MBB: Little East

[Pat Coleman]

RIC and the LEC figure prominently in the first day of the D3hoops.com Road Show:
http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2013/01/road-show-tonight-maine

[ECSUalum]

RIC and the LEC figure prominently in the first day of the D3hoops.com Road Show:
http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2013/01/road-show-tonight-maine

Patrick,

Great job with the High Def video interview with Coach Walsh on the D3hoops Road Show!!!
I personally think Coach Walsh is one of the best D3 coaches we have and I am surprised he has not left RIC to go D-I!!
Good Luck with the rest of the Road Show and keep up the good work!

[7express]

Sat schedule:

RIC @ Boston.
As have stated previously in this section, a RIC win all but lock up the 4 home quarterfinal slots in the LEC tournament.  Boston not very good defensively, so RIC should be able to put enough on the board to get a closer then expected victory.
RIC 67-60
Eastern @ Plymouth.
Long trip up to New Hampshire, Eastern has played lousy, but you know coach Geitner has worked on the defense, and after the embarrassment at home vs. Wesleyan they'd want to start strong.  Plymouth has been playing well, but they need Alex Burt to score at least 20.  He gets above 20 Plymouth wins, below 20 they lose.  I say he gets above 20.
Plymouth 63-59
Keene @ USM.
Best game of the day in the conference.  For as horrible a road team as USM is this year they actually has many losses on the road this year then they do at home in Gorham (3 each and 1 neutral court loss).  Keene is 8-2 on the road this year and uninspiring 4-4 at home in the friendly confines of Spaulding gym in Keene and is 1-0 in the state of Maine having defeated Husson earlier in the season.
Keene 75-74
Dartmouth @ Western.
Seriously, I have no idea how this game will play out.  You would think after winning by 9 @ Dartmouth they'd be able to win at home, but Dartmouth lost by only 2 at Plymouth then proceded to get demolished by 29 at home when they played them.  Really, Western could win by 40, by 1, lose by 1, lose by 40 or a result anywhere in between and I wouldn't be the slightest surpised.
I'll go with the homer pick and take Western 78-64.  I think with Jensen & now Groski they have the opportunity to make some noise down the stretch.  Won't be enough to save a .500 record for coach Campbell, but will be enough to finish the season maybe 5-1/4-2 and a trip to the LEC semi's. 

[7express]

Scores: all games in 2nd half except Western because the women's game didn't start until 1:20.
Eastern 55-42, USM 47-41, RIC killing Boston 40-15 and Western leads at half 39-26

[7express]

Sat results:

Western 80-72.
Almost blew it, but when you only have 5 wins all season, you take it whatever way you can get it.  Starks had a great day: 9-14, 5-7 from 3, 25 points.  No Russ Payton on the bench (though he was listed in the program) so who the hell knows what's going on there.  Can we finish these next 5 games without losing anyone??
Keene 88-80.
Keene's scored almost 200 points the last 2 games, insane!  They had 6 in double figures lead by Martin's 18.  Conor Sullivan and Alex Kee the 2 leading scorers in the conference each had 20.  Rashard Wright was injured for the Owls.  Currently watching this game on LEC.TV.
RIC all over Boston 81-50.
Boston took a 11-10 lead on a Vinny DaLucia jumper at 13:27.  The final 13:27 of the half, Boston would get outscored 28-4, making only 1 field goal and got held scoreless the final 6:58 of the half.
Eastern 70-60.
I missed the boat on Plymouth today, I got stranded ashore.  Alex Burt only had 6, remember yesterday I said they needed at least 20 from him.  Mike Garrow had 29 on 12-17 shooting.

Standings:
1) RIC 18-3 (9-1)
2) Eastern 14-7 (8-2)
3) USM 13-8 (7-3)
3) Keene 13-8 (7-3)
5) Boston 9-11 (3-7)
5) Western 5-15 (3-7)
7) Plymouth 6-15 (2-8)
8) Dartmouth 4-17 (1-9)
Notes on the standings:
USM currently wins the tiebreaker over Keene (USM is 1-1 [50%] vs. Eastern while Keene is 0-1 [0%] vs. Eastern) and Boston wins the tiebreaker over Western due to the 2-0 season sweep.
RIC & Eastern have clinched home quarterfinal games while Plymouth & Dartmouth are officially eliminated from hosting a quarterfinal.
Western, Boston, Plymouth & Dartmouth are officially eliminated from getting the conference's #1 seed and therefore are eliminated from hosting the LEC semi's and finals.
We have currently 4 teams (USM, Keene, Boston & Western) flighting for the last 2 home quarterfinal spots.  Keene owns the tiebreaker over Boston (2-0 season series record) while USM holds the tiebreaker over Western (2-0 season series record). 

