Daily Word: Fun With Numbers

We've got some interesting men's basketball numbers for you today below our Marquee Matchups. Make sure to check out the Chatting with the Commissioner feature we posted this morning as well when you have chance.

Marquee Matchups

(MBB) Maine at Army, Friday 7 p.m.: The Black Bears will pay a visit to Army for the first time since the 1969-70 season.

(MBB) Hartford at Rice, Saturday 8 p.m.: The Hawks will be playing Rice for the first time ever as they make the trip to Texas tomorrow night.

(WBB) Albany at Delaware St., Saturday 5 p.m.: The Albany women come into this matchup carrying a six-game winning streak.

(MBB) Vermont at Niagara, Sunday 2 p.m.: Niagara beat fellow America East squad Hartford earlier this week and now the Catamounts will get a crack on the road.

(WBB) Quinnipiac at Hartford, Sunday 2 p.m.: A big matchup between two in-state rivals as Hartford looks to continue it's hot start.

The Numbers Game

Something a little different today for you as we were able to get our hands on a metric call "Value-Add", created by John Pudner. Pudner's work has been featured in Sports Illustrated and on ESPN.com and it tries to answer a simple yet incredibly complex question of how to measure value. 

To brief, the concept of "Value-Add" is similar to the concept of WAR, a stat that has gained popularity among supporters of advanced statistics in baseball. Let's take Tommy Brenton, the Stony Brook senior who is by many accounts the heart and soul of the Seawolves, for example. What would happen if his team had to play without him for a game or longer? Obviously his contribution would be missed, but how much exactly? That is the basic concept of "Value-Add": if you replace Brenton with a substitute, what will the effect be on the team?

Per Pudner's work, Brenton is worth an extra 5.37 percent to Stony Brook every night. While that number can be hard to wrap your mind around, let's look at it this way. Pudner puts Brenton's offensive value at 1.39 and his defensive value at -2.13. This means that if Stony Brook played a game without Brenton and lost 65-64, we can estimate how the game may have turned out with Brenton. The idea is that Brenton adds 1.39 percent to the offense, and takes away 2.13 percent from the opposing offense.

How much has Tommy Brenton been worth this year?

64 * .0139 = .8896 = 1 (for our purposes)

65 * .0213 = 1.38 = 1 (for our purposes)

According to Pudner's logic, Brenton would be worth one extra point to his team and take away one point from the opposition. In this example, that is enough to turn a one-point loss into a one-point win. Obviously this system is not perfect nor should it be taken as absolute, but the concept is a fascinating one. Brenton is currently second in the America East in "Value-Add" behind freshman teammate Jameel Warney. Here's the entire America East top-10:

1. Jameel Warney (SBU): +5.37 %
2. Tommy Brenton (SBU): +5.02%
3. Chris Pelcher (UNH): +4.34%
4. Mike Black (ALB): +4.30%
5. Dom Morris (BU): +4.30%
6. Jacob Iati (ALB): +4.25%
7. Marcus Rouse (SBU): +3.69%
8. Travis Robinson (BU): +3.67%
9. Yolonzo Moore (HART): +3.36%
10. Peter Hooley (ALB): +3.29 %

You can check out the rest of the list here. To filter just America East players, enter "AE" at the bottom where it says says "conf".

To wrap up for the day, our thoughts are with the town of Newtown, Conn. No one should have to suffer such an unspeakable tragedy. 

Daily Word: Weekend Preview

It'll be a light weekend for America East hoops, but exciting nonetheless. We've got some awesome matchups to bring you as teams continue looking for that signature win to highlight non-conference resumes. Thursday is the new Friday, and you can always count on AExtra to get your weekend started with a full preview. Enjoy!

Vermont's Trey Blue

Men's Basketball

Friday, Dec. 14

Maine at Army, 7 p.m.

Saturday, Dec. 15

Hartford at Rice, 8 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 16

Quinnipiac at Boston U., 1 p.m.
New Hampshire at Boston College, 1 p.m.
Maine at Marist, 2 p.m.
Vermont at Niagara, 2 p.m.

Fast Break

From Albany's Athletic Communications department: after Jacob Iati drained seven three's last night, he became the nation's leader in made treys with 41 on the season.

As of Dec. 9, Binghamton's Jordan Reed was fourth among freshman in the country at 18.3 points per game and second among first-years in rebounding at 10 per contest. Those numbers have dropped a bit after the Bearcats' game on Tuesday, but Reed is still averaging 17.4 ppg and 9.8 rpg.

Boston U. is shooting 50 percent from the field over its last four games. The Terriers are 3-1 over that span.

Hartford is shooting just under 70 percent (69.4) from the free throw line this season. When the Hawks have shot 70 percent or better this season, they are 4-1.

