MBB: Little East

[7express]

I would even love to get an honest answer from every coach in the league to: Pick one LEC current player for your team? I wonder if that would even be Brooks?

Brooks would be the best player on Boston or Plymouth state this year, and quite possibly USM as well, so those 3 would be incredibly stupid to not pick him given the opportunity.  How much did Southern Maine & Boston lose by on Saturday??  8 points combined??  (I know Western won by 3, how much did Eastern win by??)  You really think if Boston or USM had Brooks instead of Western, both those teams would have still lost last weekend??

[7express]

You are correct maybe we should be posting these comments farther into the conference schedule, but I have to tell you, coming from an avid Warrior fan in ALL sports, RIC looks very DANGEROUS this year!!  Come Monday they will certainly be ranked in the top 25 as they were just off the rankings last week, unless, as I think 7express stated earlier, maybe if they lose to Eastern, but I think it would have to be a Warrior blowout to prevent them from a D3 poll ranking next week.  If not next week, sooner rather than later.
frankly speaking, ECSU really has to prove themselves this year and give both RIC and Western a loss, if they want to be taken seriously in the LEC and regionally.  Hopefully Coach Walsh's "LUCK of the IRISH" will run out this year vs the Warriors. 
How about NCAA vs ECAC this year!!

RIC was #26 in last week's poll.  I say as long as RIC doesn't lose by 20+ on Saturday, their in the poll next week.

[warrior]

We may disagree on how good RIC or Daquan is, but one thing's for sure, this is a GREAT blog!  We may not be big in number, but all of us are devoted fans with lots of inside knowledge and, once the season begins, I always rush to check the latest posts when I get home from work.  As for the two hot topics of the day, I shared my thoughts on RIC last post.  As for Daquan, think about Southern Maine when they lost Cortez Isaac or Eastern when we lost Mike Parker and Courtney Simmons.  All those guys were great scorers, but their teams somehow improved dramatically when they left!  As RIC, and I'd like to think Eastern, proves - the key to real success is team play, balanced scoring and defense.  (Pete Maravich, George Gervin, Vince Carter ..... GREAT scorers - no titles!)  As we saw in last year's tournament, Daquan's height was easily exploited when he was forced to guard Nedwick, Garrow or Kohn and his teammates clearly grew tired of watching him hoist up 25 shots/game.  Certainly he will always keep Western competitive, but as for championships - I think those will come after the leaves.

[LECFAN32]

warrior I agree...there was alot of tension on that team last year despite how they looked on the court for most of the season until it boiled over with a brooks suspension which was soley for behavior and late season losses.  mike parker and courtney simmons were on 2 totally different levels.. when on parker was VERY good at this level..better then the other guards mentioned.. if he played at eastern for his entire career we'd be talking serious numbers.

[UMDCorsairKatz]

UMassD has lost their top 3 recruits; Janzy Cruz, Jeffrey Cannon, and Alex Kershaw. All for have left the team for disciplinary reasons.

I am real good friends with the head recruiter/assist coach for UMassD and Kershaw has a shot to make it back onto the team in the 2nd semester. If only we had our whole team, who knows how good UMassD could be.

[littleeastguy]

Well tough loss for RIC and a great win for ECSU. EConn played great and made their free throws down the stretch. RIC shot horridly from the floor and the bench seemed to not even be there.  Just a bad game for them.

[AllStar]

Saturday, 12/10 Results

Eastern Connecticut (6-1, 2-0) drops Rhode Island College (9-1, 1-1), 70-59

Keene State (6-2, 2-0) clobbers UMass-Boston (3-6, 0-2), 89-65

Western Connecticut (9-1, 2-0) torches Southern Maine (6-3, 0-2), 88-58

UMass-Dartmouth (6-3, 1-1) routs Plymouth State (4-5, 0-2), 87-64

[7express]

Nice win for Eastern, IIRC their first win over RIC (regular season or tournament) in 5 years.  RIC should still get ranked next week even though now they probably won't.  I'd like to hear a compelling, legitamite reason how their NOT one of the best 25 teams in D-3.   With the exception of RIC/Eastern the games went according to plan this weekend

