MBB: Little East

amh63 · January 24, 2012, 05:05:45 PM

Back again ECSUAlumn....with a "short" version of your request. Learned something in the process of doing my homework. First, ECSU is the LEC school that has the most regular season games with the NESCAC....games with the NESCAC Ct. schools. This year your Warriors have already beat Trinity and Conn. and will meet Wes. later..as you have posted.
I have looked at the schools of interest at this time....Amherst, Williams and Middlebury...the top ranked teams as of late Jan. Did not look at Wes., Bates, Tufts and even Colby. Those schools may have games with the LEC schools in past seasons...especially with Southern Maine...but I am lazy. I note such schools since they may/will get ranking points soon. Second fact is that our conferences do not normally schedule games against each other unless it some series like Amherst vs RIC and Williams vs. Keene.
Anyway here are my findings for the present and 4 past years.
Amherst...2011-2012 season...to play RIC on 1/31
2010-2011 season ..game at RIC cancelled; beat RIC 78-74 @ Williams in NCAA quarter finals
2009-2010 season..beat RIC 105-84 at home in a year Amherst missed the NCAA
2008-2009 season..lost to RIC at RIC 72-62 ..Amherst went to the NCAA
2007-2008 season..beat RIC at home 97-63..Amherst was runner-up in the NCAA tourney.
Williams..2011-2012 season..beat Keene 103-74 at home
2010-2011 season..no games..Williams in NCAA final 4
2009-2010 season..beat Southern Maine 93-59 at home
2008-2009 season..beat Keene 81-70 at Keene St.
2007-2008 season..beat Keene 86-66 at home
Middlebury..2011-21 season..will meet Keene on 1/31
2010-2011 season..beat UMass-D 86-62 at home...Midd. in NCAA Final 4
2009-2010 season..Loss to RIC in early round of NCAA Tourney
2008-2009 season..no games between conferences...Midd in NCAA tourney
2007-2008 season..no games...Midd. in NCAA tourney

AllStar · January 24, 2012, 09:16:59 PM

Keene State upsets No. 18 Eastern Connecticut, 64-56 to move into first place. Owls proving now that they can win low-scoring games, too.

UMass-Dartmouth clobbers UMass-Boston, 89-71.

Plymouth State beats Southern Maine, 72-59.

Western up 88-83 with 44 seconds to go on Rhode Island College.

ECSUalum · January 24, 2012, 09:26:40 PM

Congrats to Keene St on a well deserved win over Eastern tonight after being behind by 12 in the first half. Nice balanced scoring by the Owls. One stat that stands out is 18 Warrior TOs and Keene had 22 points of these TO's. Keene also outshot, (FG%), Eastern 48 to 37 %.
Nick was a bit cold tonight. Anyway this win shows the conference is still wide open.

WCSU prevails over RIC 93-87. Colonials has a 17 pt lead at one time. Brooks 35 pts, Akinrola 36 pts

ECSUalum · January 24, 2012, 09:28:58 PM

Quote from: amh63 on January 24, 2012, 05:05:45 PM
Back again ECSUAlumn....with a "short" version of your request. Learned something in the process of doing my homework. First, ECSU is the LEC school that has the most regular season games with the NESCAC....games with the NESCAC Ct. schools. This year your Warriors have already beat Trinity and Conn. and will meet Wes. later..as you have posted.
I have looked at the schools of interest at this time....Amherst, Williams and Middlebury...the top ranked teams as of late Jan. Did not look at Wes., Bates, Tufts and even Colby. Those schools may have games with the LEC schools in past seasons...especially with Southern Maine...but I am lazy. I note such schools since they may/will get ranking points soon. Second fact is that our conferences do not normally schedule games against each other unless it some series like Amherst vs RIC and Williams vs. Keene.
Anyway here are my findings for the present and 4 past years.
Amherst...2011-2012 season...to play RIC on 1/31
2010-2011 season ..game at RIC cancelled; beat RIC 78-74 @ Williams in NCAA quarter finals
2009-2010 season..beat RIC 105-84 at home in a year Amherst missed the NCAA
2008-2009 season..lost to RIC at RIC 72-62 ..Amherst went to the NCAA
2007-2008 season..beat RIC at home 97-63..Amherst was runner-up in the NCAA tourney.
Williams..2011-2012 season..beat Keene 103-74 at home
2010-2011 season..no games..Williams in NCAA final 4
2009-2010 season..beat Southern Maine 93-59 at home
2008-2009 season..beat Keene 81-70 at Keene St.
2007-2008 season..beat Keene 86-66 at home
Middlebury..2011-21 season..will meet Keene on 1/31
2010-2011 season..beat UMass-D 86-62 at home...Midd. in NCAA Final 4
2009-2010 season..Loss to RIC in early round of NCAA Tourney
2008-2009 season..no games between conferences...Midd in NCAA tourney
2007-2008 season..no games...Midd. in NCAA tourney

Amh63,

Thanks a bunch for that response!!

