D3hoops Daily Dose

In this piece, I will briefly touch on some games that we (MIT) have played this season and how two of our post players made significant impacts in those games.

The impact that a solid post presence has on the game is often overlooked in D3 basketball. This division is guard heavy and, as a result, many systems are built around guard play. This season I have had the privilege of playing alongside two outstanding big men. Night in and night out Bill Johnson (Everett, WA) and Hamidou Soumare (Bamako, Mali) do the dirty work that is mostly underappreciated.

On November 27, 2007 Gordon College came into our gym on a roll. At the time Gordon was 3-1 and MIT was 4-1. It stayed close for most of the first half but we closed out on a nice run to put us up 37-25 at half. Gordon is a great shooting team and was really trying to get it going by getting to the rim early to open up their outside game. Dou displayed his tremendous athletic ability by blocking 3 or 4 of Gordon’s shots. He finished the night with 15 rebounds and 5 blocks. The next game he had 22pts, 16 rebs, and 5 steals.A block is often more than just a play that alters a shot. It changes the opponent’s perception of what type of shot he will be able to take. I have seen a few players choose to ignore an open lane to the basket because they have recently had similar shots blocked. As a guard it is a wonderful feeling to be able to pressure the defense intensely because I know that I have a player like Dou behind me. These tiny parts of the game all add up and can be the difference between a win and loss at the end of the night.

On December 6, 2007 we headed to Amherst in what was going to be a battle. Amherst is known for having a strong interior with a lot of height. They are a great team but Bill and Dou really established themselves as elite players that night. MIT held a 34-26 lead at halftime. Amherst came out and went on a solid run to go up about 12 with 4:40 left in the game. MIT came back and hit some tough shots to get it to 2 with 1:23 seconds left. It was as close as we would get as I missed 2 shots to tie (what I would give to be able to take those again). However, our post players were the reason that we had those shots.

A versatile post player is, in my opinion, the most dangerous player on the floor. Bill Johnson is the definition of versatile. He is 6’8”, is arguably one of the best shooters that I have ever played alongside, is developing a killer post game, and is one heck of a teammate. This versatility gives coaches a lot of options in games. Against Amherst we were able to pull Bill outside to open the lane for others. Amherst had to guard him because he is such a tremendous shooter. On the other end of the court he played straight lock up defense on some very good athletes and players.

Sometimes I feel that guys with height are always expected to just get rebounds and play with their back to the basket. This is true in certain cases but when versatility is such a valuable asset at the D3 level, I feel that using that versatility in different ways is critical. So much of interior defense, screening, and post play is overshadowed by fancy passes or deep threes. The truth is that the inside game is as important as any other facet of basketball.

As far as conference play is concerned, the NEWMAC is crazy right now. The conference has very solid teams from top to bottom. After a few weeks of play it is clear that any team can win on any given night. It is a great way to play and I am really looking forward to seeing how the rest of the season unfolds.

Take care,

Jimmy Bartolotta

We are three junior women who play basketball for Oglethorpe University. We would like to share with you the life of a D3 basketball player. We will recap our Christmas break.

The campus was a buzz about the ensuing month long winter break. The women’s basketball team was excited about the 9 day break we received! While everyone else was joyously stuffing there face with chocolate cookies, mac & cheese, Aunt Kathy’s chocolate cake, or anything that tasted delicious, we had to watch what we ate! We knew that we could not return to the gym as big as buses and slow as snails.

On Christmas Eve we were all snug in our beds dreaming of good ol’ Saint Nick and his presents. But the real excitement came when we realized the real Santa, aka Coach Sattele, had many more surprises in store for us. Once we anxiously returned we received these surprises. What else could they be but two-a-days and game film! What else would a girl need?!

No matter how grueling two-a-days can be we all knew that this was something that needed to be done to rise above the competition. We willingly sacrifice our break because we love the game and want to be the best. The goals we have set this year are high. We want to go as far as possible in the NCAA tournament as we can. We are not practicing two-a-days to have another disappointing ending, what team does? Now that the break is almost over we’re looking forward to the second half of the season. There will be more blogs to come just so you can really get into our basketball shoes!

