We are predicting (even hoping) that this weekend is the one that officially throws the league into chaos. There is a very good chance that after this weekend not a single team will be undefeated in conference. Bates, Trinity, Colby and Tufts are the four teams still unbeaten. Bates plays Trinity tonight while the Jumbos head to Hartford for a matchup with Trinity on Saturday. Bates and Tufts both play Amherst in their other game this weekend. Meanwhile, Colby plays Hamilton and Williams at home. While the Mules looked good last weekend, we can’t call them an elite team just yet and Williams presents a big challenge for them. In almost every game this weekend there is a good case to be made for either team winning.
Three Players to Watch
1. Forward Tom Palleschi ’17 (Tufts): An injury to fellow big man Hunter Sabety ’17 for the Middlebury game contributed to Palleschi scoring 18 points on 8-11 shooting as the Jumbos sprung a big upset on Middlebury. Well, the term “upset” is contingent on the idea that Tufts early season struggles are unfixable. Sabety’s status for this weekend is still unclear, and Tufts has to go on the road and play Amherst and Trinity. If Sabety is out then Palleschi will once again be the focal point of the offense. After an uneven start, he is now averaging over 10.0 points per game. He is tough to guard because he has a very good mid range shot but can also go into the post and get buckets from there.
2. Guard Jake Brown ’17 (Middlebury): Last week Bates coach Jon Furbush made a bold tactical decision to have one of the Delpeche brothers guard Brown. Brown was goaded to shoot from the outside and had no way of getting into the lane and distributing. He finished the game with nine points, but he went 1-7 from deep. I would not expect Wesleyan to put Joseph Kuo ’17 on Brown, but whoever does guard him will give Brown all the space he wants to shoot. Brown knows that he does not have to be a scorer either. On Tuesday he went 0-5 from the field, but still had a good game because he passed out nine assists. Expect him to pass up outside shots and just try to get into the lane time and time again.
3. Guard Mike Boornazian ’16 (Bates): Another huge weekend for Bates as they go on the road to play Amherst and Trinity. Graham Safford ’15 is the leader for the Bobcats, but Boornazian is the player who makes them special if he plays well. He averages 14.2 PPG, but that comes on only 38.9 percent shooting. His importance is derived in large part from his ability to guard positions 2-4. Boornazian slowed down Dylan Sinnickson ’15 when he guarded him last week, and he will have a similar task against either Johnny McCarthy ’18 or newly minted 1,000 point scorer Connor Green ’16. Boornazian needs two stellar performances if Bates is going to pull out two tough road victories.
Three Games to Watch
1. Friday 7 PM: Wesleyan (11-4, 1-1) at Middlebury (10-2, 0-2)
No game is a must win this early in the conference season, and Middlebury knows that they don’t need to press, but there is still a sense of urgency for the Panthers. Falling to 0-3 is far from a death sentence, but the way Middlebury played at Tufts set off a lot of warning bells. How much of last weekend was a result of a stomach virus that ravaged the team is as of now unclear.
On the other side Wesleyan just got run out of the gym in the second half against Amherst. The game was much closer than the final score of 69-46 made it appear, but the Cardinals never really threatened the Jeffs. Amherst did a really good job of closing down on Jack Mackey ’16 and Harry Rafferty ’17 and without that outside shooting, the Cardinals offense was simply unexplosive. Wesleyan can live with a meh offense so long as their defense holds its own, but first Colby and then Amherst were able to find holes in the Cardinal armor. Sinnickson is a matchup problem for a lot of teams, and Wesleyan will likely have Rashid Epps ’16 on him. Epps is stronger than Sinnickson, but Sinnickson is also a dead-eye shooter. Against Bates, most of the threes that he missed rimmed in and out. He and Hunter Merryman ’15 will rely on Brown to get them open looks from deep.
2. Friday 7:00 PM: Bates (11-2, 1-0) at Trinity (12-3, 2-0)
Trinity just saw Merchant Marine, of all teams, snap their 10-game winning streak. The offensive struggles that Trinity always has to worry about reappeared. Because of an off game from Jaquann Starks ’17, they could not create anything and shot poorly from the outside. The loss takes a good deal of the shine away from the Bantams and could possibly haunt them in a couple of months if they are looking to get an at-large bid.
How much the referees let these two teams play could have a major impact because of the possibility for foul trouble. Both teams love to play physical, especially on the boards. Bates is more than happy to slow the game down just like Trinity so this could be a game that ends up somewhere in the 50s.
3. Saturday 3:00 PM: Williams (10-4, 1-1) at Colby (9-5, 2-0)
You should watch this game because Williams has decided that every game they play in this season is going to be awesome. Counting their December clash against Wesleyan, the three games the Ephs have had against NESCAC teams have combined for three overtimes, and then of course the one game that did not go into overtime ended on this crazy Ryan Kilcullen ’15 buzzerbeater.
These two teams are at the very bottom of the NESCAC in defense and near the top in scoring so that should make the game a wide-open, fun one to watch. Though Kilcullen and the Ephs held their own against two physical frontcourts in Trinity and Amherst, Chris Hudnut ’16 is a much more skilled offensive player than anyone on those two teams. Colby came back against Wesleyan because Hudnut came alive in the second half. With Hayden Rooke-Ley ’15 still out, Dan Wohl ’15 will once again have to make a ton of plays on offense. Wohl is now the front-runner for NESCAC Player of the Year and after averaging 30.0 PPG last weekend. For Colby to keep pace with the potent Williams offense, they need their supporting players like Sam Willson ’16 and Ryan Jann ’16 to make outside shots.