Josh has/had every intention of running a liveblog tonight. He's having some technical difficulty. If his Internet cooperates, he'll try to get a liveblog up, but the possibility exists it may not happen. Sorry for the letdown folks!
You can follow live stats of the game here: http://livestats.prestosports.com/santaclara/mbkb/?e=of8gym7zbzu5kvkr
Sorry I can't run it tonight folks!
Looks like we're up!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
When You Cross Three Time Zones To Post A Very Solid Win, Lots of Loose Ends Get Tied Up
NB: If you don't make it to the bottom of the post, we'll be liveblogging tonight's game vs. Delaware starting shortly before the projected 11:15 PM EST tip. A free video feed will be available from Santa Clara's website as well.
Happy Holidays everyone! We were given a late present last night as AU downed the Fordham Rams 73-57 in the first round of the Cable Car Classic on the campus of Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA. Bear with me tonight as I tie up some loose ends and simultaneously try to give you a recap of this game, a preview of today's game, and some thoughts about our previous outing at #6 Pittsburgh, as we failed to adequately do that before. That's a lot of ground to cover, so without further adieu let's delve right in!
Billygoats Can't Find Their Footing in Moving Cable Cars
Without a doubt, this was one of our most solid wins of the season so far. We found a tempo, burst out to a 10-0 lead, stuck to it, and kept our opponent from finding one of their own. Fordham was riding a four-game win streak, which included an upset of St. John's from the Big East conference, and in no way would I have predicted that we would manhandle them as we did. To be fair, Fordham's three-day trip to Santa Clara could best be described as a harrowing ordeal, so that may have affected their play. Still, they were a formidable opponent for the first time in years (I believe since they left the Patriot League in 1997 they've had one winning season), and we made a statement on the West Coast. Most importantly, we proved we can take on someone our own size, as opposed to beating near-winless teams or standing up to top ten powerhouses. For the trivia buffs out there, despite Fordham being a former member of the Patriot League, this is the first time we ever played them.
There are definitely some highlights I want to touch on. First is the point guard play this game. That's right, I want to compliment our point guards, which we don't have an opportunity to do nearly enough. The Munoz and Luptake duo combined for all 40 minutes at the 1 spot, together contributing 7 points, 6 assists, and a steal. What's missing there? You may notice that not a single turnover is listed. That's right: ZERO TURNOVERS from the point this game. Additionally, they held While Danny and Steve may not be an offensive spark all the time, their ball handling skills are commendable, and with the rest of the scoring options we have, that may be enough to get us back to the Tournament this March.
Next up on my congratulatory list is Stephen Lumpkins. The Lump proved to be unstumpable yet again, posting his fourth double-double of the season with 18 points and 11 boards, plus an assist for good measure. Fordham's frontcourt was highly touted coming into the game, with forward like Chris Gaston averaging a double-double. We held Gaston to 10 points and 9 boards (just shy of that double-double), with foul trouble keeping him out for a while and Lump locking him down the rest of the time. Vlad also poured in a solid game, with 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists. He didn't lead the team, and it's good to see that he doesn't always have to - surely Fordham felt all they'd need to do to win was stop Vlad, but we had more weapons than them, and it showed.
While we were edged slightly on the boards by the Rams, 39-37, we entered the game ranked very low in the NCAA in rebounds per game, with the Rams definitely in the top 50, if not 30. We didn't kill them on the boards, but we certainly didn't let it drag us down, either. Our frontcourt proved last night they could hang with big men as good as you'll find anywhere in the Patriot League, and they did so handily.
There was one other major standout performance last night, but we'll get to that in a bit. Some things that could have been better (and I am truly loathe to criticize anything that happened in this game) was that once we smelled blood in the water, we went for it and played very aggressively - so aggressively that with 10 minutes left in the second half, Fordham was already in the double bonus. We need to limit the needless fouls, and we are fortunate that the Rams struggled mightily from the line. If they hadn't, the game might have swung differently. However from beginning to end we took control, and were never seriously threatened. In that vein, though, I was surprised that the transfer duo of Troy and Charles was relatively quiet. Ultimately, they played solid defense, pulled their weight, and kept Fordham honest, but if either of them (or hey, both) had really gone off offensively then it would have been an incredible blowout. However, the game was definitely highlighted by none other than...
Hendra Sends Resounding Message Back to New York City
NICK HENDRA! The NYC native sent a powerful message back with the Rams, scoring a career-high 22 points, 7 boards, 6 assists, and a really incredible block. He played incredibly hard and smart the entire game, set up Lump and Vlad with incredible passes, fearlessly drove to the basket without trying to be showy, and shot lights out from beyond the arc. He created his own shot, and made everyone around him better. This is the Nick Hendra we've been waiting for for over three years. If he continues to play like this, we're golden. If he continues to play half as well as this, heck, I'll be happy. Needless to say, I can safely predict that his starting spot is absolutely safe.
The Transitive Property of Basketball
While I could speak volumes about how if every game was played like this, we'd skip our way into March, I'd like to leave some room for those with a higher basketball IQ than myself to show me up in the comments. I do want to take some time, however, to talk about the most useless statistic of all in college hoops (so useless, it's practically not real): the transitive property of basketball.
So here's where I'll talk about Pitt. We lost to Pitt by 16 points. In Pitt's next game, which happened to be the Big East opener vs. #4 UConn (and I'll be transparent and say I'm from Connecticut and am a lifelong Huskies fan), the Panthers won by 16. Curious - but it gets curiouser. Vlad scored 23 of our 46 points in the loss, exactly 50%. UConn's Kemba Walker, the leading scorer in the entire NCAA, scored 31 of UConn's 66 points, pretty darn close to 50%. While I cannot find the link right now for the life of me, I distinctly remember reading an interview after the Pitt game where one of their players said that our slow, grind-it-out style reminded him of a Big East game, which I took as an utmost compliment. It's noteworthy that prior to our game, Pitt was averaging 82 points per game, and we held them to 21 below that. What does this all mean? Absolutely nothing. But for the sake of seeing if we can make something of nothing let's continue.
So as previously mentioned, Fordham's marquee win on the young season was an intra-city upset of St. John's of the Big East. They also handily Lehigh (aka the CJ McCollum show) on their home court, but I digress. Immediately after losing to Fordham, St. John's rebounded in a big way by beating West Virginia on their home court, followed by a drubbing of Northwestern at home. Coincidental that we held our own against both of those teams in recent days, no?
However, this can all be spun the other way. Sure, I could talk about a team that beat us (say, Columbia), and some team that beat them handily, and how that means we're inferior to whatever team beat the Lions. As I said, it's all rubbish. Yet it's worth noting that the RPI actually considers the transitive property noteworthy, as (correct me if I'm wrong), 25% of the calculation is the record of opponents' opponents. So when we beat Fordham, who beat St. John's, who beat two teams that beat us - well, the complex computer algorithm really likes that, and that's all I have to say on the matter.
Up Next: The Fightin' Blue Hens
OK, deep breath. Phew, we're almost done. I'm sure this entire time you've been itching to find out if we'll win the Cable Car Classic crown (which is why I provided the handy headers in case you became impatient and decided to scroll down). Well, I believe our chances are pretty good, as we lucked out with the best possible matchup (of two, so that's not saying too much) for this game. Delaware will not have the home court advantage of Santa Clara, and is also operating on eastern time, in case anyone is feeling the jet lag.
The Blue Hens (6-4) have gone 3-3 on the road so far this season, including last night's narrow 54-53 win over Santa Clara where they rallied from a 6-point halftime deficit. Their other two wins come against Hampton and Lafayette, and both were relatively close games. The losses were a little less close, and came to Ohio University, Cornell, and #10 Villanova. So while Delaware does not yet have something as solid as our Fordham win on their road resume, they are not a team to be trifled with.
The only major threat on UD's team that I can see is guard Jawan Carter, who pours in 15 ppg. Big man Jamelle Hagins rebounds about as well as Lumpkins, and has 3.8 bpg to boot. Otherwise, there are some very solid roleplayers that might not be stars in their own right, but have won their fair share of contests this season.
Needless to say, if we play like we did yesterday, this one is in the bag. However, that is far from guaranteed. Hopefully we're still fired up from yesterday's win, but if fatigue or jet lag sets in, it could hurt, and we'll have to hope that the Blue Hens find themselves in the same situation. The trick to repeating last night's success is a balanced attack, solid ball handling, and playing at our speed and not rushing the 3. A few less fouls would be nice, too, because if UD is on their game then they'll likely shoot much better from the charity stripe than Fordham. If all these things can come together, we'll find ourselves crowned Cable Car Classic champion, a dream that was dashed the one other time we participated in the Classic in the late 80's by Santa Clara in the second round. As always, let's live the dream.
The Blue Crew, Coast to Coast
Finally, I just want to point out yet again how we have the greatest fan section in the Patriot League. The advantage the Blue Crew brings officially spreads from coast to coast, as three native Californians (Lumpkins, Tony Wroblicky, and Charles Hinkle) have a homecoming of sorts this week.
EDIT: I was quite remiss in forgetting that Jordan Borucki is also from California. My apologies to Jordan and thanks to the commenter who pointed this out to me!
Below are some pictures of Lump and Tony's families absolutely rocking Santa Clara's Leavey Center. Huge kudos to the Lumpkins for bringing so many Lumpkins Patch shirts back with them from their last trip to Bender!
That's all for today, folks, and thanks for sticking with us! We'll be back tonight at 11:15 PM EST to liveblog the AU-UD game. Santa Clara is again providing a live video feed on their site for free, and we'll have all the appropriate links up tonight so everyone willing to burn the midnight oil can watch. While it's a bit of a bummer the games are so late, we had a great crowd for last night's liveblog, so a huge kudos to everyone that joined us. Time and again, you make us proud to write this blog. See you tonight, and remember: BE THERE, BE LOUD, BE BLUE! GO EAGLES!
Pro Deo Et Patria
Josh
Happy Holidays everyone! We were given a late present last night as AU downed the Fordham Rams 73-57 in the first round of the Cable Car Classic on the campus of Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA. Bear with me tonight as I tie up some loose ends and simultaneously try to give you a recap of this game, a preview of today's game, and some thoughts about our previous outing at #6 Pittsburgh, as we failed to adequately do that before. That's a lot of ground to cover, so without further adieu let's delve right in!
Billygoats Can't Find Their Footing in Moving Cable Cars
Without a doubt, this was one of our most solid wins of the season so far. We found a tempo, burst out to a 10-0 lead, stuck to it, and kept our opponent from finding one of their own. Fordham was riding a four-game win streak, which included an upset of St. John's from the Big East conference, and in no way would I have predicted that we would manhandle them as we did. To be fair, Fordham's three-day trip to Santa Clara could best be described as a harrowing ordeal, so that may have affected their play. Still, they were a formidable opponent for the first time in years (I believe since they left the Patriot League in 1997 they've had one winning season), and we made a statement on the West Coast. Most importantly, we proved we can take on someone our own size, as opposed to beating near-winless teams or standing up to top ten powerhouses. For the trivia buffs out there, despite Fordham being a former member of the Patriot League, this is the first time we ever played them.
There are definitely some highlights I want to touch on. First is the point guard play this game. That's right, I want to compliment our point guards, which we don't have an opportunity to do nearly enough. The Munoz and Luptake duo combined for all 40 minutes at the 1 spot, together contributing 7 points, 6 assists, and a steal. What's missing there? You may notice that not a single turnover is listed. That's right: ZERO TURNOVERS from the point this game. Additionally, they held While Danny and Steve may not be an offensive spark all the time, their ball handling skills are commendable, and with the rest of the scoring options we have, that may be enough to get us back to the Tournament this March.
Next up on my congratulatory list is Stephen Lumpkins. The Lump proved to be unstumpable yet again, posting his fourth double-double of the season with 18 points and 11 boards, plus an assist for good measure. Fordham's frontcourt was highly touted coming into the game, with forward like Chris Gaston averaging a double-double. We held Gaston to 10 points and 9 boards (just shy of that double-double), with foul trouble keeping him out for a while and Lump locking him down the rest of the time. Vlad also poured in a solid game, with 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists. He didn't lead the team, and it's good to see that he doesn't always have to - surely Fordham felt all they'd need to do to win was stop Vlad, but we had more weapons than them, and it showed.
While we were edged slightly on the boards by the Rams, 39-37, we entered the game ranked very low in the NCAA in rebounds per game, with the Rams definitely in the top 50, if not 30. We didn't kill them on the boards, but we certainly didn't let it drag us down, either. Our frontcourt proved last night they could hang with big men as good as you'll find anywhere in the Patriot League, and they did so handily.
There was one other major standout performance last night, but we'll get to that in a bit. Some things that could have been better (and I am truly loathe to criticize anything that happened in this game) was that once we smelled blood in the water, we went for it and played very aggressively - so aggressively that with 10 minutes left in the second half, Fordham was already in the double bonus. We need to limit the needless fouls, and we are fortunate that the Rams struggled mightily from the line. If they hadn't, the game might have swung differently. However from beginning to end we took control, and were never seriously threatened. In that vein, though, I was surprised that the transfer duo of Troy and Charles was relatively quiet. Ultimately, they played solid defense, pulled their weight, and kept Fordham honest, but if either of them (or hey, both) had really gone off offensively then it would have been an incredible blowout. However, the game was definitely highlighted by none other than...
Hendra Sends Resounding Message Back to New York City
NICK HENDRA! The NYC native sent a powerful message back with the Rams, scoring a career-high 22 points, 7 boards, 6 assists, and a really incredible block. He played incredibly hard and smart the entire game, set up Lump and Vlad with incredible passes, fearlessly drove to the basket without trying to be showy, and shot lights out from beyond the arc. He created his own shot, and made everyone around him better. This is the Nick Hendra we've been waiting for for over three years. If he continues to play like this, we're golden. If he continues to play half as well as this, heck, I'll be happy. Needless to say, I can safely predict that his starting spot is absolutely safe.
