Tag: Matt Morrow

Not Just Happy to Be Here: Hoboken Regional Preview

#12 Colby (24-3, 8-2, at-large bid)

This was a bit of a different year for NESCAC Basketball with no one team looking dominant and the conference “only” getting three teams into the NCAA Tournament. Although they may not have won the NESCAC, it’s hard to argue that anyone else had a better season start to finish than the Mules. Colby raced off to an 18-0 start behind the excellent play of Sam Jefferson ’20 who looked like he might run away with the Player of the Year Award before he went down with an ankle injury in their game against Hamilton. This team only features one frontcourt player, so their strategy is basically to speed the game up to get out in transition and shoot a lot of three pointers. This has mostly worked for them, particularly since their lone big man Dean Weiner ’20 has really elevated his play recently, matching up against some of the conference’s elite bigs. Colby has never appeared in the NCAA Tournament, so we’re about to find out if they’re truly ready for the biggest spotlight.

How They Got Here

Sam Jefferson ’20 (Courtesy of Colby Athletics)

As I just mentioned, the Mules got off to a blazing hot start at 18-0 and climbing as high as 5th in the national rankings. Losses to Tufts and Amherst late in the year dropped them to 2nd in the NESCAC by the end of the regular season, earning them a home game against 7th-seeded Bates in the quarterfinals. This game became an instant classic as the Bobcats failed to seal the win late and big shots by Alex Dorion ’20, Will King ’23, and Matt Hanna ’21 allowed Colby to walk away victorious. They followed this up with yet another thrilling matchup with Amherst, coming from behind to eke out a 4-point win to advance to their first NESCAC Championship. Although they ended up on the wrong side of yet another ridiculously exciting, double overtime contest against Tufts, the committee awarded their efforts with an at-large bid and a trip to Hoboken for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

How They Lose

I feel like I’ve been saying it all year, but the recipe for a Colby defeat doesn’t seem that complicated. They only have one true big man and they rely heavily on the three-ball, so you’d think that a team with a bit of size who slows the game down would be able to put the Mules to rest. That said, this strategy hasn’t exactly worked for everyone who’s tried it. Amherst employed this very technique in the semifinals but Colby was able to grind out a low-scoring win in come-from-behind fashion. The Mules also use about 7-8 guys per game and Coach Strahorn really rides his starters, so I can envision fatigue catching up to them a bit, particularly for Dean Weiner ’20 since he’ll likely be asked to play more minutes than he’s used to in order to matchup with opposing big men. These all seem like very likely ways for Colby to lose, but it really hasn’t been that easy this year. Only two teams all season have been able to defeat the Mules, so I don’t anticipate them being an easy matchup for whoever they go up against. 

The Competition

Christopher Newport (21-6, 9-1, at-large bid)

(Courtesy of CNU Athletics)

The Captains earned at at-large bid out of the Capital Athletic Conference where they were pretty dominant all year. Their only conference losses were at the hands of York College, once in the regular season and once in the conference championship. York is also an excellent team that has a chance to make a run in the tournament, so these aren’t particularly bad losses. Their non-conference schedule was also pretty loaded, as all but one of their losses came to teams that are also in the NCAA Tournament. The scoring duties are led by junior Jason Aigner ’21 who’s averaging 13.9 points per game while shooting over 45% from beyond the arc. He’s aided by senior forward Dalon McHugh II ’20, who’s putting up 12.3 points and hauling in nearly 8 rebounds per game. CNU has some guys with size who could give Colby trouble, but they aren’t regular members of the rotation so it’ll be interesting to see if they stick with what they’ve been doing or if they decide to overpower the Mules with some size off the bench. Either way I think this will be a good matchup, but I don’t see Colby’s season ending tonight.

Writer’s Pick: Colby 86 – Christopher Newport 80

The Other Two

Stevens (23-4, 12-2, MAC Freedom Champions)

(Courtesy of Stevens Athletics)

Stevens is somewhat of an enigma given that they come from a relatively weak region, but there’s no doubt that this team can play. They blew threw the MAC Freedom Tournament, winning the title game in convincing fashion en route to becoming a host for the first two rounds of NCAAs. This team has some experience playing against the nation’s best, as they defeated #6 Johns Hopkins early in the year and battled to close defeats against #1 Swarthmore and #21 Middlebury as well. The Ducks are led by the trio of Spencer Cook ‘20, Alec DiPietrantonio ‘21, and Kevin Florio ‘20, each of whom average double digits in scoring. Cook shoots the three at a nearly 50% clip, so you can bet that teams will key in on him and make sure to always get a hand in his face. They’ve been tested before so you know they’ll be tough, but given that they haven’t played a particularly tough schedule since before the New Year, it’s hard to know exactly what we’ll see from them.

Nichols (20-8, 12-4, CCC Champions)

(Courtesy of Nichols Athletics)

The Bison are easily the weakest team in this region and I really don’t anticipate them getting past day one. They had a great run last season making it all the way to the Elite 8, but they lost quite a bit to graduation and really haven’t been the same team at all this year. They’ve got some experience with NESCAC teams as they took down Trinity and lost to both Tufts and Hamilton earlier this year, plus they earned a win early in the year over New England College who’s also an NCAA Tournament team. After finishing second in their conference during the regular season, Nichols defeated top-seeded Endicott in a thriller to earn the automatic bid into the tournament. DeAnte Bruton ’20 is as versatile a scorer as any, posting 22.3 points per game and big man Matt Morrow ’21 has been a beast this year, averaging a double double with 15.3 points and 11.3 rebounds per game. Jaekwon Spencer ’22 chips in 12.6 points per game of his own, but outside of these three guys there isn’t a ton of damage to be done. They have the pieces to make some games interesting, but this is a tough region and I don’t think Nichols has the fire power to consistently keep up with some of these other schools.

