MBB: NESCAC

[TheHerst2and4]

 if its a finger I would assume play through it especially for a big man and thought a month and a half is a significant time to be out for a finger,  hence my curiosity if the diagnosis was accurate

[met_fan]

if its a finger I would assume play through it especially for a big man and thought a month and a half is a significant time to be out for a finger,  hence my curiosity if the diagnosis was accurate

What?!?

[CCsalive]

Conn College's #1 fan chiming in. The Camels are 1-2 with a one-point loss to Fitchburg St. in Conn's opener, and a second place finish at the NYU Tip-Off. In the first round, Conn beat Immaculata who was a tourney team last year. Yesterday, I had the privelege of watching the Camels battle a big, yet atypically weak, NYU squad. Conn trailed by 5 at the half and lost by about 10. Conn rotates two or three 6'5" freshman and sophomores at the Center while NYU has four 6'8" guys on the roster and an all-conf hon mention 6'4" power forward named Mish. NYU's freshmen center, 6'8" Andy Stein, is a name you will be hearing. Despite lack of height, Conn is deeper than in recent years. While the losses of Stone, Mosely, and Young hurt the Camels at three distinct positions, CC has veteran leadership in four-year starter Billy Karis, senior Ulises Veras-poised for a break-out year, and junior Shavar Bernier is a likley All-NESCAC player. Then the Camels rotate four to five guard/forwards who each effectively cut to the basket and shoot the three within CC's well-run Princeton Offense. Given the league's thus-far unpredeictable nature, the Camels deserve to be mentioned as a potential "top-half" team, especially given their back-court leadership. As a Hamilton alum who has lost favor for the Continentals and rallied behind the Camels, I am looking forward to the Jan 6 match-up of Hamilton and Conn. I recall the two squads battling in the late 90's when Conn was a National Power.

[BankShotCharlie]

if its a finger I would assume play through it especially for a big man and thought a month and a half is a significant time to be out for a finger,  hence my curiosity if the diagnosis was accurate

What?!?

Well now his back's gonna hurt because he just pulled landscaping duty!

[Denton]

CC -

Glad to see that hope springs eternal down in New London.  Seems like Conn will suffer from the same experience loss that much of NESCAC is struggling with.

I was pleased to see that Stone was playing pro ball in Denmark.   www.nescac.com/sports/mbkb/2008-09/news/CONN_Stone_092408

He always seemed to be a guy with a lot of integrity.   Hope he does well.

[Gabriel]

Observations from Saturday afternoon.  Williams lost to a very good Ursinus team, albeit, not as good as last year.  Williams will be a force in the NESCAC this year.  They have a good nucleus and will be better when their big man gets back.  Schulz and Snyder are excellent players and Whittington has an unlimited upside---terrific athlete.  Coach Maker is an excellent fit and the team will improve tremendously during the year----when they learn the offensive and defensive schemes.

Williams stayed in the game Saturday because they shot very well, especially in the first half when they hit a very high percentage of their threes.  They run a variant of the Princeton offense but they did not use back door cuts as much as I expected.  They worked the ball in and out to set up threes---which they shot well.  Whenever Ursinus pulled ahead by 8 or 10, they would come back, mainly with threes.

[ephoops]

Gabriel and NESCAC1:

Thanks for the recap.  If I recall, last year Williams faced Ursinus in a season-opening tournament and beat them.  Ursinus went on to the Final Four.  With Ursinus beating Williams this year, I'd like to see the Ephs keep up pattern and reach the Final Four this year.   It will be interesting to see how this team develops over the course of the season.

Regarding Coach Maker, everything I hear coming out of Williamstown is very positive.  It appears that he has made a seamless transition.  Simply put, he gets it.  He has a deep appreciation for the basketball traditions at Williams.  I heard that when he arrived on campus this summer, the first two people he sought out were Al Shaw and Curt Tong -- two former basketball coaches who reside in Williamstown.  He's also known Sheehy from his days as an assistant coach at Dartmouth and has a very good relationship with Harry.  His comments to the press indicate that he recognizes how special it is to be the head basketball coach at Williams.

In addition, it will be interesting to see how Maker and his staff recruit.  I believe that Paulsen was a good -- but not great -- recruiter and judge of talent.  Despite the tough economic times and the decline in the endowment, Morty Shapiro appears to be committed to "no loans" financial aid.  This can be a significant differentiating factor when recruiting student athletes.  Moreover, with coaches focusing more on the early decision applicant process as a result of the decrease in the number of "tipped" athletes, we should get an indication of Maker's initial recruiting efforts fairly quickly.

[Gabriel]

ehoops,

You are right.  Williams beat Ursinus by 15 at Drew last year.  Both teams played very well.  Ursinus went on to beat both Middlebury and Trinity before losing to Amherst in the Final Four.

Coach Maker was overheard saying he hopes Williams will play Ursinus again this year----obviously referring the the post season.  It would be a terrific game as both teams have a history of getting better during the season.  Kevin Small's teams always peak about playoff time and I would guess Mike Maker's teams will too.

