11/25 America East Game Thread

How was everyone's Thanksgiving? Hope no one is too hungover from their Turkey Day festivities because the America East has some good match-ups today. Let's take a look....

Stony Brook @ Northwestern - 1:00 PM

Boston U. @ Cleveland State - 2:30 PM (neutral location; Kingston, RI)

Navy @ Albany - 4:00 PM

A quick breakdown of today's action after the jump!

The Seawolves take on undefeated Northwestern, a team who just ran off three neutral court victories in the Charleston Classic to earn themselves the distinction of tournament champs. The Wildcats are led by a pair of 20+ point per game scorers in 6'9" senior John Shurna (21.5) and junior swingman Drew Crawford (20.8). The Seawolves will need to keep it low scoring to have a chance in this one as they likely don't have the offensive firepower to hang with a Northwestern team capable of putting points on the board (80+ on both LSU and Seton Hall).

The Boston University Terriers are in Rhode Island taking part in the Ticketcity Legends Classic and open their tournament up with a game against the undefeated Cleveland State Vikings. The Vikings, despite losing Norris Cole to graduation, opened their season in grand fashion with a big win over #7 Vanderbilt and have beaten solid mid-majors such as Kent State and St. Bonaventure since. They're led in scoring by senior D'Aundray Brown (16.3), however, four other players average between 7 and 11 points per game for the Vikings, so BU mustn't get too focused on any one player. Cleveland State hasn't allowed more than 64 points in any game this year, including 58 or less in three of the four. Boston U. could be in trouble if they can't breakthrough against the Vikings D. Darryl Partin will need to continue his scoring ways (22.7 per game), but it'll require the help of sophomores D.J. Irving and Dom Morris if the Terriers have plans of pulling off the upset (and yes, they are the definite underdog).

The "late" game pits the Navy Midshipmen against the Albany Great Danes. The host Danes are coming off a 20-point loss to George Mason, but look for them to amped up for their first home game of the season. Navy has dropped three straight against Siena, Quinnipiac and Tulane after opening the year with wins over Longwood and Division III Penn State-Altoona. The Midshipmen are led by J.J. Avila in scoring, rebounding and assists. The sophomore is averaging 12.2 points on 57% shooting. However, the real question is, who on Navy will stop Gerardo Suero? The junior has cooled off a bit since dropping 31 on #5 Syracuse, averaging just 13 per game against Monmouth and GMU.

Hopefully the conference can avoid a "Black Friday" of their own and not go 0-3. I have faith in Albany picking up the win, but the other two could be close as well. After all, SBU and BU are supposed to be upper echelon America East teams (which is akin to be the skinniest member of the Klump family). Perhaps they can show the conference has just been a bit unlucky and the Seawolves and Terriers can each pick up a quality win.

How do you think the league will fare in today's action? Vote in the poll and talk about why in the comment section below!