MBB: NESCAC

[Old Guy]

Old Guy is lurking.

The internet connection is often quite good here in West Africa, so I have religiously read all the NESCAC MBB posts. I just haven't found anything yet to quibble with (well, maybe the comment that one normally reliable sage made that Daley was more athletic than Jensen - no one is more athletic than Jensen, but that seemed a very minor point).

I am determined to find Jeff Brown a seven-footer here, Cameroon's Hakeem Olajuwon or Dikembe Mutombo, but all I can find are soccer players. Every time I turn around I trip over one. Big passion for futbol here. 

Young guy is here with me, along with mother and sister. Actually, we're all here with mom, who has the Fellowship. Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, does not remind me of Middlebury, VT. YG may decide to enter Middlebury at the mid-year, NESCAC hoop being a powerful incentive. We're all missing New England's beautiful late summer/early autumn. Wouldn't object to having a beer with Vandy 74 right now in 2Brothers and talking a little NESCAC hoops and fantasy baseball (his team, the Dangerfields - they get no respect nor do the deserve any, are in seventh place in our ten team league, and my team, the Loons, are in sixth but poised to make a last minute jump to fourth into the money.

I don't think I can get Midd hoop games on-line. I tried to watch some of the fall afternoon NESCAC sports events last Saturday, but could only get occasional images. Live stats offers some possibilities. Easier in the fall (afternoon games) than it will be in the winter as there is a five hour time difference, six once daylight savings ends. So I'll be following the Panther hoopers the way I follow the resurgent Sox now, checking out the score and recap first thing in the a.m., and of course reading Panther Nation for the scoop behind the scoop. They both graduate this year, one at the mid-year, but maybe I can convince some faculty friends to provide them with INCs or failing grades to keep them around. I think I mentioned that Panther Nation is renting our house while we are away - that's almost incest, right?

Let me know when you're in West Africa, and I'll buy you a "Trente-Trois," the popular Cameroonian beer (a good sign - Larry Bird's number).

[madzillagd]

Cool stuff.   I can just see OG trying to watch a 3OT thriller like last year frame by frame on a computer buffering every 30 seconds trying not to scream and wake the neighbors every time the screen refreshes. 

You might want to try and watch one of the archived games after the fact and see if that works for you ( http://nsnsports.net/archives/ ).  Since that is no longer a live streaming event, you may be able to go into a game, pause it and let the video load for a few minutes so you build up some content before you start watching.  (BTW - if you test this I just clicked on the top of the archived list which is the Midd volleyball game from yesterday and it never comes up for me, but the second one down the soccer game works. )

[nescac1]

Exeter, which sent a slew of guys to NESCAC schools for the incoming frosh class, continues to be a NESCAC feeder as Tony Karalekas commits to Colby for 2014-15:

http://www.newenglandrecruitingreport.com/prospects/  (see New Hampshire)

[amh63]

Old Guy...nice to hear from you!  Lurking?  Almost felt like crying out, "all hail to the chief"...but that would not do your VT ego good.  Read an article that one local school would start March Madness activities in early October.  Guess some schools will conduct practice in a couple of weeks!  Maybe you can provide an early preview of your thoughts on this year's season.  In any case...don't scare the citizens recruiting.

[Old Guy]

Maybe you can provide an early preview of your thoughts on this year's season. amh63

Talked me into it.

I think this will be a fascinating season. The three teams at the top all suffered major losses. All have very capable replacements. But, still, the new players have to produce on the floor in bigger roles. Doesn't always go the way we expect.

Will Bowdoin and Tufts take a big step up and make some noise in the conference? Is there another team that's better than we think? Colby?

Middlebury will be intriguing. Never has there been such an abundance of talent, top to bottom, but the question marks are significant. It could take some time to sort things out. Can St. Amour step in and provide some of the scoring that was lost to graduation? He's a true frosh, no pg seasoning. Who will be remotely the inspirational presence of Thompson? Who will bring the ball up? Who will provide some muscle on the glass? Middlebury has benefited from tremendous leadership and team coherence: will that still be the case with all this talent and limited minutes? Even so, Coach Brown has problems a lot of coaches would like to have.

None of the above is original in the least. I'll wait for PN to break it all down, and watch keenly from afar.

[nescac1]

Random off-season question of the day: what are the best individual performances you've ever seen by an opposing player vs. your favorite NESCAC team? 

For me, it would be (1) Wooster's Bryan Nelson, playing on one leg, destroying a loaded Williams front court in the 2003 Final Four (I can't imagine anyone ever topping that), (2) Wesley's Paul Reynolds in the opening round of the NCAA tourney last year, and (3) Carl Cochrane of Richard Stockton lighting up Chandler (and earning a standing ovation from the Williams crowd) in the 1997 Sweet 16.

Other memorable performers: Jamal Wilson from Amherst (I believe it was in an NCAA tourney game in Chandler, but I'm not positive when), Josh Jones of Husson in the 2011 tourney, Guilford's Tyler Sanborn in the 2010 tourney, Nick Bennett and Jason Kaslow of Stevens Point in the 2004 championship game.  Unsurprisingly, most of those guys ended up as first-team all-Americans. 

This reflects a recency bias and also a bias towards games late in the NCAA tourney, which tend to be the most memorable.  Probably also a bias towards non-NESCAC players, since multiple games vs. the same player tend to get jumbled in memory.