The Transitive Property of Basketball
While I could speak volumes about how if every game was played like this, we'd skip our way into March, I'd like to leave some room for those with a higher basketball IQ than myself to show me up in the comments. I do want to take some time, however, to talk about the most useless statistic of all in college hoops (so useless, it's practically not real): the transitive property of basketball.
So here's where I'll talk about Pitt. We lost to Pitt by 16 points. In Pitt's next game, which happened to be the Big East opener vs. #4 UConn (and I'll be transparent and say I'm from Connecticut and am a lifelong Huskies fan), the Panthers won by 16. Curious - but it gets curiouser. Vlad scored 23 of our 46 points in the loss, exactly 50%. UConn's Kemba Walker, the leading scorer in the entire NCAA, scored 31 of UConn's 66 points, pretty darn close to 50%. While I cannot find the link right now for the life of me, I distinctly remember reading an interview after the Pitt game where one of their players said that our slow, grind-it-out style reminded him of a Big East game, which I took as an utmost compliment. It's noteworthy that prior to our game, Pitt was averaging 82 points per game, and we held them to 21 below that. What does this all mean? Absolutely nothing. But for the sake of seeing if we can make something of nothing let's continue.
So as previously mentioned, Fordham's marquee win on the young season was an intra-city upset of St. John's of the Big East. They also handily Lehigh (aka the CJ McCollum show) on their home court, but I digress. Immediately after losing to Fordham, St. John's rebounded in a big way by beating West Virginia on their home court, followed by a drubbing of Northwestern at home. Coincidental that we held our own against both of those teams in recent days, no?
However, this can all be spun the other way. Sure, I could talk about a team that beat us (say, Columbia), and some team that beat them handily, and how that means we're inferior to whatever team beat the Lions. As I said, it's all rubbish. Yet it's worth noting that the RPI actually considers the transitive property noteworthy, as (correct me if I'm wrong), 25% of the calculation is the record of opponents' opponents. So when we beat Fordham, who beat St. John's, who beat two teams that beat us - well, the complex computer algorithm really likes that, and that's all I have to say on the matter.
Up Next: The Fightin' Blue Hens
OK, deep breath. Phew, we're almost done. I'm sure this entire time you've been itching to find out if we'll win the Cable Car Classic crown (which is why I provided the handy headers in case you became impatient and decided to scroll down). Well, I believe our chances are pretty good, as we lucked out with the best possible matchup (of two, so that's not saying too much) for this game. Delaware will not have the home court advantage of Santa Clara, and is also operating on eastern time, in case anyone is feeling the jet lag.
The Blue Hens (6-4) have gone 3-3 on the road so far this season, including last night's narrow 54-53 win over Santa Clara where they rallied from a 6-point halftime deficit. Their other two wins come against Hampton and Lafayette, and both were relatively close games. The losses were a little less close, and came to Ohio University, Cornell, and #10 Villanova. So while Delaware does not yet have something as solid as our Fordham win on their road resume, they are not a team to be trifled with.
The only major threat on UD's team that I can see is guard Jawan Carter, who pours in 15 ppg. Big man Jamelle Hagins rebounds about as well as Lumpkins, and has 3.8 bpg to boot. Otherwise, there are some very solid roleplayers that might not be stars in their own right, but have won their fair share of contests this season.
Needless to say, if we play like we did yesterday, this one is in the bag. However, that is far from guaranteed. Hopefully we're still fired up from yesterday's win, but if fatigue or jet lag sets in, it could hurt, and we'll have to hope that the Blue Hens find themselves in the same situation. The trick to repeating last night's success is a balanced attack, solid ball handling, and playing at our speed and not rushing the 3. A few less fouls would be nice, too, because if UD is on their game then they'll likely shoot much better from the charity stripe than Fordham. If all these things can come together, we'll find ourselves crowned Cable Car Classic champion, a dream that was dashed the one other time we participated in the Classic in the late 80's by Santa Clara in the second round. As always, let's live the dream.
The Blue Crew, Coast to Coast
Finally, I just want to point out yet again how we have the greatest fan section in the Patriot League. The advantage the Blue Crew brings officially spreads from coast to coast, as three native Californians (Lumpkins, Tony Wroblicky, and Charles Hinkle) have a homecoming of sorts this week.
EDIT: I was quite remiss in forgetting that Jordan Borucki is also from California. My apologies to Jordan and thanks to the commenter who pointed this out to me!
Below are some pictures of Lump and Tony's families absolutely rocking Santa Clara's Leavey Center. Huge kudos to the Lumpkins for bringing so many Lumpkins Patch shirts back with them from their last trip to Bender!
 |
| The signs speak for themselves |
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| "Cali Boys Welcome Home" |
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| Next season I can see Tony the Tiger becoming a fast moniker |
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| Incredible excitement from a sizable AU section for a game played 3,000 miles from home |
Pro Deo Et Patria
Josh
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
Eagles Swoop Into a Surprisingly Competitive Cable Car Classic
This year's Cable Car Classic, at first glance, had all the excitement of taking your dog to the senior prom. Considering the four teams involved this year (Santa Clara, Fordham, Delaware, AU) posted a combined 31-88 record last year, I figured AU's revamped and reloaded lineup would make this a pretty easy invitational win for the Eagles. Well. It's not going to be the cakewalk I thought. This year, all four teams are over .500, including Fordham, which went a truly hideous 2-26 last year.
The Santa Clara Broncos will open up against the Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens (you can't make this stuff up) on Wednesday, and AU will take the court against the Fordham Billygoats upon the first game's conclusion. The next day, the two non-winners (let's keep it Little League here, folks) will play a consolation game, and AU and whoever wins the Delaware and Santa Clara game will play in the championship. (See how I did that? With the presumption of an AU victory? Slick, huh? I've been taking some writing classes.) For more info on the Cable Car Classic, click here.
Joking aside, this match-up with Fordham is going to be a tough one. This is a team that pulled off an upset of a pretty good St. John's team and also beat Lehigh on their home court. (The former achievement certainly trumps the latter, but if Lehigh is a team in our comparison basket, it doesn't bode well for us). With four players in double figures, the Billygoats can get production from almost any of their starters. They're averaging a tremendous 40 boards a game and have an 8 rebound margin on their opponents. They also average 4.5 blocks per game. The frontcourt here, anchored by Chris Gaston (who averages a double-double with ~16 points, 12 boards, and almost 2 blocks a game), is beastly. Lump will have his work cut out for him again against this big man, who has really turned it on in his past 3 games and put up over 20 in each. The backcourt, led by redshirt senior Brenton Butler, has a lot of experience as well. This will be a really physical matchup for our guards. We'll need some of Luptak's vaunted defense to try to limit Butler's effectiveness. Troy will also need to come out on the perimeter and try and get in the passing lanes with his long arms.
Vlad will really be the key here. Gaston is tremendous down low, but he and Lump will battle all night. Will Vlad be able to get around the smaller, quicker defender that will assuredly be on him? There won't really be anyone else in the paint that Fordham can spare to take Vlad, so if he can get his inside game going, that will be a big boon for the Eagles. Will his shot selection be smart? Will he take over the game in the way we know he can? Hard to say. We'll have to wait and see.
For the second game, neither Santa Clara nor UDel will be a cupcake. I think I'd rather see us have to play the Blue Hens. Jawan Carter is a potential CAA Player of the Year candidate, but the rest of the team is comprised of roleplayers. I like our odds if we can put Troy on Carter and make someone else on the team step up. I like those odds much better than I do those of us handling the inside-outside duo of Kevin Foster and Marc Trasolini, but we'll cross that bridge when and if we get to it.
We won't be liveblogging this game as it goes on at 11:15p on Wednesday night and we all have bedtimes. We'll keep you updated with a recap though!
What are your thoughts on our prospects for the Cable Car Classic? Leave it in the comments!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
The Santa Clara Broncos will open up against the Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens (you can't make this stuff up) on Wednesday, and AU will take the court against the Fordham Billygoats upon the first game's conclusion. The next day, the two non-winners (let's keep it Little League here, folks) will play a consolation game, and AU and whoever wins the Delaware and Santa Clara game will play in the championship. (See how I did that? With the presumption of an AU victory? Slick, huh? I've been taking some writing classes.) For more info on the Cable Car Classic, click here.
Joking aside, this match-up with Fordham is going to be a tough one. This is a team that pulled off an upset of a pretty good St. John's team and also beat Lehigh on their home court. (The former achievement certainly trumps the latter, but if Lehigh is a team in our comparison basket, it doesn't bode well for us). With four players in double figures, the Billygoats can get production from almost any of their starters. They're averaging a tremendous 40 boards a game and have an 8 rebound margin on their opponents. They also average 4.5 blocks per game. The frontcourt here, anchored by Chris Gaston (who averages a double-double with ~16 points, 12 boards, and almost 2 blocks a game), is beastly. Lump will have his work cut out for him again against this big man, who has really turned it on in his past 3 games and put up over 20 in each. The backcourt, led by redshirt senior Brenton Butler, has a lot of experience as well. This will be a really physical matchup for our guards. We'll need some of Luptak's vaunted defense to try to limit Butler's effectiveness. Troy will also need to come out on the perimeter and try and get in the passing lanes with his long arms.
Vlad will really be the key here. Gaston is tremendous down low, but he and Lump will battle all night. Will Vlad be able to get around the smaller, quicker defender that will assuredly be on him? There won't really be anyone else in the paint that Fordham can spare to take Vlad, so if he can get his inside game going, that will be a big boon for the Eagles. Will his shot selection be smart? Will he take over the game in the way we know he can? Hard to say. We'll have to wait and see.
For the second game, neither Santa Clara nor UDel will be a cupcake. I think I'd rather see us have to play the Blue Hens. Jawan Carter is a potential CAA Player of the Year candidate, but the rest of the team is comprised of roleplayers. I like our odds if we can put Troy on Carter and make someone else on the team step up. I like those odds much better than I do those of us handling the inside-outside duo of Kevin Foster and Marc Trasolini, but we'll cross that bridge when and if we get to it.
We won't be liveblogging this game as it goes on at 11:15p on Wednesday night and we all have bedtimes. We'll keep you updated with a recap though!
What are your thoughts on our prospects for the Cable Car Classic? Leave it in the comments!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Friday, December 24, 2010
I know, I know, I owe you recaps
So I know I dropped the ball on not doing recaps for the last two games. At this point, I'm not going to bother, but I'll get back on track with the Cable Car Classic Invitational. Feel free to use this as your comment thread for anything between now and then.
Hope everyone who is celebrating it has a very Merry Christmas. AU students, enjoy your winter break! And to all of the AUHoops fans out there, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We'll talk to you soon, and don't worry, we'll gear up and be prepared for Patriot League play coverage. Things have been crazy with Christmas preparations, etc.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Hope everyone who is celebrating it has a very Merry Christmas. AU students, enjoy your winter break! And to all of the AUHoops fans out there, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We'll talk to you soon, and don't worry, we'll gear up and be prepared for Patriot League play coverage. Things have been crazy with Christmas preparations, etc.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
In A Pitt of Despair
Check back shortly for a rousing preview of tomorrow's 7:00 PM tilt with the #6/6 Pittsburgh Panthers, then head back over for the liveblog which will launch shortly before 7.
Note from Bill: Hi AUHoops fans! Not sure if we're liveblogging tonight or not. I won't be able to. If Josh can, I'm sure he'll let you know in his preview. If you're here around 7 and don't see a usual liveblog post, it means no liveblog. Sorry about that!
Note from Josh: Unfortunately my best efforts to provide said rousing preview are being thwarted by an internet connection that can best be described as "tenuous." We have our fingers crossed we'll be here at 7 for the liveblog, where we'll provide all the info you ever wanted to know about how AU will overcome all odds to trounce the Panthers this evening. If that fails, then we'll be back with our best attempt to make it up to you with a mind-blowing recap. Also as one anonymous reader helpfully pointed out, the game will be streamed live on ESPN3.com, and the gametracker can be found here. I'll also point you to a (quite clever) post from Pitt blog Genac Attack, which predicts our victory with a novel and 100% accurate approach to game analysis. I'll leave you with reader TexasAU06's regular Keys to Victory post, which is practically a regular feature of the blog at this point. Thanks TexasAU06!
Keys to Victory:
- 4 players score in double digits with Vlad scoring 20+ and Lump with double double with more than 15+ points
- AU out rebounds Pitt
- AU leads with 5 minutes left in the game
- AU leads at half time (not a for sure indicator that we'll win but the only game Pitt has lost was when they were also losing at half time)
- Also in the only game that Pitt has lost the othe team scored over 80 points. Pitt currently averages 82 points a game, so If AU can score more than 80 points we should be in position to win.
- AU will also have to be shooting over 37% (EDITOR'S NOTE: I'd say over 50%)
Keys to Moral Victory:
- Not lose by 20
- Hold Pitt to under 82 points
Note from Bill: Hi AUHoops fans! Not sure if we're liveblogging tonight or not. I won't be able to. If Josh can, I'm sure he'll let you know in his preview. If you're here around 7 and don't see a usual liveblog post, it means no liveblog. Sorry about that!
Note from Josh: Unfortunately my best efforts to provide said rousing preview are being thwarted by an internet connection that can best be described as "tenuous." We have our fingers crossed we'll be here at 7 for the liveblog, where we'll provide all the info you ever wanted to know about how AU will overcome all odds to trounce the Panthers this evening. If that fails, then we'll be back with our best attempt to make it up to you with a mind-blowing recap. Also as one anonymous reader helpfully pointed out, the game will be streamed live on ESPN3.com, and the gametracker can be found here. I'll also point you to a (quite clever) post from Pitt blog Genac Attack, which predicts our victory with a novel and 100% accurate approach to game analysis. I'll leave you with reader TexasAU06's regular Keys to Victory post, which is practically a regular feature of the blog at this point. Thanks TexasAU06!
Keys to Victory:
- 4 players score in double digits with Vlad scoring 20+ and Lump with double double with more than 15+ points
- AU out rebounds Pitt
- AU leads with 5 minutes left in the game
- AU leads at half time (not a for sure indicator that we'll win but the only game Pitt has lost was when they were also losing at half time)
- Also in the only game that Pitt has lost the othe team scored over 80 points. Pitt currently averages 82 points a game, so If AU can score more than 80 points we should be in position to win.
