2018-19 #AEMBB Week 1 Recap

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Stony Brook made a statement during their first week of OOC action with a nice win at SEC foe South Carolina. The Seawolves have started the season 2-0 with both wins coming on the road in games they were paid to play in. While Jr. Akwasi Yeboah led the way with 24 pts and 11 rebs at South Carolina, So. Elijah Olaniyi opened eyes with 18 pts and 10 rebs versus George Washington in the Stony Brook season opener.

Vermont opened their season with a road win at Boston University who was coming off of a nice win over a less than 100% Northeastern team expected to compete for the CAA title. The Catamounts who trailed by as many as 8 points early in the second half and 5 points with just over 4 minutes remaining came on strong late to earn the victory. So. Stef Smith who has the unenviable task of replacing back to back America Easy POY Trae Bell-Haynes at PG led Vermont in scoring with 22 pts to support the efforts of Catamount stars Anthony Lamb (19 pts, 14 rebs) and Ernie Duncan (18 pts, 5 ast).

Hartford has had a rough start to the season falling at home to CCSU (a team that will be better this year than people expect) and on the road to Utah State and Mississippi State. People are more concerned about the Hawks than they should be at this time, but their inefficiency from deep and their inability to keep opponents off of the offensive glass early in the season are concerning.

Albany competed at Iona, jumping out to an early double digit lead which peaked at 25-10 with 6:18 remaining in the first half. They shot well from deep in their opener, but struggled taking care of the ball as they turned it over 22 times in the four point loss. The inexperienced Great Danes have enough talent and shooting to compete for a top three spot in the conference if they can put it all together.

UMass Lowell has had a solid start to D1 life without Jahad Thomas as they competed with UMass for a solid 25 minutes before the game opened up and were able to overcome a visiting Wagner team at home in OT. I still question the River Hawks interior, but their perimeter led by Sr. Ryan Jones is solid.

Still Unsure

We'll know more about UMBC after their second week of action as they can't be judged off of one performance at a very good Marquette team. The Retrievers face Manhattan and Air Force and High Point/South Dakota before next Monday which will give us a much better feel on life for them post Jairus Lyles.

Binghamton has had a rough early go of it falling at home to Cornell and NJIT. Cornell came on strong over the final 5 minutes, while NJIT opened up that contest in the second half. I'm waiting on fully judging Binghamton until Thomas Bruce is available as they do have some nice pieces on their roster.

Maine started the season with three road contests and will stay on the road for three more during the next two weeks before returning home on 11/28 to face Princeton. It's a work in progress and I still have no feel for this team.

New Hampshire hasn't given us much to go on yet other than a 29 point loss at UMass that they were out of from the beginning. They shot well from deep in the contest, but only 16-40 from two point range and allowed UMass to shoot 75% from two point range and 52.6% from deep.

Week 1 Power Rankings

1. (1-0) Vermont - They're still good

2. (2-0) Stony Brook- Opened some eyes

3. (0-1) Albany- Looked much better than expected at Iona, will probably drop over next week or two

4. (0-3) Hartford- Should be here? Should move up over the next couple of weeks? I think?

5. (0-1) UMBC- Should probably be higher, most likely will be after week 2

6. (1-1) UMass Lowell- Backcourt is fun to watch

7. (0-2) Binghamton- Need the talented Sessom's to make Jr. decisions as a Fr.

8. (0-1) New Hampshire- Life without Tanner Leissner could get weird

9. (0-3) Maine- Need to get back home, need time under their new regime

* Records vs D1 teams only