Introducing: Poll of the Week

You'll notice there is now a poll on the right side of the site. Every Wednesday I will add a new poll question. It will stay up for a week. Great fun, eh?

The inaugural question is about disabling anonymous commenting. I have LOVED the comments we've gotten in the past week, but it's kind of hard to keep the thread of the comment/arguments when everyone is anonymous. I'd like to develop a kind of AU basketball community here, and a bunch of anonymous commenters does not a community make.

Please take time to vote in the poll and expand upon your choice, if necessary, in the comments here.

Also, I'm not saying I want people's real names necessarily. Just some kind of handle that would distinguish you from other commenters.

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

The Fact That I'm Writing This Based Off of the Liveblog, the Recap, and the Box Score Could Make It GOOD, BAD, and/or UGLY

Gooooooooooooooood evening AU Eagles fans! I hope you're all well-rested and ready to go for another fun time here with the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY. This game certainly had elements of all three. I have to come clean, I was working my way through a plate of kung pao chicken with my dad and sister while the game was going on, but I tried to do my homework and get a picture of exactly what happened against the Florida Gators. I'd like a little help with this one (though admittedly, I've already had some). If you feel I missed something or got something wrong, please let me have it in the comments. Sometimes I need a little help from my friends, or at least anonymous blog community members who post insightful things that I don't think of but then agree with. Anyway: box score, recap, and off we go!

AU vs. Florida Gators LIVEBLOG!

Join us for another liveblog! Free as always! Pro Deo et Patria and GO EAGLES!

Does It Smell Like A Swamp In Here To You?

Happy Holidays Eagles fans! The hectic holiday season has certainly taken its toll here at the AU Hoops Blog, but we keep forging ahead as long as our team is playing. My personal apologies for being absent for our last outing against Penn State, as I suspect there were a number of loyal readers wondering what happened to the Penn State preview. Alas, it fell through the great crack of "having family in town", but fear not, for the Florida preview shall suffer no such undignified fate! Find out what happens next after the jump!

Happy Holidays from Assistant Coach Santa Cl...Err...Eddie Jackson

So this letter got sent out to some season ticket holders (I didn't receive it, but maybe it got lost in the interwebs). Anyway, from Eddie Jackson:

We Played the Penn State Nittany Lions, Some GOOD, BAD, and UGLY Things Occurred. Supply Your Own Pith

Goooooooood evening AU fans! Well, no surprises here my friends, the Penn State Nittany Lions (by the way, what in the name of all that makes Jeff Jones angry is a Nittany Lion?) handed our AU Eagles their 10th loss of the season. Well, I shouldn't say no surprises. I was a little surprised that we were only down by 6 at the half. Let me tell you what I wasn't surprised by. I wasn't in the least surprised by the 15-1 run that PSU started the second half with. I was going to save this for Thursday's Open Letter to Jeff Jones, but I feel it can't wait, so let me give you a little sneak peak.

"Dear Jeff Jones,

I'm not sure exactly what you do or say to our Eagles at halftime that makes them come out EVERY SINGLE GAME sluggish and awful at the beginning of the second half, but for the love of all that makes you angry and profane, please stop doing it. Make them sit on the bench for halftime or something. Anything to keep them focused on the game, which is apparently the antithesis of whatever is going on in the locker room at halftime.

Love and kisses,
Barechested Bender Bill"

Oh, and JJ? Here's your dose of the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY for the Penn State game.

No Liveblog for Penn State Tonight

Instead you can treat this as an Open Thread. Post your comments here.

You can buy the game for $2.99 at BigTenNetwork.com

Recap later.

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

As much GOOD as there was in the DePaul win, there's as much BAD and UGLY in the UMBC loss

Gooood evening AU fans. I'm not feeling very well (I didn't even make it to the game today), so this will be a pretty perfunctory edition of good, bad, and ugly. Sorry about that. In any event.

Blue Demon For Dinner, Retriever For Dessert

So I must confess - after we faced the University at Albany Great Danes in November, I felt like I had passed up a wonderful opportunity for a Michael Vick gag. What great relief it was when I remembered they were not the only team with a canine mascot we'd be facing this season. After a delay for the biggest snow storm DC has likely witnessed in a decade, we'll be facing down the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Retrievers today at 4:30 PM in Bender Arena. Get a whiff of the impending action after the jump.

AU vs. UMBC Game Rescheduled for Sunday at 4:30p

Via the UMBC Athletics website (again):

"

Today’s UMBC men’s basketball game at American University has been postponed due to heavy snow and hazardous travel conditions in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area. The game has been rescheduled for Sunday, Dec. 20 at 4:30 p.m"

See you all tomorrow!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

AU vs. UMBC Game POSTPONED

From the UMBC Athletics website:

"12/19/2009

Today’s UMBC men’s basketball game at American University has been postponed due to heavy snow and hazardous travel conditions in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area. No make-up date has been scheduled at this time."

So...you can show up to Bender Arena today for the game if you want to, but...I wouldn't if I were you.

Have fun playing in the snow and be safe out there, AU Eagles fans.

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

Other Commentary from the DePaul Game

Some thoughts from last night:

DePaul's coach may have some 'splainin' to do after last night : http://w3.nbebasketball.com/2009/12/17/big-east-news-notes-12172009/

Then from the Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/chi-17-depaul-basketball-dec17,0,3211536.story

And finally, from the liveblog last night, the announcer said:

"These are kids who didn't get recruited by anyone close to a DePaul, and here they are coming out here and playing for the name on their chest with a chip on their shoulder."

Beautiful. Way to go Eagles!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

When your team SHOCKS a Big East team (even a middling one) and your star transfer lives up to the hype, there's much GOOD, but not much BAD or UGLY

Goooooooooooood morning AU Eagles fans! What a marvelous day to be a fan, no? Sure, sure, you all want me to say that every day is a beautiful day to be an AU Eagles fan. Well, it's just not true. Some days are merely pretty, other days simply gorgeous. Today, my friends, is the latter. In case you couldn't tell from the previous post (which, if that's the case, reading comprehension primer, STAT), our AU Eagles beat the DePaul Blue Demons last night 62-57 in a game that included 17 lead changes and 8 tie scores. A back and forth battle, to be sure! Here's the coverage for the game, and then we'll get into the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY!

AUEagles recap, AU Eagles box score, WeAreDePaul.com's recap (please note the title!)

Marvelous. Alright, off we go for the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY!

THE GOOD, THE BETTER, AND THE BEST!

