MBB: Little East

[7express]

Not sure, but we go up there on Tuesday, so maybe I can get some info than.

The Eastern women lost half of their team due to a party which resulted in multiple team violations, so maybe something happened up there as well??  If they don't play against USM either, then I'd really startt to question it.

[warrior]

Regarding Keene, all I know is that there is a history of issues with D'amours and the coach.  I'm guessing that this is another such case, but I have no real information.  He's still on the roster, so perhaps it was just a one game thing.  I too would be interested if anyone knows the real scoop. Either way, like 7express points out, Keene's 'shake-up' can't compete with that of Eastern's women's team last week!  Among the 6 players they lost, were their 3 top scorers and rebounders!  They have since added three walk-ons, but the freshman center who has been scoring 20ppg after the suspensions appears to be injured!  Now that's a line-up shake-up I wouldn't wish on anyone!   As for this weekend, ... let it begin!  I certainly won't underestimate Plymouth after they gave us all we could handle in the first round of last year's tournament! (We won by 1 after intercepting a pass at the buzzer that, if it got through, would have led to a game winning lay-up!) Hopefully, we'll keep playing good, disciplined, team ball and keep our win streak alive!

[AllStar]

KSC (9-3, 3-0 LEC) clobbers Southern Maine (6-6, 0-3 LEC), 79-60.

Western Connecticut (12-1, 3-0 LEC) holds off UMass-Dartmouth (7-6, 1-2 LEC), 91-88.

Eastern Connecticut (9-1, 3-0 LEC) pounds Plymouth (4-7, 0-3 LEC), 76-62

RIC (11-1, 2-1 LEC) drubs UMass-Boston (4-8, 0-3 LEC), 88-51

KSC, ECSU, and WCSU are all 3-0.
RIC is 2-1.
UMD is 1-2.
PSU, UMB, and USM are all 0-3.

A little bit of separation in the top 4 from the bottom 4.

[7express]

Western was very lucky to go 2-0 today, very well could have gone 0-2, ladies looked especially bad winning by 7 against a team that made I think 2 field goals the first 12 minutes of the second half.
As for the WCSU men, Michael Jensen was absolutely on fire from 3, between the first half and second half made 5 or 6 straight 3's, too bad he got hurt early in the second half on a layup attempt where he got fouled, looked like a twisted/sprained ankle, he would be a big loss for us on Tuesday at the Keene state Owls, who will be our biggest conference test to date.

[7express]

Saturday results:

Eastern 76-62 over Plymouth.  Each team shot the ball well: Plymouth shot only 22.2% from 3, but 43.6% overall; Eastern shot 30% from 3 and over 60% from the floor overall.
Keene 79-60 over USM.  Ryan Martin was the game high scorer with 28.  Once again, Hunter and D'Amours didn't play, so maybe there is something going on at Keene state that LECfan talked about the other day.
West Conn survives Dartmouth 91.  Not pretty, but it's an LEC conference W which is all that counts.  5 players scored in double figures for the Corsairs lead by John Jenkos off the bench with 17; he had 15 of those 17 from behind the arc.  DaQuan Brooks and Michael Jensen lead the Colonials with 22 points each; Jengodji "spud" Gates replaced Jensen in the lineup after he got injured and scored 7 in his season debut.
RIC 88-51 over Boston.
Combined the men and women beat Boston by 60 points, just as I called.

With conference games on Tuesday and Saturday, there will be no more Sunday games until next season, and only 1 more Monday game (the week the conference takes Tuesday off), so the next set of games are on Tuesday.  I will have predictions for that either Monday night or Tuesday morning before I drive up to Keene.  Schedule:

Plymouth @ Boston
Western @ Keene
Southern Maine @ RIC
Eastern @ Dartmouth

[7express]

Tuesday predictions:

Plymouth 76 @ Boston 74.
Both teams reside in 0-3, so someone will have to win.  I picked Boston to finish higher, but Plymouth has been playing better, so I'll take them in overtime.

Western 78 @ Keene state 83.
Going back through the historical archives on the WCSU site, the Owls have won 12 of the last 14 matchups, and haven't won won a regular season LEC matchup in Spaudling gymnasium since at least 2003 (2004 is as far as the achives go back), and have won just 1 game in that building in that time frame, which was an LEC tournament game in 2004.  Obviously, this is a different Colonial team then those previous 7 (8??) year teams, but we don't play well there, don't play well against Keene in general, and with this same exact Keene squad from last year we went 0-2, so really I can't pick them.

USM 52 RIC 78.
The biggest mis-match of the day, though the girl's game should be pretty good though

Eastern 76 @ Dartmouth 71.
Eastern has been playing the best of anyone in the conference (even RIC), so I think they'll find a way to pull this out in the end.

