February 2017 – Page 3 – Nothing But NESCAC

Inconsistency, Thy Name is… : Power Rankings 2/2

1.) #9 Tufts (16-4, 6-1)

I know that they just had a pretty ugly loss to UMass Dartmouth two nights ago to follow up their lapse in Lewiston, but the Jumbos maintain a tenuous hold on the top spot. It’s not an excuse but rather a glaring truth: the Jumbos miss their big man. Guess where Bates is strongest? The post. So, while a shooting line 36.1/18.5/53.6 is pretty inexcusable, that along with a missing Palleschi, along with Bates hosting a NESCAC game at Alumni Gymnasium is the perfect storm for a Bobcats win. Meanwhile, Bates shot 43.8/50.0/81.8. Again, not excusable numbers to allow by the Jumbos defense, but I still think this game was a fluke and that the Jumbos are deserving of this spot. That being said, they head to Trinity and then Amherst this weekend, their biggest test of the year thus far. Trinity poses another match-up nightmare down low, so Drew Madsen ‘17 and Pat Racy ‘20 are going to have to step up on the defensive end. And Amherst, well, it’s just Amherst. You can never overlook that team. This weekend will be a very telling one for Coach Sheldon’s squad. Is Tufts tough or fake tough?

2.) #23 Wesleyan (16-4, 4-3)

Wesleyan decided to try to be a bit sneakier this weekend by bringing Joseph Kuo ‘17 off the bench. Guess what – their sneak attack worked! It actually worked so well that I wouldn’t be surprised if Coach Joe Reilly tries it again on Friday against Williams. Kuo dominated to the tune of 20 points on 10-16 shooting in his newly developed sixth man role, just punishing the bigs of Conn College. Jordan Bonner ‘19 also qualifies for being credited with a stellar performance off the bench, as he put up 23 points, primarily on the back of his three-point shooting. I’d also like to say that while Nathan Krill ‘18 might be the craziest kid on the court in the NESCAC, he might also be the toughest. His presence on the court is not only electric from a fan’s perspective (I watched an incredible double technical occur between Krill and Tufts’ Ben Engvall ‘18 last week), but also in terms of contributions to Wesleyan’s system. The Cards rely on his grit on the boards and on loose balls, as the attention he draws opens the floor up for other guys to succeed. Wesleyan is beatable for sure, but they are a tough match-up for whoever draws the corresponding seed in the NESCAC tournament.

3.) #16 Middlebury (16-3, 4-2)

Bryan Jones ’17 poured in a career high 25, helping Middlebury right the ship in league play against Hamilton.

Middlebury has been very consistent this year aside from their blowout loss to Williams a week and a half ago. Pete was an emotional wreck following that loss, but the Panthers bounced back this weekend and smacked the living daylights out of Hamilton. Simply put, Middlebury posted video game numbers on the poor Continentals, shooting an ungodly 62.0/59.3/91.7 on the day. While I don’t anticipate Middlebury achieving another 115-point performance in a NESCAC game, they have consistently shared the ball better than the rest of the conference, resulting in league-leading numbers in both assists and shooting percentage. While Jake Brown ‘17 doesn’t shoot the most efficiently on the Midd roster, he is largely responsible for the team’s shooting. Not only does he lead the team (and league) in assists, but Brown’s ability to penetrate and force help out of opposing defenders leads to open shots 2-3 passes down the line. This should be a pretty straightforward weekend for Middlebury, but if they drop one to either Colby or Bowdoin then maybe they’ve got some more glaring issues than I have realized.

4.) #11 Amherst (14-4, 4-2)

While Middlebury has been mostly consistent all season, Amherst has not been, which explains my ranking them lower than both Middlebury and Wesleyan in the Power Rankings despite being a higher national seed. Every team in the conference has some bad losses, but Amherst’s back-to-back losses to Wesleyan and Conn College are of some concern. However, it’s not just Amherst’s losses that keep me on edge. To follow up that 0-2 weekend, Amherst had to put together quite the comeback against lowly Bowdoin at home in order to sneak away with a win. While I am used an Amherst that blows most teams out (as are most people probably), they still rebounded from the aforementioned three game stretch with a string of solid victories. As we all know, Colby has been the doormat of the NESCAC this year so far, but Amherst still needed to win convincingly and they did. Williams, though not in the top half of the NESCAC this year, is a solid team and is Amherst’s hated rival, so an 8-point mid-week is impressive. Then, the most telling is the 66-53 W against Trinity. Amherst hosted the Bantams and beat them at their own game, holding Trinity to just 53 points (!!) on 32.2% shooting while allowing just 1-14 shooting from beyond the arc. The usual suspects (Jayde Dawson ‘17, Johnny McCarthy ‘18, and Michael Riopel ‘18), led the way for Coach Hixon in the scoring department and the ex-LJs got it done. Like Tufts, this coming weekend is the most telling of the season for Amherst as they host Bates and the Jumbos themselves. A 2-0 weekend would tell us what the rest of the league fears: that Amherst is back.

