MBB: NESCAC

[JeffRookie2]

haha, 7 1/2 hours between those posts, you must have been chuckling to yourself all day.

in other news I saw Walzy senior at dinner tonight enjoying dinner at northampton's finest India House. definitley a must try on your next trip to amherst.

[nescac hoops]

Looks like the Amherst bench gets significantly smaller in a close contest. From the Amherst website:

"Senior captain Andrew Olson (San Diego, CA) gave Amherst a 3-0 lead with the opening basket of the game, but from that point on in the first half the Lord Jeffs had their hands full with the Golden Bears."

This is both the first, last and only sentence of the paragraph. Mr. Kantor never should have made a name for himself.

I will not bore you all with the stats/details from the Williams game and their fifty point victory over southern vermont like amherst posters love to do with their "cupcake" games. Chris Rose was 6-8 from 3pt. land....OH MY GOD Rose is the new Steven Wheeler.

[mrmike88]

Olson played all 40 minutes today.  I guess Carcieri and Meehan have some work to do.  Amherst is going to need to find someone else they can trust to handle the ball in close games to get him some rest...

[feces monkey]

This is both the first, last and only sentence of the paragraph. Mr. Kantor never should have made a name for himself.

While Kantor and the rest of the Byline Mafia struggle with the concept of web properties, single sentence paragraphs are encouraged by most web/print tutorials. Being a Williams grad, you are no doubt taught to work in bloated, self-important prose, but the game story in question is well within the bounds of standard journalism.

In order to avoid the cataclysm following the prior journalistic contretemps, N'Hoops, please let it be known I find you to be a fine, upstanding young man.

[nescachoopsfan]

tufts over MIT 83-67

keene st. on tuesday

[Old Guy]

Fun watching hoops here so far at Middlebury. The Panthers push the ball up the floor on every possesion and can score. Coglan is a wafer-thin frosh with a great stroke. He was unconscious against Union (31 points in 19 minutes: 8 threes). Walsh, the 6'5" 250 lb presence underneath, shot no threes last year; is 11-17 this year. When Harris and Coglan are on the floor together, defenses will really be stretched. Smith, who has been hurt and playing limited minutes, will be the beneficiary.  Locke, the 6'10" frosh (very slender), had four blocks in 11 minutes.

Looks like the Panthers will be competitive in NESCAC. They're 5-1, with wins over St. Lawrence, RPI, and Union - real teams, if not powerhouses. Norwich and Hamilton at home this week.

The team has nice balance. Sure wish NESCAC teams played each other twice.

[nescac hoops]

This is both the first, last and only sentence of the paragraph. Mr. Kantor never should have made a name for himself.

While Kantor and the rest of the Byline Mafia struggle with the concept of web properties, single sentence paragraphs are encouraged by most web/print tutorials. Being a Williams grad, you are no doubt taught to work in bloated, self-important prose, but the game story in question is well within the bounds of standard journalism.

In order to avoid the cataclysm following the prior journalistic contretemps, N'Hoops, please let it be known I find you to be a fine, upstanding young man.

Feces,

I am familiar with the one line paragraph but I find it hysterical that he does so to describe how the first points of the games scored and follows with a "this was the closest (opponent name) would come all game to the defending national champions" in pretty much every write up. I find it more hysterical that this writing was the subject of a lawsuit over a byline....


Moving on. Midd seems to making a good argument for why they should be considered as a top 3 NESCAC team. It will be interesting to see how they do against some physically bigger, more athletic teams.

[fpc85]

Why are people still talking about Kantor? Does it matter? Any issues about his writing should be laid to rest. The season has started...hoops isn't enough? The NESCAC has all the makings of a great season. I can't wait for it to begin.

[Pat Coleman]

I find it more hysterical that this writing was the subject of a lawsuit over a byline....

The legal department suggests I clarify that no actual lawsuit was ever filed.

[JeffRookie2]

I have to hand it to Williams, there athletics sight has improved by leaps and bounds the last year. Before they updated it was really ugly and hard to navigate, but now its very stylish.

[frank uible]

Have they won more games because of it?

[JeffRookie2]

Well, if they hop everyone in front of them who lost this week, they'll be a top-six team for the first time in awhile.

