By Bill Cloutier

bcloutier@nhregister.com
Twitter@BillCloutier

Quinnipiac tips off the Northeast Conference season tonight when it hosts St. Francis (N.Y.) in the first of two crucial contests this weekend. The Bobcats, who opened the season with high hopes of capturing its first conference title and an NCAA Tournament berth, struggled through the non-conference portion of its season.

Although nearly defeating UConn in the Paradise Jam Tournament earlier in the season the Bobcats are just 1-4 at home and lost to Maine last time out. Their halfcourt offense and foul-shooting remain major problems.

Here is a look at the predicted order of finish in the NEC regular season:

1. Robert Morris (8-5, current record): Always a title contender no player in the league is more clutch than Velton Jones. The Colonials have played in four straight NEC championship games. Led by up-and-coming coach Andy Toole, RMU is a lock to battle for the title once again and Jones could seize Player of the Year honors.

2. Wagner (6-5): The Seahawks lost coach Danny Hurley to Rhode Island but are still one of the top clubs in the conference coming off an impressive 25-6 campaign. Bashir Thompson is the youngest coach in the nation and he has had an uneven start to his tenure mixing lineups along the way but Wagner is talented and has perhaps more depth than anyone in the conference.

3. Long Island (5-7): The Blackbirds were the preseason favorite for their third straight NEC title but after losing reigning Player of the Year Julian Boyd to a season-ending knee injury their margin for error took a serious hit. Jamal Olasawere will have to shoulder an increased load and manage to stay out of foul trouble which has been his undoing in the past. LIU can't afford any other injuries on its way back to the NCAA and will be without its top three players for the first two games of the NEC season (Olasawere and C.J. Garner due to suspension and Boyd due to injury).

4. St. Francis (N.Y.) (4-7): Rugged power forward Jalen Cannon leads the enigmatic Terriers. Cannon is one of the few threats to Quinnipiac's Ike Azotam to win the NEC rebounding title. He is a rugged force in the paint with a deft touch. SFNY needs to find consistent scoring to battle for the title but are a menace with Cannon in tight games.

5. Bryant (7-4): This is the first year that the Bulldogs are eligible for the postseason and the timing couldn't be any better. Bryant won just one conference game last season and is wildly inconsistent but its starting lineup is solid offensively and that alone will lead to several wins. A fast start will get them in the postseason tournament and they've already won at Boston College and Lehigh.

6. Central Connnecticut State (4-7): The Blue Devils will be fun to watch led by high-scoring combo of Kyle Vinales and Matt Hunter. Suprisingly, however, CCSU is one of the worst rebounding teams in the country and if coach Howie Dickenman can't change that then no one can. It will be their downfall.

7. Quinnipiac (4-7): The Bobcats were picked fourth in the preseason poll but no one has stepped up consistently to help their struggling offense. Ike Azotam is sure to draw double- and triple-team defenses in the halfcourt set leaving the scoring burden to others. No team will work harder or rebound better but there's only so many games that coach Tom Moore can provide the difference.

8. Sacred Heart (2-9): The Pioneers have the league's best scorer in Shane Gibson and one its best pure point guards in Wallingford's Phil Gaetano. They don't have depth, however, and have struggled mightily in the preseason. Gibson has to have a huge year to keep coach Dave Bike's team in the playoff picture.

9. Monmouth (5-8): The Hawks, along with Quinnipiac, will move to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference next season. Monmouth has the potential to crack the top eight and earn an NEC Tournament berth but they seem to lack the offensive firepower to go any further.

10. Mount St. Mary's (5-6): Junior guard Julian Norfleet will look to carry the Mount back into the top half of the league. After winning just six games in the NEC last year Jamion Christian takes over as head coach but MSM has not shot the ball nor rebounded well in non-conference action.

11. Fairleigh Dickinson (5-7): Kinu Rochford is the hottest name in the NEC coming off back-to-back 30-point performances. The Knights could finish much higher if Hartford-transfer Mustafaa Jones shoots well but history is against them.

12. Saint Francis (Pa.) (0-11): Sure the Red Flash have played difficult non-conference schedule but not only are they winless they really haven't even been competitive. Umar Shannon is a one-man team.

Things just got a little more interesting the Northeast Conference.

