MBB: Little East

ECSUalum · January 27, 2014, 08:30:08 PM

Quote from: lildave678 on January 27, 2014, 03:44:04 PM
Hey 7/ECSU, can either of you give me some info on David Canny, the freshman big man from Eastern? I'm an NVL guy (he went to Torrington) and I was just wondering how he was doing. He never really dominated (the way he SHOULD) in a high school league where he was the biggest guy by half a foot in every game, but seemed like he had some decent skills. From what I gathered early on, he was playing a bit but now he barely gets in? Does the kid from Naugatuck - Brandon Kuc...don't know the rest haha - get more/any time?

David Canny had started the first 7 or 8 games this year, but now Mike Garrow is taking the jump to start and Brandon Kuczinski plays center thereafter. I think Canny is a work in progress for Coach Geitner, and will need to develop the skills, (especially offensive), needed to play D3 college hoops. I know Chris Robitaille was a bit raw when he came in as a freshman. We all know how well Chris turned out. Specifically he needs to develop his posting up skills, ie know when to put the ball on the floor, a jump shot, when to lay it up and when to jam it. He certainly can block shots and muscle on D.

Now, he is getting some minutes when Eastern has built a lead later in the game.

I guess only time will tell how advanced he gets. If he get to Robitailles level.... watch out!!!

BTW The big 6-6 center, Darryl Best looks to have left the team!

Here are Canny's stats to date
|---TOTAL---| |---3-PTS---| |----REBOUNDS----|
## Player GP-GS Min--Avg FG-FGA Pct 3FG-FGA Pct FT-FTA Pct Off Def Tot Avg PF FO A TO Blk Stl Pts Avg
52 David Canny......16-10 120 7.5 10-24 .417 0-0 .000 8-13 .615 9 11 20 1.3 15 0 2 10 6 3 28 1.8

lildave678 · January 27, 2014, 10:10:44 PM

Thanks guys! I was just curious because I noticed once the season got rolling, there were a buncha games where he started (according to the box score) and played single digit minutes. Then he wasn't starting/barely playing at all. Hopefully with ECSU being successful, he won't give it up like a lot of high school stars who don't succeed right away at even the D3 level.

ECSUalum · January 28, 2014, 02:44:31 PM

BTW, I had heard on one of the ECSU men's broadcasts, ( ex Nick Aconfora), that Brandon Kuczenki had offers to play football at some D-I schools, ( including I think it was Florida or Florida State!!), soo... he is a big boy (6'-5" 240), who completely handled Nate Howard in the Keene game 2 weeks ago holding him to like 6 points 9-10 below his average. He and Canny are both freshman and are competing for the starting center position. Right now, I would give Brandon the edge, (he is now starting), based on what I have seen in terms of overall maturity in the center position, however, it would be nice to have both playing well and really nice to have a 6'-11" "Chris Robitaille" in 2-3 years

7express · January 28, 2014, 03:35:14 PM

Doesn't surprise me that Brandon Kuczenski could play football. Should've come to Western

Not only could he play for a good basketball team, he could've played football for what actually turned out to be a pretty good team this year.

warriorcat · January 28, 2014, 08:11:35 PM

Halftime in Danbury

Eastern Ct 31 Western Ct 20

Eastern outrebounding Western 27-10

Eastern 15 turnovers in the first half

ECSU- Preston 15 points Garrow 12 points

WCSU - Groski 11 points

7express · January 28, 2014, 08:14:06 PM

Eastern leads 31-20 at halftime. Mike Garrow had a couple baskets in the opening minutes and has done nothing the rest of the half. Salzillo has done absolutely nothing I think he's scoreless and has 2 or 3 turnovers. Speaking of turnovers, I have Eastern down for 10 compared to only 3 for Western. Trachone Preston has at least 15 of Eastern's 31. But have to like them in the second. Their 2 best players for the most part have done nothing, yet they still lead by 11. That's what makes this team so good.

USM leads 33-28 RIC Dartmouth tied at 31. No score from New Hampshire.

7express · January 28, 2014, 09:22:29 PM

Eastern wins by 12. Not a great close out, but back to back dominating road wins at RIC and Western is pretty damn impressive.
RIC wins by 6, Plymouth by 4, and USM by 7. Sounds like an exciting bunch of games.

warriorcat · January 28, 2014, 09:35:02 PM

Eastern in control all night against Western to remain undefeated 84-72. After not scoring a single point in the first half, Brian Sazillo scored 16 points in the second half. Tra Preston was the hign man for the Warriors with 21 timely points and Mike Garrow had a double double with 18 and 11. Freshman Hugh Lindo had a monster game on the boards 17 rebs which helped the Warriors out rebound the Colonials 48-26. If not for 23 Eastern turnovers, this game could have been a serious rout. Western fought hard throughout but with that type of differential on the boards and and their 42% shooting (28.6% from 3) couldn't get it dome tonight.

