MBB: Little East

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

ECSU.....Interesting that your teams schedules the 3 CT nescac schools.  Your women's team seems to have a regular series with the Amherst team.  Would be nice to see the men's team add Amherst to the schedule.  Amherst has a regular series with RIC. 
There has been some comments on the "CAC" board that teams like Amherst and Williams have been having some difficulties filling out their schedules recently.  I believe that it is good for the better teams to schedule up with respect to other schools.  It does not really help develop teams when you play weak teams, imo.  Last year's game with RIC helped Amherst improve their "toughness"...is that a trait?

With the competition for Pool C spots, how many potential losses does Amherst or Williams want on the non-conference schedule?  They're clearly willing to schedule tough opponents, but wouldn't sanity dictate a limit on those?

[amh63]

Hoops.....Interesting question with many dead ends.  First, with respect to recruiting and scheduling, I leave those to the professionals at Amherst.  There is always the end goal of coaches to reach a post season spot in the NCAA and to get into a position to host the post season sectional.  Thus the complication of SOS, weighting factors that tends to change, even and odd years for hosting, etc.  Still, IMO, for Amherst, in picking opponents for the few open spots early in the season, the goal is to evaluate/develop the players on hand and build team chemistry and depth.  I believe that this can be done best by scheduling the toughest opponent one can get.  It may help in the SOS whether one wins or loses the contests.  The "CAC" is a very strong conference and competition for top seeds and to host the conf. tournament are sought after.  The key goal is to win the conf. tourn. and win the automatic bid.  To play in the tournament finals also helps in the selection of any available pool C spots.  In recent past seasons there have been three "CAC" teams reaching the quarter finals and in the last decade, there have been two teams going to the final 4.  In the end it is for the coaches to determine what is best for their players and teams and for posters like me to bring frowns on Amherst's coaches.

[ECSUalum]

amh63,

Where as the LEC, (as a conference) will never be able to always compete, (year after year) with an extremely strong, for example, M/W basketball/LAX/baseball/Soccer etc NESCAC", I believe RIC, WCSU, Keene, and perhaps ECSU tend to be the most competitive overall in the above sports.  IMO, it is a natural that Coach Geitner schedule Amherst or Williams, as,  in just about every other sport the Warriors compete in, Amherst is on their schedule. 
I agree with you that one should "err" on the better SOS side than otherwise, and I also believe the players build toughness out of a stronger schedule, and as well it better prepares the stronger teams for the NCAA tournament.
I also agree that a close defeat to, a high poll ranked Amherst is better for post season Pool bids, than a blow out win vs a mediocre/weak opponent. 

[ECSUalum]

2012/13 Anchormen roster has been posted:
http://www.goanchormen.com/index.html

Top two rebounder/scorers Mike Akinrola/Mason Choice have now graduated.  Can't comment on any of the freshman/transfer players Coach Walsh has recruited.

[7express]

2012/13 Anchormen roster has been posted:
http://www.goanchormen.com/index.html

Top two rebounder/scorers Mike Akinrola/Mason Choice have now graduated.  Can't comment on any of the freshman/transfer players Coach Walsh has recruited.

The last school to post a schedule, but the first to post their roster, go figure??  Not sure how Western's looks, only thing I know is we got a freshmen named Jerry Washington, and have Russ Payton back this year.

[warrior]

Hi all! Good news from England - After 7 games, Jamie just found himself atop the season's first player rankings, thanks to his 21 ppg and 10 rpgs.  He plays in the first Division and his team is leading the league with a 6-1 record.  Clearly, the Little East prepared him well for international competition.

As for this year's Warriors, despite the loss of Nick, Jamie, Ham and Chae, I think we will still be tough to beat.  I am convinced that Brian Salzillo and Mike Garrow will match Jamie and Nick's point total, while Brandon Yarbourough does a lot of the good things that Ham used to do.  The challenge for Brian and Mike will be to fill Nick and Jamie's shoes defensively, while the challenge for Mike and Brandon will be to make up for the rebounds that Jamie used to grab, but I think they are up to the task.

We also have a talented new guard, but he is in a cast right now!  (Should be back in a month.)

As always - every game will be a 'dogfight' and the league title probably won't be decided again until the last week, but I have to say that Keene will be VERY tough to beat!

