First, congrats to Trinity and Tufts on their wins, and congrats to Wesleyan on a tremendous season and another Sweet 16 appearance. Looking forward to Trinity Tufts Round 3!!

Second, I was certainly critical of Tufts in years past not being able to get it done. I thought here we go again when they lost their first two games. I was bummed when Gyimesi was ruled out last weekend because I didn't think they were going to get past the weekend. They are proving people (me) wrong this year. Bernstein has been a beast, Nieves is a future star, Medley continues to be an all-around solid player and of course, Gyimesi even somewhat healthy takes them a step further. Congrats to Tufts at this point. Would love to see them continue and make an even deeper run. By the way, they won with Reilly taking one shot?? He's not their best player, but certainly an important perimeter one!

Lastly, there's been some bashing on Linton on how he handled the Morakis situation. I think he handled it as well as you could. Morakis as many have said was out of shape to start the year. It's still tough to relegate your leading scorer from last year, and a senior, to a bench role. You could lose the locker room that way. Doing it when he did was the right thing.

Also still a side note that can be easy to forget, Liam Kennelly, their best perimeter defender and resident pest, has been out all year long. I'm guessing he would have either been a starter or the 6th man on this team. With all the injuries to Tufts this year and their play as of late, it's time put Linton in the top tier category for coaching in this conference.

Watson will certainly get looks. 6'6", super athletic, knocked down a decent percent of his outside shots even though he didn't take many. Also a really good rebounder of course. If he goes, two of their top 3 scorers from last year are gone and quite honestly, their two best players. Wonder if he's got something lined up and wants a change for his last year, or if he's just exploring his options.

Scott Gyimesi of Tufts is one of the Jostens Trophy finalists.

The only winners from the NESCAC are Mike Nogelo (Williams, 1998), Michael Shantz (Hamilton, 1999), Blake Schultz (Williams, 2010) and Kena Gilmour (Hamilton, 2020).

Bryan Moussako of NYU just announced he's in the portal with one grad year left.

Edit. Just saw Nescac1 was already on it with his earlier list!!

Back to Endicott having to go to IWU, great explanation as to why! Funny thing is, the hockey teams aren't hosting this weekend, so they could have hosted men's basketball!

Men's ice hockey got a bye and is hosting on Saturday, March 21st. Women's ice hockey is going to Hamline. Seems like a lost opportunity for the Gulls.

Wanted to shoutout Amherst, Trinity, Tufts and Wesleyan for their first round wins and the latter three for their second round wins. It was a tough weekend for all but glad to see 3 teams advance to the Sweet 16. Hoping Gyimesi can play but Bernstein has been unbelievable as of late!

I'm really looking forward to that Hood/Trinity matchup. Hood is a great offensive squad that usually wins their rebounding matchups. Yarbrough certainly looks like the real deal! Sometimes these matchups end in runaways but I'm thinking this one will be competitive. Trinity I believe will win as long as Okorougo is healthy enough to go.

While I do think Bates got hosed at the end, let's not forget they shot just 6-21 from 3, 9-14 from the FT line and had a couple really bad turnovers in the final 2 minutes. They could have put themselves in a better spot at the end there. Maybe they could've been up by 2 instead of tied.

Shoutout to Brady Coyne. Not his best performance, but toughed it out whilst being injured. Sean O'Leary was the best all around player for the Bobcats today. He does a little bit of everything for this team. His defense on Samet in the 2nd was unreal. The bench came to play today, especially Robinson and Bianco. I feel for Kravitz. He had looks, just didn't knock them down.

Still, Bates got hosed on that last call!

Man, after a great comeback by Bates, that is an absolute brutal way to end the season!! I feel for the Bobcats faithful!!

Certainly looks like Bates got hosed on that call. From the replay, it looked like there was no whistle until the Yeshiva player was on the ground.

Regardless of the outcome, this has been a great start to March Madness!

@nescac1

It certainly isn't helping that Coyne isn't having a great shooting day. And agreed, Pouye taking 5 shots in 29 minutes is not enough. They are hanging around though. O'Leary to me is having the best all around day for the Bobcats

Trinity will have a tough 2nd round matchup no matter who it is (Babson or St. Joes Maine), but I think they'll advance.