- AU will also have to be shooting over 37% (EDITOR'S NOTE: I'd say over 50%)
Keys to Moral Victory:
- Not lose by 20
- Hold Pitt to under 82 points
Monday, December 20, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Robert Burke's Knowledge About JJ's System Won't Spare His Team a Loss
Goooood evening AU Hoops fans. Hope you're all doing well and have been enjoying your weekend! I'm here to preview tomorrow night's matchup with the Mountaineers of Mt. St. Mary's, which is at 7pm and isn't televised. We'll most likely have a liveblog here per our usual routine.
On paper this is a game that AU should win. The Mount has struggled its way to a 3-8 record and was just blown out playing in Albany 77-57 to a team that we beat by 16 points. By the transitive property, which we all know is rock solid in college basketball, it means we will beat Mt. St. Mary's by 36. Take it to your bookie and bet your house on it.
The Mountaineers have four guys averaging around double figures, but none of them is particularly impressive. Hopefully our backcourt will have a good game against guards that are on their level. Lamar Trice handles the ball extremely well, but he's undersized, even compared to our guards. Hopefully we can keep bodies in front of him and keep him from doing too much on the offensive end.
Look for Lumpkins to rebound (get it?) in this game against an undersized Mount team without a formidable front court. The Unstumpable One was thoroughly stumped against Northwestern, and you have to hope it was just a hiccup or a disagreement he has with the Chicago air.
For the season, Mt. St. Mary's is shooting just 41% from the field. This bodes well for an AU defense that does a good job (usually) limiting its opponents shots and forcing them to take 2nd or 3rd choices in shot selection. Hopefully we can drive that number down to the 35% range and really confound Robert Burke's team on the offensive end.
On our offensive end, I think we're going to have too many weapons for the Mountaineers to keep up with. Inside or outside, I think we're going to overwhelm this team, which gives up an average of 66 a game.
Be on the lookout for whether Hinkle moves into the starting lineup tomorrow night. Some commenters have guessed that he will, but I'll be surprised, and a little disappointed, if Hendra losing his starter status in favor of the newcomer.
We'll see you here tomorrow night!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
On paper this is a game that AU should win. The Mount has struggled its way to a 3-8 record and was just blown out playing in Albany 77-57 to a team that we beat by 16 points. By the transitive property, which we all know is rock solid in college basketball, it means we will beat Mt. St. Mary's by 36. Take it to your bookie and bet your house on it.
The Mountaineers have four guys averaging around double figures, but none of them is particularly impressive. Hopefully our backcourt will have a good game against guards that are on their level. Lamar Trice handles the ball extremely well, but he's undersized, even compared to our guards. Hopefully we can keep bodies in front of him and keep him from doing too much on the offensive end.
Look for Lumpkins to rebound (get it?) in this game against an undersized Mount team without a formidable front court. The Unstumpable One was thoroughly stumped against Northwestern, and you have to hope it was just a hiccup or a disagreement he has with the Chicago air.
For the season, Mt. St. Mary's is shooting just 41% from the field. This bodes well for an AU defense that does a good job (usually) limiting its opponents shots and forcing them to take 2nd or 3rd choices in shot selection. Hopefully we can drive that number down to the 35% range and really confound Robert Burke's team on the offensive end.
On our offensive end, I think we're going to have too many weapons for the Mountaineers to keep up with. Inside or outside, I think we're going to overwhelm this team, which gives up an average of 66 a game.
Be on the lookout for whether Hinkle moves into the starting lineup tomorrow night. Some commenters have guessed that he will, but I'll be surprised, and a little disappointed, if Hendra losing his starter status in favor of the newcomer.
We'll see you here tomorrow night!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Friday, December 17, 2010
When You Keep It Incredibly Close For Twenty Minutes But Can't Hold Out Past Halftime This Is The Recap That Ensues
Don't miss Bill's excellent recap below, but here's some folks I ran into on the street discussing yesterday's game:
Things I Think About a Game I Didn't See
Woo. Took me long enough to get this up, eh? So I didn't see the game last night. I'm going off of what I read through various recaps and the box score. Take this analysis with a grain of salt, I guess. I'm hoping you'll bail me out and post in the comments what you saw or heard last night. Or don't. It's Friday night after all.
Anyway. Some things I think.
- Glad to see Vlad's shot selection change a little bit last night. He was successful WITHOUT the long ball (only attempted two 3's and hit one of them). Still, he was the team's leading scorer with 21. Vlad lately has been relying too much on the long ball. This hopefully is a good reminder to him that he can score, at a serious clip, within the arc.
- Lump's foul trouble really hurt us inside last night. With 6 points and 1 rebound, this is definitely his worst game of the season. It's curious to me that he only played 14 minutes and yet Fisher and Wroblicky combined for just 8 minutes. I'm guessing they moved Vlad over to the 5 and put Hinkle at the 4 (since Hinkle had 24 minutes). Strange lineup. Tony Wroblicky's minutes have really dropped off lately. We saw him a lot at the beginning of the season, but he started to fall off a bit and now we don't see him much at all. Disappointing, but I hope that he can battle through and earn some more minutes as we get to PL play.
- Another solid game out of Troy Brewer last night. There's a rumor he even dunked the ball and didn't get a technical. Jokes aside, a very respectable stat line from him last night.
- To be within 4 of this Northwestern team at halftime is something that should be applauded. I didn't think there was much chance of us pulling this game out, and, well, we didn't pull this game out. You do have to wonder why the second half woes that we had so badly last year are creeping back on us again. AU appears to have come out flat after halftime. Northwestern started the 2nd half with a 22-6 run. Oof. Brutal.
- This is a Northwestern team that is very, very talented. Shurna is going to make a solid run for 1st team Big 10, and Michael Thompson is having a great season as well. Aside from those two we did a pretty good job on defense (holding them to 8-22). But, well, those two are a pretty big part of the offense so I guess it's a wash analysis.
- Nice game from Simon last night. As I mentioned in the last recap, his minutes are going to be reduced. To get 4 points, 3 boards, and 3 assists in 13 minutes says to Jeff Jones, "I'm productive, you've got to find me some minutes." Having Lump in foul trouble last night opened up some time for Simon by way of shifting Hinkle over.
Anyway, that's all I've got. What did you all see and want to share? Are we excited for Mt. St. Mary's on Monday?
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Anyway. Some things I think.
- Glad to see Vlad's shot selection change a little bit last night. He was successful WITHOUT the long ball (only attempted two 3's and hit one of them). Still, he was the team's leading scorer with 21. Vlad lately has been relying too much on the long ball. This hopefully is a good reminder to him that he can score, at a serious clip, within the arc.
- Lump's foul trouble really hurt us inside last night. With 6 points and 1 rebound, this is definitely his worst game of the season. It's curious to me that he only played 14 minutes and yet Fisher and Wroblicky combined for just 8 minutes. I'm guessing they moved Vlad over to the 5 and put Hinkle at the 4 (since Hinkle had 24 minutes). Strange lineup. Tony Wroblicky's minutes have really dropped off lately. We saw him a lot at the beginning of the season, but he started to fall off a bit and now we don't see him much at all. Disappointing, but I hope that he can battle through and earn some more minutes as we get to PL play.
- Another solid game out of Troy Brewer last night. There's a rumor he even dunked the ball and didn't get a technical. Jokes aside, a very respectable stat line from him last night.
- To be within 4 of this Northwestern team at halftime is something that should be applauded. I didn't think there was much chance of us pulling this game out, and, well, we didn't pull this game out. You do have to wonder why the second half woes that we had so badly last year are creeping back on us again. AU appears to have come out flat after halftime. Northwestern started the 2nd half with a 22-6 run. Oof. Brutal.
- This is a Northwestern team that is very, very talented. Shurna is going to make a solid run for 1st team Big 10, and Michael Thompson is having a great season as well. Aside from those two we did a pretty good job on defense (holding them to 8-22). But, well, those two are a pretty big part of the offense so I guess it's a wash analysis.
- Nice game from Simon last night. As I mentioned in the last recap, his minutes are going to be reduced. To get 4 points, 3 boards, and 3 assists in 13 minutes says to Jeff Jones, "I'm productive, you've got to find me some minutes." Having Lump in foul trouble last night opened up some time for Simon by way of shifting Hinkle over.
Anyway, that's all I've got. What did you all see and want to share? Are we excited for Mt. St. Mary's on Monday?
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Thursday, December 16, 2010
The Northwestern Wildcats Are Neither Feline Nor From the Northwest. Discuss.
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| I have it on good word that this is Northwestern's mascot |
This match-up tonight is going to be tough. This Northwestern team ain't DePaul. I'll tell you that right now. They're the reverse of the Retrievers at an undefeated 6-0 and ranked 51st in the country according to Ken Pomeroy's rankings. This will be a very, very tough matchup that everyone will have to step up to pull off.
Northwestern plays the Princeton-style offense and is led by forward John Shurna who shoots an astounding 65% from long range but is an inside threat as well. Not sure who they're going to put on Shurna, but I hope it's Troy or Charles and not Vlad. I don't see Vlad playing the kind of physical defense it's going to take to limit Shurna, lest we see the return of the dreaded "Voul."
Guards Drew Crawford and Michael Thompson will probably give our backcourt fits. Each averages 15 points a game and are experts at getting the ball inside on the backdoor. Likely the best we can hope for is that Danny and Steve are able to gut it out offensively again, as Crawford and Thompson will likely run circles around them on defense. If they double on Vlad again, it should leave our guards open, and unless Northwestern watched tape of the UMBC game (as if), hopefully our dynamic duo can repeat their sharpshooting ways.
In the frontcourt, Lumpkins will have a fair matchup with center Luka Mirkovic. Lump will have to bring his A game on defense and keep his eye on the bouncing ball. Luckily, Charles may help provide the extra defensive spark with his physicality in the post that might help to break their size advantage.
This is an offense that AU doesn't have much experience playing against, so if our defense isn't up to par tonight, the possibility of that offense exacerbating the issue is high.
Let's just keep it close tonight, and if we can somehow pull off a win, it will be a huge one for this program. I know there will be quite a few AU alumni, friends, and fellow Eagles in attendance, so here's hoping they get to see some magic blow through the windy city.
Other thoughts? Someone who knows the Princeton offense better than I do want to talk about defensive keys to limiting its effectiveness?
There will be a liveblog tonight! Check in around gametime!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Some Thoughts on Putting the Dawg Pound in the Dog Pound
Goood afternoon AU Eagles fans. Hope you're all chipper today after the 66-53 victory last night over the UMBC Retrievers. Per usual, I have some thoughts to share with you, and I look forward to your thoughts in the comments.
Before I get to that, though, AU Hoops readers in the Chicago area would do well to check out this link for an AU Alumni event centered around the Northwestern-AU game. Be sure to sing the AU Fight Song! Go Eagles!
Onto last night:
- Obviously it's great that we won last night. Let me get nerdy for you for a moment. Our performance last night was kind of like the graph of y=sin(x). At the beginning, we were putrid. Completely rusty on offense, but pretty good on defense. Then things quickly improved until we hit our peak at halftime. Then things kind of descended in the second half before finally getting pretty ugly at the end. Although we did finish with a 13 point lead, we were outscored 37-31 in the 2nd half by a now 0-10 team. We continue to have a hard time closing out games for whatever reason. The first team was still in during the second half, so it wasn't like we had the second team in there giving up the, at one time, 23 point lead that we had.
- Troy Brewer. Wow. The past couple of games the guy has just been lights out. Last night he hit 3s on three straight possessions to push the lead to 17. He finished 6-12 from the field, including 4-8 from long range for 18 points, a team-high. He also had 7 boards and 2 assists and no turnovers in 33 minutes. Really, really nice game from Troy last night. The one bad part was that he picked up his 2nd technical of the season after going in for a jam late in the 2nd half and then saying something to/staring at the defender who fouled him on his way up. These are too soft T's, to be sure, hanging on the rim a bit too long and saying what appeared to be "good foul" to the defender, but Troy needs to watch it. Wouldn't want one of these T's to come back and bite us.
- Offensive explosion last night from the backcourt! Luptak and Munoz combined for 16 points on 5-5 shooting, including 4-4 from long range. Only 3 assists for the two of them, but no turnovers. Danny, especially in the first half, played tenacious defense against UMBC's De La Rosa. Great game from these two last night!
- Charles Hinkle's debut last night, and he made a strong impression. He provided a spark off the bench that ended the Eagles' offensive woes in the first half. First with a layup, then with a 3, then with a pass to, I think it was Hendra, that he made from the ground laying on his back. Hinkle ended the game with 8 points, 5 boards, 3 steals, and 2 assists. The impact he makes on the defensive end is palpable. He's athletic, quick, and has great hands. Really, really versatile. To have him down in the frontcourt with Vlad and Lump gives us size down low that no PL team will be able to handle for long. Welcome to the bunch, Charles!
- Lump picked up what has become his regular double-double last night with 11 points and 10 boards. His defense down low helped keep UMBC's Satchell and Fry to 2-11 from the field and 10 points total. He played 37 minutes and stayed out of foul trouble. He barely needed to be spelled by Daniel Fisher or Tony Wroblicky. Tony has been getting less time lately in favor of Fisher, so that's something we'll keep an eye on.
- Not sure if Simon McCormack was sick last night or unable to play, etc. He was on the bench and suited up, but he never got into the game. Unfortunately for him I think Hinkle's minutes are going to come from Simon. But it's comforting to know that Simon, who always seems to make the right play and is able to provide a spark and good decision-making off the bench, is there in case things go wrong.
- Defense last night from 1st half to 2nd was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-esque. In the first half we held them to 25% from the field, 14% from behind the arc, and to only 6 FT attempts. UMBC went into halftime with just 16 points. A truly tremendous defensive effort from the Eagles. The second half? More of a fall to earth. UMBC shot 52%, 57% from 3, and attempted 17 FTs for 37 points. True, this is partially attributable to their backcourt having a great game (King and De La Rosa shot 13-25 from the field and combined for 38 of 53 points, the rest of the team shot just 3-16), but we could've done a little better there.
