MBB: Little East

[7express]

Harrisburg leads 81-76 with 1:19 left

[7express]

Western loses 85-77.
Btw, an error in my earlier post when I said Western was leading 49-40 at the half, the score at the half was 49-40 Harrisburg.  F&M live stats had Western CT with the Penn State Nittany Lion athletic logo which got me confused.

[7express]

Keene gets killed by WPI 71-54.  Keene giving up an average of 74.5 ppg this year, not gonna get it done.

[7express]

Western loses to F&M 79-51.  Not shocking, what I expected

[LECFAN32]

not shocked by the f n m game, diplomats are as high level of a div. 3 program under glenn robinson as you can get, bringing in high level talent and playing with great discipline for 30 plus years.. this western team will take some time, as they often do, to find their identity, they have the talent i stand by that statement. whats surprising to me is the harrisburg loss, even without an identity that looks terrible..

looks like wpi played very well and dominated the game from start to finish, one of the starters for wpi was heavily recruited by western and a holy cross graduate forward ryan kolb..

believe  is back in action looking for their first win vs albertus magnus on tuesday, although not the same team as last years gnac champ still a talented group. this team needs some tough love and more reps in practice to iron things out, and not worry about whose getting what shots.

[7express]

Albertus returns 4 of 5 starters while the 1 loss is Ray Askew, but that is a very talented group.  Lost by 4 in Danbury 2 years ago and absolutely killed them at AMC last year.  Not making excuses, but Western definitely isn't helped by the schedule.  Their probably still on the bus back from Lancaster, probably won't get back to campus until 1:00 or 1:30 this mornin.  Even though is the start of Thanksgiving break and the students are getting kicked out of their dorms at 5, hopefully we can get a good crowd.  I know Michael Jensen, Gary Robinson, Mike Kennedy & Mark Redding are coming to the game and I heard DaQuan Brooks is back in CT for a little while, so its possible he could be in attendance....if only we could get him a uniform and put him in there 

[owlsnest]

WPI took Keene right out of their offense. Majority of offensive possessions were spent well outside the perimeter...KSC had trouble getting the ball inside to Wright/Walcott and newly added Howard. WPI led by Marco Coppola found himself successful when making one move left and going right to the rim ALL NIGHT...finished with 23.

Owls shot just 60+ percent from the FT line however went 4-10 from behind the arc to stick around. Engineers didn't stay in this one by the 3...solid ball movement while forcing 26 turnovers had 25 points off of them.

Owls look to rebound @ Elms College on Tuesday before the Turkey break.

[lildave678]

Hey guys, long time lurker, first time poster! Albertus grad 2010 who spent a great deal of my free time at West Conn due to knowing a whole lot of people there. Love New England D3 Basketball! I've been at the 2 recent GNAC titles as well as their two NCAA wins (and subsequent second round beat downs haha). I'm going to try and make the game Tuesday but I'm not sure if I'll be able to!

Just a little light on Albertus (and I'll throw this in the GNAC thread too), despite the loss of Ray they should be just fine. While I haven't been around the school as much this fall (I played soccer there, was there a lot last year but not as much this year), my best guess would be that Spencer Smith would slide right into Ray's 4 spot. Tenacious worker who's in there to bang on the boards and play defense.

As far as their incoming class, it's super talented. 2 All-State, state champions from CT join the squad in 6'5 swingman Kenny Armstead and point guard James Jennings. From what I saw on the web, Jennings was actually listed as MSG Varsity's CT Player of the Year and was supposed to go to Southern CT (DII) but somehow ended up at Albertus. Two kids from NJ join the team as well, Marc Wilson and Rodney Wilson. Not sure if they're related because they went to different high schools according to the roster. Rodney Wilson was listed at #94 on MSGV's top 100 in NJ as a junior, but can't find anything about him as a senior. The Falcons also add 6'8 Ebrahim Jallow who has a high ceiling but is quite raw.

They should run away with the GNAC, but one thing worries me - Darius Watson becoming the go-to-guy. Obviously Ray was going to get his and Watson was still a 20 ppg guy. I'm just hoping he doesn't become to full of himself and take everyone else out of the game. With Oliver coaching and such solid guard play from Jackson and Dugas I don't think it will happen, but I've seem him have his negative moments. Should be fun to watch again though!

Hopefully I'll post more especially in regard to the GNAC! See ya later guys!

