Saturday marks the start of the college basketball season and I'll have a 4 part college basketball preview. Part 1 is a breakdown of the Little east Conference (LEC) women's schedule, part 2 is a breakdown of the LEC men's schedule, part 3 is a predicted order on the men's side and part 4 is a predicted order on the women's side. On the scheduling breakdown I give each team a grade A to F, 1 non conference (OOC) game to watch, and 1 conference game to watch. The LEC is made of 8 colleges in 5 New England States: Eastern Connecticut, Western Connecticut, Rhode Island College, UMass-Dartmouth, UMass-Boston, Southern Maine, Keene State & Plymouth State. With that said:
Eastern Connecticut: http://gowarriorathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 win loss record 198-123 (61.7 winning percentage). The Colonials getting a big bite out of the NESCAC this year as they face off against 5 of the 10 teams in the conference (could be 6 however) including the powerhouses if Amherst (26-4 last season), Tufts (30-3 last year) & Williams (20-6 last year). Also have their annual game against GNAC power Emmanuel (19-8 last year). Of their 10 scheduled OOC games only St. Joseph’s (12-14), Clark (11-14) and Newbury (5-19) finished under .500 last year. They could get a 6th NESCAC team as Wesleyan (12-12 in ’14) faces off against Framingham State (18-12) in the other game at the Eastern Conference. Four of 11 oppoents finished with a winning percentage of 70 or above last year so the Warriors will be tested before LEC play. However, that could work one of 2 ways (and I’ve seen it happen both ways): 1) the tough schedule, especially if you don’t win can take it’s toll towards the middle of January, so even though they won’t see as good of a team after December 4 when they play Amherst, the losses can pile up. I think that happened to them last year. 2) Even if you win those games vs. a Tufts, a Williams, Emmanuel, etc you can lose momentum from them. Their schedule in November-December could be one of the hardest in the Northeast: in a 4 game stretch they play Tufts, Williams, Amherst & the LEC opener @ RIC all in a row. They won’t have a 4 game stretch even as remotely tough as that was, but the 4 game stretch could really take it’s toll win OR lose. I’ll give the Warriors an A in the scheduling department
Most important non LEC game: November 30 vs. Williams. Williams struggled on the road last season, but is still a quality NESCAC team and would be a nice win for the Warriors. The game preceding that they play Tufts and the next 2 games are @ Amherst and @ RIC. I doubt they win either of the 2 road games and Tufts will be tough.
Most important LEC game: January 13 vs. Dartmouth. Between December 1 and January 23 they have 7 of 10 games (4 of 6 LEC games) away from home. They finish up with RIC relatively early once again and have the Maine trip to USM after the Dartmouth game so they get those 2 trips out of the way. Dartmouth has always been a bad road team and Eastern has a challenging opening slate to the year.
Keene state: http://keeneowls.com/sports/wbkb/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 record: 221-135 (62.1 winning percentage). Much like the Warriors, the Owls are preparing themselves well. Unlike the Warriors, however, the Owls are still a relatively young team, so I’m not sure this is quite the schedule you want the kids to jump into. I doubt they’ll be favored in many of these games against the likes of Tufts, Amherst, or Smith (18-12 last year). The Owls are participating in 2 tournaments this year and each is packed with talented ball clubs. They open the year in the UNE tournament taking on a Tufts team that finished with 30 wins last season and is ranked in the top 5 preseason this year then either the host squad UNE (27-3 last season; ranked top 20 this year) or Wellesley (who ONLY finished 16-10 last season). They host their own tournament taking on Anna Maria in the first game (11-14 last season) and then either William Paterson (18-10 last year) or Regis (23-5 last season). Even the 2 potential gimme’s on the Owls schedule RPI (7-18) and Middlebury (7-17) aren’t gimme’s because both take place on the road. 8 of the Owls potential 13 opponents finished 2013/14 with at least 16 wins. Tough hill to climb and even though I don’t think they should be doing it, they are so the Owls get an A+ in the SOS department.
Most important non LEC game: December 2 @ RPI. The Owls could very well be winless heading into this matchup, but this game could give them some momentum. RPI finished 7-18 last year, and their next 2 games are both home LEC dates, and as we all know the only thing that matters is winning the conference and the more conference games you win during the season, the more likely you are to win the conference tournament.
