MBB: Little East

[ECSUalum]

First of all congrats to Cabrini in attaining Elite8 status.  Eastern had a rough game tonight but an outstanding season!!  Congrats to Coach Geitner, the seniors, Nick, Jamie, Chae, and Ham, and the rest of the Warriors.  Will be looking forward to next season to see how Salzillo and Yarborough develop, and see who steps up to fill the shoes of the other Seniors.

[warrior]

Tough loss, but a GREAT season - first ever LEC regular season title, first ever league and tournament title in the same year, most wins (24), highest national ranking (18th), most league wins (11), most 20 wins seasons in a row (3), .... just so much to be thankful for!

Now it's up to juniors Garrow, Robataille, Ives, and Hundley to lead the next group to another great year!  Needless to say, Keene and the rest of the LEC will be TOUGH as always, but, like I always say, I wouldn't count us out!

Thanks all for adding to the fun of this great season!
Warrior

[7express]

unfortunately it came to an end, but great season for the Warriors.  It's too bad with Middlebury losing on in the day Eastern would've had a great chance to represent the LEC in the final 4 but sounds like they started slow and could never catch up.  We'll see how Eastern does replacing Nedwick, Kohn, and Ham next year, but great season for them none-the-less, and an even better career for those 4 seniors.

[ECSUalum]

unfortunately it came to an end, but great season for the Warriors.  It's too bad with Middlebury losing on in the day Eastern would've had a great chance to represent the LEC in the final 4 but sounds like they started slow and could never catch up.  We'll see how Eastern does replacing Nedwick, Kohn, and Ham next year, but great season for them none-the-less, and an even better career for those 4 seniors.

Hey 7, Hope we can continue to have great cross state games like at the O'Neill Center this past Feb.  Even though ECSU lost it was a great game to be part of.  Hope to see you over on the baseball side!!!  Keep us posted on Daquan!!

[ECSUalum]

Tough loss, but a GREAT season - first ever LEC regular season title, first ever league and tournament title in the same year, most wins (24), highest national ranking (18th), most league wins (11), most 20 wins seasons in a row (3), .... just so much to be thankful for!

Now it's up to juniors Garrow, Robataille, Ives, and Hundley to lead the next group to another great year!  Needless to say, Keene and the rest of the LEC will be TOUGH as always, but, like I always say, I wouldn't count us out!

Thanks all for adding to the fun of this great season!
Warrior

Warrior,
Ditto all your remarks, hope we continue to see you here next year!!!
Best of luck to Jamie in his future endeavors, Just a great young man, he will do well!!!!!!!!!!!!

[WCSUFan14]

Congrats to Eastern on an outstanding season! Nice run they had in the NCAA tourney! Hope that the LEC continues to make as much noise as it did this year for years to come! Hoping to have another great year of bball next year with the top 4 teams Western,Eastern,RIC, and Keene. Congrats to all the teams this year and hopefully an even better next year!

[7express]

Congrats to DaQuan Brooks who was named first team all region once again this year: http://www.d3hoops.com/awards/all-region/2011-12/northeast-men

Vinny Delucia of Boston was named the rookie of the year and Nick Nedwick and Mike Akinrola made 3rd team all region.  I would've found a way to put Ryan Martin on that list, but he should be there next year especially considering how many on that list are seniors (Noel Hollingsworth of MIT is a senior but he has 1 more year of eligibility left which he'll probably use next year).

[ECSUalum]

Congratuations Nick Nedwick and Coach Bill Geitner!!!!

KANSAS CITY, Mo. --  Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball guard Nick Nedwick (Irvington, NY) has become the second player in program history - first in 19 seasons -- to be selected to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-Northeast District Team.
The 6-foot-1 inch, 185 pound  Nedwick was one of 11 All-Northeast District selections, as voted upon by the NABC coaches in the Northeast District.  He was one of five second-team selections. Six players were named to the first team and will move on to NABC All-America consideration.
Additionally honored was Eastern tenth-year head coach Bill Geitner (143-128), who was named Northeast District Coach-of-the-Year - the first such Eastern coach to receive the honor.

[7express]

DaQuan Brooks going down to Salem to play in the all-star game which will take place before the D-3 championship game:
http://wcsu.edu/sports/MBasketball/NewsStories/mbBrooksNABCAllStarGame031312.html

[7express]

Congrats to DaQuan Brooks, who on Thursday was named a first team all-american.  Ray Askew of Albertus named to the 3rd team.
http://wcsu.edu/sports/MBasketball/NewsStories/mbBrooksNABCAllAmerican031512.html

[ECSUalum]

Congrats to DaQuan Brooks, who on Thursday was named a first team all-american.  Ray Askew of Albertus named to the 3rd team.
http://wcsu.edu/sports/MBasketball/NewsStories/mbBrooksNABCAllAmerican031512.html

Ditto that!!!!

