MBB: Little East

[7express]

Had a nice message I was typing on my phone then I must have delated it instead of submiting it because it got lost into intranetsphere or phonesphere or wherever those messages go when they get deleted    Anyways, onto Tuesday:

Boston 73 @ Plymouth 70
Why do I think Boston is gonna lose this??  Is it because they're a bad road team, a terrible team once the calendar flips to January, or a combination of both??  Since I'm still driving the Beacons bandwagon (for now anyways), I'm gonna pick them by 3, but really wouldn't be at all surprised if it went the other way.
Dartmouth 57 @ Eastern 65.
Dartmouth played awful on Saturday, but even if they play better which almost certainly will happen, I just can't see how their going to get the win @ Eastern.
RIC 67 @ USM 72.
Extremely tough to beat up in Maine, especially on a Tuesday night when RIC has that looooooooooooooooooooooooooong drive from Providence beginning at like 12 or 12:30.  In this same spot much worse USM teams have beaten much better RIC teams and you only have to look to two years ago: when a USM team that finished 2-14 in league play comming off a season when they finished 0-14 in league play, beat a RIC team that won the conference and the league on a Tuesday night up in January.  4 of the last 5 years USM has beaten RIC and or Western at home (lone season they didn't was 09/10 when they finished 0-14).  Not that it matters because USM already defeated Western earlier to stretch that stat to 5 of the last 6 years, but that just goes to show you how difficult they are to beat up there.
Keene 78 @ Western 82
If Keene wants to play this game they'll win easily probably by 15+ because, no disrepect to Western, there's a significant talent gap between those 2 teams that will be on the court at Feldman Arena tomorrow.  Keene has not played up to their potential yet this season and I doubt its going to start here, however they do have a lot of guys from Connecticut and a couple from the Valley, so maybe they will turn it on for their friends that will more than likely make the trip from their homes.  Keene's defense is still terrible, Colbert isn't starting the right personel, Colbert's sub patterns are so out of whack, and frankly their just not a very good team right now.  Will come down to 2 things:
1) Whether Keene actually wants to be there
2) If Western can hold onto the ball.
If Keene wants to play, Western can play perfect basketball and it probably wouldn't be enough because that Keene team is that good..........................when they choose to be.  Even against a discombobulated and in shambles team that is a team that can score, score a lot, and score quickly, and the last thing you want to do is give them easy basket with turnovers.

[LECFAN32]

If western can hang onto the ball...big if. And not try to make it into a high scoring contest they have a shot. Seems like their roles are slowly being established, and if the westerns bigs can finish over the larger Keene bigs like what happened vs Dartmouth I like their chances.

Speaking of Laborte he takes good shots, can tell he's the son of a coach. Now that he's gotten comfortable I'd like to see sme aggressiveness getting to the rim, as he is a good run jump athlete.

Praying that Mobilio/Payton combo slows it down, and realize that it's not always about looking for your own driving lane before getting the team into offense. Can't beat good teams that way. 

[amh63]

7Express.....maybe into the "clouds"?......couldn't miss the chance to answer your question.
Did you get to Middletown the other night?  Would be interested in your opinions of Amherst's chances with RIC in R.I..

[7express]

7Express.....maybe into the "clouds"?......couldn't miss the chance to answer your question.
Did you get to Middletown the other night?  Would be interested in your opinions of Amherst's chances with RIC in R.I..

No.  I had to work late and took me about 35 minutes to get from exit 58 to exit 59 on the Merritt Parkway (a distance of about 3 miles), so once I got to 59 I just turned around and went back home because I probably wouldn't have gotten parking there when I got there.

[7express]

RIC up to #28 in the newest poll, 3rd in the ORV category with 37 votes behind MIT at #26 (60 votes) and Transylvania #27 (38 votes):

D3hoops.com men's basketball Top 25, Week 6



Through games of Sunday, Jan. 6:



#

School (1st votes)

Rec

Pts

Prev.



1

North Central (Ill.) (14)

13-0

609

1



2

St. Thomas (5)

11-0

594

3



3

Middlebury (6)

11-0

593

2



4

Rochester

12-0

549

4



5

Whitworth

12-1

488

6



6

Catholic

12-1

428

9



7

Ramapo

12-1

419

10



8

WPI

13-0

396

14



9

St. Mary's (Md.)

