MBB: Little East

[ECSUalum]

Thanks Warrior, I did not consider the two Keene St wins over WCSU.  Lionel Hyatt seems to have done a decent job containing Anozie, with some double team help.  ECSU defense, (avg. 68 p/g), Carlos Gonzales and the 3pt sharpshooters of  Muckle and Collegan with be a problem for Keene.  Keene St also doesn't have a particularly good defense giving up avg. 77 p/g.  Ty Nichols will get his 20-30 pts but that may not be enough.  However an away game at Keene will always be a tough one!!   On the other side if Eastern gets home field advantage for the LEC Tourney, they will be tough to beat.  UMD recently stopped the 44-game Little East Conference regular-season home winning streak Eastern has accumulated at a usually packed Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.

[wcsu91]

Rooting for Western in the LEC TOURNEY, but losing Ronald Jefferson for the rest of the season was a huge loss for them. Happy we beat Eastern at home and hope Keane takes advantage of that and gets the #1 seed with a win against Eastern on 2/16!! Love to get another shot at ECSU in the LEC tourney!! Good luck to all in the Tourney!

[AllStar]

I believe this is what it looks like (game by game):

Wednesday

Southern Maine at Plymouth State - Plymouth State could use a win to stay alive for the No. 6 seed.  RIC and UMB are currently 6-8, while PSU is 6-9.  A Plymouth win would get them to 7-9.  One of RIC or Boston is guaranteed to be at least 7-9 because they play each other on Saturday.  Plymouth would have the tiebreaker over a 7-9 RIC team based upon a win over UMass-Dartmouth, while the tiebreaker in a 7-9 scenario with UMass Boston depends on the Beacons' final two games.  I believe PSU could even get in at 6-10 if UMB/RIC loses their last two games.  Southern Maine is eliminated from the conference tournament.

UMass Dartmouth at UMass Boston - UMass Dartmouth can clinch the No. 2 seed by winning their last two games.  If they only win one, they could still clinch second depending on the KSC and ECSU results.  See above for UMass-Boston.

Rhode Island College at Western Connecticut - RIC can guarantee themselves a playoff spot by winning their last two games.  WCSU will be the No. 4 seed.

Eastern Connecticut at Castleton - Eastern Connecticut can clinch a first round bye if they win this game and have UMass-Dartmouth lose at UMass-Boston (or home vs. Castleton Saturday).  Castleton is eliminated from the conference tournament.

Saturday

Castleton at UMass-Dartmouth - If UMD falls on Wednesday, they could still clinch second with a win in this game and a KSC loss to ECSU (or if ECSU finished with four losses). 

UMass-Boston at Rhode Island College - A critical game for the final few playoff spots, especially if Plymouth wins on Wednesday.  If PSU loses and is 6-10, RIC and UMB can both be in if they both win on Wednesday...then this game would be for positioning.  If Plymouth wins, this is likely a game where the loser is out.

Eastern Connecticut at Keene State - The winner of this game clinches the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, while the loser could be the No. 3 seed depending on UMass-Dartmouth's results.  If all three teams finish 13-3 (all having gone 1-1 vs. each other), Eastern Connecticut would finish third because they went 1-1 vs. Western Connecticut (KSC and UMD 2-0).  Then, KSC would get the tiebreaker over UMass-Dartmouth based on a better record vs. Plymouth State (or perhaps UMass-Boston depending on results).  So the order in that event would be KSC, UMD, ECSU.

Southern Maine at Western Connecticut - No playoff implications.

[7express]

Am I correct that ECSU has wrapped up the #1 seed in the LEC tourney, (assuming they beat 0-14, (in conf). Castleton), even if they lose to Keene in NH next Sat because of Keene's loss to Southern Maine, (currently 3-11 in conf.  Keene's other losses were to to UMD and Eastern.  ECSU's actual losses were to WCSU, UMD, and assuming the theorectical losses to Keene next weekend?

Mathematically, Dartmouth is still in that tiebreaker as well, don't forget!

As far as I can tell:
Dartmouth wins a 2 way tiebreaker over Eastern, due to the 2-0 record vs. Western compared to the Warriors who were only 1-1
Keene would also win a 2 way tiebreaker over Eastern due to the 2-0 record vs. Western
Keene would win a 2 way tiebreaker over Dartmouth due to finishing 2-0 vs. Plymouth while Dartmouth was only 1-1.
Not sure who would win a 3 way tiebreaker as all teams would be 1-1 against the other in that scenario, but I think Keene would win that as well (Eastern gets thrown out because they were the only one that didn't go 2-0 vs Western and than it reverts back to the 2 team tiebreaker to break the tie).

So, basically what it looks like: The winner of this game in Spaulding is hosting the semifinals and finals.  Keene has the advantage since they still have to take the bye so they've played a game more than everyone else, so if they win the worst they can do is tie Eastern/Dartmouth and as mentioned above they win the tiebreaker, or at least I think they do in the 3 team tie.

