Congrats to Amherst huge win. They are in every game and I think with a win today very good shot at the 4th seed. By far biggest surprise of the league
Trinity has a shot at second seed. Tufts on the road against Bates to finish the season. Will be big game.
Bates played well against Trinity shot 46% from field and over 50% from 3, tied rebounding but 26 turns overs a killer

Picks for this week, last week 8-2 overall 23-12

Lots of upsets!!!

Friday
Middlebury 70 at Bowdoin 80
Tufts 65 at Amherst 68
Williams 60 at Colby 75
Bates 60 at Trinity 79
Conn College 80 at Hamilton 72

Saturday
Conn College 71 at Amherst 65
Williams 60 at Bowdoin 72
Tufts 68 at Hamilton 59
Middlebury 68 at Colby 81

Sunday
Bates 67 at Wesleyan 62

Quote from: NEhoops on February 04, 2026, 02:52:08 PMRegarding the Cuevas conversation: Is last year (Hank Morgan - Hamilton) the first time in conference history that the player of the year was from a team that didn't finish 1st or 2nd (or at least tied for that place) in the standings? He is legit, but I think team success is going to win out in this one.

D3BBALL - I agree that one of the three Maine teams could steal a game or two in CT, but I also think that Tufts could drop one of their road games to Amherst, Hamilton or Bates.

Agree on Tufts, if I had to bet, might be the Bates game. Not sure Amherst can handle Tufts size. Hamilton just out gunned. Bates maybe playing to get into the NCAA, so this could be the one.

Quote from: redbirds on February 03, 2026, 05:19:54 PMWesleyan has the chance to be at home for the rest of the season until the Final 4. They have Bates coming into town this weekend, followed by the Maine schools. If they take care of business, they will host the Nescac tournament for the second year in a row, and if they take care of business there they will (likely) host two weekends in March. No better atmosphere in March than Silloway.

Agree, but I think those Maine teams are going to beat either Trinity or Wesleyan in the last three games. Just don't see at least of them winning at least one game. And could easily see tufts winning their last three games and then they would be the top seed if Wesleyan were to lose a game.

Nescac1, I will give you some leeway on Rein .

But on Lafrance, you can't have a player that is shooting less than 35% overall and less than 25% from 3, as all conference and 4-1 in the negative assist/turnover ratio. He takes the most shots on the team, yet he is 3rd in scoring and the 4th player is 2 points per game behind and has taken 30 less shots in 7 games. That is not close to all conference. 

"Looking at the rest of the league, my thoughts on the current status of all-league as we head into the back stretch of the season:

1st team: Ray Cuevas (POTY, and I think an easy choice), Jarrell Okorougo, Sam Pohlman, Henry Vetter, Scott Gyimesi, Babacar Pouye, Dan Civello

2nd team: Zach Wolinski (could end up on first team especially if Wesleyan wins the league, there are really eight deserving candidates), Elias Chin, Elias Espinosa, James Lafrance, Drew Lazarre, and the final two spots are wide open, I'll say Dylan Reilly and Jackson Rein with Poulton, Cantwell, Neville, Medley and Hammond also in the mix depending on how things go.   

ROTY is between I think KJ Neville and Mason Dawkins, both are very deserving and if Amherst keeps playing well Neville will likely be the guy."

NESCAC1 agree with a lot of above with the exception of the following:

Cuevas is definitely in the running for POY, not sure how he wins it right now, his team is 6th in the league, and especially with Pohlman's play. Let's see how he finishes against Wesleyan and Trinity. I think still a 3-person race Cuevas, Pohlman, and Vetter. Gyimesi on the outside looking in, just not scoring enough, maybe not his fault. Last year you had Morgan and his shooting percentages were much better than Cuevas and Morgan had a plus assist to turn over ratio. Still wide open.

No Civello on 1st team. In league stats, he is shooting 45%, 29% from 3 and is the 7th leading rebounder on his on team, yes 7th leading rebounder, Hinman out rebounds him. Come on now!!! He is not 1st team at this time.
I think Chin needs to be in consideration for 1st team before Civello as well.

