Week three in review

Week three in the NEC has passed, and there was a lot of news, upsets, thrilling games, and movement in the NEC standings. CTC is here to take a look.

Before we get to the NEC standings, we must note the busy few days that Andy Toole and company have had.

Tate played big on Saturday
(p/c Jason Cohn)

First off, to the eight guys who are currently playing. Well done. I mean really, amazing job. Win by almost 30, hours after finding out your four teammates are suspended, then follow that up with a win over the preseason favorites with the same eight guys.

In that second game against Wagner, the only big forward, Stephan Hawkins, fouled out and played only 13 minutes. The undersized Arron Tate played a huge role, and played his ass off. He was dead tired, and gave Toole everything he had. Well done Aaron.

There was even even a time when Lucky Jones played center, and the 6'3 Chuck Oliver was the "power forward."

Everyone stepped up.

Kavon Stewart, who is known to struggle with his shot from time to time, goes to the line and makes 10 of 12, including four down the stretch to help ice the game.

Lucky, Ant Myers-Pate and Karvel Anderson were incredible, making winning play after winning play on both ends.

The bench was phenomenal. David Appolon provided a ton of energy getting two spot starts.

The UK win was nice, but this has been
Toole's best job (ESPN).

Then there is Toole and his coaching staff. You know those highlights where Miguel Cabrera gets completely fooled by a change up, and still gets a hold of it and hits a home run? That's the type of job Toole and his staff did.

Enjoy the Penn grad now RMU, he's going to be in the ACC, Big East, or some other big conference soon. He's one hell of a coach, and he proved it again this past weekend.

No excuses, just find a way to get the job done. They did just that, and their players followed suit.

The Colonials are back over .500 at 11-10, but more importantly, a perfect 6-0 in the Northeast Conference.

As for what will happen moving forward? Well here is what we know. The four players, Jeremiah Worthem, Britton Lee, Evan Gray, and Shaire Tolsen-Ford, are all suspended from the school and the program. How long? We don't know, but we will likely get an answer this week.

It appears the players could be out awhile, but again nothing is official until the university finishes its investigation.

As for the two other players who stepped away for personal reasons, Juanie Newton and Mike McFadden, they could in theory still come back, but nothing is known there.

After reading this piece by the PG's Craig Meyer,  I do believe Newton will come back at some point. That's simply an opinion after reading the piece, and nothing more than an opinion.

Will Toole add players from other sports to the team? Maybe, but again that is still a very fluent situation. We should no more by Thursday's game against Bryant.

As for the current eight players, they showed they can win even given the situation. They need to continue to do just that, because home court advantage in the NEC tournament is now VERRRYYYYY important, if it wasn't already. The Colonials need every advantage they can get, and that's a big one.

They good news? They helped themselves out a lot this weekend going 2-0 and getting a little help from others around the league.

Here are the current standings:

Via ESPN.

The Colonials have a game up on every team in the league, and already have wins over Bryant (away) Wagner (home), and Mount (away). If they defeat Bryant Thursday night, they will have a vice grip on the league before the halfway point.

As for this past weeks games, there were a few surprises.

The biggest came last Thursday as winless CCSU went to Wagner, and shocked the Seahawks. As we know, Wagner followed that up with a loss at RMU Saturday, so they did not have a good weekend.

Fairleigh Dickinson continued to impress, taking down St. Francis Brooklyn at home in a game they stole in the last minute. The Knights followed that up with a win over CCSU, and sit alone in third. That has to be the biggest surprise in the NEC this season.

The Terriers, like Wagner, continued to struggle as they lost Saturday to Bryant on the road.

LIU Brooklyn picked up a huge win Saturday, taking down Mount St. Mary's at home, moving them to 2-4 in the NEC.

At the top challenging the Colonials are the Bryant Bulldogs. They took down LIU on national TV in front of a CRAZY crowd (match it Colonial Crazies!) then followed it up with a nice win over St Francis Brooklyn setting up the biggest game of the year in the NEC.

Can the Crazies match the dog pound?
(p/c Bryant Athletics)

RMU, at 6-0, will take on Bryant, 5-1, at the Chuck as they renew their rivalry on ESPN U at 8pm on Thursday. CTC will have tons of coverage, and I'm sure we will get a little roster news between now and then, so we will have you covered.

RMU sits in first place, continues to battle despite some major adversity, so they deserve a huge crowd for this nationally televised game. #PackTheChuck

--Lee Kunkel
--@Kunkel5