MBB: Little East

[7express]

@ 7Express
I agree with you. If they are on their game and play D they can beat anybody in the Country. Hopefully this will give them new life, they can wipe the slate clean, forget about what has gone on the last month and play the way they played the first 20 games.  Do you know if they beat Middlebury, Do they have a chance of coming back to the ONeil center to host a sectional? SInce you are still a student there do what you can to spread the word the get every student to come to the game on Thursday night,please. Thanks!!!!

Unfortunatly, I'm a commuter student (live in Trumbull about 50 minutes away) so I'm not there much.  I just got back from there for the day.  I'll let my math class know tomorrow, and my gym class on Wednesday when I go back there.

As for hosting if they get to the sectionals men have priority at hosting in the sectionals (women have priority hosting first round in odd number years and men get priority hosting sectionals, and in even number years its reverse order).  We'll just have to see who advances (unfortunatly I closed the browser I had the bracket on, and no printer at home so I can't print it until later).  NCAA tries to limit as little flights as possible, anything over 500 miles the NCAA pays the school for a flight, less then 500 the NCAA pays for bus transportation.  So if the sectional has 3 teams in the Midwest and then us, a Midwest team will host it because its just 1 flight (us out there) then 3 (those 3 Midwest schools to us).  If its teams in the area then we have a decent chance.  It depends on the bid as well, so lots of variables still in play, but I'd say there's a chance they host if they get past Salve & Mid.

[wcsu91]

Thank you for the input and your knowledge 7Express. Very helpful!!  Did you talk to any players after their selection? Just curious to know how they felt.

[7express]

Thank you for the input and your knowledge 7Express. Very helpful!!  Did you talk to any players after their selection? Just curious to know how they felt.

Nah, I've only seen 1 basketball player on campus in all the times I've been there and that was Stephanie Slonski from the women's team.  My class ended about 12:15 so I rushed home, and got home just as the show was starting.  Hopefully Scott Ames (the AD) sends out an e-mail to all students and faculty saying their hosting.  The women's LEC championship game against Eastern got a pretty good faculty and student crowd and since more people go to men's games then women's games I think they could get a good crowd in.

[7express]

The thing I want to know is whether this is the time they'll open up the bleachers behind each basket.  Just opening those could get another 1300 in the building easily.  I have never seen them open before, I'm starting to wonder if they just open them for the Globetrotters.

[wcsu91]

Yeah you are right. The only time that I have ever seen the bleachers open is for the Globtrotters. That would be a huge homecourt advantage to have the bleachers open behind the backboards for distracting the visiting team on free throws, etc. When the Oneil center gets a decent crowd it can get very loud in there. It is disappointing they dont draw more people. Great program and the city of Danbury itself has a population of about 85,000 people. I believe they dont get any publicity from the city of danbury and it is more of a commuter school than people living on campus. Even the local danbury paper the news times really does not give them much paper space. Once in a great while they will have an article about them but that is it. The university should find a way to promote them more.

[7express]

Anyone that cares, both Western and Eastern made the women's tournament.

Forgot who eastern plays but their going up to Bowdoin.  Western women play Messiah on friday night at Kean university in Union, NJ.

[Argylebballer]

Not to sound like too much of a homer, or too upset all the West Conn fans on the board but the seedings just don't make much sense. West Conn is basically seeded as an 8 seed.  And they are getting to host a game and they come in limping, having lost 3 of their last 5 and an early exit from the LEC tournament.

RIC was given what is a 10 seed and has to play over 350 miles away in the first round, something that West Conn wont have to do till the Final Four.  This after RIC comes in winning 8 straight, the regular season and tournament titles, and they have won 11 of their last 13 since mid-Jan, with two wins over Eastern a bubble team and one over West Conn an NCAA tourney team, in that stretch.

Not to mention who they each got for opponents. West Conn gets a horrid Salve team that RIC beat this year by 15 on the road without Antone Gray, and Carl Lee.  But RIC gets a Penn St. team that only has 2 loses all semester, both to an NCAA tourney team in 24-2 LaRouche.

[WCSUFan14]

Very excitied to see WCSU hosting another game on Thursday! Im hoping that they will forget about the past and look onto the future. I had saw that one of the players said that they where very excited to be given a second chance like such. I personally think westconn will take full advantge of this opportunity and make the most out of it. I really hope we can get the place crammed with people on Thursday! It will deffintly make for a very interesting game!   

