MBB: NESCAC

[NEhoops]

nescac1 – who from the All-American teams is in the portal?

Per our ongoing discussion about team success and the relationship to individual accolades. It is interesting to see the inclusion of Landers (Concordia-Wis), Welch (Plattsburgh State) and Richardson (Wheaton-IIl). All three of their teams had limited success and aside from Richardson (from the CCIW), the other two leagues are below average. Not a knock on the players or the overall selection of the teams, just some ongoing perspective.

Scary to think that Illinois Wesleyan has a first team (sophomore) and fifth team (junior) selection. 

Interesting to wonder what success looks like for Cuevas, Civello, etc. Aside from money, what is ultimately the driving factor for them transferring, knowing that each situation is a unique set of circumstances.   

[Greek Tragedy]

Cleveland is listed as a sophomore, but he has freshman eligibility since he played JV last year. Funk was unstoppable in the Elite 8 game.  They would probably be Top 3 next year if Cleveland returned. They are also getting last year's freshman of the year and preseason AA Josh Fridman back from injury.

[nescac1]

NEhoops, Cleveland, Overway, Grieger, and Yarbrough.  I'd personally rank their D1 prospects in that order but who knows.  I expect they all get offers.  I bet Kye Robinson joins them too. Cleveland is just a nasty athlete for his size and has so much room to grow his skills into a true four in D1 with three years left. 

IWU would obviously be a very different team without Cleveland.  With him and Fridman back from injury plus nearly everyone else, a top two team.  MWU will be number one no matter what IF Robinson returns.  Big if, alas. 

[ziggy]

Cleveland is listed as a sophomore, but he has freshman eligibility since he played JV last year. Funk was unstoppable in the Elite 8 game.  They would probably be Top 3 next year if Cleveland returned. They are also getting last year's freshman of the year and preseason AA Josh Fridman back from injury.

Slight correction: Cleveland did not play basketball at all as a freshman at IWU. He was not, and never would have been, a JV player. He went to the school as a regular student.

[blue_jays]

nescac1 – who from the All-American teams is in the portal?

Per our ongoing discussion about team success and the relationship to individual accolades. It is interesting to see the inclusion of Landers (Concordia-Wis), Welch (Plattsburgh State) and Richardson (Wheaton-IIl). All three of their teams had limited success and aside from Richardson (from the CCIW), the other two leagues are below average. Not a knock on the players or the overall selection of the teams, just some ongoing perspective.

Scary to think that Illinois Wesleyan has a first team (sophomore) and fifth team (junior) selection. 

Interesting to wonder what success looks like for Cuevas, Civello, etc. Aside from money, what is ultimately the driving factor for them transferring, knowing that each situation is a unique set of circumstances.   

Richardson is a beast of a scorer, well deserved inclusion. If he had a better team (they're very young this past season), he would be heralded on the national scene more. Wheaton consistently produces All-Americans over the years.

[Patrick Coleman]

Cleveland is listed as a sophomore, but he has freshman eligibility since he played JV last year.

He played not at all last year. Someone who played JV last year would not be eligible for our Rookie of the Year award.

[nescac1]

Soren Richardson vs. Ray Cuevas is an interesting all-American debate and I think Cuevas deserved a slight edge there (although it's hardly egregious, they were very, very close).  Their stats are almost identical, about as identical across the board as two players can be.  Both were the overwhelming focus of opposing defenses on mediocre teams in strong leagues.  But Cuevas did it in a conference with a substantially higher NPI this season, indicating that he faced somewhat tougher competition (especially on defense, NESCAC had teams 1, 3, 7, 16, 21, 36 and 43 among the defensive NPI ratings, CCIW had 6, 44, and no one else in the top 100).  In his six games against teams in the top 21 nationally in terms of defensive rating (including two vs. number one Trinity), Cuevas averaged right around 20 points. 

Richardson  - 22.4/4.2/2.8 on 48/36/84 splits plus 1.5 spg
Cuevas - 22.2/4.4/2.6 on 49/45/81 splits plus 1 spg

And just to prove I'm not showing my NESCAC bias here, as awesome a year that Shane Regan had, I would have swapped him onto the second team and Kye Robinson (or maybe even Zamet) onto the first. Robinson is just that good.  Very, very, very tough year for guards, Zamet, Geiger and Robinson all had legit first-team all-American years, and Vetter, Yarbrough, and Barnette are all guys who would have been higher up in the pecking order plenty of other seasons. 

[jumbomumbo]

Per a tweet from Robert Crane Jr., Dartmouth is doing their due diligence on Brandon Linton. I'm not sure exactly what that means, however, I would be shocked if he took the Dartmouth job. Additionally, I highly doubt that he is even entertaining it too much. I'd put the odds at, maybe 5%.

