Category: NEC

Third NEC Thursday Ends in Exciting Fashion

Going into the third Thursday of Northeast Conference play, the major storyline was unfortunately injuries. Several players unexpectedly missed action tonight, but that didn’t stop the conference from having several fantastic finishes late. Three games improbably went into overtime, while every game was decided by no more than nine points. Let’s recap all of the action, before my head explodes. (By the way, trying to focus on four games at once is not for the faint of heart)

Robert Morris 66, Sacred Heart 62
Sadly, if you made a team out of the players missing action tonight, you would have a dominant top seven of Velton Jones, Karvel Anderson, Evan Kelley, Chris Evans, Justin Swidowski, Lijah Thompson, and Vaughn Morgan. The game, however, still was played in Moon Township, with the Colonials simply outlasting the Pioneers by slowing down the tempo in the second half. The Colonials never relinquished the lead once they went on a 13-0 run midway through the second half, although Shane Gibson did his absolute best to bring SHU back. It was vintage Gibson tonight, as the senior had 27 points (on 13 shots) to go along with six rebounds, three assists, and three steals. Quite simply, his effort couldn’t overcome the Colonials’ advantage in free throws (20-13) and turnovers forced (21-11). Not one Colonial particularly shined in the win, but it was a collective team effort with four Colonials scoring in double figures while holding the Pioneers to 0.94 points per possession. A win is a win, and Andy Toole will take it without his senior leader on the floor.

Quinnipiac 75, St. Francis (PA) 66
Quinnipiac, who was without staring point guard Dave Johnson with a concussion, earned a much needed victory over the feisty Red Flash, who charged back early in the second half to tie the game after trailing by as many as 13 points. It was an ugly shooting display across the board, although Quinnipiac did make 20 of 24 (finally!) from the charity stripe for one of their best free throw performances of the season. After blowing a six point lead late in regulation, the Bobcats offense dominated in the extra frame, scoring 16 points on their nine overtime possessions. Ike Azotam led Quinnipiac (what else is new) with 22 points and ten rebounds. Earl Brown was back to his dominant ways on the glass, grabbing 18 rebounds to go along with 14 points. Which leads us to a statistic oddity: In the last six games, Earl Brown has corralled nearly half (93 of 203) of the Red Flash’s rebounds. You don’t see individual dominance like that all too often.

Monmouth 71, St. Francis Brooklyn 67
In a game featuring two teams going in opposite directions, it was the Hawks who surprisingly came away with an impressive road win over St. Francis Brooklyn. Jesse Steele had a game high 20 points for the Hawks, who without Andrew “Red” Nicholas still had their second best shooting performance of the season. In the past three games, the diminutive Steele is averaging 18.0 points per game on a respectable 18 of 39 from the floor. John shares his five thoughts of the game here.

LIU Brooklyn 79, Fairleigh Dickinson 75
In front of 319 fans (really Knight fans, that’s all you got?), LIU Brooklyn stole a game across the Hudson River when they shocked the Knights in a fiercely contested battle. Jamal Olasewere was sensational with 30 points, 16 rebounds, and four blocks, and C.J. Garner had perhaps his best game of the year. The senior combo guard scored 23 points along with four rebounds and five steals. FDU blew sizable advantages throughout the contest, but it was their late game failures that will be most remembered tonight. The Knights were leading by five points with 21 seconds remaining before three pointers by Garner and Brandon Thompson (his only points on the night) sent the game into overtime. Once in overtime, FDU’s offense went ice cold as they missed their final five shots, including two ill-advised bombs from Melquan Bolding and Mostafa Jones late. Greg Vetrone has to be sick to his stomach after this one, while Perri’s Blackbirds move to 2-3 in the conference despite committing 18 turnovers against only 13 assists. FDU’s senior trio of Bolding, Lonnie Robinson, and Kinu Rochford scored 54 of the Knights’ 75 points in the loss.

