Two years ago when our American University Eagles fell to the Tennessee Volunteers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the Associated Press decided to add insult to injury by describing our very own mascot, Clawed Z. Eagle as "a shopworn costume" that "revealed which team came from a big-time sports program."
Harsh and unnecessary, AP, but I digress.
Clawed has perhaps not had his feathers all preened correctly for some events, but to call him "shopworn" takes it a little far. Admittedly, I have donned the Clawed costume before, and while it was not the most olfactorily pleasing experience of my life, it sure was a lot of fun.
Courtesy of contributor El Presidente comes the exciting news that Clawed has gotten what I think is an impressive makeover. He looks modern. "Hip" even. Are the kids still saying "hip" these days? No, not hipster, that's not at all what I mean. Clawed also has some spring in his step, much like the Nationals' Screech used to have before the Nats went and screwed him all up like the fools they are. Again, I digress.
All of this was revealed as the women's volleyball team fell 3-1 to Georgetown in Bender Arena. The good news is that the match set a collegiate volleyball attendance record with over 1,800 fans in the audience.
See the new Clawed at 0:22 below, and then do yourself a favor and watch the rest of the highlights from the match! Video courtesy of our fine friends over at www.aueagles.com
Be sure to leave your thoughts on our new Clawed below.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
AU Athletics Launches AUEagles.TV...Hopefully name of MBB Channel Will Be "MASN"
Courtesy of AUEagles.com, AU Athletics has announced the launch of Eagles Vision TV. This new site will
"broadcast live streaming video of men's soccer, women's soccer, field hockey and lacrosse games. Added to the broadcasts of non-conference men's and women's basketball, wrestling and volleyball matches, alumni and friends will now have year-round access to American home games. All 2009-2010 games will also be archived, offering subscribers greater convenience and flexibility to watch. Live games will feature multiple camera angles, a live scoreboard with running time and analysis from a studio broadcast team and sideline reporters. Eagles Vision TV will also feature pre-game interviews with student-athletes and coaches, post-game highlights and exclusive behind the scenes access to each of American's 16 teams."
This sounds exciting, but here are some thoughts:
- An annual subscription is $49.95, which is pretty reasonable if you're interested in watching the home games of the other sports. Admittedly, since I run this site and since the name of the site is American University Basketball Central, I don't think it'll be a shock for you all to find out that I'm not as passionate about the other AU sports as I am about men's basketball (not that I don't wish the other teams well, but there's only so many days a year I can spend painted). Still $50 for all of those games from the comfort of your living room or laptop is a very, very good deal. For all you kids who are abroad this semester or next, it can be your best friend. I also like how there's an option to just pay for single games. $6 is about average for a single-game fee. (I've paid as little as $4 and as much as $10 for a single game through similar services)
- The new channel will only cover home games. This is good for alumni who aren't in the area anymore, but for this guy who lives right down the street from 4400 Mass. Ave, you know I'll be in Bender Arena painted for all of the home games. This makes it silly for me personally to sign up for this service. I'm really interested in the away games that our Eagles will play.
- I need to look into what the plan for the Patriot League All-Access is going to be for this season. That's what I had last year; it cost me something like $7.95 or $8.95 a month, and I got to see ALL of the Patriot League basketball games streamed. (Very, very useful). Admittedly this is probably what I will do if it's available.
Overall though, I applaud Athletics for putting this together. Anything that puts more AU fans in contact with AU sports at a reasonable fee is solid in my book. I do have a thought though about men's basketball. As an avid Nationals fan (I'm a glutton for punishment), I watch a lot of MASN. MASN bills itself as the official cable network of Georgetown and George Mason and also, somehow, the UNC-Wilmington Seahawks. WTF, mate? I'm hoping that Athletics will work with MASN to strike some kind of deal to have some AU games broadcast this season. After all, AU is the only area team to make the tournament both of the past two years. While I'm happy to see we can stream home games now, I'd much rather see them on my TV live from Bender Arena. Hopefully when Athletics releases the TV schedule in October, they'll have worked out some kind of deal.
Anyway, that's that for the night. Until next time...
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
"broadcast live streaming video of men's soccer, women's soccer, field hockey and lacrosse games. Added to the broadcasts of non-conference men's and women's basketball, wrestling and volleyball matches, alumni and friends will now have year-round access to American home games. All 2009-2010 games will also be archived, offering subscribers greater convenience and flexibility to watch. Live games will feature multiple camera angles, a live scoreboard with running time and analysis from a studio broadcast team and sideline reporters. Eagles Vision TV will also feature pre-game interviews with student-athletes and coaches, post-game highlights and exclusive behind the scenes access to each of American's 16 teams."
This sounds exciting, but here are some thoughts:
- An annual subscription is $49.95, which is pretty reasonable if you're interested in watching the home games of the other sports. Admittedly, since I run this site and since the name of the site is American University Basketball Central, I don't think it'll be a shock for you all to find out that I'm not as passionate about the other AU sports as I am about men's basketball (not that I don't wish the other teams well, but there's only so many days a year I can spend painted). Still $50 for all of those games from the comfort of your living room or laptop is a very, very good deal. For all you kids who are abroad this semester or next, it can be your best friend. I also like how there's an option to just pay for single games. $6 is about average for a single-game fee. (I've paid as little as $4 and as much as $10 for a single game through similar services)
- The new channel will only cover home games. This is good for alumni who aren't in the area anymore, but for this guy who lives right down the street from 4400 Mass. Ave, you know I'll be in Bender Arena painted for all of the home games. This makes it silly for me personally to sign up for this service. I'm really interested in the away games that our Eagles will play.