I do think he is an Ivy caliber coach, but others have made a good point that it might be harder to recruit players to Dartmouth than Tufts, comparatively speaking between NESCAC and Ivy.

I do think he should stay at tufts, continue to build the resume, and maybe one day go for a Harvard/Yale, or even a power 5 school. Also, there's no shame in staying at Tufts and truly being a legend.

Having played for Linton, I can tell you that whatever program he is in charge of will excel on and off the court. There's no BS in his program, and it results in hard men with a good head on their shoulders. Relationships, accountability, competitiveness will follow him wherever he is. If you can't follow all 3 you will be disciplined (not in a bad way, but whatever you did was definitely your fault).

Personally rooting for Klatsky to get the job, but if Linton takes the helm at Dartmouth, he will do a great job and whatever decision he makes will be best for him and his family!

[blue_jays]

And just to prove I'm not showing my NESCAC bias here, as awesome a year that Shane Regan had, I would have swapped him onto the second team and Kye Robinson (or maybe even Zamet) onto the first. Robinson is just that good.  Very, very, very tough year for guards, Zamet, Geiger and Robinson all had legit first-team all-American years, and Vetter, Yarbrough, and Barnette are all guys who would have been higher up in the pecking order plenty of other seasons. 

Regan absolutely deserved 1st Team A-A spot. If he was in the championship game right now, he'd likely be up for National POTY, that's how much he has meant to UChicago's success. The Maroons hadn't done anything on the national scene in 20+ years, and he's the reason why they were as good as they were this year. His clutch play raised the ceiling and put them into the top 10 all season. Stats don't tell the whole story for him, the winning does.

[Patrick Coleman]

No D-III head men's basketball coach has made the jump directly to D-I head men's basketball coach since 2018.

[nescac1]

1. Uh-oh, sounds like Rutigliano is, indeed, gone.  What a disaster for Colby:

https://x.com/samurai_hoops/status/2036827713667801392

https://hoopdirt.com/d3-dirt-colby-opens-rutigliano-taking-d1-assistant-job/

Civello in the portal, a second head coaching search in two years, and you have to wonder given the timing if a few of the very much in demand Colby recruits will try to find an alternative option (might be difficult if they have not applied to any other schools, of course).

2. I agree with SpringSt7, it's crazy that Landry has not gotten a D1 head coaching spot yet, what he did with Swarthmore's program was nothing short of miraculous (and notably since he left they've already fallen back to earth). 

3. Fair, blue_jays, I am definitely a fan of Regan's game from his time in NESCAC, he's absolutely legit.  I just think Kye is truly special as a D3 player, and I suspect his time in D3 will be short-lived.  But really, all of the guards in that group are worthy of the First Team.  It was a very guard-heavy year in D3. 

[D3BBALL]

Per a tweet from Robert Crane Jr., Dartmouth is doing their due diligence on Brandon Linton. I'm not sure exactly what that means, however, I would be shocked if he took the Dartmouth job. Additionally, I highly doubt that he is even entertaining it too much. I'd put the odds at, maybe 5%.

I do think he is an Ivy caliber coach, but others have made a good point that it might be harder to recruit players to Dartmouth than Tufts, comparatively speaking between NESCAC and Ivy.

I do think he should stay at tufts, continue to build the resume, and maybe one day go for a Harvard/Yale, or even a power 5 school. Also, there's no shame in staying at Tufts and truly being a legend.

Having played for Linton, I can tell you that whatever program he is in charge of will excel on and off the court. There's no BS in his program, and it results in hard men with a good head on their shoulders. Relationships, accountability, competitiveness will follow him wherever he is. If you can't follow all 3 you will be disciplined (not in a bad way, but whatever you did was definitely your fault).

Personally rooting for Klatsky to get the job, but if Linton takes the helm at Dartmouth, he will do a great job and whatever decision he makes will be best for him and his family!

Just going to be hard to recruit and win at Dartmouth. I agree he should wait for a better opening, if he actually wants to leave.

[D3BBALL]

And just to prove I'm not showing my NESCAC bias here, as awesome a year that Shane Regan had, I would have swapped him onto the second team and Kye Robinson (or maybe even Zamet) onto the first. Robinson is just that good.  Very, very, very tough year for guards, Zamet, Geiger and Robinson all had legit first-team all-American years, and Vetter, Yarbrough, and Barnette are all guys who would have been higher up in the pecking order plenty of other seasons. 

