WBB: NESCAC

[nescachoopsfan2]

Tufts had a student feed that was working fine: www.jumbocast.com. Now streaming the men's game.

[NE Jeffs Fan]

I believe that was the first time that Tufts and Berube have beaten Amherst in the Gromacki era.  Plenty of close games along the way.

[Maine 1]

Was at last nights Tufts/ Amherst game.  I have to give a lot of credit to Amherst, as they withstood loosing Robertson, and then scrapped their way back into the game.  Overall, it seemed to me that Tufts clearly has the deeper team, and probably has a bit more talent.  Tufts center missed a lot of very easy looks early in the game, otherwise the margin would have been much larger in the first half.  Amherst's outside shooting was awful--freshman guard (23) was I believe something like 2-15, and most of the misses weren't even close.  Amherst struggled all night for consistent offense.  It is hard to say what would have happened if Robertson does not get hurt.  Moynihan for Tufts was outstanding in teh second half (was probably Tufts best player and not sure why she does not start.  Big win for Tufts, as this gives them a big edge for homecourt in the playoffs.  Tufts gym may be the most difficult of any in the NESCAC.
Also, big wins for both Trinity and Williams last night.  Today's Trinity-Tufts game will be interesting.  Will Tufts let down after big win over Amherst.

[nescachoopsfan2]

I believe that was the first time that Tufts and Berube have beaten Amherst in the Gromacki era.  Plenty of close games along the way.

Correct. Gromacki won his first 10 games against Tufts, including one NESCAC semifinal, two NESCAC finals, and one NCAA Sweet 16. Margins of victory were 2, 6, 6, 3, 9, 38, 17, 26, 5, and 6.

[amh63]

The MBB GAME COVERAGE was no better .  If Tufts wins the rights to host the conference tourny , they need to step up!
The writeup on the Amherst website does not mention the injury to Meg as is normal wrt to Coach G. In a final 4 game several years ago, Meg was ill, but played a little and it showed as she struggled up the floor.  In all the press conf. Coach G. Did not mention the illness to Meg and others.
In a game where FY starters Renner and Peterson did not shoot well or shine overall, it was good to see Holness show some of her talents again.  Picked up the slack on the boards when Meg left.  IMO, coach G. has started a number of FYs over some of his " veterans" during the season to give his young talented recruits game experience, especially on the road.  When Meg left, the team lost their poise, IMO....not like the game in LeFrak against Williams when Meg got her 4th foul and left in the 2nd half.  She did not to come back in as the "bench" played well.  I was pleased that Amherst tied the game at the half and was in the game until the last few minutes.  It should be noted that the players on the floor at the time were the "bench" veterans, playing the  6th ranked team even on the road...without their All-American backing them up.  Tufts played well, better than I have seen them play.  They schooled Amherst's FYs a little.  Good lesson...Amherst has smart players.  Mistakes will not be repeated.
Few more comments.  After her return from her injury, S. Holness was playing tentative.  Watching her live last weekend, she still looked/played like she did not want to injure herself..not mentally into games.  When she made a shot against Williams, the bench rose up to cheer her.  Last night she played much better...not up to her talent level.  She now knows her team needs her...had a career 11 rebounds and several blocks.
Going forward, I see more PT for the veterans as critical conference games are ahead.  The return of Meg Robertson is not known.  Maybe a bit of bravado, but I feel that when Amherst meets Tufts again, even in Melford , they will win the game.

[nescachoopsfan2]

The MBB GAME COVERAGE was no better .  If Tufts wins the rights to host the conference tourny , they need to step up!

I'll reiterate that Tufts had a second feed (from the student group JumboCast) that was working perfectly fine. Tufts didn't link to the JumboCast feed on their athletics site, which was probably a mistake on their part, but there was a functioning webcast for both the men's and women's game.

[amh63]

NHFan2...thanks for your info on the Jumbos secondary web video feed.  The problem still remains in that all the links led  an online fan to the problem feed.  Others on the MBB board do not know about the student feed particulars posted here.
Amherst wins in a blowout in Lewiston, Maine.  Everyone for Amherst got into the game except for the injured Meg who had a crutch by her side on the bench.  The Amherst lady jeffs scored 88 points in the game...more than the MBB team who also scored in the 80's....though averages in the 90's. 
Leave the details and stats for the Amherst SID...on the Jeffs' website.  Getting lazy....even my post on the men's board defer the details to other Amherst posters.

