WBB: NESCAC

[nescacfan1]

Agree with you bsc73. Smith has a much weaker team than last year. Nevertheless, the takeaway was that Williams has real depth at every position, unlike years past . Maybe they wont be so dependent on Cook and MacDonald to carry them, since they now have many more offensive weapons: Fernandez, McCall, Caveney and Litman among them. The defensive looks good, but hard to really tell until they play better teams. With depth, maybe they can press more. We'll see...

[7express]

When they play Eastern Connecticut in a couple of weeks would be a good time to see how the Ephs really are.  Wins over Vassar & RIC were good, but each team lost a lot from last season; Vassar graduated the All-American Cyndi Matsuoka, RIC lost the MVP of the Little East (Vandell Andrade) AND the coach of the year in the LEC and the team had trouble generating scoring in 2014 as it was.

Eastern was the preseason pick to win the LEC this year as much like the Ephs they returned all 5 starters from a year ago, and pretty much the whole team like the Ephs as well.  Should be a fun game

[nescacfan1]

Williams had a productive weekend and pasted Worcester State 64-40 and beat a good Babson team 60-49. The team depth means that new players are emerging every game. Against Worcester, Caveney went for 17 and against Babson Cook was great and put the team on her back during a critical stretch, but Uwenaka and Thompson were also important.
Can Manning can give everyone enough playing time with her deep squad. Fernandez, the FY point guard is struggling a bit in her new starting role, but she is very talented and O'Brien was the starting PG last year. How does she improve Fernandez without discouraging O'Brien and hurting the offensive and defensive flow? There are tough calls like this that must be made up and down the roster.

[amh63]

Amherst reached a milestone this afternoon in its win over Mt. Holyoke in LeFrak.  It won its 99 home game.  They share that recond now with the UConn WBB team.  The UConn WBB team congratulated the Amherst team in a tweet!  Nice gesture.  Amherst hopes to break the record on Sunday.  Going for 100 wins at home.   
Oh yes, the score....Amherst scores 97 in a 40 plus win.

[d3wbbfan]

I think Tufts, Amherst and Williams have all improved from last season. Of course, each having all their major contributors returning (except for Moynihan at Tufts) makes that statement rather un-insightful. I've also glimpsed Bowdoin twice on-line so far. They're in the same boat as the others, as to returning players, but to me they haven't yet played at nearly the level the other three clubs have just yet.

I'm very pleased to see that Coach Berube is giving a couple of talented FYs meaningful minutes early on. It's not been her first instinct to do, over the years. The two I like the best so far are 6'0" Melissa Baptista and 5'3" PG Lauren Dillon. The latter is the heir-apparent to replace the SR Morehead next year. Anything at all Dillon can give the Jumbos this year is a bonus. But Baptista can actually help them this season. Berube is also giving two other 6-footers some PT up front: JR Maura Folliard and SO Katy Hicks. I give Hicks a slight edge in the battle for the eventual frontcourt #4 person so far, after the SR Kanner/SO North/Baptista. The one backcourt player getting added time this year so far is 5'7" SO Josie Lee. Tufts can always use another 3-pt threat. Morehead will at least keep a defense honest, but Berube wants her mainly focusing on running her offense. Historically, when the sharpshooting SR, Hannah Foley, has been cold from 3, it badly hurts Tufts' overall O, as teams will normally then switch to zone D, congesting the paint. There is no one else nearly as proficient from 3 as Foley (Moynihan used to help, but she was very streaky, and she's gone), although it looks like JR Emma Roberson's worked on her 3-ball over the summer. Time will tell. If any NESCAC team feels the pressure to win big this year most, it's the Jumbos, with their 3 key seniors now having their last shot at it.

Nescacfan1, I 100% agree with you. While watching, Williams did appear to have a lot more depth this year. But after I thought about it, it really is just Fernandez new to the rotation, correct? The FY Fechtelkotter isn't getting any real minutes yet. When I see Williams play, both this year and last (Cook and Macdonald excepted), I see one thing: inconsistent performances among their players. 12 points one game; zero the next. I've thought Uwanaka's game, especially, has always been quite up and down. Coach Manning is really giving Fernandez a lot of minutes right from the get-go, isn't she? About your concerns about O'Brien possibly losing confidence from Coach starting Amanni - I think it's happened already. It's not personal. MaryKate does what she can do out there. Her best. Always has. She's reliable, but not exceptional, by a long shot. Fernandez has significant potential as a scorer, as she's already shown in one game. Increasing her team's scoring punch was clearly Pat's #1 goal this offseason. 

