MBB: NESCAC

[jumbomumbo]

Tufts wins their second game in Miami 111-51, think that was the score. Tufts sophomore Lukas Schmidt with a casual 35 points on 21 mins. Hardly sees the rotation! Tufts may have some injury issues but they do have depth

[stlawus]

Their opponent is 394th ranked on Massey out of 409 teams.

[ItsATuftSituation]

Tufts wins their second game in Miami 111-51, think that was the score. Tufts sophomore Lukas Schmidt with a casual 35 points on 21 mins. Hardly sees the rotation! Tufts may have some injury issues but they do have depth

Website release said 117-51. The 66 point win was the largest in program history for Tufts. That's pretty lopsided, but when you go to those tournaments in FL and PR it can be hard to dictate opponents.

Not sure what's up with Medley and Reilly, hopefully they're back at some point.

[SpringSt7]

Williams won a game in 2019 against MCLA by 83 and then 9 days later beat Fitchburg St by 68. I wonder what the NESCAC record is

[D3BBALL]

My Post Xmas rankings. Strength of Schedule is from Massey and out of 409 teams
1) Trinity 8-0 - No Change- Strength of Schedule 217. Blah Blah Blah zero change, best team in NESCAC, maybe best team in D3. No one can touch their top 7.
2) Wesleyan 8-2 - No Change - Strength of Schedule 106 - Playing well and a tough schedule. Until someone beats them in the NESCAC, they are my #2. They have already beaten Williams as well.
3) Bates 9-0 - Up 2 Spots - Strength of Schedule 323 – Every time I watch Pouye, like him more and more. Upcoming Emory game will tell a lot.
4) Tufts 9-2 - No Change – Strength of Schedule 155 – Have won 9 in a row, but not very convincing against average teams. Injuries issues continue to grow. Clark & WPI upcoming, they can make their case to move up.
5) Colby 7-1 – Down 2 – Strength of Schedule 275 – Not a good loss to St. Joes of Maine, who I believe were still missing some key players. Still early, new coach, different system, will take time.
6) Conn 8-1 – Up 1 – Strength of Schedule 219 – New players really helping this team. Espinosa shooting better, loss to Western NE not great.
7) Williams 8-2 – Down 1 – Strength of Schedule 264. Injury issues and still questions on guard play, rebounding and shooting. Haven't really beat anyone below 150 in rankings except Suny Oneonta.
I think NESCAC could get 4-5 in the NCAA, 2-6 all have a real shot, Williams at this time Bubble at best.
8) Bowdoin 7-3 – Up 2, Strength of Schedule 161. Cuevas playing well, just need others to step up.
9) Amherst 7-1 – Down 1 – Strength of Schedule 395 out of 409. Loss to Springfield bad. Play no one until out of conference Wesleyan game.
10) Middlebury 4-3 – down 1 – Strength of Schedule 103. They have played the toughest rated schedule in NESCAC but haven't really beaten anyone in top 150 rankings. Lost a ton of talent, new coach, new system, not looking great.
11) Hamilton 2-8, No Change – Strength of Schedule 199. They just don't have enough talent.

[CC.CamelFan]

Correction on your Post Xmas rankings.
6) Conn hasn't played Western NE lol. Their only loss was on the road to Eastern Conn who is currently #27 NPI.

[D3BBALL]

Correction on your Post Xmas rankings.
6) Conn hasn't played Western NE lol. Their only loss was on the road to Eastern Conn who is currently #27 NPI.

Oops good catch. Still moved them up 1 in my rankings lol

[nescac1]

Amherst lost a close game to Whittier last night.  I still cannot believe the insanity of Amherst's winter schedule.  They had a 21-day gap in play before yesterday's game, so of course they were going to be rusty.  Now they have four West Coast games in five days with I would guess (if a bus trip) a long travel day on the one day off.  The latter pair of games aren't even in the same spot, so that's another bus trip.  Then they have a long day of travel back to the east coast with only two days to recover and prep for an early game (which will feel like playing at 9 a.m. after over a week on Pacific time) against a rival. 

