MBB: Little East

[7express]

It's in Maine so I'm not surprised.  All those teams up there (Bowdoin/Colby/USM etc) get favorable whistles so when I see "questionable refereeing" at a game that took place at one those Maine schools, doesn't surprise me one bit.

[7express]

Sat results:

Boston 71-64
I'd like to know how Western had 12 more shot attempts then Boston did??  The turnovers were 18-17 for Boston, and Boston outrebounded us both totally (43-35) as well as offensively (14-13), so I have no clue how the hell Western had 12 more shot attempts.   Boston outshot us from the free throw line 33-10 (really how does that happen on the road??) had 9 less personal fouls called (23-14) and at 1 point in the second half (around the 4:00 mark) the total fouls in the 2nd half were 11-2 in favor of Western.  Western was already at 6 team fouls before Boston picked up their first foul of the second half (at 10:27).  Boston was only 20-33, so they gotta knock down the free throws, but I like this team.  Have a tough week ahead though @ MIT Tuesday @ Keene Saturday which as Allstar said will tell us more about them.
RIC 68-54.
Petey Skevas lead all scorers with 25 of Plymouth's 54 points.  Tom DiCiantas at 19 was the only RIC player in double figures.
USM 69-63.
Well, at least USM actually defeated a good team.  Bad loss for Eastern though.  They were leading most of the 2nd half with their largest lead 10 at 14:04.  Trailing by 2 late a Brian Salzillo 3 gave them a 56-55 lead with under a minute to go.  Sean Bergeron made 1 of 2 free throws with 32 seconds to play to force overtime, USM scored the first point, and never trailed in the extra session.

Next set of games on Tuesday with 7 of the 8 schools playing, the lone school with the day off is USM:
Western @ Mitchell, Tufts @ Plymouth both starting at 6 PM
Eastern @ New Paltz, Worcester @ Dartmouth, Plattsburgh @ Keene all at 7 PM
RIC at Salve at 7:30
and Boston @ MIT at 8
Plattsburgh/Keene is probably the best of the day.  Plattsburgh just won @ Oswego state last night.

[AllStar]

7express:

Would be nice to see the LEC have a good non-conference night on Tuesday.  Haven't exactly been stellar outside of conference (save for RIC's win over MIT, obviously).

[7express]

To me, about the only one that looks like a guaranteed loss is Plymouth vs. Tufts however Plymouth won @ Tufts last year and Tufts played 2 games out in St. Louis this weekend so that's going to be 1 tired team on Tuesday night you would say.
Have no clue how Mitchell, Worcester, or New Paltz are I'll look at that tomorrow and Monday.  RIC probably beats Salve & Boston probably loses to MIT, but neither of them are certain.  Boston is definitely good enough to put a scare in MIT if not outright beating them.  Going 5-2/6-1 (with 1 of the wins being Boston) would really help the conference.

[amh63]

Springfield beats Amherst at Westfield State.....70-64.  It was Springfield by 5 at the half as they controlled the boards and caused the turnovers.  Springfield took a 19 point lead in the 2nd half with about 12-13 minutes to go before Amherst rallied and cut the lead to  5 with less than 3 minutes to go.  It was back and forth for awhile and the lead was down to 3 with 30 seconds to go.  Amherst had their shots and missed and then fouled to get the ball back.  Springfield made 2 foul shots with 3-4 second left for the 6 point spread.
Springfield dominated the backboards and caused the turnovers....getting more shots.  Amherst's overall game was down.....guess Amherst is not ready to play in back to back games....at least not against a GOOD Springfield team.
OOps....this should be on the Newmac board.  Will blame old age and/or depression.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

If anyone cares about my take on Mass-Boston from the Hoopsville Classic: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/2012/11/21/hoopsville-classic-daves-take-on-the-teams/

[LECFAN32]

Seen mass boston play twice including western yesterday, have to say athleticism is on another level, both games with too many dunks to count..enormous in the front court. seem to be much more in control this year as well, with guards actually running sets, getting bigs iso post ups with spacing, they keep it up n their a sleeper. dont believe they have the discipline defensively to hang with mit the whole way, but will compete.

IMO western looked better, alot of really sloppy turnovers, but also some good offensive sets that showed patience, bridtter for instance, looked much more comfortable in this setting, and starks was much more under control off the ball. I see that after going to a more wide open dribble drive (offense for dummies) the last few years they have returned to the classic flex offense, along with some pretty nice quick hitters. Need laporte n groski to produce, they are too talented not to. mobilio is a hard worker, but hes too streaky to rely on.

very interested to see keene match up with a very athletic plattsburgh state team, should be n entertaining game to watch

[7express]

Hopefully Western can get this win Tuesday @ Mitchell.  If there's 1 game left in the first half to win, it's that one.  I'm not expecting to win @ USM or Clark and Worcester state seems pretty good at 3-1, and even though the team will be completely different in the 2nd half (JR Barnes hopefully Mike Jensen) would be nice to get that monkey off their back and go into the break with some confidence.

