Rush The Court

Michael Hurley is the RTC correspondent for the Patriot League and America East Conference. Click here for all of our 2009-10 Season Preview materials.

Predicted Order of Finish:

1. Boston University  (13-3)
2. Stony Brook  (11-5)
3. Vermont  (10-6)
4. Albany  (10-6)
5. New Hampshire  (8-8)
6. UMBC  (7-9)
7. Hartford  (6-10)
8. Maine  (5-11)
9. Binghamton  (2-14)

All-Conference Team:

• Corey Lowe (G), Sr., Boston U.
• Joe Zeglinski (G), Jr., Hartford
• Marqus Blakely (F), Sr., Vermont
• John Holland (F), Jr., Boston U.
• Will Harris (F), Sr., Albany

6th Man. Muhammad El-Amin (G), Sr., Stony Brook

Impact Newcomer. Luke Apfeld (F), Fr., Vermont

What You Need to Know.  This offseason has been a rocky one for reigning America East champion Binghamton to say the least.  The Bearcats went through one of the biggest roster changeovers due to disciplinary reasons in history of NCAA basketball.  They are returning only four players as nine from last year are now gone. Out of those nine players, six were dismissed for disciplinary reasons including three starters and two all conference selections. Talk about a rough offseason for Binghamton fans. The latest blow (probably not a blow after how much trouble he got this program into) is that Coach Kevin Broadus has been placed on paid leave and assistant coach Mark Macon will take over in the interim. My humble opinion is that Coach Broadus will never be back.  The school will try to work out some type of settlement and they will ultimately part ways. It is crazy to think that Broadus could stay with the program after all the public relations damage already inflicted. Mark Macon is going to have a tough first season to say the least. This team should not be expected to win more than two or three conference games, which is even a stretch.  In other news, Boston University fired Coach Dennis Wolff, the all time leader in wins for the BU program, after 15 years. They hired Villanova assistant Patrick Chambers to lead the Terriers back to the top. With the roster he walked into, Chambers has it easier than most first time coaches. This season Vermont’s Marqus Blakely is going for his third consecutive America East Player of the Year award which would put him in the select company of only two others in history, Reggie Lewis of Northeastern and Taylor Coppenrath of Vermont. Blakely also has a shot at his third straight America East Defensive Player of the Year, which would be unprecedented.

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Corey Johns of UMBC Sports Blog is the RTC correspondent for the America East Conference.

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Bad Santas. Portland St. 77, Gonzaga 70. Santa Claus made an early visit to the environs of Cincinnati, OH, and Spokane, WA, tonight, but instead of leaving toys and treats for the tots of Xavier and Gonzaga Universities, respectively, he left a couple of lumps of coal and another undisclosed brownish substance in their stockings.  AP #7 Gonzaga and AP # 14 Xavier, both coming off of devastating Saturday losses (in different ways), were unable to shake off their hangovers from losses to UConn and Duke and instead dropped home games tonight that sent shocks throughout mid-major America.   The more surprising upset of the two took place out west, where Gonzaga was thoroughly outplayed by the scrappier, guttier Portland St. Vikings.  PSU was led by 5′6 Jeremiah Dominguez, who hit seven threes for a sick line of 25/6/5 assts.  Yes, a guy shorter than you outrebounded all but Gonzaga’s 6′11 Austin Daye (9 boards) and 6′10 Josh Heytvelt (8) in this game.  Portland St., who has losses to Hampton and Cal Poly on its resume, never wavered in the face of the superior athleticism and size of Gonzaga.  GU, should have come out ready to eat glass in this one, but instead they allowed their heartbreaking loss to UConn over the weekend to mentally affect their play tonight.  Would that have happened to UNC?  Pitt?  Duke?  UCLA?  Gonzaga needs to get tougher mentally.  Butler 74, Xavier 65. Wasn’t Butler supposed to be rebuilding this year?  Amazingly, eight of Brad Stevens’ top nine Bulldogs are freshmen and sophomores, whereas XU starts two juniors and one senior.  So how is it that Butler was able to come into the Cintas Center and earn a victory in a location where Xavier had won its last fifteen games?  Standard Butler-issue hardnosed defense and poise.  Butler was able to keep Xavier under control from three (7-24) while also winning the battle of ball control (-7 turnovers) in a tough game that Xavier will regret losing come March.  Matt Howard (19/14) and Gordon Hayward (19/10) both provided double-doubles, but the key stat of the game may have been Xavier’s 12-22 from the line.  The 198th best FT-shooting team in America didn’t help their cause tonight, several times failing to convert both FT opportunities down the stretch.  If Gonzaga and Xavier want to be taken seriously as “high mids” vying for the Final Four, they cannot afford to lose home games like these.

