Quote from: LECFAN32 on January 25, 2010, 12:46:30 PM
wow just read that story that was posted on the baseball board.. ugly situation and one that I would not hae expected.. baptiste always seemed to be somebody who during the heat of the moment (game situations) seems to keep his composure.. another part of the story that surprises me is that baptiste's statement said that the player was suspended for disciplinary reasons.. that sounds like a coach with an ego who isnt taking responsibility for their actions..

tha being said this was most likely out of frustration a team who was underachieving  compared to preseason predictions, its very hard to replace a 4 year starter at point guard like freeman and UMD has found this out but appear to be working things out..

I agree that replacing a player the caliber of Reece Freeman is very hard to do and I'm sure UMD struggled partly because of that but I couldn't disagree with you more about Coach Baptiste having an ego problem. He obviously did something right because the team has been 7-1 since Matt Walker and Jeff Macchi have no longer been on the team.

Quote from: ECSUalum on January 27, 2010, 03:33:14 PM
Dissapointing loss to WConn last night 78-73.  ECSU just could not contain WCSU outside shooting.  I was at the game and IMO Eastern tried to go too many times inside against a equally sized WCSU team, and should have let Nedwick and Ortiz have more 2-3 point attemps.  ECSU shot very well, (17 of 22) from FT line which was a positive. DaQuan Brooks and Tyshawn Gillespie also had success driving the base line which gave Western enough of a lead to ward of a last 5 minute Eastern comeback

Fortunately UMD beat RIC 91-89, which keeps the conference leaders one loss away fom WCSU and ECSU. Still think the LEC rep. to the NCAA tourney is wide open at this stage, ie anyone of the top 4-6 could win the LEC Tournament.

                                                      LEC                 All
UMass Dartmouth                             6-2                13-5
Rhode Island College                           6-2                 12-6
Western Connecticut                          5-3                 12-4
Eastern Connecticut                          5-3                13-5
Plymouth State                                 4-4                 11-7
Keene State                                      4-4                11-8
UMass Boston                                   2-6                4-15
Southern Maine                                0-8                2-16

I think its looking like a 4 horse race at this point. From what I have seen so far this yr I dont think any team outside of ECSU, WConn, UMD and RIC can win the conference tournament. Although Plymouth and Keene are close in the standings they are simply not as good as the top 4 teams in my opinion. It's going to be interesting to see which teams start to separate themselves down the stretch. Thats if a team even happens to separate themselves.

Quote from: LECFAN32 on January 10, 2010, 10:14:10 AM
was fairly surprised to see that wcsu had not beaten plymouth... tough place to play and plymouth seems to play with a whole lot more confidence in their own gym.. in my last two years playing (07-08) we won their within the last 5 seconds even though we had surperior talent. UMD seems to have righted the wrongs of some head scratching early second semester losses so that will be something to keep an eye on, also ric appears to have shifted their lineup around lately. League is still wide open in my opinion and hopefully wcsu comes back from this holiday hangover.

I def agree. No teams have showed any consistent dominance this year. This will make for an interesting year.

Quote from: LECFAN32 on January 13, 2010, 02:14:31 PM
does anybody know why macchi and walker are no longer with the team??

two guys who are very solid players and would make alot of teams better..

also watched the eastern/umd game.. ecsu shares the ball very well and seem to play games with a plan everytime out

wcsu is worrying me with their recent play as I was saying in december that this is a team with a shot to be a serious league contender

Jeff Macchi swore at his coach during a game then the head coach yelled at him during halftime which resulted in Jeff either quitting/ getting thrown off the team. Matt Walker is Jeff's best friend so since Jeff quit he quit too. Thats what one of the players told me.

Quote from: nescac1 on January 10, 2010, 11:31:49 AM
Tough week for the New England top group, with everyone in the top eight going down except for Williams.  Williams and MIT are now the clear top two, each with one very understandable loss (on road v. number one and on road v. Harvard).  After that still a bit of a jumble, I'd say Middlebury three, then Amherst, Western Conn, WPI, Brandeis, after that, it is an even bigger jumble ...

I agree Williams and MIT are the clear cut top two teams as of now in the northeast

I am hearing through the grape vine that 4 players on UMD are no longer on the team. Two of which who where starters #22 Jeff Machii and #30 Matt Walker. Also #1 Antoine Gray for RIC is not elgible for 2nd semester. RIC played there last game without Gray and UMD played there last game without Machii but has yet to play without both of them yet.

West Conn goes down @ Plymouth. UMD has won two in a row and it looks like they're best player is finally starting and playing heavy mins again. Ric holds on in OT to take 1st place in the LEC. East Conn holds on against UMB.  Who do you guys think will take the LEC regular season???

Quote from: hugenerd on December 08, 2009, 02:22:34 PM

Quote from: All-around on December 08, 2009, 01:39:23 PM

Quote from: thatdude 30 on November 30, 2009, 09:33:47 PM

Quote from: nescac1 on November 25, 2009, 07:32:15 AM

Only thing is that UMD has had there all-american every game except the 1st game. The problem is he is still recovering from off season surgery so he is not in his all american status just yet. Once he gets healthy UMD will prob be the best in the northeast hands down. I also think that East Conn has a chance to move up to that 8 or 9 lot if they keep playing the way they have been playing

Who is UMD's all american--I don't recall them having one?