5.) Trinity (13-7, 4-2)

Ed Ogundeko ’17 dominates both ends for the Bantams.

You won’t believe I’m saying this, but this weekend is a very telling weekend for Trinity (mix up your damn phrasing, Rory!!!). Seriously though, the Bants can more or less take the reigns with a sweep of Tufts and Bates this weekend, and they have a very good chance to do so. While they took the L this weekend to Amherst, that was a very good loss for Trinity. I don’t mean this necessarily in the way they played was good and they just got a couple bad bounces (-5 turnover differential, relying far too heavily on one player offensively, terrible shooting across the board), but in the sense that the Bantams proved a couple things to themselves. First of all, they proved that they can take advantage of mismatches in the post against good teams. Ed Ogundeko ‘17 had 19/11 and held David George to 6/4. Secondly, they proved that even shooting as poorly from deep as they did (1-14), they could still find themselves in the game until free throws put them away at the end. Looking ahead to Friday, Ogundeko has a highly favorable matchup against Tufts, and if he gets some efficient support offensively from the guards, Big Ed will have a chance to dominate. Bates is a tougher matchup for Trinity, but again, success is going to be reliant on the guard-play of the Bantams, specifically Langdon Neal ‘17 and Chris Turnbull ‘17.

6.) Bates (15-6, 4-3)

My friend from Bates (who for clarification, is unassociated with the Bates Men’s Basketball team except as a fan), has been describing the Bobcats to me as the hottest team in the ‘CAC this week. While a 3-game winning streak (just one conference game) following a 3-game losing streak (all conference games) does not scream “on fire” to me, I will say that Bates made Tufts look foolish on Saturday. While poor shooting is generally a reflection of both teams and not just tough defense, Bates forced Tufts into difficult shots and dominated them offensively. The Bobcats, especially Jerome Darling ‘17, put on a clinic on how to shoot three-pointers. They also shot 18-22 from the free throw line, which played a huge part in helping them seal the deal. I will say, however, that I think Bates should be concerned about this win giving them false confidence for a number of reasons. First of all, it took one of the worst shooting performances of the season for them to topple Tufts. The Bobcats also allowed their opponents to shoot 28 free throws, something that I don’t think I’ve seen a team do in a win that didn’t involve any overtime. Bates, a team whose system involves two big men, allowed Tufts, a team whose system involves just one big man (and lacked their starting big man), to beat them on the boards by seven. While Marcus Delpeche ‘17 pulled the weight with 28/11, rightfully earning him NESCAC POW honors, his twin brother Malcolm proved to be pretty ineffective on Saturday, shooting 2-10 from the field and grabbing just three boards. Bates NEEDS these two to work in tandem on the boards at the very least, but it would be a big boost for them if they could have the twins both scoring effectively.

7.) Hamilton (14-5, 3-3)

Hamilton is a solid team. They’ve got some great young talent, and I think they are going to get even better in the next couple years. Right now, however, it is mostly potential that they possess, and they are vulnerable in a few different aspects, the first of which is down in the post. While Andrew Groll ‘19 is a solid player and a tenacious rebounder, he is also really the only real presence down on the block for the Continentals. While they have some size in their perimeter players (Joe Pucci ‘18 – 6’6”, Peter Hoffmann – 6’5”), Hamilton can get exposed on the boards and in the paint at times, especially against teams with solid post players and bigger guards. In NESCAC losses, they have allowed 40.66 PPG in the paint, showing that conference opponents know

Kena Gilmour ’20
(Courtesy of Hamilton Athletics)

how to expose this glaring hole in Hamilton defense. The emergence of Kena Gilmour ‘20 as of late is definitely encouraging, and he is a prime candidate to win Rookie of the Year, but aside from Gilmour the offensive production off the bench is limited at best. Hamilton has the weapons to surprise some teams come tournament time, but they still need to qualify. Ending the season with 4 tough conference games leaves a lot up in the air as to what will happen, but it is worth noting that the last two are against Trinity and Amherst.

