MBB: Little East

[7express]

That sweet 16 team was 11-12 Alum.

[ECSUalum]

That sweet 16 team was 11-12 Alum.

Sorry about that, I did use the correct stats, just mislabeled the table, however, the stats seem to point to the fact that the LEC generally has a way to go if they were "placed" in NESCAC competition.  Perhaps the earlier RIC teams would have ranked higher.  Be interesting to see how NESCAC stats compare to , for example WIAC stats.  The WIAC IMHO is up there with NESCAC wrt some of the best teams in the country.  UW Whitewater and Stevens Point stats, for example, are ridiculous.

Just a little benchmarking here

[7express]

Yah.  You're right on the money there.  Plus, that 11/12 team made the sweet 16 when arguably we had the greatest players playing in the league all at the same time (Brooks for Western, Rashard Wright, Martin, D'Amours for Keene, Nedwick, Kohn, Robitaile for Eastern, Akinrola, Choice & Carter for RIC).  No disrespect to Eastern, but that 11/12 Eastern team would've completely rolled through the conference this year.  Easily undefeated and probably win every game by double digits.  I think this years Eastern would've finished about 11-3/10-4/9-5 in 11/12.  Hopefully they can make a nice run.  Would help if they got the first 2 rounds in Willimantic.  Keep winning, and it's entirely possible they can host rounds 1 & 2.

[7express]

Eastern up 40-35 with 11:25 to go in the game.  Western leads 44-35 at half, RIC up 30-23 just starting the second, Keene leads 35-34 with 4:10 left in first.

[ECSUalum]

Congratulations to the Warriors and Coach Geitner et al for their 68-58 victory, (20-5 overall, 14-0 LEC) over USM and go undefeated in LEC regular season play!!!  This in itself is a great accomplishment for a relatively young team and with Brian Salzillo out for 15 days.
Tre Preston was outstanding today and led Eastern with 10-18 FG shooting for 24 pts and had 0 TOs!!! Mike Garrow had 15 pts and 8 rebounds.
For USM, Conner Sullivan and Tyler Penney had 17/8 and 14/8 points/rebounds resp.

Eastern will begin LEC Tournament play on Tues vs UM Boston

[7express]

Eastern wins by 10.  Probably clinches them a spot in the NCAAs with that win, RIC 70-59, Keene beats Dartmouth 75-62, Western looks atrocious in the second and holds onto win 86-82.  Embarrassing!  I'll have more on them later.

I believe that sets up; Eastern 1, RIC 2, Western 3, Dartmouth 4, Plymouth 5, Keene 6, USM 7 and Boston 8. Full results later.

[warriorcat]

7 Express
Aren't Western and Dartmouth tied for third?  Dartmouth would have the tiebreaker with their win over RIC last week wouldn't they?

[AllStar]

Keene over Dartmouth 96-95.

[7express]

7 Express
Aren't Western and Dartmouth tied for third?  Dartmouth would have the tiebreaker with their win over RIC last week wouldn't they?

Yah.  Thanks for that.  Going through all these scenarios make stats homework look like pre-K math equations.

[7express]

