'the road to the top just got a little steeper...'

      In front of the LordJeffNation, the Panther Faithful were served a double-dose of 'the reality of the road' last Saturday. Amherst opened hot, their joint was rockin', and the LJN was screaming itself hoarse when 'TheBoys' were 16 down, early. The Zebras thought their main job was to protect the purple and white at every turn. Amherst pounded on Big Ryan like he was a bass drum. Several times shots of his leaked out of his hand, like he had suddenly been overcome by palsy. But alas, no trips to the line. 'TheBoys'  methodically worked their way back into it, and following a terrific block at the basket by Nate B., only trailed by four at half. They finally caught Amherst at 62-all, and down the stretch our 'D' was pretty terrific. The Zebra crew duly noted that, and rewarded Toomey and his pals with more bailouts than the banks got at TARP time.

      In fact, after the Hixons went up 61-55 with 7:41 left, they only scored on Barrise's '3' at the 1:05 mark to tie it, and on the putback that sealed it in OT. Everything else was courtesy of those men in stripes. Don't be fooled by the team foul numbers. 'Brutal', but sometimes to be expected on the road. Usually not in games between top teams. 'Awful', probably more appropriate - it was a continuous hosing. The magnitude of the difference was in focus as soon as the scorer's ink was dry on the page, because Midd slips to #2 in the nescac and now gets to host Williams, absolutely the most dangerous conference 7-seed in the country. Toomey and his pals stay home, facing Hamilton, certainly the lesser task, and look forward to hosting the nescacs.

       Having recently seen the Eph-Men give one of their best performances at Pepin, it's clear this is one of those times where full impact of the post-season looms. The road to the top just got significantly steeper for The Boys. The depth of the nescac is on display with teams like Bowdoin and Williams as 6 and 7 seeds. Thankfully, The Boys have been taught to take it one game at a time, have a guard rotation that knows that the possessions get a little bigger at this stage of the year, and use that knowledge and experience every night. For our 'nervous nellies' who point to what happened last time, my take is that JeffB. and company have probably already addressed those issues. The thought is that seeing a different alignment/match-up on 'D' is more probable than not. Meaning that you won't have 'TheBigDog' roaming around out on the arc, which takes him away from his effectiveness on the glass. Another soldier will be dispatched to keep track of Epley out there, sit on his left hand and try to get him to put it on the floor. Doubt with that scenario in mind he can match his career best. Controlling Robinson and Wang equally well as was done in game one would be acceptable. Both are well known commodities that won't be overlooked. Freeing up Big Ryan from his perimeter duties, also means he's available for Mayer-stopping. Also like that Lynch, who has shown growing, consistent inside strength this season, can put his body on Mayer. My take is that Mayer can be muscled around - having seen the Wesleyan 'Bigs' do that effectively in their blowout 'W' earlier. That might be a page to be taken from that lesson.

      On offense, it's obvious we need 'TheBigDog' for more than the 23 minutes he got in game one. Don't think that Mayer or Emerson can remotely match up with him on the low blocks. If they don't, he can growl and bark with the best of them, giving us big positive results. And if they cover, he can trigger the inside-out response with good shooters getting good 'looks'. Also like that for our younger guys, this is a good spot to begin their post season course load. Having seen Williams up close, they'll have a better sense of focusing on what needs to be accomplished to get to the rematch with Toomey and his pals next weekend. Obviously a lot riding on the outcome - the nescac crown, ncaa bids and ncaa hosting. Although the 'nervous nellies' may overload the pre-game lamaze sessions, my take is that 'TheBoys' took Williams' best punch in game one and survived. Believe that our balance, 'D', depth and 'home-cookin' are all strong factors that Maker and his boys can't quite measure up to, so that Midd will move on, and the talk in the pubs on Saturday night will again be of the nescac finals.

       Expect Pepin to be packed again - the Midd fans lead the nescac in attendance by a large margin- but unfortunately won't be in town to see this one live. Will have to survive by video, but looking forward to Amherst next week. And remember... "off 'The Pine Room' keg, down 'The Alibi' stairs, over Maker's best supporting-actor nomination letter, nothin' but net." Till next time. Be well. Clubbo.