MBB: NEWMAC

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

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Hugenerd

Nice win tonight for Babson, 94-89.  Shannon went for 42 for Emerson, but Babson had a solid attack led by Zach Etten with 22.

golflax99

The NEWMAC is looking veryy strong.

Babson tonight may not have been able to contain Shannon (42 points!?), but they dominated Emerson on the boards. Also Babson shot 11-16 (69%) from three, including a 5 for 5 performance by Shelton Ladson. Both teams looked very strong offensively and if the refs weren't calling a lot of small hand check fouls, I think both teams would have scored over 100 points. There were a combined 52 free throws taken in the game, including an 11-11 line from Zach Etten. Hmm.

NEWMAC is now a combined 25 - 7 to start the season.

NESCAC is a combined 21 - 15.

I'll let those numbers speak for themselves.


atn alum

Golflax

That is an interesting stat, though I think it will have more value once we get a little deeper into the season, and see how good the teams are that the NEWMAC and NESCAC teams beat. I will see if I can take a closer look at that, as I want to use that note when Hoopsville debuts Sunday.

massd3fan

Congratulations to WPI for jumping up to #17 in the poll!

Nice work by all the NEWMAC teams, 28-9 heading into tonight's games.


Hugenerd

MIT loses tonight to salem state after leading at the half.  Bartolotta put up big numbers as usual but for the second game in a row, MIT was without their only big man, Dou Soumare.  I dont know why he is out but his absence is really killing them.  They have no other post player (Billy Johnson may be 6'8" but his game is outside).  Unfortunately for MIT, their 2nd, 3rd and 4th best post players are all playing intramurals (Eric Bracht, Ted Eby, Adam Juneau).  Hopefully Soumare's injury (or absence) isnt season threatening and MIT can begin to play well going into NEWMAC action.

ac08

Flax,
The NESCAC has been uncharacteristically weak to start the season and the NEWMAC has been very good but I agree with atn's advice of waiting until a bit later in the season before letting the numbers speak. Maybe change is coming, but until things get sorted out the NESCAC remains the jewel of the Northeast.

jamiejohn

Bracht still goes to school at MIT, he was a very good player has a freshman.

Hugenerd

Quote from: jamiejohn on December 03, 2008, 09:01:56 AM
Bracht still goes to school at MIT, he was a very good player has a freshman.

Yeah, that was my point.  All 3 of those players (who are big men) all still go to MIT and are not playing on the varsity team. If you added 3 solid big men to MITs squad, they would be much more well rounded and consistent.  Unfortunately, you have to play with what you are dealt, which in Coach Anderson's case, is a bunch of big men who dont love playing basketball.

Hugenerd

MIT beats Lesley tonight 76-43.  The game was very close, but was blow open after a 10-0 run in the second half after Lesley had cut it to 10.  It was almost comical on some plays when Bartolotta would drive (meaning 1 or 2 dribbles) and 3 defenders would collapse on him and MIT pretty much just had wide open 3s all night.  In my opinion, Lesley paid too much attention to him, it probably would have been a bit closer if they had not have helped so much. I dont have the stats, but my guess would be that Bartolotta took less than 10 shots (or thereabout) the whole game and still ended with 20 points.

WPI lost tonight to Salem State in a close game, the northeast appears to be very even (see the top 25 board for my comments on that).

Looks like the NEWMAC is up this year with every team .500 or better at this point.

Should be a good season.

T990

Bartolotta took 10 FG attempts and 10 foul shots.

http://athletics.lesley.edu/sports/mbkb/2008-09/stats/boxscores/lum08.htm

http://www.d3hoops.com/releases.php?release=mhewtz38x1atnh3e

I'm surprised Salem State beat WPI.  Chris Harvey is a very good coach (at Salem State).

Hugenerd

Thanks. The boxscore further solidifies my point: 28 of MIT's 55 shots were 3s, and all of them were wide open because of the ridiculous amount of attention they were giving Bartolotta (MIT didnt shoot that well making only 9).  Literally, if they swung the ball to Bartolotta and then swung the ball back to the other side, MIT either had a wide open 3 or a 4 on 2 with 2 lesley players scrambling to get back in the play.