On Lafrance, he is shooting 33% and 25% from 3, 3 assists, 12 turnovers, can't be on top 2 teams with stats like that.

On Rein, (you just have to get a Williams player on the team, lol) he has come on lately but not against good teams and he has 3 assists and 14 turnovers. Right now he doesn't belong.

Agree on ROY

Only 1 out of conference game this week, not going to changed much
After 4th week of Conference play. The below Strength of Schedule is from Massey and out of 409 teams.
Based on NPI, 4 teams make NCAA Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan, and Bates. Amherst is 2nd team out.

A lot different than last year where with 3-4 games to go, most team still had a shot at conference playoffs. Bottom 3 teams, while not mathematically eliminated are pretty much so.

1) Wesleyan 16-5 (6-1) (NPI #16) Pool C #5, if season ended today, they would be Pool A – Up 2 spots - Strength of Schedule 30 was 47. Beat both T & T, Tufts on the road. Slip up against Conn to be expected. Coaching making a huge difference to this team.

2) Tufts 17-3 (6-1), (NPI #5) Pool A - No Change – Strength of Schedule 40 was 71. Tough loss against Wesleyan, but huge win against Trinity. Beat Trinity going small and quick.

3) Trinity 17-1 (5-2) (NPI #2) Pool C #1- Down 2 - Strength of Schedule 98 was 132. Terrible loss to Tufts, controlled the game for most of the 40 minutes, just not the important minutes. Huge bench issues, bad shot selections, rebounding and end of game coaching. They are not as good as last year's team, at least not as of right now. Their rankings in both Massey, NPI should be lower just based on how they are playing. This is where the eye test is needed. They should fall out of the top 5 this week nationally.

4) Amherst 15-5 (4-2) (NPI #41) Pool C #23, 2 outside of getting in NCAA – No Change – Strength of Schedule 135 was 151 280. They continue to trend up, still have some tough games left, but they can beat anyone in the league.

5) Bates 16-4 (4-2) (NPI #22) C pool #8 – No Change - Strength of Schedule 112 was 116. 2 wins and they now have Pouye back who played much better in his 2nd game back. Now they play Wesleyan, Tufts and Trinity in 3 out of final 4 games. Need to win at least 1 of them.

6) Conn 15-6 (3-4) – (NPI #48) C pool #28 – No Change – Strength of Schedule 105 was 181. They beat Wesleyan and with 10 minutes to go tied with Trintiy. They are right there for NCAA just need to win.

7) Bowdoin 13-7 (3-3) (NPI #58) Pool C #34 – Up 1 - Strength of Schedule 74 was 101. Bad lost to Amherst. Still have Wesleyan and Trintiy on the road. Need to probably win the NESCAC conference championship to have any chance at NCAA.

8) Colby 14-6 (2-4) (NPI #45) Pool C #26 – Down 1 – Strength of Schedule 105 was 143. Lucky to beat Hamilton. Same as above with Bowdoin, still have to play Wesleyan and Trintiy on the road. Need to probably win the NESCAC conference championship to have any chance at NCAA.

9) Middlebury 7-12 (1-5) (NPI #197) Pool C #155- No Change – Strength of Schedule 42 was 24. Terrible loss to CCNY, but on the road. Good first half against Bates, not so great 2nd half, not going to make conference play.

11) Hamilton 5-15 (1-5), (NPI #268) Pool C #225 - Up 1 - Strength of Schedule 66 was 61. Should have beaten both Colby and Bowdoin, just needed to finish the games. Not going to make conference play.

10) Williams 11-9 (0-6) (NPI #130) Pool C #93 – Down 1 – Strength of Schedule 81 was 92. Just not their year. Played Bates OK, but Pouye was not great and first game back. At Colby and Bowdoin, both needing wins, so going to be tough for Williams. Could be 0-8 going into last weekend. Not going to make conference play.

Quote from: rdanie03 on February 02, 2026, 01:48:41 PM

Quote from: NEhoops on February 02, 2026, 12:31:16 PMI agree with the coaching praise for Reilly. If I need to win one game (whatever the talent level is), I'm taking him.

I thought they let the game at Conn slip away - not necessarily related to coaching - but it was somewhat of a letdown after their huge win at Tufts.

