America East Basketball: Preseason rankings for 2018-19
By Brian Rauf
9. UMass Lowell
It’s going to be tough for the River Hawks to replace Jahad Thomas, the conference’s leading scorer from a year ago, as he also led them in rebounds, assists, and steals per game.
It’s virtually impossible to replace a player who was that productive at this level, especially considering the lack of a similar talent on UMass Lowell’s roster. Matt Harris, last year’s second-leading scorer, is gone as well, but head coach Pat Duquette’s squad returns everyone else from the rotation.
Will their defense be better than a season ago, where they ranked No. 332 in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency? It’ll be hard for them to do any worse. But the real problem will be their inability to replicate Thomas’ production.
8. Maine
Maine won just six games last year due to having one of the country’s 10 worst offenses and was one of the five worst three-point shooting teams in the nation. Those numbers don’t figure to get much better with leading scorer and best shooter Aaron Calixte out of eligibility.
The Black Bears do return 10 players that saw significant minutes last season, meaning that they will be one of the deepest teams in the country again (they ranked 15th nationally in bench minutes in 2017-18). Finding a go-to player will be this team’s biggest task, as it should make them a better offensive team, but I simply think they won’t be able to score enough to escape the bottom two or three teams in the conference.
7. Binghamton
Guard J.C. Show, in the video above, finished 12th in the conference in scoring last year and showed flashes of brilliance with six 20-point games and 14 in which he had at last 15 points. He’ll be the key to bringing Binghamton out of the America East basement.
Binghamton returns seven of the nine players from last year’s rotation, and that experience – with Show’s scoring abilities – should allow them to make a small move up the conference standings. However, they need to improve defensively in a big way, as they ranked 332rd in the country in three-point defense, 251st in steal percentage, and 262nd in adjusted defensive efficiency.