MBB: Little East

[AllStar]

Tuesday Results
Western Connecticut takes advantage of OT, beating Eastern Connecticut, 82-81.  Brooks had another sensational game.

Keene State puts away Plymouth, 86-71.  Four Owls scored in double-figures.

Rhode Island College suffers tough loss at UMass-Dartmouth, 73-68.

Southern Maine sneaks by UMass-Boston, 77-72.

Updated Standings
1.  KSC        10-1
2.  WCSU      8-3 (2 GB)
     ECSU       8-3 (2 GB)
4.  RIC          7-4 (3 GB)
5.  UMD         5-6 (5 GB)
6.  USM         3-8 (7 GB)
7.  PSU         2-9 (8 GB)
8.  UMB        1-10 (9 GB)

[Pat Coleman]

Video of the game-winner, courtesy Littleeast.tv:
http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2012/02/wrapup-Feb07

[7express]

Video of the game-winner, courtesy Littleeast.tv:
http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2012/02/wrapup-Feb07

Hey, I got on the video storming the court 

[7express]

Tuesday results:

Keene 86-71:
Ryan Martin had 28 to lead Keene to their 9th straight win, and the verge of the LEC championship.  What a game that'll be on Saturday afternoon at the O'Neil.

Western 82-81 over Eastern.
DaQuan Brooks had 48, no one else scored more than 8 which was a problem because if Eastern goes 10-19 from the free throw line instead of 7-19 like they did, Eastern probably wins this game by 5+ in regulation.  Jensen was out for most of the 2nd half, hopefully he's not injured.

USM 77-72.
4 of the 5 Huskies scored in double figures.  With the win and Plymouth loss they vault past Plymouth into the 6 spot and get Plymouth at home next Tuesday.  USM owns the head to head tiebreaker over Boston, so Boston is in effect 3 out with 3 games to play.

RIC with a bad loss at Dartmouth 73-68.
Terrible loss for them.  We can all but forget about them hosting now, and it's entirely possible this could have left them out of the NCAA tournament as well.

One game Thursday and thats Bates @ RIC.  I'll have a prediction later on Wednesday.

Standings:
1) Keene 18-4 (10-1)
2) Western 18-4 (8-3)
2) Eastern 17-5 (8-3)
4) RIC 16-5 (7-4)
5) Dartmouth 11-11 (5-6)
6) USM 10-11 (3-8)
7) Plymouth 7-14 (2-9)
8) Boston 5-17 (1-10)
Western gets the tiebreaker and second bye for the next 4 days due to them being 1-0 against Keene while Eastern is 0-1.

Tournament:
Keene hosts, Western joins them as the 2 seed.  Opens up with USM @ Eastern in the 3/6 game and Dartmouth at RIC in the 4/5 game.

[ECSUalum]

Sure seems like he scored all 82 points.....actually he only had 48, but seems like he either scored or assisted on every West Conn basket from the 8:30 mark to the end of the game.  Btw, I'm sorry, but Eastern totally choked, there's no question about that.  Up 14 I think it was with 8:00 minutes left, up 8 with 2 minutes to go, and still up 6 with a minute left and somehow Western forced OT.  After being punched in the face, Eastern somehow stood up and with a nice basket by Kohn with 4.5 seconds left Gave Eastern the lead....too bad they got beat down the court for the layup at the buzzer, so if your counting at home: Eastern had a 14 point lead at one point, was still up by 8 with 120 seconds to play, up 6 with 60 seconds left, and went up 1 with 4.5 seconds left in OT...yet somehow managed to lose the game.  Eastern shoots 7-19 from the free throw line, and even if they shoot 10-19 (which still would've been an awful percentage mind you), they probably end up winning this game by 5+ in regulation.  Sure DaQuan had a great game as always, but if you hit your free throws, you don't have to worry about overtime, because your already on the bus home with a road W by the time the final buzzer sounded in overtime.  Eastern has no one to blame but themselves for why they lost....their called free throws for a reason, their supposed to be free points.

"CHOKE"  That was the exact word I said to my wife after watching Daquane drive to the basket for the umteenth time, get fouled, and put two more FREE THROWS in, and then watch Eastern miss theirs, ie my last post.  Brooks IS an amazing player!!!  BTW TO's were another frustrating stat for Eastern, and Daquan causes a lot of them as well.  Well.... maybe Eastern needing a wake up call for the tournament, is the only way I can put a positive spin on the disaster last night

[wcsu91]

@ 7Express:  Thanks for all of your input on all of the games. Great game at the O'Neil Center last night. Finally pretty close to a full house. What a home court advantage they had last night. Great to see for WCSU Basketball.
Any idea what is going on with Gates? Saw him last night in street clothes in the stands but surprised he was not on the bench. Still listed on the roster though? Any news? Thanks!!

[7express]

I think he got either suspended/kicked off the team again.  He wasn't with the team @ Dartmouth Saturday.

Hopefully the full house, and student support wasn't because they were giving away free stuff (courtside seating on couches, 3 point shooting contest at halftime, free t-shirts for the students) but BECAUSE the school has a good team, and this was a rivalry game.  We need the same support we did last night for Keene on Saturday.