8.) Williams (14-6, 2-4)

Williams has surprised me so far this year, and not in a good way. With the weapons that Williams returned at the beginning of the year, I thought for sure that they would be in the top half of the NESCAC standings battling for home court advantage in the playoffs. Now, here we are six games into the NESCAC season and Williams is ranked eighth in the conference standings. While the Ephs have been decent offensively, the Ephs just simply haven’t done enough to stop opposing players from scoring. Part of this is due to their post presence, or lack thereof, which rears its head on the boards and in the paint. Yes, Williams can get hot, especially from beyond the arc, and when they do they certainly have what it takes to win (see: Middlebury), but their lack of consistency is a problem, and is also the reason that they are a bubble playoff team.

9.) Conn College (12-8, 2-5)

Speaking of inconsistency…Conn has shown that they can really, really good at times. Unfortunately for the Camels, those times are few and far between. Wins against Amherst and Bates definitely show promise, but double-digit losses to Hamilton, Trinity, Tufts and Wesleyan leave young NESCAC bloggers wondering who the Camels really are. The issue, in my opinion, is that they have too many guys that want to be “the guy,” and while that’s a harsh critique, there’s definitely an argument there. In NESCAC play, Conn shoots just 39.7% from the field and 31.2% from beyond the arc. Keeping those percentages in mind and then take a look at shot totals. They’ve taken the second most shots and the fourth most three-pointers. Yes, they have played seven conference games while some have played just six, but still, the lack of offensive efficiency that the Camels boast has to be at least a bit concerning. To go along with their poor shooting, Conn allows their opponents to shoot the highest percentage in NESCAC play…not exactly a recipe for success. I’m not saying Conn can’t make the playoffs, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they manage to fumble the opportunity to close the season playing Williams, Bowdoin and Colby, the three worst teams in the league besides the Camels.

10.) Colby (10-9, 1-5)

They’re on the board! Colby grabbed their first win of the NESCAC season this weekend as they hosted rival Bowdoin in one of the best games of the weekend. Patrick Stewart ‘17 played like a damn All-Star, netting 28 points to lead the way for the Mules, and Sam Jefferson ‘20 showed the age is just a number, adding a nice 17 points of his own. The Mules owned the arc and drained 12 threes on the day (albeit on 32 attempts) to propel them to victory. Though they haven’t necessarily looked like a playoff team this year, Colby is on the bubble as this win brings them just one shy of Williams, the current eighth place team. It’s a tough road ahead for Colby, but maybe they can pull this off!

11.) Bowdoin (10-9, 1-5)

Bowdoin gave Colby their first loss of the NESCAC season this weekend to extend their NESCAC skid to three straight losses. Like I feared at the beginning of the season, Bowdoin is just far too reliant on Jack Simonds ‘19, so when he only put up 13 points against the Mules, Bowdoin was in trouble. They did get an outstanding performance from Jack Bors ‘19, who tallied 24 points on 8-12 shooting (5-8 from three-point land), but it was the inability of the Polar Bears to defend the three-point line themselves that buried them in Waterville. Bowdoin couldn’t quite pull off the upset at Amherst a couple weeks ago, but they’ll have a few more upset opportunities before the season is over as they face Hamilton, Middlebury, Wesleyan and Conn to wrap up NESCAC play. If they want to make the playoffs, they’ll have to win at least a couple of these games.

Stranger Things Have Happened, But Strange Things Happened: Stock Report 2/1

Last week I used the intro to the stock report as a way to explore the somewhat cheesy comparison between NESCAC Men’s Basketball and the trading on Wall Street. Try as I might, I can’t think of a metaphor for stocks to top it, so I’ll just stick to the hoops. This weekend raised many questions. Tufts had seemed so solidly on top of the conference. Middlebury seemed to be heading downward into a skid. Wesleyan was a defensive team, and Amherst was more offensively focused. But things change, this weekend they certainly did.

Stock Up

Amherst’s D-

Amherst has jacked up the defensive intensity in their recent games.

Amherst held Trinity to shooting just 1/14 from deep in a 66-53 win on Saturday. They forced 16 turnovers, and took advantage of them, scoring 16 points of of them. More than just good shot contesting, Amherst held Trinity to just 5 assists as a team. This indicates some sturdy defensive organization, one with little to no breakdowns. The Bantams are averaging just over 71 points a game, and typically shoot 44.5% from the field, and 35% from deep. Amherst held them to 53 points on 32% shooting and 7.1% from three, respectively. I’d love to avoid the cliche, but hey, defense wins championships.

