MBB: NEWMAC

Started by nehoops4life, March 03, 2005, 10:39:13 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

Hugenerd

MIT pulled out the victory 79-66 this afternoon.  The game was really close in the first half and Tufts went into halftime up 4.  There was a play at the end of the half that seemed to be a game changer.  Bartolotta attempted to take a charge close to half court on Pierce, when Pierce was dribbling full speed down the court, and there was a huge collision between the all-americans.  The play was called a block on Bartolotta (which was questionable), but Pierce seemed to take exception with the play and kind of came after Bartolotta after the play.  There were no T's handed out at that point, but in the second half the refs seemed to call the game closer after that altercation.  There were a lot of fouls called, MIT had two players foul out (and had another injured in the first half), so they were down to only 6 players in uniform by the end of the game.  Things escalated a bit more late in the second half, when MIT was up 7 or 8, when Eric Zuk was on a breakaway and Pierce came in hard straight into Zuk's back.  He got a lot of the ball but also alot of body and sent Zuk flying into the hoop's supports.  They immediately calling a flagrant on Pierce, which he really disagreed with and starting complaining to the refs even more than he had been previously.  MIT continued to make free throws at the end of the game (there was a +13 FT advantage for MIT in the game, but at least 12 of those were intentional ones at the end of the game when Tufts was trying to come back), then with a minute left Pierce jumped into his defender on a 3, trying to get a call, and when he didnt, I guess he said the magic words and picked up a T (which was also his 5th foul). 

In terms of the game in general, I thought Tufts didnt pound it into Pierce in the post nearly enough, especially with MITs lack of size.  He is very skilled in the post and a great finisher, but they didnt seem to look for him that much there.  Bartolotta played well, but didnt force anything.  He only took 12 shots and MIT did a really good job of getting him the ball when Tufts was fouling at the end of the game, and letting their best player put the game away at the free throw line.

Also, Congratulations to Bartolotta for scoring his 1700th point and becoming MITs all time leading scorer (he now has 1722).

ILive4This

So the North East Region Posters' Poll is back, if you are interested in participating, which clearly you are, please submit your polls to either my email or my message box here by 9pm mondays (so for this week tonight, sorry for the short notice).

Thanks

Hugenerd


massd3fan

WPI hanging on in the top 20 at #19.

Coast Guard still the only other NEWMAC team garnering any votes.

NEWMAC still looking pretty good -  overall record 40-16

Hugenerd

MIT wins 65-57.  Bartolotta has 27, Shannon had 17.  I will go more in depth about the game later.

Hugenerd

#815
MIT 65- 57

Sorry for the long post but I thought I would go a bit more in depth since I got to see the much hyped Jeremy Shannon play against MIT's All-American, Jimmy Bartolotta, tonight.

The first half was completely dominated by MIT.  Bartolotta played like he usually does and scored 17 points in the first frame, almost outscoring the entire Emerson team (18 first half points).  MIT did a good job of helping when Shannon drove, and held him to 6 points in the opening frame.  Halftime score: MIT 37- Emerson 18.

The second half started the same way, as MIT built a 26 point lead three minutes into the half.  However, Emerson never quit, and when MIT got a bit tired, Emerson picked up the pressure and put a pretty good run together cutting into the lead and getting it to single digits with 5 minutes left in the game.  Part of the problem for MIT was that Emerson paid a lot more attention to Bartolotta in the second half, and he tried to pass to his open teammates but the shots just werent falling.  After a while of that, Bartolotta went out of his game a little and forced some shots up that he usually doesnt, which also were not falling.  So in a sense, it was a perfect storm for Emerson in that they started playing much better and MIT went ice cold, however, the 26 point deficit was too much to overcome.  In the last five minutes it was back and force.  Shannon really started forcing the ball into the paint and the MIT guards were too slow or tired to stay with him and the MIT help defenders werent as fresh as in the first half and were therefore late getting over and fouled a lot of the time.  I think Shannon scored 7 of his 11 second half points at the line and ended up with 17.  Bartolotta finished with 27.  Both players shot about 40% from the field. 

In terms of Shannon, he really is a good point guard.  I have never seen a single player handle the ball so much for his team.  Shannon must have the ball in his hands at least 75% (safe estimate) of the time during Emerson's posessions. Unfortunately for Emerson, on that team he cant play a true point.  He is forced to be a scorer but he really seems to excel at breaking people down and setting up his teammates, which doesnt always work.   He defintely has a lot of talent and he could be a very good leader on better team (he seems like somebody who could average double digit assists on a good team).  He is extremely quick, has a good handle and court vision, but I do not think he is a true scorer, and it seemed like, at least to me, that he didnt want to force his shot until he had to.  With that said, he does have some weaknesses: he was careless at times with the ball comitting 7 turnovers for the second game in a row, a couple of which were taken from him by MITs point guard Gampel when he was trying to do some fancy moves, and he is not a great shooter (I can see how he would get a lot of layups with his quickness, thus inflating his FG%, and most of his shots tonight were from within 10 feet but, overall, his shot did not appear that great, many of his shots were off balance and even his set shot wasnt that good looking). 

