MBB: Conference of New England

[broke_ya_ankles]

springfield smoked Endicott by 20 today, 75-55

ouch

[dwebbs]

In the Gordon game, PB had 7 points (5 after the deficit was 30 points), 0 assists, 4 turnovers, and fouled out.  Marstaller put up 20, he didn't forget he got screwed last year for ROY.

[24/7/365]

With the weekend all said and done, we can all turn our attention to Tuesdays "Clash of the North Shore!"  This game has as much at stake as any other CCC regular season game ever played.  So with that being said, LET THE DEBATING BEGIN!

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Settle down with the hyperbole there 24/7.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

SRU 79 AMC 57.  No recap that I can find.

RWU 53 CSC 71.  Big win for CSC, moving them back to .500.  St. Clair and Thorpe took it to the RWU front line as CSC assumed the play we expected from them at the beginning of the season.  St. Clair had 25 points, Thorpe added 17 and 14.  Bray and St. Clair continue to battle it out for the CSC career steals mark.  Parrish had 18 for RWU as he continues to play into his expected form.  CSC couldn't hit the three, but they didn't really need to.  Good, solid win for Foti's boys; they look to be finally rounding into form.

CC 62 NC 53.  Still no Bartelle, I think he's done.  Mohrin and Lamb had 17 each.  12 from Largesse and 10 from Prescod.  For NC there was 14 and 13 from Vallee and 10 from Mercer.  Butler and Lewis got shut down.  CC got a lot of FTs and NC shot 8% from the arc.  Curry may get back together enough to win a playoff game.

ENC 60 UNE 65.  Good game for ENC on the road, but they got sloppy at the end.  Jasmin had 16, Jan-Noel had 19.  McManus had 18, Marriot had 15 and Stickney had 12.  Both teams were pretty equal from the floor and the arc.  UNE struggled from the FT line, but they got a few extra rebounds and forced a few extra turnovers.

EC  55 Springfield 75.  This is the example of the Springfield team that was supposed to play this season.  They are way, way better than their record.  EC was obviously sloppy after playing quite a few lesser squads.  They allowed 30 to Yvon and 20 and 12 to Riley (I guess Marinkovic still hasn't learned to play defense against a good big man).  George led EC with 19 and 6 assists, Marinkovic had 14 and Ellis had 13.  The EC offsense was fine, pretty similar to their last few games, but they turned the ball over 20 times and allowed 45% shooting from both the floor and the arc.  This was probably the worst thing that could have happened for GC.  I think Endicott is going to be very ready to play tomorrow night and we'll see the best possible game from both teams.  It should be a barnburner.

WIT 50 GC 78.  Big time win for Gordon.  Very impressive.  WIT earned a tie with 5 minutes to go in the first half and then GC just took off and blew them out of the water.  Hall had 14 for WIT.  PB & Todd (doesn't that sound like a sitcom title by the way) got shut down by the GC backcourt (still missing Logan).  20 from Marstaller, 12 each from Beebe and Vogelzang and 10 with 8 assists from Kauffman.  None of the starters had to play even 30 minutes of this game.  The North Shore is the place to be in New England tomorrow night.  GC shot 7-10 from three and I can't imagine them executing a whole lot better than they did in the second half.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Ok, lets get ready for tomorrow night.  This is where all the EC crazies come out of the woodwork and talk illegible smack for 24-36 hours.

Tuesday
EC @ GC
AMC @ NEC
ENC @ NC
CC @ SRU
CSC @ UNE


I'm interested to see how this new-look ENC team can perform at Nichols.  The ENC big men seem to be playing better and the NC big men seem to be at their worst.  CC and Salve may be for a home game in the playoffs.  Still they all pale in comparison to that game up in Wenham.  I hope it goes to 3OT.

[goenc]

OK, I take it back. No Playoffs.
Is it me or is the CCC just getting worse. To see our best team get spanked by Springfield isn't a good sign.

Its pretty embarrassing to be quite honest. Wouldn't you agree?

[the_cru]

I just loved all the talk from pages ago about moving the "better CCC teams" into their own conference so the competiton levels would rise.  It seems like no CCC team can win out of conference.  Was all that talk a little premature?  Maybe you guys should evaluate the level of play in the CCC and realize that all these schools are just mediocre and be happy playing in the CCC.

[Big Hoss]

Very insighful, thank you......I agree that the CCC on the whole is not a very competitive conference compared to the NEWMAC or NESCAC for that matter, but to say that no team in the CCC is amongst the best in the region is incorrect.  CSC plays a strong non conference year in and year about with varying degrees of success, but are always competitve.  EC has the same approach, they beat bates 2 years in a row, and oh ya, Bates is receiving votes for top 25, i think that is a quality win.  EC was also ranked as a top 6 team in the region for two consecutive years behind teams like williams, amherst, keene st.  Those were VERY good teams, with success on the national level....i guess what im trying to say is that your wrong, and that there is plenty of statisitcal support for my position

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Springfield is very good, despite the record.  Twenty points is a wake-up call, but then again EC didn't have much competition for nearly twenty days.  The CCC was awful pre-Christmas, but they have been improving.

The idea that there will be a shake-up in membership isn't an idea, its an eventual reality, we're just not sure exaclty when.  It's not so much about basketball as it is mission and vision of the various institutions and being able to field full conferences in several other sports that don't exist now.

I still think the CCC matches up just fine with the LEC (granted the different number of teams in each create comparison problems).  We're clearly competing for the third best conference and some of our teams are certainly on the level of the NEWMAC teams, even though they will be underdogs most of the time.

One EC loss shouldn't scare anyone.

[umbfan05]

IF umass-Boston beats wpi,tuft and keene or goes 2-1 and in this next week where would that put them in standing in the northeast somebody please let me know.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I posted my response in the LEC board.  They have to win the LEC tournament or they have no shot to get in.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Tuesday
EC @ GC
AMC @ NEC
ENC @ NC
CC @ SRU
CSC @ UNE

[Maq Diesel]

There are some good games tonight in the CCC, I think all of the favorites should win.  As for GC v. EC game, this has all the potential to be a classic.  These two teams are, as many would argue, the top two in the CCC and heated rivals, the have been rolling through their conference schedule and winning by similar numbers, but for some reason Endicott has the Scots number.  Gordon is playing as good as I have ever seen them play in the last three weeks, but in the back of my mind I remember the beating EC handed us at the Post Center.  Looking down the two rosters the two teams are pretty even, with Endicott possibly having the edge in experience and, and what I consider to be the x-factor, athleticism, which is not to say that GC is not an athletic team but EC is very athletic and maybe this is the difference between the two.  Hopefully the Bennett Center is full tonight and both teams bring their best, if this is the case it should be a classic.

A side note is that this game is huge for GC not only for the obvious reasons of beating a rival and a possible first place seeding, but the game is also big because GC travels the to play a much improved CSC team on Saturday in New London.  The outcome of these two game is going to be the difference between a home and a road playoff game for the Scots.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Well said Maq, although I wonder to which team you are referring in the CC-Salve game as the "favorite," I consider this one pretty even.