NAC Conference - Page 5 - Allen

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Thomas Midseason Review

Record: 2-11
Average Scoring Margin: 70.2 - 84.8 (yes, we're lucky to have two wins)
Leading Scorer: Michael Scott (12.4)
Leading Rebounder: Michael Scott (6.4)
Leading Assists: Jeffrey Hooker (3.9)

After a 0-10 non-conference start, things have slightly rebounded in conference play for the boys from Waterville.

In one sense, the terrible record is to be expected from a team that is starting three freshman. But the freshman have been playing well -- relatively speaking of course. Most of the returning players are actually playing worse this year than last. James Lau is the exception - right now he's shooting 46% from 3PT range. But when the other seven returning players aren't giving you much, you're going to have a rocky season.

After an amazing offseason after his freshman year, Henry Westerfield opened eyes in his sophomore season averaging 10.6 points per game on 54% shooting along with 6.7 boards. After another great offseason, the sky seemed to be the limit for Westerfield. But he really stumbled out of the gates. He's rebounding at the same rate (disappointing considering his improvements along with the fact that he no longer has to contest with Altman for the loose balls). And that 54% shooting percentage has fallen to 39%.

Jeffrey Hooker took advantage of a redshirt year and proved to be a solid member of the guard rotation his freshman year. His sophomore season has been a step back. His below average 41% shooting has fallen to 35% and despite the increase in IQ and ratings, his turnover rate has increased this year to an unacceptable 2.6 per game.

Turnovers are a big part of Lawrence Mueller's problems as well. The turnovers were expected last year as Mueller came to the Thomas campus as the starting point guard despite never having played in the Flex offense before. With a year of development under his belt, one would have expected he'd hold onto the ball more successfully this year. Instead, he still has butterfingers and still hasn't learned how to make an outside shot.

The Thomas boys have been both a disappointment on and off the court. Rumor has it that at least one of the players will become ineligible for the second semester due to a lack of classroom achievement.

Rumor has it that the alumni association is starting a fund drive to both buy out Coach kujayhawk's contract as well as to throw enough money at cyben5150 to make a pitch for him to return to his coaching roots.

10/23/2007 2:20 PM

mizzou77

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LOL.... great stuff KUj. We should all enter a mid-season report on our team's "progress" to this point. And Westerfield is still your stud...IMHO. He's 16-22 last 4 games... he'll get there.

10/23/2007 2:47 PM

kmfloyd

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Quote: Originally Posted By mizzou77 on 10/22/2007
KM... do you know Biggie outside of HD? or did he just happen to join us at the same time you did?.. he seems to be gone right now... just curious if you know him?

Don't know him outside of HD. He joined the Midwest with me the season before I came to the NAC. Since that conf looked like it was falling apart, I let him know that I was jumping ship and invited him to come, too. It looks like he lost interest.

10/24/2007 9:00 AM

kmfloyd

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10/24/2007 10:56 AM

ji03

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After a disappointing start to the season at 2-8 albeit against a tough schedule, Mount Ida is beginning to come around a bit picking up wins vs. quality opponents like Elms and Main Presque Isle.

Although the boys are not shotting very well from outside, next year looks pretty promising as we only lose one starter, PG Robert Ramsey, while the now So. Michael Hopkins who is in line to replace him, shoots better from the outside and actuaklly has a better rating in passing.

I just hope that I can bring another deep run to Mount Ida before Jessie Damico leaves the program because he is such a special player.

10/25/2007 4:53 PM

mizzou77

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Husson midseason report.

Well the Eagles are flying a little lower than expected this season so far. We only graduated 2 players last season and really expected to not miss a beat, so-to-speak, and pick right back up. We did decent in NC, losing to #10 Altoona by 7 and #5 Rens Poly by 5, but then looked past O'donnell's boys in the last game and just couldn't get it going enough to get past a probably inferior team and lost to Bradford. He slowed us down and his better than average press seemed to give our un-focused boys more than they wanted that night.

Conference has been pretty uneventfull thus far. We seem to be still struggling to get by some teams. And Lasell got their first win over us in 7 trys. We fell behind early and allowed too large a lead to make back up. I am pretty sure that Brown and Mills were better players than I gave them credit for last year. We seem to miss them more than I thought we would. The overall health of the conference may also be a factor here as several of the teams are closing the gap on Lasell and us from last year.

As far as the players go, D.Brown has been no surprise. He is doing exactly as expected, and having a very solid year. He doesn't have the ability to take over a game, but he does get his dozen every night and grabs 5 boards or so. Tommy Stud had a break-out game last night finally! We hope to see more of this as T-Stud will be ask to fill Brown's shoes and we're not yet convinced he's capable. Sheffer can play all over the floor and has done so quite well. Lewis and Bomb have been their under-achieving selves this season as expected and just can't seem to dominate like I had wished one of them would have by now! Tucker at the point has been our brightest spot for 2 seasons. He takes care of the ball, and if you challenge his meager defensive ratings,,,, he'll take it away from you and be making a lay-up before you know what's happened. He very quitely has been our most consistent player. He just doesn't have a bad game. His assist to t/o ratio is 2/1 and he gets as many solo steals as t/o's. His 80+ speed is just more than most DIII PG's seem to be able to deal with. Juco, Cornell has also been a pleasant surprise. he is a turtle by Tucker's standards, however he has played very consistently. (which is huge since Hicks and Fahey have rolled over and played dead). The rest of the team is comming along slowly... which is sad since we grad 5 at the end of this season we will need "all hands on deck" or next season could prove to be a long, cold, winter in Bangor!