Most important LEC game: December 6 vs. Boston. They open up with 2 straight at home and 4 of their first 6 LEC games are at home before ending with 4 of 5 on the road. Boston’s only won twice in the last 8 years in Spaulding, and even though USM is the next weekend, the Owls usually play them well at home and aside from 2 seasons ago when the Huskies ran out to an undefeated record and number 9 in the country, they seem to start the LEC season slow; last year the Owls beat them in Maine in the LEC opener, and the Huskies open up @ Western before traveling to Keene. 1-1 seems more likely, but 2-0 really isn’t out of the question for the Owls.
Mass-Boston: http://www.beaconsathletics.com/sports/w-baskbl/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 record: 131-178 (42.4 winning percentage). Really, THIS is the schedule Keene should be playing and Boston should be playing Keene’s schedule. There’s really only one good team on here and that’s Bridgewater, but they only finished 16-12 last season. Luckily for the Beacons all the tough games: Salve Regina (14-13 last year), Brandeis (14-13), Bridgewater, Westfield (15-11) and Suffolk (16-10) are at home, so pretty much that’s the only positive but it downgrades the SOS even worse than it was already. Out of that foursome I’d say Bridgewater is the only legit NCAA tournament team. Last year’s 16-12 was a disappointment. They had 4 starters back from 2013’s 27-4 team but lost 1 with via injury halfway through 2014, never recovered after that, and lost 3 others to graduation in May, so they’ll have to implement pretty much an entire new starting 5. Brandeis is stuck behind Wash U, Rochester & Emory in the UAA and if NYU or Chicago can put together good squads that’s 2 others they have to jump. Add in the fact there’s no conference tournament in the UAA for Brandeis to steal a win or 2 puts them even further behind the 8 ball. Likewise, Suffolk is stuck behind GNAC monster Emmanuel in that conference. Even though they do have a conference tournament unlike the UAA they only play 1 conference game each, and the GNAC game between the 2 this year is @ Emmanuel. To add onto this trio Salve is stuck behind perennial CCC power UNE in that conference. Unless UNE or Emmanuel finish with 0 or 1 losses in their conference regular season, neither of those 2 conferences is getting a pool C slot, and the MASCAC is usually another conference where the tourney winner is the only one advancing to the NCAA tournament. Powder puff schedule with all the good games at home leaves the Beacons with a D in the SOS department.
Most important non LEC game: tough to say with all the cupcakes here but I’ll go with January 6 vs. Brandeis. Last year they lost by almost 40!
Most important LEC game: December 13 vs. RIC. RIC got hit with graduation & player loss, so it's a good chance for the Beacons to get a leg up on the rest of the competition, especially Eastern, Western (probably my preseason pick), Boston (volleyball team got eliminated in the LEC semi’s over the weekend so Morrison has basketball only now, and her & Olivia Murphy can still form a dynamic duo that will be tough to stop especially since Dartmouth lost all their height.) Just checked the Beacons roster and found out Colleen Moriarty is now an assistant coach, bodes even better for them. Actually, Mattingly put together a pretty impressive coaching staff for this year: Moriarty to work with Morrison, Murphy (I’m still going by what I’ve been saying the last 2 years she’d be unguardable with an outside shot) and the rest of the bigs and recent graduates Shelby Buck & Andrea Suffredini to work with the guards. The OOC schedule still sucks, but I think they can compete this year.
UMass-Dartmouth: http://www.corsairathletics.com/sports/w-baskbl/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 record: 144-125 (53.5 winning percentage). Blah is all I’ll say. Obviously better then Boston’s is, but not quite as good as Keene’s or Eastern’s is. Williams is their marquee game, but even on the road it’s still a game the Corsairs can win. They have another full season of Kelsey Garrity who with McNamera from USM gone is the best PG in the conference if she wasn’t already. Meghan Ronagan was the LEC rookie of the year, and Colleen kane, Beth Constantini & Erin Fahey are good in spurts. Mentioned Bridgewater above with Boston a team that was better than their 16-12 record showed but is implementing an entire new starting lineup. Take Coast Guard out of this, who had a career year last year finishing 19-7 and this is about a .500 schedule (123-118), Colby-Sawyer (18-10 last year) is another good team out of a bad conference, but overall I give the Corsairs a C+, right at average.
