MBB: NESCAC

[NEhoops]

The challenge with transfers coming into the NESCAC is the transfer application deadline. 

The transfer portal will help streamline/expedite the process, but the deadline for some other schools is later in the spring/early summer, if they have one at all.

[nescac1]

Nice late commitment to Williams, combo guard Devan Williams out of Milton Academy, who scored 2200 career points and is ranked 19th in MA by NERR. 

The Ephs really struggled to get scoring and playmaking from the backcourt last year after Alex Lee went down, with no guard averaging even 7 ppg, and between Williams and some other backcourt recruits who seem like capable scorers down the line, and some young guards who gained a lot of experience last year and should improve significantly, I expect the Ephs to have a far deeper and more explosive backcourt next season and into the future.   

[midranger]

Civello to Dartmouth.

[Maine Hoops]

Colby situation not looking good.

I think the AD came in and decided to shake things up right away and it has backfired.

Saw this in business sometimes when a new CFO would come in and replace all the outside consultants and providers and it nearly always hurt the company

[nescac1]

As reported here previously, it does indeed appear (based on social media) that ace recruit Nolan Ames has decommitted from Colby.  Rough last month for a Colby program that had seemed poised to take a major leap. 

[SpringSt7]

Civello to Dartmouth is a great landing spot but I'm much less excited about his fit at that level at an Ivy League program that has much more limited offseason hours as a team where he would really be able to work on his body in the weight room. Can't knock the decision obviously but would've loved to see him at a Patriot program or similar level that is not limited outside of the season in development

[jumbomumbo]

Love all the updates guys. Mumbo is still alive. Regular programming for me will resume in October.

[el_jefe_90]

Read on X that Dylan Watson is getting interests from a variety of D1 and D2 schools. While it's only interest, it's about 8 schools. That many usually means the player isn't coming back to his original school.

[nescac1]

Brown-Dartmouth will be appointment viewing for NESCAC hoops fans next season! 

Seems like Conn College, unique among NESCAC schools, could be living by the portal, dying by the portal.

Last year, three of Conn's top five scorers were all higher-level transfers: James LaFrance, Greg Cantwell, and PJ Johnson.  Now, three of the four returnees from Conn's top five guys are all in the portal: LaFrance, Watson, and Johnson.  Edward Harrison and Josiah Wright, both of whom played limited minutes, are also in the portal.  Not sure if it's a product of unhappiness or just the way of the world when you rely upon transfer players so heavily.  Perhaps Conn has some more high-profile transfers coming in, but it's hard to find guys like that consistently when you don't have graduate programs to offer.  If all three players in the portal do not return, Cantwell will be the only returning Conn player who averaged six or more PPG last year, and I'd expect Conn to have some major struggles next season.   

One other bit of transfer news: it appears that former Midd hooper Tristan Johnson will be playing at NYU next year.  NYU has utilized the transfer portal probably more effectively than any other D3 school.  Certainly a huge advantage to be a 30,000 plus major university, with loads of grad programs to offer, located in NYC!  They are operating more like a D1 school than a D3 school in terms of having absolutely massive turnover just about every off-season now. 

[toad22]

Oh boy, what happens to a school (Williams) that takes few to no athletic transfers?

[nescac1]

It's definitely an advantage if you are able to rely on the transfer pool, and doing so quickly vaulted several schools who had never previously been contenders into title contention in recent years (Chicago, NYU, Trine, Case Western most notably). But there are also plenty of elite programs that have relied primarily and in some cases entirely on homegrown players who have experienced deep success in the NCAA tourney over the same time period (Trinity, Randolph Macon, Emory, Mary Washington, Wesleyan, Christopher Newport, etc.). 

D1 is now utterly unrecognizable from what it was even a decade ago as a sport, hence the need for every D1 program to have a General Manager in addition to a coach (btw, that's the role that Rutigliano is serving at Kansas State).  Just look at Michigan this year, a team almost entirely reliant on the portal.  NBA teams have far more stability at this point than D1 college teams, which are basically a collection of paid mercenaries on one-year deals with every starting caliber player on the team looking to either move up in D1 or move on to the NBA. 

D3, while impacted at the margins, is largely the same as it's always been - the best coaches stick around for many years and often decades.  The best teams are MOSTLY still built around players who were recruited out of high school and evolve as players over a number of years.  So long as D3 is not dominated by an NIL compensation model, I don't think that will change all that much. 

If you have an expansive and appealing graduate program, like the UAA schools do, that's clearly a huge advantage since you can consistently attract the TRULY elite transfers like NYU, Chicago and Case have been able to do. But since NESCAC schools largely do not, I expect NESCAC will still rely overwhelmingly on four-year players. NESCAC has a lot of advantages as a league which can compensate for the relative lack of transfers - massive financial aid resources, typically great facilities, academic prestige, and the promise of elite connections for athletic alums, being four major ones.  Conn College is really the only team over the past few years which has relied heavily on transfers, and with basically half of its returning roster currently in the portal, you can see the peril of that sort of approach. Other schools will lose the occasional elite underclassman like a Cuevas or Civello to the portal, which sucks but that is, unfortunately, something that any D3 team who manages to snag a D1-caliber hidden gem in recruiting is going to have to deal with.  And it's something NESCAC teams have been dealing with for over a decade now, going back to Duncan Robinson, Matt Hart, and Hunter Sabety. 

[lumbercat]

And it's going to get more unpredictable in D3 Basketball and Football with the a growing trickle down effect from the NIL developments at higher levels.

[D3BBALL]

Agree with NESCAC1 and Lumbercasts last posts.
IMO it is just going to get worse in the NESCAC and in D3 in general. There is just no restrictions and it looks like the NCAA is going to give everyone 5 years, which will make it worse.
Then take a look at the Colby situation, if they want to win so badly, which is what it looks like the new AD and president want, they are going to have to change their model and that will probably include transfers.
Will be interesting to see if other NESCAC schools go the way Conn seems to be going.
Going to be very hard for any D3 school going forward to do what Trinity did the last 3 years. One it's hard to keep all players and 2 as stated above teams are loading up with transfers and grads for a one year run.

[NEHoopScoutPH]

Ames off the board to Bentley - definitely a tough loss for Colby.