MBB: Little East

[7express]

My 2017-18 LEC predictions:

1) Eastern Connecticut (12-2)
1) Keene State (12-2)
3) Western Connecticut (9-5)
4) UMass-Dartmouth (8-6)
5) UMass-Boston (6-8)
6) Plymouth State (5-9)
7) RI College (4-10)
7) USM (4-10)

Western finished in sole possession of last place last year despite finishing with a .500 overall record, they are due for a corrective trend back up to the mean.  Outside of Bobby Bynum who had 1 year of eligibility left but is not on the roster (January transfer, transferred out, decided not to play who the hell knows??) they have most of the guys back from last year's team.  And I have a feeling they'll play a lot better this year then they did the second half of last season, and by the time February rolled around they completely threw in the towel.  Keene is still the favorite to get back to the NCAA's and to make a deep run with the Dizel Wright/Ty Nichols back court duo for 1 final year.  Eastern will be right up there with them again.  Unless Western completely revamped the defensive side of the ball, the semifinals is their ceiling.  They won't be able to outscore Wright & Nichols, and god forbid them putting up 80+ on Eastern's defensive.  Speaking of Eastern, I think this is a good year to finally beat them.  I think Eastern has won like 14 of the last 16 in the series, and the final 2 games last year Eastern put up over 200 combined points.

LEC tournament predictions:
Boston beats Dartmouth (4-5 game), all other high seeds (Western #3, Keene #2, Eastern #1) advance.  Keene over Eastern in the finals again, and Eastern joins Keene in the NCAA tournament.

MVP:
Ty Nichols- Keene State

First team:
Nichols- Keene State
Tarchee Brown- Eastern Connecticut
Rashard Rodriguez- Western Connecticut
Dizel Wright- Keene State
Joshua Imadiyi- Dartmouth
Sean jany- Southern Maine

[AllStar]

Keene, which has a ton of new faces and a young team, has plenty of work to do after their season opener, that's for sure.

[WPI89]

Eastern wins. Faces WPI tomorrow  fun early game!

[ECSUalum]

Eastern wins. Faces WPI tomorrow  fun early game!

WPI it should be a good game, however I hope Eastern plays better than yesterday!  I counted +/- 10 blown layups!  They will be missing Hugh Lindo's scoring, defensive and especially rebounding prowess this year and have a big hole to fill!  However, they have one excellent freshman and a couple of good Sophomore transfers, one from from Keene St!  Carlos Gonzales will be huge for them this year and may compete with T Brown in offensive stats and LEC honors. Contributions from sharpshooter K Marquez should also be significant!
If ECSU can stay out of year end injuries which has plagued them over the last couple years, and the young players mature well, they should have an excellent season and playoffs!

[WPI89]

Congrats ECSU. See you again in 2 weeks!  Kind of strange?

[ECSUalum]

Congrats ECSU. See you again in 2 weeks!  Kind of strange?

Thanks WPI, Your team certainly scared the crap out of me when they went on an 18-5 run to start the game and outplayed the Warriors the first half! WPI are young but extremely talented and it could be a different outcome in Willimantic!!

[middhoops]

Keene St. beats MIT.  Didn't see that one coming.
Congrats to the Owls. 

[warriorcat]

Undoubtedly Keene's biggest win of the season this afternoon. After falling behind 9-0 and as many as 12 points in the first half, the Owls battled from behind to take a nine point lead only to see it disappear under a flurry of 3 pts by the Engineers. Like they have In each of their previous three games, this was a game that could have gone either way.  This is a young group, only wright and Nichols have played any significant minutes at the college level.  They have a couple more out of conference games to play (Lasell and Colby-Sawyer) before they begin conference play next Saturday.

[ECSUalum]

ECSU defeats Montclair St 72-55 on the backs of Tarchee Browns 22 pts, Kendal Marquez' 19 and some pretty good D, holding the Red Hawks nearly 40 pts below their average.  Eastern was down a basket at the half however, like they have been doing over the last couple years come out in the second half on a tear and go on a couple of big runs to pull away.  So far this year Brown, Gonzales, Marquez and Collegan  have each contributed with big games to lead the Warriors to a 4-0 start!  They will play Colby tomorrow for the Colby Tourney championship!  Colby is also undefeated.  Last year, Eastern played WPI, Middlebury, Williams and Conn College in the first 4 of 5 games and started 1-4! Coach Geitner organized an little bit easier early schedule this year.  They start their LEC schedule at Rhode Island College on Dec 2, and play WPI again in early Dec.

BTW, It is obvious from the box scores that rebounding is becoming a bit of a problem this year with the loss of Huge Lindo!!

[amh63]

ECSU....it seems that the upper half of your conference is flexing their muscle. Your team's arrival in LeFrak on the 2nd of Jan. will be another tests for Amherst...before the start of conference games.  Should be a good one!  Wish I could be there.

[ECSUalum]

ECSU....it seems that the upper half of your conference is flexing their muscle. Your team's arrival in LeFrak on the 2nd of Jan. will be another tests for Amherst...before the start of conference games.  Should be a good one!  Wish I could be there.

We went up to Amherst a couple a years ago to watch the Amherst ECSU game and stayed at the Lord Jeff Inn!  It was very cold but enjoyed the Inn and the game!  Amherst won by 10 that year!  Hope to go again one of these years!!

[amh63]

Maybe WE can in a post season game hosted in LeFrak!
Oops...forgot....see that the Warriors...ladies will host a game against Amherst this Thurs!  AP  Amherst has two players out presently...a Sr. From Vt. And a Sr. From East Lyme.  Only one FY this season...rumor has it that four recruits will arrive next yr.

[7express]

The Eastern women are not very good so far, Amherst should not have a problem with them.

[ECSUalum]

Really excellent Colby Classic Championship game this afternoon in Waterville Me! Eastern pulls it out in the last minute 83-77 on some stellar play down the stretch from So Carlos Gonzales.  Colby has a very talented young team with Schlager, Hanna, Jefferson and Tucker. I can see the Mules being an up and coming team in the NESCAC this year.  I was particularly impressed with fyr Hanna with his dribble drive skills.  Balanced Warrior scoring with 15, 25, 15, 11 points from Gonzales, Brown, Muckle, and Marquez resp.  Whenever Eastern tried to pull away Schlager would hit another three and pull the Mules right back in.

Long ride home for the Warriors on a terrible night to be on the road!!

[amh63]

I watched the second half of the game at Colby.  Yes the Colby team is doing well.  So is Bowdoin that just beat Babson today.  The Nescac is rebuilding this season with young players.
7Express....Yes, Amherst's WBB team is a little short on the bench presently.  Still, Amherst is a little too big and long up front for the ECSU's ladies.  Amherst still has enough talent to make another run for the Final 4 this season, IMO.
All in all, it is proving to be an interesting early season .