- I need to look into what the plan for the Patriot League All-Access is going to be for this season. That's what I had last year; it cost me something like $7.95 or $8.95 a month, and I got to see ALL of the Patriot League basketball games streamed. (Very, very useful). Admittedly this is probably what I will do if it's available.
Overall though, I applaud Athletics for putting this together. Anything that puts more AU fans in contact with AU sports at a reasonable fee is solid in my book. I do have a thought though about men's basketball. As an avid Nationals fan (I'm a glutton for punishment), I watch a lot of MASN. MASN bills itself as the official cable network of Georgetown and George Mason and also, somehow, the UNC-Wilmington Seahawks. WTF, mate? I'm hoping that Athletics will work with MASN to strike some kind of deal to have some AU games broadcast this season. After all, AU is the only area team to make the tournament both of the past two years. While I'm happy to see we can stream home games now, I'd much rather see them on my TV live from Bender Arena. Hopefully when Athletics releases the TV schedule in October, they'll have worked out some kind of deal.
Anyway, that's that for the night. Until next time...
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Monday, August 24, 2009
No I'm Not Dead, I've Just Been Taking Stock of the Situation
So I bet you all thought that this blog was going to succumb to the usual "five posts and kick the bucket" wayside. Well. You're wrong. In the immortal words of Alex Trebek, "Oh no...no no...no." I would quote Jeff Jones to the same effect, but this is a family site for Christ's sake. In any event, I was looking at the Holy Cross 2009-10 basketball prospectus today. Why? Because AU doesn't have a 2009-10 basketball prospectus (nudge, nudge) yet, and I wanted to scope out the competition like any good fledgling basketball blog hosting guy.
So I figured I'd take a stab at seeing what we've got left after last season. Brace yourselves out there in AU basketball blog land, it ain't pretty. There's not a whole lot we can bank on. (As a short aside, this is in sharp contrast to Holy Cross who has 4/5 of their starters returning as well as 5 other letter winners. Oh dear sweet Clawed Z. Eagle.) Anyway, here's some quick hits on the stats and players we've got returning for the 2009-10 campaign.
- Out of 64.5 total points per game scored, 9 points per game are returning. 6.3 of these are Nick Hendra, who was last year's fourth leading scorer. This is a fact that actually surprises me. (In a good way, Nick!) I would've thought Nichols had a higher PPG just because of minutes. Shows what I know. That's a pretty grim statistic to start out with, but it becomes brighter when you consider that...
- Out of 200 possible minutes per game, the seven seniors that we graduated played an average of 169.2 minutes. If you figure that Hendra is going to get about 30 minutes a game (and that's lowballing it), his scoring should move up to around 10-12 PPG. Under the same assumption, Lumpkins will increase his production to the same levels. Make no bones about it, we will need at LEAST two other Eagles to step up their production mightily in order for us to be competitive, but the 169.2 minutes per game that are now available to the remaining Eagles should allow for that and more.
Now, let's be serious here for a moment. I've given you two statistics. Logic (and common practice) would dictate that two does not a blog post on basketball statistics make. Unlike Holy Cross, however, AU does not have the luxury of a veritable shit ton (that's a statistical term, look it up) of returning players. Any conclusions or calculations I made based on the fact that Lumpkins and Hendra are the only returns who saw any legitimate play time (sorry Luptak) would be irresponsible at best and completely worthless at worst.
Let's look at the bright side (which I will greatly expand on in my next post about where the strengths for the upcoming season are):
- Vlad Moldoveanu has the size and experience (20.3 PPG over 8 games in the 2004 FIBA) to be a force in the Patriot League.
- Our sophomores, who had the benefit of the seniors' experience and advice last year, should come back eager to prove themselves and with some tricks up their sleeves.
So you know what to look forward to, there's two upcoming posts from me:
- Expanding on the sophomores
- Breaking down the Holy Cross prospectus
I'm also going to look into what AU Athletics thinks the TV coverage will be for this season. Stay tuned, and be sure to leave your feedback!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
So I figured I'd take a stab at seeing what we've got left after last season. Brace yourselves out there in AU basketball blog land, it ain't pretty. There's not a whole lot we can bank on. (As a short aside, this is in sharp contrast to Holy Cross who has 4/5 of their starters returning as well as 5 other letter winners. Oh dear sweet Clawed Z. Eagle.) Anyway, here's some quick hits on the stats and players we've got returning for the 2009-10 campaign.
- Out of 64.5 total points per game scored, 9 points per game are returning. 6.3 of these are Nick Hendra, who was last year's fourth leading scorer. This is a fact that actually surprises me. (In a good way, Nick!) I would've thought Nichols had a higher PPG just because of minutes. Shows what I know. That's a pretty grim statistic to start out with, but it becomes brighter when you consider that...
- Out of 200 possible minutes per game, the seven seniors that we graduated played an average of 169.2 minutes. If you figure that Hendra is going to get about 30 minutes a game (and that's lowballing it), his scoring should move up to around 10-12 PPG. Under the same assumption, Lumpkins will increase his production to the same levels. Make no bones about it, we will need at LEAST two other Eagles to step up their production mightily in order for us to be competitive, but the 169.2 minutes per game that are now available to the remaining Eagles should allow for that and more.
