MBB: Little East

[broke_ya_ankles]

dartmouth stays undefeated with a 100-97 OT win vs Keene State

[zcat68]

I'm personally starting to think that the home and home between RIC and UMD are going to decide the Little East regular season crown, they should be good games, and I hope to make both of them.

[KSCfan]

Keene State is clearly struggling this year with essentially the same team as last year any ideas why?  Other than Sontag they didnt really lose anybody that saw serious minutes.  A 7 and 6 start has the people around keene grumbling.  They did show signs of coming out of it against umd in an overtime lose, but still the spaulding faithful are not used to seeing Colbert's crew struggle like they have.  It has gotten so bad around keene that Colbert actually made the players switch numbers during a game to change up thier "luck"

[ILive4This]

I know very little about Keene's team but I am going to throw this out there. Perhaps part of the problem is that the coach even thinks luck has something to do with it.

[broke_ya_ankles]

Colbets a great coach and hes got a soikd team so i suspect they'll be around deep into the LEC tournament.
as for their struggles to this point a couple of things come to mind.
1) non- conference schedule-  Keene for a number of years now has had a very strong non conference schedule and this year is no exception.  Tufts, Williams, Salem State, Calvin, Springfield.   Thats a very difficult run of teams.  They were able to muster up a couple wins vs Calvin and Springfield but analyzing their loses although a decent number of them quantity wise they have been to very respectable teams.  3 of them coming by way of OT (undefeated UMD, 11-2 RIC, and New Paltz State) the other 3 were to Williams, Salem State, and tufts.  So overall 5 out of their 6 loses are to consensus top 10 New England teams. 
2) The other thing that doesnt necessarily make much sense but perhaps it isnt just a coincidence is that the beginning of their struggles (they started 6-2) appared to begin with the return of Nate Anderson.  perhaps their has been some chemistry issues immediately inserting him into the rotation after spending october-almost january away from basketball
if theyre able to hold off western conn tomorrow they should be able to rattle off 6 strait wins and get some positive momentum going heading into a big conference rematch with RIC.  either way I think Keene will be able to rebound from a diffiuclt start and make a legit run at a conference title

[MeOak21]

I am sure that KSC did not directly have players change #'s for lucks sake.  If any coach is going to spread the message that they have to count primarily on luck to win games then they might as well throw in the towell. That isn't Colbert's style.

Good points about the strength of schedule so far. There is no real excuse for the SUNY New Paltz game but those type of things can happen for various reasons.

It is true that this season is uncharacteristic of what people expected from this team but it is also plain to see that they have the tools to play much better basketball than they have so far. If they can find some consistency, play as a team, and win a few games, that momentum could carry them up to the next level that they should be playing at.
Whatever happens, it'll depend on their own hard work and resolve to turn this season around... not luck.

[KSCfan]

Meoak21 i agree with what you said, i just have never heard of a coach switching numbers like that.  It's true that keene does have the tools to make a run, but if they dont i think that it will directly relate to either bad team chemisty and or a coaching problem.  For the first time around Keene i have heard grumbling about Colbert's performance, which based on the past couple of years and his track record is unfair. 

[zcat68]

Tonights Results

UMass-D 97 ECSU 92
Keene 80 WCSU 68
Plymouth St 71 UMass-B 65
RIC 70 USM 53

Thoughts headed into Saturday?

[KSCfan]

Look for keene to knock off umass boston as they continue to try and climb out of a funk.  The game is at home and it is the weekend that all the students will be coming back to school.  When spaulding gym is filled up it is one of the loudest and hardest places to play for opposing teams. Keene 82 Umass Boston 70

[MeOak21]

Thoughts headed into Saturday?