I've got to give you an abbreviated post tonight (look for the full one for tomorrow), but let me lay it out for you:

EAGLES BEAT DEPAUL 62-57! EAGLES WIN! EAGLES WIN! VLAD THE IMPALER SCORES 26 IN HIS DEBUT, HENDRA WITH A CAREER HIGH 17! EAGLES WINNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

PRO DEO ET PATRIA AND GO EAGLES!

AU Eagles vs. DePaul Blue Demons LIVEBLOG!

Join us in the Liveblog! Free, as always!

Scheduling Advisory

Quick note: Be Advised that the game tonight starts at 8:30PM, not 7:30PM as we previously had listed. We will have a liveblog at 8:30. See you then!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

How Does An Eagle Impale A Blue Demon?

Welcome to AU Hoops Blog - Vlad the Impaler edition! Today there is much to celebrate and we've got a lot to cover here on the blog, so old on to your seats, folks...it's gonna be a wild ride after the jump!

A Very Short PL Check-In

Soooo here we are again, Monday night, ready to get a fresh dose of PL Check-in. Not a lot of games played this past week, none for our beloved AU Eagles, so we'll get right down to it and see what our PL breth...blood enemies did in the past seven days.

Checking In

Hoping you're all doing well and enjoying your weekend. Sorry for the slow times here at the Hoops Blog. No games means little content to give you sadly. We will have the PL Check-in and Speculation Tuesday this week though, and of course DePaul on Wednesday. Stay tuned!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

Another Update on Josh Snodgrass's Transfer

Thanks to contributor Vidulicious comes this piece of news from The Gainesville Sun :

"Former P.K. Yonge basketball star Josh Snodgrass has departed American University. Twice the Sun's small-school player-of-the-year, Snodgrass dealt with a sprained ankle and the flu after joining the Eagles and and did not see action this season. Snodgrass committed to North Florida on Monday, according to P.K. Yonge coach Carlos Villalobos. Due to NCAA transfer rules, Snodgrass will have to sit out the rest of this season before becoming eligible to play for the Ospreys in the second semester of the 2010-11 season."

We had heard reports that he would be going to North Florida. This report obviously confirms them.

What I am particularly salty about, however, is the fact that we had to find out about Josh's ankle sprain and bout with the flu from a non-AU source. When I asked, "Is there anything that contributed to Josh's lack of playing time?" I essentially got a no comment about it. I guess they thought "Well, he had the flu and he was battling an ankle sprain" would've been too juicy a scoop for a fledgling blog like this one to handle or something. The mind-blowing complexity of it is something best left to WaPo, or at the very LEAST, DCist, I guess.

In any event, I'm willing to finally put this story to bed (although it was probably already there). I'll probably never get a straight comment about if there was anything chemistry/practice-wise that was keeping Josh from seeing minutes the way Munoz, Jolivette, and Bersch are. Maybe he really just wanted to transfer home and wasn't upset about not seeing the kind of minutes he will certainly see as soon as he's eligible at North Florida. And maybe not.

Either way I'll start reading hometown papers to get the dish on our AU Eagles players.

Unbelievable.

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

Speculation Tuesday - Vlad the Impaler Edition

Speculation Tuesday this week centers around Vlad "the Impaler" Moldoveanu. All season we've been hedging our bets saying that "this team will be a lot better when Vlad comes on." I don't disagree with that, in fact, if you look at the number of close games we've had, AU might be 4-5 or 5-4 if Vlad had been in the lineup from the beginning of the season. (Is it possible that we would've been better than 5-4 or worse than 4-5? Sure, is it realistic? I don't think so.)

So the speculation centers around what kind of player Vlad will be for us. With the purported level of inside-outside game that Vlad has, he could be the complement to Mike Bersch that our Eagles need on the perimeter. He also is probably a more natural swing man than Riley Grafft on the perimeter, which will leave Riley to play closer to the elbow where his jumper will be most effective.

My sincere hope is that Vlad will be this year's Brian Gilmore. Everyone should know by now the respect that is blog has/had for Gilmore as a player. An outside threat with the ability to pound the ball inside. Makes smart decisions, plays solid defense, and, perhaps most importantly, the vocal leader of the team. I don't see a leader on the court right now to be honest; Hendra comes close, but he's been in a funk for a lot of the season. I hope Vlad will step on the court and be the vocal leader to fire up the rest of the team. Will he be? We'll find out next week against DePaul.

What are all of your thoughts re: Vlad?

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

The Actual Patriot League Check-In

Well well well. It was quite a week for the Patriot League. And by quite a week, I mean quite a week of futility. Since last week's entry, Patriot League teams have gone 7-18. Woo. This caps off a season where Patriot League teams have gone 24-46 overall. Of the 24 wins, only 3 have come against teams that now have winning records (Army beat Harvard, who is 5-1, and Lehigh and Navy both beat Quinnipiac, who is now 4-3. That's pretty ugly. A lot of the teams that PL wins have come against are miserable too (teams that are 0 or 1 win for the season). Whoever makes it from the PL certainly will not have the backing of coming from a strong league, certainly the PL must be counted among the weakest at this point in the season.

As for how the specific teams did during this past week...

Army
6-2 overall, 2-1 last week
Won: @Fairleigh Dickinson (1-8) 61-40, Bryant (0-8) 64-58
Lost: @Buffalo (3-3) 67-74
Julian Simmons (14.6 ppg) and Cleveland Richard (13.0 ppg) continue to be a dynamic duo for the Black Knights who are playing absolute lockdown defense against their opponents. Army is the only team is the only team in the Patriot League with a record over .500

Lafayette
4-5, 0-3
Lost: @LaSalle (5-2) 79-67, @St. Peter's (3-4) 58-56, @Princeton (3-4) 62-48

Navy
4-5, 2-1
Won: Qunnipiac (4-3) 65-62, Penn (0-5) 73-67
Lost: Neutral court to GWU (6-1) 81-69
For the second straight week Chris Harris is the Patriot League Player of the Week. He leads the PL and is 20th in the nation with 21.4 PPG. Harris gets to the line constantly; he has 60 FTs already this season. Also very dangerous from 3. Harris right now has to be the PL Player of the Year frontrunner

Bucknell
4-6, 0-3
Lost: Cornell (7-2) 104-98 (OT), @Binghamton (3-6) 64-60, @Boston U. (3-6) 63-53
Despite having 5 players in double figures against Cornell, the Bison just couldn't pull it out. Sad bison.

Lehigh
3-5, 0-3
Lost: Stony Brook (6-2) 71-52, @Columbia (3-4) 75-70, @Dayton (5-2) 89-71
Zahir Carrington has had a very disappointing season so far. He is averaging a mere 6 ppg, 4 rpg, 22 mpg, and is only shooting 33% from the field. For someone who was on the pre-season all-PL team, these numbers are average at best.

