MBB: Little East

[ECSUalum]

Huge win for the Warriors last night with Garrow and Preston playing superb and nice even scoring throughout.  Brian Salzillo had a tough game on his 3 pt shooting game but played tough D and hit key FT down the strech.  Eastern was solid on the boards vs a Keene team who should dominate with their size.  Eastern's "6th man" crowd was huge in support last night, (close to 900 at Francis E Geissler Gym).
If RIC falls to Keene @ Keene on Saturday then we have a tie for 1st place with the tie  I think going to RIC since they would have lost to Keene and Eastern's loss to lower ranked USM, (each losing to each other at home), Correct?

Should bee an exciting LEC tournament, but RIC should have the advantage playing at home

[7express]

Nope.  AFAIK you would be incorrect Alum (and your prob happy):

An Easterb win and a RIC loss would leave each team 12-2 and 1-1 against the other.  Then it goes to Keene (their a game up on USM with 1 to play so with a win it would be impossible to catch the Keene Owls): Eastern would be 2-0 vs Keene (1.000%), RIC would be 1-1 in that scenario (.50%) Eastern is the 1, RIC the 2, tourney in Willimantic.

[ECSUalum]

7,

Thanks for the clarification on the seeding.  How do you see the RIC @ Keene shaping out?

BTW, Nick Aconfora, Nick Minutelli had  nice interviews with Coaches Geitner and Bierly, on Eastern Athletics Weekly, (which can be seen on LEC TV archives), discussing the ECSU's recent LEC games, the upcoming LEC tourney and finally their views on their respective teams as the regular season wraps up. A note on above, Coach Geitner is in fact interviewed twice as the first try was w/o sound. Coach Bierly's interview is OK

[7express]

I hate to break it to you, but not well.  Think RIC wins.  Much like Eastern, RIC is a team they can never seem to beat and seem to find a new and creative way to lose each time they play them.  Ill be rooting for Keene though.

[warriorcat]

As much as I would like to see Keene beat RIC on Saturday, I think it will be a tall task.  Eric Fazio, Keene's most consistent inside player, suffered what looked to be a devasting injury when he drew a charge from Mike Garrow late in the second half.  He was down for about ten minutes and when they took him to the sidelines with a probable concussion.  He was unable to speak and just as the overtime was about to begin, he was wheeled out of the gym on a stretcher by the EMTs.  I can't imagine that he will play on Saturday.  Rashard Wright seemed disheartened last night and he was yanked in and out of the game throughout the night.  I think most observers believe that he could be the most dominant player in the conference but last night he was a non factor.  He will have to play up to his tremendous potential against RIC.  Keene will have to shoot the lights out with Ryan Martin having a career game handling RIC's pressure and knocking down shots.  Doyle and Boyatsis, a 6'6" forward are good spot up shooters could also be a key factors on Saturday. Tre Preston did a fantastic job on Martin last night not allowing him to get on a roll.  Preston also made Martin have to defend all night which I am sure made him less effective on the offensive end.  Once again, ESCU was able to prevail because they did not panic and played as a team throughout the night.  Different players took turns on the offensive end and they all worked hard on the defensive end.  IMHO this is a result of a coaching staff who makes it clear what they want to see from the team and players doing their best to execute for the good of the team. 

[amh63]

ECSU ...my thanks for your shout out on CAC board.   It has been testy few days there.  Sanity has returned, I hope....your post has helped.   + karma

[7express]

Doing Sat predictions because I have a busy day tomorrow before heading up to Plymouth not sure I'm going to be able to get them in:

