Category: NEC

Fairleigh Dickinson Makes a Statement Over Mount St. Mary’s

If you didn’t believe there was parity in the NEC prior to Thursday’s round of conference opening games, then you surely do now.

Fairleigh Dickinson (FDU) is the prime example of that, as the Knights – who had a total of five NEC victories in the past two seasons – went into Emmitsburg, Maryland and dominated the favored Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers, defeating them 72-65 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score would indicate. Continue reading “Fairleigh Dickinson Makes a Statement Over Mount St. Mary’s” →

Wagner Wins NEC Opener Over Monmouth

On a night when so many things reminded fans across the NEC that conference play had started and this isn’t last year’s league, two things were stunningly familiar. Wagner played defense and Wagner won at home. Continue reading “Wagner Wins NEC Opener Over Monmouth” →

Our Revised NEC Standings: Part One

With the exception of Robert Morris, the NEC hasn’t exactly gone according to plan based on our original predictions. Therefore, before NEC play begins this Thursday, John and I had an e-mail chat over the better half of a week to make sense of the unexpected developments and recalibrate our preseason team rankings. Here is Part 1 of our discussion. Continue reading “Our Revised NEC Standings: Part One” →

10,000 Sims: Robert Morris Remains the Favorite in NEC

A few months ago two projection systems pegged Robert Morris as the best team in the NEC. While the Colonials haven’t been quite as good as those results might’ve suggested, they have taken care of business and have an 8-5 record as we head into conference play. So while RMU probably won’t be historically good by NEC standards, Andy Toole’s team is the one to beat.

Continue reading “10,000 Sims: Robert Morris Remains the Favorite in NEC” →

KenPom Movement: Virginia Tech Comes Back To Earth

Two major conference teams highlight the biggest movers in the final week before most conferences start league play. As most leagues besides the Ivy and Patriot head into conference clashes this week it’ll be interesting to see how the rankings react to teams playing opponents that should be consistently in their “typical” range of competition. Continue reading “KenPom Movement: Virginia Tech Comes Back To Earth” →

Super Saturday for the NEC Provides Mixed Results

The last Saturday of 2012 was the final non-conference hurrah for four of the seven NEC teams that competed yesterday. Five of those seven games saw the NEC team as the favorite, yet the day concluded with a mixed bag of results overall. Many of these games were decided in the final seconds, and that should serve as a microcosm for the conference season ahead. Offense will be difficult to come by and tightly contested games should be determined deep into the second half. It will make the NEC completely unpredictable; therefore anyone who says they can reasonably forecast which teams will land in the NEC postseason aren’t being truthful! Onto the action from yesterday… Continue reading “Super Saturday for the NEC Provides Mixed Results” →

A Holiday Special: NEC, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

With the NEC – and most of college basketball – off for the past couple of days, I broke out my periodic review of all things NEC. Unfortunately, I had some difficultly finding an equal amount of good and bad stories, so I did my best to sprinkle in some positive news. To be quite frank, it hasn’t been the greatest non-conference season for the NEC. The Ken Pomeroy rating for the conference has dipped from #19, at the start of the season, to #25. With little time left before conference play begins, it appears the NEC is destined for a maximum of two combined NCAA and NIT bids, at best. Continue reading “A Holiday Special: NEC, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” →

Dyami Starks making a difference for Bryant

Peruse the current Northeast Conference basketball standings and you’ll find an unfamiliar team near the top. The Bryant Bulldogs, in their first season as a full-time Division I program, have turned some heads by winning six of their first ten games. It doesn’t sound like much, until you realize the Bulldogs have already tripled their win total from all of last season, when they finished at the bottom of the conference with an unsightly 2-28 record. Continue reading “Dyami Starks making a difference for Bryant” →