Holy Cross
2-7, 2-1
Won: Marist (0-6) 68-56, @Brown (4-7) 85-79
Lost: UMass (4-5) 84-63

Colgate
0-8, 0-3
Lost: @Syracuse (8-0) 92-58, Maine (3-4) 76-66, @Rutgers (5-2) 76-67
Kyle Roemer, (17ppg) remains a big scoring threat and a sure all-PL team member...if he can stay healthy. So far in his career, he hasn't been.

Well that's your update there, stay tuned for your Speculation Tuesday entry coming up soon!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

Patriot League Check-In

So I know you were all waiting with bated breath for today's Patriot League check-in. Welllll, it'll have to wait until tomorrow. Sorry about that.

Here's a little piece of happy news: Vlad the Impaler starts the next game. Yep!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

When you lose by 27 to your city's powerhouse team but it's not quite as bad as you thought it would be, there's GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Gooooooood evening AU hoops fans! Well, our fateful road swing has begun, and it has begun just as we expected, with a loss, 73-46 to Georgetown at the Verizon Center. To read the recap, go here, and to find the box score, go here. Honestly, the game wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it would be. For the firat 8 mminutes or so we hung with the Hoyas pretty closely. We even had a lead! Don't believe me? Here's proof, in two forms!

First, from contributor Vidulicious (5-4):




And then from our own Josh (7-6):


If only the game had ended after the first seven minutes, we would've had the upset of the year! Alas, we had to play the remaining 33 minutes. It was filled with the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY. Stick with us and see what those elements were!

We Kept It Within 40!

We lost by 27, 73-46.

The recap will come later tonight (or tomorrow morning) but most likely later tonight. Plenty of GOOD, BAD, and UGLY to go around in this game.

See you a bit later!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

You Can't Have Slaughter Without Laughter

Here we begin the rough portion of our non-conference schedule, Eagles fans. The homestand is over, our record is...ugly, and our upcoming opponents are no longer fellow mid-major programs but members of the power conferences. What to do? Here, more than any other time in the season, I advocate the "moral victory." Not a single person in the world - not Jeff Jones, not the players, not even this writer - believe we are going to best the Georgetown Hoyas tomorrow afternoon. We have to take what we can get.

Update on Josh Snodgrass's Transfer

Since so many of you have asked about this, here's your update.

Nancy Yasharoff, Associate Athletics Director for Communications, said that Josh Snodgrass has contacted the basketball department and informed them of his intention to transfer. She said, "He intends to transfer to a school closer and we wish him all the best."

Athletics would not discuss Josh's lack of play time this season.

I'm certainly sorry to see Josh go; for someone who got such good reviews from Rivals as a recruit I wish we could have seen him in game at least once.

I'll keep my ears open for further details on the school he will be transferring to, how, if at all, AU will recruit to replace Josh, and the reasons that Jeff Jones had, if any, for not playing him.

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

With reporting like this, we'll be reading about how Garrison Mercer is going to the AU Hall of Fame for his QB skills

From today's Eagle comes some bad name flipflops. I don't like to rip on the Eagle. Wait. Stop. Rewind. I don't like that I am able to so easily rip on the Eagle; I wish that they would get things right.

Exhibit A:

Notice anything bad about the caption? See how that's Riley Grafft (starting 6'11" forward) going up for the layup? See how it's not Joe Hill (the 6'2" guard who you can actually see all the way on the left on the bench in the picture)? I mean, it's one thing if you maybe MAYBE confuse Lumpkins and Riley (because they're both tall, maybe? I don't know, I don't make that error because they don't look anything alike, and I actually pay attention). Unreal. As always though, great photography from the Eagle's Phillip Ochs (and I mean this in a very genuine, unsnarky way, he really does a great job with the game photos).

Exhibit B:

"The teams traded baskets and turnovers over the next five minutes and remained tied at 45-45 with five minutes to go. Nick McCormack was finally able to shake the nerves and produce the spark the Eagles needed to break the tie."

Simple error I guess. Maybe I'm too nitpicky. Still, Nick Hendra and Simon McCormack, get it right.

If the paper doesn't care to get the names of the players right, isn't that a reflection on their level of caring about reporting on the team at all? (ED. NOTE: It's been brought to my attention that I painted with too broad a brush here, some of the Eagle's reporting this season has been solid, see Tyler Tomea's piece in today's Eagle. I'll try to be more narrowly critical in the future, with apologies to those affected/insulted)

Per usual my suggestion is to stay here at AUHoops.com for your analysis and continue reading the recaps from AUEagles.com (which they actually do a pretty good job with).

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

EAGLES WIN! EAGLES WIN! Speculation Tuesday and GOOD, BAD, and UGLY All in One? WHY NOT!? WE WON!

Gooooooooooood evening AU Hoops fans! We won! We won! We got a win! We were victorious! Ah, savor it. Having something other than a zero in the win column. Marvelous. CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TEAM!

Ah, effusive joy and happiness concluded, it's time to get back to reality-ville. We won, but it was against an 0-7 team. And it was a very close game, 59-53. There is a lot to talk about in the good column tonight, but there's also some in the bad and ugly. We've also got a piece of news that will come at the end of this entry, and I'll do a very, very quick Speculation Tuesday at the end that will leave you with some questions to think about.

Alright here we goooooo with what should be a pretty long entry!

AU vs. Howard Preview

I'll make this short and sweet. Tonight will be a close game. Howard and AU are similarly matched (although Howard is much more experienced). They spread their minutes and their points around. If we can contain guard Calvin Thompson, their only player averaging double figures, we may have a good shot at pulling off our first win.

Keys to the game:
1. BALL SECURITY - 20+ turnovers again and we will lose this game

That's pretty much it actually. If we take care of the ball, I think we will win this game. It's what's been keeping us from wins so far this season.

See you tonight, 7:30p BENDER. BE THERE! BE BLUE! BE AU!

Full recap later, including what might be a very juicy Speculation Tuesday.

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

So everyone in the PL is having this kind of season, right? RIGHT!?

Goooooood afternoon AU basketball fans. And buenos tardes to Frank Borden if he's reading this from Mexico, who knows. So it strikes me that while many of you are digging graves for our (as-of-lately-not-so) mighty AU Eagles, you may not know about how the rest of our Patriot League friends and foes (but mostly foes) are faring in their out-of-conference schedules. Well, I figured I'd look that up and provide it in one nice, neat tidy package for you. This will catch you up on the games played to date, and every Monday I will update you on the past week's games. Get it? Got it? Good.

