MBB: Conference of New England

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

ENC lost to Suffolk.

[high flyer 21]

Gordon loses its home opener against Babson 59-38...ha...whoops sorry that laugh slipped out, putting up less than 40 points on your home court can be a little humorous, or PATHETIC

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

The CCC went 3-7 opening night.

SRU 65 Wheaton 84 - Ryan Birrell apparently has eligibility left.  He had a terrible shooting night, but the assists and rebounds were there.  His leadership should be a big asset this season.  Mostly Sophomores contributing, so there's room for growth.  Only one freshman got significant minutes with little production.

RWU 71 - J&W 74 - Close one on the road against the nation's top scorer (Thomas scored 33).  RWU was led by 41 from 6'9" Senior Center, Pat Flanagan.  I know J&W doesn't have much size, but that's pretty crazy.  No one else on the team had more than 7 points.  Freshman Adam Cook started; two other freshman, Lane and Polumbo, each got 20 minutes off the bench.  This is a pretty solid result for the first night out.  There's potential here.

ENC 64 - Suffolk 67 - Ezeigbo went for 15 and 15 and appears to be over the broken leg.  ENC is missing a couple of key pieces until after Christmas so these games could really be hit or miss.  I'll be at their games this weekend as ENC plays in a tournament at Eastern University outside Philly.

Nichols 70 - Worcester State 69 - Sheehan shot pretty poorly, but scored 14 to lead five players in double figures.  Joe Gallant, a Freshman forward, got the start - shot 5-10 for 11 points and three steals.  Great opener.  Marlon Bennett, a freshman guard, went for 13 points off the bench.  They really seem to have complemented the existing parts well.  Nichols should be improved.

WNEC 68 - Lyndon State 67 - They got 19 from Shaw on a good shooting night.  Only 8 guys got minutes.  Freshman Min Lin had 20 minutes from the bench with relatively no impact on the stat sheet.  There's some young guys here as well, but they'll still have to prove themselves.

WIT 60 - Wheelock 51 - First game without Big Sam was a win - they even dominated the boards.  Freshman John-Michael Fragnoli took over down low (6'7") and did well.  Four starters in double figures, ball got spread around a lot.  Good showing.  They didn't show much of a bench.

Endicott 88 - St. Joe's (VT) 91 - Not the result EC wanted at home.  Magee had 25 on a very good shooting night.  6'9" freshman forward, Andre Makris had 29 on an even better shooting night off the bench.  Eric Callo didn't play (injury?) - with him included they've got four post players over 6'6" - that's going to be tough for a lot of teams.  This team has a few Senior leaders and a ton of talented Sophomores.  Turnovers killed them - and they gave up 43 FTs.  If they can get some discipline it could be a dangerous team.

UNE 51 - Southern Maine 66 - A big, ugly mess.  Freshman guard, Jordan Ferreira, scored 15 off the bench, with 9 rebounds - another freshman guard, Rossignol added 10.  They were the only guys in double figures.  So, some promise for the future, but it could still be a rough year.

Curry 66 - #10 MIT 71 - The Colonels hung tough with a very strong team, which bodes well for them.  The guards seemed to be getting penetration and the threes dropped.  Jones had 22 points and Papalambros had 24.  6'7" freshman, Matt Russell got the start and added 11 points.  Good showing.

Gordon 38 - Babson 59 - Yep, you read that correctly.  Wow.  And Babson was not particularly good in this game.  GC shot 3-11 from the FT line.  Two freshman started for Gordon; three more got significant minutes off the bench.  Five of the top eight will be newbies this year.  That probably means we keep expectations low.  David Dempsey took the big load, going 10 and 9 with 7 turnovers.  We'll just have to wait and see what shapes up.

[CCC Talk]

@CCC Talker I think you are going to be surprised at how good Gordon will be this year, they will be back in contention for the title next year with Dempsey a senior.  And guard play won't be an issue this year with Park Thomas having some experience under his belt as well as Bajema and JT Hiemilstien playing well.

Yeah that guard play looked outstanding last night! I'm confident with some seasoning they will be breaking 50 on a regular basis....

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

@CCC Talker I think you are going to be surprised at how good Gordon will be this year, they will be back in contention for the title next year with Dempsey a senior.  And guard play won't be an issue this year with Park Thomas having some experience under his belt as well as Bajema and JT Hiemilstien playing well.

Yeah that guard play looked outstanding last night! I'm confident with some seasoning they will be breaking 50 on a regular basis....