Bryant 79, Mount St. Mary’s 78
It appeared we were heading toward an expected ho-hum victory for Bryant when the Bulldogs went up by 11 late in the second half after a Frankie Dobbs bucket and the foul. But the Mount – taking on the never quit mentality of head coach Jamion Christian – eventually stormed back to tie the game after Shivaughn Wiggins drained a three to send it into the overtime. The freshman had the game of his young career, scoring 20 points on 8 of 10 shooting. (Maybe he heard me complain about the lack of freshmen contributing league wide on the podcast? Ok, maybe not.) In overtime, the game was a fantastic seesaw battle which ended stunningly when Bryant freshman Shane McLaughlin, of all people, drove and scored the game winning lay-up with six seconds left. It was McLaughlin’s ONLY shot attempt of the game. Four Bulldogs played 38 minutes or more, and perhaps their weariness showed with Bryant committing a season high 19 turnovers against the Mayhem attack. Despite the choas, Alex Francis was once again terrific for the now 5-0 Bulldogs. The athletic junior had 25 points (on 12 shots) and seven rebounds. If you didn’t really know about Francis before this season, you surely do now.

Central Connecticut 73, Wagner 66
It’s time for me to officially apologize to Kyle Vinales for having the audicity to suggest that the sophomore was tiring after going through a tough four game slump earlier in the non-conference season. Since the Syracuse blowout and after dropping 30 points against a very good defensive team in Wagner, Vinales is averaging a sparkling 24.8 points, 4.2 assists, 1.8 steals, and only 3.0 turnovers per game. Not too shabby. CCSU led for most of the game and was able to dominate despite the return of Seahawks wing Jonathan Williams from a hip injury. The senior struggled, as did many of the Seahawks, sans Ortiz who scored a team high 18 points. For Wagner, it was their third straight game – two of them losses – where they’ve allowed more than one point per possession. That’s an unusual trend for a team that prides itself on shutting down their opponents on the offensive end.

NEC Standings Through Five Games
1) Bryant, 5-0
2) Wagner, 3-2
3) St. Francis Brooklyn, 3-2
4) Central Connecticut, 3-2
5) Robert Morris, 3-2
6) Sacred Heart, 3-2
7) LIU Brooklyn, 2-3
8) Fairleigh Dickinson, 2-3
9) Quinnipiac, 2-3
10) Monmouth, 2-3
11) Mount St. Mary’s, 1-4
12) St. Francis (PA), 1-4

Ryan Peters covers Northeast Conference men’s basketball for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @pioneer_pride

Five Thoughts As St. Francis Brooklyn Falls at Home to Monmouth

The NEC continued its wacky ways on Thursday and it seems like only Bryant is immune. St. Francis Brooklyn’s 71-67 loss to a short-handed Monmouth team certainly proved it. The Hawks were playing without Andrew Nicholas, but a huge performance from Jesse Steele carried them to an important win. Continue reading “Five Thoughts As St. Francis Brooklyn Falls at Home to Monmouth” →

Wagner, Manhattan and LIU On The Road Tonight

There are 64 games on the college basketball docket tonight, including eight that involve Top 25 teams. It’s a busy night for sure and it includes four New York City teams, three of which will be on the road, plus a number of other intriguing mid-major games. Here are a few short previews of the NYC games, plus some other games to keep your eye on.

Continue reading “Wagner, Manhattan and LIU On The Road Tonight” →

Mid-Major College Basketball Failures: The Worst of the Worst

This season, mid-major college basketball hasn’t had quite the impact on the college basketball landscape when compared to previous years. Sure, you have programs like Gonzaga, Creighton, and Wichita State, but overall there isn’t an impressive stable to mid-major schools that are primed to mess up people’s NCAA brackets come March. Continue reading “Mid-Major College Basketball Failures: The Worst of the Worst” →

Our NEC Midseason Awards

With most of the NEC teams having 15-16 games in the books, John and I felt it was a perfect time to unveil our NEC midseason awards. Selecting players for this honorable distinction wasn’t an easy task, given all of the parity throughout the conference. Nevertheless, we each listed our individual award winners, along with our first and second all-conference teams. Here we go. Continue reading “Our NEC Midseason Awards” →

What’s Wrong with the Quinnipiac Bobcats?

