Michael Hurley is the RTC correspondent for the America East Conference and Patriot League.
2009-10 America East Standings
Team of the week: Stony Brook (2-0) (W 75-57 at UMES 11/13, W 87-53 vs. MSM 11/19)
Player of the week: Marqus Blakely, Sr., Vermont. (21.5 PPG, 9.5 RPG, 4.5 APG, 4 BPG, 3 SPG)
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:
All-Conference Team:
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.
Corey Johns of UMBC Sports Blog is the RTC correspondent for the America East Conference.
Corey Johns is the RTC correspondent for the America East Conference.
Over the past two weeks Boston U and Albany played their way out of contention for the regular season conference championship. Albany just went in a free fall down the standings, losing five straight while Boston U needed to win out for hope but most recently lost to Stony Brook, taking them out. It’s down to Vermont and Binghamton. If Binghamton wins out they are the champion. They beat Vermont twice this year and have the tie breaker. But if they slip at all Vermont is in perfect position to take the title.
Team Overall Record Conference Record
Projected Awards
First Team All-Conference
Corey Johns is the RTC correspondent for the America East Conference.
Two weeks ago the America East Conference looked to be wide open. Everybody was beating everybody and the bottom team was just two games away from the top of the conference. But in the past two weeks the conference has started to even out. Boston U, Vermont and Binghamton have started to separate themselves from the rest of the pack and very surprisingly the two teams in the conference championship last season, UMBC and Hartford, look to be at the bottom for good along with Maine.
Team Overall Record Conference Record
Projected Awards
First Team All-Conference
Player of the Year
Defensive Player of the Year
Freshman of the Year
Coach of the Year
Corey Johns is the RTC correspondent for the America East Conference.
Everybody is beating everybody in the America East this year. It’s a good thing to show how deep the conference is but it’s a bad thing for the NCAA tournament. When everybody has multiple conference losses, that 14-15 seed teams in this conference hopes for can drop to a 16-play-in game. But what it does mean right now is nobody is safe, and everybody has a chance to win, shown by the bottom teams being just two conference wins away from the top at this point.
Standings
The Contenders
Vermont- The Catamounts have hit their stride as of late and definitely look like they are the top team in the conference having now won four straight (three on the road). Mike Trimboli (15.8ppg, 4.7apg), Marqus Blakely (15.2ppg, 8.5rpg), and Colin McIntosh (13.2ppg, 5.6rpg) are a great trio of scorers that have been consistent all season. The reason Vermont is hot right now though is Michigan state transfer Maurice Joseph has finally become the scoring threat they expected in Vermont. In the past four games he’s averaged 10.8ppg. With four guys scoring in double figures on a team, it’s hard to beat them. But there biggest strength is their bench. Vermont has been running a six man bench for significant minutes lately, allowing them to play full court press more often and really shutting down teams offenses.
Patrick Marshall of Bluejay Basketball is the RTC correspondent for the Big 12 and Missouri Valley Conferences.
Current Records and my standings (Conference Standings) (Last Week)
1. Baylor (13-2) (1-0) (4)
2. Oklahoma (14-2)(1-0) (2)
3. Texas (12-3) (1-0) (3)
4. Texas A&M (14-2) (0-1) (1)
5. Kansas (11-4)(0-0) (5)
6. Oklahoma State (12-3) (1-0) (8 )
7. Nebraska (11-3) (1-0) (11)
8. Missouri (13-3) (0-1) (6)
9. Kansas State (11-4) (0-1)(7)
10. Texas Tech (10-6) (0-1)(9)
11. Iowa State (11-5) (0-1) (10)
12. Colorado (8-6) (0-0) (12)
Though Conference play started this past weekend, really to me, the conference season really starts here on Big Monday with one of the bigger match-ups of the season in Texas and Oklahoma and their “golden boy” Blake Griffin. But let’s take a look at the conference as a whole and see if things are where we expected coming into the season:
Corey Johns is the RTC correspondent for the America East Conference.
Standings
The Contenders
Binghamton- At the beginning of the season nobody knew what Binghamton was going to do. They are loaded with talent but they were mostly transfers coming together for the first year. They are definitely answering any questions people had about them as they are 6-1 in their last seven games with three conference wins. D.J. Rivera (21.6ppg, 7.0rpg) and Malik Alvin (12.2ppg, 4.3apg) were a questionable backcourt coming into the season as Rivera is a transfer from St. Joseph’s who did not have to sit out a transfer year and Alvin is a junior college transfer. Nobody knew how well they would play together but they complement each other greatly and are the reason Binghamton is top the conference right now.
Corey Johns is the RTC correspondent for the America East Conference.
Last time the America East week had two average weeks, this time the America East went 8-10 overall but UMBC had an amazing upset at Nebraska and Albany and Vermont are starting to separate themselves by winning all of their games the past two weeks. Chauncey Gilliam, Danny Carter, Anthony Raffa, Jake O’Brien and Gerald McLemore are all freshmen that are getting better every day, and the future is looking bright for the conference.
Standings:
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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