Wesleyan’s Explosiveness –

Jordan Bonner ’19

Wesleyan shot 48% from the field and 50% from beyond the arcin 85-75 win over Conn. Harry Rafferty played 34 minutes from the opening tip and had 20 points on 6/12 from the field and three of four from deep. What’s notable about Wesleyan’s 85 points is that the rest of the Cardinal’s starters combined for only 20. Even good teams have off nights, and so an essential mark of any good teamis that it has a depth of players beyond the starting five who can pick up the slack. On Saturday in New London, Joseph Kuo and Andrew Gardiner pulled the rope. The senior forward Kuo was good for 10 of 16 shooting from the field in his twenty point performance. Jordan Bonner dropped 23 points in 28 minutes off the bench. He was 4/6 from deep, but also got to the hole with enough consistency to hit 7 free throws. Wesleyan is known as one of the premier defenses in the conference – the Camel’s 75 points can be largely explained by a 32 point explosion by Tyler Rowe – and if they can keep getting performances off the bench like the ones this weekend their chances look good heading into the tourney.

Stock Down

Tufts –

The number 4 team in the country lost to Bates in Lewiston on Saturday 84-72.(Editor’s Note: They also dropped a non-league tilt to U-Mass Dartmouth on Tuesday.) They were behind the entire second half. I guess this explains the absurd number of shots it took the Jumbos to score 72 points, but it’s not unfair to expect a little higher efficiency from a team that’s leading the conference in points. Vinny Pace alone, who scored 19 points in 30 minutes, took 22 shots, 12 of them threes. Tuft’s starters combined took 60 shots. They were 36.1% from the field, 18.5% from three, and shot a mere 53.6% from the line. One could attribute the poor shooting to a very solid Bobcat defense, but the weak showing at the line and the huge amount of shots attempted points to a despicable shooting performance. It could be true that it just wasn’t Tufts’ day, but a performance like the one they had Saturday has to hurt. A bounce back, or lack thereof, this upcoming weekend, where they face solid Trinity and Amherst teams, will be a solid indicator of whether or not the Jumbos have the grit and potential to make a tourney run that their national ranking would have indicated. Credit where credit is due: Bates balled out, but this weekend could have been the beginning of something very bad for the Jumbos.

My Credibility Regarding Middlebury –

Bryan Jones ’17 had a career night against Hamilton.

Last week I raised into the question the vitality and balance of thePanther’s offense. I said they were too reliant on Matt St. Amour and Jake Brown. And then the Midd kids scored 115 points against Hamilton. That certainly answers the vitality question. As for the balance, Middlebury had 4 starters and 6 players in double digit scoring. So much for my analysis. Midd shot 62% from the field, and 59% from deep. Combine that with 91.7% shooting at the line, and a career-high 25 point performance from Mr. Bryan Jones, and the 115 point thumping of a then-tied-for-third Continentals is not that surprising. It is true that it was a special performance, and one can’t expect that kind of output on any sort of consistent basis, but what gives me even more confidence that the Panthers have recovered from their loss to Williams is that Middlebury had 26 assists. That’s an offense that is humming. Roll Pants, thanks for proving me wrong.

Q&A With the Racy Brothers: Jeff (Amherst) and Pat (Tufts)

Jeff Racy ’17 drains a trey (Courtesy of Amherst Athletics)

Pat Racy ’20 goes for a steal (Courtesy of Tufts Athletics)

Well, well, well, it looks like this is finally the weekend I get to see my favorite storyline of the season become a reality. At the beginning of the season, the only thing I hoped for was that these two teams were at least somewhat close in the standings so that I could write about the brotherly rivalry between Jeff (Amherst ’17) and Pat (Tufts ’20) Racy. My dreams have finally come true: #11 Amherst (14-4, 4-2) hosts #9 Tufts (16-3, 6-1) this weekend in what should be a pretty epic match up. These two always get revved up to play each other, but the brotherly bond between the two sides adds an extra layer to the rivalry.

Jeff Racy ’17 (Courtesy of Amherst Athletics)

Jeff is a senior guard for the Purple and White (choose a mascot already), and has started every game under Coach Dave Hixon this season. He is averaging 7.2 PPG in 28.3. MIN/G so far in his senior campaign to go along with 2.2 REB/G. While he’s a knockdown three-point shooter, Jeff’s maturity, efficiency and leadership are what make it so difficult for Hixon to take the leader off the court, as he has contributed greatly to Amherst’s success in the 2016-2017 season thus far.

