The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Stretch run is underway in conference races
The mere mention of college basketball dominance in Connecticut immediately focuses the attention on the UConn and Quinnipiac women’s basketball programs.
The Huskies and Bobcats are certainly taking care of business as they have unblemished conference records yet again but they have plenty of company in the quest for championship glory. Eight different Connecticut programs have either the men’s or women’s basketball team in position for a conference title. Here’s a conference by conference look at what could be a memorable next few weeks.
AMERICA EAST
A year ago Hartford finished fifth in the women’s basketball standings but the Hawks could take over sole possession of first place with a win at Maine on Wednesday. Hartford has already matched last year’s conference win total and finishes the regular season with three of the final four games at home.
ECC
The Bridgeport men’s squad is tied for fourth but just two games out of second place and with games against Molloy and Roberts Wesleyan on the schedule, the Purple Knights have a chance to move up the standings.
GNAC
Give the men’s basketball schedule makers a pat on the back. Suffolk currently sits atop the standings at 7-1 while Albertus Magnus, Emmanuel and Johnson & Wales all have 7-2 marks. Saturday is the final day of the regular season and the GNAC race will end with Suffolk playing at Albertus Magnus and Johnson & Wales traveling to Emmanuel. It doesn’t get much better than that.
More than a few eyes will be on Thursday’s game in West Hartford between visiting Suffolk and Jim Calhoun’s University of Saint Joseph squad. The Blue Jays are 8-4 at home this season and a win by USJ would make the conference race even more intriguing.
The Albertus Magnus women are currently in fourth place with an 8-2 mark but Emmanuel and Suffolk, both tied at 9-1, played on Tuesday with Suffolk playing at Albertus on Saturday so the Falcons could still finish either second or third and miss conference power Saint Joseph (Maine) until the championship round of the GNAC tournament.
IVY LEAGUE
It was quite the weekend for the Yale men’s basketball team. After beating Princeton on Friday to move into a tie for first place, the Bulldogs completed the weekend sweep by topping defending champion Penn. Princeton and Harvard suffered losses on Saturday leaving Yale in sole possession of first place in the men’s standings. Yale hits the road to face Columbia and Cornell this weekend.
The Yale women opened some eyes with a win at Princeton and threw a scare into first-place Penn on Saturday. The Bulldogs are tied for second in the Ivy behind Penn and are in good position to return to the Ivy League tournament which is being played in New Haven.
LITTLE EAST
Five-time defending men’s champions Eastern Connecticut is in its familiar perch atop the Little East standings but only a game separates the top three teams. Second-place Keene State plays host to Eastern Connecticut on Saturday and that could be for the regular-season championship. Western Connecticut, which owns a win over ECSU and only lost by a point to Keene State, is sitting in fourth place.
Eastern is tied for second in the women’s standings but would lose the tiebreaker to UMass Boston. The Warriors end the season with a pair of teams with losing records in conference play while UMass Boston faces first place UMass Dartmouth on Wednesday so a secondplace finish isn’t out of the question for Eastern.
MAAC
The two races couldn’t be more different. The Quinnipiac women are up by two games in the loss column to second-place Rider so even if the longest winning streak in MAAC history (currently at 43) were to end, the Bobcats have some margin for error.
The battle for the men’s regular-season championship could be rather chaotic with the people responsible for figuring out the tiebreakers likely earning their money.
Quinnipiac, which finished tied for seventh in last season’s MAAC standings, is one of four teams with four conference losses and with the 7-4 Bobcats still having games against 9-4 Monmouth and 8-4 Siena, there is a chance for Quinnipiac to be on top when the dust clears. Rider isn’t out of the race either with a 7-5 mark with games remaining against Monmouth and Quinnipiac.
NECC
Mitchell College is currently tied for first in the women’s standings and Saturday’s home game against co-leading Becker could very well determine the regular-season champion. On the men’s side, the Mariners are only a game out of second place and still have to face two teams (Southern Vermont and Dean) ahead of them in the standings.
NESCAC
This was another wild race especially on the men’s side as Trinity, Wesleyan and Williams all finished tied at 6-4 in conference play. Barring an upset by Hamilton over first-place Amherst on Wednesday, there could be four teams at 6-4.
The Trinity women also finished 6-4 which means that if the Bantams reach the NESCAC semifinals, standing in the way will most likely be Bowdoin, the top-ranked team in the Division III national polls.
NORTHEAST
There are two teams tied at 8-4, two (including Sacred Heart) at 7-5, two more at 6-6 and Central Connecticut, coming off a win over conference-leading Robert Morris is lurking at 5-7. Buckle up because this could get interesting. The Pioneers face both teams ahead of them and as well as the 7-5 Fairleigh Dickinson squad in addition to three teams sitting at 5-7 so there is plenty of opportunity to either move up or down in the standings. Central Connecticut has a favorable schedule down the stretch and is playing its best basketball right now.
NORTHEAST-10
New Haven and Southern Connecticut are a game out of first place in the Southwest Division men’s standings. The Chargers swept two meetings with SCSU and will play host to division leading Le Moyne in the regular season finale. Adelphi is also sitting with a 10-6 conference record with a game remaining against Southern Connecticut. Pace is 9-6 and has a home date with New Haven on Wednesday.
On the women’s side, Le Moyne is running away with the Southwest Division. New Haven and SCSU are 7-9 in conference play, a game out of second place.