- Overall, this was a game we expected to win. We showed off a lot of weapons last night and scored a bunch of points in the last 12 minutes of the first half. We did well even on a night when Vlad didn't play so hot (2-10, 9 points total). But Jeff Jones said at the half that he wanted to be "greedy" with how this team played in the 2nd half. I didn't see a team that wanted to be greedy, I saw a team that kind of coasted to a victory against a hapless opponent. Maybe they were displaying good sportsmanship or something.
Your thoughts about the game last night? And how do you think we'll match up with Northwestern?
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Before I get to that, though, AU Hoops readers in the Chicago area would do well to check out this link for an AU Alumni event centered around the Northwestern-AU game. Be sure to sing the AU Fight Song! Go Eagles!
Onto last night:
- Obviously it's great that we won last night. Let me get nerdy for you for a moment. Our performance last night was kind of like the graph of y=sin(x). At the beginning, we were putrid. Completely rusty on offense, but pretty good on defense. Then things quickly improved until we hit our peak at halftime. Then things kind of descended in the second half before finally getting pretty ugly at the end. Although we did finish with a 13 point lead, we were outscored 37-31 in the 2nd half by a now 0-10 team. We continue to have a hard time closing out games for whatever reason. The first team was still in during the second half, so it wasn't like we had the second team in there giving up the, at one time, 23 point lead that we had.
- Troy Brewer. Wow. The past couple of games the guy has just been lights out. Last night he hit 3s on three straight possessions to push the lead to 17. He finished 6-12 from the field, including 4-8 from long range for 18 points, a team-high. He also had 7 boards and 2 assists and no turnovers in 33 minutes. Really, really nice game from Troy last night. The one bad part was that he picked up his 2nd technical of the season after going in for a jam late in the 2nd half and then saying something to/staring at the defender who fouled him on his way up. These are too soft T's, to be sure, hanging on the rim a bit too long and saying what appeared to be "good foul" to the defender, but Troy needs to watch it. Wouldn't want one of these T's to come back and bite us.
- Offensive explosion last night from the backcourt! Luptak and Munoz combined for 16 points on 5-5 shooting, including 4-4 from long range. Only 3 assists for the two of them, but no turnovers. Danny, especially in the first half, played tenacious defense against UMBC's De La Rosa. Great game from these two last night!
- Charles Hinkle's debut last night, and he made a strong impression. He provided a spark off the bench that ended the Eagles' offensive woes in the first half. First with a layup, then with a 3, then with a pass to, I think it was Hendra, that he made from the ground laying on his back. Hinkle ended the game with 8 points, 5 boards, 3 steals, and 2 assists. The impact he makes on the defensive end is palpable. He's athletic, quick, and has great hands. Really, really versatile. To have him down in the frontcourt with Vlad and Lump gives us size down low that no PL team will be able to handle for long. Welcome to the bunch, Charles!
- Lump picked up what has become his regular double-double last night with 11 points and 10 boards. His defense down low helped keep UMBC's Satchell and Fry to 2-11 from the field and 10 points total. He played 37 minutes and stayed out of foul trouble. He barely needed to be spelled by Daniel Fisher or Tony Wroblicky. Tony has been getting less time lately in favor of Fisher, so that's something we'll keep an eye on.
- Not sure if Simon McCormack was sick last night or unable to play, etc. He was on the bench and suited up, but he never got into the game. Unfortunately for him I think Hinkle's minutes are going to come from Simon. But it's comforting to know that Simon, who always seems to make the right play and is able to provide a spark and good decision-making off the bench, is there in case things go wrong.
- Defense last night from 1st half to 2nd was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-esque. In the first half we held them to 25% from the field, 14% from behind the arc, and to only 6 FT attempts. UMBC went into halftime with just 16 points. A truly tremendous defensive effort from the Eagles. The second half? More of a fall to earth. UMBC shot 52%, 57% from 3, and attempted 17 FTs for 37 points. True, this is partially attributable to their backcourt having a great game (King and De La Rosa shot 13-25 from the field and combined for 38 of 53 points, the rest of the team shot just 3-16), but we could've done a little better there.
- Overall, this was a game we expected to win. We showed off a lot of weapons last night and scored a bunch of points in the last 12 minutes of the first half. We did well even on a night when Vlad didn't play so hot (2-10, 9 points total). But Jeff Jones said at the half that he wanted to be "greedy" with how this team played in the 2nd half. I didn't see a team that wanted to be greedy, I saw a team that kind of coasted to a victory against a hapless opponent. Maybe they were displaying good sportsmanship or something.
Your thoughts about the game last night? And how do you think we'll match up with Northwestern?
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Eagles Ready to Retrieve Sixth Victory In Baltimore
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| Sit! Stay! |
After a string of three heartbreaking losses, our Eagles could certainly use a cupcake about now to get their spirits up. Sure, after a 5-0 start there's still little to complain about, and the losses to WVU and Florida weren't all that bad. Of course, our inability to put Columbia away is still smarting a bit, but I digress. This evening AU soars into UMBC (0-9) looking to produce its sixth win of the young season.
While I'm hesitant to call this game a cakewalk, there is little doubt in my mind that we'll be able to find victory in Baltimore. We'll have to bring it to them for the full 40 minutes without "playing down" to what we think is an abysmal record, as we have yet to truly blow out a struggling team this season. Frankly, unless we are able to enter this game with the same intensity that we brought to WVU and Florida, the Retrievers may even be able to make it closer than I am comfortable with. Fortunately, we've been off since December 5th for final exams and everyone should be well rested and ready to go, and the proximity of Baltimore means that travel will be light.
The Sweet, Sweet Revenge Tour also resumes this evening, as UMBC took a narrow 59-57 decision from us in Bender Arena last season. It was only the second game of the Vlad era, and was slightly disappointing after our solid thrashing of DePaul. Needless to say, if I were Vlad I'd have a chip on my shoulder and be ready to get out there and impale my brains out.
Another big transfer milestone is also marked with this game, as Charles Hinkle officially becomes eligible to hit the court. While I don't expect him to put up Vlad-level numbers on his first night out, he'll certainly make an impact. Athletics cleverly avoided mentioning this in their game notes, but I'm sure UMBC knows what's coming. Of course, they also wrote that Troy Brewer leads the team with 8.8 rebounds per game (it's Lumpkins), so who knows what they know. Like Vlad's first game against DePaul, I doubt Charles will start, so for now the usual starting lineup of Luptak, Hendra, Troy, Vlad, and Lumpkins should be expected. Who Charles takes the most minutes from off the bench is still a mystery to me, but I'm sure a fire will be lit under the collective behinds of about three to four players who know that if they perform poorly they'll be out for a while.
So what will our new dream team have to defend against? Not unexpectedly, UMBC features a duo of high-scoring guards in Chris De La Rosa and Travis King. Both average almost 14 ppg, and limiting their ability to slash inside will be important to winning this game. Frankly, King's 6'2" 215 lb. frame might be too much for either Danny or Steve to handle, so Hendra might be the only one able to guard him at the two. Chris De La Rosa is a much more manageable 5'10" 170 lb. and hopefully won't outplay our backcourt too heavily. On the large end, only 6'10" 230 lb. forward Justin Fry and 6'9" 210 lb. Laurence Jolicoeur look to be able to compete with our frontcourt, and our ability to dominate the post might be the key to winning this game (as opposed to shooting thirty or forty threes, unless we lucky enough to be lights out). Fortunately, if we do decided to go this route, Troy Brewer has made 17 of his last 46 attempts from downtown (47.2%), living up to his reputation as a sharpshooter after a relatively slow start in his first few games. Still, that should not be our strategy for winning this game with the size advantage (and likely speed deficiency) we have against this UMBC team. Fortunately, UMBC has been giving up an average of 84 ppg over their last nine contests, while scoring only 66 ppg. If we can keep the game at our pace, while we might not hit 84, we should certainly be able to keep UMBC under 66 and come away with the W.
Another big transfer milestone is also marked with this game, as Charles Hinkle officially becomes eligible to hit the court. While I don't expect him to put up Vlad-level numbers on his first night out, he'll certainly make an impact. Athletics cleverly avoided mentioning this in their game notes, but I'm sure UMBC knows what's coming. Of course, they also wrote that Troy Brewer leads the team with 8.8 rebounds per game (it's Lumpkins), so who knows what they know. Like Vlad's first game against DePaul, I doubt Charles will start, so for now the usual starting lineup of Luptak, Hendra, Troy, Vlad, and Lumpkins should be expected. Who Charles takes the most minutes from off the bench is still a mystery to me, but I'm sure a fire will be lit under the collective behinds of about three to four players who know that if they perform poorly they'll be out for a while.
So what will our new dream team have to defend against? Not unexpectedly, UMBC features a duo of high-scoring guards in Chris De La Rosa and Travis King. Both average almost 14 ppg, and limiting their ability to slash inside will be important to winning this game. Frankly, King's 6'2" 215 lb. frame might be too much for either Danny or Steve to handle, so Hendra might be the only one able to guard him at the two. Chris De La Rosa is a much more manageable 5'10" 170 lb. and hopefully won't outplay our backcourt too heavily. On the large end, only 6'10" 230 lb. forward Justin Fry and 6'9" 210 lb. Laurence Jolicoeur look to be able to compete with our frontcourt, and our ability to dominate the post might be the key to winning this game (as opposed to shooting thirty or forty threes, unless we lucky enough to be lights out). Fortunately, if we do decided to go this route, Troy Brewer has made 17 of his last 46 attempts from downtown (47.2%), living up to his reputation as a sharpshooter after a relatively slow start in his first few games. Still, that should not be our strategy for winning this game with the size advantage (and likely speed deficiency) we have against this UMBC team. Fortunately, UMBC has been giving up an average of 84 ppg over their last nine contests, while scoring only 66 ppg. If we can keep the game at our pace, while we might not hit 84, we should certainly be able to keep UMBC under 66 and come away with the W.
Oddly enough the Retrievers feature three graduate students on their roster. Thanks to medical redshirts leaving them with a year of eligibility, Travis King joined the 12-man UMBC roster as he begins work on his masters degree after playing at GW until graduation. Similarly, forward Laurence Jolicoeur spent his four undergraduate years at Manhattan College. Forward Justin Fry completed his bachelors at UMBC and is continuing on for graduate school. Honestly, while the glut of what are essentially fifth-year seniors seems like it would be an advantage for the Retrievers (and, as stated, these are their best players), their 0-9 record says otherwise.
So that's that. Tip off is at 7:30 PM tonight in Baltimore. The game will be televised in the Mid-Atlantic region on MASN, and we'll be liveblogging right here on AUHoops if that's not colorful enough for you. See you there!
Pro Deo Et Patria and GO EAGLES!
Josh
So that's that. Tip off is at 7:30 PM tonight in Baltimore. The game will be televised in the Mid-Atlantic region on MASN, and we'll be liveblogging right here on AUHoops if that's not colorful enough for you. See you there!
Pro Deo Et Patria and GO EAGLES!
Josh
Monday, December 13, 2010
The Fans Speak: Point Guard Palooza
Often the Poll of the Week results get rolled into some post or another, but this week I think the voice of the fans deserves its own space. We asked, "Who should start at point guard?", and the results are close indeed:
Steve Luptak: 13 (25%)
Daniel Munoz: 7 (13%)
Nick Hendra: 16 (31%)
Blake Jolivette: 15 (29%)
Total Votes: 51 (100%)
Hendra leads with 16 votes, which on one hand is surprising as he is the least like a true point guard of the four. On the other hand, he is definitely the biggest offensive spark and leads the team in assists, although is ball-handling skills and knowledge of the offense from the one spot might not be as great as the others.
Neck-and-neck with Hendra is Blake Jolivette, who has only seen about a minute and a half of play time this season. We've speculated for months as to why he's been riding the pine for about a year now, as last season he shared the starting spot with Danny Munoz up until late December. A fantastic 3-point conversion at West Virginia gave fuel to the "Let Blake Play" camp, although others are quick to point out that it was in the final seconds versus WVU's scrub team. Still, with a dearth of dribble penetration from our other guards, it still holds merit.
Following closely behind Jolivette is Steve Luptak, the first candidate to actually see significant play time at the point guard position this season. He's probably the best defender of the bunch, but the weakest on offense. His ball handling skills are not as tight as Danny's, but his bigger frame helps him hold onto the ball better in tight situations, and his experience as a Senior and accompanying leadership skills get him the starting spot as of now.
Last, surprisingly, is Danny Munoz. I think Steve and Danny coming in 3rd and 4th place respectively speaks to fans' collective disappointment with how weak this position is for us right now, but I didn't expect Danny to fall behind the rest of the pack quite so much. As stated, Danny probably has the best ball-handling skills of the bunch, can hit the occasional three, and against softer teams can make it to the basket every now and then. While I think he should be higher, that's just my opinion, and if my opinion was the only one that mattered then why take a poll?
Last, I do want to mention option #5, Wayne Simon II. As he's new to the team and stands little chance of starting this season, he wasn't included in the poll. This being said, in the years to come we will likely see a lot of him. He's tiny, but quick, and from what I've seen can drive to the basket and pick much larger defenders like it's nobody's business. He has the opportunity to get a bit bigger this summer too, and the cleanup minutes he's been seeing so far have hopefully been helping him adjust to the college game. When we lose Nick and Steve to graduation after this season, we'll likely look to Wayne to step up and contribute much more, along with fellow freshman Tony Wroblicky. This team has a bright future, and Wayne will definitely be a part of it.
Thanks to everyone who voted. AUHoops only gets better when there's more voices being heard. If you have further thoughts on the point guards (and I'm sure you do), share them with us in the comments, then vote in this week's poll, "Which Patriot League opponent will be our greatest contender for the title?" We'll be back shortly with a preview of tomorrow's UMBC game.
Pro Deo Et Patria and GO EAGLES!
