MBB: NESCAC

[nescac hoops]

Interesting to see that both frosh Dodson and Whittington got some significant time (13 and 10 minutes each) in the Eph victory. Good to see Whittington playing at all considering the frightening injury he had back in late December. Dodson had 2 pts and 8 boards in 13 minutes - not bad. Eph fans, would anybody agree that starting Weisbrot in lieu of Snyder tomorrow would be a good idea to defend against Amherst's height? While I think Snyder is a great defender, I think he is way too small for Walters and Bauskakus (sp?).


Thoughts on Wesleyan beating Colby?

[nescac1]

INteresting game for the Ephs.  Shalvoy and Rose both had solid nights, especially Rose, who bounced back from a rough weekend to hit two crucial threes in the second half, back to back, just as Trinity was making a big run.  

But what is more encouraging is the contributions of the frosh.  Harlan Dodson, who has a world of potential, hit a 3, had 8 boards and 2 blocks in only 13 minutes of action.  Troy Whittington finally returned to the lineup, a little rusty on O as you might expect (and I'm not sure his offensive game has much polish yet anyway) but 3 blocks (two of them against Russ Martin) in only 10 minutes is impressive.  the two of them are the Williams equivalent of Walters and Jones on Amherst, respectively ... skills and athleticism very unusual for their size.  Given them a few years and they will both be forces.  

Only downer for Williams -- Geoghegan and Schultz in major foul trouble, and contributed little as a result.  They will need a LOT more out of both of them to take down the Jeffs tomorrow.  Winner of that game looks like the team to beat in NESCAC.  Loser of Midd / Trin, meanwhile, faces an uphill struggle.  

[nescac1]

I say stay with same starting lineup, but basically play Golia ONLY at the back-up 1, and let Schultz / Snyder split a lot of time at the 2, with Rose moving to the 3 at times, to get a lot more of Whittington, Dodson, and Weisbrot in the lineup.   For most of the game, Ephs need to have at least 2/4 bigs in there to compete with Amherst's size.   

I was shocked when I saw that Colby lost to Wes, but NESCAC Fan, Colby actually managed to win that game.  Good thing, too, because 0-3 in the league would have been brutal ...

[frank uible]

Both the NESCAC board and the Wesleyan board have Colby beating Wesleyan.

[JustAFan]

Correct, Colby beat Wesleyan 77-70. Colby led 4-25 at the half, Wesleyan got it down to 60-54 with 7 minutes left but Colby hit a bunch of 3's to put it out of reach.

[Old Guy]

A clinic. The Jeffs shot very well in the first ten minutes, hit their first five threes (Jones, Walters, Olson).  Very poised group - looked like a nat'l championship team. Midd got it to 25-20 but never got that close again. Jeffs extended the lead to 18 in the first half. Midd cut it to 10 at the break (40-30) - second half was pretty even.

Middlebury was game, played hard, tried lots of combinations (nobody played 30 minutes). Williams fans should be reassured that Amherst's top five played long minutes (Goldsmith and Wheeler too). Amherst shot well from the line (20-23), esp. at the end. It was 10-15 the whole second half.

Big crowd, which the Jeffs neutralized early. For Midd, Rudin was 3-11. Smith was solid (as usual), steady, hard-working. Coglan provided energy in the second half. We missed Harris, who plays well in the open court, can pull up and hit a long jumper.

I was glad to get to see the Jeffs. From reading this board, I feel like I know Amherst almost as well as Middlebury. It's good to get to assign some players to names.  The Jeffs are so tall. Fletcher Walters brought the ball up when Olson was overplayed - 6'8"!
Jones steps back and hits the three, guarded by Dudley at 6'1". Baskauskas would be a nice player at 6'2". Tall, lean, and long. Agile, athletic. Based on tonight's game, if I had first pick, I'd take Walters.

Olson had three Nash-like pick and rolls in the second half which ended with slams (two by Hopkins, one by Jones).

Very impressive exhibition. As the outcome was never really in doubt I was able to drive home without driving my car off the Champlain Bridge. The Bantams tomorrow.

[JustAFan]

Interesting box score from the Bowdoin-Conn College game. Looks like Bowdoin was red-hot in the first half, shooting 67% both from the floor and 3-land en route to a 36-20 halftime lead. Conn didn't help itself by shooting only 28% in the half and 22% (7-31) for the game on 3's.  As Williams can attest, when Bowdoin shoots well, they can be very hard to beat, and given Conn's guard oriented lineup they need to be on from the floor to compete.  The other key stat was at the free throw line, where Bowdoin had 29 attempts to CC's 14.  Andy Hippert returned to the Bowdoin lineup and had his typical solid game (19 points on 4-8 shooting, 3-4 on 3's and 8-9 from the line). Teammate Jordan Fliegel had 17 points on 6-10 shooting and 8 rebounds.

[nescac hoops]

Oooops, my bad on Colby-Wesleyan. I was apparently looking at the d3hoops schedule for the women's side.

[fpc85]

A clinic. The Jeffs shot very well in the first ten minutes, hit their first five threes (Jones, Walters, Olson).  Very poised group - looked like a nat'l championship team. Midd got it to 25-20 but never got that close again. Jeffs extended the lead to 18 in the first half. Midd cut it to 10 at the break (40-30) - second half was pretty even.

I was glad to get to see the Jeffs. From reading this board, I feel like I know Amherst almost as well as Middlebury. It's good to get to assign some players to names.  The Jeffs are so tall. Fletcher Walters brought the ball up when Olson was overplayed - 6'8"!
Jones steps back and hits the three, guarded by Dudley at 6'1". Baskauskas would be a nice player at 6'2". Tall, lean, and long. Agile, athletic. Based on tonight's game, if I had first pick, I'd take Walters.

