Feb. 8: TRINITY (10-14, 2-8)
Details: Friday, 6:00 pm (at Middlebury)
Last year: Middlebury 76-47
Trinity returns a very young core, but will be without its top two freshmen from last season, Varum Ram (7.8 ppg) and Carter Trent (7.1 ppg). Those losses will hurt a Trinity team that looked to have the pieces in place for the rebuilding process, and
might set back their plan for another year. Expect this one to be about as close as last year’s as Middlebury’s starters get a rest before a much anticipated re-match against the Lord Jeffs the next day.
Prediction: Win
Feb. 9 Addendum: The Bantams (9-13, 2-6) are the youngest team in the conference (they have just one upperclassmen on the entire team) and have shown their youth this season. Offensively Trinity has been anemic, averaging a conference-worst 62.9 points per game on 41% shooting from the floor and 64.8% from the line while turning the ball over 17 times per game. The Bantams have just one double-digit scorer: Jaquann Starks, a 5’9” freshman who is a threat from beyond the arc (46% from three), but shoots just 43% from the floor and will likely face the toughest matchup of his young career with Nolan Thompson lining up opposite him. Starks is complemented by a developing supporting cast. 6’8” center George Papadeas is the most intriguing of the group, providing Trinity with a jack-of-all-trades off of the bench. In just under 15 minutes per game, Papadeas averages 6.9 points, 4.3 rebounds and 0.6 blocks. He will need to neutralize Peter Lynch on the defensive end as Lynch has victimized lesser competition consistently this season.
For the Panthers, the matchup with Trinity is an opportunity for Nate Bulluck and Dean Brierley to work their way back into the rotation after missing consecutive weeks with injuries. The team has missed their minutes and Bulluck’s energy off the bench, in particular, and there is a limited window to reintroduce them into the rotation with a game against Amherst Tuesday and postseason play looming. The game today will also provide Jake Wolfin with a chance to emerge from a season-long shooting slump. While Jake’s scoring statistics are down across the board this season, he has always been a player who will miss several straight shots and then make two or three down the stretch. It would not be surprising if that mentality appears late in the season and Wolfin gets hot at the right time and it would be reassuring to see him begin the turnaround today.
If you can’t make it to the game today, tune into WRMC to hear our broadcast.
Clubbo, thanks as always for your input. We’ll address it at length in our post, which should be up later tonight, but in short we see the game very similarly to the way you just described, with the one exception that we’re not picking Middlebury to win.
Since you gents don’t have Amherst up yet, I’ll take the first shot at dissecting this and you can agree or disagree.
First:#2 them vs. #3 the Panthers. It’s a simple equation-we don’t like them- they don’t like us. Yes there is respect for abilities- “like”- check that at the door. And it goes back a long way.
Second: nescacs, ncaa -hosting on the line. And probably the top spot in the all important ‘regional rankings’ by the ncaa (round 2 due out on Wed.) The winner, barring a major stumble in the nescacs is the one-seed, altho in d3 they refuse to call it that(it might equate to a 1st round ‘bye’, and I’m not sure at this time of year that you want to be off for 14 days. Why the long layoff? because of the ncaa dragging out the d3’s to April 7th, to celebrate 75 years of ncaa bureaucracy) in one half of the brackets. That is a big deal.
Third and unfortunately, we’ve got to go through the hat pull, if Midd prevails, otherwise it’s at Amherst. Having lost two last possession games there last year, we’d prefer Pepin and celebrating at ‘Two Bros.’
Fourth: Joey and or Nolan (the best defender in the country) takes Toomey. While there are a bunch of good BBall analysts who want it to be Nolan, I am on the Kizel bandwagon for two reasons. he matches up well size-wise and gives Midd the option to have Nolan handle Workman who can be a dangerous hidden addition to the LordJeff’s success. The silent plus is that Toomey (who shared all 1st-team nescac with Joey last year) was touted as a preseason 1st team A-A, while Joey was nowhere to be found on that list. Are you kidding? We’re looking for payback for last year, and the non-recognition is a quiet driver for one of the best G.’s in Midd history. JK can drive on him and more importantly, my take is that Toomey hasn’t forgotten that. There is also the factor that Robertson either posted posted or ‘iso’d’ Toomey several times at Lefrak with good success but then Williams went away from it and didn’t come back to it at all (including Sunday), so there is a question as to how good a defender he is. Let’s make him prove it tomorrow. Other match-ups obviously important but if we get the upper hand vs. Toomey, the Amherst ‘O’ will be running on less that high octane fuel. Like I said Midd by two buckets. Talk soon. Clubbo.
Guys- would have agreed in toto with your call of a game that should’ve been over early vs. Trinity. Obviously it took longer. Look at it this way – or whatever way you wish. We were flat early, then saddled with too many ‘touchy’ fouls. Note- this same ref group did the Wesleyan game which was a near nightmare but had the earmarks of a lot of anticipatory calls like this one did. Clodfelter is all right, the other two guys are overmatched by the speed of the game. hHopefully for Amherst, in a big spot on the national calendar, we get to see Roberto Marquez and/or John Gill in the driver’s seat. They control the game and let the players decide it. The other explanation is that the early game ‘flatness’ was attributable to the ‘look by’ theory, and no focus on Trinity, given the magnitude of the Amherst game. Despite the firepower that the LordJeffs have shown, Nolan and/or Joey can control Toomey’s effort and and that is key to to making their ‘O’ not function at high r.p.m.’s. This is the best team we’ve faced and should make believers of everybody who has niggling doubts that Midd is the real deal. feel strongly that TheBoys are looking for payback for last year’s two finishes, and this time we’re in our building. Important that we don’t have to go back there (Lefrak) for the nescacs, so let’s hope after we earn the tie, that Midd can win the name pull from the hat. Panthers by a couple of buckets, although I’d settle for one. Talk soon. Clubbo.