Tom Moore’s Bobcats were projected to be a year away from becoming possible favorites for a NEC title (projections were made before Quinnipiac’s announced defection to the MAAC next fall). The frontcourt is led by vociferous rebounders Ike Azotam, Jamee Jackson, and Ousmane Drame, but the backcourt – other than senior point guard Dave Johnson – is in partial rebuild mode. Despite the inexperience on the perimeter, this was a team projected by yours truly and John to finish in the upper third (aka top four) of the conference. Through 16 games however, the Bobcats have given pundits no indication that they could live up to those semi-lofty expectations. Their latest NEC home loss to Sacred Heart last Saturday bumped the Bobcats down to 1-3 in the NEC, and a stunning 5-11 overall.

The poor play has been surprising, so I decided to examine what has gone wrong in Hamden. As you’ll soon find out, it’s a myriad of issues that has plagued this team.

1) The Offense Lacks Playmakers
Anyone who’s read a prognostication of Quinnipiac this offseason has had the James Johnson graduation story rammed down their throats. It was the number one question this fall: how exactly would Tom Moore replace Johnson’s superb production on the court and his leadership off it? While an answer to the latter is difficult to ascertain without being in the locker room, statistics prove the backcourt production has taken a step back. While Zaid Hearst has seen a slight uptick in his production from his rookie campaign, he hasn’t been the player we envisioned he’d grow into. Garvey Young, who’s currently out nursing an ankle injury, is a solid, yet unspectacular veteran, who provides more value on the defensive side of the ball anyway. And the freshmen, in particular Kendrick Ray and his explosive first step, need time to fully adapt to the speed of D-I basketball. The same goes for three-point extraordinaire James Ford and the recently used Tariq Carey.

Add it all up and you have a backcourt that can be, dare I say, stagnant at times. The offensive attack lacks any kind of consistent playmaking ability – the type of playmaking skills that Johnson provided for Moore late in the game. Ray possesses the most upside of the aforementioned candidates, but as he showed in the loss to Sacred Heart (3 points, 1-9 from the floor), he’s still not ready to be counted on as a productive double-digit scorer. Someday the athletic Ray will get there, I’m confident of that, but it will take some time.

2) Missing Their Freebies
For the last two and a half seasons, the Bobcats have continually shot themselves in the foot by missing their free throws. Their early NEC season has been somewhat painful to watch, because Quinnipiac has shot a putrid 52.0% from the charity stripe. Yes, that’s 52.0% on 98 attempts. They missed 15 free throw attempts in their NEC opener in a TWO point loss to St. Francis Brooklyn. Versus Bryant, they bricked seven freebies, although the Bulldogs probably would have won the game regardless. The following Saturday, Quinnipiac only converted 14 of 27 free throw attempts in a SIX point loss to Sacred Heart. This is nothing new, and really, there isn’t much Moore can do to alleviate the pain. As long as Ike Azotam, Jamee Jackson, and Ousmane Drame continue to rack up minutes (as well they should), any coach would be foolish not to employ the “hack a Bobcat big man” strategy for easy layups and in games that go down to the wire. As this point, all Bobcat nation can do is close their eyes, cross their fingers, and hope for the best. Or at the very least, Moore could keep Jackson and his career 47.8% free throw percentage on the bench during late game situations.

3) What Happened to the Defense?
Moore’s teams have always prided themselves on playing good old hard-nosed half-court defense by contesting shots, clogging pass lanes, and dominating the defensive glass. While the rebounding has been exceptional as usual, Quinnipiac has had a hell of a time stopping the opposition from scoring. Through four conference games, Quinnipiac has allowed opponents to score 1.11 points per possession, which is the second worst (besides LIU Brooklyn of course) defense in the NEC. It’s been an early puzzling trend, especially when examining Quinnipiac’s previous body of work. In the four seasons prior, the Bobcats have held opponents to 0.94, 0.92, 0.95 and 0.95 points per possession, respectively. Also troubling is their lousy defense on the perimeter, which is allowing opponents to shoot 38.2% from behind the arc. This is essentially the same team from last season, sans Johnson who was a decent defender, so why they’ve allowed teams like Bryant and Sacred Heart to go on prolonged back-breaking second half runs is beyond me. I bet Moore is searching for an answer to that question as you read this.

