MBB: Little East

[ECSUalum]

ECSU is most likely not going to make the LEC tournament, probably for the first time in a decade, based on the way they are currently playing, ie defense, point guard play and overall execution.  Last night game in Dartmouth MA was a joke as one referee was a homer and called multiple Ashworth 3 point no fouls on Jake Colligan and allowed the final UMD 3 pointer to count after the clock expired. IMHO this effected Jake's game as he was frustrated and knew if he incurred a T he would be benched.   This ref was a joke and should never be allowed to oversee a basketball game. 
On the positive side UMD looks very good this year with Ashworth and Asor, and additionally, the UMD play by play guy was excellent/objective, (he could not believe some of the calls and the last shot)!  The HD video of the game was superb as well.   
Eastern, UMD, UMB, and WCSU have really developed excellent basketball game productions!
BTW Shout out to Senior Jake McCarthy who had one of the best games of his career, 18 pts, 12 rebounds (if I remember correctly)!  He looks to be the teams late late bloomer

[AllStar]

Update to charts...nothing much decided at this point.

[7express]

Well....if Western ends up winning the regular season title it will have definitely earned it at the end.  Home games against Boston & Dartmouth, with a road game at RIC.  The final game is @ Keene State and while they are struggling compared to years past, Spaulding Gymnasium is still a tough place to play, and in the last decade it has NEVER been a place the Colonials have played very well.

[amh63]

ECSU...sorry that your team may miss the conference tourny.  See that "7" is again more active on the boards.  The strong possibility that WCSU May host this season has brought up thoughts that I may catch a game in Danbury...alas am scheduled to swing South.  Still, since my younger son lives in Patterson, NY and his in laws now owns a residence in Bethel, CT.,  the chances is high that my wife and I can host you and your wife for a meal and attend a game with you' all...along with 7 and my younger son and his wife.  Will keep you posted.   When my wife and I stop by for a meal and goodies at the Blue Diner in Newtown on the way to Homecoming, I think of you. 

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

The men's first regional rankings are out: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2020/02/men-regional-rankings-first

[7express]

No LEC teams in the rankings, so this will make the LEC tournament a true playoff in the sense where you won't have a 11-12 Eastern/RIC/Keene/Western safety net where you can play a bad half or bad 2 halves of a conference tournament game and not have your season be over.  Whoever plays the best over 3 days (February 25, 28, & 29 [or just the 28 & 29 for the top 2 seeds]) will be the only team this year that will be dancing.  I know going out on a limb here, but home court will be a huge advantage and there are still 6 teams (Western, Boston, Keene, RIC, Plymouth & Dartmouth) that are within 2 games of each other with 4 games remaining, so home court not just for the semifinals and finals, but also for the 2 first round games are very much up in the air.

[wcsu91]

No LEC teams in the rankings, so this will make the LEC tournament a true playoff in the sense where you won't have a 11-12 Eastern/RIC/Keene/Western safety net where you can play a bad half or bad 2 halves of a conference tournament game and not have your season be over.  Whoever plays the best over 3 days (February 25, 28, & 29 [or just the 28 & 29 for the top 2 seeds]) will be the only team this year that will be dancing.  I know going out on a limb here, but home court will be a huge advantage and there are still 6 teams (Western, Boston, Keene, RIC, Plymouth & Dartmouth) that are within 2 games of each other with 4 games remaining, so home court not just for the semifinals and finals, but also for the 2 first round games are very much up in the air.

@7 Agree with your statement! Whoever is playing the best  the final 2 weeks including the LEC Tourney and is able to obtain home court throughout the LEC Tourney will end up being the one and only team that dances this year from the LEC.  It appears from the LEC site they are structuring the LEC tourney different this year than from what I remember in the past. Only the top  6 of the 9 teams in the LEC qualify and the 1 and 2 seeds receive a 1st round bye. So on Tuesday 2/25 you will have 6@3 and 5@4 and then the winners take on the 1 and 2 on Thursday 2/27 at each higher seed in the semi finals  and then the championship is Saturday 2/29 at the remaining highest seed. Not doing what they used to do where the #1 seed hosted the semifinal games on Friday evening and the championship the next day, Saturday. Kinda of line it this way better. Home games for the highest seed remaining!

[wcsu91]

WCSU with a huge 84-82 win at home against UMass Boston On a Fenton Bradley dunk with 3.7 seconds left In front of a Roccus crowd At the ONeil Center. With the Win WCSU moves to 10-4 in the conference in first place. Hopefully WCSU can win 1 of their final 2 road game at RIC aNd Keane State and secure first place and the # 1 seed and home court advantage where they are 8-0 in conference play and 11-1 overall.

[wcsu91]

Makes you wonder what the LEC coaches were thinking with this pre season poll as it is way off. Keane and ECSU are currently 6/7 respectively. Granted I know injuries happen but this is way off:

2019-20 LEC Men's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll

Pl.   Team   Points   FPV
1.   Eastern Connecticut    58   4
2.   Keene State   57   4
3.   UMass Dartmouth   49   
4.   Rhode Island College   38   1
5.   Western Connecticut   37   
6.   Plymouth State   35   
7.   UMass Boston   27   
8.   Southern Maine   15   
9.   Castleton   8   

[Pat Coleman]

Makes you wonder what the LEC coaches were thinking with this pre season poll as it is way off. Keane and ECSU are currently 6/7 respectively. Granted I know injuries happen but this is way off:

Coaches are especially reticent to go out and make bold predictions. Generally a coaches' conference preseason poll is just going to parrot last season's order of finish and this one isn't much different.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Makes you wonder what the LEC coaches were thinking with this pre season poll as it is way off. Keane and ECSU are currently 6/7 respectively. Granted I know injuries happen but this is way off:

Coaches are especially reticent to go out and make bold predictions. Generally a coaches' conference preseason poll is just going to parrot last season's order of finish and this one isn't much different.