Eastern over USM 68-58.  Congrats to the Warriors on a perfect mark in the LEC, the first time that had been accomplished in more than 20 years.  Conor Sullivan had 17 and Tyler Penney had 14 points for the Huskies and each had 8 rebounds.  Mike Garrow had 15 points and Trachone Preston had 24 on 10-18 shooting.  I know they were shooting for history, but really surprised to see Garrow & Preston out there for 35 minutes in a "meaningless" game.   USM finishes 7th and will play @ RIC Tuesday night.
RIC over Plymouth 70-59.  Welp, I missed the boat on this one! Curtis Arsenault had a game high 18 for Plymouth while Tom DeCiantis and Chris Burton each had 12 to lead RIC.  Chris Burton played 34 minutes, but he was the only Anchorman to play more than 25 minutes.
Keene over Dartmouth 96-95.  Nate Howard had 20 points & 11 rebounds while Tre Tipton put in 19 points for Keene, while Tucker Bouchard had a game high 34 for the Corsairs and Abi Akanni and Ryan Walsh each had 19.  Can sometime send the memo to coach Baptiste that this game was absolutely meaningless for him??  Why are 4/5 of the Corsairs starters playing 33+ minutes and WHY is he using only 3 bench players??  It's a friggen scrimmage for you guys for Christ's sake.  It can't change your seeding, your not in pool C discussion, so the only way into the NCAAs is to win the LEC tourney.  Start your guys to keep them fresh, play them for 15-20 minutes, then get them the hell outta there!
Western survives Boston 86-82.  Kadeem Coulter had 20 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Beacons, Kendall Marquez had 22 & Ronnie Underwood had 21 to lead Western.  Western was up 10 with 4 minutes left to play, yet Boston had the ball inside of 60 seconds only down 2.  Pathetic!  I may be worse frusterated by this year's squad than last years 5-21 team.  Last year's squad was just overmatched talent wise, this years team has all the tools to be successful, yet we make incredibly stupid decisions with the basketball.  This team could very well make a run in the LEC tourney because the trap defense is good and they are really quick.  Maybe even quicker then the Brooks teams, but man they make some stupid decisions.  They also don't play defense very well, transistion defense is abysmal, free throw shooting is bad, and the worst is they have no killer instinct.  None.  0.  Getting the win is all that matters in the end, but they need to stop being the cat toying with the mouse.  Sooner or later, the cat is gonna nod off and the mouse is gonna make it's escape.  Almost happened with Plymouth (up 20 with under 7 minutes to play, won by 2 on a last second miss) earlier this month and almost happened here (up 10 with 4 minutes to go, won by 4, but were only up 2 under a 60 seconds to go).  Is it really too much to ask to put a team away once this year???  And before you ask, I absolutely hate this matchup with Plymouth.  Much rather would've played Keene and their up-and-down style.  About the only thing going for Western is Plymouth has to take about a 5 hour bus ride (though I wonder if they'll come down Monday night??).  Always tough to beat a team 3 times in 1 season, but more importantly, I'm not looking forward to playing Plymouth's grind-it-out, park the bus style of play.  Plymouth overall isn't that good, but if they can dictate their pace, they'll be advancing.

99-39 me.

Official LEC tournament:
#8 Boston (6-19, 0-14)
@ 2/25
#1 Eastern (20-5, 14-0)

#7 USM (7-18, 3-11)
@ 2/25
#2 RIC (17-8, 11-3)

#6 Keene (8-16, 5-9)
@ 2/25
#3 Dartmouth (15-10, 8-6)

#5 Plymouth (13-12, 7-7)
@ 2/25
#4 Western (16-8, 8-6)
Dartmouth won the tiebreaker over Western because the Corsairs were 1-1 against RIC while the Colonials were 0-2.  I'll make predictions Monday, but only road team I think has a legitimate chance of winning is Plymouth.  RIC should win easily and Dartmouth & Eastern should win by 10+.  Of course last year I said 3 of the 4 road teams had a legit chance at winning, none did and 3/4 of the 4 were blowouts, so watch 3/4 win this year.

RIC, Eastern & Western all have double headers with the women playing home quarterfinals first, so those game should start around 7:30 while the Dartmouth men have a single game (after the women totally choked), so their game should start at 7.

[7express]

Quarterfinal predictions:

#5 Plymouth @ #4 Western Connecticut
Western won by 13 in Plymouth and by 2 in Danbury, but were up 20 with under 7 minutes to play before they played really stupid basketball.  Plymouth plays good defense, and Western doesn't have a killer instinct, so Plymouth will hang around for 38 or 39 minutes, but Western squeaks it out.  The oddsmakers agree with Western's late-game closeouts, as they only have the Colonials favored by a mere 4 points.  I'll take Western 72-66.

#7 Southern Maine @ #2 Rhode island College
RIC won both meetings by 12 points each.   RIC isn't that good, but USM going on the road for a Tuesday night, not good.  RIC favored by 13, but I'll take RIC 69-57 for another 12 point win.

#8 Boston @ #1 Eastern
Boston may be 0-14, but they have been playing teams close.  Lost to Western twice this year by 4 points each, lead @ Plymouth last Saturday for more then 37 minutes, lost to RIC & Dartmouth at home by 5 & 6 points.  Eastern won by 19 in Willimantic, and by 13 in Boston without Salzillo.  The oddsmakers have made the Warriors a big 18.5 point favorite.  Beacons play them close for 30 minutes, but Eastern pulls away late to win 84-69

#6 Keene State @ #3 Dartmouth
Whatever the over is in this game, take it!  Teams combined for 193 points @ Dartmouth in January (103-90 Dartmouth win), and 191 points @ Keene on Saturday afternnon (96-95 Keene win).  Oddsmakers have set Dartmouth as a 2.5 point favorite with an over/under of 187, I'll take Dartmouth, but slightly under 94-90 for only 184 total points.