Now, let's be serious here for a moment. I've given you two statistics. Logic (and common practice) would dictate that two does not a blog post on basketball statistics make. Unlike Holy Cross, however, AU does not have the luxury of a veritable shit ton (that's a statistical term, look it up) of returning players. Any conclusions or calculations I made based on the fact that Lumpkins and Hendra are the only returns who saw any legitimate play time (sorry Luptak) would be irresponsible at best and completely worthless at worst.
Let's look at the bright side (which I will greatly expand on in my next post about where the strengths for the upcoming season are):
- Vlad Moldoveanu has the size and experience (20.3 PPG over 8 games in the 2004 FIBA) to be a force in the Patriot League.
- Our sophomores, who had the benefit of the seniors' experience and advice last year, should come back eager to prove themselves and with some tricks up their sleeves.
So you know what to look forward to, there's two upcoming posts from me:
- Expanding on the sophomores
- Breaking down the Holy Cross prospectus
I'm also going to look into what AU Athletics thinks the TV coverage will be for this season. Stay tuned, and be sure to leave your feedback!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Does Everyone On This Team Weigh 215 Lbs? And Other Observations on the Revised Roster
AU Athletics did a little sprucing up to the men's basketball page today. What with posting a video (see previous entry) and updating the roster. Everyone has a number now (run out and get your 2009-10 AU Eagles tattoos with the do-it-yourself kit available at the Eagle's Nest) which is a bonus. In addition to numbers, the roster also expanded, by 25% no less! There are now fifteen Eagles on the roster, though Vlad Moldoveanu doesn't become eligible to play until January, and I'm not particularly sure about Troy Brewer (I'll check into that). Vlad should be a force at 6'10" 215lb (GMU's site lists him at 224lb), hopefully he'll spend the fall putting on some muscle; he just never got the minutes to have a breakout season at GMU, but in a future post we'll detail his impressive play in his native Romania.
Everyone else on the roster are the expected suspects, until you get to 6'7" 215lb freshman Daniel Fisher out of Melbourne Grammar in Melbourne, Australia. I've had trouble finding much information about him on the interwebs, but I'll be sure to try to get some from the ever-growing list of things I need to research.
What is particularly exciting about the roster is that the average size of the team is now a little under 6'5" and boasts no one listed at under 6'0". That kind of size will definitely help us in the non-conference portion of the schedule, but it would still be good to see some of our big men put on 5-10 lbs. of muscle (when you're 6'7"+ 200-210 lbs. isn't all that much anymore). At this point having six players over 6'6" gives us plenty of options down low, and I just hope that Coach Jones will adjust his playbook accordingly. We've played basically a perimeter game the past two seasons, but we may be able to pound it inside this season (assuming and God willing that these guys have good hands), which will open up Hendra and Joe Hill and Simon McCormack from the outside.
Anyway, those are the updates on the roster. We should have a ton of new content coming soon because I've found a co-contributor who will be introducing himself this weekend. Get excited. I am!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Everyone else on the roster are the expected suspects, until you get to 6'7" 215lb freshman Daniel Fisher out of Melbourne Grammar in Melbourne, Australia. I've had trouble finding much information about him on the interwebs, but I'll be sure to try to get some from the ever-growing list of things I need to research.
What is particularly exciting about the roster is that the average size of the team is now a little under 6'5" and boasts no one listed at under 6'0". That kind of size will definitely help us in the non-conference portion of the schedule, but it would still be good to see some of our big men put on 5-10 lbs. of muscle (when you're 6'7"+ 200-210 lbs. isn't all that much anymore). At this point having six players over 6'6" gives us plenty of options down low, and I just hope that Coach Jones will adjust his playbook accordingly. We've played basically a perimeter game the past two seasons, but we may be able to pound it inside this season (assuming and God willing that these guys have good hands), which will open up Hendra and Joe Hill and Simon McCormack from the outside.
Anyway, those are the updates on the roster. We should have a ton of new content coming soon because I've found a co-contributor who will be introducing himself this weekend. Get excited. I am!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Eagles Spend Summer Getting Buff
Courtesy of AUEagles.com comes this video highlighting the Eagles' summer workouts under strength and conditioning coach Jason Riddell. This isn't a particularly incisive video, to be sure, but hey, when it's August and you're basketball-starved it looks like an ice-cold Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA with spicy Mexican food (what, just me?) The good news here is that three of the incoming freshmen are on-campus taking summer classes, so they're getting a head start on their conditioning. I recognized Blake Jolivette, who I think is Josh Snodgrass, and a third, as yet unidentified player (sorry about that, I'll get to know all your vitals before you know it) practicing with junior guards Steve Luptak and Nick Hendra. Team godfather Derrick Mercer and class of 2008 forward Travis Lay also make appearances in the video training, as does new Director of Basketball Operations Bryce Simon.
I have to say I like the attitude that Hendra shows in the video as he notes that "The key thing is to just work as hard as possible as we possibly can at any given moment and that'll set the right example for the younger guys who are coming in..." If that's the attitude that Luptak and Hendra are taking in earnest as the season starts, we can expect to reap the benefits as a team down the line; I think good work ethic can overcome a lot of faults on a team (not that I'm saying this team does or doesn't have them, but solid work ethic sure as hell never hurts). Luptak mentions that this summer is definitely the hardest he's had since coming to play at AU; not surprising given that this will definitely be the hardest season the Eagles face since Luptak has arrived.
