MBB: Little East

[ECSUalum]

The semi-finals should be very fun.... I don't see how RIC or Keene loses in their opening round games.  Keene vs East Conn and RIC vs West Conn; I will sign up for those games!

I dont know pjunito, UMass Dartmouth can be dangerous at times, they beat RIC a couple of weeks ago and lost to Tufts 84-82 in OT, Jan 31.
Lance Greene led UMD in rebounds and ppt in both games

However, control Lance Greene, then you can beat UMD.

[warrior]

Oh my goodness!  That one was too close for comfort!     We were only up by 2 with around 2 minutes left, but then scored the last 6 points.  Nick had a great game and give credit to Jamie for playing despite suffering from a nasty stomach virus that almost cost him to miss the first game of his career.

As for the championship, I just checked and, if UMB was formerly Southeastern Mass, then ECSU WAS indeed the only team that hadn't won an individual championship!  (UMD 10, RIC 4, Keene 3, SEM 3, USM 2, WCSU 2, PSU 1)

I'm so glad we won't have to travel next weekend!  Good luck to you RIC, PSU, KSU and UMD fans this Tuesday and we'll see you all in WILLIMANTIC on Friday!       

[ECSUalum]

2012 Little East Men's Basketball Championship,
Geissler Gymnasium, ECSU Willimantic CT

First Round - Feb. 21, 2012
Plymouth State University at Rhode Island College 7 p.m.

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth at  Keene State College  7:30 p.m.

Semifinal Round - Feb. 24, 2012
Winner of UMD/KSC at Eastern Connecticut State University 5:30 p.m.

Winner of PSU/RIC vs. Western Connecticut State University 7:30 p.m.

Championship Round - Feb. 25, 2012
Semifinal Winner #1 vs. Semifinal Winner #2 5 p.m.

[pjunito]

I think playing at home, both teams have a significant advantage... But, that's why they play the game...   Should be fun in the region.

[7express]

The semi-finals should be very fun.... I don't see how RIC or Keene loses in their opening round games.  Keene vs East Conn and RIC vs West Conn; I will sign up for those games!

With the way Keene has been playing, I can see them losing to Dartmouth.  Up until the opening round matchup last season, I think Keene went 5 years in between victories over Dartmouth.  The Corsairs can be dangerous on the offensive end, and let me just put this nicely...the Owls aren't well known for the defense.  However, Keene did win the matchup in December by almost 40...but that was a long time ago, we'll see in a couple days.

Congrats to coach Geitner and the Warriors on winning the outright LEC title.  I would think (hope so) that winning the LEC outright would be enough to get them into the NCAAs no matter what happens in the tournament and should join RIC (best resume no bad losses) and Western (have the best wins of any team in the conference.  Those victories over Medgar Evers, WPI, Keene [2x], RIC & Eastern should be enough to get us in).  Keene's in trouble, that victory over Middlebury can only get them so far, and this 3 game losing streak at the end of the season looks bad.  Keene HAS to be playing next Saturday to even be put in the discussion again, and even then they'd probably have to win it.  Eastern, RIC & Western can all lose their first tourney game and all 3 should get in. 

[7express]

Sat results:

Dartmouth 84-69 over USM.
USM was eliminated on Tuesday, and that same night Dartmouth got locked into the 5 spt, so this game was pretty meaningless.  Jeremey Jackson had 16 points and 11 boards in his final game while Justin Pulver lead 4 Corsairs in double figures.

Eastern 76-68.
With the win they clinch the top seed and host the semifinals and finals.  This was a 2 point game with 2:07 to play before the Warriors scored the final 6 points to close out the win and the league crown.

RIC 65-57.
Has any team ever fallen faster then Keene did??  The only team I can think of is Dartmouth a few years back that started I think 18-0 or 20-0 and rose as high as #2 in the country, and lost like 5 of their last 6 to close the season.  RIC held Keene to 38.3% shooting.

Western 90-70 over Plymouth.
Take a picture of the boxscore.  DaQuan had 15 assists...and only 13 points.  Which brings up a good question, how many times do you see someone with more assists then points when they scored a minimum of 3 points??  Petey Skevas had 23 to lead the Panthers, but in the second where Plymouth started to make a run (cut it to 4 at 1 point), coach Campbell inserted Shawn Mobillio into the game, put him on Skevas, Mobillio stuck to Skevas like glue, and that was the end of the Panthers.

Final standings:
1) Eastern 20-5 (11-3)
2) Western 20-5 (10-4)
2) RIC 20-5 (10-4)
2) Keene 18-7 (10-4)
5) Dartmouth 13-12 (7-7)
6) Plymouth 9-15 (4-10)
7) USM 11-14 (3-11)
8) Boston 5-20 (1-13)

Tournament pairings:
#1 Eastern
#2 Western (3-1 vs. Keene & RIC)
#3 RIC (1-1 vs. Western while Keene was 0-2)
#4 Keene
#5 Dartmouth
#6 Plymouth

Tuesday starts the opening round of the LEC tournament:

#6 Plymouth @ #3 RIC 7:00
#5 Dartmouth @ #4 Keene 7:30.  I'll have predictions Monday

[ECSUalum]

I would like to give a shout out to ECSU's Joe Ives this morning.  Here is SID Bob Molta's write on Joe in yesterdays game with UMB:

"Junior point guard Joe Ives (Avon) came up with two of the biggest plays after the Beacons had moved to within the bucket with two minutes left. The Warriors gave the ball back to UMass and the hosts had a chance to tie, but Ives came up with a steal in the backcourt, then fed junior center Chris Robitaille (Canton) in the lead for an inside basket to make it 72-66 with 1:17 left. 
"After UMB missed two field goals, Nedwick grabbed a defensive rebound and sank two free throws with 34 seconds left, and Ives sealed the championship with two more freebies with 21 seconds left".