Pat Racy ’20 (Courtesy of Tufts Athletics)

Pat is a freshman center for the Jumbos who has stepped into quite a big role in the last couple weeks. While he was splitting time at the backup center spot at the beginning of the season, with recent the injury to Tom Palleschi ’17 a couple weeks ago, Pat has been called on as part of a double-barreled post presence for Tufts. Coach Bob Sheldon has been using Pat and senior center Drew Madsen ’17 interchangeably over the last couple of weeks, relying on the freshman for big minutes off the bench.

I had a chance to interview the brothers from Ridgefield, CT this week to get their thoughts on this weekend’s matchup and what it’s like competing with each other in the NESCAC.

Rory: Are you excited play against Pat/Jeff this week?

Jeff: Of course. I’d be excited if he were just coming up to visit, but playing against him should be awesome.

Pat: For sure. I’ve been competing against him my whole life, but this will be the first time it really means something.

R: When is the last time you you played in a real game with or against your brother?

J: We play pickup together all the time but the last time we played with each other formally was my last game at Ridgefield high school in 2013.

P: I played with Jeff freshman and sophomore years of high school, and actually played pickup with the Amherst team last spring when I came up to visit for the weekend.

R: Do you talk to your brother much about basketball? Or do you guys keep your basketball careers pretty separate now that you play for opposing teams?

J: We talk a decent amount about basketball. Even though we play on different teams, our basketball experiences are very similar so we actually talk more than we used to about it because we can better relate.

P: Yeah we definitely talk about basketball, but it doesn’t dominate the conversation. At this point he’s a NESCAC vet so his advice can be helpful at times.

R: Did you ever consider going to Amherst? Why did you choose Tufts over playing with your brother?

P: When I decided to embark on the 5-year plan and repeat my junior year at NMH [Northfield Mount Hermon], I ended up visiting Amherst a decent amount. Prep school felt like a jail at times so it was nice to have Amherst to hang with Jeff and the team, although I never took a real basketball visit there. I wasn’t really sure where I wanted to go to school at that point but after the 2nd visit there it was fairly obvious western mass didn’t have much to offer compared to being in Boston.

R: Did you try to get Pat to go to Amherst? Were you disappointed when he chose Tufts? Or were you pumped that you’d be able to continue the sibling rivalry in a whole new way?

J: I tried. He went to high school not too far away, so he visited a bunch to the point where I think every player on the team knows him pretty well. In the end, I think he got a great sense of what Amherst had to offer, but with all things considered, I think the both of us knew that Tufts was a better fit for him personally. I couldn’t have been more excited for Pat when he chose Tufts. It’s an awesome school and I was pumped that we would get to play against each other at least once.

R: As the older/younger brother, do you feel more or less pressure to play well? Or is that not relevant in your mental approach to this game?

J: Of course its relevant, I’m the older brother here. Not to mention a bunch of family and friends will be at the game. It’s not as much pressure, but just me really wanting to beat Pat. I’m sure he feels the same way, we’re pretty competitive at just about everything we do.

P: I’m not a huge believer in the mental aspect of the game, but I definitely have a little extra incentive to play well given that Tufts hasn’t beat Amherst in a while.

R: How much trash talk is going to go on between you and Jeff during Saturday’s game?

J: As much as possible.

P: Chirps will be made.

R: In terms of styles of play, how are you and Jeff similar? In what ways do your games differ?

J: I think we can both shoot pretty well, but other than that our games aren’t that similar. He’s more of a power forward who uses his strength and power and I’m just looking to get my three off.

P: Jeff loves to camp out around the 3 point line and if you happen to catch the rare glimpse of him in 2pt range you know something is wrong. We both shoot it well, but I never really take 3’s.

R: Are you at all worried that your brother is going to be able to tell his teammates all of your tendencies on the court?

J: I think my tendencies are pretty obvious, so not really.

P: I think it’s pretty obvious that the Amherst basketball team knows my tendencies on and off the court by now.

R: If you end up in an iso situation on the wing with Pat guarding you, how crucial is it for brotherly pride that you score on him?

J: Absolutely imperative. I hope that Hixon and Sheldon come to their senses, scrap their game plans and realize that this game should really be all about the Racy brothers, so they should run nothing but clear outs for Pat and I to go 1 on 1 all game long. If that happens (Pat I know you read this, so take care of your end), it will be a close game. Pat would probably score more field goals, but I’ll hit more threes and Amherst will walk away with the win.