MBB: Little East

[WPI89]

Wow, no love for the Northeast - at least relative to d3hoops.  Never heard of them either - would be interesting to get a hold of their pre-season poll from last year.  I will see if I can find it.

[ECSUalum]

Wow, no love for the Northeast - at least relative to d3hoops.  Never heard of them either - would be interesting to get a hold of their pre-season poll from last year.  I will see if I can find it.

Yea,  WPI, with MIT @ #16..... not sure ECSU should be in the top 25... both rankings a little nutty!!!!!  But we will see.  Good Luck to WPI this year!!

[magicman]

A lot of regulars that have been posters on D3hoops for quite a while don't really consider DIII News to be that great of a publication. Usually there are a number of comments relating to this publication and most of them are not all that favorable. They've been around for 20 or so years and also post their preseason and end of the year All American teams.  Last year they had 5 All American Teams and a lenghty list of Honorable Mentions at season's end. I suppose any publication that writes about D3 sports is good (the more the merrier) but D3hoops is a far superior place to get your d3 fix and you don't have to pay to get it.

[LECFAN32]

Yea, its interesting to see some of those teams listed..including eastern, seems like they are purely listed by how the team finished last season..Farmingdale, although talented with an all america type big, plays a terrible schedule (similar to cabrini)...willy p is talented on paper, but proved to completely implode last season, and is a revolving door like western.

speaking of which-
western going to f n m this weekend is a great early test, they should get by penn state harrisburg, then meet the #6 team in the country in their second game of the season in a hostile gym..exciting oppurtunity for the players, but with the amount of turnover on this team this year, itll be an uphill battle. if memory serves me right, f n m returns a great deal of talent outside of their point guard who was a great player, so that may keep western in it ( although with a program like that, coach robinson has probably had a starting pg being groomed to take over for years), as I recall the big guy with the soft touch who killed wcsu in the tourney, the rangy wing who gave brooks a ton of trouble, and the long athletic forward from my neck of the woods (westechester), all return. really curious to see the starting lineup/subbing pattern to start the year

according to easterns roster it appears most of the freshman are walk on players, anybody share any light on them besides the big guy, who appears to be a long way off from contributing according to my research.

[magicman]

Yea, its interesting to see some of those teams listed..including eastern, seems like they are purely listed by how the team finished last season

Which is what DIII News seems to do just about every year for their preseason predictions. Leads one to believe that not a whole lot of research is put into choosing their selections.

western going to f n m this weekend is a great early test, they should get by penn state harrisburg, then meet the #6 team in the country in their second game of the season in a hostile gym.

And if things fall the right way then Franklin & Marshall will take on Eastern Connecticut in the 2nd game of F & M's Sponaugle New Year tournament on Jan. 3rd. You're right, the Diplomats do return a lot of talent from last year's team that was denied a trip to the Final Four when they lost to MIT in the sectionals. My local team, Plattsburgh State will meet F & M on Jan.2nd while Eastern will match up against Salisbury. The winners play the next night and I'm hoping it's Plattsburgh State that Eastern will meet, (I'm fairly confident that Eastern will win the game against Salisbury) but my Cardinals will have their work cut out for them against the Diplomats. Plattsburgh will get an idea of how they might fare as they take on #4 Middlebury on Nov. 25th and then travel to face Keene State on Dec. 4th. Plattsburgh doesn't have a single senior on their 16 man roster so next year could be our year, but I like our team this year and feel we'll hold our own against most teams.

[7express]

western going to f n m this weekend is a great early test, they should get by penn state harrisburg, then meet the #6 team in the country in their second game of the season in a hostile gym..

If I recall, that's a 3 day, 3 team tournament and each team plays each other no matter if you win or lose.  Harrisburg & F&M play Friay, Harrisburg & Western play Saturday, Western & F&M play Sunday.  Last I saw of that was in mid October, however, so they may have added a 4th team, not sure though.

[magicman]

western going to f n m this weekend is a great early test, they should get by penn state harrisburg, then meet the #6 team in the country in their second game of the season in a hostile gym..

If I recall, that's a 3 day, 3 team tournament and each team plays each other no matter if you win or lose.  Harrisburg & F&M play Friay, Harrisburg & Western play Saturday, Western & F&M play Sunday.  Last I saw of that was in mid October, however, so they may have added a 4th team, not sure though.

