MBB: NESCAC

[Denton]

Strong performance by Bowdoin yesterday (who schedules games for 4PM on a Friday!).  Although Western New England was not particularly strong, the Bears really got things going in the 2nd half (64% shooting). 

Career game for Tim Lane (23 pt / 11-12) in the 4 as well as another strong performance by Mark Phillips in the middle.   Colby had no answer for Phillips last week and it will be interesting to match him against the other NESCAC bigs.

Tonight should be a good test playing a strong Salem State team.  The Phillips/Holmes matchup in the middle will be bruising.


FormerPolarBear - good to see you at the game.  Attending tonight?

[nescac1]

Tough loss for the Ephs, losing to Ursinus by 3 in a game that went right down to the wire.  Not a terrible loss -- Ursinus is a top 20 team and the Ephs nearly pulled it off even without Joe G.  Schultz and Snyder combined for 55 but no one else stepped up as a third scorer.  Ephs shot well, but the lack of an inside game seemed to hurt them.   

[ac08]

Looks like you got your wish, Historian. Amherst 100 - Skidmore 97. It looks as though Holsey didn't play. I'll leave most of the game analysis to someone who was there, but I like seeing Bradley with a career game in a close contest.

Coach Flockerzi gets my salute.

[eclinchy]

Tufts just won the Roger Williams invite tournament. Smooth 15-point win over Western Conn.

Jumbos move to 2-1, Sheldon gets win #301. Huge breakout game for James Long, who scores 13, one of four in double figures along with the usual Tufts big three (Pierce-Beyel-Gallant). Knew I had a good feeling about that kid.

[FormerPolarBear]

Had a chance to attend the Bowdoin v. WNEC game yesterday.  Bowdoin got off to a slow start, but came on strong in the second half lead by Tim Lane.  Lane sparked the Polar Bear's offense by scoring 23 points on a 11 for 12 shooting!! He looked unstoppable and it seems as though hes ready to have a break-out season.  I have the pleasure of knowing Lane and I know how hard he worked this past off season; he told me he is determined to get back to the NESCAC Championship and another berth in the NCAA tourney. Lane may not be a "household" name right now, but if the Polar Bears continue to win and Lane keeps putting up good numbers he very well could lead the Bears back to the Championship.  I know it's a little early for all this discussion, but I was excited about Lane's performance and hope Bowdoin can win tonight v. Salem State.   Good luck tonight Bowdoin!

Denton- I will not be in attendance tonight (law school duties)

[Red1]

Hamilton 85-Bates 68.  Everything went Hamilton's way, nothing went Bates' way.  Bates was ice cold from the floor.  The Bobcats had plenty of open shots, but just couldn't make them fall.  By contrast Hamilton was red hot.   They were nailing fadeaway jumpers from where the 3pt. arc used to be with 3 sets of hands in their faces.

Hamilton is a quick team with a trough press.  They have a big time offense and are used to scoring a lot of points.  While they have a decent half court defense they give up holes to the lane, and a lot of open mid-range and 3pt. shots.  They have a lot of size and hight to complent their quickness and they pack the paint to prevent the easy layups and pull down rebounds (which they do extremely well).  You're not going to play a low scoring game against the Continentals, but you can beat them in a high scoring game with decent mid-range shooting because you'll get plenty of chances.  Unfortunately for Bates they couldn't capitalize on the chances.

Hopefully Bates can have some success against USM on Tuesday.  USM has had success against Bates of late, but this time the Huskies are traveling to Lewiston, and Bates is looking to get back to winning ways quickly.

Cheers,
Red1

[met_fan]

Hamilton 85-Bates 68.  Everything went Hamilton's way, nothing went Bates' way.  Bates was ice cold from the floor.  The Bobcats had plenty of open shots, but just couldn't make them fall.  By contrast Hamilton was red hot.   They were nailing fadeaway jumpers from where the 3pt. arc used to be with 3 sets of hands in their faces.

Hamilton is a quick team with a trough press.  They have a big time offense and are used to scoring a lot of points.  While they have a decent half court defense they give up holes to the lane, and a lot of open mid-range and 3pt. shots.  They have a lot of size and hight to complent their quickness and they pack the paint to prevent the easy layups and pull down rebounds (which they do extremely well).  You're not going to play a low scoring game against the Continentals, but you can beat them in a high scoring game with decent mid-range shooting because you'll get plenty of chances.  Unfortunately for Bates they couldn't capitalize on the chances.

Hopefully Bates can have some success against USM on Tuesday.  USM has had success against Bates of late, but this time the Huskies are traveling to Lewiston, and Bates is looking to get back to winning ways quickly.

Cheers,
Red1

I've heard Hamilton has some good freshmen.  Anything to that from what you saw today?

[FormerPolarBear]

Bowdoin falls to Salem St 66-61.  A back and forth contest throughout the entire game.  Salem St opened up a 5 point lead with 2 minutes left and Bowdoin could never close that gap.  Mark Phillips had a very good game with 20 points in only 20 minutes b/c of foul trouble.  Tim Lane chipped in with 9 and 9.  Kyle Jackson struggled, but he will recover from this game and will have a very big season. 

[senatorfrost]

   Maybe Amherst has a few weaknesses? Skidmore has been 1-13 in their league for the past couple seasons.
   Snyder and Schultz had a pretty good week-end. (I like them with Geoghegan #1 or #2 amongst the threesomes). These happenings were as I figured although I never thought Skidmore would be that close. I thought Amherst would struggle later.
   However, I also figured Middlebury would beat Manhattanville. They beat Stockton who had most folks coming back from tourney team that gave Amherst a run. Then they face Manhattanville who lost almost everyone. Maybe they got one starter back. Anyway Manhattanville beats them. I'm beginning to wonder if/doubt NESCAC will have a final four team this year. At this point Bowdoin looks as good as any even with the loss to Salem.