+1k for your response. Your a Gentleman and a Scholar!!!

AllStar · January 24, 2012, 11:42:25 PM

Updated Standings
1. KSC 7-1
ECSU 7-1
3. WCSU 6-2 (1 GB)
4. RIC 5-3 (2 GB)
5. UMD 3-5 (4 GB)
6. PSU 2-6 (5 GB)
7. USM 1-7 (6 GB)
UMB 1-7 (6 GB)

7express · January 25, 2012, 12:07:50 AM

DaQuan with 35 points. Even though the Colonials lead by as many as 18 in the second half and RIC got it down to 4 a couple points late in the game we FINALLY made big plays down the stretch against RIC. Call me a homer, and really I don't care, but this team we had on the court (one of the few times we've had Gates, Brooks, Jensen & Redding all playing in same game) is the best in the conference. As long as those 4 don't get hurt, this is the best team in the conference. I can GUARANTEE if Jensen is still out for this game we lose this game, the whole offense is night and day when those 4 are playing than when their not. I'll be back tomorrow with other results and my mid season awards which should be fun.

ECSUalum · January 25, 2012, 11:50:29 AM

7,

I actually watched the WCSU/RIC game last night, as for some reason the ECSU/Keene game only had audio, and I really like the Western announcer!! You are absolutley right with Gates, Brooks, Jensen, and Redding on the court there is much more energy and balanced scoring. Brooks did a great job distributing the ball to his team mates and at the same time maintained his scoring average. He is such a good FT shooter, and since he gets fouled soo much that I would imagine a hefty % of his all time points are from the charity stripe.

With this team on the court, we will see WCSU back in the national rankings, for sure, and will make for a REAL INTERESTING finish to the reg. season and LEC tourney!!!!

BTW, I apologize to Keene fans for leaving out, (in my post on LEC/NESCAC matchups), their big game with #1 Middlebury College, as amh63 clearly pointed out above. Again all these games will give us a guide as to the strength of our LEC this year and perhaps predict if any LEC team might go deep in the 2012 NCAA tourney.

7express · January 25, 2012, 12:16:16 PM

Here are the NESCAC vs. Little East matchups coming up the next week (granted, there maybe more, but these are the only ones I know off the top of my head):
Tufts @ Boston
Middlebury @ Keene
Conn College @ Western
RIC @ Amherst
Eastern @ Wesleyan
I think USM plays either Colby or Bowdoin in late February if not both teams

Tufts probably beats Boston, and Western probably beats Conn College, but the other 3 games could go either way.

LECFAN32 · January 25, 2012, 12:39:30 PM

great night in the little east last night.. league is pretty much a buzz saw as no ranked team is safe, too bad we cant get these 4 teams in the ncaa's because league play is preparing all of them for a nice run!

spoke to a western player n coach n they reitterated what 7 just said, this team with jensen and all the pieces in place is very, very dangerous. such a confident shooter and can change the pace of a game very quickly. opens up the floor alot when you have 2 shooters in jensen and robinson that need no help defense (example being the back door open layup jensen had in the 1st half), gary is also shooting lights out, very efficient with his feet set and he should continue to get shots. gates and pelletier are good enough to start for some teams in the leage and they need o continue to put up numbers off the bench. kennedy has emerged as a productive garbage man who can hit the open 3 as well, something this team needed, excited to see THIS team in the rematch with eastern, who has historically had alot of difficulty winning at the oneil center (big difference in depth perception in comparision to the gym in willimantic, trust me it makes a difference with shooting)

as for ric outside of akinrola they seem to be not very deep and fairly normal at times, lacking outside shooting could be the cause, as western packed the lane when choice was handling the ball and he couldnt get going (with robinson being his match up i was fairly surprised). looks like they need deciantis to shoot the ball more consistently to open things up, as well as a guard to step up off the bench as a spark scorer (avery king?)

maybe the coaching staff at dartmouth heard my post last week about colin burns as they won by 20 and burns played his best game of the year! frankly im glad about it, dont want to see a senior with talent go out with a slumping senior year.

LECFAN32 · January 25, 2012, 12:40:33 PM

forgot to mention -

very curious to see how the lec stacks up with 2 of the nescacs best in amherst and middlebury, and wes. as of late for eastern.

