MBB: NESCAC

[nescac1]

Interesting that Trinity swapped their center rotation for the Hood game.  I assume just a matchup thing against a small, quick team and they will want more size at the 5 against a more physical frontline.

The left side of the bracket is really stacked right now, 1, 4, 5 and 9 in NPI still alive, and Tufts is getting fully healthy at the right time.  But really the NPI ratings did a heck of a job overall with no one in the Elite 8 under 11.  About as close to chalk as you can get. 

Nieves is definitely looking like a major star going forward.  This is one of the most talent-packed FY classes I've seen in NESCAC - Neville, Dawkins, Nieves, Robinson, Ducree, Pow, Sommers, Waatson, Plankey, Bianco, Melson, Woodberry ... and most of that group has some rawness to their games.  The collective size/strength/athleticism is off the charts.  And Tufts and Trinity seemed to have some talent stashed that we may see next year. 

If guys do stick around for four years I think we should see five or more all American type players from that group. 

With potentially 11/14 all league guys not returning, a lot of guys from that group are going to be headline stars in the league even as sophomores.  The first five from that group I  listed I'd probably have on a preseason all-league team (assuming the three portal guys are gone).

[D3BBALL]

Congrats to Tufts and Jumbo!!
Wesleyan had a great run this year and Reilly showed why he is the best coach in the League. Down 20 in second half and they got the game down to 3 and 4 points. But just too hard to come all the way back against a team like Tufts and they didn't have a great game shooting by any of theirs players.
Tufts is peaking at the right time and now that Gyimesi is back and has 5 more days of rest, they will be tough to beat. Bernstein playing great as Jumbo stated. Will be interesting to see how Trinity guards him.
I'm sure Trinity would rather have been matched up against Wesleyan.
Trinity played the perfect team to right their ship. No real inside game and a team that can be sloppy at times with the ball. Trinity's starting 5 moved the ball really well, only had 4 turnovers, bench had 4 in much less minutes. Lineup change had to do with sickness, was not strategic. Vetter was in foul trouble most of the game and still had 20 points. He has been shooting lights out in the tournament.
It's a shame this game couldn't be played at Trinity or Tufts or somewhere in NE, there would be a packed crowd and unbelievable environment! NCAA screwed the NESCAC conference, because they are lazy, cheap and don't really care about all D3 sports, yes I will keep saying it. Format is just stupid this year and championship game, on 2 weeks rest, on Easter Sunday, just makes my point. These teams should be meeting in the final four or the championship game, not elite eight!

Yarbrough is one of the best guards in the country. Trinity had a hard time containing him.

[SpringSt7]

Overdue here but props to both Trinity and Tufts. I was really impressed by Okorougo against Hood - he really carried them with Vetter in a little bit of foul trouble and I am happy to be proven wrong in regards to him creating his own offense. He is a great player and if he plays like that again in Ft. Wayne they will go to another Final Four.

I have had really high expectations for Tufts for like 3 years now and they were really really impressive on Friday night. Linton is the real deal and I think you could argue has done the best coaching job in the country this year, factoring in that there are a lot of other great coaches in the country and I don't know all of their stories. Reilly and Wesleyan had a great year and are worthy of COY but I definitely feel vindicated in picking Linton as POY. If someone told you in October that Morakis would play 14 minutes a game and score 6 points but they would be in the Elite 8 you would've laughed at me. Josh Bernstein coming into his own after being a guy whose flaws have been exposed in big moments throughout his career has been a really cool story. I think they have a real chance at getting Trinity on Thursday assuming Gyemesi continues to progress.

After the sky was falling for a few years + COVID 5th years messing everything up, 3 straight Final Fours for the NESCAC again. The league is back and in good shape once again

[D3BBALL]

Overdue here but props to both Trinity and Tufts. I was really impressed by Okorougo against Hood - he really carried them with Vetter in a little bit of foul trouble and I am happy to be proven wrong in regards to him creating his own offense. He is a great player and if he plays like that again in Ft. Wayne they will go to another Final Four.

