WBB: NESCAC

[remsleep]

Is there anyone out there who is familiar with the Bates team this year?   My question is why FY Jackie Welch has seen zero playing time.   Is she injured?   Extremely hard to believe she would not fit into their rotation.

[nescacfan1]

Williams beat Eastern Connecticut 70-64, but it was not a convincing win. They were up by as much as 23 in the second half when EC started a good run and almost caught up. Cook was very good, MacDonald was in form and Caveney had a good game. The offense was ok for most of the game but there were many missed opportunities. The defense started breaking down in the latter part of the game. Litman and Uwenaka were not on the floor because Williams was in the penalty and Manning was worried about fouls. The defense depends upon contesting jump shots and guarding the rim and it was concerning to see EC's Brooks, Ritrosky and McCourt slice through the heart of the defense and score layups or pass out for uncontested shots. There is work to be done to fix the defensive rotations. Tougher teams will take full advantage of these kind of lapses.

[Ourtrun]

I agree with your Williams observations, they seemed to run out of gas mid second half. My take is that it's more of a byproduct of the schedule. Seven games in fifteen  days will challenge anyone's conditioning and mental toughness. I would like to see Williams be more consistent and committed to their inside game.

On another note my friends in Norton tell me not to be surprised if Wheaton gives Tufts a good game tonight (of courses their biased but aren't we all).

[amh63]

Amherst wins their 4th game in Boston ...78-67...against Emmanuel. It was a game that had a strange finish.  With less than a minute to go and Amherst with a double digit lead, Amherst gets to shoot 4 foul shots.  Seems there was another tech foul call on the Emmanuel HBC and he had to leave the game.  With 36 seconds to go, and Amherst was running out the clock.  Amherst called for a walk...standing still.   Emmanuel gets the ball with just over a second to go and hits a shot at the buzzer.  It was a strange ending to an otherwise tough game for Amherst.  Another learning experience for the young team.  Need to win away from home under different conditions.

[d3wbbfan]

...Williams observations, they seemed to run out of gas mid second half. My take is that it's more of a byproduct of the schedule. Seven games in fifteen days will challenge anyone's conditioning and mental toughness.

Ourtrun, I'd like to be able to agree with you on the two points that you made here, as to why the Ephs' are struggling so far, despite their 8-0 W-L record to date, but I honestly cannot do it. I've watched more than half of their '14-'15 games so far, and my early take on Coach Manning's club was only re-confirmed by their narrow 50-45 home victory vs Skidmore Tuesday. It included more than a 10 minute drought without a single field goal in the second half. To me, the Eph team I've watched early this year is a virtual mirror image of the team I watched go only 5-5 in the league last year, get smoked by 25 by Bowdoin on the road in the NESCAC playoffs, and then lose in the first round in the NCAAs.   

At times, the Ephs can be a very difficult team to watch. Almost like root canal. Painful. Teams who fancy themselves as a legitimate Top 25 team simply cannot struggle on offense anywhere near as frequently as Williams does. Either last year or this year. I do get the exact same "Uh-oh - Ellen Cook needs to try to create here one-on-one, or else" feelings at times so far this year. God bless her, the terrific SR from Oregon gives her team every single ounce of effort and ability she possesses. Every night. And I ask myself the question, "Is Williams doing the exact same things on offense that they did over and over last season, that so often resulted in scoring droughts, but is expecting different results this year?" It honestly looks to me like Coach Manning may simply be at a loss to come up with a real solution to this problem. Hey, it can happen. I do hope she can figure it out, though, because her kids deserve it. And I do 100% agree with Ourtrun's point, about the absence of post production contributing to the Eph's woes on O.   

As of today, my eyes say that Amherst and Tufts are clearly the class of the NESCAC, with Bowdoin and Williams a couple of levels below. The NESCAC always benefits from a sky-high SOS to make their NCAA case. I see a *ton* of league games. But in my heart, I thought they only deserved to get 3 teams in the NCAAs last year. The Williams upset didn't surprise me in the least, while the Bowdoin loss did a little, simply because they hosted. And in my first "NESCAC Bracketology", I'm thinking three could be the right number again. And I say this as a NESCAC partisan.....

