Tag Archives: NEWMAC Basketball

Apr 8 2013

Mass. College Hoops: WPI’s Bartley Named Glenn Robinson National Coach Of The Year

By NoontimeSports.com 

Courtesy of the WPI sports information department, here’s this afternoon’s release about men’s basketball coach Chris Bartley, who was named the Glenn Robinson National Coach of the Year Award Winner:

Atlanta, GA — WPI men’s basketball head coach Chris Bartley is the recipient of the 2013 Glenn Robinson National Coach of the Year award.  Bartley received his honor Friday at the CollegeInsider.com awards banquet in Atlanta as part of the Final Four weekend.

Bartley led WPI to a school-best 26 wins this winter as the Engineers won an NCAA Tournament game and as vaulted as high as No. 2 in the D3hoops.com Top 25.  The 12th-year head coach grabbed his fourth NEWMAC Coach of the Year nod, the most in the 15-year history of the conference.

He guided the Crimson and Gray to 22 straight wins to begin the season and were the last undefeated team of over 400 in Division III.  Bartley helped the Engineers win their eighth NEWMAC regular season crown in the last 10 years and third NEWMAC Tournament title.

The award is presented annually to the top division III men’s basketball coach. Named after the longtime Franklin & Marshall coach, Robinson has over 800 wins and is currently twelfth on the all-time wins list.

He has took Franklin & Marshall to NCAA Division III tournament 22 times and guided the Diplomats to the Division III Final Four in 1979, 1991, 1996, 2000 and 2009.

Bartley was also a finalist for the 2013 John McLendon National Coach of the Year which is presented annually to the top collegiate head coach. The award will encompass Division I, Division II, Division III, NAIA and JUCO.  Georgetown’s John Thompson III won that award while the other finalists included Dana Altman (Oregon), John Beilein (Michigan), Tom Billeter (Augustana College), Derrick Clark (Metropolitan State), Jim Crews (Saint Louis), Jim Crutchfield (West Liberty), Jim Larranaga (Miami) and Johnny Tauer (Saint Thomas).

Apr 2 2013

Mass. College Hoops: WPI’s Bartley A Finalist For John McLendon National Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year

By NoontimeSports.com 

Courtesy of the WPI sports information department, here’s this morning’s release about men’s basketball coach Chris Bartley, who was named a finalist on Monday for 2013 John McLendon National Coach of the Year:

Boston, MA —  WPI men’s basketball coach Chris Bartley was announced on Monday as a finalist for the 2013 John McLendon National Coach of the Year.

The finalists include Dana Altman (Oregon), John Beilein (Michigan), Tom Billeter (Augustana College), Derrick Clark (Metropolitan State), Jim Crews (Saint Louis), Jim Crutchfield (West Liberty), Jim Larranaga (Miami), Johnny Tauer (Saint Thomas) and John Thompson III (Georgetown)

The John McLendon award is presented annually to the top collegiate head coach. The award will encompass Division I, Division II, Division III, NAIA and JUCO.

Bartley led WPI to a school-best 26 wins this winter as the Engineers won an NCAA Tournament game and as vaulted as high as No. 2 in the D3hoops.com Top 25.  The 12th-year head coach grabbed his fourth NEWMAC Coach of the Year nod, the most in the 15-year history of the conference. He guided the Crimson and Gray to 22 straight wins to begin the season and were the last undefeated team of over 400 in Division III. Bartley helped the Engineers win their eighth NEWMAC regular season crown in the last 10 years and third NEWMAC Tournament title.

A trailblazer and one of the true pioneers of the game, McLendon became the first African American coach to win an integrated national championship. His team went on to win the NAIA Division I Men’s Tournament in 1957, 1958 and 1959, making him the first coach in history to win three consecutive NAIA championships.

In 1962 he became the first African American head coach in a major professional league (ABL) with the Cleveland Pipers. In 1966 he became the first African American head coach of predominantly-white university, when he took over the Cleveland State program. He led the team to their best record in school history.

In 1969, McLendon was hired by the Denver Rockets and became the first African American head coach in the American Basketball Association. After a brief stint with the Rockets, McLendon ended his 25-year professional coaching career with a winning percentage of .760 and a lifetime career average of 523 victories and 165 losses.

The 2013 award will be presented on April 5 at the CollegeInsider.com awards banquet in Atlanta, site of the men’s NCAA Basketball Championship.