[Red1]

Bates vs. USM to be webcast live at www.batescast.com at 7:30 this evening.  The website hasn't been updated to show that yet, but that's what Bates said on their athletics website.  Enjoy.

Red1

[Red1]

Bates 66 USM 45

Bates had a slow first half and appeared out of sink and unable to shoot with any kind of consitency.  USM led 30-24 at the half.  That was the end of Bates' troubles.

The second half consisted of much improved shooting and defense and a dominating performance from the bobcats.  Bates was hot in the second half while USM was ice cold.  There wasn't much more to it than that.  USM seemed to have difficulty with language resulting in 3 technical fouls (1 on the bench), but the difference was by far more than that.

The passing was crisp, the cuts were sharp, and Bates just owned the 2nd half of this ball game.  Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come for the bobcats.

Red1   

[ephoops]

Williams 84
Wesleyan 52

Williams shot 43 three-pointers -- they hit 16 (37%).  That a lot of threes...

Schultz had 24 and Snyder had 16. 

Dodson had 15 points on 5-8 from three.  For a 6'8" kid he sure shoots a lot of threes.

Any reports from someone who was there?

[nescac1]

Nice to see Williams get the blow-out without Geoghegan, but then again, Wes is simply going to be awful this year.  They may lose by an average of 25 in conference play.  I hope they let Reilly bring in some serious talent this year in hopes of becoming competitive soon. 

Midd loses again, again without Aaron Smith -- anyone know what the story is?  They clearly need him to get well in a hurry as their shooters are struggling a bit without an interior presence on offense.

Trinity -- wow, 1-3, and they haven't faced a brutal schedule exactly.  Given how many guys are new to the rotation / roster, not shocking they'd struggle a bit out of the gates, but that still has to be a surprise given the talent they have. 

NESCAC may have trouble getting more than 2 in the NCAA's this year at this rate.  Could this be the first year since (ever?) where NESCAC is not the best conference in New England?  NEWMAC has started pretty damn strong.  Fortunately, a few other new england teams thought to be contenders are struggling, particularly Brandeis. 

[fpc85]

This year should be interesting. I think Amherst has the most ability. The returning players are good and waited a long time to contribute and the freshmen class has some really talented players. I expect them to be there in the and have the NESCAC final four played at Lefrak.

[Old Guy]

I wish I could give you the in-depth report on Middlebury, but I've only seen one game - vs Lyndon State, their only home game, a 25 point win. Lyndon is better than you may think - this was a 3 point game with ten minutes left. They'll win games in their conference.

Midd also has wins over Bloomsburg (a D2 team, but not a great one, I'm told), Norwich, and Richard Stockton, and losses to Manhattanville and St. Lawrence. The non-conference schedule is comparatively good, as it includes appropriate competition from fairly nearby in NY, though the home-away split does not favor the Panthers: in addition to St. Lawrence, they play Union, Hamilton, and Plattsburgh away, and get (much improved) Skidmore and RPI at home. They also get Colby-Sawyer in NH, and they look like they might be coming back up in the world. So their  record coming into NESCAC play may not be glittering, but they'll be tested.

Smith had 20 rebounds against Lyndon, playing with an elbow injury, the seriousness of which I don't know. His injury does give more time to  (frosh) Sharry, who is a legit 6'7" and made the all-conference team in last weekend's tourney. He has a nice touch, shooting a high percentage, and knows his way around the paint. Locke 6'10" is coming along, and swatting them away again (7 blocks against Manhattanville). Jamal Davis, a 6'5" soph who played little last year, also had a good weekend. Coglan, who showed such promise last year, has been banged up. Rudin is playing well and hitting foul shots in games' crucial final minutes, a great sign.

This team will take some time to get organized as they seriously go 12 deep. I don't know if it can be as good or better than last year's 6-3 team in NESCAC. The talent is there, but Harris and Walsh are big losses, good players and great leaders. Harris is as good a shooter as I've seen in my decades at Middlebury. Dudley, who is a shooter and very quick coming off the bench in the past, has been starting at Harris's 2 spot, and he played better (statistically) last weekend. Middlebury will be sneaking up on no one this year, as they have in the past 2-3 years. (Two years ago, Walzy asked "who will they beat" and had them going 0-9 - and you know what a sage he is, normally).

What a wonderful NESCAC season this will be, with so many new faces, such unpredictability. Middlebury is in a good position, but then so was Williams last year, and Tufts too. Should be some great hoop. As the only person in Middlebury who doesn't ski and is indifferent to hockey, I can't wait.

[ephoops]

Williams beat Framingham St. 80 - 69 yesterday.  Snyder and Schultz had another big game, scoring 30 and 26, respectively.

A few alarming stats came out of the game:

• Williams was ourebounded by 16, 46 - 30
• Williams scored only 24 points in the first half
• Williams had 16 turnovers and forced only 11

It's early and the team continues to adjust to Maker's system -- let's hope that the team will be ready for the start of conference play.