WBB: NESCAC

[amh63]

Sumfun,
   I agree on all your points.  I hope you got to see the game live.  I watched the game on video.  The Ncaa camera men must have a time limit.  I could only get the first have of the game... though I did see part of the halftime show!.  It seems that after 800 PM ET, none of the Div3 games, men and women both, came through.  The site kept stating that the show was not available.  Had to listen to the game.  The announcers were quite good.  Provided coaches interviews and background info on several players.  Amherst star player in the sectional's, the freshman center/forward did not get into the "game" much due to fouls? 
Still Amherst found a way to beat NYU handily.  NYU's zone defense was porous to Amherst's penetrating guards.  Amherst's defensive pressure was key to the game, I believe, as well as their energy.

[senatorfrost]

 I didn't see Tufts this year but Bowdoin W are best team I've seen in past two years and I guess Brandeis is up there with them. Last year Bowdoin beat Amherst by a couple at home and lost by a point in NCAA. They got blown out in NESCAC tourney but I put that down to raging issues or maybe it was just a bad day for all? Happens.
   I thought Bowdoin was a slight shade better than Amherst this year.
   I don't see how Muhlenberg beat them but they did. To me it looks like Bowdoin played their best v Amherst.
   I looked and saw that Otieno was only 1-5 from the field, yet I thought she performed really well. People were in foul trouble and in my opinion she stepped in and stepped up. It appeared that she's been injured/hampered for good part of the season so in my mind it kind of makes last night extra special and so I made her the Senator Frost player of the game.





She'll probably extract the verbiage from this post and have it bronzed.

[senatorfrost]

 I don't know what NYU was supposed to look like but it's possible that Brandeis will be more ready for Amherst than NYU was.

[amh63]

SFrost,
   I logged out earlier, but seeing your post, I had to login again.  It should be pointed out that the Bowdoin WBB team was not considered among the top two in the conference by most observers the majority of the year.  Tufts' team was considered better.  Check the scores, or do you think its one of those games one can throw out.  In most BB games, one should look at the matchups available for the coaches to consider.  Then it is up to the players to execute the game plan.   Muhlenberg is a very good team and won up in Bowdoin in spite of the refs.  It is up to the coaches to prepare the team for the game to come.  The fact that the senior guard for Amherst had 10 rebounds says that the other players were boxing out, etc.  Shooting the ball is in my mind the last option for a point guard.   Enjoy the game tonight!

[senatorfrost]

  First of all a lot of Otieno's time came with Finucane in the game. Finucane is the pg-simple as that. Now of course you can say they had 2 pg's in the game but I would disagree.
  I saw Bowdoin struggled maybe a little in the beginning. Before that tell me why anyone would have picked any other team to be on top of NESCAC? They had everyone back lost Anelauskas and picked up Rubega. Every one else had huge losses. Bowdoin also picked up the ROY I might add.

I use Amherst w as a barometer. I find them it pretty accurate to do so. They go all out defensively every game. Sometimes their shooting is horrendous like v Colby. In that case they missed open shot after open shot etc. etc. So after I saw bates and Bowdoin I concluded that Bates was simply not in Bowdoin's dimension as far as skills, talent etc were concerned. Just an opinion-you can say Bates is as good or better if you like.
   Bowdoin seemed to struggle in the beginning what with the new coach etc. However by the time they got to Amherst they looked fine. When Bowdoin players had the ball they were able to look much better player v player than Bates did. True bates may have been freelancing but the skills they displayed while doing whatever anyone wants to call it did not in my opinion measure up to Bowdoin's.
   Were you at the Muhelnberg Bowdoin game?


  You don't give Amherst all those close games over a two year period without a lot of talent. I threw out the Brandeis game by the way.
   
   

[daoustian]

Nice job Lady Jeffs.  If only the men's team could have made a run, this would be quite the winter -- depending what happens with men's hockey tonight, Amherst could have 3 of the 4 major winter sports in the Final Four. 

[sumfun]

Congrats to the Jeffs.  They brought intense defense the entire weekend with great ball handling and incredible inside play. 

Heard many problems with the webcast which shows there is still a way to go with that technology....things like Amh63 who had no second half picture, other complaints of no first half picture, streaky picture, audio 45 seconds ahead of video.  Any techies out there that have any suggestions, and/or didn't have problems let us know how you had your computer set up.

