MBB: Conference of New England

[Gordonhoops123]

EC is looking like the clear favorite after their win over Salem St.
Chantastic,

Great observations. I made the game as well and Coach Murphy needs to work overtime to recruit a legit point guard. Gordon should be dominating with the D. Dempsey and Hans combination in the paint but their struggle to even get the ball over half court at times is painful. I was also discouraged to see the lack of boxing out by Gordon, they were hit with several over the back calls, with their size they should be dominating the boards using good technique. I am confused as to why a coach like Murphy who is a big man is not working harder to have a dominate inside game and rebounding team. I miss the days of a coach Schauer defensive team, I guess I need to watch some Wheaton games.


I was at the Gordon-ENC game today.  A couple observations:

Dempsey was the dominant player in this game.  Gordon is completely lost when he is not on the court.

Ezeigbo ran with a noticeable limp.  He scored most of his points in the last 10 minutes when the game got sloppy.  Miersma was able to neutralize him in the halfcourt.  ENC was very disjointed in halfcourt and had a lot more success when they started to run.

Gordon's backcourt has serious issues that I do not see getting resolved any time soon.  This team is still way too sloppy with the ball.

[uconn05]

Boy, I was way off with the WNEC pick.

It appears as though Gordon and RWU have pretty similar teama- good inside, young and turnover prone on the perimeter. Canova didn't play for Salve but they got a huge, and unexpected, contribution from Pringle. They have been very inconsistent offensively this year, so if Pringle can be a legit second option they will be much better.

Right now the main question with the league is "Who's #2?". Way too early to say but I think this will be a common question for the 5 weeks.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Right now the main question with the league is "Who's #2?". Way too early to say but I think this will be a common question for the 5 weeks.

Did I miss when we figured out who #1 was?  It's tough to figure out who's on top in a year when we've got several good teams - this year, with everyone inconsistent it's going to be nearly impossible.

I'll grant that Salve has a leg up right now, but they're certainly not strong enough to convince me of anything.

We've got plenty of teams who definitely aren't #1, but if you get enough of those you're back to square one.

[uconn05]

While it hasn't been proven, since league play is still in it's infancy, I'd say that EC is the best team in the league. The coaches thought so before the season started and I am confident that they will be the #1 seed going into the playoffs.

Given the parity within the league, every road win should will be huge (especially during on a weekday as those can be very long days for student-athletes). In addition, we're going to see 3 game weeks from now till the end of the season. This will be a huge benefit to any team that has legitimate depth. Curry, for example, has two very good players but no depth. They could be introuble once we hit February.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

EC hasn't been consistent enough for me yet.  They're also already down a game to Salve.

I don't have any idea who will wind up on top.

[uconn05]

Picks with little chance of being correct:

Eastern Nazarene at Salve Regina
Western New England at Wentworth
Gordon at University of New England
Endicott at Nichols
Roger Williams at Curry

The two most interesting game for me GC v UNE and RWU v Curry. I'm going with UNE because I think they will cause enough turnovers to overcome the size difference. Jones and Papalambros can really score and if RWU continues to turn it over they will make them pay in transition.

[Chantastic]

I like Salve, WIT, GC, and EC and would be surprised if any of those games are particularly close.  UNE will shoot below 40% and be outrebounded by 15.  It would take a lot of Gordon turnovers to offset that.

Best game of the night looks like RWU @ Curry.  Is Flanagan playing?

[uconn05]

Here are the predictions by Massey with scores and %chance of winning. Meaningless but fun to look at.

Roger Williams (6-4)  67-65  56%
@ Curry (3-7)          

E Nazarene (2-8)          
@ Salve Regina (5-5)  76-66     85%

W New England (4-5)    
@ Wentworth (6-3)  59-52  76%

Endicott (7-3)  77-69  80%
@ Nichols (2-8)         

Gordon (4-6)  66-54  89%
@ UNE (0-10)             

[uconn05]

Good call Chantastic, rebounding was definitely the key for Gordon over UNE - who won by 10 despite committing 23 turnovers.

Nichols and Endicott was quite a shout-out. Not much defense for either team. Nichols's bench came up huge.

RWU and Curry wasn't as close as I thought it would be. Curry was up 10 most of the way as Flanagan was unable to get any offensive help. Big game for Papalambros.

Salve smashed Naz. Canova came off the bench (nursing an injury?).

WIT smoked WNEC.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Salve over ENC 74-53.  SRU is certainly solidifying their position as the favorites.  Birrell had 19, but they are really winning with ball control.  They're creating lots of turnovers and keeping their numbers relatively low.  Ezeigbo had 17.

WIT over WNEC 57-36.  Wentworth with the defense in this one.  No WNEC player had more than 9 points and they stifled Shaw to a 3-13 shooting night.  Dombrowski had a double-double for Wentworth, who even got good minutes from the bench.  They seem to be really streaky right now.

Nichols over Endicott in a shoot-out 93-83.  Two teams who have trouble playing defense, this is to be expected.  NC flipped the script on EC, putting five of their own in double figures and shooting lights out from deep.  All nine guys who played got more than 10 minutes.  Sheehan had 17.  Eric Callo had 14 and 12 for Endicott.  There's a lot of potential on that Nichols.

Gordon over UNE 56-46.  UNE is running out of chances to win games.  Both teams shot terribly from deep and neither did much to get to the FT line.  Gordon's dominant rebound advantage made up for 23 turnovers.  Alex Carnes went for 13 and 8 to lead Gordon.

Curry over RWU 69-61 at home.  Big win for the Colonels.  They seem to have decided to ignore Flanagan down low (he scored 26) and focus on the perimeter (where RWU shot terribly).  Jones went for 17 and 10, while Papalambros had 25 with 6 assists.  The numbers were even all the way around, except for a 41-32 advantage for CC on shooting percentage.  That's your difference.

This is going to be one heck of a season.  Lot's of fun.

[uconn05]

Here are the slate of Thursday games:

Curry at University of New England
Gordon at Roger Williams
Salve Regina at Western New England
Wentworth at Endicott
Nichols at Eastern Nazarene

I think all of these will be really good games. If I were to pick winners they would all be guesses so I will abstain. If I had to pick which one I woiuld watch in-person I would probably choose WIT v. EC, mainly because they have such different styles of play. Whoever can set the tempo in that game will probably win.

[Chantastic]

Good games tonight.  My guesses:

Curry over UNE.  UNE held Gordon to 7% from 3, and 40% overall.  They forced 24 turnovers.  If you do that and lose by double digits, you may never win.

RWU over GC.  Gordon will struggle to get past 55 pts.

Salve over WNE.  Just a better team.

Endicott over WIT.  Good game - I like the home team.

ENC over Nichols.  Regression to the mean from Nichols.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Good games tonight.  My guesses:

Curry over UNE.  UNE held Gordon to 7% from 3, and 40% overall.  They forced 24 turnovers.  If you do that and lose by double digits, you may never win.

RWU over GC.  Gordon will struggle to get past 55 pts.

Salve over WNE.  Just a better team.

Endicott over WIT.  Good game - I like the home team.

ENC over Nichols.  Regression to the mean from Nichols.

These are perfectly logical predictions.  You can't argue with them.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Gordon is up 10 at the half.  NC and ENC are tied.

EC is crushing Wentworth, 44-27 at the half.  On the bright side, that's like a full game score for UNE.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Salve over WNEC 74-56.  Shaw had 19.  Daniel Minto went for 13 and 13 for WNEC.  Birrell had 20, 6 and 6.