I have had really high expectations for Tufts for like 3 years now and they were really really impressive on Friday night. Linton is the real deal and I think you could argue has done the best coaching job in the country this year, factoring in that there are a lot of other great coaches in the country and I don't know all of their stories. Reilly and Wesleyan had a great year and are worthy of COY but I definitely feel vindicated in picking Linton as POY. If someone told you in October that Morakis would play 14 minutes a game and score 6 points but they would be in the Elite 8 you would've laughed at me. Josh Bernstein coming into his own after being a guy whose flaws have been exposed in big moments throughout his career has been a really cool story. I think they have a real chance at getting Trinity on Thursday assuming Gyemesi continues to progress.

After the sky was falling for a few years + COVID 5th years messing everything up, 3 straight Final Fours for the NESCAC again. The league is back and in good shape once again

I agree on Tufts, they have a great shot at beating Trinity.

On Linton, I don't think he is close to COY in the league or in D3 basketball, at least to date this year. He has either the 1 or 1A most talented team in the NESCAC this year and certainly a top 15 talented team in the country. I think Tufts top 10 is better than anyone in the league, top 7 I will still give to Trinity. They were picked by pretty much everyone to give Trinity a run for the title this year. Didn't win the regular season or get to the finals. Don't know the situation on Morakis, but you have the fall and preseason to fix the situation, and for whatever reason it didn't happen. I think this falls on both the coach and the player. Bernstein, it has taken almost 4 years to get him to play at a consistent high level against talented teams. Again, this is on the coach as much as the player. Tufts did not lose much talent from last year to this year compared to most teams, so not sure he is COY in the league or in D3. He has a huge chance on Thursday, if they win that game, I think everyone will look at him differently. Over his tenure, I think he has done a great job in recruiting, but I do question his X's and O's and substitutions in games.

Reilly lost his 2 best players and then got 2 players who I don't think anyone had on their first team (or most even on 2nd team) ballot preseason in Wolinski and Pohlman, to both play lights out. No one had Wesleyan top 2 in the league. Then he out coached both Linton and Cosgrove against those teams in the regular season and the Tufts game was on the road for Wesleyan. Linton should have played Nieves more against Wesleyan, might have won that game.

If the FOY award was picked thru last weekend, Neives would probably have won it, would have been my pick at that point. He might just be the 2nd best player on Tufts. Jumbo has been talking about him for a while, and it wasn't until 4 games left in the regular season that Linton started playing him more than 20 minutes per game.

Linton is getting better, will be interesting to see how Tufts plays next year without this senior class.

[SpringSt7]

Overdue here but props to both Trinity and Tufts. I was really impressed by Okorougo against Hood - he really carried them with Vetter in a little bit of foul trouble and I am happy to be proven wrong in regards to him creating his own offense. He is a great player and if he plays like that again in Ft. Wayne they will go to another Final Four.

I have had really high expectations for Tufts for like 3 years now and they were really really impressive on Friday night. Linton is the real deal and I think you could argue has done the best coaching job in the country this year, factoring in that there are a lot of other great coaches in the country and I don't know all of their stories. Reilly and Wesleyan had a great year and are worthy of COY but I definitely feel vindicated in picking Linton as POY. If someone told you in October that Morakis would play 14 minutes a game and score 6 points but they would be in the Elite 8 you would've laughed at me. Josh Bernstein coming into his own after being a guy whose flaws have been exposed in big moments throughout his career has been a really cool story. I think they have a real chance at getting Trinity on Thursday assuming Gyemesi continues to progress.

After the sky was falling for a few years + COVID 5th years messing everything up, 3 straight Final Fours for the NESCAC again. The league is back and in good shape once again

Don't know the situation on Morakis, but you have the fall and preseason to fix the situation, and for whatever reason it didn't happen. I think this falls on both the coach and the player.

They did fix the situation - they played him way less minutes because he was out of shape and now they are in the Elite 8. It worked out for everyone except Morakis, that's on him. You are somehow looking at this as a negative on Linton when it is clearly a massive positive that they navigated this and got to this point, not to mention the Gyemesi injury as well.