Upcoming schedule:
Tuesday, February 5:
Western @ Eastern
Plymouth @ Keene
USM @ Boston
Dartmouth @ RIC
Thursday, Feb 7:
Western @ Westfield state (last OOC game of the year)
Saturday, February 9:
Western @ Keene
Eastern @ Dartmouth
USM @ RIC
Plymouth @ Boston.

Best game Tuesday is USM/Boston.  Could have the top 4 decided by the end of the night.

[7express]

Tuesday schedule:

Western @ Eastern.
There obviously a better team now then they were on January 15 when they played in Danbury, but nothing they showed me on Saturday vs. Dartmouth would leave me to believe they'll pull off the upset in Willimantic.  Eastern is a better team and their at home.  It'll probably be close like most of these games the last few years have been (January being the exception), but Eastern pulls it out in the end.
Eastern 78-74
Plymouth @ Keene.
Keene can clinch a home quarterfinal game with a win OR Western loss.  They shouldn't need to worry about Western losing.
Keene 81-67
USM @ Boston.
USM can join Keene and have the 4 quarterfinal hosts set with a win.  Assuming Keene beats Plymouth (though he can never assume anything), that would leave Boston as the only team outside the top 4 that can sneak into the top 4 but they MUST win this game to do it.  USM's only LEC road loss this season is @ Eastern.....it should stay that way.  RIC, Eastern and Keene have all managed to get a win @ Boston if USM still wants to hang around at the top, it must join them in winning @ Boston.
USM 68-65
Dartmouth @ RIC.
Dartmouth has no seniors and I think only 3 or 4 juniors on their roster, so this will be a much better team next year, but RIC rolls them.
RIC 80-42

[ECSUalum]

D3hoops.com men's Top 25, Week 10
Through games of Sunday, Feb. 3:

# School (1st votes)       Rec Pts Prev.
1 St. Thomas (13)          20-1 608 2
2 WPI (8)                      21-0 585 4
3 Whitworth (4)             20-1 568 3
4 Rochester                   19-1 521 1
5 Middlebury                  19-1 519 6
6 Amherst                     20-2 447 10
7 Williams                      20-2 424 9
8 Catholic                     19-2 405 11
9 Illinois Wesleyan          18-3 401 12
10 Ramapo                    20-2 400 13
11 North Central (Ill.)      18-3 399 7
12 St. Mary's (Md.)         19-2 368 14
13 Calvin                       19-2 296 17
14 Wooster                   18-3 293 8
15 UW-Stevens Point      18-4 280 5
16 UW-Whitewater         17-4 269 15
17 Hampden-Sydney       19-2 256 19
18 Rhode Island College   18-3 183 18
19 Rose-Hulman             19-2 147 23
20 Washington U.           16-4 144 21
21 Christopher Newport   15-3 142 16
22 Wheaton (Ill.)            16-5 69 20
23 MIT                         16-4 56 --
24 Cortland State           17-3 52 --
25 Stevens                    17-3 45 --

Dropped out: No. 22 Transylvania, No. 24 Wesley, No. 25 Brandeis.

Others receiving votes: Brandeis 40; Transylvania 26; Ohio Wesleyan 26; Wesley 24; Albertus Magnus 23; Albright 23; UW-Stout 22; Augustana 20; Mary Hardin-Baylor 16; St. Norbert 9; Guilford 5; Franklin and Marshall 5; SUNY-Old Westbury 5; Marietta 4.

[ECSUalum]

Here you go 7express:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAz__ZNXugY

WHAT A GAME!!!!!!

[7express]

Alum, is that the Brooks to Robinson winner??

[7express]

Eastern leads 25-21 points tough to come by, but both teams playing good defense.

Of the 4 games at half all our 4 points or less
Plymouth 35-34, RIC 31-27, and USM 26-24

[7express]

Eastern, Keene and Boston are winners this evening.  Keene clinches the 3rd quarterfinal game and I believe USM clinches as well (they own the tiebreaker I think.  Ill check later on when I do the recap.
RIC leads Dartmouth 61-55 with about 3 minutes left.

Btw, shout out to Mr and Mrs Salzillo who I sat next to this evening.  Thanks for reading, the more the merrier! 

[warriorcat]

A good win for Eastern tonight against a game Western squad who refused to quit.  Keeping with the season long theme that any one of four players can make the difference, tonight it was Brian Sazillo's turn.  After a couple of poor shooting games (for him), he got hot from outside the arc sent Western home with a loss.  I was surprised that WCSU did not press ECSU from the very start using their depth in the backcourt to wear Eastern out.  Solid games from Robitaille, Garrow, Hundley, and Preston but not their best.  The one dark spot on the night was Brandon Yarborough's ankle injury.  He appeared to roll it again and he left the game early in the second half and did not return.  As I said last week, this team can not afford to lose any of their top seven.  With Ives out for the season, the Warriors are experienced and well coaches enough to beat the teams in the loweer half but they will need good performances from at least four of the top six to beat RIC and Keene.  On to Dartmouth on Saturday.  They can not look past them.  Kudos to Groski tonight.  He is a tough match up down low and on the boards.

