The Best NEC Basketball Teams

Of all the NEC basketball teams, the most noteworthy is LIU-Brooklyn, but probably not for a reason the LIU-Brooklyn Blackbirds would like you to remember. LIU-Brooklyn was among the handful of teams implicated in the 1950-51 point-shaving scandal that rocked college basketball (you might remember it from a prominent mention on The Sopranos). After that, the school shuttered its athletic program briefly and the Blackbirds only returned to Division I basketball in the 1980s.

Beyond that, the Northeast Conference has rarely been on the national stage and lacks the star power a major NBA prospect might bring. The most noteworthy basketball prospects to play for any of the best NEC basketball teams were Kevin Porter and Frank Carter, two players who only lasted a few seasons in the NBA as bench players.

In the plus column for LIU-Brooklyn, the Blackbirds are the only team in the NEC to win the conference tournament three years in a row (2011-2013). Is that enough to make them the best, despite a controversial history? Or does another team deserve to top the list of the NEC basketball programs.