Most important non LEC game: @ Williams January 5. Most of the teams are still on holidays, so this will be bright and center. In the 4 years I’ve been at Western and started following the conference, the LEC has been looking for that marquee non-conference victory. Even if the Corsairs do manage the victory it’s probably still not enough to lock them into a pool C spot, but would definitely put them on the track and put that losers mentality on the road behind them. Obviously since it’s Christmas break Williams won’t get as many students as they would if the game was on December 5 or February 5, but would still be an excellent win!
Most important LEC game: January 8 vs. Western Connecticut. Dartmouth starts off the LEC season with 4 of 5 on the road with this being the lone home game. The Corsairs went 0-3 vs. the Colonials last season, and in the home meeting blew an 8 point halftime lead to a Western that finished in the bottom 3 in points scored. They ultimately ended up tied for 4th, that golden spot between playing the 4/5 game at home and playing the 4/5 game on the road, lost the tiebreaker due to the 0-2 head-to-head season series record and lost the 3rd matchup in the 4/5 game of the first round of the LEC tournament. This wouldn’t be revenge entirely, but it will probably be pretty big for Dartmouth regardless as the road trip to start the year takes them to Plymouth (tough trip and even though they’ll still be terrible may actually get a couple wins), Eastern & USM so could be must win. Even though they’ll finish with 6 of 9 at home they’ll still have the road game @ Western and 2 games each against Boston & RIC. 2-3 after those first 5 and going home for 6 of the last 9 is a lot better than 1-4 or 0-5 and going home. Pretty much you’re done if you start 1-4.
Plymouth State: http://athletics.plymouth.edu/sports/wbkb/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 record: 165-148 (52.7 winning percentage). 5 of 12 opponents have 18 or more wins but they likely only play 4 of those games: Suffolk plays Yeshiva (6-12) in the Wheaton tournament and even with Wheaton being 20-8 I doubt both the Panthers & Suffolk have the same result in the first game, so the panthers should get a pass on playing the Rams. Other than that, Castleton (27-4), Rivier (20-8) and Colby-Sawyer (18-10) look to be the only guaranteed losses for the Panthers. The rest of the OOC slate is a bunch of average to bad teams in terrible conferences. Since this is a team that is only 16-82 the last 5 years I’ll be generous and give them a B and say they built their schedule to get some wins early in the season.
Most important non LEC game: January 6 @ Johnson State. Plymouth started the 2013 season 1-1 before losing the final 23 games to finish 1-24 for the year. They weren’t competitive to end the year they lost 23 of 25 by 10 or more and 18 of 25 by 20 or more points. However, the 1 game they were competitive in, was a 63-62 double overtime loss to the Badgers of Johnson state. The Panthers started the 2014 season with 9 straight losses, so dating back to 2013 they had lost 32 straight games AND dating back to the end of 2012 they had lost 36 of their last 37 games. However, they broke the streak defeating the Badgers 89-72 in a laugher. They were able to parlay that into a LEC road win @ Boston the next week, only their second road win in conference since the 2010/11 season.
Most important LEC game: December 6 vs. Dartmouth. The conference opener for both teams. When you are 3-53 in conference in the last 4 games, getting off to a fast start was good. Dartmouth is a good team, but the Panthers had them on the ropes last year in the opener, up 8 with 8 minutes to go before falling in the end. They were competitive in the first half or even first 30 minutes of games last year. Including the Dartmouth Game they had halftime leads on Southern Maine & Western Connecticut last year before faltering in the second half. If they can keep these teams close but than finish the deal unlike last year they could be a surprise.
USM: http://southernmainehuskies.com/sports/wbkb/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 record: 178-165 (51.9 winning percentage). B. As usual, the Huskies barely leave Maine in the OOC portion of the schedule. They just lucked out in that all the local area teams were good: UNE, Bowdoin (21-6), SJME (23-6), Husson (15-12) and a tournament at Westfield State. RPI isn’t officially on their schedule, but the Engineers are on the opposite side of the Huskies of both tournaments they are at, so it’s possible the Huskies could end up facing them twice.
