WBB: NESCAC

[amh63]

Amherst has picked up another game.  It will be at Farmingdale State Un. in NY.  The opponent has a 10-4 record to date and was in last year's NCAA tournament.  Live stats will be available.  The game is a 5:30 pm on Thursday the 20th of Jan.

[Title9Fan]

I give Amherst and coach G credit for playing real teams in an effort to better themselves for the final push.  Too many of these "top ranked" teams play lesser teams to pad their appearance.

Absolutely the case.  Good for Gromacki for breaking the mold. 

[sumfun]

I would guess that since the Amherst men are playing well this season that Amherst women may not have the opportunity to host the first two rounds of the NCAA as they have in the last two years.  Gromacki has to have his team ready to play good teams on the road. 

[sumfun]

Amherst and Williams ought to have a pretty easy weekend.  Tufts and Bates at Bowdoin and Colby ought to provide some more insight as to the best challengers to Williams and Amherst. 

[remsleep]

Saw the Tufts-Bowdoin womens' game earlier tonight......was not surprised that Tufts won but I was stunned at the gap between the two teams.   Berube has her team play an offensive style that is much different than almost any D3 womens' team I have seen....namely, everybody clear out and let Hart or Konegay go one on one and try to create....that kind of confidence in D3 guards is rare....amazingly, Bowdoin almost never tried to stop or slow down the ball in the back court allowing the two guards for Tufts to pretty much do what they wanted to do.  More impressive, however was Tufts ability to generally stuff Bowdoin's efforts on the offensive end...Bowdoin does not have the kind of players who can beat tight defense off the dribble..Tufts figured that out and basically shut them down.   
On another point, why is Bowdoin not getting any of the good recruits from Maine?.....recruiting performance in-state for past two classes is poor.  Colby, especially, much better....this will spell trouble for the Polar Bears despite their current good record....soon they will have to replace the Bergerons, Sweeneys, Henriksons, etc.....the cupboard is looking bare.
Nobody is going to challenge Amherst....Williams is not even in the same universe....and for the life of me I cannot figure out how they beat Tufts.    In the end, after Amherst, it will likely be Tufts.....hopefully they get a shot at an at-large berth....

[Maine 1]

I watched the Colby-Bates game last night.  A triple overtime game, although both teams had plenty of opportunity to put the game away before that. Colby was able to win primiarly on the strenght of offensive rebounding and good free-throw shooting. Based on the games I have seen so far, they struggle with getting good looks out of the set offense.  Also, their guards are not comfortable with pressure--I expect that Tufts will give the guards fits today.  Bates did not do a good job at all rebounding. These are two even teams, and I suspect both are a bit below Tufts and Williams, and Bowdoin.  Colby has no bench, as in a triple overtime game, they essentially went with 6 players. 

[Title9Fan]

On another point, why is Bowdoin not getting any of the good recruits from Maine?.....recruiting performance in-state for past two classes is poor.  Colby, especially, much better....this will spell trouble for the Polar Bears despite their current good record....

Why does it matter where they're (talented players) from?  These aren't community colleges and the teams ought to reflect their campuses.  Recruiting prowess matters and it needs to be less about geography and more about talent if a NESCAC team is going to take a national champsionship any decade soon.   Pemper and Gear-McBride were both strong recruiters.  Colby's recruits under Gear-McBride were strong and geographically incidental.  "Local" mattered to her only because it improved the likelihood they'd attend if accepted.   Gromacki doesn't care where talented propsects are from and he works his arse off to scout and evaluate them.  (Really impressive level-of-effort throughout the entire process).  I suspect Berube is also a strong recruiter (she "trained" with Geno, after all).    

Great game re-cap, btw Rem!    

[Maine 1]

McBride's strong suit was recruiting--She was able to attrack some of the top Maine talent, along with strong players from New Jersey and Massachusetts.  The question is whether the new Coach will be able to continue to recruit top level talent.  This year's recruiting class was non-existent.  I don't think Bowdoin needs to worry about recruiting, they have another good team, and the school has a great reputation.

[sumfun]

Where was Colleen Hart today for Tufts?  Hope she's not hurt, but is just dealing with the flu and colds that I'm sure players on many of these teams are dealing with this time of year.  After her strong game yesterday, they really missed her today.

Was Bates as good in person as they looked on webcast or was Bowdoin's shooting just "off?"

[Maine 1]

I understand Hart missed today's game because of an injury suffered in last night's game at Bowdoin--Colby picked up a big break with Hart no playing.  What happened to Bowdoin against Bates?

[JustAFan]

Hart sprained her ankle in the final 2 minutes of the Bowdoin game on a drive to the hoop with contact....tough to bounce back from that in less than 24 hours.

[toad22]

Chessie Jackson probably had the greatest weekend of basketball in the history of Williams women's basketball. She was immense. In two games she scored roughly 60 points, shot over 50% from the floor and from 3, had many rebounds, a number of assists, blocks and steals, and didn't turn it over once. Quite an achievement. I doubt that I will live long enough to see two better performances back to back. Go Williams!

[senatorfrost]

  I think Williams is the second best team in NESCAC. I think they have a chance to beat Amherst AT!! Williams in February. I think Jackson will likely make all conference. She can hit the three or play underneath. She is a very talented player, BUT Wesleyan and Conn. are hardly the stuff that dreams are made of.

[Maine 1]

This past weekend was a big weekend as it relates to the top four spots in the NESCAC.  Colby was a big winner, going 2-0 wins over Bates and Tufts, two teams that are likely to be close to them in the standings.  Bowdoin losing two games, to Tufts and Bates, will hurt them down the stretch.  This coming weekend will also be huge, as Colby and Bowdoin head to Trinity and Amherst.  We will see if Trinity can compete with Colby and Bowdoin.  Although Williams is off to a good start, they end with four very hard games. 

[amh63]

Was up at Amherst to see my first live games of the season...to date.  Amherst did have a good weekend of play this "weekend"...winning an away game on Long Island on Thursday and winning a conference game  against Trinity on Saturday.
I wanted to see the Trinity game through, but only caught the first 15 minutes.  My Ct. host who drives me up from the Old Lyme Ct. area for games is a UConn BB junkie.  We made a compromise on Sat.  We would attend the 2 PM men's game and tape the 2 PM UConn MBB game.  However, we would leave to be able to watch the UConn WBB game later in the evening.
Anyway, saw the team warm up and was surprised to see their "entrance" onto the floor for pre-game warmups.  The team entered and wound around the Trinity team warming up at their basket and went to the Amherst side of the first half.  The team was up beat and seemed to be looking forward to a conference game.  Amherst two Sr. Captains were honored before the start of the game for entering the 1000 pt "fraternity".  Jaci Daigneault and Sarah Leyman are 8th and 10th players on the Amherst WBB scoring leader list.   Oh yes, Amherst was ahead by double digits at the half.....picked it up on the car radio.
Said hi to coach G. before the game......before his team's entrance.  He is indeed a muti tasker coach.  He was standing on the "banner side" of  LeFrak....talking to someone about his team's record....watching the Trinity team warming up and still noticed that I wanted to say hi.  I met him first in Salem Va.  at the MBB championship 07 games.