MBB: Little East

[ECSUalum]

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.

LECFan,

Great post, thanks for the comments, I am hoping Coach Geitner and the Warriors will consistantly become one of the top teams in the LEC , I think they have the coach to do it but only time will tell!!

[7express]

In honor of the season, my 5 best LEC games from last season.  Note, there were better games (USM vs. Plymouth comes to mind), but I based my selections solely based on what games were achived on LEC TV.  Since Plymouth doesn't broadcast their games on-line, a game that gets to double OT with shots beating the regulation & first OT buzzer beater doesn't make the cut.
Sorry ECSUalum and Warrior for my first pick, but since Eastern ended up winning the conference & LEC tournament, you can probably enjoy my first pick a lot more now then you could back then.

1) Eastern Connecticut @ Western Connecticut February 7, 2011: http://www.littleeast.tv/play/index.cfm?fuseaction=embstay&id=261FB45AF6
The DaQuan Brooks show the last 10:00 minutes of the game an overtime.  Western won on a Gary Robinson basket as time expired in overtime after a perfect pass from Brooks.
2) Southern Maine @ Boston, January 17, 2011: http://www.littleeast.tv/play/index.cfm?fuseaction=embstay&id=2816F85D6D
John Sewell hit a long 3 as the regulation buzzer sounded to get the Huskies their first conference win of the season.
3) Eastern Connecticut @ Keene state February 14, 2011: http://www.littleeast.tv/play/index.cfm?fuseaction=embstay&id=29187EC049
The largest lead for either team was 8 point.  After missing 7 of 19 free throws a week earlier, Eastern hit 7 of 8 down the stretch including 4-4 from Chris Robitaile to seal the win.  Ryan Martin missed the game winner.
4) Keene state @ Eastern Connecticut (LEC semifinal) February 24, 2011: http://www.littleeast.tv/play/index.cfm?fuseaction=embstay&id=2A238B30AA
Eastern won by 5 in double OT on their way to the LEC championship.  Nick Nedwick forced the first OT after nailing a 3 with 30 seconds to play, and Chris Robitaile made sure there was a second OT hitting a layup with 1 second left to play. 
5) Keene state @ Western Connecticut February 11, 2011: http://www.littleeast.tv/play/index.cfm?fuseaction=embstay&id=2916D96C24
Not pretty if your a defense-minded fan as the halftime score was 61-55, IIRC, but both teams were able to score at will.  All 5 of Keene's starters scored in double figures lead by Martin's 28 and DaQuan Brooks had 37 for a game high.  Western won by 3 in overtime mainly in part to Shawn Mobilio's 19 points off the bench (4-6 from 3).

[magicman]

Keene St. defeats Husson 90-78 to open their season.

[AllStar]

Nice road win for Keene State...outscored Husson by 27 after falling behind by 15 early to win by 12.

RIC up 8 with about 8 1/2 minutes left at Lasell.

[7express]

I knew it.  I'm surprised they won by double figures though.  Hopefully for them it isn't a sign of things to come this year, the competition really steps up on Saturday.  They can't afford to fall behind by 15 to WPI on Saturday and expect to win.
RIC won 72-63.  They had 4 starters in double figures lead by Mike Neal with a team high 12.  They held Lasell to 5-27 from 3.

[7express]

Friday schedule:

Plymouth 62 @ Bridgewater 65.
Bridgewater is replacing its top 3 scorers off a team that finished 16-12 last year and made the ECAC semifinals.  3 of Bridgewater's first 4 games will be against LEC opponents (they play @ RIC November 20 and host Dartmouth the 27th).  Becker vs. Springfield is the 2nd game in this tournament in what is probably the de-facto championship, especially if Becker wins.
WNEC 55 @ Eastern 70.
After finishing the 07-08 season 16-11, WNEC has gone 34-68 the last 4 seasons.  Clark vs. Bowdoin is the second game of this tournament.
Wheaton 62 @ Dartmouth 70.
Trinity vs. Worcester state is the first game of this tournament at 5:30.

[LECFAN32]

not a great performance for keene or ric imo, especially keene giving up 78 pts to a team in a far less competitve conference, who has had success but, with the type of talent the owls return, they should have been amped to come out and blow a lesser team out of the water.

wpi is still very young and bigger then husson, but not as talented as keene, think martin has a big day, feeds wright as well and keene continues to play to the level of the competition except this time in a positive way and comes up with the win.

ric isnt a finished product at this time so its tough to say they played badly vs a mediocre lasell team who loves to put points up but doesnt really guard anybody or have much productive size. looking for carter to have a huge year, as well as (insert juco transfer/freshman/all state rhode island player from 5 years ago here)

[WPI89]

Look forward to a great early test for both WPI and Keene tomorrow.  Really interesting match-up.  Not really sure what WPI will be this year?  Coach Bartley has been able to do a great job the last 6+ years of re-loading but this year's WPI team is as young as possible - I think starting a freshman, 3 sophs, and a junior - and only 1 senior playing any minutes at all.

WPI's video feed is usually well done - "see" you guys there and good luck.

[ECSUalum]

Look forward to a great early test for both WPI and Keene tomorrow.  Really interesting match-up.  Not really sure what WPI will be this year?  Coach Bartley has been able to do a great job the last 6+ years of re-loading but this year's WPI team is as young as possible - I think starting a freshman, 3 sophs, and a junior - and only 1 senior playing any minutes at all.