Long Island's Julian Boyd, the reigning Northeast Conference player of the year found out over the weekend that a torn ACL in his right knee has ended his season eight games in.

The talented Boyd has gone through something like this before.

Before the 2009-10 season, Boyd, who had been selected NEC rookie of the year, was told he had a heart condition known as noncompaction cardiomyopathy -- part of his heart was enlarged. There would be no activity of any kind for months. Finally he was cleared to resume playing basketball. He played like he did before the diagnosis. Many thought he played at a higher level and the Blackbirds won the conference tournament the last two years and the NCAA tournament berths that came with them.

Things were going well for Boyd in his senior season until a play near midcourt in the second half of a win at Rice last Wednesday.

Boyd went for a steal, got tangled up with some other players and his leg was bent the wrong way. Boyd knew he was hurt because of the pain. He was helped off the court. Nobody would know how bad it was until he underwent an MRI.

LIU is the favorite to win the NEC title.

The following report comes from the New York Daily News. The Blackbirds have been the top program in the NEC for the past few seasons and look to be the overwelming choice to win the title again this year. Boyd and Olasawere could be the best two players in the conference.

Julian Boyd

Long Island University Brooklyn has suspended the four members of its men’s basketball team for their involvement in a Sept. 14 fight on campus, LIU Brooklyn Director of Athletics John Suarez said in a statement.


“No other student-athletes were implicated in this incident,” Mr. Suarez said. “Until all legal and appeals processes have been completed, we will not comment further on this matter.”

Four members of the Long Island University Brooklyn men’s basketball team were arrested last night and charged with assault in the third degree, the New York Post reported. Seniors Julian Boyd, the Blackbirds leading scorer and rebounder in 2012, Jamal Olasewere, the team’s second leading scorer, C. J. Garner, third in team scoring, and reserve Troy Joseph were all picked up on the university’s Downtown Brooklyn campus after they were accused of assaulting three men and two women on the university track team during a fight at a campus dorm on Sept. 15 Sept. 14.

The arrests come at a time when the LIU basketball program, which has qualified for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament the past two seasons, hopes to win its third Northeast Conference championship in a row. Not only will the Blackbirds play three dates at the new Barclays Center, in November the team is scheduled to travel to Lexington, Kentucky to tip-off against the national champion Wildcats.

Student-athletes on the campus have already come to the players’ aid, according to the Blackbirds Hoops Journal, garnering more than 300 student signatures on a petition supporting the four arrested athletes.

By Bill Cloutier
Assistant Sports Editor
bcloutier@nhregister.com
HAMDEN — The Quinnipiac men’s basketball team insists it’s not about to panic. But it’s getting late real early for the Bobcats.

Now 1-3 in the conference, the Bobcats (8-7) are about to hit the road for four straight games with its conference hopes squarely on the line.
Quinnipiac dropped its second straight game on Saturday, falling to conference heavyweight Long Island 79-75 in a spirited affair at the TD Bank Sports Center Saturday afternoon. The Bobcats are already three games behind the Blackbirds (10-6, 4-0) in the NEC standings and face an arduous uphill climb.

“There’s no panic,” Quinnipiac’s James Johnson said. “We can’t look too far down the road. This conference comes down to March so we have to keep getting better and take it one game at a time. We still have a lot of confidence. We know we’re good.”