Olson had three Nash-like pick and rolls in the second half which ended with slams (two by Hopkins, one by Jones).

Glad to see that the Jeffs are improvng. Big one today. Ball up!!

But what is more encouraging is the contributions of the frosh.  Harlan Dodson, who has a world of potential, hit a 3, had 8 boards and 2 blocks in only 13 minutes of action.  Troy Whittington finally returned to the lineup, a little rusty on O as you might expect (and I'm not sure his offensive game has much polish yet anyway) but 3 blocks (two of them against Russ Martin) in only 10 minutes is impressive.  the two of them are the Williams equivalent of Walters and Jones on Amherst, respectively ... skills and athleticism very unusual for their size.  Given them a few years and they will both be forces. 

do you think they ned to contribute today? would they be effective vs. the jeffs? this game is extremely important for the ephs. given how they played in amherst they should feel very confident today. 2 losses in the conf. would be tough to recover. the trin./midd. is another important match up...the loser will have a tough time recovering.

williams tomorrow
wooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
woooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

walzy what is the line today?

[nescac1]

More info on that Amherst recruit:

http://blogs.tampabay.com/preps/2008/01/ivy-league-powe.html

and an article about Bowdoin recruit Ryan O'Connell:

http://salemnews.com/pusports/local_story_004094146?page=1

If he ends up at Amherst, that would be pretty big for the Jeffs, if Penn and Princeton are in the mix.   There certainly are a lot of minutes opening up in the Amherst front court next season ... Some potentially very strong recruits already coming into NESCAC next year, led by Zaitz and possibly this guy at Amherst, O'Connell for Bowdoin, and Emerson at Williams. 

Go Ephs today!  As for Dodson and Whittington, I would like to see at least one, possibly both, get a chance today.  It is always tough for a frosh to shine in these rivalry games, but both played well against Trinity's very good front line, and I think Whittington provides the best defensive option on Jones ... too fast for the other Eph big guys, too big for the perimeter guys.   He's been out for awhile which is tough, but he did get his feet wet last night.  Dodson might be able to slow down Walters with his length, and he can shoot, but he is very thin and also hasn't had a lot of consistent playing time this year.  Most important for the Ephs is to keep Geoghegan out of foul trouble because they REALLY need his presence inside for most of the game, and he should be fresh after only 12 minutes PT last night.   If Amherst wins today, regular season title is looking very likely, as the only undefeated and with wins over Midd, Williams, and Tufts already.  If Williams wins, Williams, Amherst, winner of Trinity/Midd and Bowdoin all looking like strong contenders.

[ephwatcher1]

It's the Bunkster folks, so you know what that means: brace yourself for a hardcore truth bombing. My eph knowledge is endless and as I sit here only hours before the Ephs-AmWorst game I feel it's only right to impart some of that knowledge on you all.

Now, Chris Shalvoy is a good for 20+ pts and 5+ assists tonight. Why you ask? He's playing more confident than ever. He had a team-high 15 pts last night but the telling information is not in his stats. No, it's his game presence. He's beginning to understand that he's the best point guard (arguably the best player) on the floor ever night and that he can take over a game whenever he wants. Plus, he's dawning the Baron Davis beard these days and I think we all know what that means. He's officially reached beast status.

To the dismay of AmWorst fans, it only gets worse from there. This just in, Rose is poised to go OFF tonight on the Poor Jeffs. It was subtle but clear to a student of greatness like myself. Rose (who also dropped 15) found his stroke on two consecutive threes last night. He shot the ball aggressively and with a confidence--rather a cockiness-- that would make any AmWorst fan shudder. If Shalvoy's play builds the coffin for the Jeffs tonight, Rose's jumpers are going to nail it shut.

Foul trouble allowed Joe and Blake to get plenty of rest last night. expect big things early from them both. With the return of Troy (aka Dwight Howard), I give Williams' bigs the edge over Amherst's.  Solid play from Spider Snyder and Blake the "Blakerizer" Schultz = 1 big win for the Ephs.

In case you didn't know, you've been bunked!

[walzy31]

Amherst -10.5 @ Williams (assuming Baron Davis and Dwight Howard do not make it to Chandler)

[speedy]

Bowdoin over Wes, 66-46

[JustAFan]

Trinity over Middlebury, 74-71. Hasiuk, Martin and Rowe led Trinity with 20, 16 and 12.  Aaron Smith paced M'bury with 23 points and 12 rebounds while Mike Walsh had 11 and 12. Looks like it was a nip and tuck game throughout.

Also, Bates over Tufts in OT, 72-68. Wholey led Bates with 28 points, 9 rebounds.  Tufts led at the half 42-28 but was outscored 35-21 in the second half and 9-5 in OT.

[nescac33]

Bowdoin over Wesleyan 66-46.....good to see Bowdoin's best scorer Andrew Hippert back on the floor for the Polar Bears this weekend....Bowdoin's center combination of 6'6 senior Jordan Fliegal and 6'8 sophomore Mark Phillips were too much for the Cardinals inside as they combined for 31 points (Fliegal with 25 of those)...Bowdoin continued to lock down on the defensive end, as they have all season (leading the NESCAC in ppg allowed) giving up only 46 points, with no players in double figures for Wesleyan....Since they took care of business last night as well, next weekend will be a huge weekend for the Bears as they go to Amherst and Trinity to fight for first place in the league