Northeast Conference Notebook
by Zach Smart
The beat goes on and on for one of college basketball’s laughing-stock conferences. In fact, one of the primary reason this conference is viewed by skeptics as such a joke is because there are no forces, no perennial powerhouses one can ink in for a tournament appearance every year. Some teams are more formidable than others, but the truth remains the truth: it is always a wide-open race.
To the outside world, this makes the conference lower on the totem pole and less exciting to watch. I beg to differ. The conference is full of lively, down-to-the-wire games, breakout performances from relatively unknown players, pivotal victories from sleeper programs, and so on. This is sheer, fundamentals-first basketball, folks. No dunk-fest games. First quarter alley-oops are a rarity. The purity of it is that anyone can emerge on top when all is said and done and the excitement begins to heat up.
At 7-10, Monmouth has fallen out of favor this year. After capturing their second NEC title in three years last season, inconsistent play has plagued the Hawks. A 2-3 conference record has shunned them from the top, dropping them what seems to be fort days behind at the No. 8 spot in the conference. Wagner, which looked on the verge of one of the finest seasons in program history at the first half of last season before a sudden flameout, sits alongside them.
Sacred Heart hasn’t been hurt by the loss of big man Kibwe Trim, the 6-10, 240-pound star from last year’s squad. The team is in Jarrid Frye’s hands now. The smooth silky-swingman has led by example, averaging 12.6 points and 5.4 rebounds to lead the Pioneers.
Luke Granato and Joey Henley deserve some of the credit as well. Granato has become the three-point assassin on his way to averaging 11.6 points. He recently established a career high with 50 three-pointers this season and is on path to cracking the top of the Pioneers’ all-time list. His 118 career treys are sixth and 11 more would jack him up to fifth on the list. Henley, who recovered from a football injury last season, hasn’t missed a beat from his previous season, when he led the Pioneers in scoring during the 2004-2005 campaign. He’s garnered player of the week accolades upon his return, averaging 12.4 points and four boards while shooting an astounding 56 percent from the floor.
Sacred Heart is 4-1 in the conference for the first time in school history after a 74-57 thrashing of Monmouth.
Central Connecticut sits beside the Pioneers in first with an identical record of 4-1. A non-conference schedule filled with stiff competition seems to have rubbed off on the Blue Devils, who have plenty of experience and leadership with guards Tristan Blackwood and Javier Mojica, as well as undersized glass-cleaner Obie Nwadike. Nwadike has led the conference in rebounding the past two years and looks to regain his title while leading CCSU to a promising year in the dungeon.
