MBB: Little East

[AllStar]

Keene loses 89-77...did not play well enough.  They need to learn and get better for the final five conference games and whatever happens beyond that, which is hopefully more than just a game or two.

[AllStar]

An utterly brutal performance against the worst team in the conference and Keene can kiss everything goodbye after that. Not good.

[ECSUalum]

You have to have serious doubts about a team when they seem to play down to the completion!!  I refuse to believe its the long drive to Plymouth NH.  Its focus and Eastern just was not a focused team this afternoon.  Their defense which has always been a strong point seems to be seriously lacking today, AGAIN, (the Keene St game), and, they gave up another over 80 point game to a team that averages 73 pts/game,. The post position players cannot play a post position, and the team in general, is not protecting the ball very well!  Bottom line, they could have gone up two games on Keene, (they lost today), but drop the game to 10-10 Plymouth St. Some days this year they looked like a NCAA tournament team, some days like a very average team. Maybe it is the "killer instinct", that needs to be instilled by the coach. Just a painful game to watch today!  I should have watched the Amherst Tufts game    Congrats to the Lord Jeffs in taking down Tufts today, seemingly with relative ease.

[AllStar]

You have to have serious doubts about a team when they seem to play down to the completion!!  I refuse to believe its the long drive to Plymouth NH.  Its focus and Eastern just was not a focused team this afternoon.  Their defense which has always been a strong point seems to be seriously lacking today, AGAIN, (the Keene St game), and, they gave up another over 80 point game to a team that averages 73 pts/game,. The post position players cannot play a post position, and the team in general, is not protecting the ball very well!  Bottom line, they could have gone up two games on Keene, (they lost today), but drop the game to 10-10 Plymouth St. Some days this year they looked like a NCAA tournament team, some days like a very average team. Maybe it is the "killer instinct", that needs to be instilled by the coach. Just a painful game to watch today!  I should have watched the Amherst Tufts game    Congrats to the Lord Jeffs in taking down Tufts today, seemingly with relative ease.

Average is great compared to the utterly horrible game that Keene played against Southern Maine.  Keene is being hindered badly by pathetic losses to Rhode Island College (who scored a whopping 46 points today) and last place Southern Maine.  You get what you deserve.  I'm not sure who Keene will beat right now, honestly. 

[amh63]

ECSU...it may not help much but.....the video broadcast of the Tufts vs. Amherst game by the NSN was "broken"...for me in Md.  All the other games going on had working video.  Comfort for me was that I watched the Amherst vs Tufts WBB game...played at Tufts.  The battle between the no.1.and no.2 ranked teams was tense.  Amherst won the thriller by one point. 

[ECSUalum]

ECSU...it may not help much but.....the video broadcast of the Tufts vs. Amherst game by the NSN was "broken"...for me in Md.  All the other games going on had working video.  Comfort for me was that I watched the Amherst vs Tufts WBB game...played at Tufts.  The battle between the no.1.and no.2 ranked teams was tense.  Amherst won the thriller by one point.

amh63,
Congrats on the double victory today!  Just goes to show that the LJ's long anticipated demise is premature!! 
I went to the NSN stream of the Amherst/Tufts game at the ECSU/Plymouth halftime and it was a beautiful HD picture from Le Frak!  The first half of the ECSU game stream was plagued with buffering and freezes, which got better the second half!  We use Charter Spectrum here in SW CT and I wonder if when too many people are online, the so called fiber optics network gets bogged down!!? NESCAC has been exciting this year with a lot of "upset minded" teams this year!!  I know conference play is always unpredictable, but losing to "weaker" teams drives me up the wall!!

[7express]

And Western loses again to RIC in Providence!!  Even when Walsh leaves we STILL can't beat them in that building!  Last year they finished 6-21, yet Western was only 1-1 against them.  Only Boston hasn't won there since Walsh departed, and that's only because the first game this season was in Boston, they'll get a chance to get a win there Saturday afternoon.

And Western is now officially the ONLY LEC team that has not won at least 1 game in Providence the last 3 years.  Absolutely $#!tty performance.  Plymouth hadn't won there in 15 years, and God knows how long it's been for Boston because they've been mostly terrible.  And I see Western loses again to Dartmouth.  They are 4-6, yet somehow still holding down the 4th seed    They owe Plymouth, Boston, RIC & USM some gratitude for being as terrible as they are a freaking 4-6 team is in position to host a home game.  This might be the worst year I've seen the conference.  The last 5 years have been horrible, but at least the 4th seed could manage an 8-6 record to at least have a winning record.  The 4th seed this year will be lucky to finish with 6 wins.

