MBB: NESCAC

[SpringSt7]

Good news for Jon Medley's POY candidacy is that this year is his senior year

[D3BBALL]

Oops, he now has a better shot.

[nescac1]

A very early guess for how all-league could go:

First team: Zach Wolinski (POTY), Babacar Pouye, KJ Neville, Dylan Watson, Jackson Rein, Jared Berry, Elias Chin

Second team: Ben Lyttle, Ricardo Nieves, Jon Medley, Mason Dawkins, Dominic Ducree, Jamari Robinson, Greg Cantwell

[SpringSt7]

Flip Nieves with Chin and I think I would have the same first team. Second team seems very hard to judge because of how many good players graduated and the team outlooks are up in the air but I bet a second Trinity player finds their way onto a team and someone completely off our radar does as well.

[nescac1]

A few early NESCAC class of 2031 commitments:

Amherst - LJ Reddicks, 6'5 F, Peddie School (NJ)
Bowdoin - Zach Fallquist, 6'5 W, Green Farms (CT #34), Freddie Bacon, 6'2 G, Northfield Mount Herman
Colby - Ben Edmonds, 6'1 PG, Episcopal (VA)
Middlebury - Jack Millward, 6'4 G, Rivers School (MA) (MA #46), Isaac Walsten, 6'8 F, St. Albans (D.C.), Raul Cruz, 6'1 G, Noble and Greenough (MA #48)
Tufts - James Brenner, 6'7 W, Germantown Academy (PA) and Connor Noel, 6'7 W, Milton Academy (MA #40)
Williams - Izzy Wane, 6'5 G/W, Austin Prep (MA)

[el_jefe_90]

Just doing some thinking before preseason. One thing stood out at Amherst. What in the world happened to Charlie Randall?

Two years with the Mammoths in 2022-23 and 2023-24. Then mysteriously not on the 2024-25 roster. In January of 2025, he announced he was in the transfer portal. Did not seem to go anywhere. In fall of 2025, he was seen in an Amherst practice video. He was never on the roster however. Wondering if he just decided to stop playing basketball.

[stlawus]

Just doing some thinking before preseason. One thing stood out at Amherst. What in the world happened to Charlie Randall?

Two years with the Mammoths in 2022-23 and 2023-24. Then mysteriously not on the 2024-25 roster. In January of 2025, he announced he was in the transfer portal. Did not seem to go anywhere. In fall of 2025, he was seen in an Amherst practice video. He was never on the roster however. Wondering if he just decided to stop playing basketball.

He played through a pretty significant injury when he last played, might not have been able to recover from it enough.

[hoya73]

Been lurking for a year after a decade in another room. It's October and time to get ready.  Which teams take a fall and which ones rise?  The league is so different this year.

[D3BBALL]

Been lurking for a year after a decade in another room. It's October and time to get ready.  Which teams take a fall and which ones rise?  The league is so different this year.

Million dollar question, going to be interesting to see, so many changes this year.

[BIG Hoops Fan]

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.

[BIG Hoops Fan]

He suffered injuries to both hips in his senior year. Two surgeries and extensive rehabilitation severely impacted his first year. He is fully healthy now. 

[nescac1]

If Amherst gets strong play in the middle from the huge duo of Hempfling and the F&M transfer, they could definitely be a sleeper contender in NESCAC next season. They finally figured out an identity last year with bigs who screen, space a bit, and defend, and everything running through dribble penetration from physical guards who were hard to keep out of the lane.  KJ Neville looked on the verge of being an elite player down the stretch, especially in the NCAA tourney, and figures to take a leap as a sophomore.  With him, returning do-it-all all-NESCAC guard Elias Chin, and spark-plug Garraud off the bench, Amherst should have one of the best guard rotations in the country.  The wing group isn't at quite the same level, but should be improved with Pabis, Woodberry, and Adnan far more experienced and able to be solid kick-out options for the guards.  The big question mark is who boards and defends the rim, so if their bigs (including Margolin, who looked like a physical player off the bench) are ready to provide that as a group, they could be a surprise team.  I'd still put them behind Wesleyan, Tufts and Trinity to start, but those three teams will each look very different this year and have a lot of question marks. 

[Titan Q]

Hi, all.

For Top 25 voting purposes, any thoughts on the top 4 NESCAC teams (in order) coming into the season?

[stlawus]

Hi, all.

For Top 25 voting purposes, any thoughts on the top 4 NESCAC teams (in order) coming into the season?

I'm not one of the resident NESCAC experts, but I have some inkling of what goes on, I think I'd have 1) Trinity, 2) Wesleyan, 3) Tufts, 4) Amherst.  There are plenty of arguments to switch Tufts and Wesleyan, but personally that's what I'd go with. Trinity reloads and they're Trinity, so them at 1 to start.  Wesleyan and Tufts both lose an impact player, but still bring a lot back.  Amherst made the tournament with a young team last year.