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Ok, we’ve got some information flowing in tonight this weekend…

The production values on these things are unbelievable, considering they’re still just glorified practices…  from Georgetown…

How about Tom Crean’s first Hoosier Hysteria (Indiana)…

It looked like a great time at the Kennel (Gonzaga) on Friday night…

From Michigan State – a nasty 360-degree left dunk from Durrell Summers…

The original venue of Midnight Madness (Maryland)…

Here’s some K-State footage…  what happened to that Beasley kid?

How about a little George Mason love with Michael Jackson in the background…

Dunk you very much at UConn…

Some Mackey Madness at Purdue…

Here’s an excerpt from Corey Johns, our America East correspondent, at UMBC Sports Blog with a description of their festivities on Fri. night. 

Then came the dunk contest.  Freshmen Brett Burrier (6-6), Jake Wasco (6-9) and Chauncey Gilliam (6-2) and junior Matt Spadafora (6-4) all took the floor for the contest.  The first round Spadafora was the only one to
make both dunks sending him automatically to the finals, and the next guy was up to fan vote, and they choose Chauncey Gilliam.The finals were set and Spadafora hit is first one sending the crowd in an uproar thinking he won it right there, but Gilliam made and even more impressive shot making the crowd even crazier.  With the second shot at a dunk Spadafora barely missed hitting the back of the rim and shooting the ball back out.  Gilliam went on the court with the contest on the line.  He ran up did a 360 hook tomahawk dunk for the win and a floor storming performance as some fans and both the men’s and women’s team’s picked him up and carried him around as he celebrated.

Josh over at Big Ten Geeks, RTC’s Big 10 correspondents, was kind enough to allow us access to some live-blogging he did last night while watching the BTN coverage…

Live-Blogging Midnight Madness in the Big Ten

Josh here, from Big Ten Geeks, blogging the Midnight Madness festivities from…my living room.  But hey, I have the Big Ten Network in HD, and if you’re not one of the 12 or so households that receive the network – no fear! – I’ll be here to give you the rundown.  Looks like we have Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana, Minnesota, and Michigan State on tap. 

…Jim Jackson just compared Wisconsin to the New England Patriots.  I hope Marcus Landry has strong knees.

…Lots of dancing at the Night of the Grateful Red.  Each of the players has a silly dance routine with a cute co-ed (dance team members?  Does Wisconsin have a dance team?  Does Bo Ryan coach that too?).  Some are…better than others.  Jared Berggren gave a rythmically-challenged dance to Vanilla Ice.

…Man, Wisconsin has a lot of tall white guys.  Bo certainly has a type.

…Wisconsin fans hope Jason Bohannon has a better outside shot this season than pop-and-lock.

…Am I alone for thinking Bo Ryan bears a striking resemblance to Jon Voight?  Everytime I see him, Coach Kilmer’s voice pops in my head.

…Yes, Bo danced again this year, but it wasn’t as good as last year’s Soulja Boy routine.  But how can you top that?

…The festivities are tipping off in Mackey Arena.  Purdue has a Mission Impossible theme going. 

…Chris Kramer – not a dunker.

…BTN cuts away from the dunk competition as super-athlete Lewis Jackson starts his routine.  That’s just bad scouting.

…Hey, Kramer threw one down, and it appears he’s worked his way into the finals.  Well, hey, Purdue figures to rely on outside shooting anyways.

…JaJuan Johnson takes home the crown.  No LewJack highlights to be seen.  Color me disappointed. 

…Coach Tom Crean figures that IU will shoot a lot of 3s this season.  The talent certainly seems to be on the perimeter.

…Flipping over to ESPNU.  It’s ex-Big Ten coach Bill Self with a blue microphone.  He looks like he’s lost some weight.

…Scrimmage at Purdue.  A lot of defense being played for a scrimmage.  The Boilers will be tough to score on this season.

…Wild prediction time: LewJack will supplant Chris Kramer as the starting PG by the end of the season.  He looks good out there.

…A lot of growing pains at Indiana.  The fans are still figuring out how to cheer their coach.  Right now, they’re adapting the classical two-syllable chant (“Mich-ael Jor-dan” clap clap clapclapclap) to an elongated “To-om Cre-ean.”  Err, needs some work.  A modest proposal: why not go with the two-syllable “TomCrean!” clapclap, or the “U-S-A! U-S-A” three syllable cheer (“Coach Tom Crean! Coach Tom Crean!”)?

..Out to the Barn now.  You really have to like what Tubby’s done in a short time at Minnesota.  I’m sure Billy Gillispie is a great coach, but I can’t help but feel that Kentucky chased away a good one.

