MBB: Little East

[LECFAN32]

Keene allowing 99 points to msv is reallllly not a good look, thats a school who is in the middle of the pack in a terrible conference..and does not take their athletic programs all that seriously.. looks like they need to refocus or focus in general.wright has been on the sidelines for the owls so I think he will be back. surprised they have not looked to get adrian gonzalez going in their lineup... not everyday a mass. state player of the year falls in your hands from bentley.. altho he did look out of shape and rusty vs umd.

western is getting gates and bentil back for the second semester, but are losing perkins due to academics.. overall this is a good thing.. experienced pg in bentil with little interest in scoring will allow brooks to play off the ball and get the other scorers involved more.. one of which being gates who is a dead on shooter and the 2011 lec roy.. and in terms of perkins, britter if he is planning on staying around has a higher upside and bigger body, so giving him those minutes arent a bad thing

[7express]

There is an error in the LEC website.  ECSU is not playing UMASS Boston on 12/29 in New Orleans.
-----------------------------------

I know.  Boston is playing Eastern University which is located outside of Philly right across the street from Cabrini, IIRC.

[LECFAN32]

very curious to see how western plays on the 28th vs a ranked team in wpi..with 2 new guys in uniform that are difference makers at the guard position .. especially bentil who is a pure pg yet flamboyant and will fill up the stat sheet.. and allows brooks to go off the ball which should be a positive for everybody and gates who is/always will be instant o. wondering who else will pick up players mid season..

if wpi lets western dictate the pace they are in trouble.. this wpi team is not as good at the guard position YET with coppola being very young compared to robinson last year.. however if western lets wpi make this a half court game the colonials will have their hands full as this team has a legit low post scoring option (enormous weakness defensivley in the post with g. robinson guarding centers and wide bodied 4's) and lots of ooptions off the bench etc.. excuses are never acceptable but I would have much rather seen this game in a month when these guys are settled in and britter is used to taking perkins minutes and gates's shot in game type shape.

[7express]

LEC fan, you gonna be going to the game??

I'm very interested as well.  I think having Bentil and Gates back maybe the difference, but we're going to have to run in order to be successful.  If they slow it up, than your right, we could be in a dog fight.

[LECFAN32]

no I wont be going worcester is definitely a hike from where I live in new york.. I heard yesterday that gates and bentil were off on the side conditioning and shooting more so then practicing live so they may or may not be available for wed. and wont be counted on .. which for this situation is ok having guys who arent in sink playing vs a good team probably wouldnt be a positve factor..

looks like they are planning on coming out looking to push and putting pressure on wpi's offense in the halfcourt.. looking to create oppurtunities going the other way

[7express]

Hopefully, this game goes by fast tomorrow.  Gotta back to Trumbull for work at 6.  Ending at 4 would be cutting it really close, and I ain't missing this game.

[7express]

LEC back in action after an 8 day holiday hiatus with 2 big games:

Western Connecticut 75 @ WPI 70.  Homer pick at best, but I do think West Conn is slightly better overall, but we're going to have to play our game.  If we can push the tempo we'll win, but if we let WPI slow it down more than likely we lose.  Hopefully, it's the former
Clark 76 vs. Southern Maine 64 (in New Orleans).  USM has had a nice start, but they had a nice start last season as well and totally collapsed after Christmas.  If Brian Vayada is back for Clark I don't even think this game is even that close.

My opinion: 2-0 day would be great, 1-1 would be good, 0-2 is probably to be expected (face it, WPI is higher ranked and is playing at home, Clark is a better team than USM) but would be dissapointing none-the-less.

[wcsu91]

BIG Win on the Road today for West Conn against the #17th team in the nation. 101 -93 Brooks scores 39.  Hoping this Win puts West Conn in the top 25. Happy New Year!!

[magicman]

BIG Win on the Road today for West Conn against the #17th team in the nation. 101 -93 Brooks scores 39.  Hoping this Win puts West Conn in the top 25. Happy New Year!!

Box score shows Brooks with 40 pts which always sounds better than 39.

[ECSUalum]

Poor WPI are not having luck vs LEC teams this year!!

Congrats to the Colonials and Coach Campbell on a nice win vs 17th ranked Worcester Tech.

Brooks hit 22 of 24 FTs (.917%) tonight!!!  He must have ripped the WPI D driving to the hoop!!

[dahlby]

ECSU:
Many of the free throws were from fouls in the closing minutes after WPI fell behind in the closing minutes.
Good game until the end.

[mass_d3fan]

Actually, 11 of those FT attempts came in the last 1:18 of the game.  Don't get me wrong Brooks played well, but the 40 is a bit deceiving.  The real difference in this game was Western's 3 pt shooting, or should I say the very poor Engineer defending of the 3.  10 for 15 in the first half and 14 for 25 for the game.  Extremely poor job by the WPI coaching staff in its lack to make adjustments to the fact that WCSU was not doing anything inside, yet they continue to have their defenders coming off shooters who are spotting up on the arc. Give credit to Coach Campbell for his game plan and making sure that Brooks did not try to do too much - he had a game high 9 assists, 6 of them in the first half.