[d3wbbfan]

Thanks for sharing that student group JumboCast link. I tried it Sat., but it didn't work for me at all (here in CT) today. Neither did the standard Tufts webcast link. I couldn't get even a single second of the Tufts/Trinity webcast. Strange. (Although thankfully, Live Stats was working today.) Until the past weekend, I'd watched every Jumbos home WBB game, with no problems at all. (And that recorded, pre-game screen, while the game is actually in progress, is especially annoying.) But get two NESCAC opponents with perfect league marks going in? Clearly far more folks trying to watch than the system could handle. Hopefully, Tufts Athletics Dept personnel will allow for many more viewers soon, with both NESCAC playoff games and NCAA games on the horizon, and many of them now just about a lock to be played at Cousens, this webcasting issue won't just be going away......

[nescacfan1]

Williams bounced back and had a good weekend and beat Bowdoin and Colby. They got excellent production from Lauren McCall, a 6'1" first year, who went 24 points and 8 rebounds against Bowdoin on 9 for 11 shooting (including six 3 pointers) and 17 points and 6 rebounds against Colby on 7-11 shooting. They sorely miss Katie Litman, who is out with an injury. She is their best defender, rebounder and inside scorer. Maybe she'll be back in a week or two.

Regardless, they look ready to give a Robertson-less Amherst team a close game at Chandler tomorrow.

[amh63]

Amherst has posted a preview of the Williams game on the Amherst website.  Informative write ups of both teams/players.  There are also links to photos and a video of the games played in LeFrak.  Surprisingly, mention is made of Meg's injury and the injury /absence of a key Williams player in the last game.

[nescac1]

Very exciting finish in Williamstown and a great win for the Ephs.  Both teams were missing as expected top-notch centers.  Ellen Cook had one of the best games an Eph has played in quite some time -- 26 points, 12 boards, 3 steals, 2 blocks, seemed to hit a key shot every time the Ephs were struggling in the second half, typically via some very impressive and crafty ball handling and footwork.  She also hit the game-winning free throws.  She was by far the best player on the court tonight. 

On defense, Oke Uwanaka was a dominant presence for Williams, with 7 blocks and 3 steals in only 25 minutes.  She also added 13 points on offense.  As usual she struggles with foul trouble picking up some silly fouls, but kudos to her for accruing numerous game-changing blocks, including a spectacular block on the last Amherst possession, while playing with four fouls down the stretch. She is an elite defender when she avoids fouling.  Kellie MacDonald also had her usual strong and steady game for Williams, finishing with 18 points, including a late clutch three pointer. 

Amherst was tenacious on the offensive boards and collectively swished a lot of pretty deep three point attempts, a very good shooting group.  Williams has rarely been able to pull out close games with Amherst in recent years, nice to see them pick up a huge win in Chandler.  Williams needed that!  Now, let's see what the men can do ...

[nescacfan1]

Williams took down Hamilton 66-49 in a less than artful game at Chandler. Ellen Cook went for 18 points and 5 steals after a difficult first half. Kellie MacDonald had 16 and 8 rebounds, MaryKate O'Brien had 12 points and Oge Uwanaka had 13 rebounds and 6 points. Dani Fegan had 13 points and 5 rebounds and Samantha Graber had 10 points and 13 rebounds for the Continentals.
Williams only dressed 8 players for today's game--McCall and Caveney were sick and Litman was still injured. Coach Manning had to juggle players the whole game to keep them out of foul trouble.
A win is a win, but this was not well played by either side. Nevertheless, Williams held Hamilton to 25% shooting, an Ephs trademark this season.

[amh63]

Amherst keeps pace with the leaders in the Conference.  Wins by double figures over Trinity in Hartford.  Leave the particulars to the Amherst SID.  Good news ...Meg Robertson is moving/walking without crutches. Her left knee region was taped. 

[Maine 1]

Sounds like Robertson may be back?  That would make for an interesting final three weekends of the season.  Tufts schedule down the stretch has a tough game at Williams.  They also get Bowdoin at home. I don't see them losing twice in the NESCAC.   Amherst has to come to Bowdoin this coming weekend, but they should be able to beat Bowdoin, with or without Robertson, although Bowdoin does have some good inside players.  The battle for the three and four spot is going to go down to the end, as I don't think there is a lot of difference between Bowdoin, Conn College, Wesleyan, and Trinity.  Bowdoin all ready has wins over Wesleyan and Conn College, so that gives them a leg up.  I expect Williams to work there way up to the three spot in the league.  The final spot will likely be a battle between Middlebury, Hamilton, and possibly Colby.  Bates appears to be at the bottom of the league, and has not been competitive in most of their games this season.  Colby seems to be in every game at half-time, but they rely almost exclusively on outside shooting, which seems to fade. Seems like the recruiting has fallen off at both Bates and Colby over the past three-four years.