[7express]

Tuesday predictions:

Eastern 66 @ Trinity 60.
Kind of weird this is starting at 5:30 but oh well.  Trinity is 1-1 losing in overtime to Worcester state and getting a layup with 6 seconds left to beat Dartmouth by 2.  I heard Trinity had a lot of roster turnover from last year, so I think Eastern can get them.
Albertus 76 @ Western 72.
I think this can be close, but even without Ray Askew that is a talnted group of kids, while Western is still a work in progress, but will no doubt play well after New Years when they get some time working and playing with each other.  This is AMC's first game of the season, so hopefully they have the first game jitters.  AMC has averaged 100.7 ppg the last 3 meetings scoring at least 96 points in all 3 games, yet have lost 2 of the 3 games.  That's really hard to do lose lose games back to back years in regulation where you score 96 & 99 points.  (Western has averaged 99.4 ppg during that 3 year time span).  This year's edition doesn't have DaQuan Brooks, however.
Keene 76 @ Elms 69.
Probably high scoring, but I look for Keene to pull this one out.  Elms went 1-1 over the weekend in a tournament down in PA losing to Moravian and beating Immaculata.
Boston 76 @ Fitchburg state 82.
What's worse: Boston losing to Stevenson or Fitchburg state giving up 98 points to SUNY-Cobleskill??
Bridgewater 63 @ RIC 78.
Really did not play well on Saturday; only shot 30.7% from the floor and hung on to win by 2 after going up 12 with 8:29 to play.   Bridgewater is 1-1 beating Plymouth and losing to Springfield.
Plymouth 96 @ Castleton 101.
Got a nice win over what is probably an NCAA tournament team at years end in Becker, now let's see what they can do against Castleton state and their Grinnell offense, one of the highest scoring in the NCAA's last year.  Castleton scored 90 or more points 16 times in 29 games last year and cracked the century mark 9 times last season.
USM 67 @ Bates 76.
USM and RIC are currently the only remaining unbeatens and no team has played more then 2 games.  Bates is 2-0 this year beating Maine-Augusta (USCAA I think) and Emerson, and their gym is incredibly tough to play in for opposing teams.
Dartmouth 60 @ Brandeis 63.
Likewise, Dartmouth and Western are currently the only 2 winless teams left.  Dartmouth has 2 losses by a combined 6 points this year.

Really, the only game that should be a gimme is RIC beating Bridgewater, and Western probably loses to Albertus but the other 6, imo can go either way.  Really wouldn't be surprised to see the LEC go 1-7, 7-1 or any other combination.

[AllStar]

I expect most all of the Little East teams that are currently struggling to continue to get better as the year progresses.  As usual, the conference slate will be very competitive and entertaining featuring some very good quality basketball.

[LECFAN32]

askew was the all time leading scorer and rebounder at amc and the best athlete in the gym, so if one starter not returning could make a big difference it would be him.

amc needs to be off shooting the ball in a much larger gym then their own, and western needs to control the glass since they are at a size deficit at the forward spots to make this a game. doesnt seem like there are any established roles yet, with reserves playing as much or more then starters, which contributes to their lack of identity. They will need more then last years starters in the stands to win this game. Stopping watson will be an issue, and playing under control, rus payton cant turn the ball over 7 times vs a good team, especially when hes one of the guards with experience.

[7express]

Looking at Western's roster for the first time: http://wcsuathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2012-13/roster

The thing that stands out is we have 6 freshmen and of the 15 players on the roster there are only 4 that played last year that are with the team this year and only 2 (Luis Briddter & Ryan Pelletier) that played significant minutes last year.  Luckily, after the Albertus game the schedule really opens up a bit to get some wins: Trinity and Boston at home then road games @ Mitchell, Worcester state, USM, Clark and a home game against TCNJ to end the year and we open up 2013 with a home contest against WNEC before LEC play really gets started.  They have a great chance to pick up 6 or even 7 wins in the next stretch.  I'd say the game they probably won't be favored in is Clark & maybe USM, but they should have an excellent chance to beat the others.

[7express]

Massey ratings for the games tonight, Parenthesis indicates the likely percentage he thinks that team wins by.

RIC 67-56 (83%)
Keene 75-70 (65%)
Eastern 60-58 (56%)
Western 85-81 (64%)
Plymouth 83-81 (56%)
Brandeis beating Dartmouth 70-62 (77% for Brandeis)
Bates beating USM 72-64 (75% for Bates).  Note, Massey still has a 0-0 record for USM
Fitchburg beating Boston 82-76 (69% for Fitchburg)

[7express]

Western with a slim 38-37 lead at the break.  Western is winning in large part because we're shooting 48.4 percent and held AMC to 2 points in a 9 minute span, but AMC is clearly the better team out there.  We just have to hold on for 20 more minutes.

[amh63]

ECSU.....Congrats to your team in their come from behind win over Trinity in Hartford.  Watched enough of the game on the webcast to judge that Trinity may have a long season if their young team doesn't improve.....not taking away from your team's efforts here.