Josh
Daniel Munoz: 7 (13%)
Nick Hendra: 16 (31%)
Blake Jolivette: 15 (29%)
Total Votes: 51 (100%)
Hendra leads with 16 votes, which on one hand is surprising as he is the least like a true point guard of the four. On the other hand, he is definitely the biggest offensive spark and leads the team in assists, although is ball-handling skills and knowledge of the offense from the one spot might not be as great as the others.
Neck-and-neck with Hendra is Blake Jolivette, who has only seen about a minute and a half of play time this season. We've speculated for months as to why he's been riding the pine for about a year now, as last season he shared the starting spot with Danny Munoz up until late December. A fantastic 3-point conversion at West Virginia gave fuel to the "Let Blake Play" camp, although others are quick to point out that it was in the final seconds versus WVU's scrub team. Still, with a dearth of dribble penetration from our other guards, it still holds merit.
Following closely behind Jolivette is Steve Luptak, the first candidate to actually see significant play time at the point guard position this season. He's probably the best defender of the bunch, but the weakest on offense. His ball handling skills are not as tight as Danny's, but his bigger frame helps him hold onto the ball better in tight situations, and his experience as a Senior and accompanying leadership skills get him the starting spot as of now.
Last, surprisingly, is Danny Munoz. I think Steve and Danny coming in 3rd and 4th place respectively speaks to fans' collective disappointment with how weak this position is for us right now, but I didn't expect Danny to fall behind the rest of the pack quite so much. As stated, Danny probably has the best ball-handling skills of the bunch, can hit the occasional three, and against softer teams can make it to the basket every now and then. While I think he should be higher, that's just my opinion, and if my opinion was the only one that mattered then why take a poll?
Last, I do want to mention option #5, Wayne Simon II. As he's new to the team and stands little chance of starting this season, he wasn't included in the poll. This being said, in the years to come we will likely see a lot of him. He's tiny, but quick, and from what I've seen can drive to the basket and pick much larger defenders like it's nobody's business. He has the opportunity to get a bit bigger this summer too, and the cleanup minutes he's been seeing so far have hopefully been helping him adjust to the college game. When we lose Nick and Steve to graduation after this season, we'll likely look to Wayne to step up and contribute much more, along with fellow freshman Tony Wroblicky. This team has a bright future, and Wayne will definitely be a part of it.
Thanks to everyone who voted. AUHoops only gets better when there's more voices being heard. If you have further thoughts on the point guards (and I'm sure you do), share them with us in the comments, then vote in this week's poll, "Which Patriot League opponent will be our greatest contender for the title?" We'll be back shortly with a preview of tomorrow's UMBC game.
Pro Deo Et Patria and GO EAGLES!
Josh
Friday, December 10, 2010
Sharing the Holiday Hoops Wishes
As a part of the AU community, we'd like to join in sharing AU's first-ever holiday video card with our readers. It's really impressive, and does a great job encapsulating all the things that make us great. Don't miss basketball players Vlad Moldoveanu, Jordan Borucki, and Wayne Simon II at the 00:24 mark, giving us their wish for an NCAA Tournament run this March. Hey, that's our wish too!
AUHoops hopes everyone is enjoying their holiday season, and we'll be right here with you as the men's basketball team gives us the great present of a few more wins before the New Year.
Pro Deo Et Patria and Happy Holidays,
Josh
AUHoops hopes everyone is enjoying their holiday season, and we'll be right here with you as the men's basketball team gives us the great present of a few more wins before the New Year.
Pro Deo Et Patria and Happy Holidays,
Josh
Monday, December 6, 2010
Some Odds and Ends
Just wanted to post some odds and ends related to the PL, enjoy!
From today's PL Press Release:
League Squads Dealing with Heartbreak
Patriot League teams have a 23-41 mark in non-League games this season, but nearly a third of the losses have been in games decided by five points or less. The Patriot League has a 7-13 record in games decided by five points or less this season, with Colgate taking the toughest luck with three of those close losses. Bucknell, Lafayette and Lehigh have each lost a pair of games by five points or less, while Navy has one as well as an eight-point overtime loss to MD-Eastern Shore.
From today's PL Press Release:
League Squads Dealing with Heartbreak
Patriot League teams have a 23-41 mark in non-League games this season, but nearly a third of the losses have been in games decided by five points or less. The Patriot League has a 7-13 record in games decided by five points or less this season, with Colgate taking the toughest luck with three of those close losses. Bucknell, Lafayette and Lehigh have each lost a pair of games by five points or less, while Navy has one as well as an eight-point overtime loss to MD-Eastern Shore.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
We're Like One of Those Birds That Lands in a Croc's Mouth to Clean Its Teeth Except the Croc Eats Us
Well, that was fun. AU loses its third game in a row, 67-48 against the Florida Gators at the Verizon Center. Sorry again that we didn't have the liveblog. Sometimes our schedules just aren't conducive to doing them. Unfortunately, this was one of those times. Ah well. In any event, here is the AUEagles recap, the AP recap, and the box score. For the second straight game, I'm not going to review how things went in the Good, Bad, and Ugly format. I think I'm going to abandon that format from now on, actually. Here are my reasons why, then I'll talk about the game:
First, Good, Bad, and Ugly has been decreasingly enjoyable for me to write. This is because I feel badly about labeling our players' performances either as "Bad" or "Ugly." I'm not opposed to criticizing their performances (I'm going to criticize a number of them tonight, for example), I just think it's unduly negative to categorize them as such in broad categories. Second, the Good, Bad, and Ugly format doesn't allow for nuances of description. If, for example, some aspects of a player's game were good but others were bad or ugly, it makes it difficult to do the write-up. Third, I wasn't really using the Ugly category. Because of reason one, I was never going to put a player in the Ugly category. That again made the format less useful. If anyone misses this format terribly, I'm sorry. I'll listen to compelling reasons why I should continue it, but otherwise I will probably continue without it.
On another note, I need a new name for the recap. "Random Thoughts About the Game" just doesn't have the same gravitas, so come up with something good for me.
Anyway, to the game.
First, Good, Bad, and Ugly has been decreasingly enjoyable for me to write. This is because I feel badly about labeling our players' performances either as "Bad" or "Ugly." I'm not opposed to criticizing their performances (I'm going to criticize a number of them tonight, for example), I just think it's unduly negative to categorize them as such in broad categories. Second, the Good, Bad, and Ugly format doesn't allow for nuances of description. If, for example, some aspects of a player's game were good but others were bad or ugly, it makes it difficult to do the write-up. Third, I wasn't really using the Ugly category. Because of reason one, I was never going to put a player in the Ugly category. That again made the format less useful. If anyone misses this format terribly, I'm sorry. I'll listen to compelling reasons why I should continue it, but otherwise I will probably continue without it.
On another note, I need a new name for the recap. "Random Thoughts About the Game" just doesn't have the same gravitas, so come up with something good for me.
Anyway, to the game.
Gator Wallets, Gator Boots, Gator Pants, Gator Purses, Gator Aprons...
Gooooood morning, AUHoops fans! Hope you're all doing well today. Our American University Eagles are set to face the Land Lizards of the University of Florida today at the Verizon Center as part of the BB&T classic. We don't have anyone available to run the liveblog today. Sorry about that! The game today is on MASN for those of you watching from home. Here are some previews of the game: Yahoo! Sports, AUEagles.com
Now, on paper, this is not a good matchup for us. Florida ripped us last year down in Malariaville, FL 76-60. They returned all the important contributors from that game, and from last season. That doesn't bode well for us. However, coach Billy Donovan is having some issues with his team. Namely that they're not very, well, teamly. After Florida dropped a game to the University of Central Florida on Wednesday, Coach Donovan said, "Our issues are bigger than this loss...We have a bunch of guys on the floor that make nobody better.” Ouch. Harsh words
There's no shortage of talent on this team. Kenny Boynton is a former High School First Team All-American, for example. Then you add in big men Chandler Parsons and Alex Tyrus, and a ton of depth on the bench and it amounts to "oof."
These are our keys to the game if we're going to win:
1. No slumps or scoring droughts. Against WVU we got shots in the beginning of the game, and none of them fell. I'm not saying today we need to hit every shot we take, but the ones we SHOULD make, we need to make today. You can't afford to blow easy buckets against Florida. We also can't go 3-15 from behind the arc and expect to win. Part of this is because Florida is a tremendous rebounding team, and we can't expect to get a ton of those boards off missed three point shots.
2. Tenacious defense. Central Florida upset Florida by playing lockdown defense and hassling Kenny Boynton and the rest of the Gator frontcourt. JJ's team has to bring his signature defense today. Make them work for every single shot. This team is too talented to think that we can make them shoot in the 30% range, but we can try to wear them down by making them take as much of the 35 in each possession as possible.
3. Slow the tempo down. This goes partly to number two. Last year we got into a run-and-gun game with Florida. AU, as I hardly need remind you, is not a run-and-gun team. We need to limit our turnovers so they don't get on the fast break and put up easy points. Keep the game in half-court sets and use as much time as possible and we might have a shot.
4. Our stars vs. their stars. Vlad and Lumpkins have to step up today. They're going to have a hell of a time inside banging around with Parsons and Tyrus, but they're going to need to gut it out for us to win. You can't expect our frontcourt to do much against Florida's, so we need our big guys to step up today. 8-9 Troy Brewer three-pointers wouldn't hurt either.
I'm not going to lie to you, folks. If Florida brings their A game today and play like a team, I don't give us much of a shot. But, if Florida continues their disjointed ways and AU can do 3/4 of the things I mentioned above, we might have a chance to steal one at the Verizon Center. Wouldn't that be a nice early present for the holidays?
Sorry folks, again, no liveblog today!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES (I WANT A GATOR SKIN WALLET!)
Now, on paper, this is not a good matchup for us. Florida ripped us last year down in Malariaville, FL 76-60. They returned all the important contributors from that game, and from last season. That doesn't bode well for us. However, coach Billy Donovan is having some issues with his team. Namely that they're not very, well, teamly. After Florida dropped a game to the University of Central Florida on Wednesday, Coach Donovan said, "Our issues are bigger than this loss...We have a bunch of guys on the floor that make nobody better.” Ouch. Harsh words
There's no shortage of talent on this team. Kenny Boynton is a former High School First Team All-American, for example. Then you add in big men Chandler Parsons and Alex Tyrus, and a ton of depth on the bench and it amounts to "oof."
These are our keys to the game if we're going to win:
1. No slumps or scoring droughts. Against WVU we got shots in the beginning of the game, and none of them fell. I'm not saying today we need to hit every shot we take, but the ones we SHOULD make, we need to make today. You can't afford to blow easy buckets against Florida. We also can't go 3-15 from behind the arc and expect to win. Part of this is because Florida is a tremendous rebounding team, and we can't expect to get a ton of those boards off missed three point shots.
2. Tenacious defense. Central Florida upset Florida by playing lockdown defense and hassling Kenny Boynton and the rest of the Gator frontcourt. JJ's team has to bring his signature defense today. Make them work for every single shot. This team is too talented to think that we can make them shoot in the 30% range, but we can try to wear them down by making them take as much of the 35 in each possession as possible.
3. Slow the tempo down. This goes partly to number two. Last year we got into a run-and-gun game with Florida. AU, as I hardly need remind you, is not a run-and-gun team. We need to limit our turnovers so they don't get on the fast break and put up easy points. Keep the game in half-court sets and use as much time as possible and we might have a shot.
4. Our stars vs. their stars. Vlad and Lumpkins have to step up today. They're going to have a hell of a time inside banging around with Parsons and Tyrus, but they're going to need to gut it out for us to win. You can't expect our frontcourt to do much against Florida's, so we need our big guys to step up today. 8-9 Troy Brewer three-pointers wouldn't hurt either.
I'm not going to lie to you, folks. If Florida brings their A game today and play like a team, I don't give us much of a shot. But, if Florida continues their disjointed ways and AU can do 3/4 of the things I mentioned above, we might have a chance to steal one at the Verizon Center. Wouldn't that be a nice early present for the holidays?
Sorry folks, again, no liveblog today!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES (I WANT A GATOR SKIN WALLET!)
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Some Thoughts on the WVU Game
No Good, Bad, and Ugly today. For a couple of reasons, I guess. The first is that I don't know if there's a ton I could put in the Good column, and I always feel badly about writing an article that has more criticism than praise. The second is that I'm not sure it's fair to do a Good, Bad, and Ugly based on the performance last night. Our guys were overmatched in pretty much every way. Bob Huggins has an incredibly athletic team, they play tough physical basketball. You cannot realistically be that surprised that we dropped this game against West Virginia; you just can't. The Patriot League is a very weak league, and even a great PL team (which we're not yet this season) is going to be pretty evenly matched by anyone in the Big East.
I do have some thoughts about the game though. I went back and watched it last night after missing most of it live. Anyway, here are my thoughts. I look forward to seeing yours in the comments.
- While some folks last night in the liveblog were hoping for the moral victory of keeping WVU under their season scoring average (~80), that was almost inevitable facing an AU team that plays a much slower style than a lot of other major conference teams will. It's good that we held them to 71, but Jeff Jones himself has said that shooting percentage defense is the metric by which his teams usually excel. Well, WVU shot 51% for the night last night.
- We really do not know what to do with a fast break. I find myself wishing every time we get a break that whoever is leading it will pull up and wait to get set because the ball handling/movement in the lane/finishing that we get on most of our fast breaks (Hendra excepted once or twice last night) is just reckless bordering on sad.
- The scoring drought we had in the first 10 minutes of the first half really sunk us from the very start. We had our looks, they just wouldn't drop. Much different first half if one or two of those 3's or tip-ins goes in, quiets the crowd, and pumps our guys up. Later in the game you have to give credit to WVU's defense which limited our shot selection, but our shots were there toward the beginning of the game and we didn't take advantage.