Dartmouth 87-64 over Plymouth state.  Not surprising
Keene over Boston 89-65.  Another non surprising result, but I thought Bosoton might have kept it closer
Western 88-58 over Southern Maine.  Thought this might have been closer as well, glad we played the way were capable of, if we could only play this every game though...
Eastern 70-59 over RIC.  As said earlier, I think this was Eastern's first win in 5 years, I know it's been at least 4.
Aside from a Western game (Monday), Dartmouth game (Tuesday) and Keene state games next weekend down in Florida (Sunday and Monday), this is the last multi day game in the conference until Wednesday, December 28. 
Going into Christmas, Western, Eastern & Keene are all tied atop at 2-0, Plymouth, Maine & Boston reside in the cellar at 0-2, RIC and Dartmouth are the middle of the pack teams at 1-1.  Conference play resumes January 7, 2012 so those will remain unchanged until then.

[warrior]

I can't believe we finally did it!     The last 3 seasons we were 0-7 vs. RIC and had only one win in the last 15 tries!  It was a great game.  (Littleeastguy - I think you may have misread the boxscore because RIC (like Eastern) actually had an excellent shooting night from the floor - 46%, 47% 3s.) The difference was Eastern's great defense - specifically the 3 charges Ham Levy drew on Mason Choice (6 pts) and Eastern only sending RIC to the line 5 times where they made only 3 shots (3-10)!  I thought both teams played great with Akinrola and Levy trading threes (2 each) and twos all night (18 pts each).  Nedwick, Kohn and Robataille were also in double figures with Kohn adding 8 rebounds, 2 steals and a block.  Like I said in the last post, it will take balanced scoring and defense to win the league.  Both teams brought those components tonight, but FINALLY it was Eastern's turn to come out on top!  Enjoy the break everyone!

[7express]

Alrite, so I was only 2 years off on the number of years it had been between Eastern victories.  Happy that they won.

[ECSUalum]

FINALLY..............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congrats to the Warriors and Coach G.  I saw the first half but was out to dinner for the rest of the afternoon.

This was one of major reasons for win:
                                  Tot FG   3 pt FG                Rebounds
                                  -------   ------                ----------
No. Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
32 Mason Choice........       3-6      0-0      0-1    0   4    4    5    6   2  4    0  0   25

and............. GREAT JOB by ECSU's D causing 20 RIC TOs!!!!!!!

Now this should provide Eastern the confidence they need to perform well in the LEC in 2012!!!!!

I am sure in the next game, (and in LEC Tourney), RIC will be gunning for Eastern.

Great job guys, have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Happy Hannakah, you deserve it,  then come back and continue to kick .ss!!!!

[wcsu91]

So much for RIC running the table in the LEC and maybe having an undefeated season. Love bandwagon riders. LMAO. Go WEST CONN. Congrats to Eastern. Which now some people on this board will be on their bandwagon. Like I said before Brooks and company is gonna have a lot to say about who wins the LEC.

[littleeastguy]

Where did you ever get running the table from? Everyone agreed RIC would lose 2-4 games...

[ECSUalum]

So much for RIC running the table in the LEC and maybe having an undefeated season. Love bandwagon riders. LMAO. Go WEST CONN. Congrats to Eastern. Which now some people on this board will be on their bandwagon. Like I said before Brooks and company is gonna have a lot to say about who wins the LEC.

WCSU91,
Everybody certainly knows the quality of Western's BB program!!!!  Coach Campbell had done a great job with the program and Western has a great facility all of which draws top talent.  Eastern under Coach Geitner is starting to make some noise, but as you stated earlier, it is one set of LEC games, and most of the 2011/12 LEC teams can surprise us in any given afternoon in LEC play.
What is wonderful about college basketball is that you have to play all the gaes with the same intensity if you want to be successful and the best teams always come out on top, (barring serious injury to a key player(s).  Therefore it will be an exciting 2nd half  of the season and I am looking forward to the ECSU/WCSU games @ Geissler gym Jan 17 and @  the O'Neill-Feldman Arena Feb 7th.  Should be a hell a a matchup this year. 

Happy Holiday to all and be safe!!

[CCC Talk]

Umass Dartmouth...you recruit knuckleheads you deserve what happens