[amh63]

Last night there was a pep rally...for the football team in Le Frak.  Good turnout as the Amherst side stands were filled.  Pie eating contest  held and even Cheerleaders?!  The pics of the event...on flicker on the Amherst website, almost looked a little like an early "March Madness" night.  If it wasn't for football jerseys on the cheerleaders?, it could have been...seeing that there was a BB dunking event as well.  Mainly FY players in the pics.  Seems that the new players have some hops...at least the front court ones.  One player  is shown with his chest level to the basket and another trying to dunk two balls at the same time.  Kids showing off!  Better when the leaping ability is applied on the defensive side.   Getting pumped up for the BB season....and it is not even October.  Seems the
Div 1 schools can start this weekend if their first reg. game is within 30 days.

[Old Guy]

Random off-season question of the day: what are the best individual performances you've ever seen by an opposing player vs. your favorite NESCAC team? NESCAC1

Great question. Midd has had such good teams defensively, especially in the Locke, Edwards, Thompson, Sharry years, that few players really went off against us: we usually had an answer for a big-time offensive player. And Williams and Amherst, against whom we've had such classic tilts have had such good balance as a team that no one player has dominated. In the 3OT 104-101 epic last year against the Jeffs, Workman and Kaasila exploited favorable match-ups and were pretty much unstoppable.

In another game last year, against Wes, we were up 13 with six minutes to go and Coach Reilly shrugged and said "Okay, ShaSha," and he turned back the clock and hit some bombs, dashed to the hoop, pretty much had his way and tied the game (we won in OT by one and handled the Cards without much trouble in the NESCAC tourney, but that was vintage ShaSha).

I remember when Midd was just starting to put it all together, in 2007, and we hosted Colby in a NESCAC tourney game and went out to a big 18 point second half lead. Our dopey fans started the "You can't stop us!" etc. cheers with over ten minutes to play. Seniors Nick Farrell from the outside (22) and Drew Cohen inside (26) just took over and tied it up in regulation and the Mules whomped us in the OT. Ouch.

Plattsburgh had a guy about the same time (2008), Anthony Williams, who came in our gym and we couldn't stop him. He had 29 in a come-from-behind win for the Cardinals.

Then there was the Bridgewater fiasco in 2009. We beat Amherst for the NESCAC crown and drew Bridgewater in the second round after a bye. We were up by five with the ball, 37 seconds to go. Stace Garrick hit two transcontinental bombs, 25 footers, NBN, and we ended up losing by a bucket. He had 21 total in the game. Tough loss.

Those are the individual performances by opposing players that stick out (mostly painfully) in my mind.

[lefrakenstein]

Sadly for me the first one that comes to mind is Chris Shalvoy in the 07 NESCAC championship game. The guy couldn't miss.

I would also put Seth Hauben (of Rochester) in the 05 NCAA sweet 16 right up there. And anytime Amherst had to play Tyler Rhoten.

[amh63]

No problem here.  Due to my age and defensive process, I tend to delete the bad sport memories!
LeFrak ...your post did jog some memories...like a computer one cannot really delete memories.  Was the last player a Trinity player?...a Jersey boy from the same town of an Amherst star from Lawrenceville?

[grabtherim]

I agree with Old Guy.  With Midd's defense over the past 5-6 seasons, there have not been as many dominant performances against the Panthers as there has been back and heart breaking moments.  Wang for Williams comes immediately to mind; early in his career, before he was slowed down by injury, he always seemed to make the big play at the right time to change a game.  Workman's layup off his on purpose miss in last year's 3 OT classic still hurts, and finally Travis Farrell for Scranton hitting a 3 at the buzzer in the 2012 NCAAs was perhaps the most painful given the finality of it.  For sheer athletic ability versus Midd over the same time, Whittington has to be the leader.  He was fun to watch even in warm ups where he would put on a dunking show.   

[middhoops]

Agree with grabtherim.  Travis Ferrell's bomb let more energy out of a gym than I've experienced before or since.  Spoiled an epic come back.

[Vandy74]

Agree with grabtherim.  Travis Ferrell's bomb let more energy out of a gym than I've experienced before or since.  Spoiled an epic come back.

The worst.  Agreed.  Farrell couldn't have been covered any better and the man still nailed it.  I'd left myself a note to research the game to get my facts straight before I went to bed last night but grabtherim beat me to it.  After the game a young nephew and one of his friends and I made the traditional run to McD's.  The only people in the place were Cabrini.  After we had gotten our food and sat down Scranton came in.  Some dude who I took to be a team manager was going on and on about how overrated the Panthers were.  Bad memories all around.

[amh63]

John Bedford'06 was the Amherst player from Ridgefield N.J.  That season..05-06.. Tyler, the Trinity star scored 28 points in 41 minutes to upset the then 8th ranked Amherst  team by three in OT.  Looked it up...memory not that good.  Number of players on that Amherst team went on to win the first National Title.  John was a 6'3" guard, while Tyler was a 6'7" front court scorer.  Am told both knew each other in HS.

[Old Guy]

Right, there have been some heartbreaking (too strong actually: sports hyperbole) moments, but really for the Panthers they even out over the past decade. Remember the 91-90 win over Williams a couple years ago on alumni weekend when Wang's 30 footer at the buzzer, right on line, hit the back rim? Kizell's mad dash last year and two free throws against Ithaca?

My favorite quotation in all of sports (forgive me, those who know me and have heard this one before, perhaps many times) is from Al McGuire: "the best thing in sports is winning; the second best thing in sports is losing." To compete is to risk losing. Doesn't mean I like it.

NESCAC1's question was: "what are the best individual performances you've ever seen by an opposing player?" I assumed that to mean a sustained performance over a whole contest, perhaps including a game-winning hoop, but not necessarily.