13-1

385

13



10

UW-Stevens Point

12-2

376

11



11

UW-Whitewater

11-2

363

12



12

Washington U.

10-2

324

5



13

Christopher Newport

11-1

314

16



14

Franklin and Marshall

11-1

300

17



15

Wooster

10-2

274

15



16

Ohio Wesleyan

11-1

238

18



17

Augustana

12-1

223

19



18

Williams

12-1

165

21



19

Albertus Magnus

9-1

152

20



20

Wheaton (Ill.)

10-3

138

8



21

Amherst

11-2

121

22



22

Illinois Wesleyan

10-3

99

25



23

Rose-Hulman

12-1

96

--



24

Randolph

12-0

82

--



25

Adrian

11-2

69

7


Dropped out: No. 23 Virginia Wesleyan, No. 24 Hampden-Sydney.

Others receiving votes: MIT 60; Transylvania 37; Rhode Island College 36; Hampden-Sydney 32; Calvin 32; Concordia (Texas) 26; Guilford 24; Virginia Wesleyan 17; NYU 13; Whitman 11; Stevens 11; UW-La Crosse 6; St. Norbert 5; Brandeis 5; Carroll (Wis.) 4; Augsburg 3; Lycoming 3; UW-Stout 2; Albright 2; Oswego State 1

[wcsu91]

Freshman Phil Starks is listed back on the Western Roster on their website. Should help them out. Rather see Starks in the game than Payton.

[7express]

Freshman Phil Starks is listed back on the Western Roster on their website. Should help them out. Rather see Starks in the game than Payton.

I thought it was weird that I saw him at Dartmouth Sat.  Nice to have him back how much he'll play tonight who knows.  As I said 3 or 4 pages back both him and Payton play the same position and Starks broke out once Payton got kicked off the first semester, so will be interesting to see how Coach Campbell gives playing time to both of them.  A small team could become even smaller tonight which is a bad sign against Keene.  We got killed against Boston on the boards and in the paint and Keene has even more height/better post players, so will be interesting to see how they combat that.  Hopefully well get LECFans thoughts about the Starks move later tonight.

[7express]

7Express.....maybe into the "clouds"?......couldn't miss the chance to answer your question.
Did you get to Middletown the other night?  Would be interested in your opinions of Amherst's chances with RIC in R.I..

I never answered the second part of that:
RIC isn't as good as they have been the last 2 years but their still a defensive oriented team.  I haven't seen them yet and we don't play them until the 22 a week before Anherst does so I'm basing this solely off box scores, but I think Amherst should take them by about 5 or so.

[amh63]

7Express.....Thanks for your take.  At present, planning to see my first live games in LeFrak on the first weekend in Feb.....the Bates games on Friday and the better game with Tufts on Sat. afternoon.  Swing up if you can for a game.  My treat on a pre-game meal.  Let me know so that my host and I can schedule our arrival accordingly...from CT.

[7express]

We play Sat, but ill try to stop up that Friday.  Which the Tufts game was Friday, I'm really looking forward to that game.

[7express]

Halftime scores:
RIC 38-34, Eastern 44-24 (my god Dartmouth is awful), Boston Plymouth tied at 33, Western vs Keene tied at 34.  Can we fire Colbert at halftime??

[7express]

Finals:
Eastern 91-63, Keene 85-72 Boston 77-60, RIC leads USM 69-66 with 4 seconds left.  Ill have a recap later tonight

[7express]

Tuesday results:

