Conference looks to be pretty wide open based on non-conference play. Misericordia off to a nice start but have played a very weak non-conference schedule to date, although they do have Randolph Macon and Hood both on the road coming up after Christmas. So more to learn about them but definitely like their commitment to defend and rebound. Arcadia, Stevens, Del Val and DeSales all trying to work through inconsistencies.

Loss of Nas Johnson in the fourth game has really impacted Arcadia. No idea of his status, but if he returns healthy, I think they have the edge going into conference play. Stevens has played by far the toughest non-conference schedule and has the top offense in the conference, but really needs to find a defensive identity (feels strange saying that as they have been among the top 10% of defensive teams in the country  for the last four years). Simply trying to outscore teams will not bring Stevens to the top of the conference. Del Val needs to find options outside of Redding and Herrin as teams seem to have figured out that if you contain just one of them, Del Val won't score enough to beat them. DeSales really needs to find their shooting stroke as their 3 point shooting is really poor, and outside of Thomas (who has been outstanding) they are very inconsistent. Looking forward to a competitive conference schedule and battle for the top four spots.

Looking at non-conference schedules for CC teams and it is interesting to see the approach of the teams in the league. You probably have the two most contrasting schedules in the country between Washington College and Dickinson. Washington College off to their best start (9-1) in ages, but their twelve non-conference opponents are a combined 35-83 including five one win teams and nearly all opponents in the bottom 25% of the NPI for probably the weakest non-conference schedule in the country. On the other hand you have Dickinson off to a 3-8 start but their twelve non-conference opponents are a combined 77-29 including four undefeated teams, six top 25 opponents and two outside the top 25 who are each 7-1. Giving Dickinson probably the hardest non-conference schedule in the country. It will be interesting to see how these two approaches play out as they move to conference play after the holidays.

A few D3 guys really playing some great ball in the Ireland Division One league ... Mike Wallace (McDaniel 22'/ Hood 23'), Umar Rashid (Case Western 25'), Jack Spellman (Stevens 25'). Also Jazere Noel (Rowan 24') playing great in the Ireland Super League.

New Jersey continues to produce amazing basketball players at all levels. Thinking through potential D3 all region / all american players this season, I found it amazing to see how many are from New Jersey. In no particular order, here is a list of some really special players who hail from the garden state.

- Hank Morgan (Caldwell NJ / Tufts) - NESCAC POY, 2 time first team all NESCAC, 2024 All Region, #3 most efficient player in nation, #20 in nation in total points, 53% FG, 82% FT, scored in double figures in every game this season, best player in top 3 conference in country
- Jacob Morales (Pascack Hills NJ / Montclair State) - Breakout star after transferring from Rutgers (walk-on), 1st team all NJAC, led nation in 3 pointers made, #17 most efficient player in nation, 51% FG/46% 3PFG/91% FT
- EJ Matthews-Spratley (Cherry Hill, NJ / Stockton) - 1st team all NJAC,  11th leading scorer in nation, #5 in 3 pointers made, # 5 in nation total points, 89% FT, 5 30+point games
- Peter Gorman (South Amboy NJ / Ramapo) - NJAC POY, 2 time first team all NJAC, 2024 NABC All District, #14 in nation in total points, top 10 in nation minutes played, 47% FG/42% 3PFG/85% FT
- Scott Gyimesi (Fair Haven NJ / Tufts) - 2 time first team all NESCAC, 2024 All Region, 2024 NABC All District, #13 in nation in double doubles, #14 in total rebounds, 58% FG, #68 most efficient player in nation
- Jack Spellman (Westfield NJ / Stevens) - 3 time MACF DPOY, 3 time first team all MACF, 2023 & 2024 All Region, 2024 NABC All District, #3 in nation blocks, #6 in nation rebounds, #12 in nation double doubles, #24 most efficient player in nation, 56% FG, 1k pts/1k reb/300 blks (first D3 player since 2010), # 11 all time in D3 blocked shots
- Nick Koch (Hawthorne NJ / TCNJ) - 2 time first team all NJAC, #15 in nation in total points, 22 PPG/4.5 APG/50% FG, scored in double figures in all but one game this season, absolutely electric ball handler and passer
- Jordan Stafford (Galloway NJ / Gettysburg) - 2025 CC DPOY, 2024 CC POY, 2 time first team all CC, 2024 NABC All District, 57% FG, Led conference in minutes played, tremendous all around player 

Congrats on tremendous seasons (and careers) to these Jersey Boys.

The MAC Freedom All Conference awards seem pretty close to how I would have voted with a couple of small exceptions. Co-Player of the year was interesting as while I had Redding as a first team lock, I think Lazdowsky was more consistent across the entire season and probably should have been the single choice. A third straight DPOY for Spellman was a no-brainer. Coach of the Year could only be Coach Kaba. Gibbs had to be in consideration for first team, but DeSales finishing out of the playoff picture likely resulted in him dropping to second team. The two that I would have switched would have been Goodall from Stevens and Pair from Del Val to second team, with Atkinson from DeSales and Timochenko from LVC moving to Honorable Mention.