Carr(22pts/11rbs), Coppola(24pts)  & Shannon(17pts) played very well for WPI on the offensive end.

Also, interesting to note that apparently 2 players have left the WPI team.  Missing from the roster and now shown as not active on the Engineer stats on their website are senior Fernando Perez & junior Ricardo Bonhome.

[7express]

Southern Maine loses to Clark by 20 82-62.  Still no Vayda for Clark and they still ended up winning by 20.  I shudder to think how much they would have won by if he was in there
West Conn 101-93 over WPI.  Score got inflated with WPI fouls at the end, and likewise, WPI converting open layups with us not wanting to stop the clock.  Turned up the defense when we needed to, and DaQuan Brooks, really what can I say??  14 of our 30 field goals were 3's and didn't allow Matt Carr or Marco Copallo to beat us (22 & 24 respectively, Jaime Shannon had 17, no one else with more than 8).  DaQuan Brooks had 40, Gary Robinson had 14 (and a couple 3's in the beginning of the game to get the 3 point barrage started), and Ryan Pelliter chipped in 18 (including a 4 point play late in the first half after a WPI turnover).  Jengodji Gates is back with the team, but did not play; Rob Bentil was not there (and wasn't listed in the prgram either), and Ter'Quan Perkins is not with the team anymore.  I think it's addition by subtraction here.  I like what Briddter & Kennedy have done, so those 2 can take Perkins' minutes; meanwhile Gates will give us offense off the bench, and assuming Bentil comes back (what I've heard), and gets inserted into the starting lineup, would allow Brooks to get taken off the ball where he'd be more effective and where he's better suited, imo.  Also, I know I'm nitpicking here, but I'd like some of those 40 points Brooks scored to go somewhere else; somewhere like Louis Briddter (1 field attempt 0 points, 3 turnovers in 13 minutes) or Michael Kennedy (2 field goals on 3 attempts 5 points in 22 minutes), I still think we need that 2nd and 3rd scoring option in order to be a very successful team.  We're a very good team right now, but if we could get a consistant double digit scoring threat to complement Brooks we'd be a great team.

Tomorrow's games:
Eastern vs. Mass-Boston 1:00 PM (In New Orleans)
This is the Eastern University located in suburban Philadelphia NOT the Eastern Connecticut Warriors, so don't worry, this is not a conference game taking place in New Orleans.  Eastern is 7-3, but they've played no one.  Probably their best win is by 3 against 6-4 Rosemont, probably the best team they've played is Manhattanville (lost by 7), and just today beat Husson (1-7) by only 5 points.  They are located out of the Middle Atlantic conference-Freedom division.
Prediction: Eastern 76 Boston 64
Birmingham Southern vs. Southern Maine 5:00 PM (In New Orleans)
Boy if you thought USM had trouble with Clark I don't even want to mention BSC.  I remember playing BSC a couple of times on college hoops 2k5 for playstation 2 back when they were still a D-1 school playing in the Big South conference.  They've finally finished their transistional process this summer and are finally eligible for the top 25, SCAC and NCAA tournament, and they've got a talented team to get them into the tournament: 8-1 record and top 25 ranking.  Game will be over at halftime.
Prediction: BSC 86 USM 53

[LECFAN32]

express,

agree and have mentioned most of the point you made in the second paragraph.. brooks would be better suited off the ball as bentil (who is coming back from multiple sources, im sure he is taking a week long 1 credit gym class involving lots of movies to gain his elg. back as is standard practice from what I recall from my days with the team) does a great job of distributing the ball without having much interest in scoring, especially as its pretty apparent that you have 2 other (3 with gates off the bench who im sure is gaining the required amount of practices to become eligible to play) players in your starting lineup who are very potent and efficient offensive players in jensen and robinson that should be getting more shots..with those type of shooters on the floor nobody will be played off of which spells wide open paint at all times for penetration..and then go with a completely different look off the bench with the rugged play of kennedy and (hopefully) bridtter with gates and pelletier still being able to stretch the floor off the bench.. this team has yet to play its best ball.

as for the wpi game and only getting in 2 practices before playing a nationally ranked team, I think they did a great job of coming togethor.. it appears wcsu pushed the tempo and that played to their strength and spread the floor on a wpi team while big and talented are not the quickest..and after being thoroughly beaten by two good lec teams I have to wonder if this team was playing on their high preseason ranking and powder puff early schedule..as I watched them vs ric and came away not impressed..almost like a bigger version of clark with vayda..

wish this game was provided on lec/tv

[7express]

It doesn't help them (WPI) that Becker and Elms have done nothing this year and Salem State has cooled off considerbable since that Williams win in November.  I think they'll do fine, but I wasn't impressed with them either, imo Clark gave us a better game then WPI did, and that was a home game for us.