[7express]

Tuesday predictions:

Western 67 @ Mitchell 59.
If we can't win this one, I hope the final 120 minutes of our first half (3 games) can end fairly quickly and painlessly, but they should win this game.  Mitchell is a bad team out of a terrible conference.  Mitchell is 3-3 beating Green Mountain & Johnson state (unimpressively) and beating Coast Guard who just lost by 35 on Saturday to Conn College.  Only common opponent of the 2 teams is Albertus: Western lost by 6, scoring 79 and holding AMC to 85; Mitchell lost by 13 only scoring 74 and allowing AMC to score 87.  Western gets their first win.
Tufts 85 @ Plymouth 72.
Playmouth beat them last year in Medford and Tufts is coming off 2 straight losses out in St. Louis and 4 losses in 5 games, but Tufts is better and they should pull off the win.
Eastern 74 @ New Paltz 78.
New Paltz has averaged 84.7 ppg this year including 92.5 their last 2 games.  However, the Hawks have also given up 81.8 ppg including 92 their last 2 games, so it looks like it's going to be a high scoring game.  Eastern has only scored over 64 once this year while New Paltz has cracked 69 in all 6 games played.  If this gets into the 70's can Eastern a defensive first team outscore them??  If Eastern keeps this in the 60's they'll win, if they don't I think New Paltz takes it.
Worcester state 79 @ Dartmouth 76.
This is Worcester's second trip to UMass-Dartmouth this year.  They opened up the season at Dartmouth's tip off tournament November 16-17.  Worcester has a stretch of 2 games in 3 days against LEC competition; they host Western on Thursday night.
Plattsburgh 68 @ Keene state 72.
Both teams have played tough schedules in the early going.  Plattsburgh has a win over 2 time SUNYAC champion Oswego state in their SUNYAC opener on Friday and also played Middlebury right down to the wire.  Keene has played WPI, and Springfield, all teams above .500.
RIC 65 @ Salve 59.
Salve is a team that won the CCC tournament in 2011 as a 4 seed and won the CCC regular season title last season before getting upset by Endicott in the conference finals, however they made it to the finals of the ECAC tournament.  Last season RIC won by 14, I think this is a little closer.  Both teams are a combined 11-1 in the early going.
Boston 62 @ MIT 72.
I like them, definitely a sleeper team, but I don't think they can hang with MIT on the defensive end, but they'll keep it close for a while if not the whole game.  Another thing that will bite them: their 60% team free throw shooting, that has to change.

[LECFAN32]

heard of a freshman potentially coming on for the second semester as well, not positive if he can make a serious impact but more size on the wing n plays the game with an edge, and had a nice hs career. hoping jr barnes has gotten himself into shape (very tough when not practicing), n workes on his post game a bit, if not hell be worth about 5 fouls n a couple boards. praying that we beat mitchell, if not YIKES. eastern should get a real tough game from new paltz, seems like sunyac is very strong this year.

Wish they could get another point guard who is capable of handeling pressure, as laporte is clearly playing out of position, hes a guy who should be providing some firepower.

jensen would be a huge lift.

[7express]

New top 25 poll.  RIC goes from unranked to #14 after their impressive beatdown of MIT.  Now other teams ranked or in ORV category.

Through games of Sunday, Dec. 2:



#

School (1st votes)

Rec

Pts

Prev.



1

Virginia Wesleyan (13)

5-0

611

2



2

UW-Whitewater (10)

5-0

601

3



3

Middlebury (1)

6-0

563

4



4

North Central (Ill.)

6-0

549

5



5

St. Thomas (1)

5-0

517

8



6

Washington U.

7-0

454

10



7

UW-Stevens Point

5-0

442

9



8

Franklin and Marshall

5-0

415

11



9

Scranton

5-0

377

12



10

Amherst

5-1

350

6



11

Rochester

8-0

327

17



12

Catholic

5-0

282

14



13

Ramapo

4-0

274

13



14

Rhode Island College

6-0

261

--



15

Christopher Newport

5-0

233

18



16

Wooster

5-1

210

16



17

Illinois Wesleyan

5-2

181

7



18

MIT

6-1

180

1



19

Adrian

7-0

179

20



20

Whitworth

3-1

176

15



21

New York University

4-0

157

22



22

Wheaton (Ill.)

6-0

133

--



23

Albertus Magnus

4-0

116

23



24

St. Mary's (Md.)

4-1

77

25



25

Stevens

5-0

68

--


Dropped out: No. 19 Hope, No. 21 Cabrini, No. 24 Williams.

Others receiving votes: Augustana 65; N.C. Wesleyan 55; Ohio Wesleyan 37; Whitman 35; WPI 30; Springfield 26; Birmingham-Southern 20; Rose-Hulman 19; Carroll 17; Hampden-Sydney 16; Augsburg 12; UW-La Crosse 11; Williams 10; Transylvania 8; Oswego State 6; Cabrini 5; UW-Stout 5; Thomas More 4; Wittenberg 4; Hope 3; Salisbury 2; UW-Platteville 1; Lycoming 1.

[7express]

LECfan is right if we lose to Mitchell I'll officially have no hope for the rest of the season.  Even with all the young players we have that is just inexcusible losing to them.  Even if it's by 1, and we trailed for 39:39 of the game with the lone lead the winner that won the game with 1 second left I'll take it.

[amh63]

7Express.....your recent post of the latest polls is a bit "stretched out".....are you getting ready for a term paper or competing with some posters on the Newmac board?....smiley here!

[7express]

Western down 44-34 at the half and they look absolutely dreadful.  If not for Phil Straks who has about 15 points Mitchell would be up 30 and this game would be over.  Mitchell is shooting like 55%, no way they keep that up in 2nd, but yah this team is not very good this year.

[7express]

Mitchell wins 86-70.  One word to describe this monstrosity woof.  Ill be back in a few hours to recap it including why a bad coaching move may have prevented the Colonials first win of the year and other LEC games from this evening.