MBB: Little East

[7express]

Dartmouth's loss to Salem state looks even more impressive.  Only lost by 3 (on the road) to a team predicted to win its conference, and 4 days later that team (Salem state) destroys the #3 team in the country on the road by 15 points.  Would that mean Dartmouth could win @ Williams by 11

[littleeastguy]

If Williams was missing 4 of their 5 scorers when they played.  I was at the Williams game, if they have everyone they would have crushed Salem State.

[7express]

Western goes 2-0 at the Regis tournament.  75-62 I believe was the final Friday and today it was 70-55.  Wasn't at today's game (went to the girl's game @ Salem), but the defense to start the second Friday was absolutely brutal.  After DaQuan hit a halfcourt shot to beat the first half buzzer to give us an 11 point lead we can out completely flat and MEC turned that 11 point halftime deficit into an 8 point lead in second, but the last 10 minutes was lockdown defense.

Speaking of DaQuan I'm not entirely sold on him at the point, but we don't really have a choice.  If we take James Barnes out of the lineup to insert Jenson or Mobillo we don't have a 5 since Gary Robinson likes to shoot from outside and Mark Redding is too small.  As long as we keep winning I could care less who coach Campbell sends out there for the starting 5.  @ AMC will be a tough test for this team Tuesday night; take nothing away from MEC or Regis, MEC is a decent team in a bad league and Regis is a bad team in a bad league, AMC will be the toughest opponent yet to date for the Colonials.

[mecfan]

Went to WConn- MEC game @ Regis cause i was visiting cousin who goes to Boston College.  Final score may not indicate it but it was a very competitive game.  MEC pg unfortunately got hurt at about the 10 min. mark with MEC up 6 and didnt return. :-  Found out today he broke his leg on that play. WConn too much size and depth.

[littleeastguy]

Little East looks to be off to a good start, 15-5. A closer look at the games makes the start even better.
First the loses:
UMD lost to Salem State.  SS is 3-0 with a blowout of Potsdam, a decent team, and a solid commanding upset of Williams (3). SS has a great backcourt and a preseason AA. UMD also lost to Bowdin, a tough NECAC team that brought back 4 starters off a good team last year.

UMB lost to Ramapo. Rampo is an NCAA Tourny team and played Middlebury (5) tough this weekend, and UMB is our worst team.

Plymouth lost to Amherst (4), who looks as good as ever.  They dropped 100 the other night.

The only bad loss for the conference was EConn losing. And it was a horrid loss. St. Joes is a horrid squad....

There have been some good wins, including 7 road wins. But this week is big too with both RIC and UMD getting a Brandies team that should be in the Top 25 at tip off.

[7express]

A couple thimgs I'll have to disagree with:

1) The Salem state win @ Williams occured with 4/5 of the Eph's projected starting 5 out.  Don't get me wrong still anice win by the Vikings but still...
2) UMB definitely won't be the LEC's worst team this year; that distinction will go to Plymouth or Southern Maine
3) St. Joes isn't a bad squad at all.  Last year they finished 22-7 (16-4 in the Skyline) and made it to the ECAC tournament.  They have finished at least 7 games above .500 for 6 straight years and have won 21 or more games 4 of those 6 years.  If their a "terrible" squad, I guess West Conn is a "terrible" squad as well, since in the time frame St. Joes has a better overall record, but also more seasons with at least 20 wins (4 to 2).

[LECFAN32]

st. joes is definitely not a bad team however the skyline conference has lost many if not all of their competitve teams the last few years (stevens, manhattanville etc) so its hard to gage the success that both they and purchase has had as of late because unlike the little east you will have off days where you dont have to play well to win.

salem state is always very competitve and plays a fairly decent schedule in the mascac, williams may not have had their "best 5" but wang who is a returning all american played, and on a team like williams, their subs are future high level division 3 players who are only sitting because the starters are veterans and also very good, so this should still be considered a good win.

west conn should have won both of their games this weekend by double digits and they did...they gave up alot of points to an mec team that was returning alot of pieces, but that may have been contributed to the pace of the game being very fast. the amc game should be a nice test, they definitely have alot of talent and that gym isnt always the easiest place to play..

as far as their lineup goes, campbell likes having a consistent scorer coming off the bench vs. another teams second unit however, I think jensen is too good to come off the bench and will most likely replace pelletier.. hoping bentil comes back from his academic issues because brooks is probably better off the ball, and making this team fairly deep and talented.

[littleeastguy]

As far as Williams I was at the game as I said above. They were not missing 4 starters tehy were missing 4 scorers that play alot. Only 2 starters, and they had All American James Wang.

St. Joes I give ya.  I had them mixed up with the city one, not LI which played East Conn. They are above average, but not to be compared with West Conn. The Skyline is a joke lately. They are 36th in non-conference record as a conference, the LEC is 6th. In the last ten years they have only 8 NCAA wins, compared to 19 for the LEC. So comparing their records does very little.

UMB may not be the worst but they will be deep in the celler. Wconn, Econn, RIC, UMD, Keene can they beat any of those teams even once? Lets say tehy win one of the 10, thats still 1-9.

[littleeastguy]

The Skyline does have Bard and Polytechnic that are a combined 12-138 over the last 3 years, so that is 4 sure wins a year for even a .500 level team.

[7express]

Bard left the Skyline and is in the Liberty League now....their going to be even worse there.  If they can't win 1 of their 2 games against Vassar, they'll go winless in LL play this year, and quite possibly next season too.

As far as Boston, I think Boston can get more wins against West Conn, RIC, Eastern, Keene & Dartmouth than USM or Plymouth can get.

[7express]

The Skyline does have Bard and Polytechnic that are a combined 12-138 over the last 3 years, so that is 4 sure wins a year for even a .500 level team.

Speaking of the Skyline, how long does it take Mt. St. Mary to leave and join another conference (hopefully the LEC).  IIRC the women's team has won 16 regular season championships, and 15 of the 16 Skyline conference finals since the conference formed.  Their loss to Farmingdale state in the 2010 Skyline championship game was the first conference tournament game they had ever lost in Skyline play.  I think they also only have 5 conf losses.  Every year MSM runs roughshot through the Skyline and every year their gone by the first Saturday because it's their first game against a good team in 2 months.  I'd LOVE to have MSM in the LEC if MSM ever decides to go that route.  Western would actually get a good road trip to a conference game, and I think Western & MSM could get a good rivalry started, especially on the women's side if they played twice every season.

[littleeastguy]

Mt. Saint Mary would be a good addition. Could really happen too, they now have an odd number of teams.  But the addition would give us 11 so we would need one more to stay even.

That is where I say add Abertus Magnus or Johnson and Wales. Albertus is a solid program and would add a nice punch. JWU would give RIC an in state rivalry in conference play. They already play what ends up being a very heated game each season and battle over the same recruits, see Lemont Thomas.

Adding Mt. Saint Mary and one of those two makes the LEC a real powerful conference and locks up in my mind the title of second best in NE and one of the top in the nation. As well as if you got JWU creating two new and exciting rivalries. 

[neverwas725]

Problem with those schools joining the conference is the fact that all of the current little east schools are public schools and are at a distinct advantage compared to the private schools in terms of tuition costs and admission standards. Few private schools would jump at having to compete in a league like that.

[7express]

Isn't RIC private??  I thought that was the non public school in the LEC.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Isn't RIC private??  I thought that was the non public school in the LEC.

Nope, RIC is a public school.