MBB: NESCAC

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Peek's really good.  Good size.  Great shooter.  The one G-League game I saw with him they were just ignoring him on the floor.  I will say, I'm not sure he's got enough quickness to keep up defensively at that level, but he's a great player.  Definitely improved from game 1 to game 2, as well.

[nescac1]

With Peek, it's not what you'd assume for a NESCAC perimeter player succeeding at higher levels, but I think what's really holding him back from reaching the next level as a player is actually his outside touch.  At Wesleyan and Stetson, he never shot over 35 percent from 3 or 73 percent from the line, and he's never been a volume three point shooter so it's not like guys are blanketing him defensively on the perimeter.  He's got great positional size and strength, he's crafty off the dribble, he's very athletic, and he really rebounds the ball, but as Ryan said he isn't going to burn guys off the bounce at the highest levels of hoops, so his three point shot will really need to improve - if it does, he could make money playing hoops for a long time. 

Drafting a post-2015 NESCAC team as SpringSt7 alluded to would be fun.  I think Alex Sobel as a national POTY and then a D1 starting center who utterly dominated the league for two years has to be a lock for the first spot.  After that, you look at guys who have made all-American teams and it's a long list: Peek, Hank Morgan, Shane Regan, Nicky Johnson, Matt St. Amour, Bobby Casey, Kena Gilmour, Ed Ogundeko, Lucas Hausman, Jack Daly, Luke Rogers, Sam Jefferson, David Murray, Jarrel Okorougo, Ben Callahan-Gold, Dylan Thoerner, James Heskett.  But after Sobel, I'd have a really hard time picking four from that group who stand out among all the rest.  I think I'd probably go with Gilmour, Hausman, and Peek, and for the last spot, it's a very tough call. Maybe one of the Trinity guys locks it up this year.   

[nescac1]

Not only did WeAreD3 beat the UConn team last night, but they did so with a Hank Morgan to Sam Peek to David Murray game winner.  Murray had a big game off the bench for the D3 squad.  It's pretty wild that four NESCAC guys from four different teams are competing at this level, and none of them are from the three NESCAC teams who have won national titles (including the reigning champ)!

[AmherstStudent05]

I haven't followed NESCAC basketball quite as closely this past decade as I did the decade before but I always have a hard time resisting any conversation about the best players or teams over a given period of time.  If I had to pick the best 5 NESCAC players over the past decade (not necessarily the best "team"), I would go with:

1. Alex Sobel (agree with nescac1 that he is the clear number 1 and perhaps the only lock on this list).
2. Hank Morgan (could be some recency bias here but I think it is hard to argue).
3. MSA
4. Shane Regan
5. David Murray

Four of my five picks are former Conference Players of the Year.  Regan was not and maybe Wes fans think Peek a better choice.  Anyway, always a fun exercise and as nescac1 rightly states, there are plenty of great players to choose from.  Here's hoping that my 2025-2035 All NESCAC team is filled with Jeffs!

[SpringSt7]

I don't know my team and maybe I'll get around to putting some thought into one but I would struggle to build a team that consists too heavily of guys that didn't play in the second weekend of the tournament and/or win the NESCAC. Too many great players and that would have to be the decider for me. Lot of post pandemic guys who put up numbers with little team success to show for it

[Maine Hoops]

No comments in over a month?

Message Board working?

[nescac1]

Yeah, a very quiet off-season in NESCAC especially with the returning national champion as well as a second Final Four team ... no reason to think that Trinity won't return as the overwhelming favorite in the league and a sure-fire preseason number one nationally. 

Two small bits of NESCAC hoops news:

Middlebury's 6'11 center Scott Schmitt, who played limited minutes as a FY, transferred to Union.

Zane Adnan, a 6'4 guard who saw limited action at D1 Albany, transferred to Amherst for his final two years. 

[toad22]

I am worried that all the pundits on this board have gone away. I rely on you guys to spill info and opinions about non-Williams teams in the league. I only know one team - Williams. What about you guys who follow other teams? I will start off by saying that the key to Williams will be good health. They have had very bad health going back several years. If the Ephs can stay healthy, I am confident they will be near the top of the league.

[el_jefe_90]

@toad22, you may have heard that Trinity is going to be okay again. Facetious of course as they are going to be one of the top teams in the country given what they're bringing back. I would say Tufts is a solid #2 choice bringing their starting 5 back.

