The 2019–20 Northeast Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2019, followed by the start of the

2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 5, 2019. The first tournament was the 2K Sports Classic and the season concluded prematurely on March 12, 2020. The 2020 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament was sch ...

in November. Conference play started in January and ended in February 2020. The NEC tournament was held in March with the higher-seeded team hosting each game. The quarterfinals were played on March 4, the semifinals on March 7, and the championship game on March 10.

Changes from last season

Merrimack College Merrimack College is a Private university, private Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian university in North Andover, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1947 by the Order of St. Augustine with an initial goal to educate World War II veterans. It en ...

joined the Northeast Conference from Division II

Northeast-10 Conference The Northeast-10 Conference (NE-10) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states o ...

. They are not eligible this year for the NEC tournament. On October 3, 2018

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university in Brooklyn and Brookville, New York, United States. The university enrolls over 16,000 students and offers over 500 academic programs at its main campuses, LIU Brooklyn and LIU Post on Long I ...

announced that it would combine its two existing athletic programs—NEC member

LIU Brooklyn LIU Brooklyn is a private university in Brooklyn, New York. It is the original unit and first of two main campuses of the private Long Island University system. Campus LIU Brooklyn is located at the intersection of Flatbush and DeKalb Aven ...

and the Division II program at

LIU Post LIU Post, formally the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University and often referred to as C.W. Post, is a private university in Brookville, New York, on Long Island. It is part of Long Island University (LIU), and the largest school in the ...

—into a single Division I program under the LIU name. The new LIU program, nicknamed

Sharks Sharks are a group of elasmobranch cartilaginous fish characterized by a ribless endoskeleton, dermal denticles, five to seven gill slits on each side, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the ...

, maintained LIU Brooklyn's existing memberships in Division I and the NEC.

Head coaches

''Notes:'' * All records, appearances, titles, etc. are from time with current school only. * Year at school includes 2019–20 season. * Overall and NEC/NCAA records are from time at current school and are before the beginning of the 2019–20 season. Because the current LIU athletic program inherited the athletic history of LIU Brooklyn, Kellogg's record includes his two seasons at LIU Brooklyn before the LIU athletic merger. * Previous jobs are head coaching jobs unless otherwise noted.

Preseason

Preseason coaches poll

Source ''() first place votes''

Preseason All-NEC team

Source

NEC regular season

Player of the week

Throughout the regular season, the Northeast Conference offices named player(s) of the week and rookie(s) of the week.

Against other conferences

Conference newcomer Merrimack produced the biggest upset of the season for an NEC team when they defeated the

Northwestern Wildcats The Northwestern Wildcats are the athletic teams that represent Northwestern University, located in Evanston, Illinois. Northwestern is a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and one of two private universities in the conference, the other ...

, 71–61. For Merrimack, it was just their second Division I game since moving up from Division II this past season. It was the lone victory for an NEC team against a Power Five conference team; NEC teams produced a 1–15 overall record against that group of schools.

Conference matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play.

All-NEC honors and awards

At the conclusion of the regular season, the conference selects outstanding performers based on a poll of league coaches, below are the results.

Postseason

NEC tournament

The NEC tournament features the top eight eligible teams from the field of eleven participate. The teams are seeded according to their conference records, and when there are similar records between teams, tie-breakers are applied. After the first round, teams are reseeded after each round, with highest remaining seeds receiving home court advantage. Regular-season champion Merrimack was ineligible under NEC rules as a transitional D-I school. #1 Seed Robert Morris won the NEC tournament for a NEC record 9th time.

NCAA tournament

References

External links

NEC website
{{DEFAULTSORT:2019-20 Northeast Conference men's basketball season