Even though the last 750 words have been of the glass half-empty variety, there’s still hope for Quinnipiac. As I stated before, more conversions at the charity stripe could have changed the outcome for at least one, if not two, of the games. Also, it’s fair to expect Quinnipiac to progress back to the mean in regards to free throw shooting (they’re shooting 63.0% from the line for the season). A couple of more defensive stops on top of that and maybe, just maybe, this team can rattle off a few wins in a row.

It’s absolutely possible, but Quinnipiac needs to play better soon. In the wild wild NEC, where parity reins supreme, those “easy” victories are becoming few and far between. And if the Bobcats can’t execute better on both ends of the floor, it will be a final season to forget in the NEC for Tom Moore and company.

Ryan Peters covers Northeast Conference men’s basketball for Big Apple Buckets and Pioneer Pride. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @pioneer_pride

Fairleigh Dickinson’s Kinu Rochford Making the Most of His Senior Season

Ask any Northeast Conference basketball enthusiast to name the best big man of the conference and you’ll likely receive several different answers. Some may bring up the terrific scoring duo of Julian Boyd and Jamal Olasewere at LIU Brooklyn. Others may stay in the borough to mention St. Francis Brooklyn’s super sophomore Jalen Cannon. The rest may venture north across Connecticut lines to highlight Quinnipiac rebounding sensation Ike Azotam.

Kinu Rochford is among the NEC leaders in scoring and rebounding (photo courtesy of Gotham Hoops)

Continue reading “Fairleigh Dickinson’s Kinu Rochford Making the Most of His Senior Season” →

NEC Week 2: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Week two of the NEC season has come and gone, clearing up the conference picture just a bit. The contenders are slowly beginning to separate themselves from the pretenders, but as we expect to be the case for the entire season, the NEC should be just as unpredictable from start to finish. Through 24 conference games, the home team has only gone 13-11, another indication that any team can win on any given night. Let’s sift through the positive and negative developments of the week.

The Good

  • Back to Normal in Moon Township – After enduring a surprising two game slide to open up conference play, the Colonials responded to Andy Toole’s challenge: play defense and compete with maximum effort and toughness. Robert Morris did just that during their New Jersey road trip, soundly beating Fairleigh Dickinson and Monmouth by 34 and 15 points, respectively. Neither game was ever in question, as the Colonials held their opponents to 0.84 points allowed per possession. The Colonials received significant contributions throughout the roster, highlighted by upperclassmen Russell Johnson and Coron Williams. Johnson, who has struggled in the past with his consistency, filled up the stat sheet as of late, registering 17 points, 21 rebounds, 11 assists (against only one turnover), and six steals in his last two games. The sharp shooting Williams has been potent from behind the arc, draining 12 of his 17 long-range jumpers this past week.
  • Officially Among the Elite – It’s time to stop being surprised by the Bulldogs’ success; they simply are for real. In four conference games – three on the road – Bryant has scored 1.15 points per possession, in large part thanks to unsung floor general Frankie Dobbs. The loyal senior has masterfully run Tim O’Shea’s offense by scoring (14.4 ppg) when necessary, while keeping his talented teammates involved (4.2 apg, 2.0 A/TO) as well. Down in the low block, Alex Francis continues to torment opposing defenses. On Saturday versus CCSU, the junior posted 26 points and a career high 18 rebounds. Throw in Starks, Maynard, and O’Shea and you have a lethal starting five. Ken Pomeroy agrees; Bryant is now rated #169 (out of 347 D-I teams) after beginning the season at #290. That is one heck of an improvement in only 15 games played.
  • Tough Terriers – Since their lopsided losses to Stony Brook and St. John’s this past December, St. Francis Brooklyn has won five of their last six contests. The Terriers impressively went into Spiro Sports Center and upset Wagner by holding the Seahawks to 0.80 points per possession. In fact, defense has been the major culprit for St. Francis’ recent run, as they are the only team to hold all four of their NEC opponents to under 1.00 points per possession. It also helps that Travis Nichols has been heating up recently. In their two most recent wins, Nicholas averaged 15 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. When he is able to produce from behind the arc (4-9 from three-point range versus Wagner), Glenn Braica’s offense becomes that much better. With home games versus FDU and Monmouth coming up, St. Francis could find themselves with five wins after three weeks of conference play. That notion seemed far-fetched a month ago when the Terriers were 2-7.
  • The Youth Movement – It hasn’t exactly been the year of the NEC freshmen so far (I’ll have more on that in the near future), but recently two frontcourt novices have emerged as important contributors for their respective teams. In Brooklyn, E.J. Reed has taken advantage of increased playing time with Boyd’s season-ending injury by scoring 15.6 points per game in his last five games. The athletic 6’6″ freshman has shown a propensity toward fouling (he has committed 6.9 fouls per 40 minutes), yet he’s infused some much-needed energy on the offensive glass and in the defensive post. Further north in Connecticut, Brandon Peel made a name for himself in New Britain when he put together a monster 17 point, 17 rebound, and four block performance against Sacred Heart last Thursday. Since being named as a starter in Howie Dickenman’s lineup, Peel has grabbed an average of 11.5 rebounds per game, relegating senior Joe Efase to the bench. It should only get better for the high-motored Reed and Peel in the coming weeks as they elevate themselves into the NEC Rookie of the Year discussion (along with St. Francis freshman Stephon Mosley).

