Finals once again made this a little bit of a light week, but Sunday and Saturday provided plenty of opportunities to shake up the rankings. The biggest movers this week really moved. We’ll see if things start to stabilize once conference play begins.
Continue reading “Three North Carolina Schools Moving On Up In KenPom”
Last night was my first live look at the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and, well let’s just say it wasn’t an optimal showing for Jack Perri’s squad. The game started out promising enough with LIU racing out to a 19-11 lead within the first eight minutes. Continue reading “Five Thoughts on LIU After Their Blowout Loss to Seton Hall”
Saturday offers New York City college basketball fans a great opportunity once again to watch threes games in a row at the Barclays Center. Hofstra, Manhattan and LIU Brooklyn will all be in action. LIU is taking on Seton Hall in the night cap and Chris McManus of South Orange Juice answered my questions about the Pirates. Continue reading “Makings of an LIU Upset at Barclays (A Q&A)”
LIU Brooklyn looked lost and listless as it allowed 51 second half points against St. Peter’s in an 80-67 loss in Jersey City on Wednesday night.
Note: I apparently drew the short straw; therefore I’ve been selected to piece together an argument for why LIU Brooklyn will not win the NEC crown this season without Julian Boyd. Actually to be fair, John gave me a choice between pro and con. Continue reading “Why LIU Brooklyn will struggle mightily without Julian Boyd”
When Julian Boyd went down against Rice the perception of LIU was instantly transformed, but thinking of the Blackbirds as anything less than an NEC contender still is kidding yourself. Yes, losing the NEC Player of the Year is a big blow, but LIU is perhaps uniquely suited to absorb the loss of their superstar.
Continue reading “Even Without Boyd, LIU Still an NEC Contender”
Now that John Pudner has given us a look at why Low-Major Value Add can be a useful way of comparing players at that level I wanted to take a look at the all-conference teams according to the metric thus far this season. There aren’t that many surprises, but using data through last Thursday’s games, here’s what the teams would look like. The data should be up soon on the Low-Major page of Value Add shortly.
Continue reading “All-Conference Teams According to Value Add”
It could’ve ended then. Julian Boyd, the reigning NEC Player of the Year, broke down during Sunday morning’s shoot around. The enormity of the fact that he had torn his ACL against Rice and his season was over hit him in an instant. Continue reading “LIU Blows Out Manhattan In First Game Without Boyd”
Another week is in the books and there were a large number of big risers this week as there were a bunch of upsets on Sunday (Dec. 9) and Saturday (Dec. 15) that shook up the rankings. Which teams benefitted the most? Which are wishing they could go home for the holidays? All the movement is chronicled below. Continue reading “LIU Brooklyn Amongst Biggest Risers This Week”
Prior to today’s afternoon matchup between LIU Brooklyn and Manhattan, LIU blogger Nelson Castillo has reported that the reigning NEC Player of the Year, Julian Boyd, has torn his ACL. The injury, which has been confirmed by the team, happened when Boyd dove for a loose ball in their last game versus Rice. According to Castillo, a MRI on Friday confirmed the torn ligament.
The injury ends the fifth year senior’s season, although Boyd and the Blackbirds will apply for a medical redshirt. If the redshirt application is accepted, a sixth year of eligibility would be granted to Boyd. As a typical rule of thumb, the medical redshirt cutoff is 30% of the games played for a season. At this point, LIU has only completed 27% (eight of 30 games) of their season, so it seems plausible that a medical redshirt may be granted.
In the short-term, this is an enormous blow to the back-to-back NEC champions. Boyd, who dealt with a bad back and cramping issues early in the season, was still playing at an extremely high level. Through eight games, Boyd possessed a KenPom offensive rating of 110, despite having a high possession rate of 28%. He was averaging 18.5 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game. Quite simply, Boyd was once again producing at a all-league type of level.
Looking ahead, the health of seniors Booker Hucks and Kenny Onyechi suddenly becomes more significant. Both players missed time early in the season and have each played minimal minutes in the past two contests as they ease back into playing shape. The 6’6″ E.J. Reed will be leaned upon a bit more. The freshman has tremendous upside and energy on the floor, but as is the case with most freshmen, Reed has been plagued by inconsistency in the early going. Jamal Olasewere, currently the team leader at 19.0 points per game, will shoulder more of the scoring burden. The terrific backcourt of C.J. Garner and Jason Brickman may be also asked to take more shots.
Of course, LIU will struggle to replace Boyd’s fantastic production and this certainly moves the Blackbirds a notch down. Robert Morris instantly becomes the favorite, at least in my opinion, to win their third NEC regular season title in five years.
The loss of Boyd doesn’t take LIU out of the conversation for best team of the NEC, but it certainly makes a historic three peat that much more difficult. If there’s any silver lining to this, it’s that Boyd may get an extra year of eligibility and that Jack Perri will have at least a few non-conference games to figure out his new team, sans Boyd, before NEC play in January.
NYC Buckets Archive 