Honestly, my thoughts with Saturdays matchups really aren't that much. It looks to be a pretty uneventful weekend with the games scheduled looking like this

ECSU @ RIC
UMB @ Keene
WCSU @ Southern Maine
UMD @ Plymouth

RIC, Keene, WCSU, and UMD all have a distinct advantage in these games. With RIC and Keene both at home that should make matters worse for ECSU and UMB.
Southern Maine is a long trip, especially for West Conn so that could possibly take its toll. It will also be interesting to watch how USM develops with the key players they recently returned. They didn't fare too well against RIC but I think its fair to expect USM to need some adjustment time.
UMD should crush Plymouth but it can be tough to play up there so it might be closer than expected but UMD still wins.

I can't help but to look past this weekend at Tuesday's UMD @ RIC matchup. Any thoughts on that anyone? I can see RIC ending the streak.  They'll match speed for speed at the guard spots and their big men really shouldn't struggle to keep Holbrook off the boards. It confounds me sometimes how he gets his double double... regardless, your thoughts anyone?

[zcat68]

I can't help but to look past this weekend at Tuesday's UMD @ RIC matchup. Any thoughts on that anyone? I can see RIC ending the streak.  They'll match speed for speed at the guard spots and their big men really shouldn't struggle to keep Holbrook off the boards. It confounds me sometimes how he gets his double double... regardless, your thoughts anyone?

Having watched Holbrook in person last night I would say he probably gets most of his double doubles off of unlucky shooting, he really should have probably gone for at least 25, but he couldn't get anything to fall early last night. I think UMD and RIC is going to be an amazing matchup (as I mentioned above) I just hope that the teams themselves aren't looking too far into the future like we are 

(fixed quote formatting/pc)

[broke_ya_ankles]

this weekends matchups look like routine easy wins for the most part, I expect Keene to really come out and have a statement game vs Umass-Boston.  UMB has been terrible this season with a 1-12 record and going into Keene playing the first game of the 2nd semester I suspect Keene will be fired up from the crowd and give UMB a good ol fashion whoopin at least a 20pt win. 

RIC and UMD should handle their business no problems as well

The USM vs Western Conn game is a bit intriguing, Western Conn is coming off a tough loss to Keene, and USM is still looking to develop their chemistry with the return of Caterina, Gooding, and Oakley.  USM isnt the easiest place to play esp when you have a drive like Western Conn has, I'll go ahead and call an upset and say USM pulls this out with Caterina having a real big game for USM.


The UMD vs RIC game sure will be a dandy and I agree RIC definitely has the arsenal to win in what should be a nailbiter. 

[MeOak21]

BYAnkles- I'll agree that USM probably has the best chance to score an upset this weekend. Caterina was their leading scorer last game but I don't know how positive his contribution to the team is otherwise. Sometimes those D1 transfers have the superiority complex when they move down to D3.

Zcat- So Holbrook's rebounds are off his own missed shots? That would sure help explain the stat book. He just never struck me as that opposing of a force down low but manages to record some good numbers. I always figured he had some sort of connection w/ the stat crew. Either way, he is obviously doing something very well judging by the teams success

[broke_ya_ankles]

Saturdays Scores...

Rhode Island College 87  Eastern Connecticut 54
Keene state 72  Umass-Boston 55
USM 84  Western Connecticut 83
Umass Dartmouth 84  Plymouth State 80

2 things stick out I think, Umass Dartmouth winning by only 4, it looks like Plymouth really gave them a game.  and USM was able to pull off a nice upset win over Western Conn. 

to follow up on the USM/Western Conn game, Caterina did prove to be the difference maker in this one scoring a career high 24 points.   Coppenrath played big as well going for a double double.  Good win for USM, it will be interesting to see if they can get some more momentum going before they host keene next saturday

[zcat68]

Umass Dartmouth 84  Plymouth State 80

Umass Dartmouth winning by only 4, it looks like Plymouth really gave them a game. 

Looking at the box score tells me two stories from that game

1) Like the Eastern Conneticut game, they came out ice cold (Matt Walker 4-13 is what sticks to me) and Plymouth State got to race out to an early lead.

2) The second half was a completely different story, as they got their act together and managed to piece together enough runs to overtake the defecit and come out on top.

http://www.umassd.edu/sports/news/details.cfm?id=1823

That's the press release, box score is at the bottom.