MBB: NESCAC

Started by cameltime, April 27, 2005, 02:38:16 PM

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Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)

Quote from: middhoops on October 29, 2019, 02:48:06 PM
I find the Nichols rating to be strange, given the loss of Echevarria, but one of the top raters makes the point that he thinks they improve on defense in moving on.
That will be interesting.
Agree with nescac1 regarding EConn.  They should be very good.
I've enjoyed watching their recent seasons games with Amherst.

Nichols loses one guy, but his primary talent was scoring; they've got a lot of capable scorers on the team who can pick up that load.  I'm more concerned about a third coach in three years than I am the players being able to overcome the loss.
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nescac1

It seemed to me that Nichols had only four proven capable scorers (and Echevarria was most certainly the best of those in terms of creating something out of nothing, he could hit some incredibly high-degree of difficulty shots).  In 3/4 tourney games, basically all of their points came from the same four guys.  Now they are down to three.  Their fourth best guy this year is a scrappy defensive specialist who only shot 38 percent despite being a fifth option on offense, not really a shot creator, and he'll need to do a lot more now.  Nichols also benefited from some good fortune last year.  Their top seven guys missed a grand total of only ONE game all season, that's almost unheard of, and certainly not going to happen again.  They had a great tourney run, to be sure, but to me, the loss of their best player (plus two of their four bench guys who played in the rotation), their coach, and a need for four key guys to really stay healthy all year on a likely-thin team for a second year in a row means that they are being projected too high. 

In all events we will find out what they are made of early, as they face three deep, athletic teams who can really defend in their first six games (Eastern Conn, Trinity and WPI).  If they go, say, 5-1 or better out of the gate, I'll certainly be a believer. 

Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)


I know you NESCAC guys are used to an abundance of riches in the post department, but a big selling point for me was also the return of two experienced, talented bigs.  That combination of size and skill is essentially to compete beyond the first weekend.  Again, so much is up in the air, but I do think Nichols was/is much more than a one-man team.
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SpringSt7

Ironically enough we were just talking about the lack of riches in the post department. It's been a while really, since Ajayi and a healthy Palleschi there really haven't been any post guys worth writing home about on a national level--Ogundeko I suppose. Haven't been any Sharrys, Mayers, or Whittingtons walking through that door.

Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)

Quote from: SpringSt7 on October 29, 2019, 04:49:28 PM
Ironically enough we were just talking about the lack of riches in the post department. It's been a while really, since Ajayi and a healthy Palleschi there really haven't been any post guys worth writing home about on a national level--Ogundeko I suppose. Haven't been any Sharrys, Mayers, or Whittingtons walking through that door.

Yeah, but the NESCACs are about the only d3s in the country that can reliably expect to see 6'10" guys walking through the door every year.  Even if they aren't stars, they're more than most have got.
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WPI89

Hoops - no guarantee Nichols will get WPI, even if they beat Eastern.  WPI has New England College in first round of our tourney.  Usually we schedule a little under that so that Harrington isn't empty on Saturday.  I know nothing about who comes back for NEC -just that they won 21 games and made the tourney last year!

jumpshot

Duncan Robinson leads the Miami Heat to a 129-100 win over the Houston Rockets last night by scoring a team-high 23 points on 7 of 11 three-pointers (8 of 12 from the floor overall), while playing 35 minutes in front of a crowd of over 19,000 in Miami.

Now known around the league as "one of the best shooters on the planet" ....

toad22

Quote from: jumpshot on November 04, 2019, 08:27:57 AM
Duncan Robinson leads the Miami Heat to a 129-100 win over the Houston Rockets last night by scoring a team-high 23 points on 7 of 11 three-pointers (8 of 12 from the floor overall), while playing 35 minutes in front of a crowd of over 19,000 in Miami.

Now known around the league as "one of the best shooters on the planet" ....

A small sample size, but shooting 50% from 3 this year. Pretty impressive.

daoustian

Looks like some new Amherst roster additions by upperclassmen according to the team IG account: Yaseen (Yaya) Zarroug '22 and Jack Harlan '21.
https://www.ncsasports.org/mens-basketball-recruiting/international/abu-dhabi/american-community-school-of-abu-dhabi/yaseen-zarroug

Harlan looks to have transferred from Columbia University - 6'7", played baseball:
https://gocolumbialions.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=9664
http://athletics.amherst.edu/sports/bsb/2018-19/bios/harlan_jack_o7cw
#3 for 3...good!

nescac1

Kena Gilmour second team pre-season all-American, Grant Robinson fourth team.  About what I would have anticipated.  Not many all-American candidates in NESCAC this year, especially with Hutcherson's transfer.  I imagine Jack Farrell could get there as well if Midd has a huge season and he makes a leap forward as a player. 