Definite bonus for Jolivette to be getting practice time early with the more experienced guards, especially Mercer. Coming in as a two-star recruit, you have to believe Jolivette is the leader of the Eagle backcourt in two years, the faster he gets ahead of that learning curve the better.
Not sure what the rest of the team is up to in terms of training regimen for the summer, I'll try to do some research on that and report on that in the next week or so. This is both looking back and pretty far ahead at the same time, but the reason the Eagles are 0-2 the past two years in the NCAA tournament isn't for lack of talent, it's for lack of gas in the tank over the final eight minutes of the game. It's very hard for a team like AU to play the physical level of ball that they do in the Big East, SEC, or ACC when teams like Colgate and Lafayette just don't have the same big bruisers. It's nice to see the Eagles bulking up and building their endurance (seemingly running 400m laps at the end of the video) in preparation for what will undoubtedly be a grueling season.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
The (Decidedly Not Very) Curious Case of Mike Technow
Courtesy of contributor El Presidente comes the research that I didn't have to do this morning (thanks buddy!) It turns out Mike Technow transferred to the University of South Carolina - Aiken, a Division II school that competes in the Peach Belt conference. Article here: http://www.aikenstandard.com/LocalSports/0604technow
Definitely sad to see Technow go, at 6'9 230lb. he was the happy medium of height and weight between Riley Grafft and Stephen Lumpkins. Though I certainly understand he wanted more playing time, I am a little bit baffled given that he would've gotten plenty of it this season. With Jordan and Frane both graduated, there was definitely going to be an open competition in the front court where I have to believe Technow could have secured himself some time.
In any event, happy trails being a Pacer, Mike. All the best to you
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Definitely sad to see Technow go, at 6'9 230lb. he was the happy medium of height and weight between Riley Grafft and Stephen Lumpkins. Though I certainly understand he wanted more playing time, I am a little bit baffled given that he would've gotten plenty of it this season. With Jordan and Frane both graduated, there was definitely going to be an open competition in the front court where I have to believe Technow could have secured himself some time.
In any event, happy trails being a Pacer, Mike. All the best to you
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Some Thoughts on the Non-Conference Schedule - Part 2
As promised, here are the rest of my thoughts on the non-conference schedule. Tomorrow I'm going to try to contact Bryce Simon and see if I can get to the bottom of this Mike Technow situation; it turns out he's not on the roster anymore, and I want to know what happened. As always, comment away!
Dec. 1 (Tue) - 7:30p - Howard (@AU) - Howard graduated leading scorer Eugene Myatt, but kept their next two highest scorers. The Bison then added a talented freshman class, including Tyreake Johnson, a 3-star recruit out of New York City, and Dadrian Collins from Rockville, MD. Given that the Eagles only beat the Bison by two last year (65-63, at Bender), we can expect that this will be a challenging match-up for our young team. Hopefully by this point in the season a firm starting five will have materialized; I don't think the lineup by committee approach is going to work for a team that's going to be as deep and experienced as Howard will be this year, no matter what their record last year (an unimpressive 8-23 (6-10) and 8th place finish in the Mid-Eastern Conference).
Dec. 5 (Sat) - TBA - Georgetown (AWAY) - The good news for the Eagles is that the Hoyas lost DaJuan Summers and Jessie Sapp to graduation last year; the two of them lit up the Eagles for 14 points a piece in a 73-49 rout at the Verizon Center. The (very) bad news for the Eagles is that 6'11 250 lb. animal (not in the cute cuddly sense of the drummer from the Muppets) Greg Monroe is returning, along with two of the Hoyas' other top four scorers. As if that weren't enough, the Hoyas have also reloaded with two four-star prospects. After the Hoyas played AU last year, their season quickly spiraled downward in a brutal Big East conference (finishing 7-11 in conference play); the legions of annoying "Hoya Saxa" fans didn't even see their team get to the NCAA Tourney. You can be sure when we meet up with them they'll be wanting to lay the hurt on us for our trip to the Big Dance.
Dec. 16 (Wed) - TBA - DePaul (AWAY) - If only this match-up could have come last season. The Blue Demons were completely outmatched in the Big East last year, as evidenced by their 0-18 conference record (9-24 overall). Still, DePaul wasn't talentless; they pulled off a shock upset of Cincinatti that kept the Bearcats out of the postseason. Would last year's Eagles have given DePaul a run for their money? I like to think so. The odds had to at least be even (according to commenter Elliot). The Blue Demons will be led by senior guard Will Walker and junior big man Mac Koshwal, both of whom averaged double-digits last year. I've got to imagine Koshwal giving the Eagles the same kind of fits that Georgetown's Greg Monroe does; at 6'10 255lb, Koshwal could have his way in the paint. Sophomore Riley Grafft, while 6'10, gives up 65 pounds to Koshwal, and Lumpkins is giving up both two inches and forty pounds. Brutal. (On a sidenote, I just realized that sophomore Mike Technow is no longer on the 2009-10 roster, someone remind me to check out what happened to that guy, as he had both height and a more muscular build than either Grafft or Lumpkins.)
