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Messages - SpringSt7

#1
Region 1 men's basketball / Re: MBB: NESCAC
March 23, 2024, 10:29:53 AM
Cornell head coach Brian Earl just left to take the same position at William & Mary, replacing Dane Fischer. Ironically enough, Dane Fischer (a former Williams assistant and long time Paulsen guy) and Brian Earl were the other two finalists for the Williams job to replace Mike Maker. The third guy, Kevin App, graduated from Cornell.

Could be an interesting week in Williamstown
#2
Region 1 men's basketball / Re: MBB: NESCAC
March 15, 2024, 12:50:17 PM
Trinity's offense for the most part was really figured out over the last month. Outside of an overpowered Utica team and a half or so against Swarthmore during the first weekend, they really hadn't been able to get anything inside in a really long time. Vetter and Callahan-Gold (really Vetter in particular, how BCG got All American honors over him I'll never know) could only bail them out for so long.

I'd disagree with Cosgrove's rotation criticism though. The second unit won them the Calvin game, was critical against Tufts, and was really what allowed them to win 30 games this year by being able to play 40 minutes of defense at the highest possible level of intensity. You don't just throw that away at the end of the year because it's a bigger game.
#3
Region 1 men's basketball / Re: MBB: NESCAC
March 14, 2024, 08:57:16 PM
Trinity down 12 at half. Trine looks like they know everything Trinity is running before they do - they've only attempted 2 threes because they've barely had any breathing room. Going to need some serious halftime adjustments
#4
Region 2 men's basketball / Re: MBB: Little East
March 14, 2024, 05:31:30 PM
I hope this is a New Hampshire public university system policy thing and not a Keene St thing. I would be stunned if the powers at be at Keene who have known him for so long would choose to make this type of decision when the program is doing so well. But it wouldn't be the first poor decision made at the administrative level of higher education
#5
Region 1 men's basketball / Re: MBB: NESCAC
March 11, 2024, 07:08:56 PM
As a Williams fan, I apologize for taking it upon myself for praising the season Trinity has had. Clearly would've been better saying no nice things about them at all and leaving it to the hordes of other die hard Trinity fans on here that talk about them ad nauseum
#6
Region 1 men's basketball / Re: MBB: NESCAC
March 09, 2024, 09:36:29 PM
The drought is over - Trinity is the first NESCAC team to advance to the Final Four in 7 years, defeating Calvin 69-62.

How good was the bench depth for Trinity tonight? Vetter and Callahan-Gold were a combined 8-32 and 0-16 from three and the Bantams led for just about all of the last 30 minutes, stretching the lead to 16 at one point. It was the entire second unit - Lazarre and Berry did an incredible job pacing the offense, Macarchuk the usual leadership and some really nice passing out of the mid post. Trevor McDonald was excellent with 7 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists but also filled in with the starters with Dana Smith in foul trouble. And filling in for the injured Sean Okpoebo, highly touted freshman Tristan Davis was thrust into the Elite 8 to guard the best center in the country and was part of a team defensive effort that held Jalen Overway to just 3 points and 0 made FGs.

This Trinity team is damn good - 30-1, NESCAC champs, Final Four, with a serious chance to win it. Maybe it's just because they aren't Williams or Amherst they aren't getting the buzz they deserve, from any of us or from anyone nationally. But this is a hell of a basketball team with a real, real, chance to win it all.
#7
Region 1 men's basketball / Re: MBB: NESCAC
March 09, 2024, 08:30:25 PM
A halftime word on the Williams Class of 2024.5 - echoing the previous sentiments that they have nothing to hang their heads for from yesterday's performance, although there were certainly some layups in the second half they would like to have back. But the last 6 weeks were special and we thank them for their resilience and toughness to fight through all that they fought through to make it a season worth remembering.

But more than anything the 4 of them deserve to be celebrated for their dedication and sacrifice in forgoing an entire year of their lives to make sure they played all 4 years of Williams basketball. It sounds easy now but other than Cole Prowitt-Smith, it was far from a guarantee for Nate Karren, Brandon Arnold, or Alex Stoddard to have anywhere near the individual careers than any of them had, Arnold and Stoddard in particular. They could've finished their 4 years and assessed their options from there, finishing their careers at any number of D3 or in Karren's case probably, a low D1 program. Or, given their different socioeconomic backgrounds, they simply could've chosen to take their degrees and moved onto the real world but instead they chose to spend another year at Williams and they all deserve to be celebrated and thanked for that.

