Quote from: AmherstStudent05 on April 14, 2013, 04:40:34 PM
I wanted to post a few thoughts about the "legacy" of the 2013 Amherst team. I know lots of posters either loathe or are simply uninterested in this particular topic, but since the Board seems to have slowed down considerably in recent days, I figured I could hazard a few thoughts/words of praise for this most recent Amherst team (what would you expect -- I am an Amherst homer after all) without hijacking the conversation here.
Anyway, in my admittedly biased view, the 2013 Amherst team clearly put together the finest season in the history of the NESCAC. Most obviously, they were the first team to win a national championship, a NESCAC championship, and the NESCAC regular season title all in the same season. The 2003 Williams team won a national championship and a NESCAC championship, but were the number 2 seed in the NESCAC Tournament behind Amherst (though, Williams undeniably got its revenge in the postseason that year). The 2007 Amherst team won a national championship and the NESCAC regular season (though not undefeated, having lost to the Bantams on the last day of the regular season), but lost the NESCAC Championship game in heartbreaking fashion to Williams.
Notably, both the 2004 and the 2010 Williams teams put together undefeated NESCAC seasons (though the 2004 team did get blown out by Amherst in the non-conference game), but each lost tight games in the NCAA Title game to superb teams from UWSP.
Not only did this 2013 Amherst team win these three "titles" in the same season, but, also of note, they put together an absolutely dominant run in the NCAA Tournament (which I think is also a useful metric to consider in evaluating a team's accomplishments during a season). Apart from the NCC game, Amherst led by at least two possessions for the entire second half of all of its Tourney games. The Jeffs also ended up beating NCC by 8 after leading most of the way. Now, on this point, I can anticipate the criticism that Amherst's Tournament competition was not particularly strong. Such a claim is obviously very difficult to evaluate -- especially across a decade of play -- but, I would concede that, at least in my amateur judgment, Amherst's Tourney road this year was not particularly strong relative either to other Tourney teams in 2013 or when compared to NESCAC teams of the past (e.g. 2010 Williams, 2007 Amherst, 2004 Williams, 2003 Williams)-- although I guess that is easy for me to say since I didn't have to beat any of these teams!
I don't mean any disrespect to any of the programs I am about to talk about -- in most cases I saw each of them play only once on a webcast -- but I do think that Plattsburgh was an excellent draw for Amherst in the second round. As for RMC, Cabrini, and UMHB, I have reasons for thinking that each of these teams might be much better than they showed against Amherst, but to my eye they were not as strong as teams Amherst has played at similar points in previous tournaments. NCC was definitely a legit team though -- easily the best defensive team I have seen Amherst play since that 2011 Panther squad anchored by Locke. Anyway, Amherst obviously could only play the teams they were matched up against, and I think they clearly established themselves as the best team in Division III basketball this year -- even nescac1 was declaring us to be the prohibitive favorites heading into the Final Four down in Salem!
Finally, this Amherst team ended the season on a 24-game win streak (no losses this calendar year) and was undefeated when its preferred starting five (Kaasila, Williamson, Workman, Killian, Toomey) all dressed.
Now, just because I think this was the most impressive season, it does not necessarily mean that I think that 2013 Amherst was the best team in the modern NESCAC era (since 2001). This is a topic I confess a weakness for even though it is obviously impossible to quantify in any rigorous way. Ultimately, I do think that our two National Championship teams (2007 and 2013) were our best teams, but we had plenty of great teams that never cut down the nets in Salem/Atlanta. Indeed, we also had some phenomenal teams (03, 04, 11) that ended up having losing records to Williams and/or Midd that I still think could have given our 07 and 2013 teams a run for their money. Where is the simulator when you need it?
'13 is very good but I am partial to the '07 squad. They were a bit better on defense. Though I guess we are splitting hairs.