Mountaineers Off to Their Best NEC Start

Forward Chris Wray calls for the ball.

We're only 8 games into conference play, but it is becoming pretty clear who are true contenders in the Northeast conference. The bottom spot is held by Central Connecticut State who have only managed to get one measly conference win thus far. Then come a mix of teams right at .500 or under it. In fact, there is only 3 teams with a conference winning percentage better than 50%, Long Island (6-2), Farleigh-Dickinson (7-1), and Mount St. Mary's (7-1). The aforementioned Mountaineers have gotten themselves to their best Northeast conference start in program history.

It wasn't always going so rosy for this team though. They actually were at a 2-11 mark before confernce play began. They dug themselves such a hole with that poor start that they despite their red-hot 7-1 conference start, they still find themselves 3 games under .500. It's easy to criticize their 2-11 start, but it's hard to find much fault in a majority of their losses as they were to very solid teams. To prove my point, consider the fact that all of their first 9 games of the were on the road. Futhermore, 5 of those games were to power 5 conference opponents. Once they finally returned home, they had the burden of playing 2 teams who were enjoying fantastic seasons of their own in UMBC and Lehigh. Then they finished off noncnference play with a tough trip up to Bucknell who are among the Patriot League favorites, and finally a win came against Coppin State when they returned home.

I'm sure the Mountaineers were extremely relieved to begin conference play as they would finally be put in more winable situations. They finally could enjoy more games at the familiar settings of their own court and they would be matching up against teams closer to their talent level. They took full advantage of these factors and have gotten out to a near perfect start. Their only conference blemish to date was a tight 71-72 loss to Bryant in Rhode Island. They have their work cut out for them as they know that their only real conference title threats as of right now are Long Island and Farleigh-Dickinson. It's encouraging that the Mountaineers have already beat these teams, and they look to be well on their way converting this historic start into a conference championship.