If Litman's physically back to being 100% (and she appears to be so far), she'll really help. I expect both Caveney and McCall to make major strides as sophs, and Thompson seems to finally know where exactly she fits in for the Ephs. I think instead of Coach Manning pulling her hair out trying to get all of her kids to be great every single day, she should just surround her two seniors with the three other players in her 8-9 player rotation who are playing the best basketball that particular day. Lessen the pressure to score on each of her role players - if the shots fall, they fall. If not, Pat will put someone else in. To me, it was as clear as a Montana night sky that the players felt a ton of pressure, to have their shots go in late last season. And they just weren't. Right now, I see this as the best way for Williams to most quickly regain their swag, and tickle the twine on O most consistently. And to best incorporate Fernandez quickly. Mostly, it'll just get the players out of their own heads, and to get back to using their muscle memory to shoot.

No more time tonight. Next blurb - my thoughts so far on Amherst. Thanks as always for reading!

[nescacfan1]

That was a very thoughtful post d3wbbfan. I cant comment on Tufts, not having seen them play, but you were dead on about Williams. Here's some expansion on your thesis that Williams will look for the hot players on a nightly basis to surround the seniors:
Only Cook is core. MacDonald has had an inconsistent start to the season and there is a logjam at the 4 position with McCall and the less used Fechtelkotter as very capable scorers.
Fernandez hasn't decided whether she's a point guard or a score first 2. She needs some coaching so she can make others look better. She cant make no look passes in traffic or chuck up hard shots with her teammates open, if she is to guide Williams to a big season. If her assist total goes up, then Manning is succeeding.
Manning is looking for exceptional production at the 5 and she's getting it. Litman and Uwenaka are both very strong, physical players, who can play both ways. They average together a high double double every game and they are blocking shots and guarding the rim, albeit with a lot of fouls. Both are as physically talented as any 5's in the conference, but both need PT and consistency.
At the 2 Caveney and Thompson have improved and are both playing relaxed and confident.
Cook is the 3 and she will play a lot of minutes.
We'll see how they react in really tough games, but this team may be ready to challenge tufts and amherst.

[amh63]

Amherst wins its Tourny today in a well contested game....73-63 over Baruch.  It was Amherst 100 home victory...in a row.  Interesting game in that while Amherst was still making outside shots and put in their two big FYs, the second half..in a close game...was played with the starting five that ended the last season.  Also all the scoring was done inside...no outside shots taken, I believe.
Meg Robertson was in in street clothes and the other two 6'2" players/centers were not in.  Boyette and Ford did get to play significant mins yesterday and were even in the game together...interesting.
Believe Amherst was out rebounded today.

[Maine 1]

Time to add some discussion related to some of the other NESCAC teams.  Noticed that Colby is off to a 5-0 start.  However, the schedule has been very soft, and they struggled against UMASS Boston and Wellesley.  Looks like again this team will live on the three point line, as through three games, almost 50% of their shots are threes.  They are hitting a very high percentage, but we know that against the stronger NESCAC teams, that shooting % will go down significantly.  We should get a much better sense of what kind of team next week, when they play Bates, St. Joes of Me, and Bowdoin before the break. Bowdoin seems to have a strong core back from last season, although they did get beat by what is becoming a very good Roger Williams program.  Bates beat Southern Me recently, and St. Joes was a very strong team last year.
Middlebury seems to be playing well with a new Coach.  Should be another interesting year in the NESCAC

[amh63]

Maine1....thanks for the fill in info!  Nice post...plus K

[d3wbbfan]

Maine1, I concur with amh63. I very much appreciated reading your initial take on the NESCAC's northern members. A big reason I enjoy this forum so much is that posters consistently offer up solid, valid, balanced assessments, not just for their favorite team, but the other schools as well. That is very thoughtful, and is not often found on other basketball boards. I'm always curious as to how each league team is looking early on, and grateful for the way folks here keep the dialogue classy, the info on point, while never getting personal, and keeping the whole exercise in perspective.