Off we go!

Two 0-7 Powerhouses Collide on Tuesday...WILL YOU BE THERE?

I just found out that Howard is also 0-7. Tuesday night will be a battle of futility. Please cross your fingers and pray to your respective deities that we pull out a win. After this the toughest part of our season commences.

Josh will have the preview sometime tomorrow, but I know you all get antsy when we don't post for a day. Or maybe I just think you get antsy.

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

When you lose to a team you flat-out should've beaten, I can search for GOOD but can find plenty of BAD and UGLY

Ugh. Good evening AUHoops.com fans! Thanks to all of you who came out and participated in our liveblog today. For those of you haven't heard. We lost. Again. For the seventh time in a row. Unlike the past couple of losses, this is a game we should've won, and, well, we didn't. Let me give a disclaimer here, I'm going to write up this Good, Bad, and Ugly based on the box score, the recaps I read, and the comments in the liveblog. If I don't get it entirely correct, I apologize in advance, but I think I'll probably do a pretty good job. (Good enough for government work, as they say). Here's the recap and box score.

Anyway, let's get on with it, painful as it may be.

AU vs. UMES Liveblog!

It's our second liveblog! Free and no account needed, so come join us!

These Hawks Could Be Doves

I hope everyone enjoyed a happy, restful Thanksgiving! For a day our collective thoughts turned from Eagles to Turkeys, and we reflected on the things in our lives we are grateful for. For example, Mike Bersch's hot 3-point shooting, time spent with family and friends, Riley Grafft's first career double-double (matching the number of double-doubles we had the entirety of last season), and possibly even the sport of football (coming from Connecticut, this writer often forgets there are sports other than college basketball).

Of course, our 0-6 record probably wasn't high on too many people's lists yesterday. The last time our record was this abysmal was...December 2005, when many of last season's star players were mere freshmen themselves. Derrick Mercer was already a consistent start (and eventually PL Rookie of the Year), but Garrison Carr was two seasons away from coming off the bench. Jordan Nichols and Brian Gilmore looked on as George Mason pounded us 75-35 in the BB&T Classic (in which I would argue the Eagles should still compete) to bring us to that fateful 0-6. Ah, maybe this season isn't quite so bad, then.

When you come back from a 14-1 deficit to make a game of it but still lose, you could say there's elements of GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Goooooood evening AUHoops.com followers, fans, and general hangers-on. Hope you all had a good night and a safe day of traveling for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Me? Oh, no, my traveling is not completed. Josh and I were both in Bender Arena tonight. Why? Because we're slaves to the blogosphere, that's why. I hope you appreciate the personal sacrifices we make for you. Meh, actually, it's okay if you don't, I'm going to go to the games and report on them anyway.

So, tonight. I predicted 84-70. Per usual, I showed that I am not good at things. The final score was Manhattan (Jaspers, what in the Great Wall of Lumpkins is a jasper? Is it like Casper the friendly ghost's mid-major basketball team cousin?) 69, AU 62. I was actually pretty pleased with our performance overall. What's that you say? You mean if I'm so pleased then why don't I shut up and just write a "Good" column instead of a "Good, Bad, and Ugly" column? Because this isn't rec soccer, there are winners and losers (even though tonight we're all losers, losers of six straight actually). You don't just get a trophy that says, "Good job." You get (maybe, if you're lucky) a designation as Good, Bad, or Ugly from a blogger with less skill in his whole body than Lumpkins has in his left knee.

So join me on this magical trip to Good, Bad, and Ugly land. It'll be an extra-long edition because I'm feeling generous! Yippee!

The Quick and Dirty Preview

Sorry if you've been checking in like crazy, this day just got away from us here at the Hoops Blog.

Here's the preview:

Manhattan just beat FAU who beat us pretty handily. This will be another one of those "If we can keep it to within 10 points and lose, it'll be a moral victory." Mm. High expectations. Prediction: Manhattan 84, AU 70.

I'll be livetweeting, and there will be a full recap later.

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

Let's Talk Turkey: SPECULATION TUESDAY

Get it? Talk turkey? Thanksgiving is coming up? Oh God I need some more material. In any event, here we are, everyone, 0-5. Fear, not, however! There is an end in sight to this losing streak. Without too much introductory nonsense (you don't really come here for that, do you?) Here are my items for Speculation Tuesday:

When you surpass 5,000 hits but the team you cover goes 0-5, it's GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Goooooood evening AU Hoops fans. We are 0-5. Zero wins, five losses. Boy oh boy. We knew it was going to be a rebuilding year, but I don't think anyone thought it would be quite like this. The recap to the game is here, and the box score is here. In any event, there is definitely some good, bad, and ugly tonight. It's hard to keep being creative to these introductions. It's also hard to keep losing, and I do feel bad for the team. Still, away we go

Deer Huntin' In DC

So today I took an especially long drink from the endless well of optimism we keep fresh on tap here at AU Basketball Central. Tonight in Bender we face the Fairfield University Stags of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), to whom we have ungracefully fallen the last two years. What chance then, you ask, do we have today? Yikes, I'm afraid to tell you. To be honest, folks, I'll likely be cheering us on to another moral victory tonight. Here's the quick and dirty of it.

FU (get the laughs out now):

• To repeat, Fairfield somehow pulled the rug out from under us for the past two seasons (where I might remind you we then went to put on a mighty good show in the NCAAs). If they can do that then, well, I bet they can do it now too. We're 2-1 all-time against them in Bender (4-1 in DC since we go way back with the Stags), and 8-6 overall. At least after tonight we'll still be ahead all-time.
• They've got the youth. Freshman Guard Derek Needham has already been named the MAAC Rookie of the Week, and he's averaging 16 points per game. He's backed up by Anthony Johnson, a 6-8 senior who's averaging a double-double with 11.7 points and 11.3 rebounds per game.
  
• They summarily handed Fordham and Central Connecticut State solid losses so far this season. Sure, they got handily wiped by UMD (remember '07!), but they're ranked #25 right now. We're not exactly top-25 at the moment, so let's not expect to do the same.
• Low Point: Fairfield has shot less than 30% from the floor for the past two games. Of course, they still one one of those and the other was against #25 Maryland. Of course, we are currently averaging the highest scoring defense in the Patriot League, so who knows...
  

