MBB: United East Conference

[Brett Adams]

Men's NEAC Semi-finals (South Division Championships) have been postponed until Friday, at 7pm.... Villa Julie at Chestnut Hill.  NEAC Semi-finals (North Division Championships)Keystone wins a close one (61-54) vs. Keuka.  

NEAC Conference Championship game (North winner vs. South winner) is moved to Sunday.  If Chestnut Hill holds to form (CHC is the no. 1 seed) and wins, they will host Keystone.  If they are upset and the Mustangs of Villa Julie win, VJC will travel to Keystone.

The game time would 2pm or 4pm depending on Keystone Women's team outcome vs. Villa Julie Women on Friday night at 7pm (rescheduled from tonight).

[d-mac]

It is time to find out who is in... and who is out.
Whose bubble has been burst and who is wearing Cinderella's glass slippers.
It's Selection Sunday... and tonight there will be a special "Hoopsville" as the 2005 NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Brackets are announced... LIVE on our air!
The Road to Salem and Virginia Beach officially starts tonight!

It plans to be a huge night... as 50 womens and 48 mens teams are officially invited to the dance and a chance at a national title.

Some teams already know they are going (thanks to winning their conferences) and some think they are going, but there are always surprises.

So tonight, we will break it all down. Starting at 8:30 PM EST, we will take a look at who is definitely in, who might make it, who will be disappointed, and what match-ups you might want to look forward to seeing later in the week.

Then at 10:00 PM EST... we will broadcast LIVE the Women's Selection Show so you can find out when we do... the 50 teams on the Road to Virginia Beach.

That will be followed by the Men's Selection Show at 10:30 PM EST - when 48 teams find out what their Road to Salem will be like.

After those selections... we will go over it with a fine-tooth comb and find out who we think are the surprises!

And throughout the show, we will hear from different regions with live reports and talk to coaches that have made surprising moves into the tournament.

Of course, you can listen in thank to Goucher College.
We suggest you try and use the low-bandwith signal which will require you to have Real Player and selection the 28K version of the show.
At the same time, you can listen to the Broadcastmonsters.com version, using Windows Media Player (go to the "Hoopsville" page for more information).

And you can share your opinions and questions with us, live on the air.
email - hoopsville@d3hoops.com  
AOL IM - Hoopsville2000

And for more information... check out the "Hoopsville" website (www.d3hoops.com/hoopsville)!

Again... it all starts tonight at 8:30 PM EST.

[bardballa]

Well, ladies and gents, a new seasonal year is upon us, and it's time to once more direct our attention to the hardwood.  I, for one, never stopped looking.  Not the point.  Anyway, what is the point is that this will be the innaugural year of NEAC sports and is the beginning of an exciting chapter in all the participating school's histories.  The soccer, cross country and other fall seasons have already begun, but let's just jump straight to the winter of hoops that lies ahead of us.  As my name might imply, I'm minorly biased towards Bard basketball because despite the bong using hackey sack kicking priorly mentioned, the school is great as are the kids on the teams there.  It takes determination and self confidence to participate in athletics when the Princeton Review cites your school as one of the least athletically supportive colleges or universities in the nation.  The raptors had a lackluster season last year which was both impressively and surprisingly capped by the school's first ever HVMAC tourney championship, and they look to improve upon that in the first voyage into official NEAC ball.  After developing chemistry and overcoming various injuries last year, they're poised to make a splash in the coming year.

[haterinthehouse]

According to the team schedule Keuka will be playing Hobart again this season.  Also of note, KC will be taking on DI Cornell in January.  Junior's Corey Edwards and Todd Lincoln (all-NEAC in '04) will team up with seniors Hanif Davis and Josh Whyte to create a very dangerous squad.  However, something is lacking from this team, always has and always will.  They start out slow, and don't know how to play to win-rather seem to be coached like they don't want to lose.  Tough spot to be in.  I pick them to finish 3rd in this still weak conference. 