[AllStar]

And Western loses again to RIC in Providence!!  Even when Walsh leaves we STILL can't beat them in that building!  Last year they finished 6-21, yet Western was only 1-1 against them.  Only Boston hasn't won there since Walsh departed, and that's only because the first game this season was in Boston, they'll get a chance to get a win there Saturday afternoon.

And Western is now officially the ONLY LEC team that has not won at least 1 game in Providence the last 3 years.  Absolutely $#!tty performance.  Plymouth hadn't won there in 15 years, and God knows how long it's been for Boston because they've been mostly terrible.  And I see Western loses again to Dartmouth.  They are 4-6, yet somehow still holding down the 4th seed    They owe Plymouth, Boston, RIC & USM some gratitude for being as terrible as they are a freaking 4-6 team is in position to host a home game.  This might be the worst year I've seen the conference.  The last 5 years have been horrible, but at least the 4th seed could manage an 8-6 record to at least have a winning record.  The 4th seed this year will be lucky to finish with 6 wins.

Keene is doing a great job at giving the bottom feeders wins.

[7express]

And Western loses again to RIC in Providence!!  Even when Walsh leaves we STILL can't beat them in that building!  Last year they finished 6-21, yet Western was only 1-1 against them.  Only Boston hasn't won there since Walsh departed, and that's only because the first game this season was in Boston, they'll get a chance to get a win there Saturday afternoon.

And Western is now officially the ONLY LEC team that has not won at least 1 game in Providence the last 3 years.  Absolutely $#!tty performance.  Plymouth hadn't won there in 15 years, and God knows how long it's been for Boston because they've been mostly terrible.  And I see Western loses again to Dartmouth.  They are 4-6, yet somehow still holding down the 4th seed    They owe Plymouth, Boston, RIC & USM some gratitude for being as terrible as they are a freaking 4-6 team is in position to host a home game.  This might be the worst year I've seen the conference.  The last 5 years have been horrible, but at least the 4th seed could manage an 8-6 record to at least have a winning record.  The 4th seed this year will be lucky to finish with 6 wins.

Reading through the play-by-play, Dartmouth lead for all of 2 minutes and 44 seconds in this game: 1:58 in the first half where they had an 11-10 lead, and the final 46 seconds of regulation.  Dartmouth tried to hand Western the game on a silver platter by missing 4 straight free throws in the final 14 seconds holding the 1 point lead, but Western responded, and refused to take the gift handed over by the Corsairs by responding to the Corsairs 4 straight misses free throws by raising them 2 missed layups, 1 of which might have won them the game.  FWIW, I saw coach Harlow later on at Fairfield University at the Trumbull vs. St. Joes high school game, luckily I didn't ask him how they did 

[warriorcat]

With four conference play dates left seeding for the tournament is wide open. Three teams contending for the top three spots with ECSU having games with the other two contenders. The other five teams are all in contention for the 4-8 spots. I will say that the Conference tournament will be all important as I do not see the LEC as anything but a one bid league.

[AllStar]

With four conference play dates left seeding for the tournament is wide open. Three teams contending for the top three spots with ECSU having games with the other two contenders. The other five teams are all in contention for the 4-8 spots. I will say that the Conference tournament will be all important as I do not see the LEC as anything but a one bid league.

Could have been a two bid league, but Eastern suffered too many early losses and Keene has wasted their decent strength of schedule with awful losses to UNE, RIC, and Southern Maine.  Losing one of those is bad enough, let alone three.

[amh63]

Yet this down conference have teams that have beaten two top 10 teams.  EConn put a hurt on Amherst and did not Mass-Dartmouth  just take down Tufts. 
The Nescac is bunched together this season and road wins are rare.  Last night before I hit my pillow, there were four top 10 tens..D1 teams..upset and a fifth on the ropes...Kentucky.  Only Gonzaga in Washington St. remained unbeaten.  The game of basketball seems to changing in colleges these days...heading to the pro style...more of an outside offensive game,imo.
I heard a pundit type announcer make a revealing statement obout a player yesterday.  He discribed a player on the floor as a top college BB player in a college game!  The player played the game hard on both sides while on the floor.  That was different in his mind to the Kentucky type player that play to get ready for the pros..more talented, yes...but not always as a team player.

[ECSUalum]

If ECSU gains home court advantage and lose the LEC tournament again, there is something wrong!!

[AllStar]

If ECSU gains home court advantage and lose the LEC tournament again, there is something wrong!!

Well I certainly know it won't be Keene hosting...so Dartmouth is the only other possibility, and I don't see that happening either.

[AllStar]