MBB: Conference of New England

[backboard]

Congrats to Todd Doyle for reaching the 1000 point milestone

[number1chargerfan]

My charger fan buddy,
You can knock the UNE coach for is recuriting D1 players who you feel do not meet your academic standards. I don't know their grade point average put it must be good enough to play ball. 
This year his recuriting class of 14 freshmen have 9 of those players reciving some sort of academic honors from their highschools.
My original statement was he knows how to recurit. I stand by that statement

wasn't knockin ya Gammer..just talkin' a little smack I gave him props as a recruiter as well

[jamiejohn]

Endicott with two big wins to start the season, anyone catch these games, what about southern maine losing two in a row. any reports.

what about Anna Maria beating the ECAC champs, good win for them.

[CCC Talk]

A little late getting my picks in this year... Last year I didn't do a fantastic job again but very few people could have forsaw what happened in the CCC last year. As always I will have my very popular odds for Player of The Year as well.

Ofer Range

14. NEC One of the worst teams of the year last year and they lose Oneychi and Jaziri, could be a long year up in Henniker for the Pilgrims. The British connection of Hennessey and Davies will have to carry the load.

Outside Looking In

13. ENC D'angelo Alston was a bright spot last year and from the looks of their opener with Gordon will continue to be this year. A lot of recruits in the house, but I can't imagine they're ready to run with the big dogs. You know they will play hard though.

12. Salve You don't usually see the Seahawks in this part of the predictions but they have been down for a few years now and lost and some strong guys. I do think Woodworth is one of the better scorers in the league but I don't see much around him.

Ready To Fight For A Spot

11. Anna Maria Retained most of their recruiting class from last year and seem to have brought in a few more contributors. Good win vs Newbury already. Tyler Washington, De La Hoz and Pinsonault will have to continue to improve to carry them.

10. Regis The biggest surprise outside of UNE in the conference last year. They bring back a good amount of guys and bring in a ton of recruits. I think a few years down the road they will be a force in this league. I'm on the Bandwagon.

9. Nichols Wilcox and Riley will make them dangerous but they need someone like a Paquin to step up and be a consistent shooter. Very good win against Becker early on and they hung with WPI for a while.

In It To Win It Playoff Teams

8. Curry The defending champs lost an awful lot of firepower. They will go as far as Mark Mastrullo can carry them and they need to develop an inside force to go with him. They sneak into the playoffs late and no one wants to face them in the first round.

7. WNEC Fredette will lead the league in rebounds...Not sure what else they have outside of Maynard who I think could be a special player as well. How they respond to the new coach will also be important.

6. Wentworth No idea what to make of these guys. They lose SPB which obviously hurts. I don't know how good Doyle is without Blue to occupy the defense. Also why is Bynes not on their roster? Weird first weekend too with a good win over USM and a loss to Lesley (!?). They will be inconsistant but a tough first round tourney matchup

5. Endicott Their roster is giant. Lots of height. Two good wins this weekend. It will be up to Whitelaw to make shots. Montrond to control the game and Galbraith, Martin, etc to control the paint. They have talent but they have recent years too, we'll see what the staff does with them.

4. Gordon The Gordon posters have been very very quiet which is a nice change. I'm sure in no time they will trumpeting their guys for awards like we're used to. Trigg and Bajema should give them 2 of the better guards in the league and they still have a lot of size with guys like Derr and Gaskill. If a recruit or two can step up and make an impact they are very dangerous

Contenders!

3. RWU Lost a lot of size but Barret, Fava and Bashaw are back to form the best backcourt in the league and supposedly their freshman forward is a MONSTER. Couple that with their home court advantage and they could be right there at the end.

2. Colby-Sawyer Everyone back, the best home court advantage in the league and an inside out threat in Szeliga and Rosso means the Chargers will be right down to the wire this year in the TCCC

1. UNE No one knows much about the newcomers but you have to assume at least a few of them will be impact guys. Simpson and Jefferson are talents and Belmonte and the supporting cast give them some stability. I like their chances to finish what they started last year and pull one out.

Player of The Year Odds


Simpson UNE 3-2

Jefferson UNE 4-1

Szeliga CSC 5-1

Rosso CSC 5-1

Barrett RWU 6-1

Bashaw RWU 12-1

Trigg GC 3-2

Bajema GC 10-1

Whitlelaw EC 10-1

Montrond EC 8-1

Doyle WIT 5-2

Fredette WNEC 8-1

Maynard WNEC 12-1

Mastrullo CC  7-1

Wilcox NC 12-1

Neal RC  15-1

De La Hoz AMC 25-1

Hinkson SRU 20-1

All Others 40-1

[witfan]

WIT looked good for 2 halves!  Which would have been OK if they only had one game but not quite enough to pull out 2 wins in the opening weekend.  Fortunately for them USM had an even worse 1st half of game 1 and WIT made them pay.  Maybe a case of first game nerves for both team?  After the first 6 minutes the score was 1-0!

