MBB: NESCAC

[middhoops]

Wow.  What a game.
Bonner misses two free throws at the end of a one point game and the Cardinals still win.
Bonner was still the hero, hitting a clutch trey when it was needed to get into OT.
Big win for Wesleyan looking forward to the big dance.

Friday in Vermont looms large for Amherst.

[Old Guy]

Wes holds on for a one point win. Dawson's three rims out. McCarthy's last second 30 footer - not this time. Lots of missed shots (free throws esp) at the end. Inartistic at best. But the Cardinals have bragging rights.

[warriorcat]

Fortunately someone woke the cameraman up for the OT. Congratulations to the cardinals on the win.

[Cards Fan]

Fortunately someone woke the cameraman up for the OT. Congratulations to the cardinals on the win.

Seriously! Didn't get to see my guy hit that 3.


Cards hold on. That was big to get momentum going into Colby and Bowdoin this weekend, facing a Colby team Wes can't figure out.

[amh63]

Just as well....Last 20 seconds Wes holds a 1 point lead and there is foul fest and everyone misses foul shots.  In between Dawson misses two long shots and Amherst loses by a point.  Why was he taking the shots with Riopel and JMac In The game??
Oh I did Not get a  video....mostly nothing and then a bit and then nothing.  Finally stuck with the stats.

[jumpshot]

Once again the plague's point guard takes the most shots, 30% more than the next player, shoots 35% from the floor. Both point guards combine for 7 turnovers, and as mentioned, poor foul shooting at the end by both teams kept it exciting.

As pointed out early on, the plague is simply not achieving up to the potential of the talent .... Should be a weekend worth watching coming up ....

[P'bearfan]

Canvas Hightops....do not remember my first sport related shoe brand.  Name brands do not come up then and had limited money..  Remember Adidas...three strips...track shoes.  Ran track, played tennis and failed in basketball in HS.....no time and talent....HS team was City Public champs.
Anyway, today have two low cut Converse...white canvas and black leather no shoe strings slip-ons.
Recently there was a story item that an iconic Jordon low cut collectible pair of shoe would bring over 5 grands in US dollars

White high top Chuck Taylor All Stars were my basketball shoes (or sneakers if you were from Philly).  Could only where them for practices and games until the season was over. 

[Vandy74]

Incessant buffering throughout the game.  The camera guy decides it's over with 40 seconds left in regulation.  Still, too good a game to give up on.  I'll never complain about Middlebury's free throw shooting again.  Well, that's probably not true.  Another nail-biter in LeFrak.  Next stop, Pepin.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Incessant buffering throughout the game.  The camera guy decides it's over with 40 seconds left in regulation.  Still, too good a game to give up on.  I'll never complain about Middlebury's free throw shooting again.  Well, that's probably not true.  Another nail-biter in LeFrak.  Next stop, Pepin.

Just FYI - buffering tends to be on the user's end. Not saying that is absolutely true in this case, but more times than not any buffering issues are actually on the user. Interestingly, it has become a far lesser problem thanks to multiple-bit-rate streaming, now. Yes. It can be on the broadcaster's end, but unless anyone else suffered from buffering, it wasn't on their end.

Just trying to be informative. Thought it would be helpful. I know when I am suffering buffering issues at home watching games, I look at what might be going on with my computer, router, and who else is online first. Once in awhile, I am surprised to discover it isn't on my end. LOL

[Vandy74]

Incessant buffering throughout the game.  The camera guy decides it's over with 40 seconds left in regulation.  Still, too good a game to give up on.  I'll never complain about Middlebury's free throw shooting again.  Well, that's probably not true.  Another nail-biter in LeFrak.  Next stop, Pepin.

Just FYI - buffering tends to be on the user's end. Not saying that is absolutely true in this case, but more times than not any buffering issues are actually on the user. Interestingly, it has become a far lesser problem thanks to multiple-bit-rate streaming, now. Yes. It can be on the broadcaster's end, but unless anyone else suffered from buffering, it wasn't on their end.

Just trying to be informative. Thought it would be helpful. I know when I am suffering buffering issues at home watching games, I look at what might be going on with my computer, router, and who else is online first. Once in awhile, I am surprised to discover it isn't on my end. LOL

Thanks Dave.  I rather expected that to be the case since none of the other posters mentioned the problem.  I did just get a new computer.  The picture clarity was excellent and the vid-stream always picked up where it had left off which is seldom the case when buffering's an issue.  Just annoying to endure while watching such an exciting game. 

[magicman]

Great stuff AllStar, plus one!

Agree with GTS that NESCAC is just impossible to figure this year.  I can't believe the Conn team that Williams rolled over yesterday was able to beat an Amherst team that Williams still can't figure out how to score against.  Or that the Hamilton team that crushed Williams got even more badly crushed by Midd.  Other than Colby's struggles, which were predictable with such a young team, the entire season has been a roller-coaster ride.  It's a league without one really great team but with eight very good teams and two more than are also quite talented and can play with anyone on any given night. 