[7express]

Were even shorter (bench wise) then Eastern is now, so there's a reason we don't press.  Basically we go 8 deep (Jensen, Barnes & Setaro were the only ones that played major minutes) and now with Starks and Mobilio in the starting lineup and Russ Payton MIA (again was a no show but still listed on the roster I printed out this morning), Joe Setaro is the only one off the bench that can run the point and he's not a true PG.  Even starks isn't that good at PG but could fill the void for Mobilio.  So, if we press (should've done it sometimes though not the whole game) and Starks/Mobilio pick up cheap fouls in the backcourt, were already behind the 8 ball.

[7express]

Tuesday result:
Eastern 64-51.
Salzillo killed us.  7-14 from the floor 5-10 from 3, everytime Eastern needed a basket, Salzillo got it.  Western went from the 11:32 mark to the 4:32 mark of the 1st half with 0 field goals and 1 point which contributed to the 25-21 halftime deficit.  They played well in the first, unfortunately just couldn't put the ball in the basket, and then Eastern's talent pulled away late in the 2nd.
Boston 69-55.
USM wins and loses.  They lost the game by a pretty good margin, but it turns out they had already clinched a quarterfinal game anyways, so the loss isn't that bad.  They split the season series 1-1 and if they do end up finishing tied (which they probably won't anyways so it's a moot point), USM will win the tiebreak for that last quarterfinal spot because they would have been 1-1 vs. Keene (.50%) while Boston is 0-2 (0%) vs. Keene.
Keene 68-62.
Eric Fazio lead all scorers with 20.  Still no Rashard Wright for Keene.  Watched the Keene/USM game from Saturday over the weekend and Rashard Wright missed that game (undisclosed injury/illness/other) and their 7 foot big from Cheshire, CT (something Howard??) was out with mono, so maybe it's related??  Also, 2 things for you USM guys before your last home broadcast next week while I observed that Keene/USM game:
1) do something with the camera!!  If the ball's in the backcourt, don't leave it stationairy in the front court
2) Learn the rules of the game before you go on air!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  A timeout in the backcourt resets the 10 seconds (stupid rule that should be changed, but thats for a different day).  So when the Keene player inbounded AFTER the timeout with 27, when he was still in the backcourt at 23 it is NOT a 10 second violation because he had another 6 seconds to get it across because the timer reset.  Geez, it can't be that hard, can it??
RIC 71-60.
Dartmouth actually shot 40% from the field but they turned it over 20 times compared to only 9 for RIC.

Standings:
1) RIC 19-3 (10-1)
2) Eastern 15-7 (9-2)
3) Keene 14-8 (8-3)
4) USM 13-9 (7-4)
5) Boston 10-11 (4-7)
6) Western 5-16 (3-8)
7) Plymouth 6-16 (2-9)
8) Dartmouth 4-18 (1-10)
Very boring races, I guess I've been spoiled from the last 2 years, but:
1) As mentioned above, the 4 quarterfinal hosts are already set in stone.  The order is still to be decided, but Eastern, Keene, USM & RIC will ALL be hosting first round games on Tuesday the 19 no matter what those 4 do the rest of the way and what the 4 below them do the rest of the way.  Not 1 of the teams in 5-8 can host a game in the LEC tournament
2) All 8 teams make the field this year.  if the cut off was the top 6 like the last few years, that'd be interesting, because 5-8 are seperated by 3 games.
As it is now the only real "race" going on is for the #1 seed and semifinal and final host and RIC can all but end that discussion with a win Saturday over USM.  At least on the women's side there's still some drama of hosting a quarter: 4 teams seperated by 2 games for 3 spots (2, 3 & 4).

Upcoming schedule:
Thursday, February 7:
Last OOC game of the season Western @ Westfield state.  Who was the genious that decided playing this game at this point in the season was a good idea??

Saturday, February 9:
Western @ Keene
Eastern @ Dartmouth
USM @ RIC
Plymouth @ Boston.  USM/RIC best of the day.

[7express]

Thursday schedule:

Western @ Westfield state.
Seriously, why are we playing this game??  Westfield has played Worcester (twice), WNEU, & USM all teams we have played.  Combined, Western is 1-3 against those teams and Westfield is a perfect 4-0 beating USM in Maine on a halfcourt buzzer beater.  Westfield state is 18-4 on the year and will probably, more then likely be somewhere in the 9-12 range of the NE regional rankings when they come out later (I'll be in class, so I'll post them when I get back if no one else does so).  Westfield also has wins against a good Springfield squad and against Elms 2 teams we played in a scrimmage and didn't look overly good in either.  With all the injuries, the losses, player movement, if we can kee it within 10, it'll be a miracle.
Westfield 73-57