Maine is leading the conference with 13.8 assists per game as a team, and much of that comes from Xavier Pollard, who has 41 assists on the year. In Maine's three wins, Pollard averaged seven assists per game, up from his overall average of 4.6 apg.

Though UMBC won't play this weekend, Ryan Cook is just four points shy of becoming the first America East player to reach 200 points this season. Cook is averaging 17.8 points per contest.

After averaging 8.5 points per game last season, New Hampshire's Ferg Myrick is averaging 15.1 per contest so far this year, including 19.25 ppg over his last four games.

Stony Brook freshman Jameel Warney is shooting a cool 61.5 percent from the field this year, the second best mark in the conference and easily best among freshman. Warney is also averaging 12.8 points per game over his last five games.

After reaching double figures just once in his first six games, senior Trey Blue has reached that benchmark in three consecutive games for Vermont. The senior transfer is heating up as the conference slate approaches.

New Hampshire's Cari Reed

Women's Basketball

Saturday, Dec. 15

Binghamton at Syracuse, 1 p.m.
St. Peter's at Stony Brook, 2 p.m.
Albany at Delaware St., 5 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 16

Vermont at Oklahoma St., 1:30 p.m.
Quinnipiac at Hartford, 2 p.m.

Fast Break

Albany is 4-0 when Lindsey Lowrie leads the team in scoring. The sharpshooter averaged 17 points in those four games, including a 21 point showing last time out.

Binghamton's Jasbriell Swain is one of two players in the conference averaging more than 10 points and seven rebounds per game (10.2 ppg, 7.3 rpg).

Chantell Alford of Boston U. is the only America East player, male or female, to have scored 200 points thus far in the 2012-13 season. Alford is currently at 208 (18.9 ppg).

Hartford continues to lead the league in scoring (62.9 ppg) with an incredibly balanced attack. Of the Hawks' top five scorers, no one averages more than 10.4 ppg and no one is below 7.1 ppg.

Maine leads the league in three-pointers allowed, as its opponent has only made more than five in four of the Black Bears' 10 games.

Raven Harris of UMBC continues to be a problem for opposing offenses, as she is leading the conference in steals per game, averaging almost four steals per contest.

Cari Reed of New Hampshire joins Swain as the only other player in the conference to average more than 10 points and seven rebounds per game (12.8 ppg, 7.4 rpg).

Stony Brook's rebounding margin of +9.8 is tops in the conference. The Seawolves boasts three of the top 10 rebounds in the America East.

Niki Taylor of Vermont ranks second in offensive rebounding with 3.3 per game. The second year forward has been the Catamounts' best rebounder with Shanai Heber out due to injury.

Linked Up

The Boston U. women are up to eighth in Graham Hays' mid-major poll on ESPN.com.

The Albany Times Union has a recap from Albany's win over South Carolina St. last night, which includes some high praise from the opposing coach.

Kevin Krause of Stony Brook has been named a preseason Third-Team All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

Seven America East women's soccer standouts were named to the NSCAA Northeast All-Region Team.

Binghamton is again holding a contest which helps local students honor their teachers.

Inside the Top Performances of the Year So Far: Women's Basketball

Yesterday we took a look at some of the top individual performances of the season so far in men's basketball. We relived Justin Edwards' 30 point game, Jordan Reed pulling down 18 rebounds and more. Today, we'll take a look at what's happened in women's basketball so far. Let's get it all started with another 30 point game.

The 30-Club

Chantell Alford has been torching opponents all season. But in game number two, a near victory over West Virginia, Alford had her best performance to date, netting 30 points on the strength of six three-pointers. The senior guard accounted for more than half of Boston U.'s 57 points and kicked in nine rebounds to top off her night. Her performance nearly carried the Terriers a signature win (one of those would come later on versus St. John's), but the Mountaineers were able to erase a five-point halftime deficit to pull out a win on the road.

From Downtown

Just four days ago Lindsey Lowrie went bonkers from outside the arc to help Albany win its fifth straight game. The conference's second-leading three-point shooter (making 2.9 per game), Lowrie connected seven times in 13 attempts to account for all 21 of her points. Lowrie led the Great Danes in scoring and matched Canisius' three-point makes by herself. It was an easy win for Albany and a highlight in what has been an excellent season for Lowrie so far.

The Charity Stripe

Vaneeshia Paulk had a conference best 15 free throw attempts earlier this season versus Canisius and she made the most of the opportunity. Netting 11 of those 15 attempts, Paulk led the Bearcats in scoring and set a career-high in points with 17 overall. Paulk also hauled in six rebounds, but in the end it wasn't enough for Binghamton to get past Canisius.

