The AMEC Title Goes Through Boston for the Next Three Years
There might not be another player in the country who is as much head and shoulders above the rest of his league as far as pure talent than Northeastern’s wonderful Sophomore wing Reggie Lewis! And as far as that goes the Huskies are prohibitive favorites to repeat as AMEC champs. Former and still Husky Coach Jim Calhoun left his old team in Boston one huge easter egg before he left for Storrs when he recruited this stud kid from Dunbar in Baltimore. Lewis played on a remarkable team in high school with three of his teammates already making impact on major college programs at Wake Forest and Georgetown. Don’t get me wrong there is some talent in this league but no team has as much as the boys from Beantown and with Lewis around (he could easily play and be a star for Calhoun in his new digs) the Huskies could get some national recognition. There most definitely will be some media members (and a bunch of fans) to watch game 3 as Lewis takes on the new legend of basketball when Larry Bird comes to town. That will be one for the ages as these two sweet shooting players go head to head. As a matter of fact, this might be the best matchup of two guys that are not in major programs in the country. Calhoun left the cupboard stocked around Lewis with great supporting players from one of the best sophomore classes in the country as Mark Halsel, Andre Lafluer, Pete Harris and game winning shot maker Perry Moss round out a potentially pretty solid starting five.
American East Conference Pre-Season Ranking:
| Ist Team | Pos | Year | Team |
| Reggie Lewis | F | So | Northestern |
| Rich Laurel | F-G | Jr | Hofstra |
| Rufus Harris | G-F | Jr | Maine |
| Jim Hayes | G-F | Sr | Boston |
| Bill Thieben | F-C | Sr | Hofstra |
| 2nd Team | |||
| Steve Nisenson | G | Sr | Boston |
| Garry Palladino | G | Sr | Hartford |
| Nate Cloud | C-F | Sr | Delaware |
| Bob Stephens | C | Jr | Drexel |
| Pat McKinley | C | Jr | Towson |
| 3rd Team | 0 | ||
| Ken Luck | F-G | So | Delaware |
| Dave Pemberton | F | Jr | New Hampshire |
| Warren Prehmus | G | Jr | Vermont |
| Peter Egan | F | Jr | Hartford |
| Bob Warner | C-F | Jr | Maine |
The only program that realistically has a chance of challenging the Huskies are the Hofstra Flying Dutchmen. Coach Butch van Breda Kolff fits right into the teams’ moniker and this team brings back some gifted upperclassmen to hopefully make a splash in their fairly new surroundings. Senior Bill Thieben and Juniors Rich Laurel are scoring studs and Junior John (Hotel New Hampshire) Irving is a beast on the boards but vBK’s team will need a little more help from their incoming freshman to have a realistic shot at taking down the Huskies.
Fellow Bostonians BU (not BC) are solid as well and could challenge but have no one near the overall talent of Lewis. Young Coach Rick Pitino did not stay long but he recruited a solid group for new coach Dennis Wolff to guide through the tougher than you think AMEC. Senior perimeter players Jim Hayes and Steve Nisenson are a fine combo and will lead the team. Hayes is a scorer and Nisenson is a combo guard who both made preseason all-league teams but needs help inside. Pitino’s one class of now sophomores can play and is deep including post Gary (I am not a middle LB) Plummer and Drederick Irving but they need their freshman to play well. There is some talent coming in for the Terriers.
Maine can go either way as they have a solid nucleus of upperclassmen including arguably the closest thing to Lewis in the league in Junior Rufus (Tell me something good) Harris. The front line is solid with Bob Warner and Jeff Cross but Coach John Giannini needs better guard play for the Black Bears to get to the next level.
Drexel is picked fifth and that fits strangely right into this team’s psyche. The Philadelphia boys are used to being overshadowed by the Big 5 but they could surprise with potential superstar Sophomore Michael Anderson running the show at point and John Rankin and Bob Stephens up front but like the rest of the pretenders they need to find a Chryssie Hynde to sing lead even though she sucks!
The rest of the league has some issues and it would take a miracle for any of the other five teams to compete with the Huskies for top dog status in the AMEC. In order, Delaware, New Hampshire, Towson (not state anymore), Vermont and Hartford will compete to stay out of the basement not only in the AMEC but perhaps in the entire country. These teams are bad but there are some dang good players on these teams, just not enough of them. Most of these programs have never made a trip to the Big Dance and have toiled in either the obscurity of New England basketball or lower levels of college basketball (D-2 mainly). Towson is a good example of this as they were a dominant D-2 program a few years back and are now adjusting to D-1 play. Most of the time this means starting fresh but they do have some solid carryover talent such as juniors Pat McKinley (a tenacious inside player on both ends who if he was bigger than 6’7 would be playing in the Colonial or maybe even the ACC) and Brian Matthew (a ridiculous athlete who does belong in the ACC).
New Hampshire has junior post Dave Pemberton and a nice set of guards (led by sophomore stud Al ‘Die Hard’ McClain) to hang their hat on but nowhere near enough size in the paint. Delaware has the same issue inside with some of their upper-class post players coming up against it (former league MVP Nate Cloud kind of fell off his..well, you get it…but the senior stud has one more year to redeem himself) but they do have the makings of a great perimeter with three sophomores, two athletics wings and a mighty mouse point guard who can pickpocket and pass all day. Some of these teams rely on recruits in other sports to fill up their roster and they get kids who are good athletes who want to keep trying both and haven’t specialized yet.
Hartford, thank your lucky stars Hawk fans, has several of those including potential triple AAA type talents Garry Palladinoe and Ken Gwozdz also starting for the hoopsters. Heck, they might have a better baseball team than basketball team on their basketball team. Vermont has toiled in the cellar for far too long and would have been picked last but new Coach Tom Brennan had a good first recruiting class and has pledged this next one is the best this league has ever seen. Like every program there is always hope that the next recruiting class will be filled with studs that fit your system and who will gel quick enough to move your program up the ladder quickly. At least here you do not have to worry about guys leaving early and a coach can build his system though in all reality for the next three years the AMEC title goes through Boston!