MBB: NESCAC

[nescac1]

Trinity seems to be recruiting a lot of guys right on the edge of D1.  You obviously get huge talent in that way, but you can also lose guys very late in the recruiting cycle (worst ever in that regard was back when Williams lost Miye Oni to Yale) or after a year or two as transfers.  But when it works out, you get four years of Vetter and Okorougo and a chip! Trinity still has a loaded incoming class, but with so many wings fighting for minutes I doubt all of them stick around for four years. 

It's very hard to be very heavily reliant on transfers in D3 without grad programs.  NYU, Case and Chicago dramatically raised the ceiling of their programs thanks largely to grad transfers. Even among those, only NYU has the juice to make it a permanent program builder. Trine had a huge title year thanks in part to undergrad transfers but I think the big one was the brother of a guy already in program.  I agree that the odds of a NESCAC program vaulting into contention with transfers is very slender, just too hard to find guaranteed impact guys who aren't grad transfers, but they can help at the margins as gap fillers.  For example, Amherst had a massive hole at the 5 and the center they are bringing in from F&M will give them a guy who makes them competitive at that position. 

[stlawus]

Trinity seems to be recruiting a lot of guys right on the edge of D1.  You obviously get huge talent in that way, but you can also lose guys very late in the recruiting cycle (worst ever in that regard was back when Williams lost Miye Oni to Yale) or after a year or two as transfers.  But when it works out, you get four years of Vetter and Okorougo and a chip! Trinity still has a loaded incoming class, but with so many wings fighting for minutes I doubt all of them stick around for four years. 

It's very hard to be very heavily reliant on transfers in D3 without grad programs.  NYU, Case and Chicago dramatically raised the ceiling of their programs thanks largely to grad transfers. Even among those, only NYU has the juice to make it a permanent program builder. Trine had a huge title year thanks in part to undergrad transfers but I think the big one was the brother of a guy already in program.  I agree that the odds of a NESCAC program vaulting into contention with transfers is very slender, just too hard to find guaranteed impact guys who aren't grad transfers, but they can help at the margins as gap fillers.  For example, Amherst had a massive hole at the 5 and the center they are bringing in from F&M will give them a guy who makes them competitive at that position. 

Amherst has Ryan Hempfling who had plenty of d1 interest.  I'm surprised he didn't play much last year, and seemingly is not getting starters minutes this year. I don't begrudge anyone taking the opportunity to get an Amherst education, but he'd play 30+ minutes a game elsewhere.

[NYHoopsGuru]

Incoming freshman from Canterbury that was going to Trinity now going to URI. Losing a 6 10 athletic big never good,  but more of a hurt down the road than this year.

D3BBALL-

In what is supposed to be a stacked Trinity freshman class touted to replace the legendary '26 class, I thought Dash Mabilon had the most potential and was certainly going to be my preseason pick for ROY and even possibly an all conference team. Clearly Coach Archie Miller and staff at Rhode Island see a lot of potential taking a freshman this late in the offseason, after a whole summer of practices. That conversation with Coach Cosgrove could not have been an easy one, but only time will tell if the bantams will be able to make up for this loss and continue the winning pedigree that we are all so used to by now.

-Guru

[nescac1]

stlawus, I too was surprised Hempfling got the fewest minutes of the Amherst FYs last year, despite playing a position of need for Amherst.  He did barely play behind two highly recruited D1 bigs in H.S. so perhaps needed a year to adjust. I imagine he will get an opportunity next year as even with the transfer, Amherst only has two real bigs on the projected roster.  With only three boards in 36 minutes I imagine to get PT he will need to play more physically.  And physicality is the strong suit of the F&M transfer, as opposed to Hempfling, who seems to have more outside game. 

[stlawus]

Incoming freshman from Canterbury that was going to Trinity now going to URI. Losing a 6 10 athletic big never good,  but more of a hurt down the road than this year.

D3BBALL-

In what is supposed to be a stacked Trinity freshman class touted to replace the legendary '26 class, I thought Dash Mabilon had the most potential and was certainly going to be my preseason pick for ROY and even possibly an all conference team. Clearly Coach Archie Miller and staff at Rhode Island see a lot of potential taking a freshman this late in the offseason, after a whole summer of practices. That conversation with Coach Cosgrove could not have been an easy one, but only time will tell if the bantams will be able to make up for this loss and continue the winning pedigree that we are all so used to by now.

-Guru

Everyone was courting him, he most definitely would have made an instant impact in my opinion. UAA, NESCACs, several Liberty League teams and plenty of d1's were after him. He's not actually 6'10", but he's still all of 6'8". He has lots of range though and is very good beyond the arc. I wasn't surprised he chose Trinity given that he'd probably get immediate playing time with his skill set being unicorn like for d3.  Probably going to see fewer and fewer of these players go d3 now (if they don't have the academics for schools like Tufts/Williams/Amherst).