[ECSUalum]

IMHO, the crowd last night was a huge positive for the Colonials in general and for Brooks in particular. It was a fantastic atmosphere, one I havn't experienced in a long time!! It was evident that at 9 minutes left in the game, Coach Campbell gave Daquan the green light and he put on an unbelievable show, every time he scored the crowd got louder.  All the credit to the WCSU fans for getting out to support the team.  Hopefully if ECSU stays competitive over the next years we will have more of these kind of games, (maybe even Eastern winning a few), both at the O'Neill Center and Geissler Gymnasium.  Its good for the programs, the LEC and the fans watching!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[7express]

Thursday prediction:

Bates 62 @ RIC 67.
Last OOC game for RIC as their final 4 games are LEC teams.  Bates has only 1 game left against NESCAC opponents, whose conference schedule ends Sunday afternoon at the conclusion of the Bates/Hamilton game.  Bates can finish anywhere as high as tied for 3rd, and as low as tied as 7th depending on results in NESCAC action this week.  Bates has the advantage because they have conference game in hand over their competition (they have 9 NESCAC games while Tufts, Wesleyan, Bowdoin, and Williams all have 8) so while those teams all play 2 conference games this weekend to get up to 10, Bates only plays 1.  Likewise, the Bates game is Sunday, while everything else is Friday and Saturday, so Bates will know what they have to accomplish by the time they tip off at 2:00 PM Sunday afternoon.  For RIC, this is the start of 3 home games the final 4 games, lone road game being Saturday @ USM.

Massey prediction: RIC 69-54 (94%)

[ECSUalum]

http://www.courant.com/sports/college/hc-eastern-western-0208-20120207,0,6612184.story

[7express]

http://www.courant.com/sports/college/hc-eastern-western-0208-20120207,0,6612184.story

I love Geitner's quote, "He's fun to watch [for fans]. He's fun to watch on tape. He's fun to watch when I'm scouting. Tonight for 45 minutes, for me, he was not fun to watch." 
I'm sure the other 6 coaches in the league agree 100% with him.

[7express]

Hopefully the regional rankings come out soon.  I have to leave at 4:40 to sit in a 5 hour class, so would like to see the rankings before I leave, especially since I don't think my phone is capable of finding them on-line 

[7express]

For anyone that cares, here's my predictions for the rest of the season:

Keene loses to Western & RIC, beats Eastern, finishes 11-3 in conference
Western beats Keene & Plymouth, loses to RIC, finishes 10-4 in conference
Eastern beats Dartmouth & Boston, loses to Keene, finishes 10-4 in conference
RIC beats USM, Western & Keene, finishes 10-4 in conference
Dartmouth beats Boston & USM, loses to Eastern finishes 7-7
USM beats Plymouth, loses to RIC and Dartmouth finishes 4-10
Plymouth beats Boston, loses to USM and Western finishes 3-11
Boston loses to Plymouth, Dartmouth and Eastern finishes 1-13.

I'm still trying to figure out the 3 way tiebreakers, but I believe (don't quote me on this however) they first take the record of the 3 or more teams involved, compare the results, take out anyone with a superior winning%, and work from there.  If no one has a superior winning%, they start at the top and work down.  In this case, each team would be 1-1 against the other, so Western would get the 2 seed based on their 2 wins against Keene (RIC would be 1-1, Eastern 0-2), RIC would be the 3 seed (1-1 vs. Keene/Eastern 0-2) and that leaves Eastern as the 4.  Keene is still in control of this thing however, and would need a monumental collapse to give this away, however their schedule certainly has that possibility.  Even losing @ Western Saturday, they still have control of it, but winning that game would for all intents and purposes end the race; at that point the only team able to catch them would be Eastern.  Dartmouth pretty much has the stranglehold on 5th place; they'd need RIC to collapse to move up (possible with the schedule they have), and would need USM to pretty much win out to fall to 6th (possible, but doubtful.  USM has it pretty easy the rest of the way; RIC at home, and Dartmouth is certainly beatable, even on the road).

[pjunito]

Regional Rankings...... Week 1.

Northeast
1 Amherst 18-2 20-2
2 Middlebury 18-1 20-1
3 Rhode Island College 16-4 16-4
4 Western Connecticut 17-4 17-4
5 WPI 16-4 16-4
6 Eastern Connecticut 17-4 17-4
7 MIT 20-1 20-1
8 Keene State 14-3 17-4
9 Wesleyan (Conn.) 17-4 17-5
10 Tufts 16-6 16-6
11 Becker 16-4 16-4
12 Albertus Magnus 20-1 20-1

Maybe the people simply pick out of a hat.  But, there is no way Albertus should be number 12.....

[7express]

Rankings out:
Ric 3rd, Western 4th, Eastern 6th Keene 8th (wtf??).  Really Keene 8th, Albertus 12th and RIc 3rd??  I know the Northeast was going to be a pain to rank, but did that draw straws, or pick names out of a hat??
Here's the New England list:
Northeast
1 Amherst 18-2 20-2
2 Middlebury 18-1 20-1
3 Rhode Island College 16-4 16-4
4 Western Connecticut 17-4 17-4
5 WPI 16-4 16-4
6 Eastern Connecticut 17-4 17-4
7 MIT 20-1 20-1
8 Keene State 14-3 17-4
9 Wesleyan (Conn.) 17-4 17-5
10 Tufts 16-6 16-6
11 Becker 16-4 16-4
12 Albertus Magnus 20-1 20-1

I think Albertus most definitely needs to win the GNAC tournament.  If they lose to St. Joes or J&W (really playing well) in the tournament, I'd be extremely nervous if I were them on Monday afternoon.  I thought Keene was in the best spot for a pool C bid if the season ended today, but 8 in the East seems scray.  Usually that 6 to 8 spot is the cutoff line between teams in and out of the field.  Last year Western was 6th in the final rankings and eastern was 7th IIRC; Western was one of the last teams in (if not final selection), and Eastern was one of the first out.  Had they been swapped, chances are Eastern's in, Western's out.    Really think RIC & Keene should be swapped, your really telling me RIC (who's in 4th a whole 3 games behind Keene and who lost the only meeting) is in better spot for a bid right now then Keene who's leading one of the top conferences in D-3 by a whole 2 games AND who gave Middlebury their only loss of the season??