#AEHOOPS The Swing '19

Standings

Power Rankings

1. Vermont- The Catamounts currently lead the conference in adjusted offensive efficiency and rank second in adjusted defensive efficiency on top of having the best record halfway through. Their toughest test on the back end of conference play will be a visit to UMBC on 2/21.
2. UMBC- They've won at Vermont which gives them the bump over Stony Brook in this spot. Sure you can also ad that they've already beaten Stony Brook, but that was holding down home court in a rock fight. They may need to win all four games before their three game stretch vs UVM, at Albany and at Stony Brook to hold onto a top 3 finish in conference. The Retrievers defense has been fun to watch, the offense has been somewhere between brutal and good enough.
3. Stony Brook- Best adjusted defense in conference, second to worst adjusted offense in conference. That pretty much sums up where they're currently at. Their only two losses came against the two team's above them which you can take with a glass half full or glass half empty approach. The quick offensive fix would be to stop turning the ball over... the one that gets them over the hump would be finding a way to finish more shots at the rim and knocking down a couple more from deep. Easy to forget how young their roster is since they've played so well this season.
4. Hartford- This is where it gets a little messy as you can tell from the standings above. The Hawks are second best in adjusted offensive efficiency, but just can't get enough stops vs the top half of the league. This Senior-laden team needs to make a choice right now... either they commit to hard nose defense 100% of the time or their careers are over much sooner than they'd like.
5. UMass Lowell- They get the nod here thanks to earlier wins vs UMBC, vs Albany and at Hartford. The offense can be dynamic (and very fun to watch), the defense is the worst in the league. Right now they're headed in the wrong direction mainly because they can't stop anyone from scoring inside the arc.
6. Albany- They're talented, they're young, the recent play may be a product of their schedule, it may not be. We're four games away from knowing if this group is ahead of schedule. Not sure how you convince a young group that once you start winning is when you have to start working even harder rather than believing you've accomplished something, but this will suffice as my homer pep talk.
7. Maine- I kinda sorta love watching this team play. Part of it is the honeymoon period when a team's culture is first being changed and part of it is how well they've played. Maine basketball is competent and relevant right now which is a pretty big deal.
8. Binghamton- Tough year so far, but they held serve at home vs Maine and New Hampshire. Should only take winning one of those games on the road in the back half to get them into the AE tournament where anything can happen. Their adjusted defense is second worst so far as they've been hurt badly from deep and by their opponents on the offensive glass (both worst in AE).
9. New Hampshire- The defense has been pretty solid, the offense is just nonexistent. What's amazing is their best offensive game probably came at home vs Vermont, other than that it hasn't been pretty.

Right now there's only one consistent team on both sides of the ball and who it surprises no one. Getting embarrassed by UMBC at home was probably the wake up call Vermont needed. They're deep enough that they're good (and still the best team in the league) without Anthony Lamb, but with him in the mix they're very good. Looking around at the rest of the league you just see team's with issues on one side of the ball or the other, plus some who struggle on both ends. As far as regular season conference results go Vermont not winning the AE would be one of the biggest upsets in the nation. That being said once the tournament comes around anything can happen as you saw last year.

The recipe for the single game letdown is clear... Vermont is above everyone else because they excel on both sides of the ball. On any night if they're struggling on one side the other side has to be that much better, if not they've now made their opponent their equal.

Let me break that gibberish down in a simpler way: UMBC and SBU are not Vermont because they don't have Vermont's offense. Well if Vermont's offense is off they better make sure their defense is at least as good as UMBC's and SBU's that night.

Current AE 1st Team

Anthony Lamb (POY)

Joe Sherburne

Ernie Duncan

Akwasi Yeboah

Christian Lutete