WIT controlled the game vs Lesley until the last 6-8 minutes.  They had a couple opportunities in both halves to pull away and put it out of reach but fell into the trap of lowering their defensive intensity and not taking care of the ball on O when they felt a "comfortable" lead.  To Lesley's credit they never gave up against WIT, unlike the game against EC when they imploded.

A lot of new faces and surprises but I'll let the scouts earn their money.  Suffice it to say that despite the big loss of SPB (congrats on his overseas contract), the potential upside is huge!  There were some shining moments of ball movement, tough D, board control and Doyle's shot is even smoother than last year if that is possible (1st team).

2 good tests this week...

[usmainebball]

Tonight is the big night! Huskies and the Storm, mens and womens, face off tonight. I not gonna miss this one. Be there to support your team, unless your from UNE, then come watch defeat.

[Dwhite11]

The time has come....LETS GO HUSKIES!

[backboard]

I saw USM play against Endicott and minutes against WIT.  They are not a good team.  I fully expect UNE to win by 20

[steph555]

Tonights the night! dont forget to come watch UNE vs USM at the USM gym tonight 530, and 730! print out the coupon on the USM athletics page for a chance to win portland pirate tickets or an ipod!

[Dwhite11]

I dont know where my posts went dealing with the UNE vs. USM mathup...but im kind of upset!

[Pat Coleman]

We generally don't need four topics on the same game. UNE and USM each have conferences. Those conferences have message boards. That's where the discussion belongs.

And if anyone has actual discussion and not just reminders to print the coupon, please, speak up.

[teamajkd]

I saw USM play against Endicott and minutes against WIT.  They are not a good team.  I fully expect UNE to win by 20

I take it you don't know much about BB. USM beet the guts out of UNE 85-71. Go USM

[scout]

I hope this board starts lighting up with posters from every school. Of course we all are going to pump up our own teams, but if there are people representing every school, it doesn't seem so annoying.

At any rate, thank you CCC for posting your pre-season rundown. It's always fun to see in-depth analysis.

Tonight sees a big game between Gordon and MIT in Wenham. It should be a solid litmus test for the young Fighting Scots, as they only return two starters in Aaron Trigg and Brady Bajema. (Three if you count the platoon of Jeff Derr and Ben Gaskill). Otherwise, it is a good chance to see how the younger players in Greg Walker, Austen Bentson and the like handle a solid team in MIT.

MIT returns their top three scorers, but none more potent than Jimmy Bartolotta.

The game can be seen via live webcast at the Gordon Athletics website. From what I hear, the feed is much improved over last year.

[CCC Talk]

Actually...


No I think his assesment was a reasonable one. They did get beat up by Endicott and Wentworth who are both picked to finish behind UNE this year.

Looking at the box score it looks like USM made a concious decision to put the ball inside to Whittaker who UNE did not have the size to matchup with. Also Simpson fouling out and being a non factor is important to note as well as it being their first game of the year with over 10 new players.

It's a nice win for USM but considering they already got smacked by EC and WIT and are 1-2 don't be attacking the fellow for what would have been the smart money opinion before hand.

[backboard]

Last night's action:

WNEC 80 - Bridgewater State 91
Matt Maynard had 16 points and 8 rebounds while Kyle Fredette dropped 15 pts and 6 boards.

WIT 68 - Framingham State 86
Todd Doyle scored 17 and Matt Abbott had 23 of his own.  WIT allowed 54% shooting from the floor.  Looks like life after Prezzie-Blue will have some bumps.

Wheaton 83 - Salve Regina 75
Justin Woodworth held his own with 29 points and Jabreche Boyd scored 17 as well.  Salve allowed 57% shooting from the floor.

Anna Maria 53 - Wheelock 67
Henry Rose had 13 for the Amcats but they were out rebounded 42-34.

Mitchell 62 - Regis 78
Phil Alibrandi had 20 pts and 6 boards for Regis as they improve to 2-1.

Curry 45 - Amherst 73
Did we expect anything different?  Amherst jumped out to a 18-1 lead and coasted from there.  Curry's Quashed Simmons had 21 points and 5 boards as the only bright spot for the Colonels'.  Amherst held Curry to 24% shooting on the night.

New England 71 - Southern Maine 85
Johnnie Jefferson scored 21 points to go along with 5 turnovers.  USM shot 57.9% shooting on the night.  I saw USM play against Endicott over the weekend and I'm rather surprised that they beat UNE by 14.

Suffolk 62 - Nichols 80
Chris Paquin scored 20 points to lead the way for Nichols as they shot 50.7% on the night.