The NYC Buckets coverage area poll is back! Now that we’re into December we’re running out newest edition. Seton Hall and St. John’s are still the favorite, but there has been some shakeup undearneath.
Note: Rutgers is not included in the poll because we don’t cover the Scarlet Knights. All MAAC, Ivy League, NEC schools are eligible along with Fordham, NJIT, Hofstra and Stony Brook.
Poll Results for Dec. 1:
- Seton Hall: 60 points (unanimous first place finish)
- St. John’s: 54 points (unanimous second place finish)
- Harvard: 33 points
- Yale: 33 points
- Iona: 31 points
- Monmouth: 28 points
- Princeton: 24 points
- Penn: 17 points
- Rider: 15 points
- Wagner: 9 points
- Niagara: 9 points
- Saint Francis U.: 9 points
Others receiving votes: Hofstra (4 points), Fairfield (2 points), NJIT (1 point), Robert Morris (1 point)
Reaction: The voters still believe in Iona and Princeton, two teams that have struggled a bit early on—though they have fallen slightly from our preseason poll when they were ranked 4th and 6th respectively. Iona is coming off a win at Ohio, but is now ranked 138th in KenPom thanks to a 210th ranked defense. Princeton is 132nd and looking for answers after getting beaten by Lehigh on its home court. Both seem overrated by our pollsters to me.
Harvard also seems to be leaning on its preseason reputation in our poll. The Crimson have lost to Holy Cross, Manhattan, Cal St. Fullerton and Northeastern. None of those schools rank better than 180th in KenPom, and none have a winning record. (As Ray Curren pointed out on Twitter.)
Penn and Rider are two teams riding early season momentum into the poll. The Quakers beat Monmouth in quadruple overtime and beat Navy. Rider has taken care of all of the mid-major challengers it has faced early in the season. The Broncs have two losses to Xavier and by four against Providence.
Games of the Month: We’re also going to be using this space to highlight games in the NYC area that might be interesting for readers. All of the games are home games for the second team unless otherwise noted. There is a big game around the Christmas holiday, but conference play starts at the end of the month, leading to some real juicy Big East, NEC and MAAC matchups especially.
- Dec. 1: Fairfield at Wagner
- Dec. 2: Saint Francis U. at Stony Brook
- Dec. 4: Stony Brook at LIU Brooklyn
- Dec. 5: UMass-Lowell at Wagner
- Dec. 6: Harvard at Fordham
- Dec. 7: Stony Brook at Columbia
- Dec. 9: VCU at Seton Hall
- Dec. 10: Navy at Columbia
- Dec. 10: Fairfield at LIU Brooklyn
- Dec. 12: Yale at Iona
- Dec. 12: Hofstra at Stony Brook
- Dec. 12: Monmouth at Princeton
- Dec. 16: Fairleigh Dickinson at NJIT
- Dec. 16: Seton Hall at Rutgers
- Dec. 17: Saint Peter’s at LIU Brooklyn
- Dec. 20: Saint Joseph’s vs. St. John’s (Mohegan Sun)
- Dec. 28: Providence at St. John’s
- Dec. 28: Creighton at Seton Hall
- Dec. 29: Fairleigh Dickinson at LIU Brooklyn
- Dec. 30: Fairfield at Manhattan
- Dec. 31: St. John’s at Seton Hall
- Dec. 31: Monmouth at Saint Peter’s
- Dec. 31: Wagner at St. Francis Brooklyn
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