Octavio Brito, the NABC Division III National Player of the Year.

Heck of a way for the Keene State star to cap off his career.

Named LEC Rookie of the Year as a freshman, then followed that up with three 1st Team All-LEC selections, three All-America selections, and an LEC Player of the Year award.

Quote from: nescac1 on March 18, 2025, 02:23:14 PMI've never seen Westfield play but their FY who won ROTY must be really good to beat out Ray Cuevas, who lit it up as a rookie the way few in NESCAC can do. 

I get that this is a NESCAC board, and yeah, Cuevas was the league's ROTY, but it probably wasn't even that close regarding Cuevas/Rogers. In fact, I'd think an arguement could be made that Cuevas would've been third in a voting behind both Rogers and St. Joe's (ME) Silvano Ismail, particularly given that the latter two helped lead their teams to NCAA Tournament births.

On top of that, Rogers was not only the MASCAC ROTY, but also the league's Co-POTY, which I'm sure held some weight.

Cuevas:25 G / 371 PTS / 15.5 PPG / 41.1% FG / 38.3% 3PT / 3.7 RPG / 1.8 APG / 19 STL (Bowdoin 11-13)

Rogers: 28 G / 517 PTS / 18.5 PPG / 45.1% FG / 31.5% 3PT / 8.9 RPG / 3.8 APG / 47 STL (Westfield 21-7)

Ismail: 27 G / 445 PTS / 16.5 PPG / 56.4% FG / 42.6% 3PT / 6.7 RPG / 4.4 APG / 50 STL (St. Joe's 24-5)

Regardless, Region I had a loaded group of first-years!

https://thegnac.com/sports/mbkb/2024-25/releases/24-25MBBPreseasonPoll

It appears that rosters are starting to trickle out, at least at Keene and Castleton, which means the season can't be far away.

With that in mind, here are (what I believe to be) the three most significant off-season developments in the Little East.

1. Brito's return to Keene State.
This one should be obvious. While they have a new coach, getting back a potential 1st team all-American is about as big of a boost as you could ask for. On top of that, Keene retained Siow-Jean Baptiste-Aronson-Odiase and brought in a few potential impact first years and transfers. The Little East still runs through Keene, NH.

2. Dartmouth's roster continuity.
Word out of southern Massachusetts is that Dartmouth's roster returns mostly intact. The Corsairs had one of the deeper perimeter units in the league last year and the potential return of Lopes-Boyd-Marcille-Percy-Leonard should have them near the top of the league standings. Add in Flauto and a full year of Dunbury and these guys could be really good.

3. Sanicola steps away from Southern Maine.
After a 3-year stint at Southern Maine, including back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in 30 years, Sanicola departed for a job in the G-League. That's a tough loss for a program that looked like it was starting to build something. It sounds like their roster is mostly intact and will be interesting to see how the group adjusts under their new head coach.

Things are quite elsewhere, but will be interesting to see if East Conn or UMass Boston can turn it around and what Coach Ferry was able to do with his first recruiting class at RIC.