WPI's video feed is usually well done - "see" you guys there and good luck.

Keene state will have to improve on team D if they expect to take the LEC this year, ie 78 points vs a Husson team, (15-13 last year), needs to improve. Husson averaged 77 ppg last year.  I know its only the first game, but as a contrast ECSU averaged around 60 ppg while Keene St, 73 ppg, (5th in LEC), in 2011/12 season.   I know Coach Colbert wanted to improve the D this year, so far, so bad!

[ECSUalum]

 ECSU 62 WNEU 34
                    WNE                Ecsumb
Field goals    15-59 25.4%   23-49 46.9%
3-point FGs    2-19 10.5%   10-20 50.0%
Free throws    2-6 33.3%   6-12 50.0%
Reb (O-D)     27 (11-16)   46 (12-34)
Turnovers      11                   19
Last FG         2nd-00:09   2nd-02:55
Large lead none   33 (2nd-02:55

As seen by the score ECSU with smothering defense on a team that averaged 63 ppg last year. 5 Warrior freshman got playing time
Mike Garrow leads all with 15, (two reverse dunks which captivated the large crowd at Geissler Gym!!!) Brian Salzillo with 12 (4-9 on 3's), Had a chance to watch big man Darryl Best who looked confident with 2 massive rejections, and Trachone Preston who played with excellent poise for a freshman.  Both guys will be impact players by next year!!

[7express]

Sat schedule:
Becker 85 vs. Plymouth 67 (@ Bridgewater).
Panthers lost to the host school by 6, Becker lost in overtime by 2 to Springfield.  I don't think Becker will have much trouble though.
Brandeis 62 @ RIC 66.
Last year was a dissapointing season for Brandeis limping ahead with a 13-12 overall and 7-7 UAA record.  RIC has already played a game so they got the jitters out while this is Brandeis first game.  That and the fact this is in the Murray Center and RIC gets a slight edge.
Boston 88 vs. Franciscian 46 (@ Owings Mills, MD)
Franciscian is bad.  0-24 last year, 4-21 in 2010-11, have lost 28 of their last 29 games.  if Boston can't beat them by double digits, something is wrong.
Clark 57 @ Eastern 64.
Brian Vayda hit a game winning 3 to beat Bowdoin in the semifinal Friday.  if Vayda plays last year against Western, Clark probably wins that game (as it is they lost by 3).  If you can keep him in check, you'll win and Eastern will do just that.  Vayda had 24 of Clark's 55 points and scored their final 11 points of the game.  No chance that happens against Eastern.
Southern Maine 79 vs. Maine-Maritime 35 (@ Maine-Presque Isle.
Any team that loses by 36 to Presque Isle like Maritime did Friday, I can't take seriously.  Maritime is coming off a 2-22 season and is taking an 18 game losing streak into this game with their last win coming last December 9.  Side bet, which team wins by more points: Boston or USM??  Right now I have Boston by 42 and USM by 44.  If there's any takers for this bet, closet person gets a +karma Sunday night when I get back from Salem.
WPI 73 @ Keene 77.
Probably the best game of the day.  WPI isn't as talented as they were a year ago, but Keene really needs to step up their defense.   Keene gets the edge at home, but really wouldn't be surprised to see WPI win.
Western 73 vs. Penn state-Harrisburg 69 (@ Franklin & Marshall).
Wasn't as easy as I first thought it was.  Harrisburg finished 20-7 last year and brings back 4 of their top 6 scorers from a year ago including Steve Jones who averaged 16.6 ppg from last season.  This team stinks against guys that can score in bunches, and as a team still a work in progress.  I can't see them beating F&M Sunday no matter how well they play this game, so would be nice to get 1 win down there.
Trinity 69 @ Dartmouth 67.
A dog performance.  Even though Wheaton probably has more talent (at least now) how do you lose at home to the 4th or 5th best NEWMAC team??  Trinity shot 58.6% from the floor and scored 84 regulation points (lost by 10 in overtime), is Dartmouth gonna be able to hold them??

[ECSUalum]

ECSU drops their Tip Off Tournament Championship to Clark 75-64 in a relatively close contest.  Salzillo deadly again from 3, (6-12) leading all in scoring with 20 points, with Garrow and Robitaille each with 14.  Bailey and Vayda led Clark with 16 each.  Difference in game were TO's, (16-8) and FT%, (75%-54%).  Eastern needs to protect the ball and spend some time on the FT line in practice.  Clark had slight edge in rebounding 33-31.
Coach Geitner played freshman Best and Preston again for a few minites.

I personally think Ives and Garrow need to drive the base line a bit more and draw the fouls as they are both excellent free throw shooters.

[7express]

Western leads Harrisburg 49-40 at halftime.

[7express]

WPI leads Keene 60-47 with about 8:20 left.  Their defense is awful so far.

[7express]

Sunday schedule (btw I'm writing this from my iPhone so excuse any typos):

USM 76 @ Presque Isle 62.
Not as easy as Maritime but Huskies should still get it done.

Boston 76 vs Stevenson 65 (@ Owings Mills, MD).
Another bad team but the 87-71 win over Franciscian wasn't too good.

Western 61 @ Franklin & Marsall 72.
Really not expecting much in this game.