Feb 26 2013

Mass. College Hoops: WACBA Weekly Report (Feb. 18-24)

WPI's Zach Karalis recorded a layup with two seconds remaining on Saturday, which lifted the Engineers past Babson in the NEWMAC semifinals! (Photo Credit: WPI Athletics)

WPI’s Zach Karalis recorded a layup with two seconds remaining on Saturday, which lifted the Engineers past Babson in the NEWMAC semifinals! (Photo Credit: WPI Athletics)

By NoontimeSports.com 

With another week of college basketball in Worcester officially in the books, here’s this week’s WACBA Rookies of the Week, Players of the Week and Honor Roll.

QUICK NOTE: Write-ups courtesy of the college’s sports information department. 

Men’s Rookie of the Week: Zach Karalis (WPI) Fr., Guard, North Andover, MA: With roughly two seconds remaining in the second session, the first-year followed a shot by Aaron Davis and recorded a reverse layup to seal a 66-64 victory against Babson College in the NEWMAC semifinals on Saturday. Karalis finished the game with 10 points and four boards. On Sunday against Springfield College in the conference tournament’s championship, he added 12 points and four rebounds to help the Engineers to a 79-72-overtime victory, along with their first conference crown since 2006.

Men’s Player of the Week: Ryan Kolb (WPI) Jr., Forward, Southington, CT: Kolb netted a career-best 29 points against Springfield College in the NEWMAC championship, which helped the Engineers defeat the Pride in overtime. Excluding his point total, he also recorded six boards, three steals and two assists. Against Babson College in the semifinals on Saturday, he finished with 16 points, three rebounds, as well as one assist and one steal.

Women’s Rookie of the Week: Molly Hourigan (Holy Cross) Fr., Center, Memphis, NY: Hourigan enjoyed her best week of the season by sinking all four shots against Lafayette, while snagging six rebounds and recording three blocks in her team’s victory. Against Buckell she scored a career-high 16 points and hauled in a team-best seven rebounds. According to this week’s notes, Hourigan leads the Crusaders with 23 blocks this season.

Women’s Player of the Week: Gabrielle Gibson (Assumption College) Sr., Guard, Amityville, NY: In another 2-0 week for Assumption, Gibson averaged 24.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists while shooting 50 percent from three-point land (8-for-16) and 1.000 from the free throw line (9-for-9). She began the week with 31 points, four assists and six three-pointers in a home win over Saint Rose, followed by 18 points, six rebounds and three assists at Pace as she moved into a tie for third on the Assumption all-time scoring list at 1,529 points.

Honor Roll: 

Brisje Malone (Holy Cross) Jr., Guard, Springfield, MA: Against Bucknell she registered her second double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 assists, which helped the Crusaders dismantle the Bison in Worcester. Malone finished 6 of 11 from the field against Lafayette with 15 points, eight assists, four rebounds and two steals. Her 10 assists against the Bison were a season-high.

Kevin Donahue (Assumption College) GS, Guard, Pawcatuck, CT: In another 2-0 week for the Hounds, Donahue averaged 17 points and two rebounds last week while shooting 44.4 percent from three-point land as he hit 8-of-18 attempts. After a 14-point effort in a home win over Saint Rose, Donahue led the Hounds with 20 points in a road win at Pace.

Theresa Logan (WPI) Sr., Forward, Southborough, MA: Logan finished the week by tallying her 1,000 point during her team’s setback to Babson College in the NEWMAC semifinals on Saturday. She finished her final game in an Engineers uniform with 11 points and now ranks 16th on WPI’s all-time scoring list with 1,010 points. Against Coast Guard in the conference tournament’s quarterfinals, she netted 11 of her 13 points in the second stanza, which lifted the Engineers past the Bears in Worcester.

Dane Jobst (Worcester State) Jr., Forward, Athol, MA: Finished with his 18th double-double of the season with 24 points and 12 rebounds in an 86-78 setback to Salem State in the MASCAC Quarterfinals. Jobst, who is top 10 in the NCAA Division III in average and total rebounding, finished their setback against the Vikings 13-for-13 from the charity stripe. Jobst is also ranked second in Division III in double doubles, fifth in average rebounding (12.1 RPG) and sixth in total rebounds (314).

Meaghan O’Keefe (Worcester State) Sr., Forward, Warren, MA: Notched game-highs of 11 points and 13 rebounds in a 45-36 setback to Westfield State in the MASCAC Quarterfinals. Finished the season with the third highest total rebounding sum (411), the sixth-most points (411) and the fourth-most boards in club history (757).