I agree with that. What's interesting about the losses from each of the top 3 this weekend is that each of them was probably the better team in the game they lost but the other team simply outworked them down the stretch.

Agree, can see Wesleyan having a let down against Conn and Conn doesn't just play zone any longer they mix it up quite a bit.
Trinity did lose both of their games on the road, both close. They have won the NESCAC on the road the last 2 years, but hard to do 3 years in a row, but they have shown they can do it.

Quote from: ItsATuftSituation on February 01, 2026, 10:17:26 PMWatched both Tufts games this week, and was super impressed with Wesleyan. They work hard defensively, Edelman and Hauser are effective big men that get their roles and Pohlman is very crafty. They're just a rock solid basketball team. Also likes the energy their 2nd unit brought, though Watson could cool it with some his extra curriculars. Despite that, he's quick and effective and certainly brings a spark.

Trinity is still really good, and their starting 5 is the best in the league. It just is. But they aren't getting much from their bench beyond Barry. Stats are skewed Saturday because it was senior day at Tufts, but let's just take the typical backups for Tufts and it something like 30-12 in bench points. Nieves and Nyamwaya were huge in that game.

I still like this Jumbo team and their ability to match any style, with their larger lineup with Bernstein or going smaller and more athletic. I'm also not done with Morakis, I still think he has a legacy game coming at some point, but I'm a romantic and want the lasting memory of him to be the games that he took over and was so fun to watch.

Last thing, Jon Medley probably won't get all conference but he would on my ballot and his intangibles are what makes winning teams.

Agree 100% on Wesleyan, they play hard and they have the best coach in the league. They usually don't lose games due to coaching.

Trinity's bench actually played well in their first shift against tufts, and this was against a number of Tufts starters, after that they got very little scoring the rest of the way and defense and to's not good. Berry is shooting 37% from the field and 38% from 3 point in league play, but is 1-6 from 3 in their last 3 league games, 2 losses and 0-4 in those 2 games. Not good enough and shot selection has been very questionable. The 2nd unit had 2 assists, 4 turnovers and did not play well at all as a group the rest of the way against Tufts. In the last 3 league games they have not played well as a group. The player Jordan has been relegated to the bench, might be time to give him a shot on that 2nd team. He is very athletic, can make open shots, might just give them a boost. As stated above in other posts, the second unit really misses Macarchuk. The 3 new players on that 2nd team are finding out what it is like to play meaningful games against way more talented teams, then there non conference schedule. Cosgrove, might just have to go 7 maybe 8 deep the rest of the way at least in league play. And maybe play a bigger lineup which could give them several miss-matches height wise. The lost the rebounding battle pretty bad against both Wesleyan and Tufts. His substitutions in the 2nd half against Wesleyan and Tufts really hurt the team and as stated above in other posts, his not using timeouts against tufts was really bad. You lead for 37 minutes of the game and you still have 3 timeouts left, ouch, just like Linton's decisions against Wesleyan in the last 2 minutes. Any close game I take Reilly over any other coach in the league. He just doesn't panic.

Agree on Medley, he and Reilly were the MVP's for Tufts against Trinity. Both made big shots in the 2nd half and a number of shots being well guarded by either Lazarre, Okorougo or Mcdonald.  I had Bernstein and Watt in the running for 2nd team, I would put Medley over both of them. Tufts beating Trinity has to give them so much more confidence and might just take some away from Trinity.

Quote from: SpringSt7 on February 01, 2026, 06:35:06 PMBy the way - regarding coach of the year, I think my pick is Linton. To bench Morakis because he came back out of shape and then just not lose a step? Really really impressive stuff

Here is my issue, Linton has either the most talented team in the league or the 2nd most talented team in the league. So they are right where they should be. Reducing both Morakis and or Bernstein minutes, they way both have played against very good teams, should have been done.

Reilly lost his best 2 players, has now beaten both Tufts and trinity in close games and out coached both Linton and Cosgrove in those games. And he has a player that was a backup last year, who if he is not, should be in consideration for player of the year.

