2017-18 Mountain East Conference Basketball Thread

[cavsfan94]

This thread is about the 2017-18 men's and women's basketball season in the Mountain East Conference.

Here are the preseason polls for men's and women's basketball

2017-18 Mountain East Conference Men's Basketball Preseason Poll
1. Wheeling Jesuit
2. Fairmont St.
3. West Liberty
4. Shepherd
5. Notre Dame
6. WV Wesleyan
7. Charleston
8. UVA-Wise
9. Glenville St.
10. Concord
11. WV State
12. Urbana

2017-18 Mountain East Conference Women's Basketball Preseason Poll
1. Glenville St.
2. Wheeling Jesuit
3. WV State
4. Notre Dame
5. Charleston
6. Fairmont St.
7. Shepherd
8. West Liberty
9. WV Wesleyan
10. UVA-Wise
11. Urbana
12. Concord

[IUP Extra Mile]

Re: 2017-18 Mountain East Conference Basketball Thread

This thread is about the 2017-18 men's and women's basketball season in the Mountain East Conference.

Here are the preseason polls for men's and women's basketball

2017-18 Mountain East Conference Men's Basketball Preseason Poll
1. Wheeling Jesuit
2. Fairmont St.
3. West Liberty
4. Shepherd
5. Notre Dame
6. WV Wesleyan
7. Charleston
8. UVA-Wise
9. Glenville St.
10. Concord
11. WV State
12. Urbana

2017-18 Mountain East Conference Women's Basketball Preseason Poll
1. Glenville St.
2. Wheeling Jesuit
3. WV State
4. Notre Dame
5. Charleston
6. Fairmont St.
7. Shepherd
8. West Liberty
9. WV Wesleyan
10. UVA-Wise
11. Urbana
12. Concord

Looking forward to a year of MEC Hoops...This years men's race should be fairly open with Fairmont losing their coach and big-time seniors, WL losing their coach and 3 seniors and 2 transfers. WJ is the favorite, I think slightly, but rightly so...

[boatcapt]

Re: 2017-18 Mountain East Conference Basketball Thread

Looking forward to a year of MEC Hoops...This years men's race should be fairly open with Fairmont losing their coach and big-time seniors, WL losing their coach and 3 seniors and 2 transfers. WJ is the favorite, I think slightly, but rightly so...

People talk about what WLU lost but they glaze over the five seniors and two transfer WJ lost. Sure, people talk about Kyle Ritz but they glaze right over Chase Lawson who started 30 of 32 games last season and was WJ's top 3 point taker and Jarin Hilson who started 16 games and averaged 27 minutes per game. Collectively the five seniors WJ lost represented an average of 31.5 PPG while the three seniors WLU lost represent 30.8 PPG. 17.4.

I'd also rate our two transfers (Allen and Watson) as better than the two that WJ picked up (Cooper and Rodriguez).

Were WJ does have an advantage is when you compare our two transfers (Dennis and Guilozet) to theirs (Tham and Lawson). Dennis and Guilozet were clearly better than Tham and Lawson although Tham and Lawson did contribute a lot to WJ last season...just not as much as Dennis and Guilozet.

While WJ will be good this season, I don't think the difference between us and them is as great as people want it to be.

[IUP Extra Mile]

Re: 2017-18 Mountain East Conference Basketball Thread

People talk about what WLU lost but they glaze over the five seniors and two transfer WJ lost. Sure, people talk about Kyle Ritz but they glaze right over Chase Lawson who started 30 of 32 games last season and was WJ's top 3 point taker and Jarin Hilson who started 16 games and averaged 27 minutes per game. Collectively the five seniors WJ lost represented an average of 31.5 PPG while the three seniors WLU lost represent 30.8 PPG. 17.4.

I'd also rate our two transfers (Allen and Watson) as better than the two that WJ picked up (Cooper and Rodriguez).

Were WJ does have an advantage is when you compare our two transfers (Dennis and Guilozet) to theirs (Tham and Lawson). Dennis and Guilozet were clearly better than Tham and Lawson although Tham and Lawson did contribute a lot to WJ last season...just not as much as Dennis and Guilozet.

While WJ will be good this season, I don't think the difference between us and them is as great as people want it to be.

Agreed, Boat...I'm on record as saying on paper, WJ is "slightly" better than WL, not overwhelming at all...And I'm on record saying Kyle Fritz will be tougher to replace......I do think boswell will get more playing time and more touches and will have a pretty good upside this year for WJ...

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: 2017-18 Mountain East Conference Basketball Thread

We've read a lot about WL and WJ ... what's the word down in Fairmont?

[IUP Extra Mile]

Re: 2017-18 Mountain East Conference Basketball Thread

We've read a lot about WL and WJ ... what's the word down in Fairmont?

Just looking at roster and who they lost...19 ppg from Bingaya, 15 ppg from Winbush, 27 mpg and "glue" from Shammgod Wells...Lost glue from Trevor ANdrews Evans too...

But they have some 3 pointer shooters coming back...They have 3 guys coming back who nailed 91, 78 and 62 three pters last year...that's impressive...Jolly, Stockman and Montgomery...

And Caleb Davis is back. They'll be solid...