[d3wbbfan]

Due to Carla Berube being my all-time favorite UConn player, I've become a big Tufts fan over the years. I really believe this has to be the Jumbos' year, if a NESCAC title is ever gonna happen. While taking nothing away from Williams (who just beat the Jeffs, in their non-league return match), and a resurgent Bowdoin squad, in the end, I think it's a two-horse race in '13-14. But to me, there is one person working in the NESCAC that is making Harry Houdini look like a rank amateur this season. To no one's surprise, it's GP Gromacki. From day one, he's started three FYs. His co-captain is a SO PG. His skilled JR post is the #1 option. And yes, we all know he has a highly skilled, prototypical 6th man, in Giddins. Of course, Gromacki isn't fazed by much of anything, so he manages to start out 14-0. A previous poster summed it up best: "I'm starting to think it just doesn't matter who Amherst loses to graduation. To me, they're still always gonna be the team to beat.....". I 100% concur.

To me, above all else, what makes Gromacki special is in both who he plays, how much he plays them, and when he plays them. In pre-season, it seems that he would purposely "assign" which player would be the team's quasi-#1 option on offense (within reason; he wouldn't tell a wide open player not to shoot a layup, for example.) I mean set play-wise. Once the first couple of games were played, he then threw each of his FYs starters into the "deep end of the pool." What I mean is that GP would run multiple, go-to offensive sets for, say, Jaimie Renner, over the course of one game. Then for Hannah Peterson the next. Then for Ali Doswell the next. Then rinse and repeat, to coin a phrase. To work the kinks out. I've never seen *any* other WBB coach use this method, to so quickly get multiple, young, talented players up to speed. It's the "Evelyn Wood Speed Reading" equivalent, for college WBB. It was a joy to watch. And it worked. All three were plenty ready for NESCAC play.

Yes, the Holness injury was a minor annoyance. That stuff happens to all teams. But Savannah was slated as a top frontcourt sub, and would've done that well, until Megan's injury has now required much more of her. But I want to address the recent Amherst at Tufts game. Yes, Robertson goes down, 3 minutes in. Just about the absolute worst case scenario for Amherst, especially being the first *major* battle for the young Jeff pup starters. But I also observed that Renner didn't play most of the Tufts game, either. Now I don't know if it's because her older sister also played for Gromacki, but to me Jaimie seemed to be the furthest along, among his 3 newbie starters. It was the loss of both starters, I feel, that nothing could reasonably prepare the remaining FR/SOs for, especially for most of the first half. Yet GP still almost pulled the game out, on the road. Tufts was up, by 7 or 9, until the last 2-3 minutes of the half. But the Jeffs come roaring back late, to tie it at halftime. I just thought that was an unforgivable lead giveback by the Jumbos. I also believe it was 100% preventable. But it perfectly highlights what I see as being the clear #1 difference between Coach Gromacki's and Coach Berube's coaching styles. And also why GP had never lost to Carla, until this game:

Because Berube plays way too many players in her regular rotation.

Obviously, Berube needs to substitute some, over the course of a game. However, against Amherst, even in the game they just won, I saw Tufts losing ground, basically whenever any of their five top players, by a wide margin (Foley, Kanner, Moynihan, Morehead and North) sat. Michala North is a flat out *stud* FY. To me, she's better than all 3 of Amherst's stellar freshmen - and that's saying something. North's overall production per minute, as a FY, is simply astounding. But does North start for the Jumbos? No. Instead, loyal, devoted to the program, veteran Tufts players McClure and Berman get the start. (I think the SR Rocchi was starting early, before an injury required her getting swapped out for Berman.) I am a big Tufts fan, so I hope this post is taken 100% the right way. I mean no harm. I respect everything about Tufts WBB. I just see a bit of Tufts coaching philosophy that I can't honestly reconcile with a deep '13-14 NCAA run. That's all. I truly respect and support every one of these wonderful young women, for both their academic and athletic commitments. That said, Rocchi, McClure and Berman combined still aren't half as talented as North is. Right now. Even though each of those three give absolute max effort, every second they're out there. What more could anyone ask of them? Nothing. My issue is not with the players. It is with Berube. And her player rotations.