Dec. 19 - 2:00p - UMBC - (@AU) - The Eagles had no problem knocking off the Retrievers last year on their home floor 74-61, and the chances are pretty good that the same could happen this year when the Retrievers wag their way into Bender Arena. After losing top scorers Darryl Proctor and Jay Greene (who accounted for roughly 32 ppg last year), UMBC will be looking for some new leaders to step up. Sophomore guard Chauncey Gilliam at 6'5 230 may be just that scorer. Tall enough to give any of our guards fits, the Eagles will have to find some kind of answer to him to pull out the W.
Dec. 21 (Mon) - 5:00p - Penn State (AWAY) - Any team that pulls out ten wins in the Big Ten most years has legitimate talent. Penn State is no different, finishing 27-11 (10-8) and 4th in the Big East. After beating Illinois twice, Purdue once, and Michigan State once, Penn State marched through the postseason and won the NIT. Especially given that we're headed up to State College, I think our Eagles are going to get their feathers plucked. There's not much else to say about this game, sadly, except that it will be a good experience for our guys to see the well-oiled Nittany Lion machine in action.
Dec. 28 (Mon) - TBA - Florida (AWAY) - Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Billy Donovan's gators won back to back national championships in 2006 and 2007. Even after losing 17.2 ppg guard Nick Calathes, Florida will return its other four starters. Again, this will be a good experience for our young Eagles, but Jeff Jones had better make sure he finds some way to keep their morale up after what seems like an inevitable blowout.
Jan. 2 (Sat) - 1:00p - Brown (AWAY) - The Eagles might've conquered Brown (in a boring ho-hum game during winter break) last year, but the Bears might be able to exact their revenge this year. Returning their three top scorers and a team with a lot of experience, the Bears should be able to improve on their 9-19 (3-11) record. The Eagles' only salvation at this point in the season would be the emergence of a previously unexpected dominant player or a team playing fundamental teamwork-oriented ball.
Jan. 4 (Mon) - 7:00p - Columbia (AWAY) - Hopefully the Eagles will be able to end their non-conference schedule on a high note. Though Columbia had a surprisingly good season last year, they still finished below .500 overall. They lost number two scorer Jason Miller. If nothing else, this should be a competitive battle. Too bad we'll all be watching it on Eagle Vision, if at all.
Annnd I'm out for the night. Hopefully I'll have some news to report for you tomorrow.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Dec. 1 (Tue) - 7:30p - Howard (@AU) - Howard graduated leading scorer Eugene Myatt, but kept their next two highest scorers. The Bison then added a talented freshman class, including Tyreake Johnson, a 3-star recruit out of New York City, and Dadrian Collins from Rockville, MD. Given that the Eagles only beat the Bison by two last year (65-63, at Bender), we can expect that this will be a challenging match-up for our young team. Hopefully by this point in the season a firm starting five will have materialized; I don't think the lineup by committee approach is going to work for a team that's going to be as deep and experienced as Howard will be this year, no matter what their record last year (an unimpressive 8-23 (6-10) and 8th place finish in the Mid-Eastern Conference).
Dec. 5 (Sat) - TBA - Georgetown (AWAY) - The good news for the Eagles is that the Hoyas lost DaJuan Summers and Jessie Sapp to graduation last year; the two of them lit up the Eagles for 14 points a piece in a 73-49 rout at the Verizon Center. The (very) bad news for the Eagles is that 6'11 250 lb. animal (not in the cute cuddly sense of the drummer from the Muppets) Greg Monroe is returning, along with two of the Hoyas' other top four scorers. As if that weren't enough, the Hoyas have also reloaded with two four-star prospects. After the Hoyas played AU last year, their season quickly spiraled downward in a brutal Big East conference (finishing 7-11 in conference play); the legions of annoying "Hoya Saxa" fans didn't even see their team get to the NCAA Tourney. You can be sure when we meet up with them they'll be wanting to lay the hurt on us for our trip to the Big Dance.
Dec. 16 (Wed) - TBA - DePaul (AWAY) - If only this match-up could have come last season. The Blue Demons were completely outmatched in the Big East last year, as evidenced by their 0-18 conference record (9-24 overall). Still, DePaul wasn't talentless; they pulled off a shock upset of Cincinatti that kept the Bearcats out of the postseason. Would last year's Eagles have given DePaul a run for their money? I like to think so. The odds had to at least be even (according to commenter Elliot). The Blue Demons will be led by senior guard Will Walker and junior big man Mac Koshwal, both of whom averaged double-digits last year. I've got to imagine Koshwal giving the Eagles the same kind of fits that Georgetown's Greg Monroe does; at 6'10 255lb, Koshwal could have his way in the paint. Sophomore Riley Grafft, while 6'10, gives up 65 pounds to Koshwal, and Lumpkins is giving up both two inches and forty pounds. Brutal. (On a sidenote, I just realized that sophomore Mike Technow is no longer on the 2009-10 roster, someone remind me to check out what happened to that guy, as he had both height and a more muscular build than either Grafft or Lumpkins.)
Dec. 19 - 2:00p - UMBC - (@AU) - The Eagles had no problem knocking off the Retrievers last year on their home floor 74-61, and the chances are pretty good that the same could happen this year when the Retrievers wag their way into Bender Arena. After losing top scorers Darryl Proctor and Jay Greene (who accounted for roughly 32 ppg last year), UMBC will be looking for some new leaders to step up. Sophomore guard Chauncey Gilliam at 6'5 230 may be just that scorer. Tall enough to give any of our guards fits, the Eagles will have to find some kind of answer to him to pull out the W.