[7express]

Now seems like a good time for my LEC preview.  LEC record in parenthesis.

1) RIC (12-2).  Can never count out a Bob Walsh team.  Will probably struggle early on, but Western always gets them late in the season when they've found their groove.  Defense was superb last year, if they want to get over the hurdle and make that next step in the NCAAs, they have to get better on the offensive end, which is what held them back last year.  They'll be great on defense again, but can they score enough to win some of these close games vs. Eastern, Amherst, Brandeis, etc??
2) Eastern (11-3).  Last year they weren't supposed to be as good as they finished up.  They'll be right up there with RIC again for the whole season.  Eastern/RIC games will be the 2 games to watch in the conference this year and I have a feeling we'll be seeing more than the 2 scheduled meetings this year.
3) USM (9-5).  As I've stated before was USM's gaudy LEC record last year the product of a terrible conference, or are they building something up there in Gorham??  Only time will tell, however they look to be the best of the rest and I still don't think the conference will be that good.  Better than 2012-13 definitely, but definitely not as good as it was in 2010/11 or 2011/12.
4) Boston (8-6).  The last half of the 2 tiered conference I see this year.  I don't see much difference between finishing 3rd and 4th this year (both will win their home quarterfinal games, and both will lose to Eastern/RIC in the semifinals).  I can't see Boston finishing higher than 3rd and can't see them finishing lower than 4th, so whether them & USM swap spots really doesn't matter all that much in the long run.
5) Western (6-8).  Who really knows with this team and the rest of the 4 teams in general??  We basically did a roster overhaul from last season, and can't finish that much worse than we did.
6) Plymouth (5-9).  Will be tough to beat in Plymouth.  If they can go 6-1 at home in LEC games than sweep the road games against the bottom of the barrel teams (Western, Dartmouth, Keene, then get a win @ Boston & USM) they could possibly crack the top 4, but I just don't see it.
6) Dartmouth (5-9).  Much like Western, can't be much worse than they were last season.
8) Keene (4-10).  They've been so inconsistent for the past 3 years and they lose arguable their 2 most important players: Ryan Martin & Rashard Wright both playing professional right now.  If they couldn't win the conference with those 2, good luck trying to win it with Martell Walcott, Tom Doyle and Tre' Tipton.  Not bad players by any means, but compared with Martin & Wright, those guys are horrible.

LEC finals: RIC over Eastern; LEC back to a multiple bid league as Eastern joins RIC in the NCAAs.

Preseason player of the year:
Brian Salzillo-Eastern

All conference first team:
Martell Wolcott-Keene
John Genkos-Dartmouth
Conor Sullivan-USM
Alex Burt-Plymouth
Nyheem Sanders RIC
Salzillo-Eastern

These were awful, sheesh!

Martell Wolcott & John Genkos??  LOL, are they even still on their respective teams anymore??
Alex Burt was a no show this year for Plymouth.  Ended up having a bunch of nice freshmen that came in and played major minutes along with bench players the last couple years who both combined for major roles (Shomari Morgan, Logan Kesty, Curtis Arsenault, Uche Nwokeje) but if they got even a quarter of Burt's production from last year to this year they are probably hosting Western tonight instead of going to Western tonight.
Same with Nyheem Sanders for RIC.  RIC got a lot of minutes from incoming freshmen/role players (Terrance Trible, Victor Smith, Austin Cilley), so it made Sanders expandable this year.  Currently he's out injured I think as I haven't seen him in a boxscore in a while.

Well, at least Salzillo will probably win POY and RIC actually did finish 12-2 so I guess I got something right...

[warriorcat]

Although I think Salzillo was probably the favorite to be the POY at the time he went out with mono, Mike Garrow carried the Warriors down the stretch and he will probably win the award.  Trachone Preston could also gain some support, as well, but he is only a sophomore.  Any chance that all three of these guys make first team all-conference?

[ECSUalum]

UMB and ECSU tied at half.
Someone needs to take over the camera work from the press booth tonight!!!  Very Poor!!!

[warriorcat]

UM Boston 21  ECSU 21 at the half

Both teams are playing poorly.  Ecsu was down by a many as 11 but they found a way to tie it late.  Trachone Preston leads the ECSU offense  with Salzillo 5 points 10 Garrow scoreless.  Sam Freeman is the high man for UMB with 9 pts.