Can't wait to watch some games!

[Argylebballer]

No matter what they graduate the LEC should have a Top 25 team in the preseason every year. They never do but always end up with some great teams.
This year maybe it should be Eastern, but also RIC continues to never get national respect. Yes they had two great players graduate but they return to guys that played on the team in Europe this summer and have multiple very talented transfers and freshman. At some point, like say after 6 straight NCAA trips, will the "power" schools admit RIC into the club? They have had a leading scorer/all-conference guy or two leave every year but they come back again and again. Still no love.

[warrior]

How true!  RIC has been a model of consistency for as long as I've been following them (5 years) despite, as you say, losing some great players each year.  I always said, we owe them a lot for setting the bar so high these past few years. Needless to say, Coach Walsh is the man behind that great run.  I'm glad he's still around.  I would love for Eastern to follow in their footsteps and follow up last year's success with another great year! 

[ECSUalum]

Hey warrior,

Congrats to Jamie on his success in England!!  Best of Luck to him.
Did Coach G bring in any big guys this year?
Should be another fun season of D-III BB in New England

[warrior]

Yes, he got one big man, similar to Chris is size, who will be the back-up center.  It's hard to tell how he'll do, but we DEFINITELY needed the body, as we already played all last year without a back-up.  Right now the trainers are getting a workout dealing with numerous ankle, groin, knee type stuff.  Hopefully everyone will be 100% in a few weeks!

[7express]

Here's 7express annual Little east predictions a tad late, and as usual projected conference record is in parenthesis ().  As I said last year feel free to save this and laugh at me in February when these turn out horribly.  Unlike last year when it was pretty easy (Western, eastern, RIC & Keene in the top half, Dartmouth square in the middle, Boston, Plymouth & USM bringing up the rear) and just filling in the pieces, this year is a tad bit more difficult with no true great teams like their were last year (Eastern/Western & RIC), but there is one that stands out over the other 7 and thats...


...1) Keene state (11-3).   I don't care what you say they choked last season.  Up 2 with 3 games to play not only did they somehow not win the regular season championship, they finished in a 3 waytie for 2nd and got the #4 seed in the conference tournament.  In my tenure at Western (since January of 2010) Keene has been a perennial underachiever and an all offense no defense team.  With DaQuan Brooks, Nick Nedwick, Mason Choice, Jamie Kohn & Mike Akinrola out of the league Keene has the best player in the conference (Ryan Martin) and the best homecourt advantage in the conference (not that it means much however).  Since its more then likely they'll be picked preseason #1 when the conference predictions come out, how will they handle the pressure of being #1 and can they play defense?  It remains to be seen, and will decide how their season plays out
2) RIC (10-4).  Next best.  Mike Akinrola and Mason Choice are big losses, but they still have a lot of playmakers back in Tahrike Carter and Tom DeCiantis.  Bob Walsh always gets the best out of his teams and he always has them ready to play every game, especially LEC games and LEC games after New Years.  My pick to win if Keene stumbles again this year
3) Western (9-5).  No DaQuan Brooks, no problem?  For starters we get Russ Payton back this year after missing all off last season, and still haven't seen the roster, but hopefully Jensen, Bentil & Gates will be on the team full year or at least join for the 2nd semester.  This years team will have more balanced scoring then we had in the last 3 years, but the downfall is we more then likely don't that go-to-scorer.  If we were down 2 with 4 seconds left you knew who was shooting, we don't have that yet.  I like this team this year I think they can go really well playing together, and no that is not a homer pick.
3) Eastern (9-5).  As I said back in March or April one of those months I would've liked eastern's chances a lot more this year if they had just ONE of Ham Levy, Jamie Kohn, or Nick Nedwick back.  Brian salzillo hit a couple huge shots in the tournament back in March, and both Mike Garrow and Tyler Hundley will at least fill part of the void left by Ham, Kohn & Nedwick.  Like their state rival to the West, I think this is another team that can do really well.
5) Southern Maine (7-7).  I know its probably a surprise to some people, but they played well last year conference isn't nearly as good.  Brandon Tomah and Alex Kee both averaged double digits in points last year.  USM should be favored in all but 1 or 2 of their home games this year: if they can go 5-2 in those 7 home conference games they have a chance to be a top 3 or 4 team; go 2-5 in those 7 games and will probably be another season checking out the tournament on their laptops from their dorms in Gorham.  I say they finish somewhere in the middle (4-3), finish 5th in the conference and then get blasted by Western in the 4/5 game.
5) Plymouth (7-7).  Another team that has to take advantage of a down year and go at least 5-2 in home contest.  I thought they would be awful last year, but managed to get to 4-10 in conference, and make the conference tournament.  Petey Skevas was their leading scorer last year at 12.6 PPG and he's only a junior this year.
7) Dartmouth (5-9).  They feasted on the bottom of the conference last year (6-0 against USM, Plymouth & Boston the 3 teams that finished below them with an average margin of victory of 17.8 points with all 6 games being won by at least 13 points) and got crushed against the top 4 in the conference (1-7 against the teams that finished above them with an average defeat of 10 points).  Take that with the fact they graduate their 3 best players off of last years dissapointing squad (Colin Burns, Lance Greene & Paul Rose) and this team screams "mediocore" at me.
8) Boston (4-10).  Isaac jenkins is gone, but they had a lot of freshmen that played last year...and a lot that played well.  Vinny DeLucia was their second leading scorer, Carl Joseph had a breakout second half and was named to the ALL LEC rookie team.  6 of their top 7 scorers last year were freshmen (Isaac being the lone exception).  The cupboard is not bare at all, and this is another of those teams that can place 4th or 5th or last depending on if those sophmores go through sophmore slumps next year.  I look for them to really break out next year however.