Congratulations to Delaware Valley on capturing the MAC Freedom championship with a win over Stevens in an amazing game Saturday in Hoboken. A great deal of resiliency by the Aggies, along with a great team defensive effort on Stevens perimeter game holding them to only 6 made 3 pointers on 29 attempts. Redding continued his great play and received a well-earned tournament MVP award. In a odd way, the absence of Herrin may have actually allowed a guy like McGinty to really step forward as he was without question the unsung hero of both the semi-final and championship games. Herrin's absence over the last few weeks also certainly allowed for more shot attempts from Redding, and boy did he take advantage of that.

As for Stevens, it was honestly a case of you live by the three ... you die by the three. They certainly had plenty of opportunities to extend leads earlier in the game, but consistently settled for contested three point attempts with plenty of time on the shot clock. A tough way to end a great career for senior Jack Spellman who was just magnificent in defeat on both ends of the floor trying to will his team to a victory. Equally tough way to end the career of grad student Mike Goodall who's attempt of the game winning shot bounced around and hung on the rim for what seemed like two seconds before falling off.

As a Stevens fan I am of course disappointed, but full credit to Del Val and best of luck to them in the NCAAs.

Now that Swat is out of the picture for 2025, will we see Hopkins follow a similar path so the stranglehold these two programs have had on the Centennial championship for the past 8 years can finally be broken? Gettysburg has looked like the most talented team all season, but has unfortunately disappointed in big situations several times over the past couple of years (including losing at home to F&M a week ago with the regular season title on the line). F&M has won 10 straight (including wins over the 3 other semi-final teams), so you would expect them to be extremely confident in their quest to take home the title. Ursinus may have the best player on the floor in Wall, but they will likely have to play some defense to reel off an upset or two ... that may be a bit outside their comfort zone. Hopkins of course has the championship pedigree, along with a very balanced line up that makes it very difficult for opponents to key on just one or two players. Kind of rooting against Hopkins here if for no other reason than I have grown tired of the Swat / Hopkins thing.

Del Val with another tough performance to grab a semi-final win over Misericordia and continue their multi-week run of great play (winning 6 of their last 7 games). Based on a recent win on the road vs Stevens, I would expect the Aggies to be feeling pretty good going in to the championship game on Saturday. Meanwhile Stevens turned up their defensive intensity while taking much better care of the ball, and ran away from Arcadia in their semi-final victory. Should be a high intensity match-up in Hoboken on Saturday.

I found it kind of funny after the discussion earlier this week that IWU went out and lost to an inferior team (not trying to slight North Central - just stating that in comparison to IWU they are inferior). Maybe the IWU ceiling isn't quite as high as some folks believe. 

Curious ... does anyone have any insight on Eastern? They were pre-season choice to win the MAC Commonwealth, went 7-4 in non-conference including wins over Roanoke, Hopkins, and Salisbury, and all of their non-conference losses were against quality teams. They now sit dead last in the conference following eight straight losses. I watched them play Hopkins back in November and Eastern looked like a very good team. I don't believe they lost any of their main players to injury or other, yet their season just went completely south. Really puzzling.

Ryan - I appreciate you sharing your reasoning on why you voted IWU # 1 in your poll this past week. Like many of us, I think you may be over-analyzing things a bit. Maybe at their best IWU is the best team in the country. But in a weekly top 25 poll at this point in the season, I think it is the job of the voters to rank teams based on the accomplishments of the season to date. If you do that, then right now the vote has to be an undefeated Wesleyan team. 

Just an observation on this weeks Top 25 ... the three voters who gave Illinois Wesleyan their # 1 vote over Wesleyan in the latest poll either have their own agenda (I know Bob Q did not vote IWU #1 as he shares his votes on social media), or they are essentially not paying attention. One undefeated team in the country who plays in a top 3 conference in the country, and just defeated another top 10 team last week, and you give IWU who needed OT to get past a bad Carrol team last week your #1 vote? Of course IWU is a top 3 or top 5 team right now, but until Wesleyan loses a game you seriously cannot vote anyone else # 1. 

Quote from: SpringSt7 on January 29, 2025, 08:02:58 PM

Quote from: Stretch4 on January 29, 2025, 02:54:32 PM

Quote from: jumbomumbo on January 28, 2025, 07:07:18 PMJumbomumbo's Tuesday Fact of the day:
Not a single starter on Tufts can legally drink a beer.

Mumbo - You may need to check the ID of Morakis  . He was definitely a HS class of 2021 kid in NY before reclass at prep school.

If a NESCAC basketball player did an extra year of high school or is old, Stretch4 will make sure to let you know

I love it when the NESCAC fans whine about not having grad programs, yet there rosters are loaded with 23 year olds! 

Quote from: jumbomumbo on January 28, 2025, 07:07:18 PMJumbomumbo's Tuesday Fact of the day:
Not a single starter on Tufts can legally drink a beer.

Mumbo - You may need to check the ID of Morakis  . He was definitely a HS class of 2021 kid in NY before reclass at prep school.

For anyone who did not see or hear about it, an amazing career milestone was achieved yesterday during the game between Stevens and FDU. The Ducks pre-season d3 hoops All American, and reigning two time DPOY, Jack Spellman eclipsed the 1,000 career rebound mark becoming the second player in Stevens history with 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds. It does not end there, as with his 1,000th rebound he became just the sixth known player in NCAA D3 to ever accumulate 1k points, 1k rebounds, and 300 blocked shots in a career, and the first since 2010. It took him only 94 games to achieve this crazy milestone - extremely impressive! Congrats to Jack Spellman on joining an extremely exclusive club.