[LECFAN32]

scott aimes is the sid just a side note...im assuming the coaching staff was assuming they were going to get a bid because of some similar situations in the last couple years namely umass d. in 08 who jumped out 19 and 0 and limped into the lec tourney then hosted two games...I spoke with a coach after the eastern game that was literally speechless.

seems like the conference tourney doesnt hold very much weight for ranked teams that lose.. that being said wc has less losses and more wins then ric, split the season series with both winning at eachothers home court with wcsu being ranked int he nation so home game isnt a huge surprise... however they do go to a middlebury team if they beat salve (who cant be used to that pressure assuming we bring it) that has run through one of the best leagues in the country, I wouldnt call this a GREAT draw for a ream ranked much of the season.

[7express]

The NCAA bid's are the first story on the front page of the school's website wcsu.edu so hopefully people see it.

[7express]

Eastern Connecticut nabs the 1 seed in the ECAC New England men's tournament, Keene state grabs the 3rd seed.

Eastern plays Regis on Wednesday evening, and if they win they'll host the semifinals and finals March 5th-6th.  Keene state will play Brandeis in Spaulding gymnasium, could end up being a really good game.  Winner of ECSU/Regis gets Albertus/Wentworth winner and KSC/Brandeis winner gets Anna Maria/MCLA winner.

[7express]

I think WCSU 91 was asking about chances West Conn hosts a sectional should they beat Salve and Middlebury (note I'm using Mapquest to get these milages not the NCAA milage chart so the milages may be different.)  Taking Salve & Middlebury out of it:

Everyone in the sectional is within 500 miles of Randolph-Macon with the exceptions of: Johnson & Wales (505 miles) and MIT (529 miles).
Everyone is within 500 miles of MIT with the exception of Randolph-Macon which as noted was 529 miles.
Everyone is within 500 miles of Buffalo state with the exception of St. Mary's (535 miles).  So, its a nice sectional for the most part the schools on the bottom right where Western is all within the 500 mile limit the NCAA uses.  Only 1 school each is outside the kmit of MIT & Buffalo state while 2 are outside the limit of Randolph-Macon, the other schools all fall within the 500 mile region of each other, so its worth a shot depending on who advances.  Since the men get hosting priority over the women in the sectionals, that means the Rochester men get to host before the UR women do again so that could come into play if they win the Ithaca pod which I think they will.

IMO, West Conn's best chance at hosting the sectionals is as follows: Of course West Conn beating Salve/Mid, Gwynedd-Mercy or Johnson & Wales (Johnson & Wales preferable) winning the Ramapo pod, and MIT winning the Ithaca pod (don't worry about St. Mary's R-MC those are the 2 outliers so whoever won that pod wouldn't have much effect).
St. Mary's is basically as far south in Maryland you can go before driving into the Chesapeake Bay.  Not a lot of airports to fly into (though Buffalo is the only one that will have to though).  They have hosted sectionals before, but if its these 3 , I don't think it'll happen (though they will have the highest regional ranking of the 4 teams though).  Then of the remaining 3, West Conn is the most centrally located.  I know the NCAA doesn't take this into account but R-MC/St. Mary's would basically be driving right through Danbury to get to MIT/J&W, not sure if MIT/GMC have the capacity to host a sectiona.

If that St. Mary's pod winner is R-MC they won't host because it'll cost the NCAA less to fly 1 team out (RMC) then to fly 2 teams into Ashland, VA (Johnson & Wales & MIT), so your left with the same scenerio as above.  I don't think its a good bet, but its not entirely impossible.  The only way this sectional isn't in Middlebury is 1) if they lose or 2) R-MC wins the St. Mary's pod.  Since Mid and R-MC are almost 600 miles from each other the NCAA might centrally locate it to somewhere like Ramapo/Rochester/Ithaca but even then its 301 miles or less from Middlebury to any of those 3 sites compared to at least 365 miles for R-MC to the same sites.  if Gwynedd-Mercy ends up winning the Ramapo pod that could be a decent choice (254 miles for R-MC compared to 334 for Middlebury) but according to what Pat Coleman has on their team page, the GMC gym only holds 1200 people, and I don't think thats quite enough for a sectional.  I think if both R-MC/Mid advance to the sweet 16 the NCAA buys R-MC plane tickets to Burlington, VT.  If Mid loses, R-MC is next in line followed by Rochester more then likely.

[UMDCorsairKatz]

If anyone can PLEASE vote for Brandon Stephens (UMD) into the D3hoops all star game. Voting is on the frontpage of D3hoops.com. Let's get him and in represent the LEC in a big way! Thanks to anyone who has and will vote!

Voting ends 2PM tomorrow!

[wcsu91]

AT 7Express  Thanks for the all of the info on the Sectionals.

[7express]

AT 7Express  Thanks for the all of the info on the Sectionals.

Will you be at the O'Neil center tomorrow night??