With RIC's win over Dartmouth tonight, with six games to play Eastern now has two game lead with the tiebreaker over RIC for the regular season title.

amh63 · January 28, 2014, 09:38:37 PM

Was watching an Amherst WBB game online at Middletown CT. Tried to check in on the CAC games against local in state teams during halftime.
Am here to check in on my Little East games of interest.
Go Warriors! Sorry about your team 7.
Saw that RIC won over Dartmouth. Hope the loser took some of the energy out of RIC. Is Mass-Dart. having a bad season this year? Selfish question in that Amherst gets RIC tomorrow night!

ECSUalum · January 28, 2014, 10:13:57 PM

Quote from: 7express on January 28, 2014, 03:35:14 PM
Doesn't surprise me that Brandon Kuczenski could play football. Should've come to Western Not only could he play for a good basketball team, he could've played football for what actually turned out to be a pretty good team this year.

Was impressed with Gronski tonight, a big tough kid who can score and play D.

Not impressed with the way ECSU handles WCSU press tonight,,,VERY sloppy and tons of TOs

Yeah, can you imagine Gronski and Kuczenski, @ left tackle and tight end blocking for Octavius McCoy

warriorcat · January 28, 2014, 10:20:17 PM

ECSU Alum,

I agree with you about Eastern and the press. That has been their weakness for the past 4 or 5 years. While I think they are the class of the LEC this year, it appears to be a down year as it is across the region. Even though they have a realistic shot of going undefeated in the conference this year, I am not sure this team would have finished in the top four two years ago. The Conference was stacked that year.

7express · January 28, 2014, 10:38:02 PM

Quote from: amh63 on January 28, 2014, 09:38:37 PM
Is Mass-Dart. having a bad season this year? Selfish question in that Amherst gets RIC tomorrow night!

They sucked last year, but coach Baptiste got in a couple of nice freshmen guards that can really shoot the basketball (Tucker Bouchard & Ryan Walsh). From what I've seen between Dartmouth & RIC this year I still believe Dartmouth is the better team overall.

Quote from: warriorcat on January 28, 2014, 10:20:17 PM
ECSU Alum,

I agree with you about Eastern and the press. That has been their weakness for the past 4 or 5 years. While I think they are the class of the LEC this year, it appears to be a down year as it is across the region. Even though they have a realistic shot of going undefeated in the conference this year, I am not sure this team would have finished in the top four two years ago. The Conference was stacked that year.

That's funny you should mention that, as I tweeted something very similar in the second half saying "I'd like to see this year's Eastern squad in the LEC back in the year 2011-12 when 4 teams finished with 20+ wins, the ONLY conference IIRC that year that had 4 with 20 or more victories as the NESCAC just missed since Wesleyan finished with 19. I'll disagree with Warriorcat, I think they can hold their own. Western, remember was a 1 person show and lost games to USM & Plymouth that season. If you made DaQuan a non-factor, you had a pretty good chance to win, and Keene was an all offense-no defense team.

warriorcat · January 28, 2014, 10:52:58 PM

7 express -

Points well taken.

Another way to look at it would be the individual talent that was in the conference that year - Brooks, Martin, Nedwick, Wright, Kohn, Greene, Akinrola, Choice

7express · January 28, 2014, 11:21:26 PM

Also to add onto Warriorcats list Rashard Wright, Derek D'Amours (though he got suspended the last half of that season) from Keene, and Collin Burns & Paul Rose from Dartmouth as well. Even USM & Plymouth had a couple good players that year. But I agree, we'll be hard pressed to see as good of a talent over a 2 year span then we had in the league between the 10/11 seasons and the 11/12 seasons.

AllStar · January 29, 2014, 12:40:10 AM

Quote from: 7express on January 28, 2014, 09:22:29 PM
Eastern wins by 12. Not a great close out, but back to back dominating road wins at RIC and Western is pretty damn impressive.
RIC wins by 6, Plymouth by 4, and USM by 7. Sounds like an exciting bunch of games.

I went to the Plymouth game and that game was terrible. Sure it was close, but it was bad...particularly the first half. Keene led 14-3 with about 8 or 9 minutes left in the first half (yes...Plymouth had 3 points in the first 12 minutes)...before imploding and in all likelihood losing the game late in the first half by letting Plymouth back into the game. The Panthers were making mind numbingly awful turnovers...passes not even remotely close that would just bounce out of bounds...and Keene just would not take advantage of that or make free throws when they led 14-3. Then they did the same thing as Plymouth did. Regardless, another pretty poor game for Keene. Neither of these teams impressed me in this game at all.