[nescac1]

In the best of years (even the Final Four year) Williams is never an offensive juggernaut, it seems.  Defense is the team's calling card, always has been, and it seems that the defense is even better this year than last as the team is a bit deeper with two more very good athletes added to the rotation.   It's hard to see Williams losing more than 3, max 4 games, on the rest of the schedule, which means they should get a high NCAA seed this go-around.  Williams is just really, really hard to score on, most of the time. 

On the other side of the ball, the team has enough good offensive players that they should never go in a ten minute draught against a fair to middling team.  They have beaten up on a pretty strong schedule to start the year, and I think playing 8 games in such a short time span undoubtedly diminishes some of their sharpness over the past three halves of play ... remember, they were absolutely dominating a very good Eastern Conn team that played Tufts close before they did sort of run out of gas a bit, and the tired legs thing, while not explaining ALL of the issues, has to be somewhat of a factor.  At the same time, they could, for starters, stand to do more to get the ball inside for easy baskets; Litman is a very capable player who doesn't get nearly enough touches close to the rim, and Uganakwa is also capable of pretty finishes inside if she gets the ball in the right postion.  I note that McCall's playing time has diminished and her shooting opens some things up for other players; I'm not sure why she is not playing more, but inserting her into a more prominent role may help the offense.  In general they need more consitent flow and rhythm to the offense and better ball movement, but that just never seems to be something that the team gets going consistently, regardless of the personnel. 

Perhaps the Eph women can give the Eph men a clinic on how to play lock-down defense and the Eph men can give the Eph women a clinic on how to play team-oriented offense > 

[amh63]

Did see some of the last Williams game.  Liked the play of several of the young guards.  Cook is indeed the go to player for the EPHS...scorer, rebounder and even ball handling.  When things become tough for the younger players, it seems to me that they defer to Cook.  I have not watched enough Williams games this year and even last season, but I get the feeling that the team lacked a solid PG to set the offense last season...I did not see one this season to date.  Yes, I maybe off track here.  Will watch more EPH games.

[nescacfan1]

I read the last 3 comments with interest. They are very thoughtful. Here's my take on the Williams game against the Thoroughbreds (great name) last night: their defense was good on the perimeter, less good down low. Botiba, Skidmore's post and their best player, scored 16 points and had 11 rebounds. Litman and Uwenaka are very good athletic defenders, but there was no help defense to speak of until late in the game. That was the same issue as the previous game and needs to be fixed.
The offense needs to evolve from outside in, to inside out. Outside shots don't fall some nights, but layups and free-throws usually do. They certainly have the personnel to do it: Litman, MacDonald, Uwenaka, even McCall and Fechtelkotter, can all play down low and swing the ball out or play pick and roll. Cook is great and leads the team in assists, but Fernandez has not shown that she can distribute the ball to make the offense hum. Throw it into the post or play pick and roll and let the offense spread out. That would open up scoring opportunities all over the floor. They cant go 11 minutes without a field goal and win games against the top NESCAC teams. 

[Ourtrun]

Wow! Some great points. However I would have to STRONGLY disagree with NESCAC1 with the assessment of the final four team (I'm very biased because my daughter was on that team).  Every team at every level goes through droughts. Question is what's the root cause? Poor shot selection, inability to run the offense, or just bad luck on quality looks.  The Williams final four team played great defense (led D3 in block shots as a team), but they also played an inside out game. Utilizing their size in the post to force teams to double down created great passing lanes and space. That team could beat you inside and outside but it all started from the inside.  As far as last year, remember that Litman was out hurt most of the season and this year their working in a freshman point guard so they're going to have some short-comings. That said, if Williams can start establishing their inside game and take some pressure off of Cook, they'll be tough for anyone.

