine. Just some first-game jitters I guess.