As for the future of the program - yes, it is bright, and there is certainly a world in which they are a better team than they were this year, but a lot will have to go right for that to happen. First and foremost, they need to get healthy, with Evan Glatzer and Ben McGraw's statuses for the start of the 2024-25 season up in the air, and they will need Declan Porter, Brandon Roughley, and Hudson Hansen to have much healthier offseasons than they did last summer. And they will need Alex Lee to play like he did in the first semester, all year long. But the future is bright and they will certainly have a chance be in the conversation at the end of next February
#8
Region 1 men's basketball / Re: MBB: NESCAC
March 03, 2024, 07:25:06 PM
In recent memory - just spitballing, not a comprehensive list or a bar to clear by any measure, just some players I liked on winning teams that never got any recognition: Matt Folger, Mike Grassey, Fru Che
#9
Multi-Regional Topics / Re: 2024 NCAA Tournament
March 02, 2024, 10:52:53 PM
Quote from: SpringSt7 on February 27, 2024, 02:22:11 PMIn D1 basketball, all but 1 of the national champions since 2002 have had a combined KenPom adjusted offensive and adjusted defensive efficiency that adds up to less than 50, i.e, the 1st ranked offense and the 48th ranked defense, or the 24th ranked offense and the 25th ranked defense.

As I did last year (when 3 of the qualified teams made the Final Four, including Christopher Newport), I took Matt Snyder's rankings and applied the same thing to this year's field---offense is listed first, followed by defense, and then sorted by the total:

1. Hampden-Sydney 2-3-5
2. Randolph-Macon 3-5-8
3. Trinity (CT) 12-2-14
4. Keene St. 10-8-18
5. Guilford 16-6-22
6. Widener 13-19-32
7. John Carroll 25-10-35


Just missing out:
-Oswego St. 11-41-52
-Catholic 8-50-58

Last year 11 teams made the cut and a few more narrowly missed out. This year, the top 7 teams in overall adjusted efficiency are the only 7 that make the cut. I'd feel pretty confident that the national champion will be one of them.


The top 5 sneak through while the 6th and 7th teams head home. Keene St. will play Guilford and Macon could see Trinity in the E8.
#10
Region 1 men's basketball / Re: MBB: NESCAC
March 02, 2024, 10:49:20 PM
Here is the Prowitt-Smith circus finish from the broadcast:

https://x.com/NCAADIII/status/1764089322033025320?s=20

Unbelievable finish. He joked in the press conference that Coach App has seen him miss a lot of those - I would concur! But this one went down and that is all that matters.

As for the rest of the game? Man, where to start. At its most basic it was the highest level game of 2 on 2 that you could remember seeing. Akhee Anderson (25 pts) and Jeremiah Sparks (23) were as good as advertised, and probably better, especially in the case of Anderson, who made tough shot after tough shot, it just seemed like he scored whenever the ball left his hands - 9-17 seemed like a typo on the box score but 4-5 from three certainly seemed right. Williams led by 10 with about 8 minutes to go but Anderson, Sparks, and their decision to turn up the full court pressure turned a 10 pt lead into a 4 pt deficit just like that.

And then for Williams, Cole Prowitt-Smith (27 pts) and Nate Karren (21) were every bit their equal and just one play better. Nate did most of his work in the first half making his first 4 threes but he had some timely post moves in the second half down the stretch when they absolutely needed them to.

But the man of the night was Cole Prowitt-Smith who was simply as close to perfect as he could've been in the second half with 17 points on 7-9 shooting and 3-3 from the line. It was the Cole that we had seen before, in spurts across 5 years, that we knew he was capable of, but just a little bit different, more poised, just letting everything come to him from a decision making standpoint and it culminated with the best Williams basketball moment in recent history with the game winning acrobatic layup to send them to the second weekend with 0.7 seconds left.