Feb 25 2013

Mass. College Hoops: Springfield’s NCAA Tournament Reactions (VIDEO)

By Matt Noonan 

After being announced as one of the 62 teams that’ll be dancing in the NCAA Division III men’s basketball tournament, Springfield College’s men’s basketball celebrated the news with cheers, high fives and hugs. Here is a video of their reaction courtesy of the college’s sports information department.

Feb 24 2013

Mass. College Hoops: Springfield’s Brock, Martin Discuss Setback

By Matt Noonan 

WORCESTER, MA – Following their setback to WPI in the NEWMAC (New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference) championship, Springfield College’s coach Charlie Brock and guard Sean Martin discussed the loss with the media, and below is the transcript from the interviews.

SEAN MARTIN

On the setback: “It was a good game. There’s a lot you can say about what went wrong and it’s never easy to talk about anything after a loss, especially like this one. We played really hard and I am proud of our team and that’s all that matters at the end of the day. Shots didn’t fall our way and that was the difference.”

On stepping up on offense and defense: “Our team is all about doing what it takes to win. It doesn’t matter who has to do what, but whether someone has to step up on defense or rebound more it doesn’t matter because we’re all having each other’s backs out there and that’s all we try to do. Guys that came in, such as Josh Altman, he played a hell of a game off the bench and it’s stuff like that, which helped keep us in the game.”

On falling short in back-to-back championships: “You never want to lose, especially in the playoffs, so it’s unfortunate.”

On Coach Brock’s message after the game: “Our season’s not done. We’re going to treat this next week just as we would any week. We’re going to prepare for whoever we have to play and whatever tournament.”

CHARLIE BROCK

On the team’s play: “We struggled offensively and credit for WPI for that. They play very aggressive man-to-man defense and we struggled offensively. We played better in the second half, we shot 50 percent.”

On playing without Alex Berthiaume for most of the first half: “I don’t think we changed anything offensively and other guys picked (up for Alex’s absence due to his three fouls). Matt Pascuzzo had a couple of buckets, Josh Altman had a couple of baskets, so obviously losing the conference leading scorer has an impact on your team, but I thought the guys did a great job of making up for it and putting fourth the effort.”

On defending Ryan Kolb: “Other than double with their perimeter players as good as shooters as they are there’s not much you can do. It was sort of a pick your poison type of situation. Actually, very similar to yesterday because there was one kid that we felt we could double off of and today I didn’t feel that way because they played four guards for most of the second half, as did I.”

On Kolb’s career-game: “He had a great day today. He really went at Robbie (Burke) and Robbie did the best he could and actually one of the things that he does very well is he finds people that are open and that really causes a problem. They’ve got four guards (one of them being Zach Karalis) and (Sam) Longwell, and they’re two wings and (Marco) Coppola I thought had a great game and in the first half he was very hard to deal with and I think he was the other leading scorer for them in the first half, but he’s a tough guard and every time he comes off something Kolb gets loose and then we’ve got to catch up to him, so it’s a nice combination.”

On falling short: “We had our chances, we didn’t do a couple of things that we had to, so that’s all.”

Feb 24 2013

Mass. College Hoops: WPI’s Bartley Reflects On NEWMAC Championship

Chris Bartley guided the Engineers to their first NEWMAC Championship since 2006 on Sunday afternoon! (Photo Credit: WPI Athletics)

Chris Bartley guided the Engineers to their first NEWMAC Championship since 2006 on Sunday afternoon! (Photo Credit: WPI Athletics)

By Matt Noonan 

WORCESTER, MA – After his team celebrated their first NEWMAC (New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference) championship in seven seasons, WPI men’s basketball coach Chris Bartley shared his thought’s on the Engineers overtime win against Springfield College, as well as the play of Ryan Kolb, who netted a career-best 29 points.

With the win, WPI earned an automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Division III championship, which will commence next weekend.

On ending a seven-year championship drought: “It’s something that I think about all the time. I don’t think our guy’s do because they weren’t here for all of them. The only ones that have been here for all of them are Ryan Cain and I.”

On what worked for the Engineers this year: I think the big thing that helped us this year with this group is we really did a better job of not focusing on the outcome and just focusing on what we needed to do each day and each possession. We really broke it down and everything was like a microcosm, so I’m proud of that. I thought we handled it well and I’ve got to tell you that I did not sleep one second last night, so I was extremely confident because I might have past out on the bench for not sleeping, but it was great.”

