With Christmas almost upon us, the NEC regular season is just on the horizon. An 18 game schedule to determine who the best team is in the 2014/2015 season, and more importantly home court advantage in the NEC tournament.
As teams continue to refine their lineups, style, and rotations, Colonials Corner is here to take a look at the league landscape as teams wrap up non-conference play.
Lets start with the good news. The NEC completed a winning record against the A10 this season (3-2), albeit a very small sample size. Two of the three wins were also over Duquesne (RMU and SFPA) while FDU picked up the other win over St. Joe's.
Sacred Heart and St Francis PA are off to great starts (both 5-4 overall), and have to be considered bigger threats than they were in the preseason.
The Red Flash have played some great defense this season, posting the best mark in the NEC. They haven't beaten anyone great yet, but there aren't any great teams in the league this year. They should be right there in the battle for a top four spot. They did return everyone from last season's team. It will be interesting to see how they do as the league gains continuity.
Sacred Heart has to be the biggest surprise. The Pioneers were expected to finish near the bottom of the league, now KenPom has them projected as the second place finisher. They have four guys averaging double-digits, led by freshman Cane Broome (13.4 ppg).
LIU has won three in a row after an 0-6 start. The Blackbirds Elvar Fridriksson (a freshman from Iceland) is off to a great start, leading the team in assists (4.6 per-game) and points (11.1 per-game). The wins have not been against great opponents, but the NJIT win jumps out so close to their upset over Michigan. Plus, this is a young team searching for confidence. A few wins can go a long way, no matter who they are against.
Now for the bad…..
The league is 0-20 against the "power six conferences." There really is not one "nice" win on any teams resume. In fact, the "best" win may be Bryant over Army. FDU has that win over Saint Joe's, but the Hawks are really down this year. It's one of those two wins. Yikes.
However, the league still has three great opportunities as RMU travels to Clemson, and both Sacred Heart and St. Francis PA play at Rutgers. Bryant will also host Harvard later on this season, another opportunity for a marquee win.
The preseason favorites are also off to slow, slow starts. St Francis Brooklyn is 3-7 (one of the wins is against a D2 school too), and down right abysmal on offense. The team is 340th in three point percentage. Not going to win many games shooting that poorly. They haven't won a division one game on their home court yet. The defense is still decent, and the length will give NEC opponents a ton of fits, but right now they don't look like a league contender.
Central Connecticut would not have been the league's second rated team if it was known that Kyle Vinales would not play a game this season (or ever again) at CCSU. Central is 2-7 (though they have won two games in a row) and has been pretty bad on both ends of the court. I still think they make a run at the NEC tournament, but they won't do much else.
Then there is the RMU Colonials. 3-7 overall, and extremely inconsistent. RMU still has the talent to win the league (mostly because it is a down year for almost every program), but that won't matter if the effort and consistency does not improve.
Mount and Bryant are all a lot like Robert Morris right now. Good teams with talent, looking to replace major contributors and still finding their way. Both should fight for a top four spot and are sure bets to make the league tournament. Mount has that same feeling...slow start, and then kick it in gear late February.
Wagner is undergoing a complete rebuild. Bad numbers on both ends, and only one win (over a bad Penn team at home) against D1 competition.
FDU has the worst KenPom numbers of any team in the league, but maybe the best win and at 3-5 not many teams are better right now. The projections (KenPom) have them finishing last in the NEC with seven wins. A slew of teams are projected to have eight, and SFPA is the projected winner at this moment with 12. Not a whole lot of separation.
Quick projections:
1: RMU--Still the most talented team in the league. Rodney Pryor and Marcquise Reed are two great additions. Lucky Jones has not done much this season. That will change. Andy Toole will get things straightened out.
2) Bryant--Their offense might be the league's best. Dyami Starks will be the best player on the court in almost every game they play in conference.
3) St Francis PA--I still wonder if they can compete with the league's better teams once the competition gels a bit. Still, it's hard to ignore the strides this program and team have made the last few seasons.
4) St Francis BK--The offense will prevent them from fighting for the one seed, but the defense and size will keep them in every game. Jalen Cannon (very good) is about the same player he was last year. Can he take one more step forward?
5) The Mount-- The defending tournament champs get maybe their most talented player, Butler transfer Andrew Smeathers eligible after missing every game this season. Will once again be dangerous come tournament time.
6) Sacred Heart--The mid-season numbers say I'm crazy, and that SHU should be higher. Love what Anthony Latina is doing there, not sold they can finish top four just yet.
7) LIU Brooklyn--If I had to take a bet on what team will finish above their ranking here, it would be LIU. Young team, lots of promise. You didn't think the back-to-back-to-back champs would be down too long, did you?
8) CCSU--Tight call between the Wagner Seahawks and CCSU for the last spot. I'll take CCSU. Matt Mobley is one of the leagues better point guards. It can't be understated how big a loss Vinales is. Was the leagues best scoring threat.
9) Wagner--Major rebuilding year, but that was to be expected after all the graduates and transfers.
10) FDU--Could finish last, or as high as six. There won't be a lot separating teams six through 10.