I also learned that Dou Soumare is out (and has been the last 3 games) indefinitely, but not due to injury or academic reasons.  It is not exactly clear what is going on but I hope he returns as soon as his situation allows.  MIT really has no other big men.

massd3fan

Hugenerd,

   After a late appointment, I managed to get to the 2nd half of the Salem St./WPI game last night.  Dylan Holmes of Salem St. lived up to the billing.  A 6'8" player that WPI really had no answers for. He & Nick Linear led Salem back into the lead and then cemented the game down the stretch.  My earlier comments about WPI's size were realized last night.  As I said, I only saw the 2nd half, but Salem dominated the boards.  Looking at the box score this morning, it was a 23-14 advantage for Salem St.  The difficult part for WPI was if you combined their inside guy's rebounds, the only account for 2 boards in the entire 2nd half.

   Another area the Engineers must improve on is free throws.  They lose this game by 4 points and went 18 for 30 at the line, including 10 misses in the 2nd half.

   Salem St looks to me like a very solid all around team.  They have good group coming off the bench and  appear to have a couple of "goto" guys.  That was something WPI seemed to be missing in the game's final minutes.

Scanning the box scores, I see Wheaton posted another win as did Coast Guard.  Anthony Coppola off to a great start averaging over 24 ppg.  They are also getting For Coast Guard, two players scoring 20+ and neither one was named Craig Johnson!  Johnson is averaging a double-double (22.7ppg/11.3rpg) and Jevon James is close to the same feat (9.1ppg/9.3rpg).

Clark got upended by Worcester St.  You have have already touched on MIT's win. 

I read your post about the MIT big men all playing intramurals, what seems to be the issue there, is there a general lack of comitting to the inside game?  I think that is something in general that has beem a trend in the past years.  Good Low post play seems to be a lost art. Even when a team seems to have a player who can perform well there, they seem to lack the real commitment to working the inside game.  It was actually refreshing to me to see Salem make the effort with Holmes last night. (Pardon the ramblin on, I grew up seeing Jabbar, Chamberlain, Walton, etc  even in college with Sampson, Ewing, Olajuwon  etc....anyone else old enough to remember seeing Wes Unseld set screens? )


I think there are goint to be some great conference games in the NEWMAC when we get to January! 


Hugenerd

In the case of MIT, unfortunately for them, I think they have just had a streak of players who dont want to put in the time and make the commitment.  The just dont love playing basketball which is pretty essential at the d3 level.  I actually missed one player in my previous post.  If they had had no one quit, the would have 6'9" senior Adam Juneau, 6'7" Junior Eric Bracht (former NEWMAC ROY), their top recruit last year who was 6'8" and quit before the season started (I forget his name), and this year's top recruit, 6'10" Ted Eby.  Add to that that their only remaning true post player, Dou Soumare, is on personal leave from the team and MIT is pretty much out of luck in the post player department.

As for WPI, they will be fine in the NEWMAC, the best post players in the league arent that big (Craig Johnson is listed at 6'6" but I think he may be an inch shorter than that in reality).

Salem State is really coming on strong, both MIT and WPI had chances to beat them over the last couple of days but they couldnt pull it out.  If Salem State beats undefeated Gordon on Saturday, look for them to get some serious votes in the top 25 poll.  The game is at Gordon, though, and they have some seriously homer refs up there, so anything could happen.

Hugenerd

Anyone who's interested in watching two of the best players in NE face off against eachother should come to MIT tomorrow at 3 to see Tufts vs. MIT.  Jon Pierce and Jimmy Bartolotta have both been playing really well in the early season, so it should be a good matchup.  As an added bonus, Bartolotta is only 9 points away from breaking the career scoring record for MIT (1700), so you can (potentially) come watch as he further rewrites the MIT record books.