I have seen Bates on-line a bit. They're undersized, but I think they'll bounce back from last season's off year and make the playoffs, at bare minimum. Coach Murphy relies heavily on his five starters: SR's Molly Brown and Kristin Calvo, JR Chelsea Nason, SO Allie Coppola and FY Bernadette Connors. Their record is 5-2 so far. Bowdoin handled them fairly easily at home last week, but Maine1 is right to bring up the Bobcats' one-point home win vs Southern Maine Tuesday. Defeating the Huskies is never easy, and is always a quality win. 

I share Maine1's feeling that it's hard to know exactly what Colby's 5-0 start means yet. I also want to see if they can win against the better quality DIII teams on the schedule. I think it's safe to say that the jury is still out on Coach Julie Veilleux, now in her 4th season. And I understand her reasoning for scheduling some winnable early games. To get her players some confidence, hoping to begin to re-establish the Mules' winning WBB culture. The school cares about its WBB program. That said, I would imagine that Coach Veilleux needs to start showing some progress here, and begin to win more games. SO Kaitlyn Nolan averages 17.6ppg, JR Carylanne Wolfington is at 13.5ppg, JR Mia Diplock adds 11.4ppg, while SR Brooke Chandor rounds out the double digit scorers, with a 10.6ppg average. The good news is that this same basic cast of characters played together all of last year. The bad news is that their record was 1-9 in conference, and 7-17 overall. When this is the case, things can go either way. Some teams learn, grow, and improve by leaps and bounds. Others stagnate, and don't improve very much at all. All I know is that the NESCAC is more exciting when all three of the Maine schools are strong.

Trinity lost most of last season's top contributors to graduation, and have struggled mightily early on. SR F Taylor Higgins is scoring at a 10.4ppg clip, but there really isn't any other player stepping up on O for Coach Davis so far. Her team gives up 68 ppg, which isn't awful, but is only scoring 48.6ppg, on average. That's just not enough points to win a team many ballgames. I not only consider the '14-'15 Bantams to be a real long shot to claim a NESCAC playoff spot, but I suspect they could easily end up finishing dead last in the conference. 

Wesleyan is 2-3 so far in '14-'15. 6'2" SO Brenna Diggins is the Cardinals' lone double-digit scorer. Three seniors (Jess Cherenza, Miller Hartsoe, and Dreisen Heath) and JR Jackie Brown are the other starters, but none are exactly tickling the twine with much frequency, averaging between 4.4 and 8.4 ppg. And with no bench production to speak of, either, Coach Mullen will surely need to have her club playing lock-down defense, if she harbors any realistic hopes of avoiding the NESCAC's bottom three this season. 

New Middlebury coach KJ Krasco has the Panthers off to an early 4-1 start (including a win at an also-rebuilding Castleton). Krasco has all 5 starters playing over 30 mpg, and her top 3 scorers are a SO (Elizabeth Knox) and two FY's (Sarah Kaufman and Sabrina Weeks.) And while they lack size overall, their other two starters are experienced veterans, in seniors Alexis Coolidge and Rachel Crews. It wouldn't shock me to see Middlebury make a legitimate run at a playoff spot this season.   

Hamilton's been relying very heavily on JR Sam Graber so far, to the tune of nearly 20ppg. Coach Michelle Collins' club is 2-3 early, and also leans very heavily on her underclassmen. The Continentals have more solid pieces than Middlebury at present, however. The third-year coach Collins has a two-season advantage in her own team's rebuilding process, vs the rookie Middlebury coach, Krasco. Hamilton surely wants to build on/repeat last year's playoff appearance. But only time will tell if they will or won't. 

Conn College lost top scorer Tara Gabelman, but do have SO Liz Malman, JR Jenna Lovett and SR Carlee Smith back. FY F Mairead Hynes, a 6-foot redhead, has slotted nicely into the 6th-man role for the Camels, and has added red hot bench point production so far, averaging over 15ppg. I've always thought Brian Wilson was an excellent coach. And while I don't see the Camels breaking into the top 4 this season, they could surely repeat their 5th place finish of a year ago.

One of these days, I promise, I'll finally get to Amherst. I can flat out be a knucklehead sometimes......

