America East Notebook
Coaches Agree It’s Wide Open
Through Sunday’s games, just a game and a half separates the top four teams, and three more are just another game behind. In the past week, just three games were decided by double digits. That makes one thing clear: the conference can go just about any way.
“This league this year is going to be like this – every game can go either way,” Boston University head coach Dennis Wolff said after his team came back to beat UMBC 59-53 on Sunday. “For two foul shots, we would be 6-0 in the league, but a couple of the games we’ve won could have gone the other way as well.”
His sentiments were echoed by his opposite number that day, and other coaches have noted how close the teams are as well.
“I think that’s the type of game you’re going to see in our conference,” UMBC head coach Randy Monroe said. “They’re going to be grind-it-out type of games from the opening tip until the end of the game.”
It’s not just coachspeak – the standings and close games back it up. There is no clear favorite right now, especially with conference leader Vermont having suffered its only conference loss at home and the conference getting its share of road wins in non-conference play.
Teams End Difficult Stretch
Albany head coach Will Brown may have been the only one to publicly make light of it, but many America East teams have just finished up a stretch with a number of games in a short time. From here on out, it gets a little lighter for everyone.
Brown’s Great Danes played four games in seven days, losing only at Vermont in that stretch. Binghamton also had four games in that same stretch, three of which came on the road, and they went 1-3. Boston University had four games in eight days and won the last three. Hartford went 1-3 in a four-game stretch played in eight days, while Maine went 3-1 including a win at Vermont on Thursday. UMBC just finished playing seven games in 19 days, one which started with two road wins. New Hampshire went 3-2 in a stretch of five games in ten days.
At this point, each team has played at least six conference games.
Terriers Come Alive
Young Boston University had some struggles in non-conference play, although they also had games where they flashed their potential. A good example of the latter was their 74-46 thumping of St. Bonaventure in Olean, in addition to close losses to UMass and St. John’s in overtime.
Head coach Dennis Wolff felt the Terriers had played well for most of December and simply had little to show for it due to their schedule. Now, the Terriers have come alive, having won four of their last five, including Sunday’s 59-53 win over UMBC.
Sunday’s win is a little more significant because the Terriers came from being down ten points early in the second half, and they also did it without freshman Corey Lowe, who sprained his right ankle in practice a couple of days before the game. He was in a boot, but that’s a precautionary measure and his status is day-to-day. Lowe has been the team’s best offensive player, though Tyler Morris continues to emerge as a scoring threat and Omari Peterkin tallied his third double-double (19 points, 14 rebounds) of the season in Sunday’s win.
The Terriers’ young group has clearly improved as the season goes along at both ends of the floor. They still make the kind of mistakes young teams will make, and they are 0-4 in overtime games, but this group is rounding into form and won’t be an easy out. Wolff said he’d like the team to be more confident, and now that they have some wins to show for their efforts, that may follow.
Retrievers Win on the Road
UMBC has had its share of trouble winning on the road since joining America East, but that may be changing despite Sunday’s road loss to the Terriers. Five of their seven wins are on the road thus far, and they opened conference play with two road wins. While they haven’t protected their home court as well, it is a step in the right direction.
The Retrievers looked to be in good shape in the second half on Sunday. After dodging a bullet in the first half, when three post players were in foul trouble and the Terriers didn’t do a lot of damage inside at that point, the Retrievers made five of the first six shots in the second half to build a 10-point lead. From there on, the Terriers rallied to gradually close in, then take the lead for good. The Retrievers got a lot of baskets in the game off good ball movement, but that wasn’t there at the offensive end later on.
“When things didn’t go our way, I thought we had a tendency to put our heads down a little bit,” head coach Randy Monroe said. “Those are the kind of things that you have to fight through when you’re on the road.”
Monroe feels improving on the boards is one key going forward. They were out-rebounded by the Terriers, allowing 16 offensive rebounds including two back-breakers late in the game. For the season, they have been out-rebounded, though not dominated on the glass.
Other Notes
- Former Rookie of the Year Jon Iati came up big for Albany last week. The junior, who led the nation in minutes played as a freshman, had 20 points against Stony Brook and 16 against Hartford. The Great Danes are right behind Vermont for the top spot.
- Maine is coming alive after two wins last week, including one at Vermont. The Black Bears had a few tough losses early, but last week is further proof that they won’t go away quietly. Kevin Reed is starting to play very well of late; take away his 1-12 outing against Albany and he’s had two weeks of very good games.
- The hard-luck team of the conference has to be Binghamton, which is 1-4 in conference games decided by five points or less.
- New Hampshire has had its struggles this year, but give the Wildcats credit for running off three wins last week after the previous week included a heart-breaking loss to Vermont and a 53-29 blowout at Boston University. Senior guard Jermaine Anderson had a big week to lead the Wildcats, garnering co-Player of the Week honors.