[7express]

DaQuan Brooks 3rd team all-American: http://d3hoops.com/awards/all-americans/men/2012

[ECSUalum]

Final D-III D3hoops.com men's Top 25, final
Through end of 2011-12 season:

#      School (1st votes)     Rec Pts Prev.
1 UW-Whitewater (25)       29-4 625 8
2 Cabrini                          31-2 600 5
3 Illinois Wesleyan             23-8 551 --
4 MIT                              29-2 543 3
5 Virginia Wesleyan            27-4 489 6
6 Hope                            27-2 469 1
7 Franklin and Marshall       28-3 467 9
8 Amherst                        26-3 458 2
9 Middlebury                     26-4 431 4
10 Whitworth                   26-4 406 7
11 Wittenberg                  24-7 340 22
12 Wooster                      26-5 319 15
13 Wheaton (Ill.)               23-7 261 24
14 Eastern Connecticut       24-6 234 21
15 Scranton                      23-8 204 --
16 North Central (Ill.)          22-8 191 23
17 Oswego State               26-4 189 14
18 Mary Hardin-Baylor         25-3 173 10
19 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 25-3 157 11
20 Albertus Magnus            28-2 150 16
21 Birmingham-Southern      25-3 149 13
22 Washington U.               20-7 104 19
23 Staten Island                25-5 101 --
24 William Paterson             24-4 90 12
25 UW-River Falls               20-8 62 17

Dropped out: No. 18 Transylvania, No. 20 Bethany, No. 25 Christopher Newport

Others receiving votes: St. Thomas 59; Transylvania 45; UW-Stevens Point 41; Western Connecticut 40; Edgewood 24; Rhode Island College 23; Trinity (Texas) 19; Bethany 18; Hobart 16; Christopher Newport 14; New York University 13; Farmingdale State 10; Becker 9; St. Mary's (Md.) 9; Wabash 5; Lake Forest 4; WPI 3; Augustana 2; Carroll 2; Ohio Wesleyan 2; Hartwick 2; Castleton State 1; Rose-Hulman 1.

Basketball poll

[LECFAN32]

Early recruiting news from Western as it appears coach campbell will be looking to reload asap in terms of two transfers from the danbury area.

6'3 wing from central ct. who walked on to the team for 2 years

6'5 pf who was a scholarship player at southern ct and redshirted this passed year

both impact players at the LEC level, still early, but these two appear to be solid in their decisions.

[7express]

Around campus the other day I ran into Shawn Mobillio as I was going to register for the fall semester.  He was with a kid from Cheshire who Shawn said was going to be playing next year.  Granted, still early, but Keene state looks to be the team to beat for next season, by a landslide.   Here's what I see for next year and I'll make predictions later:
USM & Boston should be improved, but not enough to make a big dent in the standings
Plymouth looks to be in neutral.  Depending how USM and or Boston end up they may or may not make tournament
Dartmouth will take a step back with the losses of Colin Burns, Lance Greene and Paul Rose
You never know what's going to happen to RIC.  Last year was probably the worst season they've had in 7 years and they lose their 2 best players.  If this was any other team I'd say they'd fall hard based on what I just said, but this is RIC a team that up until this last season had either won the league regular season or the LEC tournament in 6 straight seasons, and last year got to the championship game in a "rebuilding" year by their standards.
Eastern loses some valuable pieces: Kohn, Nedwick, Phillips & Ham Levy will be huge losses for them, but getting Garrow back from his injury should fill a void and Brian Salzillio came up huge at the stretch run for the Warriors last year.  Tyler Hundley should play better next year.  Not entirely in bad shape, but I would've liked to have at least 1 of: Kohn, Levy, Nedwick back.
Western has the worst loss of anyone with DaQuan Brooks graduating school (though I'm sure the LEC coaches [minus Campbell] are THRILLED he's gone).  Not only was he the best player in the conference (rookie of the year player of the year his sophmore through junior seasons) whenever he was on the court he made everyone around him better because the conf coaches would double/triple/quadruple team (just look at the Eastern win back in February).  Mark Redding will be an underrated loss; he didn't stuff the stat sheet but he rebounded when he had too, played defense when he had too and scored points when he had too.  Gary Robinson, even as a big was a great 3 point shooter.  Probably him & Brooks the 2 best 3 point shooters on the team.  Michael Kennedy encommpased the last of the 4/5 starting 5 and the big guy in the middle.  I say Briddter has to put some muscle in the off-season if he truly wants to be a 5, otherwise teams will just pound him all over the paint next year.  I'm really not expecting much for next season, no matter who we bring in.  Just losing a player like Brooks would've been bad enough, but when you take out 80% of the starting 5, that's tough.  What the girls team did this past year (4th place finish/semifinal appearance) would be a success for the guys in 12-13.
Keene state.  I look for Ryan Martin to get the DaQuan Brooks treatment next season, and he'll be the best player in the conference next year by a country mile with the 2 that blocked his way this year (brooks and Nedwick) out of the league.  I don't think Martin gets any 50 point games or high 40's like Brooks got, but I think Martin can definitely get into the 40's.  Only problem I have with Keene is that ever since I've been a Western they have been severe underachievers.  Even last year (even though the conf picked them 2nd I had them 4th) they STILL couldn't close out a 2 game conference lead with 3 to play.  That and the fact they play no defense which they'll have to improve on if they want to damage, and with the team they have, they certainly can do damage.

How I'd rank them now (on May 9):
1) Keene














2) RIC
3) Eastern




4) Western
5) USM
6) Dartmouth
7) Plymouth
8) Boston.