Just to sum things up, Emerson may win alot of games this year, but they are not going to be a great team regardless of what they do in their conference.  They have no size (MIT was bigger than them and they again played without Dou Soumare, their center. This is the first game that I have seen that MIT has had a size advantage on their opponent.  Shannon, by default, got 9 rebounds, 8 defensive, because there is no one to rebound the ball on the team so he would have to go in there and help out and he is not a very big guy), they dont have very much depth, and they dont take care of the ball.  This is not a team that would be able to play with a top level d3 team with depth.  The way MIT was defending Shannon worked, the problem is that they just didnt have depth to continue it for the entire game.  If you always have good help defense so that Shannon cannot penetrate deep into the lane and you dont foul him he is going to be held down in most games because (at least tonight) did not look at all for any type of pull up shot.  Shannon is a very good player though, but it may be hard to gauge how good he really could be if he were playing his true position and not having to do a lot of scoring also.  With that said, he is definitely someone who could put up huge numbers if he is allowed to dribble wherever he wants and get easy, open shots.

I also think that it is not easy, or fair to compare Shannon to Bartolotta.  They are very different players: Shannon is really a true point and Bartolotta plays anywhere from shooting guard to power forward, but mainly the forward positions due to the situation of the current MIT squad (specifically, their lack of size). 

As for Bartolotta, I dont think he had one of his better games overall offensively.  In the first half he certainly showed how great a player he is on both ends of the court, but in the second half he didnt play that well.  His stat line is still very impressive, 27 points, 9 rebounds, 4 blocks, 3 steals and only 1 turnover.   Even on his bad nights he still has what would be a great night for many other good players.  He also is a very versatile, he scores, rebounds, assists and defends well (he ranks as one of the blocked shot  and steal leaders in the NEWMAC).  He pretty much does whatever his team needs of him to win games or be competitive.  In the first half he was just lighting it up from everywhere, but when the game got close in the second half, and MIT was having problems taking care of the ball, he even brought the ball up the court and seemed to calm the team down a bit.  I dont mean to overstate this (I know I do) or take anything away from his teammates, because other players on the team have been playing well, like Gampel, Johnson and Zuk, but he may mean more to this team than any player does to their team out there.  Even the other MIT players that are performing well are getting really great looks thanks to the double and triple teams Bartolotta draws every night.  Yet he still has yet to score less than 20 in a game this season (his low is 20, his high is 43 and he is averaging 27 points through 10 games).  He also averages  5.1 boards, 3.1 assists, 2.6 steals and 1.5 blocks a game, while shooting 51% from the field, 48% from 3 and 84% from the line.

I know I may be a bit biased but he is one of the top few players that I have seen in d3 over nearly the past decade and definitely the best I have seen in New England over the past 4 years. He just does everything.

T990

hugenerd, nice write up. 

Emerson plays a style you'd hate to have to go against, but I do enjoy watching that team.  Incredible in-your-shorts man defense, very quick guards, and they work for their shots diligently.  Playing them in their band box underground gym is like walking into a hornets nest.

Yes, even on open looks MIT was cold in the second half last night, otherwise the score never would have closed to under double digits.  Congrats to MIT for gutting out the win without Dou.

Congratulations to Springfield on defeating a very good Salem St. team, on a last second 3-pointer. Salem St. had wins over Bowdoin, MIT, WPI, and Gordon.

http://www.spfldcol.edu/homepage/athletics.nsf/Headline/86CCCA554C5792A08525751B000AF6B2

Hugenerd

#817
The Springfield victory was great for the NEWMAC.  Too bad CGA lost to a team they probably shoudnt have (Clark beat Becker earlier in the year).  3-2 night overall for the NEWMAC. WPI also picked up an easy win along with MIT and Springfield,  Clark lost to Brandeis by 9, which is a pretty good effort.  NEWMAC is now 43-18 overall out of conference.

NEWMAC record vs, other conferences (through 12/9/08):

13-2 CCC
6-1 GNAC
5-1 LEC
4-6 MASCAC
3-2 NECC
3-3 NESCAC
2-0 NAC
1-2 UAA (Brandeis)
6-1 Out of Region/non-D3

golflax99

Great stats hugenerd. NEWMAC is looking great.

I meant to do this awhile back, but I wanted to congratulate Babson Senior Captain Zach Etten for scoring his 1,000th Point against Trinity on 11/30/08. Zach is now 19th on Babson's all time scoring list.

