2009 Northeast Conference Tournament Preview

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/03/2009 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 28th annual Northeast Conference Tournament gets underway on Thursday, March 5th with four quarterfinal-round games to be played on the home court of the higher seeds. After the opening round, the teams will be reseeded so the highest remaining seed plays the lowest remaining seed in the semifinals.

Mount St. Mary's is the defending NEC Tournament champion, and the team earned the No. 2 seed in this year's event following a season in which it went 17-12, 12-6 in conference. The top seed is Robert Morris as the Colonials logged a 21-10 overall mark, including a 15-3 ledger in NEC play, en route to their second straight NEC regular season title. Sacred Heart and Long Island both finished with 12-6 league ledgers to tie Mount St. Mary's, and while the Mountaineers were awarded the second seed, the Pioneers claimed the third seed and the Blackbirds settled for the fourth.

All games will start at 7:00 pm (et) on Thursday, with top-seeded Robert Morris facing eighth-seeded St. Francis-NY. The Colonials have performed well at both ends of the floor this season, ranking second in the NEC in both scoring offense (71.3 ppg) and scoring defense (66.4 ppg). They are led by Jeremy Chappel and his 16.6 ppg (third-best in the conference), and Rob Robinson adds 11.6 ppg while Jimmy Langhurst chips in with 10.1 ppg. Chappel is also the team's leader on the boards, coming up with 6.3 rpg, while pacing the league in steals (2.55 per game). Robert Morris is the league's top three- point shooting team (.397), but its worst at defending the long-range shot (.377).

As for St. Francis-NY (10-19, 7-11 NEC), it is averaging a mere 65.9 ppg despite being in the top half of the conference in three-point shooting (.365). Ricky Cadell is the Terriers' top point producer, checking in at 15.1 ppg behind 47 percent field goal efficiency. SFNY was the only NEC team to beat RMU on its home floor this season, taking an 87-79 decision on December 4, 2008. No eight seed has ever knocked off the No. 1 seed in the history of this event.

No. 2 seed Mount St. Mary's gets a crack at seventh-seeded Wagner in the quarterfinals, and the defending NEC Tournament champs boast three double- digit scorers, led by Jeremy Goode and his 15.8 ppg. One of the top playmakers in the conference, Goode has dished out 120 assists and is shooting nearly 40 percent from beyond the arc. The team, which leads the league in scoring defense (63.3 ppg), owns a scoring advantage of 5.5 points, as well as positive differentials in both rebounding (+1.4) and turnovers (+1.6).

Wagner (16-13, 8-10 NEC) is a middle-of-the-pack team in most statistical categories, netting 67.6 ppg while allowing 68.2 ppg. The Seahawks rank third in the conference in both three-point shooting (.381) and turnover margin (+0.28). The team is led offensively by Joey Mundweiler (14.0 ppg), Jamal Smith (11.9 ppg), Llewchean Radford (11.2 ppg) and Justin Drummond (10.5 ppg). Mundweiler is coming off a record-setting performance as he drained 11 three- pointers in the regular-season finale against Monmouth, helping Wagner win for the fourth straight time.

Third-seeded Sacred Heart, the league's top scoring team during the regular season (73.7 ppg), opens the tournament by hosting Central Connecticut State (13-16, 8-10 NEC), which was awarded the sixth seed after losing a tie-breaker with Wagner. The Pioneers, who have won five straight coming into the postseason by an average of nearly 21 ppg, knocked down 48.3 percent of their field goal attempts this season, which includes a 39.3 percent showing from downtown. As good as Sacred Heart is beyond the arc, the team is also effective in thwarting the long-range aspirations of the opposition, yielding just a 32.9 percent success rate through 29 games. The Pioneers are the NEC's top team in assists (17.07 per outing) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.05), while ranking second in steals (7.86 per game). Joey Henley (15.8 ppg, 6.7 rpg) is the club's top man both in scoring and on the glass, while Corey Hassan (11.2 ppg) contributes as well.

CCSU is averaging just 64.8 ppg despite a solid showing both from the field (.446) as well as the foul line (.724). The Blue Devils, however, are one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the conference (.318, 4.17 three-point FGs made per contest). Ken Horton finished the regular season as the NEC's second-leading scorer at 16.6 ppg.

The fourth-seeded Long Island Blackbirds kick off tournament play at home against No. 5 seed Quinnipiac. Even though Long Island is the worst shooting team in the conference (.409), it ranks third in scoring offense (70.4 ppg). The Blackbirds are led by Jaytornah Wisseh and his 15.3 ppg, and Kyle Johnson and Julian Boyd average double digits as well with 13.7 and 10.3 ppg, respectively. Ron Manigault ranks second in the NEC in rebounding (8.7 rpg), less than a board per game behind Quinnipiac's Justin Rutty (9.5 rpg).

Rutty, a 60.3 percent shooter from the field, ranks second on the Bobcats (14-15, 10-8 NEC) with his 14.9 ppg, while James Feldeine paces the team and the conference with 16.8 ppg. Quinnipiac finished the regular season ranked atop the league in rebounding margin (+5.6) and third in scoring defense (66.7 ppg). Free-throw shooting has really been a problem for the 'Cats this season, as they rank dead last in the NEC at a mere 62.0 percent. LIU was a league- best 12-2 at home this season, although one of those losses came against Quinnipiac, which swept the season series from the Blackbirds.

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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