The Mighty AU Eagles (Where There's A Fight They'll See It Through):

• Stephen Lumpkins has upped his career-high in points with every game this season. He scored 23 against Florida Atlantic, let's hope he can do it again. He's also averaging 9 rebounds per game, so if he can pull off a double-double tonight he's going to be averaging some really freaking solid numbers. Too bad Fairfield's already got a guy (his height, too) already doing that.
• Riley Grafft is also averaging somewhere between 9 and 12 points per game. I say this because the latest AU press release says 9 (and so does my math), but Fairfield's says 12. If that's what they want, let's give it to them, eh Riley?
• Danny Munoz has started every game so far, and is the only freshman to be doing so. To my knowledge the only two freshmen under the Jones Regime to ever start every game their freshman year were Andre Ingram and Derrick Mercer. You're in good company, Danny!
• We are scoring well off the bench (Bersch, Jolivette, and McCormack are all averaging 7-8 points apiece), and (let's just forget FAU ever happened) from the line as well. These were our two weakest points last year, so it's good to see some bright spots. We're also repeating last year's trick with our high scoring defense (just not the high scoring to go with it).
• Low Point: Uh, I'm going to have to go with passing here. If we can get into enough of a rhythm where the ball can successfully go between our players, and not straight into a turnover, well, I'd just have to pick something else as a low point. It was looking better every game until FAU. Let's just hope that was an aberration and it continues to improve.
• High Point: Had to sneak this one in here. One thing we are not afraid to do is get physical, and at least once a game someone (say, Blake Jolivette) is diving face-first into the hardwood after the ball, and most of the time coming up with it over someone almost twice their size. Always impressive. No one can say we're not scrappy.
• Starting Lineup - projected to be Lumpkins, Grafft, Luptak, Munoz, and...Hendra. Last time we had heard that Wilson was going be starting for at least one game over Hendra, but that didn't quite pan out. Our apologies for the mistake, but we think we've got it right this time. We never mind a surprise out of Coach Jones, though!
• Let's hope Coach is feeling a bit better this game. He had to step out a few times against FAU, but luckily Assistant Coach Donohue stepped in and looked like he ran the place. He's going to make a really great head coach someday somewhere (fingers crossed that place is AU for some time to come yet).

Alright, that's all I've got today. Let me know if I glossed over anything you find important, since I know we have some pretty damn smart readers out there who are sure to pick up on something I missed. I'll see you all in Bender tonight at 7:30! Let's go Stag Huntin'!

Go Eagles,
Josh

EDITOR'S NOTE: The gun in the image above is an airsoft gun, not a real gun, since we here at AU Basketball Central don't like that real-life violence stuff. Plus, guns are illegal in DC. Oh, and Eagles don't have opposable thumbs.

When you play 10 really good minutes and 30 minutes full of putrescence, there's some GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Well goooooooood afternoon AUHoops fans. If you were at the game today, I imagine you're probably trying to forget what you saw. But, like a deranged psychiatrist, I'm going to dredge up all those painful memories, make you confront them, and give you no closure about it! How do you like them apples?

The long story short is that we lost this game 81-69. We were down 16 at half, down 23 at one point in the second half, and we managed to claw back to within four. Ultimately though, the wheels came off and we're now sitting at 0-4 for the season.

Let me be honest, if I had had to write this entry at halftime, it would have looked like this:
GOOD - Matt Wilson, BAD - Mike Jarvis's career trajectory, UGLY - everything else about AU. Luckily, I didn't have to write it at halftime. Unluckily, I had to watch the second half.

Third Time's The Charm

It's preview time again here at AU Basketball Central, as our Eagles fly onto the hardwood of Bender Arena yet again tomorrow (Saturday) at noon. For those of you who stopped by last time to check out Bill's Mt. St. Mary's preview, I apologize for the Sylvester Stallone joke. I clearly would not condone such a reference in one of my own previews, unless it involved some sort of incredible Rocky/Rambo hybrid meant to symbolize Stephen Lumpkins' intimidating game-face. But I digress...

So here we are, three games into a five game homestand. The first two didn't go quite as planned, but there's a spring of endless optimism here at AU Basketball Central, and we drink from it every night just to stay sane. So as they say, third time's the charm! Let's see what we're up against tomorrow after the jump.

The....Florida Atlantic University Owls! Owls, you say? Owls?! Unless our mascot suddenly becomes the field mouse, I don't see these owls having any sort of real advantage tomorrow. Plus, owls are pretty far down on the "badass bird" scale, so we win there too. Could this mean we'll record our first win of the season? Why, I believe it could!

When a freshman birthday boy plays his heart out but the team still loses, there's a little bit of GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Gooooood evening AU fans. Josh wanted me to title this entry, "Again." I really thought about titling it "Again!?" But ultimately, you got what you're seeing. Fresh from Bender Arena, another evening, another loss. This is one, quite frankly, that I thought we would drop. This is what I wrote on August 10:

"Nov. 18 (Wed) - 7:30p - Mt. St. Mary's (@AU) - As mentioned above, the Mount really kicked in our teeth last year in our only home loss. The Eagles will really have to dig in deep if they want to reverse their fortunes this year, especially since Mt. St. Mary's returns its top four scorers from a year ago. Not looking forward to this game, folks. I'll bring the peroxide because there's a good chance our guys are going to get beat up."

Woo, I'm not awful at predicting things. We lost the game 73-62, and my prediction before the game on Twitter was that if we could keep it to under 10 points in a loss it'd be a moral win. I'll take 11 points, though, because I'm not good at math. In any event, plenty to talk about tonight, so let's get to the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY...

Wait, Josh, so to do a preview I just tell them what I think will happen?

I tell you, these blog titles just keep getting cleverer and clevererer. Anyway, stepping into unfamiliar territory as I do a preview here. Josh has been doing these (as you no doubt know since you're an avid reader). So normally there's a clever graphic or something, but I'm not good at that. So instead, here's an image of the movie poster for the 1993 film Cliffhanger starring Sylvester Stallone (courtesy of fotos.org).


Why a movie poster of Cliffhanger? Join us after the jump to find out!

Will Jeff Jones tone down the profanity? Should the Blue Crew be the Red Crew? Is it Speculation Tuesday? Only one question can be answered YES

Why do I speculate on Tuesdays? It could be because I first had the idea to do a weekly post full of speculations on a Tuesday, or it could be because our site traffic needs a boost on Tuesday. But why hasn't there been a Speculation Tuesday entry since the first one like three weeks ago? It could be because I'm forgetful or easily distracted by shiny objects. Or it could be because the blue paint I use on myself isn't quite as non-toxic as it says it is on the label.

In any event, I'll be trying to make this a more regular feature on the site. Have things you want me to speculate about? Send them to auhoopsblog@gmail.com! I'll do my best to provide you some kind of answer, but of course it would just be pure speculation. Just like the rest of these...