I know North was hobbled for a couple of games early on, but I have no evidence her injury caused Berube to play her as few minutes as she has so far this season. I know Berube prefers to alternate Kanner and North in the post. Against most teams, that thinking will do no harm, and will result in Tufts victories. It just won't happen to get Tufts wins against the likes of Amherst, et al. Berube has played both posts together at times. The results are beyond special. Then why does it seem that I get to see it about as often as a lunar eclipse? Because Carla has a (yikes!) ten player rotation. Who play in *every* game, regardless of score or opponent. Gromacki doesn't ever rotate nearly that many players. Ever. And for a very good reason: because doing so won't help Amherst win games.

I do understand that DIII is a different animal. What Carla does is more commonplace, than in DI or DII. The only reason a problem creeps in is when the opponent is elite. Playing 10 will never be an option, going forward, vs the Lord Jeffs. Yes, Tufts won once. But given the crazy circumstances, it honestly does have a bit of an asterisk next to it. And this is coming from a big Jumbos fan...

During the late first half Amherst run to tie it up, this "deep every game bench" was in for the Jumbos. As usual. Poor Hannah Artner. The JR gets the call from Berube. While in there, she's doing her absolute level best for Tufts. But the Jeffs are able to shrink a hard-fought Jumbo lead, that took 17 minutes to build, quicker than an all-cotton shirt being placed in a 1000 degree dryer! Because Artner's been given a task, on this one day, that she can't possibly complete. But one that she can complete during most other Jumbo games: to help Tufts win, with the talent level she possesses.   

Therefore, effective immediately, I humbly request that Coach Berube shorten her bench during big games. Just like her old coach did. Carla, you were there. Remember? Did you see Geno ever put in Missy Rose when he was playing Tennessee? Heck no. And what actually pains me even more than seeing my Tufts team being placed at a competitive disadvantage here, is that I believe it is totally unfair for Carla to place a player in a situation where it is impossible for them to succeed. I view it as disrespectful to said player. And I don't feel they deserve that. It is quite clear, to most any trained WBB eye, to spot which specific players do and don't have the requisite skill level, to perform well in a team's most difficult games. Especially in DIII.

Coach Berube, I've been lucky enough to be intimately involved with a college WBB program that has been to several NCAA tourneys. The game will always be in my blood. Your goal is to get your team to the DIII Final Four this year, right? Then please don't cheat yourself. Or cheat your team. To this end, please take another look at your own game management. First off, move Michala North into the starting lineup. Immediately. And leave her there, for the next 3 1/2 seasons. And, barring foul trouble, let her play 30 mpg. The Amherst frosh have already benefitted *so* much from the major minutes they've gotten. North hasn't. Because she hasn't been allowed to play nearly as much. I almost sense sometimes that Berube is actually trying to slow down North's progress. How could this possible be? Michala doesn't look "lost" out there at all. She clearly knows the offense. She plays solid defense. She hustles. She's a team player. Your entire team already knows she's earned it. FY or no. Please reward her consistently excellent game results. Yet, when asked about North in a d3hoops interview, Berube said, "Michala's learning more every day". Can you say "understatement of the year?" You think GP is coddling his FYs? Or accepting baby steps? Heck no. He's getting after it. Like he always does. And so should you be, Coach Carla Berube, if you truly want to have a chance to win big this year. With Amherst, Williams and Bowdoin in this league, it requires pedal to the metal, not Kum Ba Ya! To me, there simply IS no other way to get it done.

Back to the suggested new starting lineup. Besides North. Of course, Moynihan is perfect in her 6th-man role. So leave her right there. (She's just like Giddens - the team's secret weapon, who's really no secret at all. And FYI, without Moynihan's superhuman effort vs Amherst, Tufts would still be winless vs GP, in my opinion. Liz was clearly tired of 4 years of her losing to the Jeffs, and she flipped the result in her favor.) Foley/Kanner/Morehead are locks. I guess, by default, McClure can stay as the 5th starter. But limit her overall minutes. Besides Moynihan, the only two other players I would play every game would be Roberson and, if now healthy, Rocchi. And sure, Carla, go ahead and keep playing all 10, if you like, against the weaker NESCAC clubs. My only request is that you don't deny young talent the game minutes they need to become major contributors, at the expense of your less talented, loyal soldiers.

Sorry to go so long. This was pent up for a while. Thanks for reading.