Best of luck to Amherst in the Final Four.

[daoustian]

I had no problems with the video/audio on basketball.  Through the NCAA site, Windows XP, Firefox 3.0.7 as the browser, downloaded Microsoft Silverlight and everything was good to go.  As a side note, the LiveStats through the Amherst Sports Information site are about 5-10 seconds ahead of the video, which is kinda neat. 

Men's hockey video was another story with JeffCast.  It is better than nothing, but there were video/audio issues there and there's no graphics, so when you want to know the score, you have to wait for them to pan to the scoreboard, which is kinda funny. 

[ac08]

Long time lurker, first time poster.

Congrats to the 'Herst Women. Here is to "good, better, best" and the transformation into on of the Nation's elite programs.

Cut down the net in Meeechigan.

[nescac1]

This was predicted when Gromacki was hired -- and there can be no doubt at all, his reputation as a hell of a coach was well deserved.  I mean consider, Williams beat Amherst something like 12 times in a row before Gromacki came ... and this point, I'd be surprised if Williams beat Amherst anytime soon, at least so long as the coaching equation remains the same on both ends (the Williams coach does a good job recruiting and there is a lot of young talent on the roster, but it is very, very unusual for Williams to beat a team with equal or greater talent in recent years).   What is scary is that Amherst is doing this with almost all contributions from soph and frosh players -- in two years, they will be downright scary.  The only question is, will Gromacki want to be a NESCAC lifer (very cushy and rewarding, just ask Hixon or Sheehy) or does he have his eyes set on bigger things (D-I)?  Given his past history (giving up head coach for D-I assistant), I wouldn't be shocked to see him snag a D-I opportunity, and it is only a matter of time before it is offered.  The rest of NESCAC will certainly root for that to happen, because if he gets another recruiting class like the last two, and there is no reason to think his coaching ability will suddenly decline, the rest of the conference won't stand a chance, with the POSSIBLE exception of Bowdoin due to the Maine recruiting base and strong tradition there. 

[senatorfrost]

  I read today Gromacki grew up in South Deerfield. That's no more than fifteen miles from Amherst. Maybe he's home for good? Would it be such a great move to D1? Some coaches struggle like Miller from Conn COll. He left Brown with very little after maximizing the other guy's recruits.
  The most impressive things about Wash U. as it's called are as follows.
 
They had six players make all UAA (including Hon. Men.)
 
Their assist to turnover ratio as a team!! is almost spectacular. 500-400 (off by 1 or 2)
 
They have five assistant coaches. You can call that what you want. I call it semi pro.
 
Their strength of schedule is very high-All the UAA's are probably very high and according to the other coaches Wash U has the most talent in league.

[nescac1]

I agree that you would be hard pressed to find a better coaching gig than being at a NESCAC school, near your hometown, with a chance to build a national powerhouse and maintain it, and have very, very little pressure in terms of job security (very rare to see a NESCAC coach fired) while making the NCAA's most years -- that is Hixon's situation and I am sure he wouldn't trade that for D-I (in fact I wonder if Paulsen has regrets ... lots of pressure in D-I and he inherited a tough situation at Bucknell).  But one never knows -- coaches by nature are of course competitive people, and many find it very hard to resist the lure of D-I and proving they can win on the big stage (not to mention, while earning the big bucks): for each Hixon or Dick Farley, there is one Paulen or Chuck Priore ...

[senatorfrost]

 You're right-they are competitive or they wouldn't be any good in the business. What does a school like Bucknell pay? In order for it to be worth the risk I would want somewhere around $250,000 a year at least and a six year deal, to leave a secure (relatively) NESCAC job. (assuming I'm doing well i.e.)
  Look at all the NESCAC coaches who would have been long gone if they were in D1. Then add in the fact that the level of coaching would be somewhat better and if not then the level of recruiting certainly would be.
   I think a lot of people don't realize what a tough job it really is.

[mark_reichert]

They have five assistant coaches. You can call that what you want. I call it semi pro.

Only one is full-time, the rest have day jobs.

[Wydown Blvd.]

But considering a minimum of 3 assistants travel to all of the WashU games (from what I have seen and heard)  thats pretty semi-pro/amazing...