- Nice play from Blake toward the end of the game last night where slashed into the lane, double-clutched in the air and made the shot, drew contact, and hit the FT from the line. Very, very nice play. Some liveblog participants then called for more playing time for Blake and noted that he drove into the lane better than Munoz or Luptak have all year. Eh. I don't buy it. I've been critical of Danny and Steve, but I'll lay off for last night's performance. Just two turnovers combined for 38 minutes of work against the frontcourt, including Truck Bryant, of a tenacious Big East team? That's pretty good. Yes, Wayne Simon II looked fast on defense last night, but he's playing against a team with nothing to play for at the end of the game. Glad to see Blake and Wayne get some playing time. But Blake especially is not suddenly going to see his minutes skyrocket because of one good play in garbage time. I'll be curious to see what JJ does with Blake going forward (and I mean next year, not next week). If Blake works on his outside game he could maybe be converted into a Nick Hendra type player instead of a PG.
- Lump was just overmatched down low last night. From the plays I saw he was playing good defense, getting his hands in Kilicli's face and Deniz just shot right over him. Not Lump's best game, but he's got to be pushed to learn, and he's not being pushed by the big men he's faced so far this year (St. Francis aside).
- Good to see Riley get some minutes last night, but you can pretty easily see now why he hasn't gotten minutes now Daniel Fisher's hands have improved and Tony Wroblicky has come in. Riley just cannot bang inside. He didn't do it last year, and he didn't do it last night. It looks like he wants to have the kind of style that Vlad does, but he doesn't have the finesse or the touch to pull off those 18 foot shots, and he doesn't have the frame to bang inside. So he'll probably be relegated way down the depth chart for a while.
- Just want to reiterate how hard it is to play passionate defense and stay motivated when you can't sink anything on the offensive end and you keep falling farther and farther behind. Wish we'd been able to make a couple of those three point shots (when I came in, we were 1-13, oof.)
I dunno, like I said: you can't be surprised we lost last night to WVU. You can't be surprised if we lose to Florida either. Just have to keep growing as a team and improving against superior opponents.
Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
I do have some thoughts about the game though. I went back and watched it last night after missing most of it live. Anyway, here are my thoughts. I look forward to seeing yours in the comments.
- While some folks last night in the liveblog were hoping for the moral victory of keeping WVU under their season scoring average (~80), that was almost inevitable facing an AU team that plays a much slower style than a lot of other major conference teams will. It's good that we held them to 71, but Jeff Jones himself has said that shooting percentage defense is the metric by which his teams usually excel. Well, WVU shot 51% for the night last night.
- We really do not know what to do with a fast break. I find myself wishing every time we get a break that whoever is leading it will pull up and wait to get set because the ball handling/movement in the lane/finishing that we get on most of our fast breaks (Hendra excepted once or twice last night) is just reckless bordering on sad.
- The scoring drought we had in the first 10 minutes of the first half really sunk us from the very start. We had our looks, they just wouldn't drop. Much different first half if one or two of those 3's or tip-ins goes in, quiets the crowd, and pumps our guys up. Later in the game you have to give credit to WVU's defense which limited our shot selection, but our shots were there toward the beginning of the game and we didn't take advantage.
- Nice play from Blake toward the end of the game last night where slashed into the lane, double-clutched in the air and made the shot, drew contact, and hit the FT from the line. Very, very nice play. Some liveblog participants then called for more playing time for Blake and noted that he drove into the lane better than Munoz or Luptak have all year. Eh. I don't buy it. I've been critical of Danny and Steve, but I'll lay off for last night's performance. Just two turnovers combined for 38 minutes of work against the frontcourt, including Truck Bryant, of a tenacious Big East team? That's pretty good. Yes, Wayne Simon II looked fast on defense last night, but he's playing against a team with nothing to play for at the end of the game. Glad to see Blake and Wayne get some playing time. But Blake especially is not suddenly going to see his minutes skyrocket because of one good play in garbage time. I'll be curious to see what JJ does with Blake going forward (and I mean next year, not next week). If Blake works on his outside game he could maybe be converted into a Nick Hendra type player instead of a PG.
- Lump was just overmatched down low last night. From the plays I saw he was playing good defense, getting his hands in Kilicli's face and Deniz just shot right over him. Not Lump's best game, but he's got to be pushed to learn, and he's not being pushed by the big men he's faced so far this year (St. Francis aside).
- Good to see Riley get some minutes last night, but you can pretty easily see now why he hasn't gotten minutes now Daniel Fisher's hands have improved and Tony Wroblicky has come in. Riley just cannot bang inside. He didn't do it last year, and he didn't do it last night. It looks like he wants to have the kind of style that Vlad does, but he doesn't have the finesse or the touch to pull off those 18 foot shots, and he doesn't have the frame to bang inside. So he'll probably be relegated way down the depth chart for a while.
- Just want to reiterate how hard it is to play passionate defense and stay motivated when you can't sink anything on the offensive end and you keep falling farther and farther behind. Wish we'd been able to make a couple of those three point shots (when I came in, we were 1-13, oof.)
I dunno, like I said: you can't be surprised we lost last night to WVU. You can't be surprised if we lose to Florida either. Just have to keep growing as a team and improving against superior opponents.
Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
AU Eagles vs. WVU Mountaineers LIVEBLOG
It's on MASN at 7pm. This is where the liveblog will be. We'll start the liveblog around 7pm or a little before. GO EAGLES!
WVU Preview is Coming...Eventually, Maybe
So neither Josh nor I have had a chance to write a WVU preview. Real world beckons and all. Feel free to post your thoughts on the matchup in the comments, and if I can get around to it today, I'll add to this post.
If you're looking for the game tonight and you're not in the area, check out this site. There will be a liveblog tonight that either Bobby or Josh will lead; I should be there for the second half.
UPDATE: So I can't do a preview, but here's one (Thanks, Lisa).
Also, Vidulicious got word: Vlad WILL play tonight. And rejoicing commences now...
Reaaaady....GO
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
If you're looking for the game tonight and you're not in the area, check out this site. There will be a liveblog tonight that either Bobby or Josh will lead; I should be there for the second half.
UPDATE: So I can't do a preview, but here's one (Thanks, Lisa).
Also, Vidulicious got word: Vlad WILL play tonight. And rejoicing commences now...
Reaaaady....GO
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Monday, November 29, 2010
When I Still Can't Believe We Lost this Game There's GOOD, BAD, and UGLY
Wow. I'm stunned. I thought having a good night's sleep would bring me to acceptance of the fact that we dropped our first game of the season yesterday afternoon. It didn't. I'm still stunned. This was a game we had firmly in hand and then just kind of, dropped. It wasn't like there was a strong momentum shift or anything, we just let them back into the game, and then they beat us. Vlad did not play yesterday, he was in street clothes. He had a concussion, but I'm not sure where/how/when he picked that up. Hopefully he'll be back for the trip to Morgantown because the prospect of this team going down there without him when they just blew a double-digit lead to Columbia yesterday is terrifying. Anyway, the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY.
THE GOOD
Stephen Lumpkins - Lump had a rough first three or four minutes but then came on nicely and picked up another double double. He had 20 points (8-13) and 12 boards and also chipped in three blocks. He did a nice job on interior defense, and also caused a few turnovers with his quick hands. Lump has been on a roll the past few games, and this is the player we all knew had to show up for us to go far this season. Keep it up, big guy, you cannot be stumped!
Simon McCormack - Hell of a game yesterday from Simon, who played 27 minutes and was the team's third highest scorer with 13 (on 6-9 shooting). He also had six rebounds and was all over the court on defense per usual. Simon's minutes have been reduced this year, but it's good to see that he can still be a very productive player when JJ needs to call on him.
Troy Brewer - I don't know what kind of English/rotation/spin Troy puts on the ball. I do know that it makes the smoothest swishes on threes that I maybe have ever seen. The net doesn't even move when he makes these baskets. It's insane. Troy "InsertNicknameHere" Brewer fit into his recent pattern as a sniper again yesterday. He went 4-8 from 3, totaled 18 points, and also had two blocks. He also played 39 minutes and only picked up two fouls. He narrowly missed the chance to make it into the AU legendarium yesterday...with 1.7 seconds left, Hendra inbounded to Lump who kicked it to Troy in the corner. Troy's three was just a little too strong, and we dropped the game 64-62. So, so close. Good game from Troy though, his consistency is definitely improving.
Daniel Fisher - With Vlad out yesterday, Daniel Fisher got the nod over Riley Grafft to play some minutes inside. He ended up playing 13 minutes and got 4 boards and an assist. Some points would have been nice, but he did a good job setting screens on the offensive end and was pretty solid on defense as well. He ended up getting more minutes than Tony Wroblicky yesterday, which was a little surprising. Nice work from the Aussie yesterday.
THE BAD
Point Guard Play - I was at the game yesterday. I watched for the positive intangibles and non-stat sheet items that I was berated for not including in the last Good, Bad, and Ugly. I didn't see them. What I did see was a lot of sloppy ball handling from Hendra (who had an otherwise okay game, but wasn't good enough to make it into the GOOD column), Munoz, and Luptak. They combined for 9 of our 15 turnovers, and honestly there could have been a lot more. Sloppy ball handling. Passes that only just barely made it to who they were supposed to. Not good yesterday. Hence, bad.
Mike Bersch - Bersch made his first career start yesterday (Congrats!), but he didn't make much of it. He only earned 6 minutes and went 0-1 with a turnover. He still looks lost out there on defense, and on the offensive end he doesn't move well with the ball. For the moment it looks like for him to be a weapon we need to get him the ball when he's set behind the three point line. Not sure he'll get another start for a while, especially given how Simon played yesterday. Keep working, Bersch. You know you're a favorite over here. We're pulling for you, but we need to see more out of you than what you gave us yesterday.
Tony Wroblicky - Tony showed flashes of awesomeness yesterday. A nasty block, a nice hook shot fading away from the basket, but he also picked up three personal fouls in nine minutes of play. He was definitely outplayed by Daniel Fisher, who got his first significant playing time ever yesterday. We need Tony to step up to be the guy to back up Lump, ultimately he's got to be the long term option.
THE UGLY
I can't really put my finger on what caused the loss yesterday. I think it was complacency. Sitting in the stands yesterday, we had a double-digit lead, and as a fan, I never thought we'd give it up. Yeah they got close, but I just kept waiting for a Lump dunk or a Brewer three-point dagger to end their run. It didn't happen. All of a sudden it was like "Oh shit, we're down 2." And then, "Oh, SHIT. We're tied." And then, "OH SHIT!! WE'RE LOSING?" And then, finally and sadly, "Oh...shit...we lost that game. What the hell happened?" We had Columbia on the ropes and then just didn't knock them out. It seemed like we just were out there expecting to win, assuming that lead would hold. Well, we assumed wrong, and we dropped a game we definitely should have won. We looked great in stretches yesterday, even without Vlad. And then we looked completely flat. This team is still consistently inconsistent, and that's a bad thing to be with a tough road schedule coming up.
We were going to lose games this season; we knew that. But we shouldn't have lost to Columbia. I think games like this are the difference between a 14 and a 15 seed come tournament time. That assumes we win the PL Tournament, of course, but bear with me. The selection committee expects teams like AU to lose to teams like WVU, Pitt, Northwestern, and Florida. Losing to teams like that don't count too much against us. But the committee will look at the teams who are at our level and see if we beat everyone we should have. If we did that, we're more likely to get a 14, maybe even a high 14, and not a 15. Well, Columbia is a game we should've had. At home, with a double-digit lead, you win that game. I hope it doesn't come back to bite us in the ass come postseason time, assuming there is postseason time.
Thoughts from yesterday?
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
THE GOOD
Stephen Lumpkins - Lump had a rough first three or four minutes but then came on nicely and picked up another double double. He had 20 points (8-13) and 12 boards and also chipped in three blocks. He did a nice job on interior defense, and also caused a few turnovers with his quick hands. Lump has been on a roll the past few games, and this is the player we all knew had to show up for us to go far this season. Keep it up, big guy, you cannot be stumped!
Simon McCormack - Hell of a game yesterday from Simon, who played 27 minutes and was the team's third highest scorer with 13 (on 6-9 shooting). He also had six rebounds and was all over the court on defense per usual. Simon's minutes have been reduced this year, but it's good to see that he can still be a very productive player when JJ needs to call on him.
Troy Brewer - I don't know what kind of English/rotation/spin Troy puts on the ball. I do know that it makes the smoothest swishes on threes that I maybe have ever seen. The net doesn't even move when he makes these baskets. It's insane. Troy "InsertNicknameHere" Brewer fit into his recent pattern as a sniper again yesterday. He went 4-8 from 3, totaled 18 points, and also had two blocks. He also played 39 minutes and only picked up two fouls. He narrowly missed the chance to make it into the AU legendarium yesterday...with 1.7 seconds left, Hendra inbounded to Lump who kicked it to Troy in the corner. Troy's three was just a little too strong, and we dropped the game 64-62. So, so close. Good game from Troy though, his consistency is definitely improving.
Daniel Fisher - With Vlad out yesterday, Daniel Fisher got the nod over Riley Grafft to play some minutes inside. He ended up playing 13 minutes and got 4 boards and an assist. Some points would have been nice, but he did a good job setting screens on the offensive end and was pretty solid on defense as well. He ended up getting more minutes than Tony Wroblicky yesterday, which was a little surprising. Nice work from the Aussie yesterday.
THE BAD
Point Guard Play - I was at the game yesterday. I watched for the positive intangibles and non-stat sheet items that I was berated for not including in the last Good, Bad, and Ugly. I didn't see them. What I did see was a lot of sloppy ball handling from Hendra (who had an otherwise okay game, but wasn't good enough to make it into the GOOD column), Munoz, and Luptak. They combined for 9 of our 15 turnovers, and honestly there could have been a lot more. Sloppy ball handling. Passes that only just barely made it to who they were supposed to. Not good yesterday. Hence, bad.
Mike Bersch - Bersch made his first career start yesterday (Congrats!), but he didn't make much of it. He only earned 6 minutes and went 0-1 with a turnover. He still looks lost out there on defense, and on the offensive end he doesn't move well with the ball. For the moment it looks like for him to be a weapon we need to get him the ball when he's set behind the three point line. Not sure he'll get another start for a while, especially given how Simon played yesterday. Keep working, Bersch. You know you're a favorite over here. We're pulling for you, but we need to see more out of you than what you gave us yesterday.
