First Semester Grade - Brown Bears: B-
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
We continue with our first semester report cards for our local Division1 men’s college basketball teams. Today we head to the Ivy League to take a look at the Brown Bears:
Brown Bears: B-
This one was tough because you could argue that the Bears deserve an incomplete grade considering the circumstances.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThis was supposed to be the year that Brown moved from the lower half to the upper half of the Ivy League standings and, who knows, maybe that will happen. However, many of the reasons for optimism about the team haven’t panned out for one reason or another.
Start with the fact that 40% of the team’s projected starting line-up will not play a single game this year. All-Ivy forward and co-captain Tucker Halpern is out for the year due to mono and it’s not just Halpern’s scoring that the team misses. With his size and skills, he presented quite a mismatch at the 3 position for many of Brown’s opponents. Even more, he sees the floor as well as anyone and his passing skills are exceptional as he knows how to get the ball to his teammates in the right places.
Brown’s starting center, Rafael Maia, is also out for the year as he was declared ineligible by the NCAA. Maia is a skilled and physical big man who would have given the Bears a solid low post presence to open things up for the team’s talented guards on the perimeter. We’ll have to wait until next year for that to happen.
Brown also has had to deal with injuries and illness to virtually every player on the roster at one point or another this fall forcing them to add two members of the Brown football team to the roster so they can actually hold a practice with 10 healthy players.
But, injuries and illness are a part of the game which is why we decided to hand out a grade to the Bears anyway.
At (5-7) through the first 12 games, the feeling is that the record could be better and it could be worse.
Brown has two solid wins over URI and Central Connecticut but has also lost some games that were winnable like against Albany, Manhattan and New Hampshire.
A closer look at the wins and losses reveals that, of their 4 wins against D-1 opponents, the combined records of those 4 teams is (8-32). Still, the victory over Rhode Island is a big-time quality win regardless of the Rams struggles. As is the win over Central Connecticut who is (5-4).
Brown was not expected to beat Iowa or Providence but the Bears could have and should have been more competitive than they were against both of those teams. In both instances, the Bears just could not make many of their open shots which ultimately led to their demise.
The Bears rely heavily on the backcourt of Sean McGonagill and Stephen Albrecht to score in bunches. Other teams know this and do their best to take away those two players. That’s one of the biggest challenges for this year’s team, finding ways to get those two as many quality looks as possible.
Junior Matt Sullivan lit up Albany for a career-high 26 points early in the year but has struggled to find his offense since. He will continue to have his share of open looks with teams focusing on shutting down McGonagill and Albrecht which is why he will need to make them more consistently if Brown is to do well within the Ivy League.
Up front, Andrew McCarthy has played very well for the past 9 games almost averaging a double-double over that span. Tyler Ponticelli runs the Princeton offense as well as anyone on the floor but is not quite the scoring threat like many of his teammates. Sophomore Dockery Walker possesses quite a bit of talent but due to injury, illness and inconsistency hasn’t quite made the impact on the floor expected to this point.
Senior Jean Harris gives the Bears some instant offense and athleticism off the bench and freshman Christian Gore and Longi Yiljep have also proven to be more than capable coming off the bench.
There is no question that head coach Jesse Agel and his staff have upgraded the talent on the roster and Brown has more depth than it has in quite a while. And it will be even better next year assuming everyone is healthy and eligible to play.
For now, however, they will have to compete in an improved Ivy League with the likes of a nationally ranked Harvard team and other improved programs like Yale, Penn and Columbia.
A finish in the top half of the league standings this season would be a tremendous accomplishment considering the circumstances. But next season will give us a real indication of just how good this team can actually be.
Tomorrow we wrap up our first semester grades with the Bryant Bulldogs.