--Lee Kunkel
-@Kunkel5
This post was edited on 12/19 2:09 PM by ColonialCrazy
As teams continue to refine their lineups, style, and rotations, Colonials Corner is here to take a look at the league landscape as teams wrap up non-conference play.
Lets start with the good news. The NEC completed a winning record against the A10 this season (3-2), albeit a very small sample size. Two of the three wins were also over Duquesne (RMU and SFPA) while FDU picked up the other win over St. Joe's.
Sacred Heart and St Francis PA are off to great starts (both 5-4 overall), and have to be considered bigger threats than they were in the preseason.
The Red Flash have played some great defense this season, posting the best mark in the NEC. They haven't beaten anyone great yet, but there aren't any great teams in the league this year. They should be right there in the battle for a top four spot. They did return everyone from last season's team. It will be interesting to see how they do as the league gains continuity.
Sacred Heart has to be the biggest surprise. The Pioneers were expected to finish near the bottom of the league, now KenPom has them projected as the second place finisher. They have four guys averaging double-digits, led by freshman Cane Broome (13.4 ppg).
LIU has won three in a row after an 0-6 start. The Blackbirds Elvar Fridriksson (a freshman from Iceland) is off to a great start, leading the team in assists (4.6 per-game) and points (11.1 per-game). The wins have not been against great opponents, but the NJIT win jumps out so close to their upset over Michigan. Plus, this is a young team searching for confidence. A few wins can go a long way, no matter who they are against.
Now for the bad…..
The league is 0-20 against the "power six conferences." There really is not one "nice" win on any teams resume. In fact, the "best" win may be Bryant over Army. FDU has that win over Saint Joe's, but the Hawks are really down this year. It's one of those two wins. Yikes.
However, the league still has three great opportunities as RMU travels to Clemson, and both Sacred Heart and St. Francis PA play at Rutgers. Bryant will also host Harvard later on this season, another opportunity for a marquee win.
The preseason favorites are also off to slow, slow starts. St Francis Brooklyn is 3-7 (one of the wins is against a D2 school too), and down right abysmal on offense. The team is 340th in three point percentage. Not going to win many games shooting that poorly. They haven't won a division one game on their home court yet. The defense is still decent, and the length will give NEC opponents a ton of fits, but right now they don't look like a league contender.
Central Connecticut would not have been the league's second rated team if it was known that Kyle Vinales would not play a game this season (or ever again) at CCSU. Central is 2-7 (though they have won two games in a row) and has been pretty bad on both ends of the court. I still think they make a run at the NEC tournament, but they won't do much else.
Then there is the RMU Colonials. 3-7 overall, and extremely inconsistent. RMU still has the talent to win the league (mostly because it is a down year for almost every program), but that won't matter if the effort and consistency does not improve.
Mount and Bryant are all a lot like Robert Morris right now. Good teams with talent, looking to replace major contributors and still finding their way. Both should fight for a top four spot and are sure bets to make the league tournament. Mount has that same feeling...slow start, and then kick it in gear late February.
Wagner is undergoing a complete rebuild. Bad numbers on both ends, and only one win (over a bad Penn team at home) against D1 competition.
FDU has the worst KenPom numbers of any team in the league, but maybe the best win and at 3-5 not many teams are better right now. The projections (KenPom) have them finishing last in the NEC with seven wins. A slew of teams are projected to have eight, and SFPA is the projected winner at this moment with 12. Not a whole lot of separation.
Quick projections:
1: RMU--Still the most talented team in the league. Rodney Pryor and Marcquise Reed are two great additions. Lucky Jones has not done much this season. That will change. Andy Toole will get things straightened out.
2) Bryant--Their offense might be the league's best. Dyami Starks will be the best player on the court in almost every game they play in conference.
3) St Francis PA--I still wonder if they can compete with the league's better teams once the competition gels a bit. Still, it's hard to ignore the strides this program and team have made the last few seasons.
4) St Francis BK--The offense will prevent them from fighting for the one seed, but the defense and size will keep them in every game. Jalen Cannon (very good) is about the same player he was last year. Can he take one more step forward?
5) The Mount-- The defending tournament champs get maybe their most talented player, Butler transfer Andrew Smeathers eligible after missing every game this season. Will once again be dangerous come tournament time.
6) Sacred Heart--The mid-season numbers say I'm crazy, and that SHU should be higher. Love what Anthony Latina is doing there, not sold they can finish top four just yet.
7) LIU Brooklyn--If I had to take a bet on what team will finish above their ranking here, it would be LIU. Young team, lots of promise. You didn't think the back-to-back-to-back champs would be down too long, did you?
8) CCSU--Tight call between the Wagner Seahawks and CCSU for the last spot. I'll take CCSU. Matt Mobley is one of the leagues better point guards. It can't be understated how big a loss Vinales is. Was the leagues best scoring threat.
9) Wagner--Major rebuilding year, but that was to be expected after all the graduates and transfers.
10) FDU--Could finish last, or as high as six. There won't be a lot separating teams six through 10.
--Lee Kunkel
-@Kunkel5
This post was edited on 12/19 2:09 PM by ColonialCrazy