Tony Wroblicky - Tony showed flashes of awesomeness yesterday. A nasty block, a nice hook shot fading away from the basket, but he also picked up three personal fouls in nine minutes of play. He was definitely outplayed by Daniel Fisher, who got his first significant playing time ever yesterday. We need Tony to step up to be the guy to back up Lump, ultimately he's got to be the long term option.
THE UGLY
I can't really put my finger on what caused the loss yesterday. I think it was complacency. Sitting in the stands yesterday, we had a double-digit lead, and as a fan, I never thought we'd give it up. Yeah they got close, but I just kept waiting for a Lump dunk or a Brewer three-point dagger to end their run. It didn't happen. All of a sudden it was like "Oh shit, we're down 2." And then, "Oh, SHIT. We're tied." And then, "OH SHIT!! WE'RE LOSING?" And then, finally and sadly, "Oh...shit...we lost that game. What the hell happened?" We had Columbia on the ropes and then just didn't knock them out. It seemed like we just were out there expecting to win, assuming that lead would hold. Well, we assumed wrong, and we dropped a game we definitely should have won. We looked great in stretches yesterday, even without Vlad. And then we looked completely flat. This team is still consistently inconsistent, and that's a bad thing to be with a tough road schedule coming up.
We were going to lose games this season; we knew that. But we shouldn't have lost to Columbia. I think games like this are the difference between a 14 and a 15 seed come tournament time. That assumes we win the PL Tournament, of course, but bear with me. The selection committee expects teams like AU to lose to teams like WVU, Pitt, Northwestern, and Florida. Losing to teams like that don't count too much against us. But the committee will look at the teams who are at our level and see if we beat everyone we should have. If we did that, we're more likely to get a 14, maybe even a high 14, and not a 15. Well, Columbia is a game we should've had. At home, with a double-digit lead, you win that game. I hope it doesn't come back to bite us in the ass come postseason time, assuming there is postseason time.
Thoughts from yesterday?
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Even A Heavy Dose of Courage Won't Help These Lions
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| "Forget flying monkeys, I'm most terrified of the Blue Crew." |
- Although the Lions are 2-3 on the young season, their blistering offense is averaging over 79 ppg, more than 13 above our average. However, we're holding opponents to 56 ppg, so there's a good chance we can ruin some of Columbia's statistical bragging rights.
- Junior guard Noruwa Agho is averaging 21 ppg, which is incidentally the same number of points he posted against us in our meeting last season (he still, however, averages less than Vlad)
- Columbia steamrolled our only common opponent, UMES, 108-74 two days before we struggled against them on our home court. Of course, every team has off games, and on paper we were totally capable of blowing them out as well. We must be wary not to be complacent against the Lions.
- Columbia just crushed fellow Patriot League member Colgate 76-63. The Lions are 4-1 versus the Patriot League dating back to the beginning of last season. It's time to put an end to this.
- Columbia was one of the few mid-major opponents to defeat us in the post-Vlad portion of our out-of-conference schedule last season. We know how much of an impact player Vlad was, so losing to the Lions after he became eligible (and blew away DePaul) was disappointing, and I am sure he is itching to turn the tides this year with even more support.
Our challenges are pretty clear, and if we treat Columbia as we treated UMES or Howard, it will not be an easy game for us. Coach Jones has without a doubt been lighting a fire under everyone's behinds this week, as he told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday. Luckily, Columbia's lineup is relatively unchanged from last year, where it came down to the wire without the advantage of playing in Bender Arena. While most the Blue Crew will still be returning from Thanksgiving break, the home court atmosphere will definitely help.
I'll also state again that we need to use our size against the Lions. Columbia, like many teams at our level, is small and guard-oriented. Their only real force in the post is 6'6" senior forward Asenso Ampim, who scored 18 points against us last season. As I've stated far too many times this season, we need to take our time and not blindly shoot threes when there are still 25 seconds left on the clock. If we can dish inside to Lumpkins, who currently sports the second highest field goal percentage in the Patriot League, we can likely play right over the heads of the smaller Lions. At the same time, we need to defend the perimeter, as Columbia is making 40% of its shots from downtown. If we can continue to run the top defense in the Patriot League and play a good transition game, we should be able to keep things at our pace and not let the Lions break away. If they do, I don't like our chances.
Per usual, I also have my fingers crossed that we'll see some solid offensive output from the backcourt. Columbia's top players are their guards, and if Danny, Steve, and Simon can play solid D, then they are doing all they need to do. However, if they can hit some key shots (Danny especially has shown some flashes of brilliance from the 3), we can absolutely stay ahead. Of course, if Troy continues to find his groove (if you missed it, he posted his first double-double with 24 points and 12 rebounds against Howard, with 21 of those points from beyond the arc), and Vlad and Lump are as unstoppable as ever, then that tried-and-true trifecta should truly show the Lions that they're not in Kansas any more. Fortunately, we've had four days off since our last outing at Howard, which is more than we've had between games so far this season, so with any luck we'll be rested enough to easily skip down the yellow brick road to a 6-0 record.
We'll also be holding the banner for the entire Patriot League this week, which went 0-5 on Saturday in what might just be the worst day for Patriot League basketball all season. Most important of all, if we win, we'll be 6-0 for the first time since the 1958-59 season, when we were still in Division II (then called the College Division). If you were an Eagles fan back in '58, then by all means today's win will be for you.
There you go, folks. If you're in town (or just returning), then make a point of being in Bender Arena at 2 PM. Our Eagles will need all the support they can get from the greatest fans in the League (both Patriot and Ivy). Let's show them how we're the LOUDEST, PROUDEST, and BLUEST group they'll face all season, and send them back to New York quivering in their warmups. If you can't make it to the game, we'll be occasionally tweeting from Bender Arena, and with any luck running a liveblog as well. If that fails, then make sure to tune in to Federal News Radio 1500 AM for the play-by-play with Dan Laing. See you there!
Pro Deo Et Patria and GO EAGLES!
Josh
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Now For Something A Little Different
It's not often that we post about something completely unrelated to AU basketball, but since Thanksgiving is most often associated with some other sport that I'm having trouble remembering at the moment, I thought we'd do something a little different today that touches on other aspects of the holiday. I'd like to wish all of our readers a very happy Thanksgiving, and possibly kindle a bit of nostalgia with this AU food-related video from deep within our vault. Here's Willard Scott (CAS '53) filming the Today Show in the Tavern in January 1988. Happy Thanksgiving to Eagles everywhere!
Pro Deo Et Patria and Happy Thanksgiving,
Josh
Pro Deo Et Patria and Happy Thanksgiving,
Josh
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Quick Hit: Seven Three Pointers?
Well, that's one way to show everyone that you do deserve the reputation you have. Troy Brewer went off for 7 three pointers and finished with 24 points against Howard last night. In doing so, he also got his first double-double. My lips are zipped to any further criticism about his three point capabilities.
The nickname competition for Troy begins riiiiight now.
The Rainmaker? Three's Company? ThreeThreeMcThree? That's all I got.
Leave it in the comments.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
The nickname competition for Troy begins riiiiight now.
The Rainmaker? Three's Company? ThreeThreeMcThree? That's all I got.
Leave it in the comments.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Eagles Make Buffalo Wings of Howard 66-54
With the victory over Howard this evening, the Eagles move to 5-0 for the first time since the 1985-86 season (that's a quarter century ago). The Good, Bad, and Ugly from Howard is coming shortly, but until then, here's a refresher on the '85-86 season, courtesy of the 1986 Talon yearbook:
Pro Deo Et Patria and GO EAGLES!
Josh
Pro Deo Et Patria and GO EAGLES!
Josh
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
If I Had A Nickel(berry) For Every Time AU Beat Howard, I'd Have Twelve Nickel(berry)s
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| I hope Coach Jones brings the celery, because Buffalo Wings are on the menu |
First, if you haven't experienced one recently, check out Bill's great Reality Check from earlier this afternoon. Then, in case you've been living under a rock and just discovered we are 4-0 to begin the season for the first time in about a quarter century, keep reading - it only gets better.
Tomorrow evening at 7:00 we skip across town to take on cross-town rival Howard (1-3) at Burr Gymnasium. In short, we are 12-3 all time against the Bison, including victories in the last seven straight contests. In fact, this is the first game of the year that is not a stop on the Sweet, Sweet Revenge Tour 2010, as Howard provided us our first victory last year in eight tries.
Unfortunately for the Bison, they're squarely in the same position they were in last season, and we're going to be eating Buffalo Wings all night long. "Are you mad, Josh!?", you must be thinking, "only last week you predicted a blowout of UMES on our own court and it went right down to the wire! Stop right now before you jinx everything!" Fear not, concerned reader, for I remain confident in my prediction. Let's break down why:
- Injuries: The worst thing that can happen to a team is to have its key players taken out of commission by unfortunate injuries. First, 6'9" freshman center and top recruit Theodore Boyomo tore his ACL in an exhibition game and was out for the season. Next, junior guard Calvin Thompson, a pre-season all-MEAC second team selection (about as good as it gets for the Bison this year) tore his ACL at Purdue last Sunday in what would have been a very tough physical game for us as well. Thompson put up a team-high 14 points, 3 assists, and 2 steals against us last season. Finally, Howard's lone senior, guard Kyle Riley, injured his ankle at Purdue and may or may not play tomorrow. Without a doubt, injuries are bad luck, but this is bordering on disastrous for Howard. Ultimately, injuries can happen to any team at any time, and for mid-majors who lack a lot of depth, it can be crippling. No matter who it is, I feel bad for these players who aren't able to hit the court and do what they were recruited to do. Nevertheless, it does give us an advantage.
- Size: Like many of our opponents so far, the Bison are a smaller team. Similarly, they lack the powerful front court that allowed FAU to confidently put four guards on the floor at once. Last season, they relied on 6'9" senior Paul Kirkpatrick, whose line last year was 13 points, 1 assist, 2 blocks, and 3 steals against the Eagles. Still, Lumpkins and Riley combined for 25 of our 59 points, and Lumpkins was 1 board away from a double-double. Without Boyomo, the Bison will be relying on 6'6" forward Dadrian Collins, who also had 13 points, 1 block, and 2 steals last year in Bender. With the addition of Vlad and Tony, our inside game has only gotten better, and I don't foresee the Bison finding a way to stop it, especially as they're not particularly strong with the dribble penetration that was our greatest defensive struggle in the last few games. Frankly, I also expect Danny and Steve to run circles around their guards, so I'm hoping for some good offensive output from the backcourt tomorrow as well.
- Records: In what I suspect is largely a function of its injuries, the Bison just dropped a huge game to St. Francis (NY), 70-52. Although identical in name and conference, this is not the same St. Francis we downed in our first game of the season. Still, such a tough loss certainly has the Bison fearing for the future of their season, which did begin on a bright note with a narrow 54-52 victory over Bowling Green at home. Although I can't really hold their next loss to Purdue against them, since we'd likely drop that game as well, their 66-34 drubbing versus Delaware wasn't a great vital sign either (again, post-injuries). Need I remind anyone that we are 4-0?
That's pretty much it. The Bison are suffering, and it's our predicted 5-0 record that's to benefit. Without a prize recruit, a top player, or size and athleticism to match ours, the Bison's home court advantage won't do much for them this season. I do want to take a moment to give Howard credit for something, however: they remain the only local team in a city that breathes college basketball that has deigned to play us this season. I love local rivalries as much as the next guy (especially because it means I'm actually able to attend an away game prior to League play), and I'll take them where I can get them. Thanks Howard.
Oh, and if you're wondering what the title of the post is referring to, it's first-year Howard Head Coach Kevin Nickelberry and his online portfolio...erm, website. I can't help but think its purpose is to help him find another job, which is why I'm confused as to why Howard features the link so prominently on their athletics page. I know we've said in the past that we'd enjoy Coach Jones having a presence on the web, but for the love of Clawed and all that is holy, I hope that if he ever does it looks nothing whatsoever like that (and let's not mention the soundtrack).
That's all for today. Hopefully we'll have a liveblog running, but many of our contributors will be traveling for the holidays and I'll be at the game in person, likely without an internet connection or phone intelligent enough to do so much as tweet. So, it's tentative, but our fingers remain crossed! Tomorrow night, 7 PM, Burr Gymnasium at Howard University!
WHAT DO WE EAT? BISON MEAT!
Pro Deo Et Patria and GO EAGLES!
Josh
Reality Check
So I was going to write a Patriot League Check-In tonight. I still may, though it's doubtful. The Patriot League isn't doing much right now. Overall the PL is 13-21. Hardly overpowering. Only AU (4-0) and, surprisingly, Army (3-1) have records about .500. Oof. They're out there playing some good teams I guess. Holy Cross, for example, has losses to Boston College, the College of Charleston, Harvard, and perennial powerhouse UNH (wait, what?). Ah well. Anyway, that's your check-in. If you want something more in-depth, that'll follow after an important reality check. Brace yourselves.
WE'RE 4-0. Seriously. Undefeated.
Good, Bad, and Ugly (which I increasingly dislike writing because I think it's unproductive and overly critical and not supportive, none of which are things I want this blog to be) aside, the team is playing well. How do I know this? Because we're 4-0. We're playing well enough to win. We're averaging wins by double figures. We're allowing a league best 56.5 points a game. We've got three guys averaging double figures. We have Vlad Moldoveanu, who has won back-to-back Patriot League Player of the Week awards (congrats on that, by the way, Impaler). We've got a senior threesome that is playing well, showing great leadership, and playing with a lot of guts and heart. You always want players who are playing with their internal organs, folks. Pro-tip from me to you.
So let's put it in perspective and make it clear: we're incredibly happy about the team's success. The team is playing well so far. Could it play better? Sure. But this team has a hell of a lot of promise. And they deserve to be praised and congratulated for giving this fan base hope and firing us up so early in the season.
So, thanks AU Eagles, for giving us such a great start to the season. We hope you'll continue! Keep it up, and GO EAGLES!
