NEWMAC - Congratulations to the league getting half their teams to NCAA's.  Unprecedented, I believe but well deserved.  Early season perceived upsets by teams in the NEWMAC don't look so weird now.  I believe this league mixing great academics and athletics will rival the NESCAC in recruiting as time goes on.   

Special shout out to MIT who came back from a difficult year and the graduation of 3 All Americans to make a run through the tournament and qualify for the 6th straight year.  Seems crazy after a long history of futility. 

Nice run by Babson and point guard Kenny Ross who is unquestionably one of the leagues MVP's for his team. Over 5/1 assist to TO ratio is legit considering how many assists scorekeepers miss vs. the number of turnovers they always get. 

WPI just seems to be there every year.  Needs to get healthier? 

Springfield seems to be in the mix every season and in the league finals regularly.  Tribute to their athletes. 

Looking forward to a nice run in tournament.  Lets get two to the Sweet Sixteen!!

Both the MIT players were pivotal for the USA team in the Maccabi finals and semifinal. 

Will was the dominant inside force for the US team with 16 points and 17 rebounds against Israel. The Israeli point guard was Tom Mayaan - played last year at Seton Hall. Overall Will was probably the team MVP as the other starting big - Ben Carter from Oregon - played mostly a perimeter game.  Will started every game for the USA team. The MVP was given to Danny Rubin from Boston College who had a great finals.

Mitch came off the bench backing up Stuart Douglas formerly of Michigan who played last year in Spain professionally.  Although not starting he played point most of the game and finished all games.  In the final Douglas fouled out on an offensive foul and a curse leaving Mitchell to play the entire second half against an Argentina team featuring mostly pro players. 

We can be very proud of how Will and Mitch represented their country, NEWMAC league and MIT.
 

Nice article in the Sun on the Wheaton/MIT game.  Good to see MIT finally put someone away and get the bench in the game.  Defensively this was a far better effort than the previous few but cleaning the boards is a concern. 

http://www.thesunchronicle.com/sports/local_sports/lyons-schooled/article_10433b2a-b274-599b-896c-bdeadaedc81b.html

MIT got a great shot from Gordon last night.  The Gordon crowd was electric and pumped the home team up rising with every shot.  The gym was literally rocking when Thomas hit the three to tie the game at the half at 30 all.  Gordon shot 75% from 3 in the first half compared to MIT 0-9 - partly from great shooting and partly from the inability of MIT to close perimeter shooters and clear rebounds effectively. 

For Gordon, Dempsey was terrific all night, face mask and all.  He has a nice midrange game, takes it well to the basket and can go outside when needed for the long ball.  The crowd went ballistic when the freshman Schuman came in and he made some exciting blocks and is fun to watch helping the terrific atmosphere in Bennet Gym.

For MIT, Kates and Tashman where dominant and you got the feeling they were never going to let Gordon get over the hump.  Although Kates had a poor shooting night from 3 (2-10) he was unstoppable inside the circle either scoring at will or dishing when the help came finishing with 23 on 9-19.  Tashman was double and triple teamed whenever he touched the ball and made big shots late.  Andrew Acker played the best of the rest as his line of 4-4 from the field with no turnovers was a bright spot

Moving forward MIT will need more from the inexperienced players to beat better teams.  They appear to be reluctant to step up at this point but until the troops get healthy they are needed.  Kates runs the offense beautifully getting everyone involved but without production it is left on his shoulders late as it was in the playoffs last year. 

Overall a GREAT game to watch and a nice learning experience for this team.

Congratulations to MIT on a great season.  A couple of comments on recent posts.

1. The success of the program is going to have a major impact on recruiting over the next few years. I expect a higher level of talent to consider MIT and keep the program rolling.

2. Rumor of a 6'11" player from Greece who has committed to MIT next year. No comment on ability at this point.

3. Points per shot taken is a great measure of scoring ability and efficiency.  Of the 12 top scorers in the NEWMAC Berthuime was last in that category at 1.21. The leader was Degnan at 1.52 followed by Tashman at 1.44.  Volume shooters always get the love but rarely play for champions.

