Quinnipiac left the NEC for greener pastures, but left behind a chance at a championship.
Quinnipiac switched from the Northeast Conference to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in the 2013-14 season, but many surrounding the men’s basketball team were left wondering: what if?
What if the Bobcats stayed in the NEC for that season? What if the quartet of Ike Azotam, Ousmane Drame, Zaid Hearst and Umar Shannon had the chance to play against teams like Mount St. Mary’s instead of MAAC strongholds Manhattan and Iona? Would Tom Moore have won a championship?
An article by Nick Solari in the Quinnipiac Chronicle detailed just this. Solari spoke with ESPN’s Recruiting Nation scout Adam Finkelstein, who said that Quinnipiac would’ve been the favorite to win the championship had they stayed in the NEC.
In Quinnipiac’s first season in the MAAC, the team averaged a whopping 113.6 points per 100 possessions in conference play. While that offensive output was the third best in the MAAC behind Iona and Canisius, it would’ve been the most efficient in the NEC—and it’s not even close.
Only two teams in the NEC finished with an offensive efficiency above 110.0 in 2013-14, and when considering Quinnipiac’s strength of schedule, the Bobcats’ offense would’ve been even better had it not left for the MAAC.
Had Quinnipiac stayed in the NEC, the team would’ve featured three players in the top 10 for Player Efficiency Rating (Azotam, Drame, Hearst). No other team would’ve had more than one. Meanwhile, Quinnipiac was the only team in all of DI basketball to have two players, Azotam and Drame, average a double-double.
Defensively, the Bobcats would’ve been among the bottom four teams in the league, holding opponents to 110.3 points per 100 possessions. However, Quinnipiac’s defensive numbers would look better when considering strength of schedule metrics. The Bobcats played a tougher schedule than every team in the NEC, including the regular season champion, Robert Morris, and the tournament champion, Mount St. Mary’s.
Quinnipiac managed to win 20 games in 2013-14 despite the move to a more challenging conference. It’s tough to predict exactly how many games the Bobcats would’ve won had they stayed in the NEC, but based on the team’s efficiencies, it’s easy to see the team had the potential to dominate.
While Quinnipiac hasn’t won any hardware in the Tom Moore era, the team could have competed for back-to-back championships in the NEC from 2013-15, guaranteeing two NCAA Tournament appearances. Even with the more challenging schedule in the MAAC, Quinnipiac still salvaged the No. 3 seed in the playoffs in 2013-14.
That year, Quinnipiac posted its lowest turnover percentage, best offensive rebounding percentage and best free-throw rate under Moore while also posting a top-three finish in three-point percentage and free-throw percentage. The next season, Quinnipiac finished with the team’s best defensive marks, efficient field goal percentage, free-throw rate and two-point field goal percentage with Moore at the helm.
Unfortunately, the team’s best chances of winning a title came in the same year as conference realignment and until the team finally does win a championship, fans can only recollect and ask, what if?