Dec. 21 (Mon) - 5:00p - Penn State (AWAY) - Any team that pulls out ten wins in the Big Ten most years has legitimate talent. Penn State is no different, finishing 27-11 (10-8) and 4th in the Big East. After beating Illinois twice, Purdue once, and Michigan State once, Penn State marched through the postseason and won the NIT. Especially given that we're headed up to State College, I think our Eagles are going to get their feathers plucked. There's not much else to say about this game, sadly, except that it will be a good experience for our guys to see the well-oiled Nittany Lion machine in action.
Dec. 28 (Mon) - TBA - Florida (AWAY) - Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Billy Donovan's gators won back to back national championships in 2006 and 2007. Even after losing 17.2 ppg guard Nick Calathes, Florida will return its other four starters. Again, this will be a good experience for our young Eagles, but Jeff Jones had better make sure he finds some way to keep their morale up after what seems like an inevitable blowout.
Jan. 2 (Sat) - 1:00p - Brown (AWAY) - The Eagles might've conquered Brown (in a boring ho-hum game during winter break) last year, but the Bears might be able to exact their revenge this year. Returning their three top scorers and a team with a lot of experience, the Bears should be able to improve on their 9-19 (3-11) record. The Eagles' only salvation at this point in the season would be the emergence of a previously unexpected dominant player or a team playing fundamental teamwork-oriented ball.
Jan. 4 (Mon) - 7:00p - Columbia (AWAY) - Hopefully the Eagles will be able to end their non-conference schedule on a high note. Though Columbia had a surprisingly good season last year, they still finished below .500 overall. They lost number two scorer Jason Miller. If nothing else, this should be a competitive battle. Too bad we'll all be watching it on Eagle Vision, if at all.
Annnd I'm out for the night. Hopefully I'll have some news to report for you tomorrow.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Some Thoughts on the Non-Conference Schedule - Part 1
Eagles fans, today is a beautiful day. To my delusional and basketball-starved mind, today is the first day of AU basketball season. Why? Because that road map to a third consecutive Patriot League title and NCAA Tournament berth was released today: the 2009-10 season schedule. I'm going to take some time and offer some preliminary thoughts and stats on just the non-conference portion of the schedule (in-depth analysis of the Patriot League will follow...when I get a chance to do some more research). Before I look at a game-by-game basis, I have some general thoughts on the non-conference schedule:
- It's ambitious. It's possible Jeff Jones didn't get the memo that he lost all five senior starters to graduation last year. And you know what? I'm okay with that. We've got a real young team coming in (ten out of twelve players are freshmen or sophomores). So what did Coach Jones do? He went out and scheduled not one, but two Big East teams (Georgetown and DePaul), an SEC team that won back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007 (Florida), and a Big 10 team that managed to pull off ten wins in what was arguably the best conference last year (Penn State). That's a signal to this team that Coach Jones fully expects them to be able to compete. He's getting out and getting them great experience early so that our young team will be fully tested by the time conference play opens up. Is it possible our Eagles will have PTSD by the end of non-conference play? Entirely possible. But it'll also be a confidence booster when the team gets to Patriot League play and see that Colgate and Lafayette are nothing like the major conference powerhouses they'll already have played.
- It's home game heavy. Continuing on the trend of things I'm a-okay with, the schedule this year has five more home games this season than last. Granted two of these games are exhibition games against Randolph-Macon and Catholic, but to this blue-chested fan, a chance to stand in section 115 for a few hours is a chance to stand in section 115 for a few hours. This is a move that should help the team (playing at home rarely hurts, after all). Bender Arena has become one of the best (if not the best) home court advantages in the Patriot League in recent years (13-1 last season, 24-5 over the past two season), and the Blue Crew should help keep the Eagles in the game in what will be a number of close non-conference games (Howard, UMBC, Mt. St. Mary's, Fairfield)
- It's going to be a hell of a November. Forget about easing into the season, we'll be hitting the ground running and instantly moving into a sprint. From November 16 to November 28 (12 days) we've got 6 games. For you SISers out there, that averages out to a game every other day. And these aren't gimmes by any stretch of the imagination. Mt. St. Mary's stole our lunch and ate it in front of us last year last November, handing us our only home loss, and Fairfield eked out an eight point victory on their home court. Luckily, interspersed in these games are some definitely winnable match-ups for the Eagles, which leads me to the fourth general point...
- It's important to keep in mind that this year is not last year. Does this year's team have definite talent? Yes (and in an upcoming entry, I'll detail all of it). With more size than past years' teams and a sophomore class that had a whole year to jell together, it is entirely possible we're going to have some surprises early on; we haven't seen a lot out of most of the sophomores (except for Lumpkins, who will have a lot on his shoulders this year). But as of right now, we can't assume that there's a Garrison Carr-esque player who is going to come out right away and be able to nail five threes in two minutes and erase deficits or mental mistakes. Still, there are some definitely winnable games for us, and without further adieu, let's get into it.
