I'm going to take possibly the "traitor's" view and say that I don't
think any team in HE other than BU is currently a national
championship contender.  Of the 5 HE teams that have been ranked highly
this season, 4 - Maine, UNH, NU, and Mass Lowell - have not been playing
well since the holidays, as compared to their great starts.  This may be
due to the number of freshmen in the league this season; BU is the most
experienced team in the league.
 
I believe that at the most, I would probably put two HE teams in the
top 10 - and I really don't know who that second one would be at this
point.  I arrived at two because I see at least 8, maybe 9 other teams
in the nation that I think are better than the 3rd best team in HE.
 
I don't think Steve has to worry about HE getting national recognition.
:-)  When you become the first conference to send four teams to the
tournament, as HE did a few years ago, and also have placed more teams
in the final four over the last five years than any other conference,
then people know whether you're any good or not.
---                                                                 ---
Mike Machnik                                          [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                  *HMM* 11/13/93
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