[LECFAN32]

hard to play in keene and ric for the colonials for obvious reasons, ric and keene are both day trips which makes for a very long day of travel then to have to get off the bus and walk into spaulding gymnasium where there is often 1000 people or so leads to slow starts..however keene has recently lost 2 difference makers and are especially soft defensively outside of wright blocking shots weakside. this western team needs to show the balance they showed vs umass d (hopefully jensen plays, the injury is a high ankle sprain and its not looking good) and brooks needs to really get into martin who has been on fire for keene and handles the ball a ton. if they do that and maybe more importantly keep their big guys off the glass I like their chances, this team is rounding into shape and guys off the bench are really packing a punch.

side note- wcsu beat keene in 2008 106-91 infront of a packed house. I was on the team.. but outside of that we have not traveled well there historically.

eastern will continue to roll in my opinion, their playing very well and levy is stepping up as a versatile combo forward who is pretty hard to stop..especially when matched with slower bigs

[7express]

Since you played @ Western, you should know this: the only 2 night trips Western has are USM & Plymouth, correct??  Everything else (RIC, Keene, Dartmouth & Boston) are day trips right??  If it's a Tuesday night game at either of those places they go up Tuesday morning, spend Tuesday night and go back to school Wednesday, likewise if it's a Saturday afternoon game (like both those are this year) they leave Friday afternoon, and come back to school after the game, right??

[7express]

Massey predictions for the games on Tuesday:

He has Keene over Western 86-83 (62%), Eastern over Dartmouth 68-59 (81%), RIC over USM 72-55 (95%) and Plymouth over Boston 77-73 (63%).  I'm gonna start using those predictions, comparing those with mine from now on.  At least we agreed on the 4 teams that would win.

[littleeastguy]

Great top 25 for the LEC with RIC #20, West Conn. #24 and Eastern receiving votes. Good start to the new year for the conference.

[7express]

RIC 20, West Conn 23, Eastern 39 in latest top 25 poll. 

D3hoops.com men's Top 25, Week 6



Through games of Sunday, Jan. 8:



#

School (1st votes)

Rec

Pts

Prev.



1

Middlebury (23)

12-0

623

1



2

Virginia Wesleyan (1)

11-1

584

2



3

MIT (1)

14-0

563

4



4

Emory

12-0

546

5



5

Amherst

12-1

527

6



6

Augustana

11-2

460

3



7

Franklin and Marshall

13-0

450

8



8

Mary Hardin-Baylor

12-0

434

9



9

UW-Whitewater

13-1

420

10



10

Whitworth

11-2

368

11



11

Hope

12-1

363

12



12

Williams

12-2

354

7



13

Cabrini

11-1

296

14



14

Wabash

12-1

271

17



15

UW-Stevens Point

11-3

249

13



16

Wooster

11-2

239

15



17

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

12-0

201

19



18

Puget Sound

11-2

167

16



19

Birmingham-Southern

12-1

150

22



20

Rhode Island College

11-1

141

24



21

Buffalo State

10-2

110

21



22

Oswego State

9-2

102

20



23

Western Connecticut

12-1

86

--



24

WPI

11-2

61

--



25

Illinois Wesleyan

11-2

56

--


Dropped out: No. 18 St. Thomas, No. 23 Wheaton (Ill.), No. 25 Transylvania.

Others receiving votes: St. Thomas 51; Wittenberg 28; William Paterson 26; Ohio Wesleyan 19; Hardin-Simmons 19; Bethany 19; Wheaton (Ill.) 18; St. Mary's (Md.) 17; Grinnell 17; Washington U. 14; Rochester 13; Marietta 10; John Carroll 10; Eastern Connecticut 8; Transylvania 7; Lake Forest 7; Hartwick 5; Farmingdale State 5; Christopher Newport 5; New Jersey City 3; Hampden-Sydney 2; Randolph-Macon 1.

The D3hoops.com Top 25 is voted on by a panel of 25 coaches, Sports Information Directors and media members from across the country, and is published weekly.

[LECFAN32]

express- darmouth is also an over night trip..  it does not make too much sense as keene and ric and boston are very similar drives to plymouth and dartmouth...this is not the same for everybody, at the time this was decided plymouth and dartmouth were conference powers so it was thought to be for the best.. all overnight trips unless its at a tournament during a break take place on saturdays for the afternoon game- in westerns case there is a shorter afternoon practice, then depending on whether the team was on midtown or westside get back to your dorm or apartment asap, pack and rush to the bus.

truly the tuesday night away games unless its at eastern which was always exciting are the longer and worse days as getting back at 1 or 2 in the am was not out of the ordinary.. by coincidence these are also now 2 of the most talented teams in the league that is one of many reasons that playing at ric and keene has been an issue over the years.

congratulations to ric for moving up and the colonials for moving into the top 25 along w. eastern for getting votes ( in my opinion they would give the top teams in the region a tough game based on their halfcourt execution, and gameplanning). looking ahead western has maybe their toughest test ( see my thoughts on wpi) in keene state and hopefully jensen isnt too badly hurt altho high ankle sprains are difficult. he shot the ball w. ALOT of confidence and swagger saturday and despite some sloppy moments the offense looked  very well balanced..if he doesnt suit up which is likely from what I hear look for gates to get some minutes to round into shape (altho hes definitely not there yet), with the bulk going to pelletier who has been very consistent shooting the three.

[7express]

So Dartmouth is a night trip but RIC (only like 20 miles closer), and Keene & Boston aren't which are probably about the same driving distances??  That doesn't make much sense.

[NEWMACJACK]

what happened to UMass Dartmouth's monster Freshman class? I know Kershaw and Tagger at least played a few games.  What happened to them and why aren't they on the roster anymore?

[wcsu91]

Anyone know the status of Rob Bentil on West Conn? I had heard he was coming back in January with Gates but he is not on the roster and was not on the bench at the Dartmouth game.

Big game for West Conn tonight against Keene.