Player of the year:
Ryan Martin-Keene state

LEC first team:
Ryan Martin-Keene state
Brian Salzillo- Eastern
Petey Skevas- Plymouth
Carl Joseph- Boston
Alex Kee- USM
Tahrike Carter- RIC

Playoffs: RIC beats Keene in the LEC championship game final, those are the only 2 that make it to the NCAA tournament.

[7express]

Later on in the week I'll have the 1 game to watch for each team (probably Sunday or Monday) and the women's preview on the women's board Sunday if anyone's interested in reading that.

[LECFAN32]

interested to see how ric makes up for choice and akinrola being gone, at this level playmakers are a premium, and carter is a fine one and very well rounded, but productive bigmen are very rare.. same with hybrid forwards like choice who played the 1-through 4 during his career. They had a couple nice looking freshman in burton and another forward like him who shot it a little better last year, but no center to speak of

as for western-
bentil is definitely gone, had no more eligibility after last season, graduated high school in 2007 so his clock ran out, same thing with mike kennedy, he had only played 3 years and wanted to come back but had gone to the ad and was told there wasnt much that could be done... gates was a cancer on the team during his first year, and especially when he came back for his brief soph. season from what I was told so I would be surprised to see him back, not to mention him and payton pretty much fill the same role as a scoring combo guard in a pg's body. Jensen was up in the air and leaning toward not playing the last time I heard from him, although he is on campus. Hope he does, he would get the shots that he deserves on this team and most likely would be an all league player, as there just arent many guys around that can shoot like him, especially in the flow of the offense.

seems to me the pg spot is between shawn mobilio, who is a very hard worker and a good kid, and transfer from southern dom. harrison (danbury high grad), harrison excells in the open court but doesnt shoot great outside of 15, but once he slows himself down a bit he should be a solid starting pg in the lec.  the 2 could be a battle if jensen returns, but if not payton is my pick there, smooth and accomplished player, but I think those around the program expected more from him his first year on campus and he certainly has the ability to produce. mark laporte a transfer from central should immediately score the ball at the 3, around 6'3 and a well rounded player, I expect him to be in double figures and fill the statsheet. jerry washington was a starter on Bridgeport centrals 2010 state 'chip team who played at herkimer cc and very well could challenge at the 3.

Dont know much about the true freshman, however I will relay such info, soup campbell notoriously over recruits in anticipation of some guys not coming, of course as a result of that somebody gets a raw deal.Could go into the front court, where I expect transfer Joe groski and lou bridtter (if hes back) to be big, but Ill leave that for another day.

