BHJ’s 2nd Annual List of Fun (but probably unlikely) opponents for the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds: ’13-14 Edition
We are nearly a month into into the college basketball offseason and unlike like last year for LIU Brooklyn, it has been a lot more drama free. By this time last year, LIU had a couple of players decide to transfer and had to deal with a head coaching change from Jim Ferry to Jack Perri. For the defending three-time Northeast Conference men’s basketball champions, other than recently landing two new commits for the upcoming year in guards Iverson Fleming and Joel Hernandez, getting word of Julian Boyd getting his sixth year of eligibility from the NCAA to play next season, and the recent name change of the Wellness, Recreation and Athletic Center to the Steinberg Wellness Center, it has been relatively smooth transition in preparation for the 2013-14 season.
As always during this time of the offseason, coaches are working on getting their non-conference schedule for the following season completed and finalized. This offseason present a bit more of a challenge for coaches in the NEC in terms of non-conference scheduling as coaches now have to schedule two more non-conference games as the NEC conference season is shorten from an 18-game schedule to a 16-game schedule for the upcoming season. Some NEC schools will probably have very little trouble getting two more non-conference games scheduled as they’ll likely an extra guarantee road game or two, get some guaranteed money for the university and the program in exchange for a blowout loss against a power conference school. For teams who finished at the bottom of the NEC last season, this is likely the route they will take but for good NEC teams going into next season like LIU, Robert Morris, Wagner, Mount St. Mary and Bryant, finding quality opponents will be a much more exhausting task. Read the rest of this entry
LIU Brooklyn renames WRAC to Steinberg Wellness Center
LIU Brooklyn announced last week that the on-campus home for LIU Brooklyn’s men’s and women’s basketball teams, the Wellness, Recreation and Athletic Center, also known as the WRAC for short, is going to be renamed to the Steinberg Wellness Center in a dedication ceremony on Wednesday afternoon, April 24th.
The renaming is in dedication to Dr. David J. Steinberg who is retiring as LIU’s president this coming June after 27 years in that position. Dr. Kimberly R. Cline is set to become LIU’s tenth president in July. Cline will become the university’s first female president in their history. Read the rest of this entry
Joel Hernandez joins LIU Brooklyn for 2013-14
It has been a good week for the LIU Brooklyn men’s basketball team. Earlier this week, head coach Jack Perri and his staff landed Iverson Fleming and today we learned that they have signed Joel Hernandez from Teaneck High School in New Jersey. Both Adam Zagoria and Alex Kline, two of the leading recruiting experts had the scoop on it Saturday morning on their Twitter feeds this morning. Read the rest of this entry
Iverson Fleming commits to LIU Brooklyn for 2013-14
It looks like LIU Brooklyn has added another player to the fold for the 2013-14 season. On Thursday evening, recruiting guru Alex Kline tweeted the following:
Former Hofstra commit Iverson Fleming, a 2013 guard, has committed to LIU, a source says.—
Alex Kline (@TheRecruitScoop) April 19, 2013
Iverson Fleming is a 6’1″ guard from North Brunswick High School in New Jersey. He originally committed to Hofstra over LIU back in December but de-committed after Hofstra head coach Mo Cassara was fired back on March 22nd. Read the rest of this entry
Jamal Olasewere at the 2013 Portsmouth Invitational Tournament
LIU Brooklyn’s Senior forward participates in the 2013 Portsmouth Invitational Tournament (Photo Credit: Bob Dea)
This past week, 2013 NEC Player of the Year Jamal Olasewere headed to Portsmouth, Virginia to play in the annual Portsmouth Invitational Tournament (PIT) which is a tournament of 64 invited senior players who play in teams of eight players and they play in three games in front of NBA and international scouts and executives.
Olasewere was on a team named Portsmouth Sports Club (every team is named after a tournament sponsor). Olasewere played in all three games. Here are his lines for all three games: Read the rest of this entry
Julian Boyd receives medical waiver, gets his sixth year of eligibility
LIU Brooklyn’s Julian Boyd will return for a sixth year. (Photo Credit: Bob Dea)
Great news for LIU Brooklyn fans! One important piece of the 2013-14 LIU Brooklyn puzzle was revealed today. LIU Brooklyn forward Julian Boyd was granted his medical waiver request by the NCAA for missing most of his fifth (senior) year of eligibility due to his torn ACL injury he sustained in December. Boyd will be able to return for a sixth year at LIU. Boyd was the 2012 NEC Player of the Year after he averaged 17.4 ppg and 9.3 rpg in his junior season in guiding LIU to their second straight NEC championship and NCAA tournament appearance.
Boyd tweeted the good news out on his twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/J_BOYD42/status/321667079814135808
Boyd was averaging 18.5 ppg and 6.1 rpg before he suffered his injury in a game at Rice back on December 12, 2012. It was widely expected that Boyd would be granted an extra year of eligibility since he had yet to play in thirty percent of LIU’s games since he got hurt in the team’s eighth game of the season (8/30 = 26.6%). If he play in one more game, he would have reach the NCAA thirty percentage threshold for a medical waiver. Read the rest of this entry