Nov. 3 (Tue) - 7:30p - Randolph-Macon (@AU) - Division III Randolph-Macon finished the 2008 season with a 20-6 mark and 14-2 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. While it's hard to call R-M a D3 powerhouse (mostly because the existence of such is really oxymoronic), AU would be foolish to look past this team for its D3 status. The Yellow Jackets are coming in with a similarly young team, sporting only two seniors and two juniors. Not a bad pick-up for the schedule, and much better than the leading-lambs-to-slaughter type drubbing we opened up with last year against Oklahoma.
Nov. 8 (Sun) - 4:30p - Catholic (@AU) - Our neighbors on the Red Line finished 8-6 in the D3 Landmark Conference last year and 18-10 overall. Another young team, the Cardinals only have two seniors and a junior, and I have to give the edge to AU here because of the caliber of teams that Hendra, Luptak, and the sophomores got a glimpse at last year.
Nov. 13 (Fri) - 7:00p - St. Francis (Pa.) (AWAY) - Last year, the Eagles got their first home win of the year against St. Francis (PA) in a 67-46 rout in Bender Arena. The Red Flash, who struggled mightily last season, finished 6-23 (3-15) and 11th in the Northeast Conference. The Eagles shouldn't expect to walk all over the Red Flash again this year, because those same juniors and seniors will no doubt remember the 28 point performance Garrison put up against them last year.
Nov. 16 (Mon) - 7:30p - Albany (N.Y.) (@AU) - The Eagles match up against the Great Danes for their regular season home opener. Albany, who went 15-16 (6-10) and finished 7th in the America East should be an even match-up. The Great Danes return Will Harris, one of their top scorers from a year ago, and it'll be up to Lumpkins to try to contain him in the post.
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.
Nov. 21 (Sat) - 12:00p - Fla. Atlantic (@AU) - Luckily, the Eagles should be able to rebound (in multiple senses) against the Florida Atlantic Owls. After a miserable campaign last season that saw FAU go 6-26 (2-16) and 6th in the Sun Belt East, the Owls might not prove much better this year after only returning one of their top four scorers in Shavar Richardson (11.8 ppg). Still, Mike Jarvis is a coach certainly to be respected, and he might have some tricks up his sleeve for this bird-on-bird battle.
Nov. 23 (Mon) - 7:30p - Fairfield (@AU) - The Fairfield Stags pulled off a victory in Connecticut last year thanks to ice cold three-point shooting in the second half from the Eagles (2-12). After graduating one of their top two scorers, this should be a fairly even match-up between two fairly young teams. It remains to be seen if the Stags will have another scorer step up this season, but this is definitely a game I'll look forward to watching.
Nov. 25 (Wed) - 7:30p - Manhattan (@AU) - The Jaspers (by the way, what the hell is a Jasper?) finished 16-14 (9-9 MAAC), but fell to AU 60-48 on their home court. The Eagles will look to make it two in a row against Manhattan. The Jaspers(??) lost two of their top three scorers to graduation, but they have a young crop of juniors who no doubt will try to step up and take advantage some of that increased playing time.
Nov. 28 (Sat) - 2:00p - Maryland Eastern Shore (AWAY) - Hopefully the team will get to stop at Kent Narrows to get some crab while they're out here. MD - Eastern Shore finished 7-23 (3-13) and placed 11th in a weak Mid-Eastern Conference. Unless something goes horribly wrong here, the Eagles should look forward to some she-crab victory soup after this match-up.
At this point, it's getting late, and this is already a huge entry, so I'm going to call it a night for...tonight and finish up tomorrow. That's when the meat of the non-conference schedule is, and you can bet I'll devote a lot of time to the Florida, Penn State, Georgetown, and DePaul match-ups. For tonight, I hope this hasn't run too long for all of you. Let me know if you have questions, comments, or feedback!
Until tomorrow...
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
- It's ambitious. It's possible Jeff Jones didn't get the memo that he lost all five senior starters to graduation last year. And you know what? I'm okay with that. We've got a real young team coming in (ten out of twelve players are freshmen or sophomores). So what did Coach Jones do? He went out and scheduled not one, but two Big East teams (Georgetown and DePaul), an SEC team that won back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007 (Florida), and a Big 10 team that managed to pull off ten wins in what was arguably the best conference last year (Penn State). That's a signal to this team that Coach Jones fully expects them to be able to compete. He's getting out and getting them great experience early so that our young team will be fully tested by the time conference play opens up. Is it possible our Eagles will have PTSD by the end of non-conference play? Entirely possible. But it'll also be a confidence booster when the team gets to Patriot League play and see that Colgate and Lafayette are nothing like the major conference powerhouses they'll already have played.
- It's home game heavy. Continuing on the trend of things I'm a-okay with, the schedule this year has five more home games this season than last. Granted two of these games are exhibition games against Randolph-Macon and Catholic, but to this blue-chested fan, a chance to stand in section 115 for a few hours is a chance to stand in section 115 for a few hours. This is a move that should help the team (playing at home rarely hurts, after all). Bender Arena has become one of the best (if not the best) home court advantages in the Patriot League in recent years (13-1 last season, 24-5 over the past two season), and the Blue Crew should help keep the Eagles in the game in what will be a number of close non-conference games (Howard, UMBC, Mt. St. Mary's, Fairfield)
- It's going to be a hell of a November. Forget about easing into the season, we'll be hitting the ground running and instantly moving into a sprint. From November 16 to November 28 (12 days) we've got 6 games. For you SISers out there, that averages out to a game every other day. And these aren't gimmes by any stretch of the imagination. Mt. St. Mary's stole our lunch and ate it in front of us last year last November, handing us our only home loss, and Fairfield eked out an eight point victory on their home court. Luckily, interspersed in these games are some definitely winnable match-ups for the Eagles, which leads me to the fourth general point...