Quinnipiac set its all-time Division I mark for rebounds in a game with 61, but the Bobcats shot just 39 percent and went 2-for-10 from 3-point range, never establishing an offensive rhythm. Ike Azotam led the Bobcats with 17 points and a team-high 11 rebounds and James Johnson added 15 points.
“I’m disappointed with our offense,” Quinnipiac coach Tom Moore said. “We settled for a lot of bad shots, especially in the first half. Today we did one thing well, offensive rebounds (27). But we didn’t create good shots and made a lot of bad decisions with our shot selection. And we missed a lot of foul shots again.”
There was nothing wrong with the Blackbirds’ offense. LIU’s All-NEC duo of Jamal Olasawere and Julian Boyd combined for 42 points and 20 rebounds and lived up to all the preseason hype they’ve received.
“Olasawere was an animal,” LIU coach Jim Ferry said. “And our point guard, Jason Brickman (10 assists), controlled the game.”
Ferry said Quinnipiac still has the talent to make a run, but noted the Bobcats missed junior forward Jamee Jackson, who is out with torn ligaments in his foot. In his stead, Ousmane Drame, a freshman who has played very well at times, had just two points and was little match for LIU’s inside powers.
Said Moore: “Ousmane wasn’t up to the task defensively. Rebounding he was, but Olasawere’s got 80 games of college under his belt and Ousmane has just 13. He wasn’t ready for the speed and aggressiveness with which Olasawere comes at you.
“They’re a terrific team. They can score the ball and they have the best point guard in the league.”
Said Johnson: “Jamee Jackson would have helped, of course, but you can see we were just a couple of baskets away from beating a real good team.”
After Quinnipiac lost 73-72 to St. Francis (N.Y.) on Thursday, Ferry knew the Bobcats would come out with a roar on Saturday. Despite the fact that his team was out-rebounded 61-38, Ferry was happy with his team’s poise.
“All we talked about for two days was the level of intensity of which this game was going to be played at,” Ferry said. “It was going to be playoff intensity because they never get out-rebounded and they got out-rebounded last game.
“They really bullied us. To end the game with 61 rebounds, I’ve never seen that. But we stayed poised and stayed focused. We have a grind-it-out mentality and in the second half we got it going.”
Quinnipiac got an atypical 20 points off its bench, including nine points and eight rebounds from Justin Harris in the first half. The Bobcats pulled down a stunning 42 first-half rebounds. Still, the Bobcats were only tied with the high-flying Blackbirds, who went 27-6 last season to win the NEC title and lost to North Carolina in the NCAA tournament.
Olasawere, a mixture of power and finesse, took over in the early stages of the second half. He scored a game-high 25 points in 25 minutes and never let his early foul trouble hinder his play. He scored nine points in LIU’s 13-8 run to start the second half and give the Blackbirds a 50-45 lead.
LIU never trailed again and eventually built a 13-point lead. Quinnipiac battled back but couldn’t unleash its outside game and never got closer than four points the rest of the way.
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Men’s basketball gameday
Long Island at Quinnipiac

When: Today, 2 p.m.
Where: TD Bank Sports Center, Hamden
Records: Long Island (9-6, 3-0 Northeast): Quinnipiac (8-6, 1-2)
Radio: WQUN-1220 AM
Scouting Long Island: The Blackbirds were the overwhelming preseason choice to defend their Northeast Conference title. LIU won at Sacred Heart on Thursday getting 29 points from Jamal Olasawere. LIU has won four straight and seven of its last nine games. Olaswaere is an NEC All-Conference selections along with power forward Julian Boyd, who leads the team in scoring and rebounding with 16.1 points and 9.57 rebounds per game. They lead the NEC in scoring (77.7 points per game) and field goal percentage (46 percent).
Scouting Quinnipiac: The Bobcats have little time to regroup after a heart-breaking loss at St. Francis (N.Y.) on Thursday. Quinnipiac led most of the way but St. Francis guard Stefan Pernuicic converted a three-point play in the final seconds to end the Bobcats’ eight-game winning streak over the Terriers. Quinnipiac is suddenly staring at a sub-.500 mark in the league with the powerful Blackbirds coming into their gym followed by four straight road games. Expect a big effort from coach Tom Moore’s team which was out-rebounded for only the second time this season by the Terriers. James Johnson scored 28 in Thursday’s loss.
Projected Starters
Long Island
Player, Ht., Year, Pos., Avg,
Jamal Olasawere , 6-7, Jr., F, 15.2,
Julian Boyd, 6-7, Jr., F, 16.1,
Jason Brickman, 5-10, So., G, 7.7,
Michael Culpo, 6-1, Sr.G, 10.0,
C.J. Garner, 5-10, Jr., G, 11.3,
Quinnipiac
Ousmane Drame, 6-9, Fr., F, 6.1
Ike Azotam, 6-7, So., F, 15.1
Dave Johnson, 5-10, Jr., G, 6.9
James Johnson, 6-0, Sr., G, 18.0
Zaid Hearst, 6-4, Fr.., G, 5.9
Off the bench
Long Island: Brandon Thompson, 6-1, Jr., G, 4.1 ppg., Kenny Onyechi, 6-7, Jr., F, 4.8, Garvey Young, 6-5, Jr., F, 5.2, Nate Gause, 6-3, Fr., G, 4.9.
Bill Cloutier