Chairwoman of the Boards

Coming into the year as a preseason all-conference selection, we knew that Julie Forster could rebound. She racked up eight double-doubles a season ago. In her first game of the 2012-13 season, Forster came out swinging. Racking up 18 boards, including six offensive, Forster also turned in 16 points while playing all 40 minutes for Albany. Unfortunately for the Great Danes, an off shooting night led to a season-opening defeat. However, they seem to have since recovered.

Precision Passing

Two guards this year have notched double-figures in assists so far. Mo Moran most recently and Lauren Chase in her third game of the year both had 10 assists in winning efforts. For Moran, her dimes came in a big victory over cross-town rival Harvard. Not only that, but the senior guard only turned the ball over three times, running the offense with great efficiency and assisting on nearly half of Boston U.'s field goals.

Chase's effort was a part of a point guard double-double, as the sophomore also led UMBC in scoring with 22 points. That night, Chase did everything you could ask your point guard to do: she got her teammates involved, she scored, she got to the free-throw line (10 for 11) and she got in the passing lanes (two steals). The effort helped the Retrievers win their first game of the year.






Linked Up

The America East has teamed up with Enthuse for a fan loyalty rewards program.

With seven boards last night, Stony Brook senior Tommy Brenton became the program's all-time leading rebounder. Congrats!

John Fantino of the Burlington Free Press previews tonight's men's basketball matchup with Dartmouth.

New Hampshire athletes ran a successful toy drive.

In case you missed it, the Hartford men's basketball team (along with many other teams) participated in a campus talent show.

Inside the Top Performances of the Year So Far: Men's Basketball

We spent the last three weeks on AExtra taking a look at some players from each team -- men and women -- to find out who was making a good first impression. Now, as we continue to roll our way towards conference play, let's take a look at some of the top individual performances we've seen so far this year. America East basketball has already seen several memorable moments and there are surely more to come. We'll start with the men today and take a look at women's basketball tomorrow.

The 30-Club

Maine's Justin Edwards

Justin Edwards poured in a career-high 30 points for Maine in a road victory over Northeastern on November 28th. The Black Bears would erase a five-point halftime deficit, thanks in large part to the performance of Edwards. The sophomore was incredibly efficient from the field, netting 11 (also a conference-best) of his 12 shot while also nailing the only three-pointer he took. Edwards also chipped in seven of his 30 points from the free-throw line. His final two points sealed the victory for Maine with 18 seconds left, as Xavier Pollard forced a turnover and fed Edwards for a layup.

From Downtown

Two different players have nailed six three-pointers this year on three different occasions. The first of these instances came from Jacob Iati as Albany upset defending Pac-12 regular season champion Washington. He and teammate Mike Black teamed up for 42 of Albany's 63 points and Iati had six of the Great Danes' seven treys. He then did it again just three days ago as Albany beat Colgate to extend its win streak to five games. Iati was again six for 12 from downtown as he led the Great Danes with 20 points. His 34 made three-pointers are tops in the conference this season.

Also joining the club is Nate Sikma from Hartford. Sikma's hot shooting nearly led the Hawks over Arizona St. on the road a week ago. With 9:33 to go in the second half, Sikma nailed a three to put Hartford up by two. While the game would remain close, the Sun Devils were too much down the stretch. But Sikma's 26 point night was spectacular nonetheless.

The Charity Stripe

Getting to the free-throw line is a skill. And if you can do it enough times throughout the game, points will start to pile up in a hurry. This is exactly what Yolonzo Moore II did on his way to 27 points in a victory over Fairleigh Dickinson just two days ago. Moore went to the line 14 times and converted on 13 of those attempts. Ten of these makes came in the final 1:30 as Hartford was trying to wrap up the win. The kicker? He didn't miss one shot in that 1:30 span. Pressure? What pressure?

Binghamton's Jordan Reed

Chairman of the Boards

Jordan Reed has taken the America East by storm in his first season. The current leader in both points and rebounds per game, Reed is the only player in the conference averaging a double-double. On November 18th, Reed notched 18 rebounds to go with 17 points as the freshman helped Binghamton earn its first win of the season over St. Peter's. Reed absolutely owned the glass, as he had more offensive rebounds alone (6) than all but two St. Peter's players had total. The conference's leading rebounder averages 10 per game.

Precision Passing

Xavier Pollard comes into today with 41 assists on the year, good for the third-most per game in the conference. Over 25 percent of those came in a single night as Maine got its first victory of the season over Siena. Pollard had 12 assists that night to go along with 15 points as he notched the point guard's double-double. The crazy stat is that Pollard assisted on nearly half of Maine's made field goals for the game, as he truly played floor general for the Black Bears.


Linked Up

Jon Rothstein calls Jameel Warney of Stony Brook one of college basketball's best kept secrets.

Yolonzo Moore II is this week's Hartford Mooyah Athlete of the Week.

Binghamton women's basketball announced the signing of three recruits for next fall.