After that, it certainly looks up in the air! I expect Hamilton to have a down year compared to last year given what they lost. Bowdoin and Bates are bringing back a lot of players from 1-9 NESCAC seasons so we'll see how they roll. Conn College loses their second leading scorer and starting C. Their zone always causes problems though. Amherst loses 58% of their scoring, and they weren't exactly an offensive power. They did get a D1 transfer. Their success may depend on how their young guys progress, both from last year and the newcomers.

There's some intriguing storylines too. Wesleyan brings back a lot of defensive talent, but it will be interesting to watch how they play after losing their two star players. Both such huge impacts on the offensive end.

Colby brings back all of their talented guards and will fill the C position Lawson left behind with Civello. Of course, they have a new head coach. We'll see how the veterans adjust to the new coaching style.

Middlebury also has a new coach. They lose Stevens and Brennan to graduation and a reserve to the transfer portal, but they bring back some ballers from an injury plagued season. Expect Tristan Joseph to have a big offensive year if he can stay healthy. We'll also see how the offense plays out without Brennan being a terror on the offensive boards, over 5 per game last year.

Williams bringing back Lee, Hansen and Yates will certainly help the offense, but that has been a struggle for Williams the past couple years. The key question might be who the starting C is on this team. Van Gorp and Dickens played a combined 17 games last year. Another is will they have an impact first year player like Yates from a year ago?

Less than two months away from great basketball action!

[nescac1]

My thoughts heading into the season largely mirror el_jefe's.

Trinity is an overwhelming favorite not just in NESCAC, but will likely be a unanimous pre-season number one nationally.  The Bantams have a chance at the best-ever three-year run in NESCAC history (they are already right there with the best ever two-year runs along with Williams 03-04 and Amherst 07-08 and 13-14).  Tufts is a clear number two and way ahead of whomever the pick for number three might be.  With virtually everyone back and a loaded incoming class, the Jumbos may have closed the gap with Trinity a bit, but given that Trinity has beaten them with ease five times (!) over the past two seasons, it's hard to put Tufts, likely a top-ten national team, in Trinity's class.  Trinity's speed and athleticism are just a really bad match-up for the Jumbos (and virtually everyone else, but especially the Jumbos). 

After that, virtually any order 3-11 makes sense and I think we need to see pre-season rosters before making a prediction.  I like Williams' core better than any other team in this group but by no means are the Ephs are a sure thing this year.  Bowdoin and especially Bates who I think is a very dark horse should be better, and Wesleyan and Hamilton significantly worse, plus of course there are the two coaching changes, and Amherst/Williams/Midd/Conn all lose some key players, making for even more of a crapshoot after a clear top two. 

The Cards will continue to defend the heck out of the ball, they are athletic, deep, and very long everywhere, and I expect some guys will be ready to step into bigger roles offensively.  But last year was a magical sort of year where everything went right for Wesleyan: their entire rotation missed only two games combined due to injury, and they won five games that came down to the last possession, including three OT wins.  Nearly every meaningful offensive play was initiated by Nicky Johnson or Shane Regan, and whoever the lead guards are this year, it will be very hard to duplicate a veteran all-American backcourt duo like that.  While making a Final Four has helped raise the level of the program, a pretty significant drop-off is almost a sure thing. 

As for Williams, el_jefe, I'd hope / expect Hudson Hansen will be the starting 5 for the Ephs this year with the other returning bigs playing as back-ups to him.  He played very well when he played the 5 as a junior and he can really use his speed advantage well at that position, and he's gotten gradually stronger each year.  It would also enable the Ephs to play a much faster pace overall which I think would help with some of their scoring issues, this will be the smallest, but quickest, Eph team we've see in quite some time. 

I figure Rein will slide in at the 4 where he should be a very effective starter, and along with Yates and Alex Lee, that gives the Ephs a great four-man core, including three guys who will at least be in the all-league convo, but the question is which unproven guys will step up around that core group?  This is also a year when going small shouldn't be a problem in NESCAC with Lawson, Hartel, Brennan and the Amherst big man duo graduating from an underwhelming center group to begin with.  Other than Tufts, whose bulk has always been a problem for Williams, there aren't a lot of teams in the league with much in the way of interior scoring to worry about (not even Trinity!); most of the big guys who look to shoot it are more of the skinny stretch-5 variety at this point.  After Gyimesi and Bernstein, who are the dependable low-block scorers in the entire league?  I can't think of any. 