Most important non LEC game: November 30 vs. St. Joseph’s (ME). UNE is the ranked team coming into Hill gymnasium, the Bowdoin/USM games are always great, even better between the women’s teams, but the Monks are the true rivalry game of the 3 right up the road. USM has owned the recent history, but the Monks went into Western Connecticut last January and just dismantled the Colonials which started a stretch where the Monks won 17 of their last 20 regular season games to win the GNAC tournament and make the tournament. The Monks 3 regular season losses in that stretch (Scranton, Emmanuel, UNE) came against teams that were a combined 72-15.
Most important LEC game: December 6 @ Western Connecticut. I know it’s a long trip for them, but the Huskies really struggle in Danbury. Western’s been the worst team the last 3 seasons, while even though USM has won 2 of the 3 games, the 2 games were close and the Western win was a blowout. In 2012 the season after Western graduated the big 3 of Karli Spera, Heather Lee & Melissa Teel, USM won by 1 in overtime after Stephanie Slonski missed 2 free throws at the end of regulation which would have won it for the Colonials. In 2013, USM came into the game unbeaten, ranked #9 in the nation and got run out of the building. Last year with Western’s offensive ineptitude, USM won by 2 on two late free throws inside of 10 seconds.
RIC: http://www.goanchormen.com/index.html
Combined 2013/14 record: 202-102 (66.4 winning percentage). Record gets weighed down with Babson (14-13) who struggled at times last year but is usually a quality club. All 11 of their opponents finished with double digit wins last season, and 9 of 11 finished the season with a winning record. They couldn’t get a marquee win last season which would have left them squarely on the fence last year had they lost to USM in the title game or Western in the semifinals. They’ll get ample opportunity to pick up that marquee win or 2 this year, and for that I give them an A
Most important non LEC game: November 15 vs. Williams (@ Babson). They’ll be tested right out of the gate. Getting the Ephs on a neutral court is better than playing them @ Williams, but a win is a win over a quality NESCAC team.
Most important LEC game: February 10 @ Western Connecticut. This is road game number 6 of 7 in the conference for the Anchorwomen, who after this game have 2 straight at home vs. USM & vs. Dartmouth and a road game @ Plymouth to end the season. This could potential decide that coveted 4 spot.
Western Connecticut: http://wcsuathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 record: 201-137 (59.5 winning percentage). The overall numbers gets bumped due to a bunch of bad teams in bad conference that had good seasons which are probably unlikely to sustain them the following season: Sage finished last year 17-10, but was only the second season they finished with double digit wins. Another Skyline team Purchase finished 16-10 but Western beat them by almost 40 points on the road! Farmingdale, who’s not officially on the schedule (they play 9-16 NJCU in the other game of the hat city classic) finished 16-9 but took advantage of a down Mount St. Mary in the Skyline. Staten Island was 21-8, but still lost to Baruch in the CUNY tournament. The best team (Regis) comes in February in the middle of LEC play. NYU starts off well, but falters late, Plattsburgh (23-6) is on the other side of the NYU tournament I hope we play them. I know they lost in the first round last year but there has to be someone more competitive than 1-21 Green Mountain to play in the first game of your tournament! C’mon! There’s probably high schools in Connecticut that would give them a better game. C- on the SOS. Would be a C if they replaced Green Mountain with Danbury High school. Would be a C+ if Regis was earlier in the season and or we were guaranteed to play Plattsburgh.
Most important non LEC game: November 15 @ NYU. Like Boston, not a lot of good options to choose from. It was basically between this game & Regis. However, Regis on February 3 when they each should be more concerned about their respective conference play than notching a win against a good New England team, that gets downgraded a notch.
Most important LEC game: January 20 @ RIC. Western starts with 4 of their first 5 LEC games at home, so they can get out to a nice clubhouse lead in the early going. However, this is the start of 3 straight road games: @ RIC, @ USM @ Eastern and then a home game vs. Dartmouth ends the 4 game stretch.
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