Interesting re: the Amherst transfers.  Unless they are REALLY good I imagine they will likely be deep bench guys.  But if they are good enough to leap ahead of the many returning rotation players, that's more bad news for the rest of the league ...

jayhawk

NY Times article today about recuiting mionrity athletes to Amherst and its challenge
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/sports/college-sports-diversity-amherst.html

NEhoops

"That shuts out tens of millions of young American athletes from low- and middle-class households who cannot afford travel sports and consequently have almost no chance of being seen by a college coach."

I stopped reading when I finished that sentence. I can't speak on the sport of squash at any level. And I realize that affordable youth sports leagues made up of kids from the same town/city have become less and less of an option. But if you play well on your high school team (regardless of your background) you will get recruited. Comments like that make it seem like college coaches can't recruit and that if you don't play AAU/etc you won't end up playing in college.   


Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)

Quote from: NEhoops on November 07, 2019, 01:46:22 PM
"That shuts out tens of millions of young American athletes from low- and middle-class households who cannot afford travel sports and consequently have almost no chance of being seen by a college coach."

I stopped reading when I finished that sentence. I can't speak on the sport of squash at any level. And I realize that affordable youth sports leagues made up of kids from the same town/city have become less and less of an option. But if you play well on your high school team (regardless of your background) you will get recruited. Comments like that make it seem like college coaches can't recruit and that if you don't play AAU/etc you won't end up playing in college.

Sadly, I think more and more, it really depends on the sport.  Increasingly, the demands of club and AAU schedules are preventing the best athletes from playing for their schools and thus creating much less incentive for coaches to watch HS sports and see kids who only play there.

That's not as true for basketball, obviously, but it's becoming a bigger issue in soccer and lacrosse for sure.

It also affects D3 more directly since staffing and budget generally require d3 coaches to pick and choose where and when they recruit.  You're much more likely to get seen at a camp or an AAU tournament than you are at a HS game - not impossible, as you said, but it's certainly a more difficult path.
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Dave 'd-mac' McHugh

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on November 07, 2019, 01:55:40 PM
Quote from: NEhoops on November 07, 2019, 01:46:22 PM
"That shuts out tens of millions of young American athletes from low- and middle-class households who cannot afford travel sports and consequently have almost no chance of being seen by a college coach."

I stopped reading when I finished that sentence. I can't speak on the sport of squash at any level. And I realize that affordable youth sports leagues made up of kids from the same town/city have become less and less of an option. But if you play well on your high school team (regardless of your background) you will get recruited. Comments like that make it seem like college coaches can't recruit and that if you don't play AAU/etc you won't end up playing in college.

Sadly, I think more and more, it really depends on the sport.  Increasingly, the demands of club and AAU schedules are preventing the best athletes from playing for their schools and thus creating much less incentive for coaches to watch HS sports and see kids who only play there.

That's not as true for basketball, obviously, but it's becoming a bigger issue in soccer and lacrosse for sure.

It also affects D3 more directly since staffing and budget generally require d3 coaches to pick and choose where and when they recruit.  You're much more likely to get seen at a camp or an AAU tournament than you are at a HS game - not impossible, as you said, but it's certainly a more difficult path.

Not sure I buy lacrosse as of yet ... clubs are certainly part of the culture, but high schools are HUGELY important in the lacrosse world.

Soccer ... has always been about club ball. High schools are still important, but yeah ...

I saw an interesting report on Real Sports from a year ago talking about how the "speciality coaching," for lack of a better term, could change college athletics in the near future. That it was pushing minorities out of sports or at least at it's higher levels. That said, it also talked about how some are starting to recognize that fact and trying to change the course.

The other twist is how much more and more minorities and middle-class families are in football because they are less educated about the dangers. That the better off/informed are leaving the sport (for other sports like lacrosse and whatnot) and that is opening up a whole other set of problems.
Host of Hoopsville. USBWA Executive Board member. Broadcast Director for D3sports.com. Broadcaster for NCAA.com & several colleges. PA Announcer for Gophers & Brigade. Follow me on Twitter: @davemchugh or @d3hoopsville.

SpringSt7

It's so hard to stand out from your high school in basketball because it runs almost parallel to the college season. The only time college coaches are making the time to recruit in season is generally for bigger national tournaments—Hoophall, Dick's Nationals, etc, where they can see a number of top players at once. That definitely doesn't trickle down to the D3 level for the most part. If you want to make the case that playing well at whatever high school you attend, regardless of socioeconomic status, will attract top AAU programs and prep schools, I think that would hold more credence.