Last Night's Coverage and Some Thoughts from a Great Dane/Eagle Hybrid

First some links because I imagine some of you go elsewhere for the recaps and all that of the games

Washington Post's recap
AUEagles.com recap
AUEagles.com box score

Now, onto some other things. Occasional contributor and constant Blue Crew member BPW also has connections to Albany. (I would say SUNY-Albany, but I don't want to rile him up too much). Last night he was on the wrong side of Bender Arena (the Albany side), but I asked him to write up some thoughts about the game from an opponent's perspective. Read on and find out exactly how powerful the Blue Crew acting as a 6th man can be.

When I'm Particularly Annoyed About a Loss, It Is GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

No time for niceties tonight. Here's the long and the short of it: we blew the game in the second half again. For those of you who weren't there or haven't heard, we lost to the Albany Great Danes tonight 51-50. Just like at St. Francis, the wheels came off the whole operation in the second half, and we blew a halftime lead. At this point I've got to think that conditioning is playing a part in this; we're just gassed by about the 10 minute mark in the second half. Some of that is that we've got a young team with players whose bodies don't have the benefit of 2-3 years with collegiate trainers and training regimens.

Before I get into this, nice to see play out of Mike Bersch tonight. The good news is, he got his first collegiate bucket. The bad news is, he went 0-3 from behind the arc.

Ugh what a bitter loss. Still incredulous that we lost this game. Still, there were some highlights, which brings me to...

SIT, HEEL, STAY... Eagles Home Opener An Exercise In Dog Training

Opening Note: I'd just like to state that in no way do I support actual cruelty to dogs. That would be the PHILADELPHIA Eagles, ever since they hired Michael Vick. Alright, alright, that was just a joke, since I'm sure some of our readers are loyal Philly fans as well. Of course it's the AMERICAN Eagles that matter tomorrow night!

The AU Eagles' season opener at St. Francis (PA) on Friday was not our finest hour - blowing an 11-point halftime lead is never the way one wants to start their season. It's all part of the learning curve for these young Eagles, though, and I am confident we will rebound on Monday when we face down the University at Albany Great Danes on the hallowed hardwood of Bender Arena.

The first of a five-game homestretch that will keep the Blue Crew quite busy for the next two weeks, our home opener is sure to excite. Word has gone out that mini replica 2009 Patriot League Champion banners will be distributed again, and up to 2,500 dorm rooms on campus will get a whole lot sexier. So there will be goodies, but what's going to happen on the court?

When you have an 11 point lead at half time and then blow it, you could say it's GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Gooood morning and happy weekend to all of you out there in the Eagles blogosphere! Don't know about the rest of you, but this week was particularly long and agonizing. The thing that made it all better though was that incredible win at St. Francis last night! Up at 11 at half time? Psht, I'm not watching the rest of this blowout, I've got other things to do!

Wait, what?

What do you mean awful second half? What do you mean "lost by four"? Are you kidding me?

Ugh. Well. At least it's Saturday.

I'm kidding by the way, of course I was sitting riveted to the hideous video feed from St. Francis and the pretty okay radio feed from the local radio station. In fact, we even ran our first liveblog last night (you can replay it below if you're so inclined). I'd like to thank everyone who came out for that last night, it was a pretty good time, and we will keep doing it for the away games.

Here's the requisite info from last night: Box Score Recap

In any event, it's time for today's edition of the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY!

AU vs. St. Francis Liveblog!

Here we go! Free and no account needed, bear with me, this will be an experiment for us all!

First official game of the season, let the WINS start flowing!

Tonight is the official beginning of our season, Eagles fans! At 7:00 PM we take on the Red Flash of St. Francis University (PA), at their home court of DeGol Arena in Loretto, PA. This is the real deal, folks, this is what actually matters. Those last two games - those were just practice. Somehow this week I've been bestowed with an inordinate amount of things to do, so this is going to be a quick preview at the moment.

Here's what's going down:

• We can totally win this. History is on our side. The last 5 games we've taken on the Red Flash, we walked away with a win, with last year's 67-46 beatdown in Bender particularly memorable.
  
• We don't have to worry too much about youth, it's pretty even. They have seven true freshmen. We have seven true freshmen. They graduated 5 of 6 starters. We graduated 5 of 6 starters (if you count that Hendra started a few games near the end of last season).
• Our starting lineup tonight is projected to be Hendra, Luptak, Grafft, Lumpkins, and Munoz. It looks like Coach Jones took some pointers from the exhibitions, and he's playing up the big frontcourt presence of Lumpins and Grafft. It helps that St. Francis' team is relatively short, with their tallest at just 6-8. Munoz is starting to really prove himself as well, and not just from the free-throw line (where he completely iced the game for us on Sunday).
• If our level of improvement between the pre-season and now is of the same caliber as between the two exhibition games, they don't stand a chance.

There it is, the quick and dirty preview! Look for much more later on tonight, plus we'll be liveblogging the game starting at 7:30 (NOTE: I'm still at work, but I'll try to get one going as close to 7p as possible, it'll be my first time running one, so bear with me.. - Bill). It doesn't get much better than tha-- wait, it does! St. Francis is being so kind as to STREAM THE ENTIRE GAME FOR FREE. Just click that link and watch us make the Red Flash the Red Splat on the hardwood!

See you soon and GO EAGLES!
Josh

This is Madness! THIS IS...THE RECAP!

Last night AU celebrated its storied basketball teams with the second annual American Madness pep rally. What we're all wondering now is, of course, "Was it any better than the first?" Well, as the Burger King commercial so wisely states, "that's more of an...opinion." This blogger's opinion, if it means anything, is that it was a step forward, if not a particularly big one.

For those of you who weren't able to make it to Bender Arena yesterday evening, whether it was because of work, great distance, or just the freezing rain keeping you indoors, it's OK - we've got you covered. The teams first danced their way to the court to the familiar tune of "The Final Countdown" (masterfully played by Bender's unsung [pun intended] heroes, the Screaming Eagles Pep Band) and clumsily missed a few baskets on purpose so that some students could win some fun prizes in good conscience. Sophomore Guard Joe Hill would have none of that, of course, proudly announcing he would beat three cocky Blue Crew members in a 3-pointer shooting contest by five. Amazingly, he won 8-3. Well done, Joe! Let's show St. Francis that same attitude on Friday!

The coaches then made their obligatory heartfelt speeches. Coach Jones echoed many of his sentiments from Patriot League Media Day (if you haven't read Bill's interview with Jones yet, check it out here), offering this succinct piece of insight which I think sums up this year quite well,

"We are not the Patriot League defending champions. That was last year's team. We have our own identity, and we're still searching for what it is."

