All season long, defending Northeast Conference champion Central Connecticut State has had to compete with a young team that was prone to mistakes.

Now, the Blue Devils were set to enter the NEC tournament without one of those young players.

Shemik Thompson is out for the rest of the year with a concussion, CCSU coach Howie Dickenman said on the league's pre-tournament media conference call.

Thompson suffered the concussion and a facial fracture when he took an elbow from Quinnipiac's James Feldeine in the next-to-last game of the regular season, a game the Devils lost on a half-court shot by DeMario Anderson.

In another depth note, another freshman, David Simmons, came back from an injury and he, too, was lost for the rest of year with a concussion and stitches. "His comeback was short-lived," said Dickenman.

But the coach was offering no excuses. He had just seen Tristan Blackwood torch Sacred Heart for 32 points and his team score 100 in the regular-season finale. That set Central (14-15, 10-8) up as the No. 6 seed, and for a game right back in Fairfield against the Pioneers.

The two teams played for the conference title last year, with Central winning and advancing to the NCAA Tournament.

The Blue Devils were trying to become the first repeat NEC winner since 1993 and '94.

"We know about them, they know about us," Dickenman said of the sixth game against Sacred Heart in two seasons.

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