[7express]

ECSU roster out today!  Really dont know very much about the newcomers.  Hopefully Coach Geitner recruited some rebounding as Middlebury College dominated Eastern in this category in the NCAA tourny this past March!  From the bios on gowarriorathletics.com, 6'5" forward Dimitry Moise out of Trinity Cath. HS, Stamford CT, looks like he may be pretty good as well as 6'5" Forward Sharown Fowler from W Springfield HS.

I was wondering where Moise from Trinity went.  He's tall but very lean, a jumping bean I called him when he was at TC in Stamford.  If he was able to put on some pounds in the offseason he could be a big contributor right away for the Warriors.

Haven't been following much this year (as evidenced by the lack of posts  ) but how is Moise doing for Eastern so far this year Alum??  Getting a lot of minutes or mainly a bench player??  In high school he was about 6"5, 6"6, but about 150 pounds soaking wet.  As I said back in November when I posted the above if he put on some weight and muscle in the offseason, he could be a valuable addition to the Warriors in 2018-19.  Hopefully that was the case!!

[ECSUalum]

ECSU roster out today!  Really dont know very much about the newcomers.  Hopefully Coach Geitner recruited some rebounding as Middlebury College dominated Eastern in this category in the NCAA tourny this past March!  From the bios on gowarriorathletics.com, 6'5" forward Dimitry Moise out of Trinity Cath. HS, Stamford CT, looks like he may be pretty good as well as 6'5" Forward Sharown Fowler from W Springfield HS.

I was wondering where Moise from Trinity went.  He's tall but very lean, a jumping bean I called him when he was at TC in Stamford.  If he was able to put on some pounds in the offseason he could be a big contributor right away for the Warriors.

Haven't been following much this year (as evidenced by the lack of posts  ) but how is Moise doing for Eastern so far this year Alum??  Getting a lot of minutes or mainly a bench player??  In high school he was about 6"5, 6"6, but about 150 pounds soaking wet.  As I said back in November when I posted the above if he put on some weight and muscle in the offseason, he could be a valuable addition to the Warriors in 2018-19.  Hopefully that was the case!!

7,  Moise has played in 11 games with a total of 51 minutes played, so really only has played in the last few of minutes if ECSU has a big enough lead!  FY Seth Thomas has started the whole year and has been fantastic.   He is an excellent defensive/rebounding forward.  He also has gotten more confident with his shooting in the last 5 or so games and proved he can score a 3pter when he is left open.  I don't know how long he has been out of the game but he looks to need to get better used to college play.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

The second week Regional Rankings have been released: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2019/02/men-regional-rankings-second

[ECSUalum]

See AllStar's comments below:
                               Conf. Overall
Eastern Connecticut   13-2   19-5
Keene State               12-3   17-7
Mass-Dartmouth       11-4   17-7
Western Connecticut   9-6   15-9
Mass-Boston              7-8   12-11
Plymouth State           7-9   13-12
Rhode Island College   6-9   13-11
Southern Maine           3-12   6-18
Castleton                   0-15   3-21

[AllStar]

I believe the six teams are set heading into the final day.  ECSU and KSC winner gets first place.  UMD gets second place if they win and KSC loses and third place if they win and KSC wins.  WestConn is locked into the No. 4 seed.  UMass-Boston can be the No. 5 seed if they win at RIC.  If Rhode Island College beats UMass-Boston, that would leave three 7-9 teams that all went 2-2 against the others.  Then you go through the teams in the order of standings.  None of them beat ECSU or KSC.  PSU and UMB both split vs. UMD, while RIC lost both...therefore, I believe even if RIC wins, they cannot get in.  Then you'd still have to break the tie at 7-9 between PSU and UMB.  They split with each other and did the same thing against everyone else.  I think Plymouth would eventually get the tiebreaker - like the sixth one - because they would have three conference road wins and UMB would have two.

[AllStar]

[7express]

Eastern to me looks to be the "safest" bet of the top 3 to play on Saturday.  I know they lost at home to Dartmouth, but this is a team built for the playoffs.

Dartmouth lost to Plymouth during the regular season, and Keene won the Western game in Spaulding by a single point, not to mention they haven't lost in like 5 or 6 years to the Colonials, so they are due for a loss.  At least 1 of those 2 teams will not be playing on Saturday, and if I had to guess right now I'll predict both to lose in the semifinals:

Dartmouth & Western on Tuesday; Western over Keene 84-80 and Eastern over Dartmouth 76-64; Eastern over Western 75-71.

[AllStar]

[amh63]

Hope to see ECSU in the NCAA tourney.....BUT not in the same bracket as my Lord Jeffs

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

The third public NCAA Division III regional rankings are out: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2019/02/men-regional-rankings-third

[7express]

Not a lot of intrigue in the opening round last night.  I thought/was hoping maybe the games would be a little closer.  Hopefully Friday evening up in Keene can see some better games.  I'll stick with my picks from the other day: Eastern & Western wins in the semifinal.