Sports
Men’s basketball to rely on young core
By Robert Fitzgerald ’20
November 17, 2016
Tags sports
In a season where nearly every game was close, you could say that the Hamilton men’s basketball team of 2015-16 was unluckyto finish the season 11-13. Recording only two wins within the NESCAC for the second year in a row, last year’s season seems extremely unsuccessful at first glance. However, there were a lot of positive takeaways from the year which all point towards a much-improved season this winter.
First off, it’s impossible to ignore how close the Continentals were to a drastically different win-loss total last year. Other than just two games, every single Hamilton loss last year was by 12 points or fewer. What’s worse, six of these losses were by just five points or less and/or went into overtime. That’s six games decided by one or two possessions, five of which were in-conference! In comparison, only one NESCAC conference game that was decided by five points or fewer went the way of the Continentals. The team was 0-3 in OT games.
These are some crazy stats which need to be considered when evaluating last year’s team, though this can’t really be chalked up to anything in particular. Obviously, late-game efficiency needs to improve, but all-in-all these numbers are strange, and fans shouldn’t worry too much. Let’s hope the law of averages evens things out this winter.
One thing that may help in these late- game situations is experience, and this sea- son’s roster is set to be much older than last years. In fact, the Continentals are losing just two players from last year’s roster, neither of whom started more than 10 games in their senior seasons. While they’ll only have three seniors this year, the young core of this team (which ulti- mately played more than the school’s up- perclassmen last season) will continue to age and better themselves. For example, all three of the Continentals who managed to play over 25 min/game last year were either first-years (2) or sophomores (1). These three players, Peter Hoffmann ’19, Andrew Groll ’19 and Jack Dwyer ’18 will once again look to lead their team this year, except with much more experience under their belts this time around. Last season, guards Hoffmann and Dwyer were the only players to average over 10 points per game (12.7 and 11.0, respectively), while Dwyer was the clear assist leader of the team, averaging 5.5 a game. In regards to rebounding, the forward/center Groll was king, averaging 7.8 a game while also lead- ing the team in blocks at 1.8 per contest. The season gets going this Saturday against Catholic, as the Continentals will travel to Arlington V.A. to partake in the fourth annual Pablo Coto Tip-Off Tour- nament at Marymount University. NES- CAC play won’t begin until the New Year, when the Camels of Connecticut College will travel to Margaret Bundy Scott Field House to battle our home team at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 6. The Continentals were 7-5 on their home court last season, and will look to continue their success in Clinton this year. Led by Head Coach Adam Stockwell, as well as his fantastic young core, this 2016-17 team promises to be both exciting and successful. Who knows? Maybe this year they will win a couple of the close ones.