RIC @ Keene.
Best game of the day.  RIC locks up the 1 seed with the win.  As I stated earlier, RIC, much like Eastern, Keene can never be able to get a win against.  They pulled that rabbit out of their hat last year in Keene coming back after being down 4 or 5 with 30 seconds left to win in regulation, but aside from that it's been pretty much all RIC in this series since Bob Walsh got there.  This RIC team is not very good this year a complete byproduct of downtrodden talent that graduated last year that would be lucky to be in 4th place (and the reason Boston & USM are doing well) if DaQuan Brooks, Nick Nedwick, Jamie Kohn, Lance Greene, Paul Rose, Collin Burns had eligibility this season or if Jensen decided to play the whole season.  And as I've stated since November Keene has by far the most talent in the league, and if their all playing to their capability there is not 1 team that can beat them, but sounds like they have some injuries.  Sounds like Eric Fazio is going to be out, and Rashard Wright, for the most part, has been ineffective since sustaining a knee injury vs. St. Joseph's and missing 2 games.  RIC in a close one to lock up first place, but I'll be rooting for Keene.
RIC 68-64
Boston @ Eastern.
If my assumptions are correct and RIC beats Keene this game will be meaningless as Eastern would be locked in at #2 with the RIC win, and Boston has been locked in at the #5 since Monday.  Boston, at 6-7 can finish only its second non-losing conference season since the LEC came into existance, and its still alive with a furious comeback at Dartmouth; outscored the Corsairs in the second half by 20 after trailing by 18 at halftime.  Sorry Alum and Warrior, if RIC wins the Keene game I'm rooting for Boston to win this to finish the season at 7-7.
Eastern 78-65
Dartmouth @ USM.
Dartmouth is awful.  I don't know what's worse; them blowing the 18 point halftime lead to Boston at home or them losing by 29(!!!!!!!!!!!!) to Plymouth at home.  Don't look know, but USM is about to sneak in the backdoor and steal the 3 seed from Keene (1 back of the Owls BUT USM owns the tiebreaker).  I don't think USM has much trouble in Maine against Plymouth/Western and matchup better with Eastern in the semi's.  The Huskies got blown out in Boston against the Beacons, and won a close game by 4 or 6 points against them in Maine, so if I'm them I'm rooting for RIC so I can get the 3 and get Plymouth/Western.
USM 76-54
Western @ Plymouth.
Both teams suck.  Have combined to lose 8 straight.  Taking out Dartmouth both teams will be winless against the other 5 teams in the LEC (even Dartmouth was able to beat Boston in Boston).  Since Western isn't going anywhere is it wrong for me to secretly hope Plymouth wins so we can use the old coin toss to decide who finishes 6th since it'll likely come down to that??
Plymouth 65-64

[7express]

Our game is the first one at the half none of the other 3 close
Plymouth 41-33
RIC 11-9 11:22 USM 7-6 Boston 12-8

[7express]

Plymouth steamrolls Western 78-59.  Do we even care about our playoff game??  The effort today states otherwise.

[7express]

Eastern won by 30, RIC leads by 15 with 10 mins to play looks like RIC 1 Eastern 2.  USM trailed by 1 at halftime.

[7express]

Official LEC tournament: http://littleeast.com/sports/mbkb/2012-13/news/20130216-mbkb-lecpairings

#7 Western Connecticut (5-20, 3-11)
@
#2 Eastern Connecticut (18-7, 12-2)

#6 Plymouth (7-18, 3-11)
@
#3 Keene (15-10, 9-5)

#5 Boston (12-12, 6-8)
@
#4 Southern Maine (14-11, 8-6)

#8 Dartmouth (5-20, 3-12)
@
#1 Rhode Island College (22-3, 13-1)

RIC and Keene games are at 7, Eastern & USM games are at 7:30 since the women also have first round home games.

Don't laugh, but all 4 road teams have a great chance to pull off road wins.  First of all, 2/4 are in state rivalry games (Plymouth/Keene, Western/Eastern) so you throw records out when those teams play each other and the 3rd (Dartmouth/RIC) are separated by about 30 miles on 195.   RIC has beaten Dartmouth twice, but @ Dartmouth was a 6 point win and at home was 11, but Dartmouth was only down 6 with about 3 minutes to go.   USM/Boston split; Boston crushed them at home and USM won a close one at home, plus the Huskies have really been struggling here in Feb.  I'm making official predictions Monday, but I do not like these matchups if I'm the home team.  Had Western either A) won today vs. Plymouth or B) won the coin flip and gotten the 6 seed, they would have gotten crushed @ Keene (not a good matchup) and likewise I think Eastern would have beaten Plymouth by about 10.  Eastern's won 2 blowouts against Western this year and the team looks dead, but after suffering through a dreadful February to end the season on the heels of those beatings by the Warriors I'm foaming at the mouth with a chance to knock them out of the LEC tourney AND NCAA tourney discussion on their home court.  Whether they want to or not remains to be seen, but that could be a dangerous team.  Likewise with Keene/Plymouth.  Keene killed them in Plymouth, but the game in Keene, Plymouth was leading at halftime and it gives the Panthers a chance to knock their rivals out of the LEC tourney and an end to their incredibly dissapointing season.  Since I'm feeling bold Im gonna say at least 1 of Eastern/Keene go down on Tuesday with the slight possibility of RIC joining them. 