If you're an Albany basketball fan, don't miss the fan bus going to Vermont for the men's game on January 5th!

In baseball news, a big congratulations to former Stony Brook pitcher Nick Tropeano on making Baseball America's Top 10 Houston Astros' prospects list.

What's Next?

Men's Basketball

Binghamton at Michigan, 7 p.m.
Boston U. at Harvard, 7 p.m.

Women's Basketball

Fairleigh Dickinson at Stony Brook, 7 p.m.

Daily Word: AEC Rewind

A few notes before we get into today's post. First in women's basketball, Albany, Boston U., Hartford and Stony Brook have combined to go 7-1 versus the Atlantic 10 on the year. As for the men, the first conference RPI rankings came out today and the America East is 22nd in the nation -- 10 spots higher than it was at this same time a year ago. It's been a great start to America East basketball season. Let's keep it going with today's AEC Rewind.

Albany's Jacob Iati.

Men's Basketball

Saturday, Dec. 8

Binghamton 56, at Bryant 78
Yale 56, at New Hampshire 64
Albany 67, at Colgate 61
Vermont 53, at Quinnipiac 46

Sunday, Dec. 9

Maine 59, at Florida St. 91
Hartford 69, at Fairleigh Dickinson 59
UMBC 66, at Norfolk St. 83

Fast Break

Albany has now won five-straight games, averaging 72.4 points per game over that span. The Great Danes have not scored fewer than 60 points in any game this season.

Jimmy Gray and Jordan Reed are being relied upon heavily by Binghamton, as the two average 34.5 and 34 minutes per game, respectively.

Boston U. continues to be effective from downtown this season, as the Terriers lead the conference with 8.9 made three's per game.

Yolonzo Moore II made 13 free throws yesterday as a part of his 27-point showing in Hartford's win over Fairleigh Dickinson.

Justin Edwards led Maine in scoring for the sixth time this season over the weekend. He is averaging 16.3 points per game.

Brett Roseboro has been consistent for UMBC lately, averaging 14 points over his last five games.

New Hampshire's Ferg Myrick turned in his second 20 plus point performance in his last four games in a win over Yale. Myrick went for 24 and 11 to notch his second double-double of the year.

Defense continues to be a strong point for Stony Brook this year, as it is giving up just 59.6 points per game on the year. Not coincidentally, the Seawolves are 5-0 when giving up fewer than 60 points.

Brian Voelkel scored in double-figures for the first time this season as Vermont beat Quinnipiac on the road. His 14 points and 10 rebounds were good for his sixth career double-double.

Friday, Dec. 7

Maine's Liz Wood

Hampton 81, at UMBC 36

Saturday, Dec. 8

Rhode Island 51, at Maine 38
Stony Brook 58, at Fordham 46
Albany 65, at Canisius 43
Binghamton 65, at Buffalo 60
Boston U. 62, at Marist 56

Sunday Dec. 9

Hartford 67, at Dartmouth 50
Central Connecticut St. 43, at New Hampshire 32

Fast Break

Lindsay Lowrie had seven three-pointers in Albany's win over Canisius this weekend, a single-game high for the America East this year.

Four Binghamton scorers reached double-digits as the Bearcats notched their first win of the season.

Boston U. beat a Marist squad in Poughkeepsie on Saturday that is 105-14 at home since the 2003-04 season. Needless to say, a very impressive victory.

After its win versus Dartmouth yesterday, Hartford is now 7-0 when holding its opponent under 45 percent shooting from the field.

Liz Wood led Maine in rebounding for the third straight game as the Black Bears fell to Rhode Island.

UMBC's three wins this season have all come when the Retrievers score 70 or more points.

Kaylee Kilpatrick notched a career-high 11 boards for New Hampshire yesterday.

After winning just four games all of last season, Stony Brook is now 5-3 on the year after winning four of its last five contests.

Vermont leads the conference in offensive rebounding, grabbing 16.1 per game.

Linked Up

The Albany Times Union took a look at the superb shooting of guard Jacob Iati after the Great Danes most recent victory.

BU Today has a great feature on women's basketball senior Chantell Alford, and ESPN's Graham Hays talks about the Terriers' impressive road win over Marist.

Scotland native Alasdair Fraser is, as the Maine Campus tells it, fulfilling a dream by playing for the Black Bears.

The latest episode of Catamount Weekly includes a recap of the reunion for the '91-'92 and '92-'93 women's basketball teams from Vermont.

Seven America East men's soccer standouts were named to the NSCAA All-Northeast Region team.

What's Next?

Three women's games on tap tonight, as Binghamton hosts Niagara, Boston U. hosts Harvard and Maine visits Bryant. All three games will start at 7 p.m. Scroll to the bottom of the Graham Hays article we linked up above for a preview of tonight's big matchup between the Terriers and the Crimson.