As finals come to an end and the semester is coming to a close–I thought I’d drop my last entry of 2007 and use it to touch on a bunch of different topics on my mind…

The Coleman Curse: Forget SI or Madden– initially I thought it was a nice little gig when Pat Coleman asked me to write this “insider blog.” Now, I would say it is in every athlete’s BEST interest to say “Thanks– but no thanks” to Pat if he asks you to write for his website. Jordan Delp from Augustana wrote about his team’s trip overseas this summer—and now is out with an Achilles injury. I started writing—and within a week fractured my leg. Then, MIT’s Jimmy Bartolotta starts writing and hurts his ankle in a game before he can even get a post loaded to D3Hoops! All coincidences? I think not. I hope that trio of Oglethorpe women is being extra careful… I would also like to send a best-wishes/get well soon message to Jamie McFarlin of our women’s team. She’s having surgery to repair her ACL on Friday and is now my training-room buddy for the rest of the season.

WU Hoops Update: We’ve had three good wins against Illinois Wesleyan, Fontbonne and Coe College since my last post putting us at 8-2 going into the holidays. We’re definitely happy with the wins, but I think we’re still searching a little as a team for how we’re going to be successful against top competition. Illinois Wesleyan is going to be really, really, scary good sometime in the future. I think Coach Rose did a great job and brought in a ton of young talent and when that group of freshmen mature—look out CCIW. It was great to see Troy play so well against Coe (career-high 35 points and 12 rebounds) and he’s going to need to keep that up. Once we get back from break we open up with a talented Webster team and then Chicago comes to town for the opening of UAA play. Speaking of which…

The UAA is tough: Obviously no one needs to hear me say that Brandeis and Rochester are talented. But I don’t see either of those teams getting through conference play with only none, one or two losses. If any team can hold serve at home and be over .500 on the road I think that’ll get the conference championship. In the UAA, especially this year, I feel like the national attention on the teams at the top are leading people to underestimate how tough it will be to beat Carnegie Mellon (4-2 with 14 point loss at Rochester), Case Western (7-2), and Chicago (5-4 but has been without Nate Hainje) this year. I know some people complain that the UAA got four tournament bids last year but come on—the conference’s W-L in non-conference games is 50-15 this year—that’s pretty dang good!

Grinnell & Assists: There’s been so much hoopla about the breaking of the assist record and Grinnell’s “system” that I figured I’d weigh in from a player’s perspective. I’m not going to sit here and ridicule the style or anything like that because that has been done enough— in my opinion they win basketball games and that’s that… period. But the thing that bugs me about the assist record is just that it was done in a 40-point blow-out win. I’d like to think that in order to feel good about setting a record of this magnitude it must include two key elements. One, the record setting performance is an outstanding individual effort (which this CLEARLY was! I mean, 34 assists is ridiculous. I had 16 vs. Chicago last year and that’s more than DOUBLE that…). But last, that every bit of the performance was needed for the team’s victory. I’m not sure this was exactly the case as I think he played 38 minutes in the blow-out.

Headin to NYC: Tomorrow night I’m going to Madison Square Garden to catch the Duke vs. Pitt game. Since we were young and through high school I’ve played on teams with Jon Scheyer (sophomore on Duke). We’ve been really close for a long time and still talk after almost every game of his and mine. I love going through workouts with him during the summer and I’m really excited to get a chance to finally watch him and his team in-person tomorrow night. Both teams are undefeated and ranked in the top ten so it should be a good one. I really like the way Duke plays this year and they’re deep and talented enough to be a favorite to win it all come March. Look for me behind the Duke bench waving my crutches after Jon drains some 3’s!!

Happy Holidays: Merry Christmas and safe travels to everyone. Wanted to say thanks to my roommate Jared Kleinstein for taking care of me the past few weeks and wish him luck as he’s going away to Israel for the second semester—I’m going to miss [pounding him in FIFA ’08 and NFL Blitz] him.

Take care,

Sean

A trio of Oglethorpe women’s basketball players are joining the Insider contingent.