Keene 85-72.
Both teams shot the ball extremely well: Keene was at 49.2% for the game and Western was at 47% for the game.  Both teams held onto the ball: Western with 13 turnovers, Keene with 11.  Much like the game vs. Boston, the difference in the result came down to free throws and rebounding.  The game vs. Boston, the Beacons outshot us 33-10 from the line and outrebounded us 43-35.  Keene outrebounded us 39-28 and outshot us from the line 26-6.  The first half was about even, largest lead for either side was 6, 26-20 Keene with about 5 minutes to play;  Western went on a 12-2 spurt to take a 32-28 lead, but Keene scored 6 of the halves final 8 points to knot the score at 34 at halftime.  Keene totally blitzed us in the 2nd.  Not many teams would have beaten the Keene team that came out for the 2nd half.  They started the second half hitting 7 straight shots and got the lead as high as 18 in the 2nd.  That was too big of a deficit and just not enough time (only 7 minutes) as Western cut it to 9 a couple times, but could never get any closer.
Boston 77-60 over Plymouth.
Impressive win for the Beacons!  Outscored Plymouth 44-27 in the 2nd after the score was tied at 33 at halftime.  Boston shot 49.2% for the game and 58% in the 2nd half.
RIC 71-66.
That leaves Keene, Eastern, RIC and USM all at 3-1 in the conference through the quarter mark of the season (actually more then a quarter).  Nyheem Sanders hit the go ahead 3 with 36 seconds to play, and Conor Sullivan turned it over with USM down 3 and RIC hit 2 free throws for the final margin.
Eastern 93-61.
Geez, Dartmouth is bad.  Eastern hit on almost 56% and was lead by Chris Robitaile with 25 and Brian Salzillo with 20.

Updated standings (as of conclusion of games on 1/8/13):
1) RIC 11-2 (3-1)
1) Eastern 9-5 (3-1)
1) USM 8-6 (3-1)
1) Keene 8-5 (3-1)
5) Boston 7-5 (2-2)
6) Western 3-10 (1-3)
6) Plymouth 2-10 (1-3)
8) Dartmouth 2-10 (0-4)

Schedule:
January 10:
Suffolk @ Plymouth 6:00
Bridgewater @ Boston 7:00

January 12:
Plymouth @ Western 3:00
Eastern @ Boston 3:00.  Boston's LEC home opener
Keene @ RIC 3:00
USM @ Boston 3:00

[LECFAN32]

starks must have taken a couple of those famous week long one credit phys. ed classes (for the phys ed major western doesnt have) that scream get me eligible. good to see him back, his best attribute at this time is that he spreads the floor with his shooting since pelletier fell out of the rotation, and he doesnt handle the ball all that much (by design).

very frustrating game to watch in my opinion, they have gotten much better since the beginning of the season, at times patiently working for layups.. but the guard play is holding them down big time, especially the pg position. very clear that payton is hunting his shot every time he touches the ball, and over dribbles as a whole. very bad thing for the part time lead guard. the stats guys were very generous with only 14, counting bad shots would put us around 30.

mobilio needs to play with a better iq , western had several chances in the second half to really make it a game but all of those oppurtunities turned into bad shots or turnovers. the pull up 3 down 8 on a fastbreak when you have numbers and have keene back on their heels is a very bad shot. especially when your 1-9 n need to keep putting pressure on the defense, which as we have talked about isnt keenes strong point. also, and this goes for all of the guards, at the college level not using the ball screen is a bad idea unless your extra quick, it takes the big that set the screen completely out of the play and it ends up being a 4 on 5, you may get into the lane but then what when the at least two helpside players step up? forced shot or pass... seniors need to know that

as soon as the offense sputtered, the owls all american was wide open for midrange jumpers off of the dribble, and it wasnt from anything coach colbert did! the bigs didnt play the screens all that well, but campbell does not like to switch, so it doesnt matter all of that much

positive note- love bridtters polish, guy looks like a player, needs to attack the rim though when he has a mismatch, laportes stroke is looking good, wish hed attack the rim hes definitely capable. groski is establishing himself as a double/double guy (like i said he would), conditioning appears to be his problem, but thats fixable.

keene is still very talented and shot well, so it wasnt a terrible performance for western, they really scrapped at times, the pg play is driving me up the wall so sorry about the outburst!

[7express]

Thursday schedule:

Suffolk 67 @ Plymouth 68
Suffolk was actually my second choice of college coming out of high school behind Hofstra where I first started.  Had a few problems, went back home to a CC for a couple years and then went up to Western.  How my life could've changed if I had gone to Suffolk instead.......................................of course if that's the case I probably don't end up at Western, and don't find this place, so maybe its for the best I went there   
Bridgewater 67 @ Boston 75.
This is Bridgewater's 4th and final game against the LEC.  They are 2-1 with wins over Plymouth and Dartmouth and a loss to RIC.