[D3BBALL]

Overdue here but props to both Trinity and Tufts. I was really impressed by Okorougo against Hood - he really carried them with Vetter in a little bit of foul trouble and I am happy to be proven wrong in regards to him creating his own offense. He is a great player and if he plays like that again in Ft. Wayne they will go to another Final Four.

I have had really high expectations for Tufts for like 3 years now and they were really really impressive on Friday night. Linton is the real deal and I think you could argue has done the best coaching job in the country this year, factoring in that there are a lot of other great coaches in the country and I don't know all of their stories. Reilly and Wesleyan had a great year and are worthy of COY but I definitely feel vindicated in picking Linton as POY. If someone told you in October that Morakis would play 14 minutes a game and score 6 points but they would be in the Elite 8 you would've laughed at me. Josh Bernstein coming into his own after being a guy whose flaws have been exposed in big moments throughout his career has been a really cool story. I think they have a real chance at getting Trinity on Thursday assuming Gyemesi continues to progress.

After the sky was falling for a few years + COVID 5th years messing everything up, 3 straight Final Fours for the NESCAC again. The league is back and in good shape once again

Don't know the situation on Morakis, but you have the fall and preseason to fix the situation, and for whatever reason it didn't happen. I think this falls on both the coach and the player.

They did fix the situation - they played him way less minutes because he was out of shape and now they are in the Elite 8. It worked out for everyone except Morakis, that's on him. You are somehow looking at this as a negative on Linton when it is clearly a massive positive that they navigated this and got to this point, not to mention the Gyemesi injury as well.

Why did he start him the beginning of the year then? Did the coach not realize he was out of shape in September, October and November? Linton couldn't get him in shape during that time. So, he played him knowing he was out of shape costing his teams losses, is that good coaching? Neither Cosgrove or Reilly would allow that to happen and if it did neither would be playing the player from the start of the season. Why did he get out coached against Reilly?  He has won neither the regular season or the league championship this year or any year and this year with a loaded roster. With or without Morakis, their roster is better than anyone besides Trinity in the league. Why has Bernstein not played at the level he has played the last 6 or so games, all year?

He is a good coach, getting better, but he didn't deserve coach of the year in the NESCAC over Reilly or Sears and right now not close to being coach of the year in D3 unless he wins the NCAA. Which he just may do.

If anything, Cosgrove should be coach of the year over Linton, 2 losses, both on the road against top 10 teams, a second unit not nearly as good as the previous 2 years. Everyone gunning for them every game, winning the NESCAC championship on the road for 3rd straight year. Team has played with way more injuries and illness than in the 2 previous years combined and they are 28-2. Even with all that, it was Reilly or Sears who should have won it. With the talent on their teams and what both coaches did this year, they were COY, not Linton, not Cosgrove.

[jumbomumbo]

There's a whole lot of Mumbo jumbo talk on this board right now. an out of shape Morakis is still an incredibly scary threat. Like yeah, we have this dude who is 4th off the bench and by the way he's a 1,000 point scorer. Sure he might've gained some weight but he's able to use that to his advantage. He was physical before the weight and he still is. Can absolutely bull you to the rim. He's still explosive. While we're talking about hidden weapons. Good time to remind you our legit last guy off the bench dropped 36 in a game in Miami this year. And Evan Reeves, who ranks dead last on this jumbos roster in PPG, is absolutely going to terrorize the NESCAC in years to come.

If we are trying to tie this conversation back to coaching - the verdict is that Coach Linton is the best d3 recruiter in the country. And he's a good enough game manager to make it all work.

[D3BBALL]

Congrats to Gyimesi getting D3 Hoops district 1 player of the year. And NESCAC getting 4 out of 5 first team, 1 2nd team and 3 3rd team and COY. (Teams of 5)

Gyimesi, Vetter, Okorougo, and Cuevas first team
Wolinski 2nd team
Pohlman, Pouye and Civello 3rd team.
Cosgrove COY

[el_jefe_90]

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.

[jumbomumbo]

The top 20 brackets on the d3 challenge have trin in final 4. The 21st bracket has tufts. Public all over trin. Yikes!