America East so far

[nysteve661]

After tonight the America East is now 35 and 57 on the season which has caused our Conference RPI to be number 26 out of 31. Definitely thought the AE would be better than this in the OOC games this season. By the way, Vermont lost to Delaware at Burlington 71-60 tonight so maybe Delaware is better than we thought. AE teams are losing at an alarming rate the past few weeks. Be interesting how it shakes out when conference play starts. Any thoughts?

[Patch]

The injury bug has some impact -

 

UVM has had someone out for almost every game - Blakely, McCrory or the big Freshmam whose name escapes me

 

BU has been without Tyler Morris and then Corey Lowe missed 2 games

 

UMBC had one of their good transfers go down for the last 3 games or so

 

Hartford had a starter out a couple of games with a miss diagnosed knee injury

[Clickclack]

I never imagined we’d slip this far. I thought we’d slip to 21 or 22, not teeter between 26 and 27. BU picked to win the league has been down mostly due to the fact that their star guard duo of Lowe and Morris has been out for very long stretches of the season. UA adjusting to the post Jamar era has let a couple slip away…..poor effort at Delaware not to mention the St. B collapse. Bingo is rebuilding with a new coach as is Hartford and to some extent UNH. Both Hartford and UNH appear to be on the right path and have good coaches running the programs but are probably another year or two away from really making noise. Too early to make a determination on Bingo….if their two transfers pan out ie. attend Bingo next season.....look out! UVM is rebuilding even though I thought they would be better then they have been. They lost a ton with the graduation of Holms and the other forward (the name escapes me) and the transfer of Trepani. I hate UVM but I do have allot of respect for Lonergan and what he’s managed to accomplish. They are far from the drags of the conference.....on the contrary they really have been the only ones putting up a fight, beating us twice last year. Tripani leaving really hurt them as he was going to be a cornerstone for years along with Trimboli. They will be back and probably sooner rather then later. Next year they have a high major transfer coming online that should be a big help. UMBC has really been the best team this year....but questions will need to be answered moving forward. Their bench appears to be very thin and they rely allot on their transfers. Injuries do happen and for a team with a thin bench an injury could be devastating. Randy Monroe is a good coach though, have to give them props.

 

If the two other SUNY’s could get their act together, it would be a huge boost for the conference. To early to call how Bingo will turn out with Broadus (sp?) at the helm, but what of any redeemable value has Piekell done? Looking at his pay, there appears to be a solid institutional commitment to athletics, football is full scholarship etc. Yet every year they flounder at the bottom of the conference. They’ve shown recent signs of waking up by winning 2 of their last 3 but come-on already.....lets go.

 

The conference fairly open for the taking....UMBC has been the best team and probably should be the favorite and now that Boston’s has Lowe back into the fold (went off for 35pts. last time out) should start to play better, not sure when Morris is coming back. I still think we have a very good chance to go back to back to back. The young kids have shown signs of starting to “GET IT”…especially Timmy with 17 and 24 the last two times out. I like our depth….while both Boston and UMBC are fairly thin. It should be an interesting conference portion of the schedule.

 

Again, the league is way down but some of that can be attributed to injuries and continued rebuilding projects going on at Bingo, UNH, Hartford and UVM. Way to early to call how next season will look, but it should be better then this.

[UAalum72]

Report from the AE board was that the UD-UVM game was truly ugly - a combined 48 fouls and 51 turnovers. Delaware just got a couple of transfers eligible.