Last season we reeled off 6-8 games where we won by 40-50. I don't think that's gonna happen this year (maybe not ever again by anyone) since the conf. is getting better and better. But, I just don't believe we are a sweet-16 team this season. And last year I actually though we belonged where we got to. So I would have to say we seem to be under-achieving a little right now. Maybe our expectations were just too high/unrealistic. At a team rating of 530 M/L we're probably playing about right. We probably weren't as good as I thought last season...LOL

10/26/2007 4:06 PM

mizzou77

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Nearing the end of the Conf. portion af the season.... The Lasers seem to be taking control.... (as they should). I look for them to end strongly and march to the championship game of the Con tourney without much problem... there could be their only loss until the 2nd or 3rd round of the NC. Husson is struggeling to keep it together. Most teams might be happy with their record, but after losing very little from last season... this one is a little disappointing thus far. Mt Ida would have to be #3 right now as they are getting on a roll at the right time. Farmington is very close on their heels. Thomas, PI, and Elmo are Lurking in the weeds to punish anyone who tries to take a game off at their expense. All the other teams are in the rebuilding, (improving), mode and shouldn't pose a huge problem to these top 6-7, HOWEVER, that being said,,, in the tourney,,, anything can and has happened. It appears the Lasers are a Lock in the NT.... I believe I will stumble in with Husson, and any one of the other 4-5 have a better than decent chance of getting on a roll and winning their way into post-season play. Good Luck to all.

11/3/2007 11:52 AM

mizzou77

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Quick look forward into next season...... after we graduate seniors and before recruiting anyone...

Here's how it shakes out for starters returning.

#1. Mt Ida should be able to put on the floor a group that is around 585.

#2. Presque Isle should be around 575.

#3. Thomas should have 5 at around 570.

#4. Johnson St. should field 5 guys at around 550

#5. Lasell and Husson should be at about 545 each.

#7. Farmington should be around 510.

#8. Salem St. around 500.

#9. Castelton St, Becker, MMA, and Elmo,,, around 490 to 495.

These are based on returning players who appear to be the starters. This can and will change quite abit as recruiting takes place if anyone goes for immediate help via the JUCO route. It is usually tough to bring a juco in that will affect this much at the start of the season tho.

It appears from this there will be a power swing Southwards next season, as well as more balance in the North. .... it's all good

11/5/2007 9:07 AM

kmfloyd

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This may be the year I go hard after a transfer if they know my O/D sets. I need someone who can come in and help at PG from day 1.

11/8/2007 10:47 AM

mizzou77

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I have had some very good luck there. Mills graduated last year at SG and led my team in scoring last season... he was a juco. He started some as a soph and most all games as a jr and sr. He gained 146 pts in 3 seasons with a 35 WE as a soph. Also look at Cornell on my team now, he will have to start next season... has some this year and done decent. They are good role players. Most people like the 4 full seasons... but I want to be competitive every year. I'll be "forced" to have another (maybe 2) this next season (if I can find the right ones before you do).

11/8/2007 2:27 PM

mizzou77

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I just looked and in 3 seasons Mills was in the top 15-20 in Husson history in assists (at SG mostly), fg%, ft%, 3pt%, steals, and averaged about 10ppg. Not bad for a juco

11/8/2007 2:50 PM

kmfloyd

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I am still seething about the results of the 2nd round CT. After handling J State twice in the regular season, there is NO way I would have lost in the method I did. Koffler would not have been able to win that game single handed. Maybe I should just set my team at the beginning of the season and come back at the end and look at results. Obviously, game planning doesn't matter.

11/9/2007 7:44 AM

mizzou77

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KM, I wrote a long post about my feelings on this and then decide to just keep my mouth shut. I feel ya tho.

I think my biggest problems with HD are brought out here. I have allways felt there were 2 huge problems in how games are simmed in HD and Koffler and J.St. just happen to be in the eye of the storm right now, maximizing both of them. He's 10 ft tall and bullet-proof.... we'll see how he likes a 2 hour oral-surgery tonight. I am gonna bring the paaaain

11/9/2007 9:22 AM

kmfloyd

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I hear you. The things that confuses me is that since Koffler took almost every shot and played 35 mintues, he should have been way too tired to stand let alone make FTs at the end. He also should have been too tired to defend and would have def fouled out or at least been a revolving door to the basket. This is the kind of thing that if I wasn't a lifer would cause me to move on. But I have an NAC tatoo now and it wouldn't make sense in any other conference.

11/9/2007 10:49 AM

kmfloyd

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As the season comes to a close for the Fighting Beavers of UM-Farmington, Coach Floyd looks at the empty lockers of Boston, Springer, Hannah, Gaines and Hinckley.

The Coach loses 43.2 ppg, 24.0 rpg, 7.4 apg and 4.0 bpg and will need to have a lot of guys grow up quickly if they hope to be competitive next season. He's also still waiting word from Tucker on whether the SF plans to transfer, but that could be addition by subtraction.

Barnhardt and his cement shoes returns 9.0 ppg and 6.1 rpg. He has strong post skills but glaciers have move faster. Rosendahl (5.1/4.1) looks to have a high upside. The backcourt has 3 solid contributors that will see plenty of court time.

Time for Coach Floyd to fire up the Rambler and hit the recruiting trail. Having secured the first conf title in school history, the boosters have pitched in to get the coach one of those fancy portable GPS devices. Maybe he won't get lost in the Maine backwoods nearly as much.

11/12/2007 8:44 AM

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