Also, another good win for Babson last night, they came back from a tough first half against a decent Lasell team who beat Brandeis early on and lost to WPI by one. Babson 71, Lasell 66.

Hugenerd

Quote from: T990 on December 10, 2008, 11:28:22 AM
hugenerd, nice write up. 

Emerson plays a style you'd hate to have to go against, but I do enjoy watching that team.  Incredible in-your-shorts man defense, very quick guards, and they work for their shots diligently.  Playing them in their band box underground gym is like walking into a hornets nest.

Yes, even on open looks MIT was cold in the second half last night, otherwise the score never would have closed to under double digits.  Congrats to MIT for gutting out the win without Dou.

Congratulations to Springfield on defeating a very good Salem St. team, on a last second 3-pointer. Salem St. had wins over Bowdoin, MIT, WPI, and Gordon.

http://www.spfldcol.edu/homepage/athletics.nsf/Headline/86CCCA554C5792A08525751B000AF6B2



Wow, I didnt realize Springfield was up by 21 in that game at the 15 minute mark of the second half only to go down by 1 with 6 minutes left (28-6 run over 9 minutes) and down by 6 with 3 left (34-7 run over 12 minutes).  Congrats to Springfield for not folding though, a lot of teams would have mailed it in after blowing a 21 point lead in a 9 minute span in the second half.

Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)


MIT is hanging with Yale right now.  It might get out of hand as it comes down the stretch, but MIT is performing strongly against a D1 school.
Lead Columnist for D3hoops.com
@ryanalanscott just about anywhere

Hugenerd

Quote from: Hoops Fan on January 03, 2009, 03:15:54 PM

MIT is hanging with Yale right now.  It might get out of hand as it comes down the stretch, but MIT is performing strongly against a D1 school.

MIT played really well today, although they ended up losing by 23 to d1 Yale.  It was still a 10 point game with 14 minutes to go in the game, but from there Yale's size and depth seemed to take over.  Jimmy Bartolotta put up 32 points in 35 minutes, along with 3 blocks, 3 steals, and 2 assists.  Pretty impressive showing by MIT considering they really only played 7 players and still don't have their best big man, Dou Soumare (at this point I dont know if he will be back).  Bartolotta's showing was also really impressive as he put up his usual numbers (actually slightly better) against d1 players.

Hugenerd

Quote from: hugenerd on January 03, 2009, 04:33:26 PM
Quote from: Hoops Fan on January 03, 2009, 03:15:54 PM

MIT is hanging with Yale right now.  It might get out of hand as it comes down the stretch, but MIT is performing strongly against a D1 school.

MIT played really well today, although they ended up losing by 23 to d1 Yale.  It was still a 10 point game with 14 minutes to go in the game, but from there Yale's size and depth seemed to take over.  Jimmy Bartolotta put up 32 points in 35 minutes, along with 3 blocks, 3 steals, and 2 assists.  Pretty impressive showing by MIT considering they really only played 7 players and still don't have their best big man, Dou Soumare (at this point I dont know if he will be back).  Bartolotta's showing was also really impressive as he put up his usual numbers (actually slightly better) against d1 players.

Just to follow up briefly on the Yale game.  I understand that Bartolotta's performance was in a 20 point loss, but the 32 points he scored against Yale was the only 30+ point game Yale has given up this year and only the 5th 20+ point game (the previous high Yale had given up to an individual was 22).  Below is a summary of the 5 20+ point games Yale has given up this year, their opponent, and the result of the game:

Alabama (3 point loss) - Gee had 20 points
Oregon State (1 point win) - Tarver had 21 points
Hampton (2 point loss) - Tolson had 21 points
Stanford (8 point loss) - Hill had 22 points
MIT (23 point win) - Bartolotta had 32 points

And for those of you who may argue that he scored most of his points in the second half, when the game was out of hand and he was playing against a 2nd or 3rd team player, that is not true: Bartolotta scored 16 points in the first half and had 24 points 6 minutes into the second half (when MIT only trailed by 10).

LyonFan

HugeNerd:

Anyone who has seen Bartolatta play has to be impressed.  He is a complete player that makes his teammates better; he is really a D1 player.

I can't make the season opener at Wheaton (they are playing miserably at present), but wonder if you will be there (and thus will give us a full report)?  And where is Hamidou?

clarkie

The big question will be, what will Jimmy do after graduation? He is clearly an unbelievable basketball player, and he has got to have a brain in his head going to MIT as they don't have any preferential admissions to athletes. He will definitely win NEWMAC POY yet again and probably (and deservedly so) will be a D-3 All-American. As a NEWMAC alum, I wonder where he will end up after graduation.