Sad to say that I agree that if Bowdoin and Amherst end up meeting again, Bowdoin is likely to win a third time unless the Amherst coach is able to change his strategy (if needed) and really take advantage of his talented inside players.  In my opinion (and yes I have said this before) it's not that Amherst is a less talented team – it's about the coaching.  In the last Bowdoin game, we shot 26 3s - Bowdoin only shot 7. We never adjusted. The coaches that oppose Amherst design their strategy around Amherst depending on the 3 shot. The strategy against Eastern worked well last Friday because Amherst ran, worked the inside and wasn't just heaving 3s. You could see it in the stats. I believe Amherst beat Bowdoin at the end of the season last year, even without Robertson. They can do it again (if given the chance) but need to change strategy and take advantage of our fast breaks and inside players.

Bowdoin played well yesterday - congrats.  Should be a good final today.  Not clear to me why Amherst shied away from good interior defense and relied on the 3 (26 shots).  Bowdoin was scoring at will from the inside and basically, Robertson and Giddens sat on the bench the majority of the game.  Both have demonstrated throughout the season that they can score, rebound and defend on the inside.  Better defense would have slowed Bowdoin down and by attacking the inside more on offense would have opened up more 3 point shots (Amherst shot 50% from 2 and 27% from 3.  This team does have stars, just need to play them and play them in the right positions.  Why not have Prichard start at point guard with Remer out?  This would allow all players to play at the positions best suited to them.  Food for thought going into the NCAAs.  Tufts, Bowdoin and Amherst all have plenty of talent to go far in the NCAAs.  Amherst has depth on their side too.  Play the players in the positions that best suit them and go with strength - don't give up the interior defense and scoring so that the team is heaving desperation 3s.  Looking forward to today's championship game.

Should be an exciting weekend of basketball.  The Lord Jeffs played well against Colby with more of an inside presence and less dependence on the 3.  Against Bowdoin and Tufts (hopefully), like to see the Lord Jeffs push the ball up the court and take advantage of their speed and quickness over some of the taller players.  Speed and quickness is an LJ asset to be used against taller teams.  Pushing the ball up the court and playing an inside out game, will actually provide more open looks at the basket, including from the 3 point line.  The important thing for Amherst is to make Bowdoin respect the inside game and that can be done by pushing the ball up the court. As mentioned in the previous post, the Lord Jeffs also have to make better use of their bench.  They need a tough inside presence against these teams - a presence that Giddens and Nagle have proven they can provide off the bench in addition to the starters. Keep everyone fresh - rotate players and play an up-tempo game.  Robertson and Giddens can score and rebound inside, even against taller opponents as they have proven all year.  I also like Doswell (Meredith) and Nagle's strong inside presence.   Amherst is a deep team - use the speed, quickness and depth to wear others down - and we will see the tournament title return to Amherst. It will be interesting to see if GP adjusts strategy to change the game in Amherst's favor in the match-ups this weekend.

Interesting to read the comments about Coach Gromacki here.  I beg to differ about Gromacki's coaching prowess.  I like to watch good basketball so I tuned into the Tufts - Amherst and Williams - Amherst games last year and this year.  If Gromacki is such a great coach, how did he allow his team to fall behind like they did tonight with barely a timeout.  He needed to take his best shot at attacking the inside so it would open up his outside game.  Was Giddens injured tonight?  She absolutely dominated against Williams just a week ago and more than held her own against Tufts last year.  With Robertson back, why wouldn't he team his two most dominant inside forces to counterbalance Kanner's domination on the offensive end of the floor while forcing Tufts to collapse on the inside game to open up Amherst's outside game. Hand it to tufts tonight, they played great - especially Kanner. Better coaching, in my opinion, would have kept this game close and allowed Amherst to try and pull it out at the end.  Games between two tough teams are defined by in-game adjustments by coaches.  Gromacki gets great players but against the better teams they need some in-game strategic adjustments to compete.  I look forward to the next game between Tufts and Amherst - and a more competitive game.

To the writer who said that it was GP's great coaching that got his team to within 2 points of winning against the Ithaca Bombers, who then lost by 2 to the team that is now in the Final Four -  I disagree.   "They had no business being there" but for outstanding coaching?  That's an insult to the Amherst players.  I watched many of their games this year.  This young team played tough, hung in there and won - or kept games close -  even after losing their center (Robertson). That's what got them to the sweet 16. My view?  Amherst coach was outcoached in a number of games at the end of the season, esp against Ithaca -- I think Amherst was winning by 10 or so in the first half and (as other writers have said) this coach kept relying on 3 point shots that weren't falling despite some success under the basket.  And not using Zwecker at all in the second half of the game against Ithaca was a big mistake, I think.  This team needed leadership in overtime against Ithaca, and from what I could see - Coach G did not set the team up with a play in the last 20 secs.
   
Other programs may want Gromacki – I have no idea.  But it speaks very poorly for this coach if it's true that he didn't nominate any of his excellent players for the All Northeast region's four teams.  I can think of a few Amherst players who are statistical leaders in NESCAC who deserved this recognition (Doswell, Giddens, Zwecker among them), along with the players from Williams, Trinity, Bates and others whose coaches honored them for their hard work..... even if they did not make the Final Four.   Second in the NESCAC and Amherst girls missing from all of these teams is hardly motivational. 

Congratulations to the NESCAC for having representatives from 4 teams as well as the Coach of the year and the player of the year.  Curious why there were no players from Amherst after finishing second in the conference and several players being amongst the statistical leaders in the conference.  I can certainly think of 1 or 2 players who deserved recognition.  Thought the Amherst players pulled through the season well.  Watched the Ithaca game online and was disappointed that the coach did not adjust strategy in the 2nd half when three point shots were not falling - after falling behind, they took the ball inside to retake the lead and then returned to 3 point shots that were not falling.  Seems like GP has one strategy and has trouble adjusting to what is working during the game.

Observation - Amherst relies too much on the 3 point shot.  The mid-range jump shots were open yesterday but for some reason the players are reticent to take that shot.  Tufts was doing a good job defending the 3 and the mid-range jumpers would have opened up Tufts' defense.  I would say GP did not make the necessary adjustments during the game.  As for shooting percentages - Giddins has shot 56.4% from the floor (one of the best in the league) while leading the team in scoring and Zwecker shot 48% from the 3-point arc.  Why does GP have his best shooters coming off the bench as well as his leading rebounder (Giddins) after having lost his center?   

Amherst rides Giddins to the win.  Jeffs write-up before the game seems to not acknowledge Giddins' key role but as we've seen repeatedly this year, the Jeffs went to her in key stretches of the second half. Congrats to the Jeffs. Like the strong presence of Savannah and Giddins on the inside.  They would be wise to ride the same strategy for a win against Tufts tomorrow.

Amherst rides Giddins to the win.  Jeffs write-up before the game seems to not acknowledge Giddins' key role but as we've seen repeatedly this year, the Jeffs went to her in key stretches of the second half. Congrats to the Jeffs. Like the strong presence of Savannah and Giddins on the inside.  They would be wise to ride the same strategy for a win against Tufts tomorrow.