[ECSUalum]

7.
You are VERY BOLD with your last post, however, ECSU must remained focused for precisely the reasons you stated.  The ECSU/WCSU games are always exciting and bigger surprises have occured.  Lets hope you statement on a RIC upset comes true.  I am feeling a RIC dump this year   But we most likely will still see them in a pool C bid after the LEC Tourney

[ECSUalum]

Eastern holding UMass Boston to 44 points yesterday is a good sign coming into the tournament.  Again a nice even spread of scoring with Preston, Salzillo, and Robitaille scoring 14, 16, 15 poits respectively.  I have lost count on the number of double doubles Robitaille has this year, but he has been nothing less than outstanding.  He has developed a little hook shot this year that has greatly improved his offensive effectiveness, and, there is nobody tougher on defense than him.  Freshman Treschon Preston, who was highly recruited in New England, has proven to be huge, and with the unfortunate knee injury to Joe Ives, has pretty much recieved a full year of play time minutes.  This young kid is heading for the LEC ROY honors and eventually POY honors early in his career at Eastern.  Brandon Yarborough has also been fantastic in his So year and in the last couple of games has been developing his jump shot.  Even Fr Darryl Best, who has had limited minutes, and is a proven shot blocker  is now starting to show some offense moves, which Eastern will need next year.
Brian Salzillo has really stepped up and has proven that he can drive the base line, shoot the short jumper, dish, on top his 3 pt shooting. If he is clicking, think Pistol Pete Maravich .  Mike Garrow when he is on, is an outstanding rebounder and scorer, but needs to work a little more on protecting the ball, his intensity, and his over all consistancy, otherwise he has been supurb this year. Justin Nunez has been great off the bench and has provided quality minutes for Coach Geitner.  Finally Tyler Hundley has been a important rebounder this year and has proven he can shoot the 3.  If and when we play RIC, he will need to be very focused, as they preyed on him during the full court press last game in Willimantic.
If Robitaille, Salzillo, Garrow and Preston's can maintain their even offensive output, (12-15 points), in the Tournament, and limit the TO's to below 15, they will be very tough to beat and should take home their second LEC Tourney title in a row. 
If I were Bob Walsh, I will be very nervous about an ECSU @ RIC final .   Good luck to all in the LEC Tournament, it is always an exciting time of the year.
GOSH, WERE HAS THIS SEASON GONE!!!

[7express]

Quarterfinal Tuesday predictions:

#8 Dartmouth @ #1 RIC.
The game in Dartmouth was a 6 point RIC win, while the game in Providence was an 11 point RIC win, but Dartmouth had it at 6 with 3 or 4 minutes to go.  Dartmouth has played them well, and you never count anyteam out during championship week, but imo, RIC seems like the safest home pick today.
RIC 65-58
#7 Western @ #2 Eastern.
In state rivalry game.  Western is 0-2 this year against Eastern, 5-20 overall, 1-10 in our last 11 games, 1-6 since Jensen showed up, but we made the tournament, so each team starts back at 0-0.  Since this is a rivalry game you also throw the records out the windown, and as I said the other day Western has plenty of motivation to go up to Willamantic and get the W.  0-2 sweep at the hands of the Warriors this year (reading on the Eastern website this morning the first time EVER Eastern has swept the regular season from Western since the LEC was formed), 1-4 in the last 5 games against the Warriors since the start of last season, and a chance to knock Eastern out of the LEC tournament and NCAA tournament discussion with a win in Geissler gymnasium.  If that doesn't give them motivation to play well, why bother to show up??   If we play well and we lose I can live with that, what I can't live with is if we show up like we don't want to be there.  Hopefully its a good game, but sorry Alum, sorry Warrior, sorry Mr & Mrs Salzillo, I'm going with the homer pick (hopefully you understand).
Western 68-65.
#6 Plymouth @ #3 Keene.
Another in-state rivalry game.  Plymouth hasn't beaten Keene in 3 years, but motivation or lack thereof for Keene is always a question.  How will they respond after getting pasted at home vs. RIC in a game that wasn't even close??  Last meeting in Keene, Plymouth was leading at the half, ended up losing by only 6, but they held Martin in check for the most part; 15 points, but 6 came from the free throw line.  Plymouth is only 7-18, but they haven't been blown out since losing 71-46 at USM in January, they've been competitive in every loss since then, I think Plymouth gets win.
Plymouth 69-65
#5 Boston @ #4 USM.
2 weeks ago Boston won a 69-55 game in Boston, and in January USM won a 6 point game in which they trailed at halftime.  USM has been struggling; 1-4 since the calendar flipped to February, and have lost their last 2 games in Maine, 1 of them, Saturday to Dartmouth which was excrutatingly head scratching which, had they won, would have played Plymouth which is a much better matchup for them.  As long as Boston can win the rebounding battle, hit on 70% of their free throws and hold onto the ball (20 turnovers or less) that should get them around 65+ points, and if they can hit 65 they win.   They likely would have won the first meeting, but they turned the ball over 27 times compared to only 11 the Huskies had. 
Boston 72-64

