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!