CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- The final full week of 2008 brought lots of tournament play and some big games for a few players, but Vermont's May Kotsopoulos (Waterloo, Ontario/Waterloo Collegiate) came away with the America East Player of the Week recognition and UMBC's Erin Brown (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman) earned the Rookie of the Week award.
Junior guard Kotsopoulos scored a game-high 25 points on 10-of-14 shooting in the first game of the State Farm Classic at #18/20 Florida in Gainesville Monday night. Entering the game shooting 37% from the field on the season, she had her best shooting night of the year with 71.4% efficiency. Kotsopoulos also added a 5-for-6 effort from the charity stripe, two assists, and a steal, while playing all 40 minutes of a tough and close game against the Catamounts' second straight ranked opponent in the Gators. Vermont did go on to drop the game, 85-76, but did lead late in the first half and came within five points in the last two minutes of the contest. This is Kotsopoulos' second player of the week award of the season and her career, while this also marks the third week a Catamount has earned the honor this season.
Over the past week in two games at the Marriott Cavalier Classic hosted by the University of Virginia, rookie forward Brown tied for the team lead with 14.0 ppg and 5.0 rpg while shooting a team-best 52.2% (12-for-23) from the floor. She scored 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including 2-for-4 from long distance, while adding four rebounds and two steals against Louisiana Tech. Brown scored 11 of the Retrievers' first 22 points in the game. Brown then tallied 13 points to go along with six rebounds, a block and two assists in the win over Rider. She is now ranked second in America East with a field-goal percentage of 47.3% on the season.
Honor Roll
New Hampshire junior forward Candace Williams (Norfolk, Mass./St. Raphael's) has now recorded four straight double-doubles with two more at the Louisville Tournament last week. In the tournament so far, Williams has averaged 15.5 ppg and 14.5 rpg... Sophomore forward Meghan Colabella (Montclair, N.J./Montclair) led UMBC to a consolation game win over Rider Monday with a season-high 15 points and a career-high 20 rebounds. In two games last week, she averaged 12.5 points, 14.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 2.0 blocks and 2.5 steals... Sophomore guard Kirsten Jeter (Elmont, N.Y./Elmont) had quite a tournament out on the west coast, leading Stony Brook to a 1-1 record at the LMU Holiday Tournament. Jeter recorded 14.0 points, 6.5 rebounds 2 assists and 2 steals per game.... University at Albany junior Britney McGee (Bakersfield, Calif./West) is transitioning from a point guard to a wing in fine fashion, averaging 17 points and 4 rebounds at the Battle at the Border Tournament last week. She shot .462 from the field and .529 from beyond the arc in two games... University of Maine's Brittany Boser (Palmer, Mass./Palmer) has moved into a starting role after coming off the bench to begin the season, and she has continued to prove herself on the court. In two games at Philadelphia last week, Boser averaged 13.5 points and 5.5 rebounds, leading the Black Bears in the scoring column in both contests.
The Report Is In
Collegiate Basketball News put out its weekly Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) report yesterday, an unofficial look at what the NCAA Selection Committee looks at throughout the season and at the end of the regular season to pick out tournment participants. America East is moved up from 22 to 21 out of 32 conferences despite going 0-5 leading up to the weekly report. Six teams jumped up spots and only two squads dropped. Hartford (61), Vermont (102), Boston U. (150), Binghamton (199) all improved upon last week's ranking without having even played a game, while New Hampshire was the biggest mover among America East teams, moving up by eight spots to 312. Helping the league's RPI is opponent's winning percentage. Seven of the nine team's opponent winning percentage is over the .500 mark. With non-conference season coming to a close, though, conference RPIs are expected to settle where they are now.
Winding Down...
The first part of the regular season will soon be over with just 13 non-league games remaining, eight of them coming after the turn of the calendar year. America East is 34-69 (.330) so far, while last year the league was 42-60 (.411) with the same amount of non-conference games left to play. However, the league's current RPI of 21 is still the same as it finished last season.