[hooplafan]

It's tough to criticize KC's usual slow start when its a school hampered by its own doing.  The college requires that all students participate in a Field Period, or internship, each winter break which runs anywhere from 4-7 weeks long (including the players).  They generally only have 4-5 games under their belt by the break and then they play virtually all of their games over the next 6 weeks on the road - they might have one home game over the break and that'll be in front of an empty house (more or less a neutral site) because the students are on break.

Every year the Storm's schedule is backloaded with home games so that the team will have the student body at the games.  To start the season out with about 13 of your first 16 games on the road is tough to ask of any program.

[haterinthehouse]

KC's slow start every year may have something to do with the scheduling.  But a bigger problem is the fact they are a LOW DIII that cannot recruit against or compete with the DIII's in upstate NY that they play against. 

[haterinthehouse]

Word on the street is that KC has a 6'10" transfer that tried to make it in the higher levels but didnt have the heart, work ethic, or desire to be a student...Anyone have an update??

If they have any size to go with the athletic Davis and the good guard combo that they have they could be tough???

[bballfan44]

Whats the word with the NEAC teams.  Anybody got any news on any of the teams.  Well Keuka could be good with that 6' 10 dude.  Reagan was the heart and soul of that team losing him could hurt them alittle bit.  Well being near caz i heard a few things about them.  I guess they are going to be young having gotten alot of recruits to go to caz.

[Raptormania!]

Well, the DIII News preseason rankings are out. They have Keystone first, Villa Julie second and Bard third. Preseason Player of the Year is Adam Turner of the Raptors. I am excited to see if Bard can upset expectations a little bit and get that automatic bid- it doesn't seem that far out of reach.

[hooplafan]

there's no automatic bid this year Howard.

[Raptormania!]

In that case, getting the automatic bid will be considerably harder. I wonder however, with the team total up to 59, if the winner of the NEAC does get in this year... I suppose time will tell.

[Pat Coleman]

I would say it's probably possible, but the winner of the league would have to probably go at least 21-6 and have a comparably in-region record. Quality of Wins is likely to be low. Villa Julie's was 8.2, and they were 14-6 in-region, the best the NEAC had.

[hooplafan]

Pat,

What did Keystone finish last year?  Were they not on top of the NEAC standings?  It's been awhile...

[Raptormania!]

Interesting stuff! Looking at the Bard schedule, 21 of the 25 games are in-region- and the two Keystone games are not among them! Even better, the Villa Julie game is at the friendly confines of Stevenson Gymnasium. So tell me, given the strength of Bard's schedule this year, what do you think is a realistic mark to shoot for to be NCAA-Bound? Would 20-5, 18-3 get it done, you think?

Looking at the schedule, I am sure Mt. St. Mary's will be tough, despite losing 3 of 5 starters. We haven't beaten Vassar in a while, though this is clearly our best chance to do so in quite some time. (And what a pleasure it would be- that campus will go crazy.) We also had all kinds of problems with Baptist Bible last year- I am hopeful that this year will be different, especially since we have them home and home.

Chestnut Hill brings back Greer, which will make them dangerous- it will be interesting to see if/how Collin Orcutt guards him (that one-on-one matchup alone will make that game interesting).

Frankly, it doesn't seem to me that anyone can have the slightest idea what will happen in the NEAC this year, given all the new teams and very little precedent to go on. I feel like a tremendous amount has to go right for Bard to make it to the NCAAs- especially with no automatic bid and lack of tradition with the committee (I don't think I'm shocking anyone by saying that this would be the Raptors' first bid).

But that Bard is merely in position to compete for this, and brings quite a bit of talent to the table to do so, is thrilling to someone who has certainly been through bad times with the program. And I really don't feel like the program, despite its strides, has had everything, or even close to everything, go right with this talented group (injuries, academic casualties, etc.)  Such is the magic of October in college basketball- everything seems possible.

[Pat Coleman]

hooplafan, since Keystone is not a full Division III member, it doesn't really pertain to a conversation about playoff bids.