MBB: Conference of New England

[dwebbs]

hey, why don't you tell us abobut the ec game yesterday then.

[roy_williams]

hoss-

i agree with caedmon's. give us some info rather than railing on another poster (maybe whats up with matty?) all your posts, save for one where you say "RW and UNE are solid clubs" (in an effort to build up EC) are all about EC. please don't be calling the kettle black. i'm sure you are willing to wax poetic about even the lowly Amcats, but until you do lets be honest.

nice dig about the out of conference thing too. I know EC has played an impressive out of conf schedule for a CCC team, but when Gordon is a top 5 team in the region, and parlays their conference record to a #1 seed and homecourt, out of conference SOS won't mean that much.

[Allworld41]

I am far from an Endicott fan, and certainly not a Colby-Sawyer fan so don't lump me in there, I just have been around the league for quite some time and sure Gordon is having their best season ever, but just an observation.

Have you ever seen a group of kids thats less intimidating than the Gordon fan base? Like they are decent fans I suppose and love their team but don't you get the idea there isn't a single member of their fan base that could ever back up anything he says?

Not that the Endicott fans seem to be real tough either, drunk maybe, but its hard to seem tough in a pink polo shirt.

Just an observation

[24/7/365]

Hoss...

           ... enough said.

Allworld41.  How does a fans appearance effect the way they cheer and rallie for their team?  I'm sure no single Cameron Crazy could beat-up the 3rd grade bully, but that doesn't mean their homecourt advantage isn't essential to their winning ways.  I'm happy to hear you're not an EC fan, but your posts provide the intelligence of one (see Hoss).  I guess if during half time they had a fan free-for-all cage match your point might be valid.  But no one cares whether a fan can kick another fans ***.  What they do care about is which fans team came away with the "W."  And when GC plays at home, they always walk away with one.

[dwebbs]

one of the csc players said they hate playing at gordon because of gc's fans. so i'm not sure you have a very good point. plus, like what 24/7, gordon's fans give them and edge at home. and to back that up, i'll cite gordon's 8-0 record at home this year.

and personally, i haven't been to another gym yet, besides endicott, where the fans are as loud or as into the game as gc's. you're probably from roger williams or something, they had interesting fans when i was down there.

[MLamont1214]

CSC vs. CC tuesday...any predictions on the matchup between St.Clair vs. Lamb?

[AJ]

Not that the Endicott fans seem to be real tough either, drunk maybe, but its hard to seem tough in a pink polo shirt.

Haha, that comment about the pink shirt made me laugh.  Being a Gordon fan I know we can seem to be not tough at times because we strive to have higher class, so you won't hear us telling opposing players we will kill them but we still have a couple crazy kids in our pit that I would not like to be on their bad side.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

CSC vs. CC tuesday...any predictions on the matchup between St.Clair vs. Lamb?

Last year, the coaches kept St. Clair and Lamb away from each other for the most part on the defensive end (probably because Condon was the better defender last year, but still).

I can see them both going off for big nights.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Weekend Round-up:

CC 71 NEC 68.  Nice win for Curry; they needed it.  NEC is really struggling without Onyechi.  Quinn had 22 and Montrod had 16 with 7 steals.  Four players in double figures for Curry: Prescod with 15 and 5 steals, Mohrin with 15 and 6 assists, Bartelle had ten points and Lamb had 18 off the bench.  Lamb coming off the bench again is rather strange.  I'm not sure if there is a discipline thing there or if he's just taking one for the team because Bartelle hates to be on the floor with him?  Both teams shot exceptonally well, but 21 TOs for NEC lost it.

EC 58 NC 56.  Waaaaaaaaay too close for EC.  I'm not sure what happened to them in that Springfield game, but they are playing like crap right now.  They need to get it together or they will be stuck on the road in the first round of the tournament.  Vallee had 22 and Lewis had 15 for NC.  Butler had 6 assists.  George and Ellis had 10 each and Marinkovic had 13 to lead EC.  All the stats are about even, but EC shot just a little better and won the game.  Hopefully this one is their wake-up call.