League seems to be very wide open this year.. keene returns alot but their unreliable so I would predict a great year for martin who I love watching, and inconsistency for everybody else. Curious to see how eastern recovers as well, lots of shots for garrow, salzillo and the big is my guess.

[ECSUalum]

Here is how good the predictions were last year with repsect to 2011/12 Preseason poll vs Final poll
for ONLY the top 14 teams in the Final poll.  You make the judgement on how good the preseason polls are!!!!
I say they are poor, or not much research put into developing the preseason poll
First poll should probably come out Jan 1st.


D3hoops.com men's Top 25, final
Through end of 2011-12 season:                       rank deviation between
                                                                   preseason and final polls                                                                   
# School (1st votes) Rec Pts Prev.                    -------------------------
               
1 UW-Whitewater (25) 29-4 625 8                              1-28 = 27
2 Cabrini 31-2 600 5                                                 2-14 = 12
3 Illinois Wesleyan 23-8 551                                       3-38 = 35
4 MIT 29-2 543 3                                                     4-10 =  6
5 Virginia Wesleyan 27-4 489 6                                   5-1   = 4
6 Hope 27-2 469 1                                                   6- 32 = 26
7 Franklin and Marshall 28-3 467 9                              7- 17 = 10                               
8 Amherst 26-3 458 2                                               8- 4  =  4
9 Middlebury 26-4 431 4                                            9- 5  = 4
10 Whitworth 26-4 406 7                                          10-12 = 2
11 Wittenberg 24-7 340 22                                        11-11 = 0
12 Wooster 26-5 319 15                                            12-9  = 3
13 Wheaton (Ill.) 23-7 261 24                                    13-25 = 12
14 Eastern Connecticut 24-6 234 21                           14-NR = 41    * NR in top 55
                                                                           Average of 14 deviations = 13.3 

[7express]

Here's my games to watch this year in projected order:

Keene state: February 16 vs. RIC.  Final Saturday of the regular season LEC championship.  After choking in their quest last year to win it, they close the year with 3 of their final 4 at home beginning with this game.  Full schedule: http://www.keeneowls.com/sports/mbkb/2012-13/schedule
RIC: November 29 vs. MIT.  The #1 ranked team in the country comes visiting the Murray Center in 1 of the few games the Engineers could possibly end up losing this season.  Will be a great win for RIC and the conference if RIC was able to pull off the win.  Full schedule: http://www.goanchormen.com/index.html
Western: November 20 vs. Albertus Magnus.  This will be the sefond NCAA team we would've played in a 3 day span after playing @ Franklin & Marshall on November 18.  Coach Campbell is getting us tested early.  Albertus has some key losses as well so this will be a nice test for both teams.  Full schedule: http://wcsuathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2012-13/schedule
Eastern: December 1 @ USM.  Its imperative to get out to an early lead in the conference, and the first conference game of the year will be important for these 2 teams.  Full schedule: http://www.easternct.edu/athletics/men_basketball/mbb-schedule.htm
USM: January 22 vs. Plymouth.  One of the main reasons the Huskies got left out of the tournament last year was because they got swept by Plymouth state.  This game is important for USM because after this they play 4 of their next 5 conference games on the road with the only home game in that stretch being against Keene state.  Full schedule: http://southernmainehuskies.com/sports/mbkb/2012-13/schedule
Plymouth: February 16 vs. Western.  Final game of the regular season.  Depending on what happens with these two teams it could decide a lot: playoff spot or not, home advantage in first round.  if both Western & Plymouth are tied for one of those important spots have to like them playing at home.  Long trip to upstate New Hampshire in the middle of the winter.  Full schedule: http://athletics.plymouth.edu/sports/mbkb/2012-13/schedule
Dartmouth: November 30 vs. Keene.  Apparantly this is a Friday night game, so everyone in the conference can check this out before their openers the following day on December 1.  i said earlier about starting off strong; Dartmouth has 4 of their first 6 LEC games at home starting with this, so its a chance for them to make noise early.  Full schedule: http://www.corsairathletics.com/sports/m-baskbl/2012-13/schedule
Boston: February 12 @ Dartmouth.  The second to last game of the year.  The final playoff spot could be in play.  Full schedule: http://www.beaconsathletics.com/sports/m-baskbl/2012-13/schedule