[nescac hoops]

Well, if they hop everyone in front of them who lost this week, they'll be a top-six team for the first time in awhile.

I have to say, as a relatively non biased fan, I don't think that Williams is a top 6 and perhaps not even a top 10 team. I say they are somewhere in the 15-10 range. If they had been winning at ease in some of these early, "cupcake" games I may feel differently. Obviously, they won easily this weekend and destroyed SVC but they should have won a number of their other games in this fashion and haven't. I realize that they are 6-0 and a number of teams that were previously ahead of them have lost so they keep getting bumped up but haven't really deserved it based on how they have played.

On the positive side, Rose seems to have found his shot (at least this past weekend) and Snyder is really playing well for the Ephs on both sides of the floor. Apparently he had off-season surgery on his wrist/hand that had been bothering him since his junior year of high school and the surgery has done great things for his shooting precentage thus far. Shalvoy has been solid, though not quite as "sizzling" as he was at the end of last season, and Geoghegan and Shultz continue to get better. Most importantly, the ephs have a balanced scoring attack that they haven't had in years. I think the ephs have the components to be a top team if Rose continues to have his shot, the sophomores continue to improve, they can keep this solid post rotation, and keep a balanced scoring attack but I don't think they are quite there yet (or at least haven't shown it) regardless of what the polls say this week.

[walzy31]

Olson played all 40 minutes today.  I guess Carcieri and Meehan have some work to do.  Amherst is going to need to find someone else they can trust to handle the ball in close games to get him some rest...

mrmike,

Good catch on the Olson PT in the WNEC game. However, it is not due to Carcieri and Meehan not playing up to par, but rather due to their recent injuries: DJ hurt his knee and Conor his ankle. Hopefully these two get healthy to assist in shouldering the load.

I other news, Amherst is a 21.0 point favorite in Thursday's MIT game.

[nescac1]

Nescac Hoops, I too was concerned about the Ephs' inability to put some of the lesser competition they faced away, but on second thought, looking at the schedule again, the wins are more impressive than at first glance.  Ursinus, who the Ephs handled with ease, had since run off four straight wins, three by huge margins.  The Southern Vermont win was a blowout, similar margin to Amherst's victory.  Wesleyan and RPI were both on the road, and in both cases the Ephs did manage to win by double digits, even if the games should not have been that close.  RPI is a credible opponent.  Although the Ephs are far more talented than a very down Wesleyan squad, it is still a rivalry game, and Wesleyan always seems to give the Ephs more trouble than expected (I think taking the 04 team to overtime for instance), and Williams was just way out of synch that day.  The only game that really surprised me is Framingham State, but Brandeis only beat them by 4, so perhaps they are better than expected.  And the Ephs just could not throw the ball in the ocean against them, but unlike last year when the same thing happened, were still able to pull out the victory.  It seems like this season, no one is really standing out.  Amherst will be unanimous number 1, and the Ephs are one of about a dozen or so teams behind them that could probably be interchanged 2-15.  Outside of the Jeffs, there just aren't powerhouses this year: Wash U lost one of its stars to injury, Stevens Point is supposedly too perimeter oriented, I am not sold on Rochester as a legit power even though they will probably be number 2 in the next poll, Wooster is a little down, there isn't one dominant CCIW team, etc.   I don't think any of those squads (including Williams) are quite at the level of Wooster / Va Wesleyan / Amherst / Stevens Point / Wash U, the big five from last season, although of course Wash U was before the injury to one of its stars ...


The key for Williams is really Rose and Shalvoy raising their games to all-region levels.  With Snyder much improved and Geoghegan and Schultz more experienced, the Ephs do have fantastic balance for the first time in years, and they also have a lot of size and experience off the bench with Weisbrot and Meyer inside.  But against the Keene States and Amhersts of the world, they will need the seniors to rise up to go-to guy level the way Shalvoy did last year and Rose did as a sophomore.  It was encouraging to see Rose finally find his shot against a weaker team, hopefully that will continue once the competition amps up, as the Ephs will really need Rose/Shalvoy to combine for at least 30 per game to have a shot against the likes of Keene, Amherst and Trinity.