To add on to that ... I've seen some coach's pools take place before rosters are even out. Sometimes they literally are forced to guess.

[ECSUalum]

Makes you wonder what the LEC coaches were thinking with this pre season poll as it is way off. Keane and ECSU are currently 6/7 respectively. Granted I know injuries happen but this is way off:

2019-20 LEC Men's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll

Pl.   Team   Points   FPV
1.   Eastern Connecticut    58   4
2.   Keene State   57   4
3.   UMass Dartmouth   49   
4.   Rhode Island College   38   
5.   Western Connecticut   37   
6.   Plymouth State   35   
7.   UMass Boston   27   
8.   Southern Maine   15   
9.   Castleton   8

Re ECSU the coaches likely had no idea Carlos Gonzalez was taking a red shirt year!  His loss was huge this year with the team never the same as in the 2018-19 season!  It is the same in the D3hoops pre-season polls which look almost identical to the previous years final poll.  Coaches do not have a crystal ball on recruits, (except perhaps with NESCAC schools which do more publicization of their nationally recruited incoming freshman players), nor can they predict injuries to impact players.  Therefore, take pre-season polls with a grain of salt!

[wcsu91]

Makes you wonder what the LEC coaches were thinking with this pre season poll as it is way off. Keane and ECSU are currently 6/7 respectively. Granted I know injuries happen but this is way off:

2019-20 LEC Men's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll

Pl.   Team   Points   FPV
1.   Eastern Connecticut    58   4
2.   Keene State   57   4
3.   UMass Dartmouth   49   
4.   Rhode Island College   38   
5.   Western Connecticut   37   
6.   Plymouth State   35   
7.   UMass Boston   27   
8.   Southern Maine   15   
9.   Castleton   8

Re ECSU the coaches likely had no idea Carlos Gonzalez was taking a red shirt year!  His loss was huge this year with the team never the same as in the 2018-19 season!  It is the same in the D3hoops pre-season polls which look almost identical to the previous years final poll.  Coaches do not have a crystal ball on recruits, (except perhaps with NESCAC schools which do more publicization of their nationally recruited incoming freshman players), nor can they predict injuries to impact players.  Therefore, take pre-season polls with a grain of salt!

As I stated in my previous post I know coaches can not predict injuries and injuries can happen throughout the season,  I get that. Just find it interesting.  Too bad ECSU was picked 1 and they won't even make the conference tourney.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Re ECSU the coaches likely had no idea Carlos Gonzalez was taking a red shirt year!  His loss was huge this year with the team never the same as in the 2018-19 season!  It is the same in the D3hoops pre-season polls which look almost identical to the previous years final poll.  Coaches do not have a crystal ball on recruits, (except perhaps with NESCAC schools which do more publicization of their nationally recruited incoming freshman players), nor can they predict injuries to impact players.  Therefore, take pre-season polls with a grain of salt!

Your assertion about the D3hoops.com Preseason poll is not accurate. We get a LOT of information from schools and programs about who is back, who isn't back, who they brought in via recruits, etc. If a school doesn't give us information that is accurate, we can't help that. However, there are many times we get information that changes in the two weeks leading up to the season.

I'm not saying the preseason ballot is going to be perfect by any stretch, but saying it is nearly identical to the final poll the season before isn't accurate. Look at this season's (https://www.d3hoops.com/top25/men/2019-20/preseason) and tell me how many teams you see with "--" next to their names indicating they weren't even ranked in the final poll last season. Eight teams in total including WashU which was 7th in the preseason. Voters do their homework. Again, doesn't make it perfect, but it certainly isn't just slapped together to look like the final poll from the previous March.

Now, coaches' polls depends on the conference. There does tend to be some "politics" involved, but I also know some conferences that vote so early that rosters aren't even finalized and released online. They do tend to be a little more off.

[wcsu91]

Re ECSU the coaches likely had no idea Carlos Gonzalez was taking a red shirt year!  His loss was huge this year with the team never the same as in the 2018-19 season!  It is the same in the D3hoops pre-season polls which look almost identical to the previous years final poll.  Coaches do not have a crystal ball on recruits, (except perhaps with NESCAC schools which do more publicization of their nationally recruited incoming freshman players), nor can they predict injuries to impact players.  Therefore, take pre-season polls with a grain of salt!

Your assertion about the D3hoops.com Preseason poll is not accurate. We get a LOT of information from schools and programs about who is back, who isn't back, who they brought in via recruits, etc. If a school doesn't give us information that is accurate, we can't help that. However, there are many times we get information that changes in the two weeks leading up to the season.

I'm not saying the preseason ballot is going to be perfect by any stretch, but saying it is nearly identical to the final poll the season before isn't accurate. Look at this season's (https://www.d3hoops.com/top25/men/2019-20/preseason) and tell me how many teams you see with "--" next to their names indicating they weren't even ranked in the final poll last season. Eight teams in total including WashU which was 7th in the preseason. Voters do their homework. Again, doesn't make it perfect, but it certainly isn't just slapped together to look like the final poll from the previous March.

Now, coaches' polls depends on the conference. There does tend to be some "politics" involved, but I also know some conferences that vote so early that rosters aren't even finalized and released online. They do tend to be a little more off.

Thank you for insight Dave! I didn't think it was as simple as stated by some other posts, maybe sour grapes🤣? Anyway, a Western win combined with a Dartmouth loss gives Western the Number 1 seed for the LEC Tourney and home court advantage where they are 8-0 in conference play this year and
11-1 overall! Should be fun to see how it all plays out!!