So far this year for the NESCAC I see Tufts heads and shoulders above everyone else. They have great inside game and  very good outside shooting, a well balanced attack. They also have the strongest non-league of schedule. For me it's still too early tell (too few games) what Amherst's key competitive strengths are. The guards are coming around nicely and they have some nice freshman size, but without seeing Megan play I can't put them up there with Tufts, yet.

[amh63]

Amherst wins over ECSU in LeFrak 66-51.  It seems that the Warriors played their now "patented" style against the top ranked CAC teams...all losses.  Get way behind and make a strong run in the second half, only to fall short in the end.  It's harder to come from behind playing away from home.
Amherst led by 19 at the half even when the 3-point shots were not falling.  However in the second half, the Warriors step up their defense and in an 8 minute period out scored Amherst by 15 points..cutting the lead down to one basket....from a margin that was over 20.  In the end, when Amherst did hit some outside shots and the Warriors cooled off, Amherst went up by double digits.
The stats showed that both teams shot poorly...good defenses?..  The Warriors had more rebounds but Amherst had more assists, steals and 13 blocks...all needed to secure the win.

[ronk]

amh63,
  I watched some of the Amherst-ECSU game tonite; Ali Doswell has a very nice dribble drive with a smooth pivot either way at the basket-I'd put her in the top .5% of D3 players in that one phase offensively.

[7express]

Wow! Some great points. However I would have to STRONGLY disagree with NESCAC1 with the assessment of the final four team (I'm very biased because my daughter was on that team).  Every team at every level goes through droughts. Question is what's the root cause? Poor shot selection, inability to run the offense, or just bad luck on quality looks.  The Williams final four team played great defense (led D3 in block shots as a team), but they also played an inside out game. Utilizing their size in the post to force teams to double down created great passing lanes and space. That team could beat you inside and outside but it all started from the inside.  As far as last year, remember that Litman was out hurt most of the season and this year their working in a freshman point guard so they're going to have some short-comings. That said, if Williams can start establishing their inside game and take some pressure off of Cook, they'll be tough for anyone.

So far this year for the NESCAC I see Tufts heads and shoulders above everyone else. They have great inside game and  very good outside shooting, a well balanced attack. They also have the strongest non-league of schedule. For me it's still too early tell (too few games) what Amherst's key competitive strengths are. The guards are coming around nicely and they have some nice freshman size, but without seeing Megan play I can't put them up there with Tufts, yet.

Amherst plays Tufts at LeFrak, the NESCAC game with Williams @ Williams, and I believe Tufts plays Williams @ Tufts (someone correct me if I'm wrong on that).  Could very well see another year where all 3 finish 9-1 with the loss to each other.  Bowdoin could be another surprise team, but they have road games @ Tufts and @ Williams so I don't think they'll end up holding up.  Rest of the conference looks about average.  I don't see any of the rest beating one of the top 3.

[nescacfan1]

If some beats Amherst at Lefrak it should be in Sports Illustrated and reported by AP-- really. Gromacki has an incredible coaching record. Since he took over the Amherst program in the 2007-8 season, the team has 18 losses-- 18 in 7+ seasons-- that's ridiculous (Full Disclaimer-- I am a Williams fan, so I got to see 3 of those losses and they all felt great, especially the one two years ago when Williams broke an 11 game losing streak to Amherst). Nevertheless, Amherst has won 101 games at home in a row, which is unprecedented in women's college basketball. This accomplishment deserves to be recognized. Gromacki is one of the most talented coaches in women's college basketball at any level. Ironically, the best chance we have to publicize his and Amherst's greatness is when this streak ends. We should make every effort to do so. 

[ronk]

 I remember St Bonaventure winning 106 in a row @ home in the early '60s in men's bball, but don't know if it was or still is a record.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Nevertheless, Amherst has won 101 games at home in a row, which is unprecedented in women's college basketball.

Nearly unprecedented in all of college basketball... Kentucky holds the record... though, I can't remember the number off the top of my head.