[boatcapt]

Re: 2017-18 Mountain East Conference Basketball Thread

Only three more days until we get to the REAL sport of the MEC! Every season is interesting but this one seems to be more so. HC's can have an immediate effect on a team so it will be interesting to see how Ben performs. If I were a betting man, I'd say that once all is said and done he will be a virtual clone of Crutch but there is always a chance he could screw the pooch so it will be interesting to see how it plays out. It will be interesting to see how our PG situation plays out. Dennis left some big shoes to fill. Really felt that Arnold was going to surprise a lot of people and be a 90% solution. Now the PG issue is very much up in the air. But I would point out that we have found some pretty good underclassmen in the past (Remember, Dennis was a true freshmen two years ago and came out of no where) so there is a real chance that our "true" PG is someone we are not even talking about yet...how that plays out will be interesting. Our "big" situation seems to always be a concern and this year it is even a larger one (poor pun intended). Do we compensate by shooting a higher % of 3's? Do we compensate by ratcheting up the pressure D to get more turnovers? Or does one of our few forwards have the ability to play a couple of inches taller than he actually is? Again, very interesting to see how we compensate.

Here's my take on how the questions will be answered:

1. Will Ben be as good as Crutch? Maybe. Ben is about as close to a clone for Crutch as you are going to get. Played for Crutch at WLU and then has spent the last eight years as his primary assistant. If he can't continue the legacy, no one can. Odds of him being up to the challenge - 75%.

2. Who will be our PG and will they be as good as Dennis? Dyer will be our starter. He won't be as good as Dennis but that certainly doesn't mean that he will be bad. There is a LOT of distance between All-American and good. Dyer won't be All-American but he will still be pretty good and given his supporting cast of ball handlers and 3 point assassins, I think we will be more than happy with his "production" at the end of the season. Odds Dyer is an All-American 5%...Odds he is All MEC caliber 75%.

3. No big man. How do we compensate? By doing what WLU traditionally does. Let's be real here, WLU typically does not have a "traditional" big although in recent years we have had a few players that have been tall. But we do have one big option and that is true freshman Ochoa who is 6'7". I would not be surprised if Ochoa plays quite a bit and ends up being quite productive on the defensive end. Gifted shot blocker and good rebounder in HS. But he is a true freshman and we can't (or maybe more appropriately, shouldn't) lean on him too much. I think we compensate for our lack of size by shooting threes and getting turnovers on D. While we may not have bigs, on the other side of the coin we have an embarrassing wealth of players who can drain 3's AND can play high pressure D. Odds of shooting above .410 as a team from 3 - 75%...Odds of generating 500+ turnovers - 70%...Odds of Ochoa playing 15+ minutes per game - 50%...Odds of him generating 50 blocks and 150 rebounds if he does average 15 minutes per game - 60%

Every season there seems to be a palpable desire from every non-WLU fan for WLU to come back to the pack so to speak. While there have been a couple of programs that have upped their game a little and now present some sort of challenge to WLU, WLU has never "fallen back to the pack." Because of Crutch's departure and the other unknowns, this season is probably the best chance that the non-Topper fans have to hope WLU struggles. We have some question marks but for most of them, we have solutions that most other teams would be happy to have. Could we have 5 regular season losses? Sure, and that would be a down season for us. But we also could hit on all our pre season questions and end up with one loss.

Odds that the Toppers win either the regular season MEC Championship or the MEC Tourney Championship - 75%


THREE DAYS! Tick, tick, tick!!!

[boatcapt]

Re: 2017-18 Mountain East Conference Basketball Thread

I hope this is a misprint:

Cheyney 77 Charleston 41

If it's not, I just don't know what to say there than WOW...just...WOW!!

After the first weekend of play in the MEC, the top 3 preseason picks are off to 2-0 starts but #4 pick Shepherd has fallen with a resounding thud going 0-2 with convincing losses at home to Bowie and Gannon. The surprise of the first weekend is Concord that sits at 2-0 after going to Winston-Salem and beating Fayetville and Winston-Salem relatively easily.

Young season but it seems like the big 3 of the MEC are in good order while at least one of the upstart teams picked to "make some noise" this year might be a little over hyped.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: 2017-18 Mountain East Conference Basketball Thread

Reverse the score. Charleston won.

[boatcapt]

Re: 2017-18 Mountain East Conference Basketball Thread

Reverse the score. Charleston won.

I hope you are right. But it shows UC losing to Cheyney on the MEC site. That would be very, very bad for them!!!

[cavsfan94]

Re: 2017-18 Mountain East Conference Basketball Thread

Final Scores from Saturday, November 18

Fairmont St.	105	Charleston	104	Final (OT)
Concord	76	Notre Dame	86	Final
Wheeling Jesuit	82	WV Wesleyan	55	Final
UVA-Wise	71	Urbana	64	Final
Shepherd	87	WV State	92	Final
West Liberty	130	Glenville St.	100	Final

[boatcapt]

Re: 2017-18 Mountain East Conference Basketball Thread

WOW...What's up with Shepherd? Dark horse favorite is off to a 1-3 start after losing to a WV State squad picked to finish 11'th in the MEC!

[cavsfan94]

Re: 2017-18 Mountain East Conference Basketball Thread

Final Scores from Monday, November 20

Concord	77	Urbana	73	Final
Fairmont St.	100	WV State	106	Final
Glenville St.	65	Wheeling Jesuit	89	Final
UVA-Wise	102	Notre Dame	101	Final (2OT)
WV Wesleyan	81	West Liberty	111	Final
Shepherd	80	Charleston	82	Final

[IUP Extra Mile]

Re: 2017-18 Mountain East Conference Basketball Thread

Is it time to shed the opinion that this isn't the WVState team from the past 3-4 years? Impressive win vs Fairmont...

Although, Fairmont may not be as good as we thought...they could be 2-3, after getting by Charleston in OT the other day...

[JesuitHoops]

Re: 2017-18 Mountain East Conference Basketball Thread

Also something to consider, what about Shepherd and Notre Dame? Obviously the season is young, but maybe they aren't as close to the top as we thought?

Very impressive win for WV State!