[nescac1]

A bit more info on Eph recruit Lauren Vostal:

http://www.blair.edu/athletic-center/teampage.aspx?TeamID=1079

In October, 6-foot wing Lauren Vostal spurned several Division I schools in order to commit to Williams College–the top academic school in the country (according to US News and World Report). Lauren is an amazingly versatile player, being able to play all five positions and creating match up nightmares for her opponents; however, she is projected to play wing at Williams. Lauren has also been one of the School's top students during her Blair career, ending every marking period on Blair's High Honor Roll. She hails for Manasquan, New Jersey, and is entering her fourth season at Blair. Click here to read Lauren's ESPN profile page.

Big road game for the Ephs coming up vs. Eastern Connecticut, who hung in with Tufts and has easily beaten all other comers.  The Eph defense continues to be ridiculously stingy, just a very quick, athletic team, but the offense, while improved over last year, still has room to grow.  The Eph senior leaders Cook and MacDonald have been fairly quiet so far, and will need to lead the team with big games against the tougher opponents.  Devon Caveney seems to have made the leap and is enjoying a big sophomore year, which has helped.  Amanni Fernandez adds a dose of quickness with the ball at the point, but she has been struggling with her shot after an a fast early start ... still learning when to pick her spots and working on shot selection, but eventually she should help set up teammates for easy scores with her ability to penetrate off the bounce and lead fast breaks. 

[amh63]

Amherst is quiet.....Thanksgiving break ends on Sunday.  FYI, there is a video of the weekend games...more a promo for the record setting team..but does show some of the younger players in action and has Coach G providing some comments  Appears happy....with the progress of his team?  It should be noted that three players were in street clothes for the Tourny.....Meg Robertson and the two FY 5'10" guards....one from East Lyme and the other from Switzerland. 
Will be most interested in watching the upcoming contest with ECSU in LeFrak.....like comparative shopping Williams and Tufts will have played the Warriors in Williamatic, while Amherst will meet the strong opponent at home.  Expect Megan will be held out for that game.  The early schedule for Amherst is heavy on home games....good place to mesh and build up the team and evaluate the rotation.  Also hope Coach G continue to rotate more players....need to get the bigger front court players ready for the likes of Tufts and Williams....and to see how his team's inside game develop.  The outside game is still there.

[d3wbbfan]

amh63, I do want to address one Amherst personnel issue, that to me, you do seem to dwell on a bit. And I know that a certain segment of basketball fans are just like you, and share this specific concern. Height. A team's tallest players, and big curiosity as to their specific roles, and PT. Gromacki will absolutely utilize Megan Robertson as much as he possibly can, once she's cleared to play. But she doesn't really have to her 100% "old self" until postseason starts. She's expected back sometime next month. For Dec & Jan, all GP needs to do is to get Meg back into game conditioning, remove the skill set rust that's always there after injury, and to assimilate her back into the team's overall flow. And many thanks, amh63, for sharing the tidbit that the two LJ FY guards are in street clothes these days - good to know.

But I'll bet you a hot dog that neither 6'2" SO Rachel Boyette nor 6'2" FY Rebecca Ford will be among the Jeffs' '14-15 top 10 players, when it comes to total minutes played. And this isn't at all a slight to either player. It's just that both 6'1" FY Hannah Hackley and 6'0" FY Jackie Nagle have a *ton* of game. Yes, neither one is as tall as Boyette or Ford are. But I don't think that means a hill of beans to Coach Gromacki. They can both very effectively play for him at the 4 and/or 5 spots. With Robertson graduating in May, I can see Boyette getting a chance to compete for more minutes next season. I do like her game. But I don't ever really see Rachel playing the major type of role for the Jeffs that I see for Hackley and Nagle. Just my opinion. I didn't mention Boyette in my earlier Amherst post. You noticed, and you seemed to think I'd omitted her in error. I hadn't. I just felt she wasn't gonna be a part of the primary '14-15 LJ rotation then. And I still don't.