7express · January 25, 2012, 12:40:44 PM

As for the Tuesday results:

Plymouth 72-59 over USM.
Panthers are only a game back of Dartmouth for 6th place (that final playoff spot), get Dartmouth at home Saturday, and have that win over Western in their back pocket if they need it if they split with Dartmouth/USM/Boston.
Keene 64-56 over Eastern.
Could be a team to watch out for down the stretch. Even though they end the season with @ Western, vs. Eastern, @ RIC, Keene has won 3 straight in Danbury, and the RIC game is the last game of the regular season where depending on what happens, RIC could be buried by then. We knew Keene could win the high scoring games, and if they start to win the low scoring games....look out.
Western 93-86 over RIC.
Akinrola had a game high 36 for RIC while DaQuan had a team high 35 for Western. As I said last night the offense for the Colonials is night and day better with Jensen & Redding on the floor because it spaces them out better, and gives the team more offense. As long as none of those 4 get injured, this will be a dangerous team in February, because with Gates, Brooks, Jensen & Redding it's probably the best team in the conference.
Dartmouth gets a much needed win 89-71 over Boston.
Dartmouth shot over 52% from the field and had 5 players in double figures.

Thursday non conference schedule:
Tufts 73 @ Boston 59.
From what I've seen of Tufts and Boston this year there's no reason why Tufts shouldn't win this by double digits.
Eastern 67 @ TCNJ 60.
This is the start of 5 games in the next 9 days for Eastern as theirs only 1 conference game next week. TCNJ is 8-11 and 2-6 in the NJAC, but has 0 wins against teams with winning records this year. All 8 of their wins are against sub .500 teams. Also, TCNJ is in the South division of the NJAC which is clearly worse than the North; Richard Stockton is the best team at 6-1 in conference but only 12-6 overall, while Rowan and Kean are tied for 2nd at 2-5; Rowan is 8-10 on the year, Kean 3-15. The worst team in the North (Rutgers-Newark, Ramapo & New Jersey City) are all tied for a 4-3 conference record while Newark has the worst overall record at 11-7: Ramapo is 13-5 and NJCU is 14-4. Also, those Northern teams numbers get skewed because they have to play each team twice a year while they only play the Southern teams once a year.

7express · January 25, 2012, 01:38:24 PM

7express's mid-season awards presentation. Feel free to disagree with these, and add in your own:

Best team: Western Connecticut. We've lost 2 conference games with Jensen out for both, and Redding out for a game and a half of those 2.
most dissapointing team: Dartmouth. Granted, their right where I thought they would be (5th), but their 3 conference wins are against Plymouth (at home), Boston & USM, and are a loss on Saturday away from getting passed by Plymouth in the conference pecking order
Team with the most to gain in the second half: RIC. Even though their only 5-3 in conference, they've already played all their tough road games (save for Dartmouth), and get Western, Keene & Eastern all at home in the second half, teams they've had success with in the past
Team with the most to lose in the second half: Eastern. Much like RIC, even though their tied for 1st, they've already played all the good teams at home, and have road games @ RIC @ Keene @ Eastern in the second half, and aside from Keene, Eastern hasn't had much success against either of those other 2 teams
Coach of the year: Bill Geitner. I think you could give it to Rob Colbert up at Keene as well though
Rookie of the year: Can you give rookie of the year to a first year player in the league that's a non rookie?? If that's the case I'd say Michael Jensen should win it, if not Tom Doyle up at Keene is my ROY if the season ended today.
MVP: DaQuan Brooks. I may say he shoots to much, but he makes everyone on the team better, and this is probably a 4th or 5th place team without him.

LECFAN32 · January 25, 2012, 02:22:31 PM

jensen was on the all rookie team in 07-08 so i dont think he would be eligible

if not ..doyle is the early conference favorite, but i like the progress lou bridtter has made

as far brookes goes-if he plays like he did last night he definitely makes other people better. when hs head is up and the passes he makes arent soley for affect and if he doesnt have a shot it makes a huge difference in the way this team plays. continue like that (9 assists to 2 to) and hell run away with poy.
however ryan martin and nick nedwick are both great players and have a shot too. martin has been lights out in every important game they have played, and nedwick has taken the eastern program to never before seen levels this year. does so many things for eastern including defend the best player on the other team. that is definitely NOT the case with some of the other deserving players.

AllStar · January 26, 2012, 08:54:12 PM

No. 18 Eastern Connecticut rebounds from loss to KSC by beating TCNJ, 73-56 on the road.

Tufts clobbers UMass-Boston, 84-60. Jumbos led by 20+ much of the second half.

7express · January 26, 2012, 09:32:33 PM

As expected and predicted Tufts clobbered Boston 84-60. Really don't know how this team beat Plymouth to be perfectly honest. 14 players for Tufts logged 6+ minutes.
Eastern rebounds with a 73-56 win at TCNJ. Nick Nedwick lead Eastern with 18 and they held TCNJ without a double digit scorer (highest total was 8).

Saturday schedule (have predictions tomorrow before I leave for Maine):
Dartmouth @ Plymouth
Boston @ Keene
Eastern @ RIC
Western @ USM. Eastern & RIC is the best game by a country mile.