Category Archives: Amherst

Women’s Basketball | NCAA Tournament Preview (NESCAC style)

Posted on March 2, 2012 by nescacinsider| Leave a comment

Amherst

Pod: vs. St. Joseph’s, Babson vs. Bridgewater State

Prognosis: The undefeated and defending national champion Lord Jeffs enter the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year as the favorites. Their path will likely be one of the easiest of any top seed, as they probably will not have to leave Amherst for the first four rounds of play, and the other high seeds in their region of the bracket are a group with gaudy records but lean resumes. Their potential second-round opponent, No. 13 Babson, is 25-2, but outside of an early season win against a Tufts side still getting its feet on the ground, they have looked poor against top teams, including a 61-39 drubbing at the hands of Williams. No. 15 Juniata similarly played a weak schedule, and is reeling after losing their conference championship game to Catholic, while No. 8 William Patterson could only split a season series with Kean, a team the Lord Jeffs dispatched by 23. Continue reading →

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Posted in Amherst, Bowdoin, NCAA Tournament, NESCAC, Tufts, Winter Sports, Women's Basketball

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Linking Around the NESCAC | March 1

Posted on March 2, 2012 by nescacinsider| Leave a comment

New month, new links:

Women’s Basketball | Locked down: top-notch defense carries Jumbos into NCAA tournament (via Tufts Daily)

As Tuesday’s practice wrapped up with some scrimmaging, Berube stood on the sideline, a paper folded hot-dog style in her shorts, hands clasped behind her back. After a particularly lackluster defensive effort from her starters, Berube barked at those wearing black practice jerseys to pick up their defense. It was a verbal energy shot; the starters swarmed post entries and clogged passing lanes. They just needed a little nudge to return to the Jumbos’ way.

Three minutes into a later scrimmage littered with shot clock violations and steals, Berube ordered her players to look at the scoreboard.

It read 0-0. Continue reading →

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Posted in Amherst, Men's Basketball, Morning Links, NESCAC, Tufts, Winter Sports, Women's Basketball

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Women’s Basketball | Amherst, Tufts, Bowdoin to NCAA Tourney

Posted on February 28, 2012 by nescacinsider| Leave a comment

(via NESCAC.com)

HADLEY, Mass. – Defending national champion Amherst College will have the opportunity to defend its title when the Lord Jeffs open play in the 2012 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament on Friday evening at home.

The Lord Jeffs (27-0), who won their third NESCAC title this past weekend, were announced as one of the 64 participating teams in this year’s tournament on Monday afternoon. Also joining Amherst from the conference are Tufts (21-6) and Bowdoin (19-7). The Jumbos will host a first and second round set for the first time ever at Cousens Gymnasium this weekend, while the Polar Bears will travel to Ithaca, N.Y.

All first round games are Friday with second round contests taking place on Saturday. Continue reading →

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Posted in Amherst, Bowdoin, NCAA Tournament, NESCAC, Tufts, Winter Sports, Women's Basketball

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Linking Around the NESCAC | February 27

Posted on February 27, 2012 by nescacinsider| Leave a comment

The champions have been crowned and NCAA bids are on the horizon. Check back later today once the basketball fields have been announced for full NESCAC analysis, but let’s get to the links ASAP:

NESCAC Sports | A weekend four-bagger for Amherst (via MassLive.com)

Ice Hockey | ECAC East/NESCAC wrap: Feb. 27 (via USCHO.com)

Women’s Basketball | Lord forbid: Amherst cracks down in second half to earn title (via Tufts Daily)

An upset appeared on the horizon at halftime. Minutes later, the opportunity vanished.

Coming off back-to-back dominant efforts in its first two playoff games, the women’s basketball team lost to No. 1 Amherst in the finals of the NESCAC tournament yesterday afternoon. Despite a great first-half performance, in which the Jumbos kept pace with the undefeated Lord Jeffs, the visitors collapsed in the second period, ultimately losing 65-39. The Jumbos had not allowed that many points since their second game of the season on Nov. 20. Continue reading →

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Posted in Amherst, Men's Basketball, Morning Links, NESCAC, NESCAC Tournament, Tufts, Winter Sports, Women's Basketball

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Linking Around the NESCAC | February 23

Posted on February 23, 2012 by nescacinsider| Leave a comment

Happy Thursday from NESCAC Insider. Thanks to all for reading. Here’s another batch of links:

Men’s Ice Hockey | Amherst fine-tunes the machine (via USCHO.com)

Now let’s see: What’s that old expression? “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

For NESCAC’s number one seed Amherst Lord Jeffs, it really doesn’t seem like anything is “broke” on their 20-3-1 record heading into this weekend’s quarterfinal matchup with Hamilton at home. The fact is they really haven’t changed much all season with their schemes, and their success in the post-season will come down to their excellence in execution as I discovered at their first practice of the week yesterday at Orr Rink.

“We have a couple of different forechecks, breakouts, penalty kills and power plays,” said coach Jack Arena. “We really haven’t used a lot of different things this year at all. There have been times when things on the ice have not been going great and we have discussed changing things up, but at the end of the day, this group has always figured it out and made things work.” Continue reading →

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Posted in Amherst, Men's Basketball, Men's Ice Hockey, Morning Links, NESCAC, Winter Sports

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