The Bad

  • Still a Work in Progress – There’s a lot to be encouraged about if you’re a long suffering FDU Knights fan, but the second week of conference play probably wasn’t what their fans could have envisioned. Sure, they split the two game home stand against the Pennsylvania teams, but they never had a chance versus Robert Morris and barely edged out a victory over the feisty, yet flawed and inexperienced St. Francis Red Flash. Two NEC wins in four tries is a nice start for a team that went 3-26 last year, but you can bet Greg Vetrone is cognizant his team has been hideous at defending. In 16 games, FDU has given up 113.8 points per 100 possessions, bad enough for 10th worst in the nation. With a difficult slate of NEC games coming up, the Knights will need to dial up the defensive effort – and reduce their 23.6% turnover rate – to become a factor in this wonderfully competitive conference.

The Ugly

  • Unchartered Territory for Quinnipiac – With only one season left to earn that elusive NEC postseason title and NCAA automatic bid, it’s becoming more apparent that Tom Moore may fall short in that regard. For the first time in the Moore era, the Bobcats find themselves at 5-10. Quinnipiac is inventing new ways to lose each game, but the most troubling issues have been their poor free throw shooting (once again) and their inconsistency to score and respond when other teams make a run. Overall, the offense has performed better of late (1.18 points per possession), whereas the defense has been exceptionally porous (1.18 points allowed per possession). The optimistic approach for a Bobcat fan is to recall their team’s early NEC slump last season when they climbed out of a 2-5 hole to finish with a 10-8 NEC record. This season however, I’d be a little more skeptical that Tom Moore can somehow turn the ship around without any true playmakers. I’ll have more on their issues in the near future.
  • The Mayhem Mess – Jamion Christian is one of the most positive coaches in the conference, but even the first year head coach has to be shaking his head over his team’s recent play. The numbers have become particularly ugly during their 2-6 skid: the Mountaineers are allowing opponents to shoot 43.9% from three (worst in the nation) and 59.3% from inside the arc (2nd worst in the nation). In addition, their interior players – Krajina, Barber, Danaher – aren’t intimidating opposing big men with their puny block percentages and heavy foul rates. With an upcoming schedule that immediately includes Bryant, CCSU, Wagner, and Robert Morris, the defense needs to improve in a hurry. Right now when the Mount gives up more than 1.00 points per possession, they are 2-8 on the season. That must change if the Mount wants to get back into the NEC postseason.

Ryan Peters covers Northeast Conference men’s basketball for Big Apple Buckets and Pioneer Pride. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @pioneer_pride