7express you are correct.

[ECSUalum]

D3Hoops PreSeason Poll:

ECSU 54 pts
Keene St 23 pts
RIC 2 pts

LEC Preseason Poll:
Keene St 62 pts
RIC 54 pts
Eastern 48 pts

[7express]

LEC preseason poll: http://littleeast.com/sports/mbkb/2012-13/news/20111213-mbkb-preseasonpoll

I had Western & Eastern swapped but can see why Eastern is 3 Western is 4th.  Dartmouth is way to high, and USM is way to low, imo.  Unless Dartmouth has a couple big transfers in, I'd like to see what the coaches know about Dartmouth that I don't.  What I know about them is they sucked last year (they lost all but 1 game they played against the 4 teams that finished above them) and they graduated their 3 best players.

Also, btw in the article it states all 8 teams make the playoffs again, so there goes the bye which we've seen the last couple.  LEC fan would know more, but I beleive 2008-09 was the last time all 8 qualifed for the LEC tournament.  And since the semi's and finals will still be at the highest remaining seed, not much difference between finishing 2nd & 3rd now, so let's see how that impacts the final week if at all.

[7express]

Approaching 53 hours until the season starts and the Western men still have no roster up (however the women do).  I'm gonna have to get the Albertus game an hour early and look at the program for that hour to find out who's who.

[ECSUalum]

Bob Molta's excellent interview with Coach Geitner today on the 2012/13 season and recap of last year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYbj83AsqCI&feature=plcp

Some one on this thread mentioned the ECSU freshman class was all walk on!!!   It is obvious from this interview, Coach did well with his recruited class, only problem is a few need to get through some injuries.
In my view, if Mike Garrow comes out rocking and rolling, and with leadership from Robitaille and Ives, the coaching of Geitner, and the sharpshooting from Salzillo,(barring major injuries), Eastern will be very very competitive this year.  I think you have to give the edge to Keene State with Martin and their returnees, and you can never underestimate RIC and WCSU.  Every game in the LEC will be tight this year, especially, because of the ongoing competitivenness of the LEC.

[7express]

RIC 73 @ LaSell 66.
LaSell was 13-14 last season, but aside from winning @ Brandeis opening night and losing @ RIC by 3 later in November, they got crushed against every other good team they played.  Lost by 34 to Amherst & 24 to WPI, lost twice to St. Joes by 15 & 16, lost to Keene by 28, lost twice to Johnson & Wales by 15 and 16 and got swept by Albertus (lost 3 games by an average of 13.6 points).  I said this was a 3 point margin @ the Murray Center last year and RIC usually struggles to open the year, but I have to see LaSell be a competitive against a good team.  You don't have to win every game, but at least show up.  I say they'll at least put up a fight, but RIC pulls through