On Fending Off Springfield’s Second Half Rally: “You’ve got great players on Springfield College’s team and you’ve got leadership with Sean Martin and Alex Berthiaume, and those guys are season veterans. They’ve been through it, so we knew and didn’t say to our guys that they were going to make a run, but I was figuring they probably would and when Berthiaume got going a little bit, made some shots, it gave them confidence. When they took the lead by a three-pointer, I think things could have really gone south for us, but again I point to our guy’s mental toughness. Our guy’s are really mentally tough, all year and when they needed it to be at the most critical time they were and I thought Aaron Davis with the way he started overtime was phenomenal. Davis scored two baskets with his left hand on drives, which he hasn’t made that shot for a while for us, so it just shows you what type of big game player he is.”

On the play of Ryan Kolb: “He’s a tough kid. He’s literally one of the toughest kids I have ever coached. We also call him, ‘The Rock’ because he can be a rock at a time, but when a kid steps up like that I’m just in awe of how a kid can do that on that big of a stage. It’s just very impressive to me.”

On Springfield’s play down the stretch: “For them to do what they’ve done at the end of the year here is why I think they belong in the NCAA (Division III tournament). They’ve beaten so many good teams, so I have nothing, but respect for how tough and how well coached Springfield is and another bounce or another way, and they would have been hoisting the trophy today.”     

Feb 24 2013

NEWMAC Championship: WPI’s Coppola, Kolb On Winning The Conference Crown (VIDEO)

By Matt Noonan  

WORCESTER, MA — WPI’s Ryan Kolb exploded for a career-high 29 points, while teammate Marco Coppola filled the stat sheet with 14 points, seven assists and five boards as the Engineers defeated Springfield College in the NEWMAC (New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference) championship.

After the game concluded, Kolb and Coppola chatted about the game, as well as what it’s like to win a championship, too.

Feb 24 2013

NEWMAC Championship: WPI’s Bartley On Engineers Victory (VIDEO)

By Matt Noonan 

WORCESTER, MA — After WPI’s men’s basketball team claimed its first NEWMAC (New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference) crown in seven seasons, Engineers coach Chris Bartley discusses the overtime win against Springfield College with reporters.

Feb 23 2013

NEWMAC Semifinals: Springfield College 68, MIT 60

By Matt Noonan 

WORCESTER, MA – Springfield College’s Sean Martin recorded a career-best 21 points, as the Pride used a second half surge to defeat MIT in the NEWMAC (New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference) semifinals, 68-60.

With the win, the Pride earned a spot in Sunday’s conference championship for the second time in two seasons.

MIT’s Will Tashman, who led the Engineers with 19 points, scored the game’s first seven points, which provided the hosts with all the momentum, but Springfield responded by finishing the opening stanza on a 7-2 run, thanks to Martin’s trifecta and layup, and Alex Berthiaume’s coast-to-coast layup.

James Burke’s triple and layup early in the second pushed the Engineers lead to 10 with 15:15 remaining, but the Pride eventually erased the deficit with layups and 3-pointers to even the score at 52 with 6:53 remaining.

Tashman and Mitchell Kates combined for the team’s next five points before Berthiaume and Martin combined for the Pride’s next eight points, which pushed Springfield ahead for good.

Berthiaume matched Martin with a game-best 21 points, while Robbie Burke added 11 points and 10 rebounds in the win.

MIT’s Matt Redfield finished with 14 points, while Burke concluded with 11 points, four assists and two boards.  

Feb 23 2013

NEWMAC Semifinals: WPI 66, Babson College 64

By Matt Noonan 

WORCESTER, MA — WPI’s Zach Karalis scored the game-winning bucket on a reverse layup with two seconds remaining, which lifted the Engineers past the Beavers in the semifinals and secured the hosts a spot in Sunday’s conference championship.

Marco Coppola registered a team-high 19 points in the win, while Sam Longwell and Ryan Kolb each netted 16 points. Karalis finished with 10 points and four rebounds.

John Wickey put Babson up by eight with 5:49 remaining, but WPI answered with six points from Coppola and two free throws by Kolb, which tied the game at 59.   

David Mack pushed the Beavers ahead by two, but Kolb evened the score with two more free throws before Karalis netted a go-ahead triple with 58 seconds remaining.

Babson’s Matt Palazini answered on the ensuing possession 26 seconds later, but that didn’t stop Karalis, who followed an Aaron Davis three-point attempt on the ensuing possession with a rebound and layup before time expired, which secured the win.

Wickey led all scorers with 20 points, while Palazini added 12 points.

Babson led by one at the break, but only tallied 23 points during the second session, three less than WPI.