Amherst coach, I don't think anyone thought they would be were they are at. They played both Wesleyan and Trinity tough on the road. And look at what he had to replace in terms of minutes played last year. They have very little height but are playing very well. And from what is out there, he was/is on the hot seat.

Bates, I am not sure many thought this team would be where they are. And to win 3 league games without Pouye or Pouye not playing great in one of those games, is pretty good.

Quote from: lumbercat on February 01, 2026, 05:34:51 PM

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on February 01, 2026, 04:58:53 PM

Quote from: Bucket on February 01, 2026, 04:46:58 PM

Quote from: lumbercat on February 01, 2026, 03:00:43 PMWhat a terrible weekend trip for Hamilton. Up by 7 seven with less than a minute to play and somehow they lost by one at Bowdoin on Friday.
On Saturday they lose by one at Colby. Looks like they missed a 10-12 footer at the buzzer.
Hate to see that for any team.

Pretty sure Hamilton was at home for both games, which might make the losses sting just a little bit more?

Yeah.  They had both of those and just let them slip away.

Geez I guess I jumped to the assumption that they were on the road based on the outcomes. That's even worse.

I know they lost both games but they are keeping most games close. They play hard and don't quit, they just don't have the scorers.

Quote from: CWM_42 on January 31, 2026, 05:52:59 PMSome thoughts in no particular order:

1. Bowdoin was out-rebounded by 25 today at Amherst. It's tough to win when that happens.
2. Congrats to Tufts for getting over the hump with Trinity, and Conn for their biggest win in years by taking down Wesleyan. No more undefeated teams in conference play.
3. Is Trinity's not so challenging pre-NESCAC schedule catching up to them? It's a different deal being the defending national champs. Also, I think they are missing Dorion and Marcharchuk more than most would have believed.

It is shaping up to be a fun final two weeks leading into the tournament.

Agree on Dorion Macarchuk, they miss both. Macarchuk very good passer, didn't panic and could shoot it from outside. 2nd unit killed them today especially in 2nd half.

Quote from: SpringSt7 on January 31, 2026, 05:41:45 PMGreat win for Tufts. Very weird second half for Trinity, offense was just really stagnant and predictable. Lazarre was awesome in the first half and really bad in the second half. Ayles got benched. Cosgrove took Okorougo out with 5 minutes left and went home with 3 timeouts.

Ironically my biggest takeaway from the game is how much better I think Tufts will be once Bernstein and Gyemesi graduate. Gyemesi is great against good matchups but he was brutal tonight for most of the game and they kept going back to that well with no luck. Their small lineup got them back in the game. Nieves, Medley, Watt, Reilly, Nywamya will be awesome next year

Gyimesi was solid on defense and rebounding.
Agree 100% on Trinity, they have no offense except dribble too much and and then go one on one. And when that doesn't work take bad shots.
Cosgrove leaving timeouts was just bad coaching. Okorougo was in trouble could have taken time out reset, instead they take a bad shot.
Both teams played hard, ironically tufts coach as bad as he was yesterday, out coached cos, bench Bernstein and went small and screened screened and screened until they got a good shot

Tufts going to beat Trinity.
The coaching from tufts and trinity the last 2 games is so bad. Trinity loss 100% on their coach. Bad substitutions and not using timeouts. Coaching lol
Give tufts credit today

Conn played a very good game against Trinity they just ran out of gas and Trinity's defense too much in 2nd half.

Bates handles Williams and Pouye back but didn't shoot well. Could Williams go winless in NESCAC?

Amherst huge win against Colby. Not sure Coach is on hot seat any longer.  Is Colby regretting coaching change?

Bowdoin beats Hamilton, did Cuevas just take the lead for POY?

Wesleyan beats tufts, Polhman another strong game for his bid of POY. Tufts play and coaching very concerning last 5 minutes. Up 1 with 1 30 to go and you full court press and get beat for uncontested layup on inbounds. WTF! Had chance to take control of the league at home and lose this way ouch.

1 award we have forgotten about, coach of the year
1) Reilly - best coach in league especially at end of games with his x and o
2) Sears - no height and winning with defense and clutch play
3) Furbush - best player out and win a couple of conference games.