This season we have noticed that the amounts of charges called have significantly increased since last season. We find ourselves asking each other why is this happening? Charges used be to something a player would take pride in, seeing as there would be only a few charges called every few games. Now there are charges being called, at least for our games, every game, multiple times a game. This also makes us ask ourselves is this trend the same for men’s games? We think not! Why is it that when a girl makes an athletic move to the basket she must be out of control, yet men can do it all the time? If refs think this, then an out of position player can take a charge, or flop, which can change the whole momentum of the game. NEWS FLASH: GIRLS CAN MAKE ATHLETIC MOVES TO THE BASKET TOO! A charge used to get the bench on their feet and excited. Now a charge is just another part of the game, nothing extraordinary. A charge should be called if the player is clearly out of control and contact is made with the defensive player. Many of the charges that have been called have had no or barely any contact. The defensive player flops without even being touched. We would not be mistaken to say that 85% of the charges that have been called in our 8 games of play this year have been flops. This is just something we think should be addressed. We are not in high school anymore our games should be called this way, contact is inevitable. Sorry this is all for now. We must go to practice and practice flopping abilities seeing as that is the popular thing to do these days. Until next time, try not to miss our genius insight of the game too much!

The first part of the season sure has gone by fast.  It is hard to believe that I am more than a half way done with my college career.  This past semester has been filled with a lot of highs, a few lows, and a lot of twists and turns. 

This week I will briefly touch on some things that many people might not realize happens in D3 basketball.  Specifically, I will talk about our preseason commitment to the sport and some of the things we do as a program to get ready before we step on the court with coaches on October 15^th.      

Most students at MIT arrive on campus a good week and a half before classes start.  We move in, help with freshman orientation, and some even participate in community service or leadership development programs. 

The end of summer is probably my favorite time of the year.  Aside from getting back together with my closest friends, there is a solid week in which I basically have no obligations.  With school, basketball, and summer internships it can be fairly hard to find some alone time to do what you please during the year so getting some time is amazing.  This year
Boston was great.  The city was lively and I had one focus in mind – get in the gym. 

I hope that every program is able to take advantage of the machine called “The Gun”.  This machine is quite a contraption that has nets to catch rebounds and an electrical throwing arm to pass to the shooter.  With this machine I was able to rattle off about 1,000-1,500 jumpers a day in about three or four hours depending on the intensity or focus of the workout. 

During these sessions I felt that I was subtly redefining myself as an individual.  I’m sure this feeling is not uncommon among athletes from all sports.  I think the biggest thing that helped me improve as a player during these workouts was the “visualization”. 

We are lucky enough to have a coach on our staff that has PhD in Sports Psychology.  Coach Oliver Eslinger (Clark ’97) talks a lot about the importance of visualizing everything we do.  Making a move as if a defender is there, imagining the footwork of a move before practicing it, and visualizing a tight release on your jumper are a few examples of the countless techniques that can be utilized.

Although a lot of players were in the gym anyway, the first day of classes signified the start of official captain’s practice.  Captain’s practice essentially takes the place of regular practice except we focus on playing, drills, and lifting.  This year we were lucky enough to have Coach Akin Aina (MIT ’96) as our Strength & Conditioning coach. 

We committed to 5 days of team plus 1 extra day of individual workout time.  It seems like 6 days a week is a lot out of season, but this type of commitment is critical in order to compete consistently at a high level.  Coach Akin developed a great strength program for us and it definitely helped us get through the tough preseason workouts.

Two reasons that I personally like the high intensity off-season workout schedule is (1) it simulates the intensity of season and (2) it separates the players that are serious about ball from the ones who think that they are serious about ball.

For conditioning we run 3 mile “bridge-loops” (run around the
Charles River crossing bridges along the way), swim, and on-court running.  Our conditioning is then tested the week before season begins.  I still claim that this test is the hardest mental and physical exertion that I have ever done for athletics.  We are required to run Harvard Stadium.  This stadium looks like a coliseum and we have to run up and down every stair in the whole stadium in under 30 minutes. 

Every year we talk it up to the freshman about how hard it is and every freshman says that the stadium is much harder than they had imagined.  I can honestly say that I will never run that Harvard Stadium after I graduate from school.

After the stadium, we rest up and fine tune our skills to get ready for the first day of practice on October 15^th. 

We, as D3 players, really do commit to our sport year around.  It takes an enormous amount of effort but I believe that I speak for most when I say that it is more than worth it.  We find our best friends, learn how to time manage, push ourselves in new ways, meet great people from around the nation and world, and – hopefully - make a difference in others’ lives as well.

Off topic, I would like to thank the training staff at
Amherst for their efforts and help after an injury last week.  I am always amazed with how much competitors care about the welfare of opponents.  It is one of the reasons that I love this sport and the D3 community so much.  Thanks, good luck to all of those that have finals, and safe travels.

Jimmy Bartolotta

*In my next piece, I plan to recap the games from the whole first part of the season.