Around these parts, we know that the real season begins January 2nd; all the games the last couple of months were just a warm-up. The truth is that no matter how well an NEC team plays in November and December, if they don't win the conference tournament in March, they're not making the NCAA Tournament. So the goal for January and February is to set yourself up with the highest seed possible and home-court advantage. But that doesn't mean the first part of the season wasn't f

Well folks, following Friday's 87-58 loss to Penn State, Central Connecticut has officially finished winless during the non-conference portion of its schedule. (Note: I will always pretend games against non-D1 teams do not actually exist) The first two months of the season have been incredibly trying for everyone involved; players, coaches, and fans. Save for having a very young team, there really haven't been a ton of positives for this bunch, and the outlook for NEC play is

Team of the Week: Sacred Heart It was a quiet week here in our favorite conference in America, with just 16 Division-1 games on tap. While no team won more than 1 game, there were a bunch of high-quality wins. However, no team played better in their one win than Sacred Heart. The Pios went on the road and faced an admittedly weak Holy Cross team that has just one win on its ledger (an 81-67 triumph over Mercer), and just hammered them 89-68 by scoring 1.26 ppp thanks to 10-28

If you were simply looking at the Northeast Conference's standings to identify potential title contenders, Long Island probably wouldn't jump out at you; they're currently just 3-7, with no notable wins on their resume. But as well all know around these parts, win-loss records can be deceiving. The team formerly known as the Blackbirds (I'm still not used to it, though I dig the color scheme) has played a non-conference schedule that ranks 108th nationally (aka, pretty tough)

Team of the Week: St. Francis-Brooklyn The Terriers won a pair of close games at home last week, sneaking by Presbyterian 64-63, then knocking off NJIT 73-71. Neither team has been particularly impressive in the early going; PC is now 1-8 against D1 competition, while NJIT has just a pair of wins (at Cornell and at home against Wagner). SFC hasn't been terribly impressive in the non-conference (more on that in a bit), but they do have four wins, and that's got to count for so

As Jared Grasso entered his second season as Head Coach at Bryant, most people clued into the Northeast Conference expected an improvement on the Bulldogs' 10-20 (7-11 in NEC play) 2018-19 campaign; they returned the majority of their rotation, plus point guard Ikenna Ndugba was back after being an injury red-shirt, and Grasso brought in highly-regarded recruiting class. However, there were questions. Primarily, could they defend? In Tim O’Shea’s final season in Smithfield, B

What a week for the Northeast Conference! The league went 10-7 as a whole, it's first week with a winning record, and easily exceeded expectations (Kenpom had a win expectancy of ~7 for NEC teams). The schedule is about to get mighty quiet as we head into finals, then Christmas break. Just a handful of non-conference games remain, then the real fun begins. Team of the Week: Bryant The Bulldogs are the first team to win this award twice this season (should we send school a cer

Head Coach Rob Krimmel has certainly gotten things rolling in Loretto. Krimmel took over for Don Friday, who went a combined 23-48 in NEC play in four seasons, in 2012 and has gradually improved the program; from the #330 ranked Kenpom team in 2013 to #214 in 2018, and he’s coming off back-to-back 12-6 league campaigns. However, last season was kind of a disappointment; after being the unanimous pre-season pick to win the Northeast Conference, the Red Flash finished tied atop

On Sunday, Central Connecticut State put together its best 40-minutes of basketball. No, it wasn't a good 40-minutes of basketball; they lost 73-71 at UMass-Lowell, which was just 2-5 against D1 teams coming into the game with a win over LIU and a loss to Merrimack. Was it a step in the right direction? Many will look at the score and say yes, but I'm not so sure. 1. Here's the thing about CCSU's loss on Sunday; the only reason they were even in that game was because Jamir Co

The Bryant Bulldogs have been off to a promising start, going into their game against New Hampshire sitting at 4-3, with the losses coming at an average of 7 points. Unfortunately, last Tuesday night was no different. After battling back from 14 down with a little over 13 minutes to go in the 2nd half, Bryant couldn't muster up enough energy in OT to take down the Wildcats. While some might be concerned about this group after some tough losses, I believe it is exactly what th