If Tufts is fully healthy, which no one seems to know the status of Gyimesi, they'll get to the Sweet 16.

I think if it happens, watch out for a hot Gettysburg team against Wesleyan. They have currently won 13 of their last 14 after starting 5-8 after their coach booked it to MIT shortly before the season started. I do think Wesleyan can survive, but wouldn't be surprised if Gettysburg pulled the upset if they get past NYU. NYU isn't as strong as last year, but they have some players who can shoot it.

Bates in my opinion can get romped by 20 against Yeshiva in a few hours, or they can make it to the Sweet 16. They have a very winnable pod of 4. If I remember reading correctly, Coyne might be hurt? If he is, I think their season ends today.

Amherst is a worry because they haven't played in nearly two weeks and have a tough draw against a really solid WPI team. They've also lost their last two so they aren't going in on the best of runs. WPI isn't as great defensively as past years, but they have 4 players in double figures. And their three point defense is still really solid. I personally don't see Amherst getting past this team, but for the NESCAC sake, I hope I'm wrong! If they do, I don't see them winning at Mary Washington.

Looking at all the NCAA Tournament appearances got me curious on another thing. I was wondering how many times in that same span did the #1 seed in the NESCAC Tournament actually win it. It's not many!

2015 - #1 Trinity lost to #6 Wesleyan, 55-52, in NESCAC Semis (#6 Wesleyan won title)
2016 - #1 Trinity lost to #4 Middlebury, 70-58 in NESCAC Semis (#4 Middlebury won title)
2017 - #1 Tufts lost to #6 Williams, 81-65, in NESCAC Semis (#2 Middlebury won title)
2018 - #1 Amherst lost to #4 Wesleyan, 65-63, in NESCAC Semis (#2 Williams won title)
2019 - #1 Middlebury lost to #8 Tufts, 85-76, in the NESCAC Qrts (the only time a #1 seed lost in the quarterfinals) [#3 Amherst won title]
2020 - #1 Tufts defeated #2 Colby, 102-94 (OT), in NESCAC Championship
2022 - #1 Wesleyan defeated #4 Williams, 78-75 (OT), in NESCAC Championship
2023 - #1 Williams lost to #6 Colby, 66-51, in NESCAC Semis (#2 Hamilton won title)
2024 - #1 Williams lost to #2 Trinity, 59-52, in NESCAC Championship
2025 - #1 Wesleyan lost to #2 Trinity, 75-67, in NESCAC Championship
2026 - #1 Wesleyan lost to #2 Trinity, 80-55, in NESCAC Championship

I went back to all of the tournaments as well. Only 10 times since the NESCAC tournament started has a 1 seed won the tournament. Amherst did it in 2005, 2006, 2012, 2013 and 2014. Williams did it in 2004 and 2010. Middlebury did it in 2009. The aforementioned Jumbos in 2020 and Wesleyan in 2022.

Other notes show that from 2001-2014, the #1 seed appeared in every NESCAC title game except 2008. As noted starting from 2015, that's happened 6 times.

Sometimes, you get bored before the NCAA Tournament fun!

Amherst - 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019 and again this year in 2026
Bates - 2015 and 2026
Bowdoin - None
Colby - 2020
Conn College - None
Hamilton - 2018, 2019, 2023 and 2025
Middlebury - 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023
Trinity - 2015, 2016 and the last three years as NESCAC1 said (2024, 2025 and 2026)
Tufts - 2016, 2017, 2020 (still in when COVID hit), 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026
Wesleyan - 2015 (I believe their first ever), 2017, 2018, 2022, 2025 and 2026
Williams - 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024

I'm good with all of these selections. For ROTY, I was on the Dawkins train for a while. But towards the end of the season, it was pretty clear that Neville was the best choice. I do think Dawkins was a clear second though. For next year, if/when Cuevas is gone, I can certainly see Dawkins taking a big leap and being the teams go-to option.

I definitely agree that Wolinksi and Pouye would be the top two choices heading into preseason given what we think may happen in the offseason. I think a couple wildcards could be Jon Medley, Jackson Rein and either James LaFrance if he can improve his scoring in NESCAC play, or Dylan Watson since I think he could be more involved with Espinosa graduating. Neville would be another choice but you just never know with Amherst's offense.