Do the first New England rankings come out this week or next?  They should be NESCAC-dominated.  Babson is a lock for 1, Middlebury for 2, as of now.  I'd go with Amherst, Tufts, Williams, Wesleyan, Trinity, Endicott, Eastern Conn, MIT in that order for the rest, with Bates in the picture as well.  That could of course change dramatically over the next week with Wesleyan playing Amherst, the Amherst/Midd/Trinity/Hamiltion weekend, and Williams facing Tufts/Bates on the road. 

It's been a pretty weak year for New England outside of NESCAC and Babson.  NEWMAC seems to be a one-horse league (MIT has a strong W-L record but their second-best win is, I don't even know, maybe Springfield?).  LEC is kind of like a worse version of NESCAC -- very competitive and balanced, with three solid teams at the top, but no one team who is likely to be Pool C-worthy.  The rest of New England are clearly all one-bid leagues.  If Babson wins NEWMAC, I'd expect that all of the New England Pool C bids go to NESCAC, which is why I'm confident the league will produce at least 3 Pool C teams. 

One more note: a nice recruiting pick-up for Midd.  Frosh guards will certainly have an opportunity to play early for the Panthers, with the two stars and two senior back-ups graduating and with the hole from Baines' departure. 

http://www.newenglandrecruitingreport.com/news/suffields-kornaker-makes-pick

To follow up on recruiting, saw this on Twitter yesterday:

Middlebury Class of 2021 (all guards):

Griffin Kornaker, Suffield Academy (MA)
Jack Farrell, Verona High School (NJ)
Max Bosco, Scarsdale High School (NY)
Will Ingram, St. Marks (TX)

---

The name Will Ingram seemed familiar to me, and then I remembered he was the Texas guard featured in Bill Rhoden's excellent New York Times piece about DIII hoops, a story that also featured Midd assistant Kyle Dudley.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/20/sports/ncaabasketball/division-iii-basketball-recruits-academics.html

I believe Griffin Kornaker is son of the St. John Fisher Head Coach, Rob Kornaker.

Interesting! And would make sense; I do understand he is from Rochester.

Hoops Fan is correct. Griffin Kornaker is the son of St. John Fisher Head Coach, Rob Kornaker. Coach Kornaker was a former assistant under Plattsburgh State Coach Tom Curle. Coach Curle was instrumental in helping Middlebury gain the talents of young Kornaker, as he gave his former assistant a good assessment of Middlebury College, Coach Brown and recommended that he go there. 

[jayhawk]

 I do think Jayde Dawson is very talented but he can take some shots without first trying to work the ball around and see if a better shot can be found. 
The issues facing Amherst is more multifaceted. There is no doubt when Jayde is hitting his shots, similar to Connor Green last year, life is a lot easier. Last night Johnny Mac had a tough night he was 3 for 13 and 2 for 9 on the 3 pt shot. Johnny Mac is supertalented and he is critical to Amherst. It is amazing he has hit those buzzer beater shots. My guess is that on those buzzer beater shots, he focuses a little more and takes his time a little more and does not rush his shot and can make them. His, rebounding (often leading team in rebounds), defending (shut down Vinny Pace of Tufts) and driving to the basket are important contributions. My hope is that he will become more consistent and not rush his shot as much.

The silver lining for Amherst is that Michael Riopel has been more confident and consistent and productive. When he is hitting his shot and driving to the basket then Amherst has 3 players, Johnny Mac, Jayde Dawson, and Rio who can score and prevent the defense from packing the middle. Hopefully Amherst can find more ways to peneterate and either score or pass out. They are not that far away. 
Even with the issues Amherst had last night they had the chance to win .

Amherst has a potential but I think they miss Connor Green for the qualities he brought to the team last year outside of his streaky shooting, he was very strong, had great hoops, and when he wanted to the basket to rebound he was extremely aggressive about getting the ball.

[middhoops]

The computer generated Massey ratings give 5 of the top 28 spots to NESCAC teams.

http://www.masseyratings.com/cb/ncaa-d3/ratings

[amh63]

Buffering??  I got that last night.  Checked out my router, etc.  The TWO computers were going on and off...buffering and video.   Basically it is on the Amherst site....the last three times could get clear video from Conn College and Tufts that are not part of NSN.  Then saw fine video from Williams and MIdd, etc.  Amherst was getting nasty weather late and announcer suggested the small crowd maybe the result of weather.  In short, the signal feed out of Amherst to various areas.  It sucks....my two cents.  In contrast, my younger son and his wife is in southern Chile now and will be off to hike further into Pantagonia.  My wife can track them on her IPad via some app and get fine pics...Summer time now in SA and son paddle boating on the large lake even....5300 miles from D.C.  Amazing technology today but atmospheric conditions...localility dependent..rules.  No it is not Climate Change!!.
Wait....will admit that I had a tough time in my atmospheric science grad course at MIT from the top prof on the subject at the time.  OK, so did the other three students...two post doc's. Prof finally realized his teaching approach needed changing after first quiz...high test score was 40!
Will be catching the weekend games in Coastal Florida...hopefully with clear skies.

[Canvas Hightops]

Vandy74, amh63 and Dave:  We were suffering the buffering here as well.  Other video feeds were fine.

Good/great game even just following the stats.
Oh, those missed free throws!