Well said, coach, well said. The faithful Blue Crew responded with some pretty serious applause, which gives me hope that this year's growing pains will be seen as just that and nothing more sinister. On that note, attendance was pretty decent considering the cold, rainy weather that likely had many hunkering down in the dorms for the night. Not fantastic, mind you, but alright for the circumstances. If you weren't there, one awesome thing you did miss was the freshmen men's dance number with the dance team/cheerleaders. It lasted about three minutes, and all I know is that even if Blake Jolivette doesn't make a single basket this entire season, at least he can GET DOWN (Blake, if you're reading this, don't worry, I know you will score many, many points this season). Check out Hannah Rubin's great video, or my endearingly low-quality cell phone version below:

That's all for tonight, AU Hoops Fans, check back later for an exclusive AU Basketball Central preview of our season opener at St. Francis (PA).

GO EAGLES,
Josh

Quick Check-In

Sorry we've been AWOL this week, just very, very busy! Josh is going to get a recap up from AMERICAN MADNESS last night!

In the meantime, check out this FANTASTIC video of the freshmen from last night. I won't spoil it for you, but it is a MUST SEE. (Courtesy of Hannah Rubin, thanks very much for capturing this fantastic moment!)

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1169997973715&ref=nf

I'll get a St. Francis preview/belated Speculation Tuesday up tonight!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

Ancillary Materials Are Tasty. Especially When They Include AMERICAN MADNESS

Just a short entry tonight to share some quick tidbits with you.

Yesterday's recap from AUEagles.com (including video highlights!)

Box Score from yesterday's win against Catholic

On Wednesday, Athletics will host for the second consecutive year AMERICAN MADNESS. This is AU's version of Midnight Madness, and it was a pretty good time last year. I'll be there painted, the least you can all do is show up in a Blue Crew shirt. Here's the FB link: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=175042553758&index=1

See you all there! Tomorrow is Speculation Tuesday, check back in for some burning questions!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

Playing a cross-town school in another athletic division often brings out the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY

Goooooood evening American University basketball fans! Well, no matter what happens this season, one thing that's positive is that we will NOT go winless! The Eagles defeated the Catholic Cardinals (harf harf) 70-64 in Bender Arena today in a game that eased many of this blogger's worries and fears. Without further dalliance, let's get to today's edition of the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY!

THE GOOD

There's a lot that can go in this section as this game was a vast improvement over Tuesday's loss to Randolph Macon. Pretty much every area of the Eagles' game was better today, and it showed as they picked up the W. Some of the good:

- Four players with double-digit scoring: Lumpkins (21 points, career high), Munoz (15, career high), McCormack (12, career high), and Hendra (11). Steve Luptak just missed this cut with 8 points (also a career high).

- Two players with their first double-doubles: Lumpkins (21 points and 10 rebounds) and McCormack (12 points and 10 rebounds).

- Only 13 turnovers, 12 less than against Randolph-Macon. Overall we did a much better job of protecting the ball, and the dribbling was markedly improved.

- Lumpkins had a game that deserves a special shout-out here. To go along with his 21 points and 10 rebounds, he kicked in 4 assists, 3 blocks, and 2 steals and only committed one turnover. Now, Lumpkins only went 3-10 from the field, but he made up for it because he went 15-19 from the free throw line. If Lumpkins had only scored free throws, he would've still been tied for game high points. Marvelous performance from him. It's clear the team is relying on him, and he has really accepted the responsibility these past two games. He's also making it look good, near the end of the first half Lumpkins dished it to McCormack who put it in for two with a sweet reverse lay-in that fired up the crowd including President Neil Kerwin, who stood up and cheered for the play like he was an undergrad.

- Simon McCormack also deserves a pat on the back here. For a guy who got VERY minimal play time last year, he has looked fantastic so far this year. Great hustle, not giving up on plays, fighting for loose balls. +1 to you, sir. I think Jeff Jones has got quite a decision to make as four of the guards (Luptak, McCormack, Jolivette, and Munoz) all looked pretty good today.

- Free throw shooting. MUCH improved over last year. 32-38 as a team, including 8 in the last 32 seconds from Munoz to ice the game. We weren't bad, per se, from the line last season, but we weren't good by any stretch. Obviously we've put in some work on them during the off-season, and we ended up getting about half our points from the line tonight. Seems like that work paid off.

THE BAD

Unfortunately this wouldn't be much of a Good, Bad, and Ugly column without putting some things I thought were bad and could be improved upon. I hate to do it, but sometimes it's got to be done.

- I was a little disappointed by Riley Grafft's performance today. Here's the line: 17 minutes, 2 rebounds, 1 turnover. No points on 0-1 shooting, and the one shot was from three. Not a quality performance. I'm not sure if this is his fault or not, but Riley was out on the perimeter quite a lot, and I have no idea why. The team was trying to use him as some kind of a swing man, and it just didn't work. He should have been in the paint where he could've used his height to some advantage today against a short CUA team. Riley's got good hands for a big man, but using him on the perimeter as a swing man is not a good use of his talents.

- Daniel Fisher is someone else who could have had a better game. He was only in for seven minutes, but for most of those minutes he looked extremely uncomfortable in the paint. Calling for the ball when he was well guarded, not handling the ball well when they got it in to him. He did get to the line and sunk one of two. Just an off game, maybe, and I hope he'll recover and have a great one against St. Francis.

THE UGLY

- The passing today was very ugly. Especially in transition, but I'll get to that in a minute. These lazy bounce passes are not getting it done, and they were the cause of a lot of the turnovers this afternoon. The team needs to communicate better, think its passes through more completely, and most importantly, execute those passes. Too many passes were easily picked off today because we tried to force them. There were some pretty nice dishes, too, but not enough to keep this aspect of the game off the ugly list.

- The transition game was miserable. No points in transition today. Not one. And it isn't like we didn't have opportunities. The one bone I have to pick with Danny Munoz is that he has had some trouble running the point in transition in these two games. There have been some sloppy passes, not just by Danny, but he's done it the most. The transition game just needs some work, we're not getting back quick enough to take advantage of 2 on 1 or 3 on 2 situations. We're not making the right passes, and we're not converting.


Overall, you can see that from the comparative sizes of these sections this was a pretty good game. Vast improvement over Tuesday, and I think that we can at least be competitive for some of these opening regular season games. We saw some definite chemistry today that we didn't see on Tuesday. It also looks like we've got a plethora of candidates to run the point, and, whether he likes it or not, Jeff Jones may have to run point guard by committee. After these games, Luptak, McCormack, and Munoz have all proven they deserve the playing time they've been getting. Jolivette has been a little behind those three in terms of outputs, but he's still been playing pretty well.

