SportsLine.com Report
April 5, 2000
The Northeast Conference race shaped up in preseason as a battle between
defending NEC Tournament champion Mount St. Mary's and Central Connecticut, the teams that met in the 1999 final.
The Mount's hopes were crippled when 6-10 sophomore Melvin Whitaker
suffered a broken ankle just before the season started that sidelined him all year.
That made CCSU -- with four starters returning and the addition of John Tice (a transfer from Fairfield), the team to beat.
After a slow start and a few lineup changes, Fairleigh Dickinson won nine of its last 10 games including a home court win over CCSU and appeared poised to challenge the Blue Devils in the league tournament but was upset by Mount St. Mary's in the first round.
Conference champion
CCSU followed the script nearly perfectly reeling off 12 straight wins to open conference play, virtually wrapping up the top seed in the NEC Tournament with about one third of the regular season remaining. In the NEC playoffs CCSU had no problems dispatching UMBC, The Mount, and Robert Morris in the final to gain its first Division I and the league's automatic NCAA Tournament berth.
Biggest disappointment
Mount St. Mary's, UMBC. Despite Whitaker's
absence, the Mount figured to still make a run with 1,700 point-scorer Gregory Harris in the lineup. But the team shot and rebounded poorly all year and won just three league road games.
UMBC, the defending regular-season champion, saw three players unexpectedly leave the team over the summer and early in the season and was never in contention.
Biggest surprise
Monmouth, Quinnipiac. After winning just nine
games the last two years Monmouth won 12 overall and finished in sixth place. Quinnipiac, after winning four games in Division II in 1998, won 18 games in only its second Division I season and finished tied for fourth place with St. Francis of New York. As a second-year Division I program it was ineligible for the NEC Tournament.
Player of the year
Gene Nabors (Robert Morris), Rick Mickens
(CCSU). Nabors, a senior guard who transferred from LSU two years ago, won the NEC regular-season scoring title and gave the Colonials a "Big Time" type player NEC teams couldn't match. Mickens, another senior guard, finished second to Nabors in NEC scoring , and was the spearhead of CCSU's season.
Newcomer of the year
Rahsaan Johnson (Monmouth). Let's put it this
way. Without the sophomore guard, a junior college transfer who played with NBA rookie Steve Francis at Allegany, Md. Community College, Monmouth would have won only a handful of games, if that. Not only did Johnson score 30 percent of the team's 1,624 points, but Monmouth went 1-9 in games he scored 16 points or less.
Coach of the year
Joe DeSantis (Quinnipiac). Taking a team that won four games two years ago in Division II, to nine last year in its first Division I season, to 18 this season speaks for itself. His 1999-2000 win total also equaled his victory total for his first three years on the job.
The future
FDU, with no seniors on its talented roster, could be
ready to take over the top spot. Despite the loss of Mickens, CCSU should be in the hunt while the fate of the Mount seems to rest with the status of Whitaker's ankle. Monmouth may have the best guard in the league in Johnson but it's a question of whether he'll have enough help.
There is speculation CCSU coach Howie Dickenman, a former top assistant at UConn, may be ready to move on after doing all that can be expected in New Britain, Conn., in just four years.
Robert Morris will have to find somebody to replace Jim Boone, who was lured away by Eastern Michigan.
One also has to wonder how long venerable Mount coach Jim Phelan will continue. He missed four games this season fighting pneumonia after being absent for just two other games in his 46 years at the Mount.