They're playing at MIT tomorrow night.  That could be incredibly ugly.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Also, Nichols is going to Lasell tomorrow night.  Lasell just put a hurting on Brandeis.  That could be an interesting match-up.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

So, two nights ago Lasell went to Brandeis and roughed them up.  Tonight Nichols went to Lasell and won 94-83.  This NC squad's got some fight in them.  Sheehan came out strong with 37 points, 10-19 shooting and a massive 15-18 from the FT line.  He did play every minute of the game.  They committed a lot of turnovers and a lot of fouls, but they hit the board hard and ten guys got big minutes.  I'm liking what I see early in the year.  Feisty.

Gordon, on the other hand, managed to play a much better team (#10 MIT) about the same - scoring exactly 38 points (easy to figure the average so far), losing 38-70.  16 guys played, no one had more than 26 minutes, they missed all ten threes.  The coach clearly is grasping at straws already.  This could get ugly, folks.  They only scored 14 in the first half.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Five games on the schedule tonight:

ENC plays Lehman @ Eastern University in PA.  This is a weekend tournament.  It's about 45 minutes from my house; I'm planning to be at both games.

Endicott hosts ME-Augusta
UNE @ Keene State
WNEC hosts Norwich
Curry vs Johnson State at Wesleyan

All but Endicott are tournaments, I think.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

ENC is hanging by a thread here for the next few games.  They dropped both ends of the tournament this weekend, to Lehman and Penn State-Abington.

Between the opener Tuesday and the game Friday they lost a starter to injury - combined with two more who won't be back playing until January, it's a rough go on the floor.

Chima Ezigbo is back playing, but was only cleared medically a few weeks ago after the horrible broken leg he suffered last December.  He's toughing it out, but noticibly struggling.  Hopefully the layoff over the holidays will help him get some strength back.  There were flashes of brilliant play, but he's not yet 100%.

They're going to need some all around team discipline to really improve.  Right now they have almost no ability to score on offensive sets - it's fast breaks or putbacks.

Other Friday action:

EC crushed Maine-Augusta 102-53.  Five guys in double figures, tons of rebounds and almost 60% shooting.  Not bad.

UNE 51 Keene State 87 - Timmy Mains had 16 points in 21 minutes off the bench.  The starters were all swapped out.  Looks like UNE is trying to figure out its chemistry.

WNEC 67 - Norwich 55 - 27 and 9 from Shaw; 16 and 11 from Wilkes.

Curry 81 - Johnson State 73 - Curry played 19 guys, although the starters all got more than 22 minutes a piece.  Jones shot poorly, but contributed 12, 8 and 6, while the team overall shot 50%.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Saturday:

I mentioned the ENC loss earlier.

WIT beat ME-Ft Kent 61-43.  Not a great effort, but turnover and rebounds resulted in an extra 20 shots for WIT.

EC squeaked by Mass College 77-75.  Five guys in double figures once again, but they got beat on the boards - not good news for a team with size.

Salve over St Joe's of Brooklyn 60-56.  Birrell had 17, 8, and 5.

Other games in progress, including two blowouts at the hand of NESCAC squads.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Saturday:

RWU over Fisher 52-44.  Flannagan had 18 points.

WNEC came back to lose by 10 at Trinity 63-73.  Not a terrible showing.  Shaw had 21, 11 from the line.

Curry goes down at upstart Wesleyan 59-80.  19 for Jones, 16 for Papalambros.

UNE loses to CSC in the first "former CCC grudge match" 69-72.  UNE finally figured out a decent line-up, with four startes in double figures.  No bench, but something to build on.

Sunday games:

Wentworth takes out Bates 66-55 to win the Bates tip-off tournament.  WIT playing well without Big Sam.  Eric Prue scored 22 on 6-10 shooting from deep.  Bates had a terrible shooting night.

Mitchell clipped Salve 64-65.  Birrell had 23.

Babson crushed RWU 72-52.  14 a piece from Flanagan and Cook.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Tuesday schedule:

EC @ Green Mountain
WNEC hosts Amherst
SRU hosts Daniel Webster
GC @ Salem State (fresh off a win over Williams)
ENC hosts Newbury

[Hugenerd]

Tuesday schedule:
GC @ Salem State (fresh off a win over Williams)

Im setting the over/under on GC's points at 38.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Tuesday schedule:
GC @ Salem State (fresh off a win over Williams)

Im setting the over/under on GC's points at 38.

Do you think they could go the entire season only scoring 38 points a game?  You can figure the odds on that, right?

[Hugenerd]

Tuesday schedule:
GC @ Salem State (fresh off a win over Williams)

Im setting the over/under on GC's points at 38.

Do you think they could go the entire season only scoring 38 points a game?  You can figure the odds on that, right?

I just did the math, the odds are surprisingly very low, despite the outcomes of the first two games.