...And Gearing Up
The first conference game is scheduled for Tuesday, January 6 with Maine at New Hampshire with tip-off at 7 p.m. The rest of the league gets underway the next night with Hartford, Stony Brook, and Vermont getting the home games. The Hawks are the defending regular season champs after going 14-2 in America East play last season.
Tournament Frenzy
Six teams participated in holiday tournaments beginning Sunday and two teams will finish up their respective tournaments today. New Hampshire has gone 0-2 so far at the Louisville Tournament and plays the No. 10/13 host Cardinals tonight at 7 p.m. on the final day of the tournament. Vermont fell to No. 18/20 host Florida last night and will play Towson in the consolation game of the State Farm Classic. Fifteeen regular-season tournaments highlighted the 2008-09 non-conference season. UMBC took home the only tournament title this season with a 2-0 mark at the Iona Thanksgiving Classic.
Just Can't Get Away From Us
When the Catamounts play Towson tonight at 5 p.m., it will be the third straight day an America East team has played a former league foe. Stony Brook played Delaware in Los Angeles on Sunday, Maine faced Drexel Monday in Philadelphia and Vermont takes on the Tigers today. All three schools are now members of the Colonial Athletic Association.
Rookie Ramblings
UMBC has controlled the rookie of the week award this season, earning six of the seven honors, including the last six. Going back to last year, the Retrievers have actually won eight of the past nine rookie awards. Katie Brooks won weeks two and three, Michelle Kurowski earned recognition three weeks in a row, and Erin Brown retained UMBC's possession in week 7. Meghan Colabella won the America East Rookie of the Week the final two weeks of the 2007-08 season. The last time one team has dominated the rookie category was the 2006-07 Vermont team. Catamounts Courtnay Pilypaitis, May Kotsopoulos and Sofia Iwobi took home nine of 10 rookie awards spanning November 19, 2006-January 22, 2007.
Home Court Advantage
America East has two teams with long home court win streaks ranked among the top in Division I by the NCAA. Hartford's 29 game streak is tops in the nation, just ahead of North Carolina who extended its streak to 28 last night. The Hawks' next chance to extend the streak to 30 is January 7 versus conference foe Binghamton. Boston University has also strung along a nice little run of their own, with 16 straight victories at Case Gym and 13 straight at home. The only home loss for the Terriers within that stretch was an early season stumble last year to ranked Ohio State at Agganis Arena where Boston U. plays select home games. The 13 straight home victories ranks eighth in Division I, while the Terriers' next chance to improve upon that is later today vs. St. John's.
On the Glass
As of late, New Hampshire junior forward Candace Williams and UMBC sophomore forward Meghan Colabella have been trying to one-up each other on the glass. Williams set a new career high on December 14 with 15 rebounds in a win against Northeastern. Colabella took it one step further exactly a week later posting up for 16 rebounds. While Williams matched that with 16 rebounds Monday against Morehead State, Colabella went to another level with a career-high 20 rebounds, a new conference season-high, against Rider on Monday. All four performances were part of double-doubles. The last 20-rebound performance in America East was by Boston University's Jesyka Burks-Wiley against Stony Brook at the America East Championship on March 11, 2006.
Handouts
Boston University senior guard Christine Kinneary (Plainedge, N.Y./Holy Trinity) registered the second-most assists in a season last year with 214, and is getting closer to another America East record. Kinneary is currently third all-time in career assists at Boston University and is 34 assists shy of breaking into the top-five in America East history. Former Terrier Andrea Higgins tallied 465 assists between 1989-93 for fifth all-time.
Closing In
While Pilypaitis managed to get it out of the way early, several other America East players are eyeing the 1,000 point mark. Below is a list of players who may reach that mark by the end of this season, their total points and their 2008-09 points per game average as of today.
Player, School Points PPG
Carlee Cassidy, Jr., UMBC 914 23.0
May Kotsopoulos, Jr., UVM 900 15.5
Amy Rosenkrantz, Sr., UVM 895 9.8
Jesyka Burks-Wiley, Sr., BU 891 16.0
Erica Beverly, Jr., UH 772 9.5
Marylynne Schaefer, Sr., UH 760 7.3