Brandon Shelton was a D3 News Pre-season Honarable-Mention All-American, I believe.  He has never been named an All-American, or All-Region for that matter, by d3hoops.com.

Yea i think he was a 3rd team all american for division 3 news and honorable mention for sporting news

Quote from: LECFAN32 on December 01, 2009, 11:39:51 PM
New poster to this board but playedthe last 3 years of my career in the lec.. ECSU tends to be able to stay in games with their grind it out style and patient offense, they are one of the veteran teams in the league and will be a tough out. Im bias having played for WCSU but I dont think their strong start is smoke and mirrors, they have size and depth up front for the first time in years along with strong guard play could make a surprise push for contending in the league this year.

1) umd establishing a floor leader with freeman graduated, and bringing their best guy off the bench

2) RIC finding their way after that highly succesfull class graduated

3)Keene losing the core of their front court from the last few years is showing, although they have talent they
appear to be a year or two away from contending for the league..

Any thoughts??

UMD's best player had off season knee surgery so thats probaly why he doesn't start. West Conn in my opinion has a chance to be a top 2-3 little east team if they can be consistent. RIC lost alot and im not sure if they will ever figure things out because of so many new faces. Keene is good also but they might be too young. East Conn has started off to a great start and might be the sleeper team in the conference.

Quote from: hugenerd on December 01, 2009, 09:05:41 PM
My guess is that it was NE voters switching votes from Brdigewater to Amherst.  The votes that Bridgewater and and UMD lost (-312 combined) went directly to Amherst and Middlebury (+295 combined), it appears.

That makes sense. Thanks Hugenerd

Quote from: hugenerd on December 01, 2009, 01:04:09 PM
According to the Week 1 national poll, this is how the Northeast looks:

1. UMD (11 in the top 25, 319 points, -78 points)
2. Amherst (13, 259, +164)
3. Middlebury (15, 200, +131)
4. Bridgewater State (19, 118, -234)
5. Elms (20, 113, +75)
6. Brandeis (23, 97, -26)
7. Williams (29, 67, +54)
8. WPI (32, 37, +27)
9. MIT (34, 21, +18)

No others received votes, meaning Salem State and RIC both went from receiving votes (although not a lot), to having none.

Biggest gainers were Amherst (+164, or up 6.5 spots on the average posters poll), Elms (+75, up 3 spots per posters poll), and Williams (+54, +2 spots per posters poll).  Biggest losers were Bridgewater (-234, or down 9.5 spots on the avearge posters poll), UMD (-78, or down 3 spots per posters poll), and Brandeis (-26, or down 1 spot per posters poll).

This poll makes sense but I dont get how amherst gains 164 pts from being 2-0 and not beating anyone good. THat doesnt quite make sense to me

Quote from: nescac1 on November 25, 2009, 07:32:15 AM
After some early season results are in:

1.  UMass Dartmouth -- yes, they lost a game, but that was without their all-american, still have the most talent, deepest roster, and beating Brandeis shows they are for real
2.  Williams -- still a bit up and down, and a few of the veterans have yet to get on track.  But Schultz is playing at an all-american level and Wang and Whittington have really stepped up.  Need to improve defense a bit.  Two quality wins.
3.  Amherst -- when they play Elms will get a better sense.  Tremendous size and athleticism at basically every position, but may have a tough time against quicker teams, without a lot of smaller guards to defend and handle the ball.  If Meehan gets in foul trouble, watch out.  Could easily make an argument for them at number one given their depth and talent. 
4.  Elms -- again, the real test will be against Amherst but they are always tough.
5.  Brandeis -- great top seven but NO depth at all -- will those guys wear down??
6.  MIT -- with huge infusion of talent seem to be for real, but young team will inevitably experience some bumps
7.  WPI -- always in the mix, always falls short in post-season
8.  Colby -- great starting group, questionable depth
9.  Middlebury -- incredible defense, offense is questionable though.  No real go-to guy on O but they are gonna shut down a lot of teams especially once Edwards comes back. 
10. Eastern Conn -- two wins over NESCAC squads
11. Bowdoin -- I think they will eventually rise higher.  Sleeper team with great inside-outside balance. 

Others to watch: Wesleyan (opposite of Midd, all offense, no defense), Wheaton (MA), Bridgewater St., Westfield St., Roger Williams

I agree with u Nescac1. Only thing is that UMD has had there all-american every game except the 1st game. The problem is he is still recovering from off season surgery so he is not in his all american status just yet. Once he gets healthy UMD will prob be the best in the northeast hands down. I also think that East Conn has a chance to move up to that 8 or 9 lot if they keep playing the way they have been playing

Quote from: BornBalla on November 30, 2009, 07:00:04 PM
How does ECSU stack up with RIC & UMD? Seems like they are playing decent ball and finding ways to win. Always a good mark.

ECSU is playing great of late but I'm not quite sure if they can compete with both RIC and UMD quite yet

I am very surprised because this year the northeast and the midwest are so much more balanced in terms of talent and good teams so it surprises me that the northeast got no love. Once this season is over there will be alot more northeast players as all americans then 1.

I'm going to have to go with Umass Dartmouth. If they get past the early part of their schedule it should be smooth sailing for them.