There’s Only Room for One: Amherst Regional Preview

Amherst Regional Preview

Now we’re getting to the good part. The weaklings have been filtered out and only the top dogs remain. Amherst is fortunate enough to host the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds, but the committee punished them with an absolutely loaded region. According to the most recent d3hoops.com rankings, this region features teams ranked 5th, 6th, 7th, and 14thin the nation so it most certainly is the cream of the crop. The combined record of these four teams is 105-12 (.897) and their average margin of victory through the first two rounds is just less than 20 points. These are some of the most talented and well-coached teams in the land and only one team can advance to the Final Four in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This is the best that D3 basketball has to offer so get ready for an action-packed weekend at LeFrak Gymnasium.

#7 Amherst College Mammoths (25-4, beat Rosemont and #23 Rochester)

How They Got Here

Eric Sellew has played a huge part in getting the Mammoths to the Sweet 16

The Mammoths didn’t have much difficulty advancing to the Sweet 16. They obliterated Rosemont in the first round, then had a more tightly contested affair versus Rochester but led the whole way and came home with the win. On Friday everyone was hot for Amherst but they were led by Eric Sellew’s 10-point, 11-rebound double double. The Rochester game was a bit more of a battle, but a strong effort from the starting five behind Grant Robinson’s 17 points on 50% shooting propelled them to victory and potentially two more home games before the season ends. Defense has really led the way so far as the Mammoths have allowed just 120 points through their first two games – tied for the fewest of any remaining team. They’ve been thrown into a region with some teams that are capable of putting up big scores, so I guess we’re about to find out just how good their defense really is.

Who They Lose To

Normally this section would be titled “How They Lose,” but we already talked about how Amherst would lose in our preview for their first two rounds and we’re sticking to that. Instead, I’ll talk about who is the most likely candidate to take down the Mammoths in this region. That team, I believe, is the Swarthmore College Garnet. The Garnet made it all the way to the Elite Eight last season and they didn’t lose a whole lot from last year’s team. In fact, they even added dynamic freshman guard George Visconti who has been huge in their development this season. Swarthmore is getting hot at the right time, winners of their last 12 games in a row. In fact, they’ve already defeated each of the three teams that they lost to this year. They rolled through their first two NCAA Tournament games, including a 105-65 romping of no. 12 nationally ranked MIT in the second round. This region is stacked with talent but I think Swarthmore is the team to beat heading into Amherst this weekend.

The Competition

#14 Nichols College Bison (27-2, beat Middlebury and Rowan)

Marcos Echevarria is one of the most exciting players on any team left in the tournament

The Bison have been a pretty underrated team this season. They hold a 27-2 record and they cruised through the Commonwealth Coast Conference tournament – only picking up one conference loss in 18 games this season. Senior guard Marcos Echevarria is the team’s leading scorer, averaging 20.6 points per game and while posting a number of 30-point games this year. Nichols boasts a pair of 6’8” big men by the names of Jerome Cunningham and Matt Morrow who do the bulk of the rebounding work, combing for over 19 rebounds per game. The size that these two guys bring often results in a mismatch at one or multiple positions on the court, and this team is very good at exploiting those mismatches. On the defensive end, this duo helps compensate for the fact that none of the starters in the Bison backcourt are over 6 feet or 160 pounds soaking wet. This is a funky team because their starting five is made up of three guys who look like they belong on the JV team and two guys who look like they should’ve gone D1. Nichols has had their way with NESCAC opponents this year, taking down Wesleyan, Trinity, Tufts, and Middlebury on their way to the Sweet 16. So be wary, because they can and will surprise you.

#6 Swarthmore College Garnet (26-3, beat Mitchell and #12 MIT)

The Garnet are dangerous.

I’ve talked about them already so as you can see, Swarthmore is legit. They feature senior point guard Cam Wiley who’s coming off his second consecutive Centennial Conference Player of the Year award and junior forward Zac O’Dell who earned the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year award. These are two of the very best players at their respective positions and they’re complemented nicely by sophomore sharpshooter Conor Harkins who knocks down threes at a very impressive 45% clip. Coach Kosmalski has done an outstanding job since taking over as head coach and has now coached the Garnet to their most successful season in program history for the fourth year in a row. Swarthmore just keeps on getting better and better so I think this could be the year they make a deeper run into the tournament.

#5 Randolph-Macon College Yellow Jackets (27-3, beat Morrisville St. and York)

Buzz Anthony is hoping for a few more opportunities to drop dimes this year

The Yellow Jackets actually fell to Guilford in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference championship game, but received an at-large bid to the tournament and have looked dominant thus far. Sophomore Buzz Anthony is the guy for Randolph-Macon, as he won the conference’s Player of the Year award averaging 15.8 points and 5.7 assists per game – the latter of which is good for 21stin the nation. Jon Nowell and Grayson Midulla take on the bulk of the rebounding work, although the tallest player on the team is actually senior Luke Neeley. This guy is an absolute weapon from beyond the arc and he also stands at 6’8”, making his shot nearly unblockable. Oh, and did I mention he’s also left-handed? Neeley is a real threat for this team and he isn’t even one of their top three scoring options. Randolph-Macon is a bit of an unknown to those of us in New England, but they’re capable of doing some damage in this region just as much as anyone.