…Announcers are debating whether or not Blake Hoffarber should come off the bench.  Please – no!  The Hoff needs minutes!  It would be a mistake to relegate the best returning scorer to anything less than significant minutes.

…Why is Minnesota showing old footage of Flip Saunders runing some globetrotter-type drills?

…Every time I flip over to ESPNU to check out non-Big Ten festivities, I just get Andy Katz arguing with Adrian Branch in a studio.  Madness!

…Cut to the Breslin Center, which is having a flashback night to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 1979 championship season.  Izzo hints that we might see some crazy 70s hair, mustaches, and short shorts.  Hopefully Goran Suton does not partake in that last one.

…Minnesota scrimmage time!  The Hoff is on the bench and…Tubby calls a timeout?  He can’t help himself, he’s always got to be coaching.

…IU scrimmage time!  Yeah, the Hoosiers will be short this season.  Either Tom Crean is mic’ed up, or he’s just really loud.  Chastising players for a lot of bad shots.

Well, that does it for the BTN’s Midnight Madness coverage.  Fun night for the fans, and it means that the season is just around the corner.

From Greg Miller at S. Illinois -

Even though they’re coming off their first non-NCAA Tournament season since 2001, the 2008-09 Salukis had a good crowd on hand at the SIU Arena for this year’s version of Maroon Madness (despite it being a high school football Friday night).  It was the first chance to really get a look at a big group of newcomers that have been highly touted as the best recruiting class in SIU history.  From my perspective, a lot of them showed some serious potential.  Kevin Dillard (2008 Illinois Mr. Basketball) didn’t score much, but his ball-handling skills show he will be able to help Bryan Mullins out a lot at the point this season.  Ryan Hare is an explosive wing out of Chicago who can get the rim quick.  Torres Roundtree put on a well-rounded display.  He threw down an alley-oop from Mullins, drove hard to the rack for an easy lay-up and also did a good job running the break and finding the open man at the other end.  He will be a welcome addition to the backcourt.  Didn’t see a lot from fellow McCluer North alum Anthony Booker.  But size alone, he is a monster.  A legit 6′8 that will definately be able to bang in the Valley.  Justin Bocot was a pleasant surprise.  After sitting out last year with academic problems, Bocot is back and has some serious offensive game.  He showed the ability to get the rim and knock down the long three (depsite having a knuckleball shot).  All in all, it was a showcase for the freshman.  And they showcased some skills.  The one thing that remains to be seen is if these young ‘Dawgs can play that Chris Lowery-defense that has made SIU famous.  Here is a link to some interviews from SIU Media Day and highlights from tonight’s Maroon Madness.

Here are some photos from Memphis tonight…

More to come…

Corey Johns is the RTC correspondent for the America East conference.

Predicted Order of Finish:

1. Boston U (13-3)
2. Vermont (12-4)
3. UMBC (12-4)
4. Hartford (9-7)
5. Binghamton (8-8)
6. Albany (8-8)
7. New Hampshire (5-11)
8. Maine (2-14)
9. Stony Brook (2-14)

What You Need to Know (WYN2K).  Last year nobody could predict what happened in this conference.  One of the pre-season favorites, Vermont, had a new star in Marquis Blakely but still couldn’t crack the top two in the league, while the other preseason favorite, Boston U., didn’t even finish in the top half of the league.  UMBC and Hartford shocked everybody by being the two top teams.  Both built their team in different ways: UMBC through transfers, Hartford through the tremendous improvement of returning players (along with a freshman and one transfer).  But this year don’t expect Vermont and Boston U. to disappoint – they should be ready to regain their spots on top of the conference.

Predicted Champion.  Boston U. (NCAA #15 Seed) This is truly a toss up between Boston U. and Vermont.  Both teams are similar – Vermont has one of the top forward/guard tandems in the conference in Marquis Blakely and Mike Trimboli, and BU has John Holland and Corey Lowe.  Last year BU’s Holland won the freshman of the year award and was a major reason for their turnaround at the end.  After a horrid 5-14 start to the season, the Terriers put it together and finished 9-3 to advance to the semifinals of the conference tournament.  BU returns every significant player from last year’s team, including second team all conference point guard Corey Lowe (Am East #2 scorer – 18.8 ppg).  But what truly sets Boston U. above Vermont is that head coach Dennis Wolff runs a very good defense on his team.  They gave up the least amount of points per game in the conference last year (64.8 ppg) and if the offense picks up they should win the title.

