CLICK HERE for All of Hoops HD’s Continued and Extensive Preseason Content
For starters, before you do anything else today, you need to download the NEC Front Row App!!! It is amazing!! It brings you all the coverage from the greatest college basketball conference that has ever existed!! We at Hoops HD LOVE this league!!!
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- Merrimack
- Sacred Heart
- Saint Francis U
- Wagner
- Saint Francis Brooklyn
- Central Connecticut
- Fairleigh Dickinson (tied 6th)
- Long Island
- Stonehill
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-NEC TEAM:
-Josh Cohen – JR, F – Saint Francis U
-Nico Galette – JR, F – Sacred Heart
-Rob Higgins – SR, G – Saint Francis Brooklyn
-Jordan Minor – SR, F – Merrimack
-Nigel Scantlebury – SR, G – Central Connecticut
COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
-Merrimack is the consensus favorite to finish atop the league. The one big unfortunate part is that they are still a transitional team, which makes them (unfairly) ineligible for the NCAA Tournament. If the point of a transitional period is to help a team assimilate to D1, then isn’t winning a conference championship evidence that they have properly assimilated?? Can we cut it back to say…two years instead of four?? Anyway, three starters are back from a team that played really well in the second half of conference play last year, and they have a majorly good big man in Jordan Minor. They do appear to be the best team in the conference.
-Sacred Heart has been really bad the last two years so to see them picked 2nd is a bit of a surprise. Just two starters are back from last year’s team, and while they do have some other contributing players who are returning along with some transfers, a 2nd place finish seems optimistic.
-Saint Francis U has had back to back really bad years where they failed to win ten total games in either season. Four starters are back, and they are adding what appear to be some talented freshmen as well, so maybe they can get things turned around this season.
-Wagner was one of the better teams in the conference a year ago, but four of their top players are gone and they also have a new head coach: the change in the roster is probably why they were not picked higher than 4th. The current players will need to step up in bigger roles if the Seahawks are going to be successful.
-Saint Francis Brooklyn has one of the greatest home courts in all of college basketball!! They have never played in the NCAA Tournament and it does not look like that will change after this season. They do have a pretty good guard in Rob Higgins but he cannot do it all on his own: other guys will have to step up.
-Central Connecticut has won fewer than ten total games for the past three years, and while they may be a little better this year, I do not think we’ll see them in the top half of the standings.
-Fairleigh Dickinson won just four total games last year and are in a rebuilding mode this year. Their roster has been overhauled, which may be what they need in order to start to rebuild. Tobin Anderson takes over as head coach…and he has his work cut out for him.
-Long Island had a decent year last year, but with so many contributing players from that team now gone, it looks as though they are at the bottom of their talent cycle and may be in for a very long season.
-Welcome to D1 Stonehill!! It is their first year as a transitional team and those types of teams are typically picked to finish close to last.