Yale 77, Brown 68: No Style Points In Conference Play

NEW HAVEN, Conn. –  Conference play brings a new level of intensity, but it’s doubly so in the Ivy League, where there (for now at least) is no postseason tournament.

So it shouldn’t have been surprising that a team like Brown, which had a relatively disappointing 5-9 non-conference campaign and hasn’t had a winning Ivy season since 2007-08, would take the reset and set out to make life as difficult as possible for Ivy League favorite Yale Saturday night, especially with essentially no one else to prepare for in the past two weeks (Brown did have a game last week, but like Yale it was against Division III Daniel Webster).

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Siena 64, Quinnipiac 52: How About That Saints’ Defense?

HAMDEN, Conn. – The credit does not belong to the critic, as Mr. Roosevelt once taught us, but the data made it pretty easy to be critical of Siena’s defense last season. Coming off a 2013-14 campaign in which the Saints were second in the MAAC (behind only champion Manhattan) and 78th nationally in defensive efficiency, Siena mysteriously couldn’t stop anyone last season with largely the same personnel that had won 20 games and the CBI in Jimmy Patsos’ first season in Loudonville (OK, Albany).

The final tally: 334th in defensive efficiency, dead last in the 11-team MAAC, and therefore an extremely disappointing 11-20 record.

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Bryant 61, St. Francis Brooklyn 59: Bulldogs Clutch Again

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – In an NEC race that seems to pretty clearly up for grabs this season, it’s nice to have a guy like Shane McLaughlin around. The Bryant senior captain leads the conference in assists, and although he averages just 7.4 points per game can almost always be counted on to do the right thing down the stretch.

And with seemingly every NEC game going to the wire in 2015-16, he’s a big reason why the Bulldogs have shaken off a frustrating non-conference campaign to sit atop the NEC at 4-1 thus far. Thursday night in a tie game with the clock running down, Tim O’Shea put the ball in McLaughlin’s hands and hoped he could find an open teammate. When the tough St. Francis Brooklyn defense wouldn’t let him, McLaughlin – despite being just 1-5 from the field for two points at the time – took it upon himself, draining a fade away 18-footer with 1.3 seconds left to give Bryant a hard-fought 61-59 win at the Chace Athletic Center.

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NEC Midseason All-Conference Teams

With half of the season in the books, now is the perfect time to announce out my NEC midseason all-conference teams. Figuring out the NEC top 15 wasn’t an easy task, especially given the youth the league possesses, yet I’m confident this group of young men have been worthy of these honors.  Continue reading “NEC Midseason All-Conference Teams” →