4. The ability to pass the ball, with the seams, hitting the shooter in the right place at the right time with the right speed is the single most underrated and under appreciated skill in basketball.  Great passers enhance great shooters. Good ones are rare to find. True point guards cannot be measured solely by the numbers.

5. I believe that Harwick, Amherst, or Franklin and Marshall were as good as any team in the final four this year.  To get there is special and MIT should be proud of what they did.

Anyone looking for anything on MIT basketball can go to this GREAT spot.

http://mitbasketball.blogspot.com/

It doesn't get much better than that!

It is a shame the PPG always seems to enter the equation when honors are on the table. When you look at point guards there is so much more. Berthuime didn't even play much point against MIT and actually looked only to score and had little other responsibility. He did do that VERY well. If you look at what Mitchell Kates has done in the NEWMAC playoffs and other close (Tufts) games this year you would not argue the point. Against some of the best point guards in DIII he has outplayed each of them every game while handling the ball 90% of the time and dealing with any pressure that came his way. 

Kates numbers in the NEWMAC playoffs and NCAA tourney (6 games) are 21.3 PPG, 4.5 rebounds, 6.8 assists and 2.3 steals. Find better numbers than those anywhere against that kind of comp in all back to back games.

With the largest margin of victory this year in DIII a player should not be penalized for not be a scoring machine in blowouts. The reason MIT is where it is might just be because of this type of unselfish play.

Does Hartwick College provide live video of the games? I cannot seem to get an real answer on the website.

OK, it is fact. Joining in 2012 as the 11th member and 8th coed school.

http://newmacsports.com/landing/2011-12_News/expansion/2012_Emerson

Is that true about Emerson?  I had not heard. They did not have a good team this year losing to MIT by around 30.  I remember Bender going off from deep hitting 6-7 from 3 point range on his way to 24 points and one of his highest scoring games of his career. I would love the boys to go to 8 teams and have a 3 round tourney. Getting eliminated early in the year and playing out the string is the pits as well as having 10 days off like MIT did this year.

You cannot get a better game or atmosphere than what transpired at Rockwell Cage today.  Springfield came out with great energy jumping to a 10-3 lead but MIT outscored them 34-17 the rest of the half behind 14 from Kates and a couple of huge steals by Bender to apparently seize control.  The second half started out like this might be over early as MIT was on the line up 14 but a few misses and a series of bad decisions allowed Springfield life. They dug deep and behind a huge and exciting effort by Berthiume steadily cut into the lead taking 2 one point leads inside 3 minutes. Late field goals by Kates and Hollingsworth gave MIT a 3  point edge and late foul shots by Karraker and Kates iced the game.

Mitchell Kates played great all weekend and well deserved MOP.

Although Springfield had nothing to be ashamed about  they elected to leave the arena prior to the awards ceremony and not return.  Very disrespectful to an MIT team that played with distinction and class all season. Not sure who's idea that was.

Actually 1,2 and 3 get byes so the only play in game is the 4-5 game.  Tonight an minute defensive stand was the difference.  MIT opened up the game by getting stops and actually showing some transition and early offense to break it open.  An interesting game note is that neither team doubled the post and let the bigs go at it one on one.   It was a great atmosphere during the game.  This win should position MIT for a respectable seed in the NCAA tournament.

Will they be in line for a one?

I believe that Massey has included the game against DI Harvard. So including a 30 point loss against a good opponent is more important in a positive way than a loss to a bad opponent is negative. Seems like they should equal out.

I guess MIT better bear down and win the conference tourney.  They could end up 24-2 and get left out?? Sounds strange.

Babson did a great job at the end of the game. The coaching the last 15 seconds was perfect and Brennan made all the right calls. Kudos to him and Babson who stays in the hunt for a playoff birth.   It brings up the age old question.  Should you commit the foul when leading by 3 late?

Congratulation to Noel and MIT for a good week and moving up. Hollingsworth, Tashman and Karraker all have multiple players of the week. One name notably missing from that group and  arguably the most important player on the team.