It's especially dangerous with only a 12-man roster (ten of whom seem to be in the rotation) and with a small team that needs to play fast and whose frontcourt has to work hard to defend much bigger guys in many games.  If one or two guys gets dinged up during the four game West coast swing there is no recovery time at all built in.

[D3BBALL]

Amherst lost a close game to Whittier last night.  I still cannot believe the insanity of Amherst's winter schedule.  They had a 21-day gap in play before yesterday's game, so of course they were going to be rusty.  Now they have four West Coast games in five days with I would guess (if a bus trip) a long travel day on the one day off.  The latter pair of games aren't even in the same spot, so that's another bus trip.  Then they have a long day of travel back to the east coast with only two days to recover and prep for an early game (which will feel like playing at 9 a.m. after over a week on Pacific time) against a rival. 

It's especially dangerous with only a 12-man roster (ten of whom seem to be in the rotation) and with a small team that needs to play fast and whose frontcourt has to work hard to defend much bigger guys in many games.  If one or two guys gets dinged up during the four game West coast swing there is no recovery time at all built in.

100% agree, just a bad schedule, I think 3 of the games will be against teams whose SOS is 125 or below, compared to their first 8 games with none under 150. Then as you state the travel and then coming back to play Wesleyan

[nescac1]

I hate to be the I-told-you-so guy but Amherst was already down two guys last night,including Elias Chin who is clearly their most important player and has been playing at an all-league level.  Against Ohio Northern they only played 7 guys in the second half and looked absolutely exhausted down the stretch as they failed to score a FG in the last 12 minutes.  They had been shooting well up to that point but the legs got tired and they also stopped closely contesting threes on D which is all about energy. 

A bright spot was KJ Neville who played well at lead guard with Garraud in foul trouble and Chin out, he looks like a player, but he had to do too much and got a bit frustrated. Amherst also has virtually no inside game to get an easy bucket when the drive and kick game isn't working. (Ironic as Amherst fans have been calling for better guard play and they finally have a deep group of playmaking guards - just as they seemingly stopped recruiting big guys).  They better hope Chin and Adnan come back soon because without both they are perilously thin and still two more games to go on this crazy 4-in-5 road trip. 

[SpringSt7]

Looks like the 1972 Dolphins can breathe another sigh of relief if they are watching Bates play Emory this afternoon

[JEFFFAN]

Sort of wondering how many seasons Sears has left to get this Amherst program back to a semi-decent state.   Over his four full seasons - enough to have his recruits for a few of those seasons - the program has a winning percentage of 54% overall an 45% in the NESCAC.  Over Hixon's last 12 years, the overall winning percentage was 78% and 75% in the NESCAC.   I respect the reality of following a legend - as has been noted here many times, the only D3 coach in the basketball hall of fame - but when is enough enough?

[D3BBALL]

Looks like the 1972 Dolphins can breathe another sigh of relief if they are watching Bates play Emory this afternoon

lol!!!!

[nescac1]

The way nearly everyone else has been struggling of late, I think the over-under on Trinity NESCAC losses is now down to .5. 

[stlawus]

Outside a couple seasons under Glenn Miller Conn has never historically been an upper tier team. I wonder if Sweeney is thinking about whether or not the grass has been greener at Conn than it was at Hobart. I'm pretty sure he took the Conn job because he was frustrated about not getting at large selections, but all things considered he had a pretty good thing going at Hobart. His first full recruiting cycle made the sweet 16 (and could have gone further if not for covid) the season after he left for Conn, and it's been fairly mid at Conn outside of 1 season where they still didn't make the tournament.  Now Hixon's protege just took Conn down and seems to be building something at Hartford.  I don't know how much priority the Conn administration places on men's hoops, but one has to wonder about that situation if it doesn't end up great this season.