New for the 2011-2012 seasons, America East Daily Word, a collaboration between AmericaEast.com and AExtra, will recap the previous day's games and on goings on our nine campuses and provide links to previews, recaps, features and exclusive coverage.

Holy basketball Batman!

Well said, Robin - holy basketball, indeed. Seventeen America East basketball squads kicked-off the 2011-2012 campaign this weekend. Opening weekend had everything we could have hoped for – drama, overtime, cross-town rivalries, double-doubles, career highs and some successful coaching debuts.

If only the conference could have pulled out a few more wins, it would have been a perfect start to the season. But, hey, it’s week one and we weren’t necessarily playing against cupcakes to start the year.

Arguably the most successful squad this weekend was the Hartford women. Preseason WNIT matchups in West Hartford provided the Hawks with some tests right away. And they got two wins to advance to the WNIT semifinals. That’s pretty solid on the early-season report card. A win on Friday against Manhattan pushed Hartford into the quarters against LIU. One 54-45 win later and the Hawks have a semifinal bout with Notre Dame in South Bend on Thursday.

Hartford and the rest of the women’s squads went a combined 11-3. The Hawks, Albany and UMBC are all 2-0 on the young season.

The men’s squads didn’t find a whole lot of success on the scoreboards this weekend but there is still plenty to be excited about. Stony Brook and Albany fought tough against Indiana and Pittsburgh on opening night while Boston U. hung with Texas before the Longhorns pulled away in the second half. New Hampshire and the Seawolves were the only teams to pick up wins this weekend. The Wildcats defeated Suffolk on Friday night while the Seawolves blew out Mt. Ida on Sunday afternoon.

We’ve got four men’s games on tap tonight. New Hampshire heads to Boston College for a date with the Eagles, Albany takes on Brown at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y., Binghamton is at Cornell and Maine hosts Maine-Machias in the Black Bears’ season opener.

For more of the Daily Word, check out the AExtra blog.