MBB: Little East

[AllStar]

[7express]

Plymouth loses at home to USM which puts Boston in the drivers seat for the final home playoff spot, and eliminates RIC from hosting it  Boston will win a tiebreaker with RIC (swept season series) but lose the tiebreaker to Plymouth (since Plymouth beat Eastern).  Plymouth also owns the tiebreaker with RIC based on the Panthers win over the Warriors and would ALSO win a 3 team tiebreaker with RIC & Boston based on the fact they'd have a better record vs. Eastern (1-1) than Boston or RIC would have had (0-2).

For the teams that could end 5-9:
Plymouth owns the tiebreaker on RIC (season sweep), and Southern Maine (USM would be 0-2 vs, Eastern compared to Plymouth's 1-1)
RIC owns the tiebreakers on both Western & USM since they swept the season series from both teams.
Western would own tiebreakers on Plymouth (since in this scenario they would have swept Plymouth) and also USM (since they swept them too)
USM would own tiebreakers on no one I believe
In a 4 way tie for 5th at 5-9: RIC would be the 5, Western would be the 6, Plymouth the 7th & USM the 8th.  RIC and Western would both be 4-2 in common games which is a superior winning percentage to both Plymouth (3-3) & USM (1-5) in such games so they get taken out of the tiebreaker, and revert back to the 2 team tiebreaker which RIC wins via the season sweep.  Reverts back to the 2 team tiebreaker to decide 7 & 8 which Plymouth wins via the Eastern win.
In potential 3 way ties at 5-9:
Plymouth wins a 3 way tie with RIC & Western (due to them beating Eastern) and RIC & USM (superior winning percentage in common games)
RIC wins a 3 way tie with Western & USM (superior winning percentage)
Western wins a 3 way with Plymouth & USM (superior winning percentage)

So, once again Western's loss to RIC comes back to bite them in the behind once again!  They aren't beating any of the top 3 anyways, and with the defense they have been playing it looks like they'll be run of the gymnasium against all 3 teams too, but if they win EITHER of their 2 games they lost to RIC they finish as the 5 seed and at least have a beatable opponent (Boston) before getting sacrificed for whoever finishes as the 1 seed.  Win BOTH of those games vs. RIC which is what they should have done and they are likely a 4 seed.  They'll still get a beatable opponent (either Boston or Plymouth) but the difference is they'll get that beatable opponent at home in Danbury which makes them even MORE beatable.  As it stands now, since they probably won't finish higher than 6th, they'll be lucky to play Keene to within 20 points in the quarterfinals. 

Saturday schedule:
Dartmouth @ USM.  Trap game for the Corsairs, I like the Huskies in an upset
Boston @ Eastern.  Warriors wrap up the #1 seed in the conference for what seems like the 17th time in a row (I know it would only be I think 3 (4??) straight years, but seems a lot longer)
Western @ Plymouth.  Dead men walking, Plymouth rolls them at home.
RIC @ Keene.  Keene at home by double figures.  IF I get them all right (and really I'll be lucky if I go 2/4) that'll set the seedings as: Eastern (1), Keene (2), Dartmouth (3) and than who cares because nobody else is relevant this year, or has a snowball's chance in hell at knocking off one of those top 3 but: Plymouth (4) hooray for a crappy conference where a 6-8 record gets rewarded for HOSTING a quarterfinal game!  And with Boston playing Eastern no matter who is the 4 seed, the 4 seed is almost 100% likely to have a 6-8 conference record.  See, I told you everyone else was irrelevant after those first 3!  Boston (5), RIC (6), USM (7), Western (8)

[Bengalsrule]

So All Star... How long before you give us the latest update I've at the Sunyac boards?  There's some tiebreaking , head scratching, can't wait for tomorrow nervousness that only you can help solve!

[AllStar]

[7express]

I think its safe to say a 12-12 overall record is the best record the last place team has EVER achieved??  And also, the Plymouth/Boston game is the only quarterfinal game that looks even semi interesting and that game ain't even look good!  Wake me up on Friday evening in time for the Keene/Dartmouth semifinal game!

BTW, what are they going to do @ Eastern this year since it's the 3rd straight year the men & women will be hosting the semifinals??  2 years ago (15) the men played semifinals on Friday & the final on Saturday while the women played semifinals on Saturday & the final Sunday.  Last year (16) it was reversed with the women playing Friday semifinals, finals Saturday, and the men playing semi's on Saturday and finals Saturday.  Hopefully this year (17) Eastern does the smart thing and has them both on the same day!  Women's semifinals Friday afternoon (first game at 12, second game at 2), and than men's semifinals Friday night (5:30 first game, 7:30 second time).  Then have both finals on Saturday: Maybe like 4 for the women & 7 for the men.  Catch 4 games (but really only 2 good games) and hit up Willimantic Brewing Company for some eats in the 90 minutes between the games.

