By Dan McLoone, columnist
Both the Northeastern University men’s hockey and basketball teams came into the season with high expectations that they didn’t quite live up to in the regular season. The basketball team was picked to win the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) in what was supposed to be a year without strong competition for the conference. The hockey team was ranked 16th in the nation before the season and was picked to finish fourth in the Hockey East preseason poll.
Fast forward to March and both teams find themselves in different positions.
After winning some big, non-conference games against Florida State University and University of Richmond, the basketball team struggled to find a rhythm near the end of CAA play and ended up finishing 20-11 overall and 12-6 in conference. That record was good enough to earn the Huskies a four-way share of the regular season CAA title, but was not the record many expected of Head Coach Bill Coen’s squad.
Returning all five of their starters from last season, commentators expected the Huskies to go 16-2 or 15-3. Instead, they lost a few games that they should have won, blowing leads to Drexel University and University of North Carolina – Wilmington (UNCW), and even dropping a game to conference bottom-feeder Elon University.
The hockey team stumbled out of the gate to a program-worst 0-8-1 start. It picked up its game afterwards, ending the season with a final record of 16-14-4, including 11-9-2 in Hockey East play. That was good enough to earn it the sixth seed in the Hockey East playoffs and a home playoff series against Merrimack College this weekend.
But, none of that matters now.
Their respective postseason tournaments are the only thing both teams care about. Neither the basketball nor the hockey teams will get an at-large bid into their sport’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Tournament. The only hope to get there is to earn the conference’s automatic bid by winning their respective conferences.
Coen’s team heads to Baltimore as the No. 3 seed in the CAA tournament to take on the University of Delaware. If No. 1 William & Mary and No. 2 UNCW win its games, the Huskies will have to beat Delaware, UNCW and the College of William & Mary. In the regular season, Northeastern went 2-4 against those teams, including being swept by UNCW in both matchups. The Huskies haven’t won three games in a row since early January.
However, that doesn’t mean NU isn’t capable of winning the CAA tournament. Junior guard David Walker has had a great year – boosting his scoring down the stretch. Redshirt senior forward Scott Eatherton is one of the best two-way low post players in the conference if he can stay out of foul trouble. Redshirt junior forward Quincy Ford has shown that he can still be a dynamic scorer, despite sitting out last season with an injury.
With a full, healthy team, the Huskies have the depth, talent and athleticism to run through the tournament. The only question is if they can string together three games of consistent team play.
Head Coach Jim Madigan and the hockey team will need to win more than just three games, however, if they are going to be strong contenders in the tournament. As the Hockey East sixth seed, the Huskies will host a best-of-three opening round against Merrimack this weekend at Matthews Arena. Winning the series would set them up in another best-of-three quarterfinal matchup against either Boston College or the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The winners then go to the TD Garden for a single-game semifinal and Hockey East Championship.
NU will enter the Hockey East tournament after a strong February, one where junior forward Kevin Roy scored more points than anyone in the nation. Senior goalie Clay Witt is strong in net, and Madigan’s early-season tinkering with his offensive lines has resulted in great team chemistry.
Both teams struggled to live up to the hype around them in the preseason, but, now, none of that is important. The only thing that means anything now is winning a conference championship.
-Dan McLoone can be reached at [email protected].