As for the rest of the game, while it was a two man show for the most part, Hudson Hansen in particular was excellent off the bench, simultaneously stepping up and filling in for a Brandon Roughley at less than 100% on the block and on the glass with 8 points and 4 rebounds, but also playing the best perimeter defense of any one that tried their hand in guarding Jeremiah Sparks. He embodies the depth off the bench and they needed his contributions tonight - it seemed like every time he was on the court Williams went on a run. Noah Dinkins as well made some huge plays in the last five minutes, and finished the game with a spotless stat line of 6-5-5 with no turnovers as well as the biggest defensive play of the game poking the ball loose from Sparks with the game tied and less than a minute left. It's fitting that Dinkins played well tonight and down the sthretch as his individual contributions and development has really been the poster child and face of their second half run.

Williams will play Christopher Newport on Friday in a matchup of the 2019 Elite 8 in an unknown location - presumably Keene St. or Guilford, but we can worry about that later. From the second the ball was tipped against WPI through the end of January, they looked like anything but a tournament team. Then they beat Trinity, and then they beat Conn, and hung with Trinity again and all of a sudden they were a Pool C lock that could win a game in the tournament, and then they won two. Now they will head into another bonus week of the season as a legit contender to reach the last weekend in Fort Wayne. They have been through a lot of adversity to get here and they have truly earned it, and no matter what happens from here on out it has been one of the most memorable stretches of Williams basketball in recent memory.
#11
Region 1 men's basketball / Re: MBB: NESCAC
March 02, 2024, 08:28:17 PM
Josh Bernstein denies Spencer Freedman's go-ahead lay-up attempt with 3.4 seconds left and the NESCAC goes 3 for 3 with Sweet 16 appearances. Furthermore, they are guaranteed to have a team play in the Elite Eight for a chance to snap the 7 year Final Four drought, as Trinity will take on Tufts next Friday.
#12
Region 1 men's basketball / Re: MBB: NESCAC
March 02, 2024, 06:43:04 PM
Ephs tied at 37 apiece in Oswego behind 14 pts from Nate Karren and 10 points from Cole Prowitt-Smith. Williams shooting a peculiar 6-12 from the FT line but otherwise getting a lot more offensively than they have for much of the year. For Oswego, Jeremiah Sparks and Ahkee Anderson have been as advertised with 10 and 12 apiece. Sparks is so hard to stay in front of and Anderson has made some tough tough shots.

For Williams to advance to the next weekend they will need to shoot better from the FT line and keep Anderson and Sparks in front of them just a little bit more. It would help if someone other than CPS or Karren could get going, Brandon Roughley and Hudson Hansen in particular have had a lot of mismatches but the Lakers are flooding the paint and living with open threes for Williams, which has not hurt them so far.
#13
Region 1 men's basketball / Re: MBB: NESCAC
March 02, 2024, 10:44:39 AM
Quote from: D3Parent1 on March 02, 2024, 09:12:11 AMRegarding Williams and post season awards...and we hear a lot from the Williams supporters during the season about great team play, a deep bench, etc....in the end this makes for a great team but statistically lower numbers on the individuals.  For the most part the players being extolled are not statistically high on the list.   In looking over the stats on the NESCAC home page it looks like no Williams player cracks the top 10 in almost any statistic....in fact they hardly crack the top 20.  The only exception is Nate Karen....and It looks like he was the one player acknowledged by the post season awards....so it seems to me that the coaches more or less followed the stats....I am sure there are a few exceptions (CPS great free throw stats) but overall the players that got it seem to line up with the numbers.   I would say that the Williams fans should be thrilled with being in the NCAA and every single team that did not make it would gladly trade post season awards for 1 more game!   Go NESCAC.


I'm fine with every part of this logic but you have to throw it all out the window when Cam Schainfeld and his 9 ppg make all league as the third player on a team that didn't win a postseason game. I'd feel the same way as a Tufts fan too, for the record.
#14
Multi-Regional Topics / Re: 2024 NCAA Tournament
March 01, 2024, 10:17:06 PM
Other than a couple of scares, a largely uneventful and chalky first day. Some decent games for sure but not sure how much there has been to write home about outside of an early buzzer beater, albeit it on a neutral site
#15
Region 1 men's basketball / Re: MBB: NESCAC
March 01, 2024, 05:59:32 PM
Tufts squeaks out a great game against Stockton. Speaking of guards that are really good that didn't make all-league, Khai Champion made some big shots in crunch time for Tufts. Good chance to get all 3 teams through to the second round with reasonable looks at Sweet 16 appearances as well.