MBB: NESCAC

[mrmike88]

What was his stat line?  Did he take a lot of shots?  A lot of 3's?  Could he just not miss?

[JustAFan]

14-18 from the field, 6-10 from 3-land, and 4 rebounds in just 29 minutes. This kid has simply been dominant in his last 4 games.....

[JustAFan]

Evans, nice article on Conn College in the Tufts Daily today
Click here

Semi-NESCAC member Hamilton quietly has gone 4-0 so far this season, and travels to Middlebury this Saturday in what should be a good test for both teams.


Edited for formatting...Ralph Turner

[La Verdad]

Jeffs barely hold on to win 66-60. They played a terrible first half and were down by 8 at the break. The worst part was that Amherst got beat up down low by a much smaller MIT team. They got outrebounded, they couldn't post up Jones or Hopkins and they got beaten to every loose ball. I hope this was just a function of looking ahead to Brandeis, but even in the second half when Amherst started playing better, MIT was way more physical than Amherst under the boards. The player of the game for Amherst was undeniably Brian Baskauskas, who hit a couple of huge threes to ignite the Jeffs in the second half and also played lock down defense on Bartalotta in the second.

I think your analysis is a little off here rookie.  It is probably a little harsh to say Amherst played a terrible first half; they were a very sloppy with the ball at times, but  they did shoot well over 50% from the field.  MIT just happened to be smoking hot, over 50% from the field and from three...Bartolotta was sopping wet, by far one of the best players I've seen in D3, hope the injury isn't too bad.  You also have to give a lot of credit to MIT's post players, they played outstanding post defense on Hopkins and Jones.   On the other end, the Amherst bigs held a couple of guys averaging 13.5 a game to 10pts (3-10 shooting) and 4pts.  As far as rebounding goes, you can't put all the blame on the bigs.  MIT's center was averaging 12 boards a game coming in; he and the other big guy combined for 12 tonight.  They may not have dominated on offense, but the big men won the game by forcing Bartolotta to try to win it on his own, which to his credit, he almost did.  MIT only shot 35% in the 2nd half, the result of better perimeter D and Bartolotta cooling off.  Amherst does need to do a better job of putting people away when they have the chance.  That being said, MIT is a very good team; they can play with anybody when Bartolotta is healthy and hot.

[JeffRookie2]

i just dont think we should have been outrebounded by a team that small. i shudder to think what would have happened against a team like the '05 rochester team with seth hauben and onriyuka that knocked us out. don't get me wrong, i know this squad can rebound, they were great down the stretch last year, but they were not on their game tonight.

also, we had 13 turnovers in the first half, which is pretty unprecedented for an amherst team. i know we have a bunch of injured point guards, which makes it more excusable, but it was ugly. i dont think its too impressive that we held them below their scoring and rebounding averages, that should be expected from the top team in the country especially when MIT's competition so far has included Gordon, Suffolk, Emmanuel, Endicott and Curry. that being said, you're right about bartalotta, he was fantastic and i thought baskauskas did an amazing job on him.

on a more positive note it was very impressive that the team kept their composure after the first half and took care of business in the second. a tribute to the players and to coach hixon. olson showed the killer instinct yet again. hopefully they will be more sharp for brandeis on saturday and wont need to do this again, but at least they know they can.

[eclinchy]

How is MIT small?  Johnson's 6'8", Soumare's 6'7", and Bartolotta, a shooting guard for crying out loud, is a perfectly respectable 6'4".  All three of those guys have the talent to be monster rebounders on any given night.

[hugenerd]

How is MIT small?  Johnson's 6'8", Soumare's 6'7", and Bartolotta, a shooting guard for crying out loud, is a perfectly respectable 6'4".  All three of those guys have the talent to be monster rebounders on any given night.

Johnson is not a big man, he is a perimeter player.  He may be 6'7" but probably doesnt weight over 185 pounds and he takes mainly 3s.  Soumare is their only real big man, but he is more of an athlete than a traditional big man.  They also have very little depth in the post, their only two back up "big" men are 6'5" and 6'1".

[eclinchy]

Johnson still grabs six boards a game though.  He's no Soumare, but he's still a presence in there.

Here's the Jon Pierce show, for anyone interested...
Click here

Time to go read up on the Herst-Deis thread.  Should be a hell of a game tomorrow.


Edited for formatting...Ralph Turner

[Agent_Zero]

what impressed me most about pierce's game last night was that sitting in the stands and watching it unfold, it didnt even seem to be that he was forcing or going one on five to get his points. im guessing that nearly 95% of his baskets came out of great offensive movement and assists. it was all catch and shoot, or post and a quick move. he wasnt just driving into the lane against defenders and throwing shots up. eclinch, i see in your article that he agreed, talking about how his teammates fed him the ball in perfect places to score. granted, some of those 3's were deep, but it didnt look like any of his teammates were surprised that he was taking them. wow, i wonder what practice must be like if he has that kind of confidence from that sort of range. one last thing...what was babson doing?! he had 23 at the half. as a coach, dont you have to be saying "Deny him everywhere, dont let him catch at all, pick him up at our free throw line if you have too." just seemed strange that he was allowed to go 5-6 in the second half without being knocked around more. all in all though, a historic performance and one i was happy to witness. pierce and the team as a whole are exciting to watch and im intrigued to see how teams play him from now on and where they go from here

[NY hoopster]

Great night for Pierce. For the record, Mark Gaudet of Colby has put up 37 pts in an OT game this season.

[cruiser]

big week for colbys artie cutrone...
http://www.colby.edu/athletics_cs/news/cutrone12-6-07.cfm

[eclinchy]

Tufts wins its fourth straight, 98-88, over Clark.  More details to come later.

[Old Guy]

Nice game at Middlebury, for Middlebury, vs Hamilton. Tough, hard fought game. Middlebury got a lead in  the first half which they never relinquished. Hamilton plays hard; they pressed the whole game, full court, man-to-man, trap. They're quick in the back court. Rudin had a very good game.

Harris was off (2-11). Hamilton guarded the perimeter. Middlebury's post play was outstanding. Aaron Smith was terrific (23 pts: 9-12 from the floor; 5-6 from the line; 12 rebs; 3 blocks). Walsh played great D on Wood, their high scorer and a big strong guy - 5 blocks, 13 points.

Middlebury has come a long way in a short time: this time last year the sages on this site had them going 0-9 in the league - "who will they beat" was a sentiment expressed. I like it better this way. It's been a long time coming. My fingers are crossed (I remember Bates last year). Midd's 7-1 before the holidays has been fun, with wins over RPI, St. Lawrence, Union, and Hamilton.

[ephoops]

The silence from the Amherst faithful after yesterday's loss to Brandeis is deafening.

I'm inerested to hear reports from those in attendance.  Is Brandeis that good even without DeLuca?  How good is U-Mass Dartmouth?

It appears that Williams had another ugly win at home against Springfield.  It's the type of game that the Ephs would have lost last year.

[toad22]

Springfield may be the best 2-4 team I have seen in a while. They will beat a few good teams before the season is over. However, Williams had control of the game most of the way. The very quick Pride PG made two really good strips of Shalvoy in the last 75 seconds making it closer than it really was. The Ephs just didn't shoot it very well (Snyder, Shalvoy & Rose). The offensive movement looked smoother to me, and produced a ton of open shots. This may be another Eph example of playing to the level of the competition.