One other developing player rotation situation for Amherst to keep an eye on early. Cheyenne Pritchard vs Hannah Peterson, now competing for minutes at the 2 guard. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see that Pritchard had lost her starting PG spot to Renner last season. But coaches never make a sophomore a co-captain unless they see something very special in a player. And of course, Cheyenne handled the loss of her starting position with total class. But to my eyes, Pritchard has worked extremely hard on her 3-pt shot (the proof: she's made 7 of 11 so far this year!), and her offensive game in general during the offseason. She's a much better overall player now. Early on, I've noticed that Cheyenne's basically re-claimed the late game minutes that she wasn't getting last year. So I looked to see who the player was that was getting those same minutes last year, and is now sitting. It was Peterson. I do agree with GP's decision here. And I think this is a trend that will continue. For Amherst, this is all good. Simply honest competition for PT. The best players play. Last year, once Robertson was lost, I saw Gromacki often slot in Hannah down low on the defensive end, at the 5 spot, basically out of necessity. At 5'11", Peterson was the FY best suited to take on that "emergency" role. To her credit, she embraced it, did what her team needed her to do, and did it surprisingly well. But on offense, despite her length, to me Peterson seemed the most one-dimensional FY on offense last season. She took stationary 3-pointers. Period. Early and often. Which makes her easier to guard. Never a pull-up J. Never a dribble-drive. Last season's Jeff stats aren't archived on their site anymore. But I'm certain Hannah took the most 3's on the tam. By far. And, while she certainly made her share, she could either be very hot or very cold with it. And while that can be said of almost any "shooter", it looked more extreme to me in Hannah's case. And so far this season, she's only 4-15 from 3. I also thought Peterson led the team in minutes played last year, which I mostly attributed to her needed supplemental role down low on defense.

But this is a different year. Circumstances have changed. Hackley and Nagle are here now. Both are skilled, natural frontcourt players. So while I expect Peterson to still be part of the regular rotation, I sense Hannah would do well to take the cue from her co-captain, Pritchard, and work on further expanding her offensive game. As a 5"11" guard, she'll always have a mismatch if she'll at least try to put the ball on the floor and go by somebody once in a while, and shoot from closer in. Her doing so will then force Hannah's defender to not to play up on her so much, giving her added space for more wide open 3's. It's all connected. The more a player can do offensively, the more respect a defender has to give you. Basketball 101. I haven't ever seen Peterson in the fundamental "triple threat position". As a result, she's not a multiple threat. She's just a shooter. And going forward, that skill alone may not be enough to ensure her getting the major minutes she's become accustomed to getting early in her career. Again, it's all good. These are nice problems to have. Too many good players. Just something to keep an eye on.

[7express]

As Eastern showed with Tufts, they are a notch below the NESCAC powers and this week should fully explain it.  Close only counts in grenades and horseshoes!  If you want to be taken seriously, you have to win these games against the top dogs in the 'CAC and lately the LEC both the men & women have failed to do that.  I don't see that changing this week (Williams @ Eastern women, Eastern @ Amherst women)

[amh63]

d3wbbfan....good points and keen "eyes" all around.  Admit to less time spent on the WBB side these early days...still stuck a bit on the football board.  Many of my attachments to the WBB players are via the parents...Megan's father and Renner's father and older sister.  Even the Doswell sisters' parents.
Anyway, nice observations wrt to Cheyene.  Remember watching her during "unofficial" practice last October...she was leading the practice session.  Believe her strengths are leadership and competative nature. Both are needed on this young Amherst squad.  Agreed with you wrt to the best players in the front court.  However, I think Coach G has other plans for his "taller" and bigger front court players both long term and this season.  Rachel and Rebecca both came to Amherst as players with potential.  Their skill sets need developing..yes.  Yet, even in D3 and in the CAC, tall big front court players are desirable...to go far in the post season.  Depth is also needed in the front court.  Last season was a "painful" example of lack of depth up front..a problem for the past few years.
Having said that, PT can be most helpful to developing both Rachel and Rebecca...to use their developing skill set down low with their on the floor teammates...in actual game situations.
Amherst has shown that the outside game  is still there.  The inside game is still a work in progress, imo. I think Amherst wants to run with the best this year as well as be able to slow the game down and go with with inside set plays.  Yes, all the tools needed to make a deep run in the post season against all types of opponents.  Amherst needs depth up front..rebounds to run and defensive stops against bigger opponents.  It can be a long season if one has a short bench.  Injuries will occur and even experienced players get tired...and make resulting fouls and defensive mistakes.
Some thoughts.  Plus K to you.
7 Express...interesting comments..grenades! .