[7express]

Doing updated conference results I've missed the last couple weeks:

Thursday, February 7:
Westfield state 72 Western 59.
The kid for Westfield (Lee Vazquez) who beat USM in December with a halfcourt buzzer beater had a Ryan Martin esque game.  Finished with 34 points, made 13 of Westfield's 28 field goals and scored 20 of their first 24 points of the game.  With about 7:05 left in the first half, someone next to be said "I Can't believe Vazquez already has 20 minutes" and I was like yah that's impossible with only 13 minutes played and only 24 Westfield points, but sure enough there he was with 20.  We started the game off down 20-5 and finished with 29 turnovers (not a typo), yet still had it within 2 possessions with 2:45 left (61-55) but like the whole season costly turnovers and bad shots made the score appear worse then it really was.
Conference finished 41-45 in OOC games.  Terrible year, but hopefully RIC loses in the finals so the conference can somehow get 2 bids, and those 2 can get some wins in the NCAAs.

Sunday, February 10:
RIC 64-46 over USM.
Only watched about 10 minutes of this.  USM got held to less than 30% from the field and only had 1 player in double digit scoring; Conor Sullivan with 10.

Monday, February 11:
Eastern 78-59 over Dartmouth.  No boxscore available.
Keene over Western 101-71.  Keene lead 59-29 at halftime, and got it up to as much as 42 in the second half before I shut it off.  Joe Setaro lead Western with 16 points.  4 Players for Keene in double figures lead by Ryan Martin's 25 who connected on 5/6 from downtown.
Boston over Plymouth 65-64.  I covered the last 4 minutes or so of this game a couple pages back, so read through there if you want a recap.  There were 4 lead changes in the final 57 seconds, and Brian Clarke and Vinny DeLucia scored Boston's final 9 points including Clarke with the rebound putback to win with 4 seconds left.  Shomari Morgan missed what would have been the winner from the free throw line on a great pass from Petey Skevas.

Wednesday, February 13:
RIC over Western 69-60. Yet another game we couldn't close out.  RIC went up 23-10 early, we clawed back, got it to 3 at halftime (29-26), went up as much as 9 in the second, but couldn't shut the door.
Boston over Dartmouth 76-74.  Boston was down 29-12 and 41-22 at halftime yet came back and won.  Mike Rotundo and John Genkos combined for 51 points for the Corsairs.
Eastern in OT over Keene 94-83.  Tre' Tipton forced OT with a 3 pointer with 14 seconds to play, and Mike Garrow missed 2 jumpers that would have won it at the end of regulation.  Eastern never trailed in the extra session, and made 10 of their final 12 free throws to get the win.  Surprisingly the only home team that won.
USM 60-50 over Plymouth.  Alex Kee & Conor Sullivan got back on track for the Huskies with 27 combined points while Uche Nwokeji and Alex Burt had 14 each to lead Plymouth

Saturday, February 16:
RIC 86-64 over Keene.  Locked up the regular season title.  No boxscore, but it sounds like the game was never in doubt.
Plymouth rolls Western 78-59.  Another game that was never in doubt.  Michael Jensen had 21 points to lead the way for Western, while Plymouth had 4 in double figures lead by Kevin Eisenburg's 19 playing in his final home game who had 15 of his 19 points from downtown.  Not making excuses, but Phil Starks, LeRoy Mayers, and Derek McIntyre missed a noon practice earlier in the week.  All3 were in uniform but did not play, so a short team got even smaller.  if we have them we may or may not have won, but the game is certainly closer.  Oh, and btw, how does a senior captain miss a noon practice?!?!?  The ladies practice once a week at 6 AM, and all of them manage to get to practice and 3 players miss a noon practice including a senior captain???  I don't get it.
Eastern with a 74-44 win over Boston.  After seeing Boston was up 12-8, Eastern outscored them 66-32 the rest of the way to set a program record with their 12th LEC win (Even though they won it last year they only finished with 11).
Dartmouth over USM 82-74.  At least gives them some momentum for the tourney while USM is heading backwards with a 1-4 finish to end the regular season.  That certainly qualifies for a "bad loss" in my book.  Wale Abraham lead 4 Dartmouth starts in double figures with 20, while Conor Sullivan lead the Huskies with 19.