- It's important to keep in mind that this year is not last year. Does this year's team have definite talent? Yes (and in an upcoming entry, I'll detail all of it). With more size than past years' teams and a sophomore class that had a whole year to jell together, it is entirely possible we're going to have some surprises early on; we haven't seen a lot out of most of the sophomores (except for Lumpkins, who will have a lot on his shoulders this year). But as of right now, we can't assume that there's a Garrison Carr-esque player who is going to come out right away and be able to nail five threes in two minutes and erase deficits or mental mistakes. Still, there are some definitely winnable games for us, and without further adieu, let's get into it.
Nov. 3 (Tue) - 7:30p - Randolph-Macon (@AU) - Division III Randolph-Macon finished the 2008 season with a 20-6 mark and 14-2 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. While it's hard to call R-M a D3 powerhouse (mostly because the existence of such is really oxymoronic), AU would be foolish to look past this team for its D3 status. The Yellow Jackets are coming in with a similarly young team, sporting only two seniors and two juniors. Not a bad pick-up for the schedule, and much better than the leading-lambs-to-slaughter type drubbing we opened up with last year against Oklahoma.
Nov. 8 (Sun) - 4:30p - Catholic (@AU) - Our neighbors on the Red Line finished 8-6 in the D3 Landmark Conference last year and 18-10 overall. Another young team, the Cardinals only have two seniors and a junior, and I have to give the edge to AU here because of the caliber of teams that Hendra, Luptak, and the sophomores got a glimpse at last year.
Nov. 13 (Fri) - 7:00p - St. Francis (Pa.) (AWAY) - Last year, the Eagles got their first home win of the year against St. Francis (PA) in a 67-46 rout in Bender Arena. The Red Flash, who struggled mightily last season, finished 6-23 (3-15) and 11th in the Northeast Conference. The Eagles shouldn't expect to walk all over the Red Flash again this year, because those same juniors and seniors will no doubt remember the 28 point performance Garrison put up against them last year.
Nov. 16 (Mon) - 7:30p - Albany (N.Y.) (@AU) - The Eagles match up against the Great Danes for their regular season home opener. Albany, who went 15-16 (6-10) and finished 7th in the America East should be an even match-up. The Great Danes return Will Harris, one of their top scorers from a year ago, and it'll be up to Lumpkins to try to contain him in the post.
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.
Nov. 21 (Sat) - 12:00p - Fla. Atlantic (@AU) - Luckily, the Eagles should be able to rebound (in multiple senses) against the Florida Atlantic Owls. After a miserable campaign last season that saw FAU go 6-26 (2-16) and 6th in the Sun Belt East, the Owls might not prove much better this year after only returning one of their top four scorers in Shavar Richardson (11.8 ppg). Still, Mike Jarvis is a coach certainly to be respected, and he might have some tricks up his sleeve for this bird-on-bird battle.
Nov. 23 (Mon) - 7:30p - Fairfield (@AU) - The Fairfield Stags pulled off a victory in Connecticut last year thanks to ice cold three-point shooting in the second half from the Eagles (2-12). After graduating one of their top two scorers, this should be a fairly even match-up between two fairly young teams. It remains to be seen if the Stags will have another scorer step up this season, but this is definitely a game I'll look forward to watching.
Nov. 25 (Wed) - 7:30p - Manhattan (@AU) - The Jaspers (by the way, what the hell is a Jasper?) finished 16-14 (9-9 MAAC), but fell to AU 60-48 on their home court. The Eagles will look to make it two in a row against Manhattan. The Jaspers(??) lost two of their top three scorers to graduation, but they have a young crop of juniors who no doubt will try to step up and take advantage some of that increased playing time.
Nov. 28 (Sat) - 2:00p - Maryland Eastern Shore (AWAY) - Hopefully the team will get to stop at Kent Narrows to get some crab while they're out here. MD - Eastern Shore finished 7-23 (3-13) and placed 11th in a weak Mid-Eastern Conference. Unless something goes horribly wrong here, the Eagles should look forward to some she-crab victory soup after this match-up.
At this point, it's getting late, and this is already a huge entry, so I'm going to call it a night for...tonight and finish up tomorrow. That's when the meat of the non-conference schedule is, and you can bet I'll devote a lot of time to the Florida, Penn State, Georgetown, and DePaul match-ups. For tonight, I hope this hasn't run too long for all of you. Let me know if you have questions, comments, or feedback!
Until tomorrow...
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Welcome to AU Basketball Central!
If you stumbled here, it's probably because you, like me, cannot get enough AU basketball, and that's why you're perusing the interwebs in August trying to find some morsel of discussion to tide you over until Bender Arena starts filling up again this fall. This blog will be pretty relaxed; it won't be pretty, and it won't always be polite, but I hope AU fans will be able to congregate here and chew the fat about our AU Eagles! Stay tuned as I continue to add things over the next week or so, and I'll be looking for contributors to add content to the blog from multiple perspectives.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
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