Others Considered.  Vermont has a lot of talent on their team and can certainly put together a run for another conference championship (three titles from 2003-05).  Marquis Blakely and Mike Trimboli are a great one-two punch but the Catamounts added another factor with Maurice Joseph, a transfer from Michigan State who averaged 6.2 ppg there as a freshman.  The only thing that might hurt them is they lose two starters including Kyle Cieplicki, the lone member on the team last year who was on the 2005 team that upset #4 seed Syracuse in the NCAA tournament.

The Rest of the Conference.  UMBC took major losses by graduating three all-conference players from last season, but they return and add plenty to remain competitive.  Jay Greene and Darryl Proctor were both first team all-conference players last year and possibly the best at their positions.  Greene was second in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio and was fourth in the nation with 7.2 assist per game.  One thing about Greene is he can be one of the best scorers in the conference if he chooses to shot the ball.  He only averaged 8.8 ppg but when he needed to score had games of 26, 21, and 17. Hartford is another team that still has enough to make an impact with four starters back, led by Joe Zeglinski and Jaret Von Rosenberg. The big issue that could keep the Hawks out of the conference championship game is their lack of rebounding.  Last season they were last in the conference in that category and lost their best rebounder and major inside presence.  If they can develop another big body to take control of the paint then they may still have hope.  Binghamton and Albany will be relying on the development of transfers, combining for eight between the two teams.  Transfers did wonders for UMBC last season but it is always a gamble in terms of team chemistry.  Both teams lost three of their top players but if the transfers can have an impact right away then both teams can be dangerous.  New Hampshire has been one of the bottom dwellers for a while but can move up if Dane DiLiegro steps up at center and inproves the team’s rebounding.  With a lack of quality big men they might end up starting four guards including Tyrece Gibbs, who is one of the premier scorers in the conference, and Alvin Abreu, who was the top freshman guard a year ago. As for Maine and Stony Brook they will likely finish in the bottom two spots again.

Games to Watch.  As a one-bid league, only one game will matter to most people.

• America East Championship Game (03.14.09) ESPN2.

RPI Boosters.  The America East in one of the conferences where if you don’t win it, you don’t get in the NCAA Tournament.  Two years ago Vermont went 15-1 in conference play but lost in the conference finals and took a nice consolation trip to the NIT.  With the win-or-go-home aspect of the conference the teams also know they have to do everything they can in OOC games to get higher than a #15 or #16 seed, which is tough to do.  UMBC won 24 games last year, beating American and almost beating Ohio State but still ended up with a 15th seed.  This year four of the top Am East schools all scheduled games against big-time opponents where an upset wouldn’t be out of the question and they all could have a major bearing on where the winner of the conference is seeded.

• Albany @ DePaul (11.17.08)
• Hartford @ Penn State (11.20.08)
• Vermont @ Maryland (11.21.08)
• Boston U. @ Notre Dame (12.13.08)
• UMBC @ Nebraska (12.13.08)
• Hartford @ Baylor (12.22.08)
• Boston U. @ Cornell (12.29.08)

Impact Transfers. The America East might soon get the nickname “The Conference of Transfers.”  Between the nine teams in the conference there are 17 eligible transfers either cleared from sitting their transfer year or coming from junior college.  Last year transfers did wonders for UMBC and other teams hope for the same this year.  This year the transfer list is headlined by Vermont’s Maurice Joseph, a transfer from Michigan State who averaged 5.9 ppg in 16.8 minutes per game as a sophomore (get a look at Joseph in HS below).  Other key guys include Binghamton’s quartet of transfers, Tiki Mayben, Malik Alvin, Sean Watson, and Theo Davis (eligible in the second semester), Albany’s Louis Barraza (20.1ppg at the JuCo level), and UMBC’s 6’7” Ricky Flemming, a transfer from Fairfield.

Neat-o-Stat.  Since 1980 when the conference started, the champion has repeated 44% of the time while the regular season champion has won the conference championship 75% of the time.  The lowest seed to ever win the conference tournament was a #3 seed which happened once in 1993 when Delaware beat the #1 seed Drexel (67-64).

65-Team Era. The America East is 3-23 (.115) since the field moved up to 65, with three first-round victories from 1989 (#14 Siena over #3 Stanford), 1996 (#12 Drexel over #5 Memphis), and 2005 (#13 Vermont over #4 Syracuse). But the America East is surprisingly the only mid-major conference in the northeast that has never been apart of the play-in game. 

Final Thought. Usually two or three teams have a chokehold on the top of the conference, but this year the conference remains top heavy but it is still anybody’s league.  Vermont and Boston U. are projected to be the top teams this year but Hartford, UMBC, Albany, and Binghamton all can make some noise and should make the year very interesting.