GC 63 CSC 56.  Sounds like a great game and a win that finally solidifes GC as the new favorite in the CCC.  They've answered every test in the second half of the year and seem to be on track.  The Gordon website got the CSC men's a women's names mixed up, so there's a funny boxscore there if you want to check it out.  15 and 9 from St. Clair; 10 from Bray.  The GC big men seem to have finally figured out how to play defense in the paint.  Thorpe barely showed up and GC won the rebounding battle.  Couple that with CSC's poor three-point shooting and that spells loss.  GC was led by Kaufman with 21, 17 from Vogelzang (who is really putting in a great year, very unexpected, at least to the non-GC fans), and 16 from Marstaller.  Logan got 23 minutes under his belt and should be back at full speed by the playoffs.

RWU 78 ENC 50.  Ouch.  Jasmin and Corey had 12 each for ENC with Marcellus getting ten.  Griffin had 16 to lead RWU off the bench (if that tells you anything; the starters all played about 15 minutes).  Cormier had 14, Barranger had 13 and Camobreco had 10.  ENC, outside of Corey, could not hit a shot.  RWU seems to have had the subs in more than the starters and won this one easily.  Embarassing loss for ENC.

SRU 73 WIT 50.  Good, solid win for Salve.  Bynes off the bench was the only Leopard in double figures with 13.  Coute had 20 with seven assists, Grandal went for 15 and 14 with 5 assists of his own, Goodridge had 14 and Walsh had 11.  Salve killed them on the boards and hit free throws.  The SRU defense seems to be working pretty well.  Good win for Salve; poor showing for WIT.

AMC beat Thomas 92-79.  No stats, but still I'm sure they're happy to get any win at this point.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

A couple of notes on the playoffs, now that I feel a little more confident in making them:

WIT is still in the lead for the #4 spot up north, but its by no means secure.  They finish with RWU, EC, CSC and GC, so five wins are all they are going to get.  NEC has two winable games vs UNE, which could give it to them outright.  UNE could also tie with two wins over NEC or a split and a win over Nichols.  I bet we never thought the NEC-UNE games would matter so much.

With the exception of the CSC game, EC has all their tough games at home to close the season out.  If they can hang on (which looks iffy at this point) they might salvage a home playoff game even with a loss at CSC.  Unless they fall apart, I don't see Gordon losing the #1 seed and home court.

In the South, Salve probably has to win out to avoid the #3 seed.  The #1 and #2 are too close to call at this point; it could go either way.  ENC is going to have to beat either Endicott or CSC to even have an outside chance at the playoffs, so that race is over too.

[24/7/365]

So I was hoping that the CCC would change the horrific playoff format, but, that was not the case.  The only team that seems to really be getting the short stick, as in every year, is the 3rd seed in the north.  Oddly enough, it wont be GC this year.  It'll go to either EC or CSC, so maybe their complaining this year will help change that atrocious playoff approach.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

It's only a bad format when the three teams in the North are the three best teams.  It was that way for a few years, but I tend to like the divisional format for what it brings during the regular season.  It allows the better teams to get out of conference a little more and it allows the South teams a shot at a home playoff game, which they were rarely getting.  I saw it as a compromise to avoid any defections when it happened.  It's grown on me and I suspect it will serve its purpose until all these NE region conferences can figure out the realignment plan.

[akirk]

I don't have a problem with the regular season formate of divisions but when it alters the post season I do.  I have said this a couple times in the past.  The top teams in the North and South should be seeded 1 and 2 and then the rest of the seeding should go by record.  It doesn't matter to me if the top four teams from the N and S get in but home court should be awarded to the better record. 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Except when you don't play the same schedule who is to say which is the better record.  Obviously we've known EC and CSC were the class of the CCC in recent years, but they got to play awful teams WIT, UNE and NEC twice a year.  The South teams have not been as good as EC and CSC, but they have been competitive pretty much top to bottom (with AMC and ENC in recent years being the exception).  A 12-4 RWU team could argue its just as good as a 14-2 CSC team because of the schedule it had to play.

You can rail against the division format or support it, but you can't choose between the regular season and the post-season; they have to go together.

I really see a split into some form of two 8 team conferences.  I know some GNAC and NAC teams are looking to split off and it would make sense for the lesser NE conferences to shake things up, maybe find a way to get an extra AQ to the tournament and give teams like CSC, EC, Lasell, etc better chances of at-large bids by forming a stronger all-around conference.  A lot of it will depend on academics and other sports, but its basicallt inevitable in the next few years.

[akirk]

If you look at the ACC they play an unlevel schedule.  But the top to bottom playoff seeding is still by ACC record even though they play some teams twice and others only once.  What is the difference between them and the CCC?