Keene 79 @ Husson 76.
This is what I wrote about Keene when I previewed their schedule way back on August 21: "Interesting. I think that first game up at Husson could be a slip up game. Maine team's are notoriously tough at home and that's a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG trip up there to Bangor, Maine, especially where they are given their location in Southwestern New Hampshire. Then they have WPI, Elms and Springfield before their first conference game."  Keene is absolute dog in spots like this.  In 2011 after beating Western, they proceded to give up 106 points the next game at home against Dartmouth.   That same year they gave up 95 to Western New England who only had 1 win coming in, and who's highest point total before that game was 77, and who only went aboe 80 twice that season (the 95 they scored on the Owls and 81 they scored on Colby-Sawyer in the final game of the season).  Let it be known WNEC only tallied 80+ once in 2011-12 (83 on Endicott) so the 95 they've scored on Keene is the only time they've gone above 85 in the last 2 seasons, and Keene ended 2010-11 by getting outscored 14-0 the final 2:24 in a home ECAC game against Brandeis turning a 7 point lead with 2:20 to go into a 7 point loss at the end of regulation.  However, that same year they were able to sweep Western in the regular season, the only LEC team thats done that the last 2 years.
Keene didn't stop plying like dogs at the conclusion of 10-11, it continued into 2011-12 and almost turned into one of the most embarrassing losses in LEC history.  About 48 hours after beating Middlebury who was #1 and unbeaten at the time, Keene takes a little drive across the Connecticut River and across Vermont to play St. Joseph's of Vermont a tiny little USCAA school that competetes against the likes of Eastern Maine Community College, New Hampshire Technical college, Hampshire College (a team that lost by 132!!!!!!!!!! & 99 points last season), and Paul Smith's a forestry school in the middle of the Adirondeck state park up near Lake Placid in upstate, NY.   It's obvious nobody cares about St. Joseph's athletics.......................because I couldn't find a thing on their athletics page.  No roster, no schedule. no stats, absolutely NOTHING.  I had to go the conference website to find stats about them.  Even high school teams have more up-to-date athletics statistics.  But here's little ole St. Joes beating up the big bad LEC bully by 16 at halftime is still leading by 16 with 7:50 to play.  Keene has to outscore this USCAA team 31-14 the final 7:53 to avoid becoming probably the first team and last if it had happen to go from beating a #1 team in January to losing to a team with no athletics website 48 hours later.  Say what you will about an emotion high, emotional let down, there is now way a team that beats Middlebury should be trailing a USCAA school with less then a minute to play.  Also that season: gave up 182 total points in 2 Florida games to a D-3 team with an awful Athletics program (Mount St. Vincent) and an NAIA school (Nova Southeastern), and gave up 90+ points in back to back LEC games.  What they did right though: Came from down 10 with 3:43 to play and down 4 with 14 seconds left to stun RIC, beat Middlebury, and went from January 10 to February 11 without a loss.  Then they preceded to lose their last 3 games and blow a 2 game lead with 3 games to go in the process.  Now that they have the bulleye and the leagues best player we'll see if they can avoid these nap time games this year.  if they can't its gonna be another dissapointing season up in Keene
Let it be know the ONLY reason I'm actually picking Keene to win (and really wouldn't be at all shocked if they lose because it what they do in games like this) is because this is their first game.  If they had swapped WPI & this game (played WPI today & @ Husson Saturday) Husson would win easily, imo.

[AllStar]

7express:

First off, Nova Southeastern is a D-II NCAA team.  And, secondly, the last time I looked, the results from 2 years ago and last year have absolutely no bearing on what will happen this coming season.

[LECFAN32]

ECSUalum

I mentioned the walkons based on what their own updated profiles said on the website, seemed like alot for a coach who has done a great job of plugging need in the last few years as opposed to overecruiting. I think your right Garrow will be an all-lec guy, same with robataille, salzillo will establish himself as the top shooter in the conference, I love geitners offense although very structured, it puts guys in spots where they can succeed, and really teaches the small details of the game at the same time. very pleasing to watch for basketball junkies.

Regarding the preseason poll, I would have flip flopped eastern n ric, if we are going off of previous success and what a team is returning on paper, I think the warriors are the better team at the moment, end of the year this may change as ric usually peeks towards febuary. UMD, could have been much better but had alot of recuits not pan out, babptiste can coach and recruit, expect to see some new faces there as always.

Western roster is always very late to be put up because the tryout process is drawn out and literally will go on through the second scrimmage which just happened, (heard it didnt go well at all from reliable source, selfish play etc, not surprised for the time of year) the colonials do use the over-recruiting tactic, figuring that half the guys wont come. After a few weeks of practice they have figured out who they want, but at that point will try n decipher who will be eligible after the first semester. Pretty tense time for the younger players, especially those out of state, many schools do it this way.

Magic,

F n m is a great division 3 program, and is always very discipline and talented, those guys all buy in, so plattsburgh should get a good look from them. They have some young talent right? I coached one of the sophomores for 3 years, good kid, and talented, just got some bad advice so I think ending up there was disapointing to him, another quality prgram that brings in talent (same high school coach, so after i got done playing, went back to my hs), played my first year at cortland so a bit familiar with the program and league.

[7express]

7express:

First off, Nova Southeastern is a D-II NCAA team.  And, secondly, the last time I looked, the results from 2 years ago and last year have absolutely no bearing on what will happen this coming season.

I know it doesn't but Keene has been absolutely awful the last 2 years against teams with less talent then they do.