Assuming everyone expected to return is back, and no surprising impact transfers, here is a shot at a pre-season all-conference team:

1st team: Vetter, Okorougo, Gyimesi, Morakis, Espinosa, Cuevas, Pouye
2nd team: Lazarre, Poulton, Lee, Hansen, Joseph, Yates, Cormier

Other players to watch: Bernstein, Medley, Clar, Chin, Coyne, Keyhani, Berry, Civello, Lyttle, Witherington

[stlawus]

Is Charlie Randall back at Amherst?  Seems that could be the case.  If so I'm surprised no one got him in the portal.

[el_jefe_90]

@stlawus, I'm not 100% sure but I wouldn't think so. He put his name in the portal in January of 2025, after the 24-25 season had already begun, which leads me to believe he no longer wanted to play at Amherst. Just my opinion. Guess we won't know until rosters come out.

His younger brother, Ian, is on the Tufts Men's Basketball roster as a first-year. He's also a 7 footer who can shoot from the outside.

[stlawus]

@stlawus, I'm not 100% sure but I wouldn't think so. He put his name in the portal in January of 2025, after the 24-25 season had already begun, which leads me to believe he no longer wanted to play at Amherst. Just my opinion. Guess we won't know until rosters come out.

His younger brother, Ian, is on the Tufts Men's Basketball roster as a first-year. He's also a 7 footer who can shoot from the outside.

After reaching out to a different source it appears you are right and was a false alarm on my part.

[jumbomumbo]

Haven't seen this posted on the board and a week late but Tufts associate head coach Holmes took a head coaching job at John Jay. That's about all I know for new news about Tufts this year right now.

Expecting the league to be Trin and Tufts at the one and two, in some combination. Speaking for all tufts fans, beating Trinity would be sweet revenge. The tufts core is going to be as good as anyone. I know Trinity has given us matchup problems but I think we can find a way to beat them. Will be interesting to see if any first years make their way into the rotation. Have heard it's a pretty good class but they're behind some senior talent right now

[nescac1]

Looking at the national landscape: Trinity is going to be one of the heaviest favorites D3 hoops has seen in recent years, right up there with some of the utterly dominant Randolph-Macon teams. 

Trinity has gone 60-5 over two years, with two final fours, is the defending champion, and loses only its fifth-leading scorer from its top seven (an important player in Dorion, but someone they have strong replacements for as Berry and Ayles should both be ready to roughly double their respective minutes). 

Look at the rest of the top 12 and barring massive additions, they all seem likely to slip a bit further behind Trinity's level (or in some cases, slip dramatically).  This assumes everyone eligible even returns:

NYU - loses its top 7 guys!
Wesleyan - loses two all-American guards
Wash U - loses its top two scorers, both of whom have been all-region players
Emory - loses its center who was a dominant presence on defense and the glass, plus his top backup. Still, they bring back a ton and will be in the top five for sure.
Lacrosse - brings back its top four but loses a ton of depth (5-8 in the rotation)
Redlands - loses its second and fourth leading scorer, one of whom was the assist leader as well.
Lutheran - loses its entire starting five
Platteville - loses a ton including the national POTY
IWU - loses its top three scorers and four of its top five rebounders
Hampden Sydney - loses a lot including a first team all-American
Catholic - loses its 1st and 3rd leading scorers.

Meanwhile, with the COVID era basically over, there seem to fewer super-teams loaded with transfers out there, UChicago being the big exception. 

As you go further down the standings, you get some teams like Tufts and RMC that return virtually everyone and should challenge, but they obviously have a lot of ground to make up on Trinity, which does not figure to slip in level at all.  The toughest part for Trinity will be having to face everyone's best game as the defending champs and likely unanimous pre-season number one team, but they have such a bulldog mentality that I don't see them coasting or losing their edge just because they already got a 'chip.  Surely they will be motivated to be the first NESCAC back-to-back winner. 

My guess on what a pre-season top 10 is likely to look like: 1. Trinity, 2. UChicago, 3. Emory, 4. Lacrosse, 5. Redlands, 6. Tufts, 7. RMC, 8. Wash U, 9. Catholic, 10. CNU.  Mary Washington might be a dark horse as they came on late. 

I don't think anyone else in NESCAC looks likely to be a top-25 team right now, Wesleyan might squeeze in at the back due to being a returning Final Four team, but the two guys they lost carried such a heavy load. But surely as the season goes along we will see some other NESCAC representation.