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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Men’s Lacrosse | Tufts moves up to No. 2 in latest coaches poll

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

Commence the screaming.

Tufts has moved up to No. 2 in the latest USILA Div. III coaches poll despite not playing a game, thanks to Dickinson’s freefall from 3rd to 13th following a loss to St. Mary’s.

Atop the poll is Salisbury, the defending national champs who steamrolled No. 10 Roanoke, 22-5, pushing the previously No. 2 Maroons out and allowing the Gulls’ opponent in the past two title games to move into second. Still, Salisbury garnered all 18 first-place votes, so that one phantom vote that had New England lacrosse analysts outraged has officially migrated.  Continue reading →

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Posted in Men's Lacrosse, NESCAC, Spring Sports, Weekly Rankings

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Linking Around the NESCAC |February 24

Posted on February 24, 2012 by nescacinsider| Leave a comment

Champions will be crowned this weekend, and links will be had right now.

Men’s Basketball | So long, farewell to the Jumbos’ sixth man (via Tufts Daily)

Long blames his lack of free-throw success on his running inner dialogue. He admits that with the leadership role came constant responsibility and worry for the team’s performance, and that he often found it hard to clear his head of strategizing thoughts.

“Free throws are such a mental thing,” Long said. “I just think I always have trouble getting to the line and removing myself. I struggled with that the last few seasons because so much of my game is thinking and being smart. I was never a good free-throw shooter in high school either, but it wasn’t a duck-and-cover kind of thing.”

Some people still have faith that Long’s free-throw shooting will improve in his post-college career.

“[Assistant] coach Chad Onofrio says that they’re bound to start falling … that I’m going to be the best men’s league free-throw shooter of all time.”

“His mother taught him how to shoot free throws,” Sheldon joked. “Put that in the article.” Continue reading →

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Posted in Fall Sports, Men's Basketball, Men's Ice Hockey, Men's Soccer, Morning Links, NESCAC, 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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