Regan absolutely deserved 1st Team A-A spot. If he was in the championship game right now, he'd likely be up for National POTY, that's how much he has meant to UChicago's success. The Maroons hadn't done anything on the national scene in 20+ years, and he's the reason why they were as good as they were this year. His clutch play raised the ceiling and put them into the top 10 all season. Stats don't tell the whole story for him, the winning does.

100% agree on Regan, one of the best players in D3 the last 2 years. He did the same thing at Wesleyan last year and was great in close games both last year and this year. Samet can score, but doesn't belong on first team, he doesn't play defense.
Neither Vetter or Okorougo on 2nd team or better makes no sense. Almost like 1 bad game (and Okorougo was not bad) and they are not good enough for 2nd team or better.
Don't like that the voting is done after the semi-final games, just gives some players more exposure and chance to build up stats.
Coach of the year should be MW coach, whether they win or lose, they beat the top ranked team, he out coached Cosgrove the last 5 minutes of the game. MW coming off a 15-15 year and weren't even a top 10 team to start the year. Emory was supposed to be where they are now.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Soren Richardson vs. Ray Cuevas is an interesting all-American debate and I think Cuevas deserved a slight edge there (although it's hardly egregious, they were very, very close).  Their stats are almost identical, about as identical across the board as two players can be.  Both were the overwhelming focus of opposing defenses on mediocre teams in strong leagues.  But Cuevas did it in a conference with a substantially higher NPI this season, indicating that he faced somewhat tougher competition (especially on defense, NESCAC had teams 1, 3, 7, 16, 21, 36 and 43 among the defensive NPI ratings, CCIW had 6, 44, and no one else in the top 100).  In his six games against teams in the top 21 nationally in terms of defensive rating (including two vs. number one Trinity), Cuevas averaged right around 20 points. 

Richardson  - 22.4/4.2/2.8 on 48/36/84 splits plus 1.5 spg
Cuevas - 22.2/4.4/2.6 on 49/45/81 splits plus 1 spg

And just to prove I'm not showing my NESCAC bias here, as awesome a year that Shane Regan had, I would have swapped him onto the second team and Kye Robinson (or maybe even Zamet) onto the first. Robinson is just that good.  Very, very, very tough year for guards, Zamet, Geiger and Robinson all had legit first-team all-American years, and Vetter, Yarbrough, and Barnette are all guys who would have been higher up in the pecking order plenty of other seasons. 

You're right.  It's splitting hairs, for sure, at that point.  You've got, honestly, 10-12 guards who all are perfectly deserving.  For my part, when I've watched him, I've not been super enamored with Cuevas' defense - also, against good teams, when his shots aren't falling, he's not been super capable of scoring in other ways.  He's quite versatile against lesser defenses, but overly reliant on outside shooting against good defenses.

I know, super nitpicky, but that's kind of where we land at the end of these things.

As for Dartmouth, I think if Kosmalski wants it, he'll be ahead of all the d3 candidates.  We've seen - and in talking to coaches, they believe - you need to have a D1 job on your resume to get the D1 look.  So much of the hiring process is about perception now, "top D1 assistant" looks better to local media (who may not understand d3) than "top d3 HC."

This is the path we saw Shane Loeffler take from Hopkins to Cincinnati to Loyola.  It seems to be the path Landry is looking for as well.  I think he gets a HC gig this summer, whether it's Dartmouth or not.  The people hiring know his abilities from Swarthmore and the resume is burnished with the year at Campbell.

[D3BBALL]

1. Uh-oh, sounds like Rutigliano is, indeed, gone.  What a disaster for Colby:

https://x.com/samurai_hoops/status/2036827713667801392

https://hoopdirt.com/d3-dirt-colby-opens-rutigliano-taking-d1-assistant-job/

Civello in the portal, a second head coaching search in two years, and you have to wonder given the timing if a few of the very much in demand Colby recruits will try to find an alternative option (might be difficult if they have not applied to any other schools, of course).

2. I agree with SpringSt7, it's crazy that Landry has not gotten a D1 head coaching spot yet, what he did with Swarthmore's program was nothing short of miraculous (and notably since he left they've already fallen back to earth). 

3. Fair, blue_jays, I am definitely a fan of Regan's game from his time in NESCAC, he's absolutely legit.  I just think Kye is truly special as a D3 player, and I suspect his time in D3 will be short-lived.  But really, all of the guards in that group are worthy of the First Team.  It was a very guard-heavy year in D3. 

Really stinks for the players at Colby. They had a pretty good coach, that did a good job of recruiting (especially for the area that school lies), had some good teams, had players making all conference teams, and roy. The AD and President blew that up for a 1-year coach, who IMO coached that team/players down. Nice job of doing your homework on that coach!