Joe has been a bit of an unsung hero for the Warriors this year as, although capable of shooting the jumper or 3, he is, primarily, a playmaker who is patient to look to get the best shot possible with an assist to Nedwick, Levy or Robitaille.  He is a very good defensive player, ball handler and most of all, (an aspect of the game dear to my heart! ), an 86% Free Throw shooter !!!

Speaking of free throw shooting, my college roomate was able to get tickets to see the Marquette/UConn game at the XL Center in Hartford yesterday.  Certain players for the Huskies could use some practice at the stripe  !!!

[warrior]

ECSUAlum - how true about Joey.  Eastern is a team of role players and his role as playmaker is ESSENTIAL to our success. Add the fact that him going to the line at the end of a game is like money in the bank .... and you realize he is another player that ECSU will sorely miss when he graduates next year!  I can hardly wait for next weekend!   

[LECFAN32]

played against that 08 dartmouth team twice.. they were a veteran group where everyone played their roles well, and knew how to win.. not an imposing team by any rate..probably had more talent in 07 where we swept them, and 09 where they made another nice run with shelton etc, we were up for large portions of both games but they were very composed and ran their offense to perfection..so it wasnt a huge surprise that they lost a few games down the stretch, more so that they got to that high of a ranking.

predictably, i loved the way western shared the ball on saturday night.. well balanced, with multiple guys capable of big scoring nights. colonials need to play this way to win the lec tournament.. hopefully that was a wakeup call that playingas a team will take this team to new heights. if they figure it out, they can win not only the conf. tourney, but a couple games in the ncaa as well.

as for the rest of the league, the consensus i get from numerous sources is that the conference will definitely get 2 teams in, most likely the two that play in the final..i believe that their are 4 teams capable of winning ncaa tournament games, as this has been a rugged, fast paced league this season, with all american candidates and multiple division 1 transfers. i think keene has had a very tough week seeing 2 teams that are playing great ball, still wouldnt count them out this week by any means.

However nationwide the "powers that be" will still consider the lec a secondary league.. due to comparing numbers apparently..but can alot of these big slow teams from the midwest compete wth some of the speed and agressiveness this league has to offer head to head? i doubt it.

[7express]

Aside from Keene, Eastern is the only team I somewhat worry about should they not win Friday.  As long as RIC plays Western in the other semifinal matchup, both teams should be locks no matter who loses.  If the loser of that game gets left out and some team like WPI, Buffalo state or Grinnell gets in ahead of them, the NCAA has a lot of explaining to do.

[Eye in the Sky]

It sure would be unfortunate to have everyone look at our league as a secondary league. 3 teams with 20 wins? Thats pretty darn good. Those top 3 teams are looking pretty as far as an at large bid. With Keene dropping the last 3, they have to win out to make the tourny.

RIC should easily, eassssily handle Plymouth at home. Plymouth, to me, has the least ammount of talent and athleticism in the league, which is why I give a ton of credit to their new coach for getting them to the tournament. How Boston and USM didn't finish ahead of them is beyond me.

Keene will have their hands full with Dartmouth. Lance Green is one of the best players in the league, and Dartmouth has been playing better of late. If Keene comes out like they have the past two games, uninspired and uninterested (are they still hungover from the tough loss at West Conn?) they could be in for a dog fight. However, if Keene plays with some energy, they should take this one in front of their home crowd.

7express is right, quite a fall from grace for the owls. However, I can't say that this Owls team doesn't play defense. Even in their last 2 loses, they gave up 65 in each game. Not exactly poor defense. Their biggest problem is not the defensive end, nor rebounding, its tourning the ball over. They can't continue to turn it over 25 times and expect to win these tight games.

If everything plays out like one would expect, Friday night will be a great night for basketball, one in which I will be in attendance for!

[7express]

Tuesday tournament predictions:

Dartmouth 69 @ Keene 85.
Keene desperately needs a win, and I think they'll get it.  Dartmouth has 1 win against a top 4 team (home over RIC), while Keene hasn't lost to anyone in conference lower than 4th.  Keene swept the Corsairs this season, winning the matchup in Keene by 37 and winning by 1 in Dartmouth a game in which the Corsairs were leading with under 2 minutes to go, iirc.  Keene better have put that Western loss behind them.  As far as I know they didn't declare for the ECAC's this year, so if their still sulking over the West Conn defeat their going be thinking about that for a long time.  Lose this game, and the Owls won't be back on the court again until sometime in mid to late October.

Plymouth 49 @ RIC 65.
Really not expecting this game to be close.  In 2 losses to the Anchormen this year the Panthers are only averaging 47 points.  Hard to win games when you can't crack 50 points.  Even though RIC didn't really "blow them out" in the 2 games this year (14 point win in Plymouth, 18 point win in Providence), you can call off the dogs early when the opponent combines to average 47 points, shoot only 33.3% and turn the ball over 33 times in 2 previous meetings.  I'd expect this to be the same; RIC could indeed win by a lot more, but why run up the score when your leading by 20, the opponents only shooting 28%, has 18 turnovers and 40 points at the 5:00 minute mark??

[pjunito]

I thought Keene was the 4th seed?  Why are they on the road in the quarters express?

[7express]

I thought Keene was the 4th seed?  Why are they on the road in the quarters express?

Thanks, fixed it.  Mental lapse right there.

[ECSUalum]

Keene State vs Eastern 5:30 Friday @ ECSU
UMD went on a run, closed deficit to 4 point, late in 2nd half, then took some poor quality 3's, missed, momentum swung back to Keene, and they hung on to win 75-64
RIC vs WCSU 7:30 Friday @ ECSU
RIC vs Plymouth was not even close after 7th minute of 1st half... a 31 point blowout 79-48!!