While I was pretty perturbed after Tuesday, I feel much better after today. So, as always,

PRO DEO ET PATRIA AND GO EAGLES!

They're messin' with the wrong Bird...

Well, Eagles fans, it happened. The Randolph-Macon Yellow Jackets got the best of our young team. There’s nothing left to do than trudge on to the…next exhibition game! That’s right, the college basketball gods have graced us with a second glorified practice to get in shape before the regular season starts! We certainly need it, since the only thing uglier than the College of the Holy Cross is our ball handling last Tuesday. I can only imagine what Coach Jones might have been saying (read: shouting emphatically with lots of cussing) in the locker room to our guys post-game. It certainly couldn’t have been pretty.

Our opposition this Sunday will be the Catholic University of America Cardinals. Yes, that same school down on the other end of the Red Line. They are members of the Division 3 Landmark Conference, and indeed they will be flapping their little red wings across town to Bender Arena…and limping back out again after. We have a bone to pick with Division 3, and fortunately this time our competition is a little less nationally ranked. This isn’t to say CUA isn’t a decent D3 team, they did win the D3 national championship about eight years ago.

That was almost a decade ago, though, and this year’s Cardinal squad isn’t quite so deadly. Beyond sophomore Jason Banzhaf, who was named by D3hoops.com (apparently Division 3’s only real basketball authority) as a D3 All-American and All-Region player, there shouldn’t be too much to worry about come Sunday. See the lovely graphic above for reference. Unfortunately I have little data on how the Cardinals fared last season, as CUA hasn’t deigned to post last season’s schedule up on their website yet. 2007-08 was a decent year for them, but that just won’t be good enough. It takes a truly top-notch D3 team to take down our Eagles, and that’s what R-MC was (and I need not remind you the game was CLOSE). Catholic just doesn’t have that. Alright, on to the (pseudo-)analysis…

Here’s what we need to do:

• Tighten up the ball handling. Seriously, this cannot be emphasized enough. We can’t drop the ball, completely turn our backs to hoop while an opponent’s driving right under it, or take bonehead three-point attempts with thirty seconds left in the second half when it’s all tied up.

• Be confident. We can’t be afraid to take shots. We’re going to have a serious height advantage between Lumpkins and Grafft (who are looking to be a lovely frontcourt duo, I might add). I swear there was a guy on RM-C’s team that made Derrick Mercer look gigantic. D3 players just don’t have the height.

• DE-FENSE DE-FENSE DE-FENSE. This wasn’t really a problem last Tuesday. In fact, it might have been the only thing we really had going for us. We set up a good screen and generally made it difficult for them to shoot…while we were actually by the net. Let’s limit turnovers and play on our terms. If we can do this we can keep their scoring low.
  

• Be there. This one’s entirely on the fans – I know this is still the pre-season, but it’s really the team’s last chance to truly figure out what works before the real challenges begin. There’s some true promise in this team, and this is your opportunity to see it shine early on. Please come out, and please cheer LOUD. Catholic might actually be able to muster up a few folks to come down due to their proximity, and for the love of whatever deity you choose I do not want to see more red than BLUE in those stands. Of course if you’re reading this, you’re probably unscrewing the cap to your bottle of blue paint already, so I’m likely just preaching to the choir here (Catholic joke, get it?).

Finally, a correction from my last entry, a neat factoid, and some thanks:

• As one astute commenter pointed out, I failed to mention Frank Borden as I briefly waxed nostalgic about last year’s superhero squad. Frank was a consistent starter and an absolutely indispensible member of the team. His defense of the net was crucial to our success, and we’re going to have a great post about what he’s up to these days coming very soon. Hint: he’s still playing basketball, and his Spanish is probably a lot better than it was last year. Here’s a great screenshot of the love ESPN.com had for Frank for about 15 minutes right after last year’s tournament game against Villanova. Sadly, once ESPN realized 'Nova actually won they replaced this picture with a more prominent image of a Wildcat player. Lame, ESPN, really lame…

• I feel a bit bad for Vlad. When R-MC downed George Mason in an exhibition last year, he was on that team. He’s now seen them take down his Division 1 team two years in a row. Poor guy. He did look rather dapper during last week’s game, though. Can’t wait until he’s in a lovely BLUE uniform instead.

• Recently Bill took the opportunity to thank you, our readers, for helping us to reach a milestone of 92 unique visitors in one day. This past week, however, we’ve averaged 100 visitors a day and set a new record with ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY EIGHT unique readers this past Wednesday! AU Basketball Central was loaded over 300 times as well. We celebrated by purchasing our own domain name, so welcome to the constantly improving auhoops.com!

I will see you all this Sunday, November 8^th, at 4:30 PM in Bender Arena! Be LOUD, be BLUE, GO EAGLES!

Pro deo et patria,
Josh

New Domain!

We've migrated to www.auhoops.com! This is very exciting for us. If you continue to go to au-hoops.blogspot.com, you'll be redirected to our new URL, auhoops.com. We think this is a much more memorable name, so help us out by telling all your friends about the switch! If you have any problems connecting to the new domain, let me know at auhoopsblog@gmail.com

I can already see we have some problems with the Twitter feed on the page; that'll get remedied, I think. It works on www.auhoops.com, but not on the blogspot URL. If you get really confused and need our Twitter, check out twitter.com/auhoops

Okay, enough changes for tonight.

Thanks for all the hits the past two days by the way, we've shattered our records for page loads, unique visitors, and returning visitors each of the last three days. This is great, and it let's us know you like what we're up to. That in turn lets the team know they've got a legit fanbase!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

AU 2009 Google Calendar + Something I Can Totally See Jeff Jones Doing

Hi everyone! Just a quick entry for tonight.

First, I've created a Google Calendar for the games this year. If you use GMail, you can add it to your calendar by searching for "American U. Men's Basketball 2009-10 schedule". I think the Google calendar search feature is a little dicey, so if you want the calendar and can't find it through the search function, you can e-mail me at AUHoopsBlog@gmail.com, and I'll be happy to share it with you! It's a great way to keep track of when the games are, and I used it a lot last year. Figured I'd share the wealth.

Now, from Yahoo! Sports's The Dagger Sports Blog, comes this video from the HERM'S PERM sports blog. It involves former USC Men's Basketball Head Coach Tim Floyd breaking up a catfight in the casino. For some reason, I can totally imagine Jeff Jones doing this. Am I alone in that?



Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!