[Red1]

Met_fan,

Good freshman is right.  Hamilton picked up Patrick Sullivan, up a 6-7 forward out of Delbarton private school in New Jersey.  He can shoot 3's well, blocks a lot of shots, rebounds like crazy, plays phenominal defense on the permieter, and in the midcourt in transition.  Hell I've started referring to him as mini-hansbrough.  One lacking thing though:  He loves to dunk, and he can't do it.  Went 0-3 on dunks in 2 games and committed 2 charges in the process. (Apparently he forgot he's not actually Tyler Hansbrough and is not capable of dunking straight over the top of people.)  On the plus side he was smart enough not to try a 4th time and resorted to normal layups (and those he didn't miss).

Less known (or looked at) is a guard they picked up named Russ Rosenband.  I don't know where he's from, but I can tell you where he's headed:  Starter, and perhaps all conference.  He was 7-13 from behind the arc over 2 games, money from the foul line, scored 17 points in both games, and did it all coming off the bench.  He also did it with lots of hands in his face.  The composure he showed knocking down shots with defenders right in his face was outstanding.  But this is where Hamilton's depth is scary.  Their starting point guard is out with an ankle injury (hasn't played yet), so this team is only gonna get stronger, and this money shooter will keep coming in unnoticed off the bench. 

This guy's weakness:  defense.  His feet aren't quick enough to defend guards and he resorts to a lot of handchecking and reaching in.  While the officials let 'em play style (which I'll admit was consistent both ways, albeit annoying) worked well for him today, he'll struggle mightily on D when a tight calling crew is officiating.

I don't know how good this team really is, but I hope their phenominal so that this won't be a bad loss for Bates.  We'll find out in early January when the contintals head to the midwest to take on the No.1 Bears from Washington Universtiy (Mo.) (great win over Augstana in OT btw), followed by Illinois Wesleyan.  The only other Nescac game to watch for with Hamilton is later in the season when they take on Williams.  I'm wondering about how weak the Nescac maybe or how strong Liberty League may have gotten given Bates' loss to Hamilton, and hearing about Amherst's scare at the hands of Skidmore.

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Cheers,
Red1

[met_fan]

Met_fan,

Good freshman is right........

Cheers,
Red1

Thanks for the rundown.  Incidentally, they also have Middlebury and Conn in early January.  Hopefully they are back playing a full NESCAC schedule soon.  There have been rumblings in that direction coming out of the school for the past year of so.

[nescac1]

Based on early returns NESCAC is, as predicted, way down from last year.  No surprise considering (1) just how much talent left the conference (2) a relatively weak group of seniors this year and (3) a ton of coaching changes.  I think it's pretty unusual for every conference team to already have at least one loss (other than Amherst, who has played an extremely weak schedule and not exactly looked like the dominant squad of recent years) this early in the season.   Three teams ALREADY have two losses each.  And it's not as if NESCAC has been facing a murderer's row of opponents.  (I still think Middlebury is for real despite their loss last night -- top player Smith was out hurt, and just sounds like they had an off night).  Tufts may be the one exception as a team which, while it lost a lot on paper, is actually improved -- they have three dependable scorers surrounded by a lot of guys who know their roles.  Still, the lack of any interior offensive presence may be tough for them once conference play starts.  

That being said, it does look like there are a large number of frosh putting up strong numbers around the conference, so a lot of teams may just need time to mature: Hanley at Bowdoin, Abdo and Yanulis at Trinity, Barrise, Holmes, Waller at Amherst (Barrise has put up ridiculous numbers to start the season and looks like he could be the best of a very talented Amherst frosh class), Sharry at Midd, Long at Tufts, in particular.  

More on Joe G. from Williams:
"The Ephs need Whittington to add to his minutes in a hurry after Thursday's practice injury to Joe Geoghegan, a 6-8, 225 force who scored 12.6 points and grabbed 8.9 rebounds per game last winter. Geoghegan broke a finger in his right hand in practice and will be out for six weeks, Maker said."  It is interesting to read Maker's post-game comments in local press.  He seems like a very positive, upbeat, grass-is-greener sort of guy, contrast from Paulsen's style.  

Huge loss, but sounds like he will be back for conference season.  Would have been interesting to see how the Ephs would have fared against Ursinus with him in the line-up.  The silver lining is that this provides a lot more PT for Dodson, Whittingon, and Timmins in the early going; hopefully 1-2 of those guys can emerge as dependable inside options to complement Joe when he returns (which sounds like it will be right before the first Amherst game if all goes well).  Whittington is clearly going to be a major force on defense, the question is how fast will his offense develop.  Timmins and Dodson both have good perimeter skill sets for tall players, but both need to become more physical and tougher on the boards.  Speaking of Whittington, should be interesting to watch him go up against Stan Grayson of Wesleyan on tuesday -- they were high school teammates and Whittington broke all of Grayson's records.  That must have been a hell of a high school team ...

On a happier note, Kevin Snyder seems to be really improved under Maker's system and could be headed for a surprise first-team all conference sort of year.  He has put up ridiculous stats through three games, against a respectable slate of opponents ...

On another note, another "impressive" win for Amherst women's hoops last night, beating up on Pine Manor by 70 points.  They really should be embarassed to schedule these sort of joke games year in and year out.  Every NESCAC team plays a few soft opponents, but generally not multiple teams who don't even belong on the same court ...

[TheHerst2and4]

6 weeks with a broken finger? Are you sure?

[nescac1]

That's what the news article said.  If he had to have surgery to fix it, doesn't sound unreasonable. 

[toad22]

Geohegan has a broken bone in his right hand.