[AllStar]

Presuming both ECSU teams win on Tuesday, I think there is a rotation between who plays Friday/Saturday and who plays Saturday/Sunday.  Last year the men played Saturday/Sunday, so I think they'd go back to Friday/Saturday this year and the women will do Saturday/Sunday.

[7express]

Presuming both ECSU teams win on Tuesday, I think there is a rotation between who plays Friday/Saturday and who plays Saturday/Sunday.  Last year the men played Saturday/Sunday, so I think they'd go back to Friday/Saturday this year and the women will do Saturday/Sunday.

I don't get why they just don't play both on the same day??  When the AMCC had this problem earlier in this decade in the same format (highest seed remaining after the quarterfinals hosts semi's & finals) and Medaille finishing as the 1 seed in both the men's and women's field they played the women's semifinals in the afternoon on Friday and the men's in the regular time slot Friday night.  What's stopping the LEC from doing this??  Gym space is occupied Friday afternoon??  Worried about paying staff overtime for 4 games on Friday??  Laziness?? 

[Canvas Hightops]

If ever there were a case to forget the standard RPI numbers, Eastern CT deserves it this year.
Having been a fan of NE small college basketball for 50+ years, I can't remember a highly competitive team playing as nasty a schedule as the Warriors.  Really, ever.
Rather than lining up early season cupcake wins, Eastern played the top teams in the region (virtually all of them).  If the NCAA doesn't reward that, the Amherst model will endure.
And that ain't a good thing.

[ECSUalum]

Just like to give a shout out to Eastern TV for an excellent job HD streaming of ECSU men and women's basketball this season!.  The camera work has been excellent, and with superb play by play, commentary and post game interviews.  Bob Molta and the Communication Majors have built Eastern Connecticut athletics streaming into one of the best in New England!!  Keep up the good work!!  Bob, get some Air Conditioning for those poor commentators in the Press Box, it must be 90 degrees up there !

[AllStar]

[7express]

I know Western wasn't beating Eastern anyways, so let's clear that up but giving up 107 points is flat out embarrassing!!  Show some school pride!!!!!!!!!!  I feel completely embarrassed having gone to school there!  At least for the previous 20 years before 2010 when Western was the better school at least Eastern actually tried those games, and made the 2 (or sometimes even 3 games) against Western be their NCAA championship game, and that's what Western should treat this as.  Hey Colonials, news flash not sure if you've heard that, but its old news so you probably have: You aren't going to the NCAA tournament anyways.  What better way to knock out your RIVALS out of the NCAA tournament, so they can have a big party in Hartford or New Britain and watch the 2017 NCAA tournament together since neither team would be in it, but no they have to completely throw in the towel!  Give me a f***ing break!  Why the hell did they even travel to Willimantic anyways, for this pathetic......actually pathetic is far too kind.....beyond embarrassing effort!  The Warriors would have a had a more difficult time playing an intrasquad scrimmage, so the Colonials should have just saved everyone the time and money and just stayed home for that $#!t effort!

BTW, their last 2 games against Eastern they have gotten outscored 200-117.  TWO HUNDRED (200!!!!!!!!!!) points in 80 minutes of action!  If that stat alone doesn't tell you that the team gave up, than really I don't know what does 

[AllStar]

[AllStar]

Congratulations to Eastern Connecticut on their win.  I am not happy with how that game played out and if that is the end for Keene, it is simply a miserable ending.

[ECSUalum]

I will second Allstar's congratulations to Coach Geitner and the Seniors Hugh Lindo, Dave Canny and Brendon Kaczinski and the rest of the ECSU squad, on the Warrior LEC Conference Tournament victory!  It was a gritty victory over an inspired Owl team.  Hugh Lindo played inspired BB with an injured shoulder half way through the 2nd half, Dave Canny had a knee sprain but played and Tarchee Brown left the game with 5 min left with another knee problem!  Special call out to freshman Carlos Conzalez, who IMO singlehandedly helped ECSU overcome a 13 pt deficit and got the final FG to put Eastern ahead with 5.5 sec left.  Keene had 2 of their starters foul out but were tremendous tonight!  So Eastern enters the NCAA tourney pretty beaten up by the Owls!!

[AllStar]