Now, for the rest of you who wanted a PL Check-In. Here it is, some tidbits from the Patriot League press release today:
Flip-Flop on the Scoring Charts
American and Army finished seventh and eighth in scoring offense in the Patriot League last season, but the teams have turned those numbers all the way around during their fast start to the 2010-11 campaign. The Black Knights have gone from worst to first by improving from last year's 60.3 points per game to their current mark of 73.0. American has risen up from seventh to second, though it's average has only bumped up slightly from 62.6 to 66.5. The Eagles have made it up on the defensive end by allowing just 56.5 points per game, the top mark in the Patriot League. Going in the other direction are Navy and Lafayette, who sit seventh and eighth in the League in scoring after placing in the top three last season.
St. Francis (Pa.) was practically another member of the Patriot League during the first two weeks of the season, as the Red Flash played four games against League squads to open the year. American and Lafayette each won at home against St. Francis (Pa.), while Colgate and Bucknell dropped their contests on the road. Each game except for American was decided by four points or less, with Bucknell taking a heartbreaking 68-67 defeat over the weekend. There are other common opponents early in the 2010-11 season as well, as Colgate lost and Bucknell won at home agaisnt Binghamton, with Army hosting the Bearcats on Tuesday. Lafayette fell at Wagner to open the season, while Lehigh beat the Seahawks in Bethlehem. Wagner also visits Bucknell on Nov. 29. In addition to those teams, Columbia plays three Patriot League teams by Dec. 1, beginning with Colgate at home on Tuesday and also goes to Lafayette in January. No. 6 Villanova has defeated both Bucknell and Lafayette. Princeton, Stony Brook, Buffalo, New Hampshire, Penn and NJIT also play multiple Patriot League opponents early in the season.
Moldoveanu Leading the Way
American's early success would not be possible without senior forward Vlad Moldoveanu, who leads the Patriot League with 22.0 points per game and has been a key cog in each of American's victories. He scored 24 points to help American to a 62-52 win over St. Francis (Pa.) in the season opener on Nov. 12, a team-high 11 in a 57-44 win over Albany on Nov. 15 and shared team honors with 22 points in Saturday's 82-72 win at Florida Atlantic. But where he really had to put the team on his back was on Wednesday, when he scored 16 points in the final 4:10 as the Eagles held an 18-11 advantage down the stretch in a 65-58 win over Maryland-Eastern Shore. Moldoveanu hit back-to-back three-pointers for a 53-47 edge with 3:25 to play that put the Eagles in front for good, and put the game away by making five free throws in the final 24 seconds after American's lead had been cut to two. He finished with a season-high 31 points on 9-of-15 shooting including 6-of-7 from three-point range, matching the high for a Patriot League player this season. Due in large part to that performance, Moldoveanu earned his second straight Patriot League Player of the Week award on Monday, joining Lehigh's Brett Eppehimer (1997-98) as the only two players to win the first two weekly honors of the season.
The Bison head to Harrisonburg, Virginia on the campus of James Madison University for their subregional in the event. Bucknell will play Presbyterian on Monday and Princeton on Tuesday in games that tip off at 4:30 p.m., and then face the host Dukes to complete the week at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Bucknell has a 1-3 mark for the season, and has lost all of its games played away from home after a 68-67 heartbreaker at St. Francis (Pa.) on Saturday.
American is off to the fastest start for a Patriot League team, winning its opening four contests for the first time since the 1985-86 season. The Eagles continued their streak on Saturday with an 82-72 win over Florida Atlantic where Vlad Moldoveanu and Stephen Lumpkins each scored 22 points. Moldoveanu was also named Patriot League Anaconda Player of the Week on Monday for the second straight time.
While American's success was expected, Army has been a surprise with a 3-1 start. The Black Knights won their second straight road contest with a 76-66 triumph at Bryant on Saturday, and will try to win their third game in a row when they host Binghamton on Tuesday.
Defending Patriot League champion Lehigh comes back to its home court on Monday to take on returning Ivy League champion and 2009-10 Sweet 16 participant Cornell. The Mountain Hawks dropped a 69-68 final at Monmouth on Friday.
Colgate and Holy Cross are each still in search of their first win of the season, as the Raiders fell at No. 1 Duke and the Crusaders lost a close 55-52 contest at New Hampshire over the weekend. The Raiders are at Columbia on Tuesday, while the Crusaders will go to Boston College on Monday.
Lafayette will look for its first-ever victory against Penn at The Palestra when it visits the Quakers on Tuesday. The Leopards are traveling to Philadelphia for the second straight game after losing at No. 6 Villanova on Saturday.
Navy comes off a west coast trip where it lost contests to host UC Irvine, Louisiana Tech and Seattle in a subregional of the 2K Sports Classic over the weekend. The Mids try to get into the win column when they visit Towson on Wednesday.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
WE'RE 4-0. Seriously. Undefeated.
Good, Bad, and Ugly (which I increasingly dislike writing because I think it's unproductive and overly critical and not supportive, none of which are things I want this blog to be) aside, the team is playing well. How do I know this? Because we're 4-0. We're playing well enough to win. We're averaging wins by double figures. We're allowing a league best 56.5 points a game. We've got three guys averaging double figures. We have Vlad Moldoveanu, who has won back-to-back Patriot League Player of the Week awards (congrats on that, by the way, Impaler). We've got a senior threesome that is playing well, showing great leadership, and playing with a lot of guts and heart. You always want players who are playing with their internal organs, folks. Pro-tip from me to you.
So let's put it in perspective and make it clear: we're incredibly happy about the team's success. The team is playing well so far. Could it play better? Sure. But this team has a hell of a lot of promise. And they deserve to be praised and congratulated for giving this fan base hope and firing us up so early in the season.
So, thanks AU Eagles, for giving us such a great start to the season. We hope you'll continue! Keep it up, and GO EAGLES!
Now, for the rest of you who wanted a PL Check-In. Here it is, some tidbits from the Patriot League press release today:
Flip-Flop on the Scoring Charts
American and Army finished seventh and eighth in scoring offense in the Patriot League last season, but the teams have turned those numbers all the way around during their fast start to the 2010-11 campaign. The Black Knights have gone from worst to first by improving from last year's 60.3 points per game to their current mark of 73.0. American has risen up from seventh to second, though it's average has only bumped up slightly from 62.6 to 66.5. The Eagles have made it up on the defensive end by allowing just 56.5 points per game, the top mark in the Patriot League. Going in the other direction are Navy and Lafayette, who sit seventh and eighth in the League in scoring after placing in the top three last season.
St. Francis (Pa.) was practically another member of the Patriot League during the first two weeks of the season, as the Red Flash played four games against League squads to open the year. American and Lafayette each won at home against St. Francis (Pa.), while Colgate and Bucknell dropped their contests on the road. Each game except for American was decided by four points or less, with Bucknell taking a heartbreaking 68-67 defeat over the weekend. There are other common opponents early in the 2010-11 season as well, as Colgate lost and Bucknell won at home agaisnt Binghamton, with Army hosting the Bearcats on Tuesday. Lafayette fell at Wagner to open the season, while Lehigh beat the Seahawks in Bethlehem. Wagner also visits Bucknell on Nov. 29. In addition to those teams, Columbia plays three Patriot League teams by Dec. 1, beginning with Colgate at home on Tuesday and also goes to Lafayette in January. No. 6 Villanova has defeated both Bucknell and Lafayette. Princeton, Stony Brook, Buffalo, New Hampshire, Penn and NJIT also play multiple Patriot League opponents early in the season.
Moldoveanu Leading the Way
American's early success would not be possible without senior forward Vlad Moldoveanu, who leads the Patriot League with 22.0 points per game and has been a key cog in each of American's victories. He scored 24 points to help American to a 62-52 win over St. Francis (Pa.) in the season opener on Nov. 12, a team-high 11 in a 57-44 win over Albany on Nov. 15 and shared team honors with 22 points in Saturday's 82-72 win at Florida Atlantic. But where he really had to put the team on his back was on Wednesday, when he scored 16 points in the final 4:10 as the Eagles held an 18-11 advantage down the stretch in a 65-58 win over Maryland-Eastern Shore. Moldoveanu hit back-to-back three-pointers for a 53-47 edge with 3:25 to play that put the Eagles in front for good, and put the game away by making five free throws in the final 24 seconds after American's lead had been cut to two. He finished with a season-high 31 points on 9-of-15 shooting including 6-of-7 from three-point range, matching the high for a Patriot League player this season. Due in large part to that performance, Moldoveanu earned his second straight Patriot League Player of the Week award on Monday, joining Lehigh's Brett Eppehimer (1997-98) as the only two players to win the first two weekly honors of the season.
The Bison head to Harrisonburg, Virginia on the campus of James Madison University for their subregional in the event. Bucknell will play Presbyterian on Monday and Princeton on Tuesday in games that tip off at 4:30 p.m., and then face the host Dukes to complete the week at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Bucknell has a 1-3 mark for the season, and has lost all of its games played away from home after a 68-67 heartbreaker at St. Francis (Pa.) on Saturday.
American is off to the fastest start for a Patriot League team, winning its opening four contests for the first time since the 1985-86 season. The Eagles continued their streak on Saturday with an 82-72 win over Florida Atlantic where Vlad Moldoveanu and Stephen Lumpkins each scored 22 points. Moldoveanu was also named Patriot League Anaconda Player of the Week on Monday for the second straight time.
While American's success was expected, Army has been a surprise with a 3-1 start. The Black Knights won their second straight road contest with a 76-66 triumph at Bryant on Saturday, and will try to win their third game in a row when they host Binghamton on Tuesday.
Defending Patriot League champion Lehigh comes back to its home court on Monday to take on returning Ivy League champion and 2009-10 Sweet 16 participant Cornell. The Mountain Hawks dropped a 69-68 final at Monmouth on Friday.
Colgate and Holy Cross are each still in search of their first win of the season, as the Raiders fell at No. 1 Duke and the Crusaders lost a close 55-52 contest at New Hampshire over the weekend. The Raiders are at Columbia on Tuesday, while the Crusaders will go to Boston College on Monday.
Lafayette will look for its first-ever victory against Penn at The Palestra when it visits the Quakers on Tuesday. The Leopards are traveling to Philadelphia for the second straight game after losing at No. 6 Villanova on Saturday.
Navy comes off a west coast trip where it lost contests to host UC Irvine, Louisiana Tech and Seattle in a subregional of the 2K Sports Classic over the weekend. The Mids try to get into the win column when they visit Towson on Wednesday.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Sunday, November 21, 2010
When Your Team Gives Its Liveblog Palpitations, There's Bound to Be GOOD, BAD, and UGLY
Sorry it took me so long to get this edition of the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY out. My heart only stopped skipping beats about 10 minutes ago. The year of Jekyll and Hyde continues, friends and fans. A Tale of Two Halves, if you will. Yesterday at half, AU enjoyed a 47-30 advantage over FAU in what was easily the best offensive half they'd had all season. The patrons of the liveblog, myself included, were overjoyed (and not a little shocked) at the great play on the road from the Eagles. And then everything came crashing down in the second half. After pushing the lead to 52-30, the Eagles went on to give up their huge lead (at one point the Owls got within 1 measly point). The important thing here is that the Eagles gutted out the win and now stand at 4-0 with a very winnable game at Howard up next. Let's talk about what made this game so GOOD, BAD, and UGLY.
THE GOOD
Stephen Lumpkins - Well, being benched certainly seems to have motivated Lumpkins. After not starting yesterday, Lump had his best game of the season and played 32 minutes. Along with Vlad and Hendra, he was one of the few Eagles who was effective in the second half. This was Lump's first double-double of the season (22 points, 15 rebounds). The shooting percentage was excellent as well (8-12, 6-9 from the line). Overall just a tremendous game for Lump, who had his hands full on defense with Kore White and Brett Royster, but still only earned three fouls. This is the Lump we've been waiting to see, and hopefully he's here to stay.
Vlad Moldoveanu - Vlad had a tremendous second half again (scoring 19 of his 22 post-halftime). His free throw shooting was clutch down the stretch and sealed what was a very tenuous victory for the Eagles. Vlad played in foul trouble most of the game but did a great job not fouling out. He didn't have his touch from long range (1-5 from 3) but his inside game was great as he did a great job penetrating and getting to the basket. He also did a good job limiting turnovers (read: eliminating them, since he had 0) and also kicked in 7 boards.
Nick Hendra - Hendra's stat line was again secondary to what he contributed with intangibles. From the call of the game you could hear that he was all over, pressuring FAU's hordes of guards on the perimeter, chasing loose balls, and still carrying his own weight on the offensive end. He finished with 11 points, 4 boards, 3 assists, and a steal. Your efforts are not being overlooked, Hendra, you're critical to this team's flow right now, and we acknowledge it!
Troy Brewer's first half - This is the Troy Brewer that we heard about and expected. At the half, Troy was the game's leading scorer with 14. 5-5 from the field, including 4-4 from 3. He also chipped in 2 steals, 2 assists, and 3 boards. Just an absolute beast. Which is what makes his second half so disappointing. We'll get to it in a minute.
First half offense - Just awesome. 16-29 overall, 7-11 from 3, and 8-9 from the line. All of this with 9 assists and outrebounding the Owls.
First half defense - Similarly awesome, we held the Owls to 21% shooting (6-28), and 2-6 from behind the arc. The only bad thing about this in the first half was the number of fouls we committed (a whopping FOURTEEN) that resulted in the Owls going 16-19 from the line. Without those fouls we would have had them completely locked down.
THE BAD
Troy Brewer's second half - Well, first watch this video. Only replace the word "Yankees" with "Troy Brewer":
Troy was awesome in the first half. And not so awesome in the second half. In the second half he went 0-3, 0-2 from behind the arc, with just one point (a free throw). He did chip in 2 boards, 2 blocks, and a steal, but he also earned three fouls and just completely disappeared on offense. Like we've said here, is defense merits him being on the floor, but we've got to get some consistency. We needed someone else other than Lump, Nick, and Vlad to step up and play in the second half. That's where Troy is supposed to come in, and he did not.
The point guard position - While Danny and Steve played good defense on the FAU guards in the first half, their commitment of multiple fouls resulted in a much less efficient second half. Luckily, neither fouled out, but the defense in the second half was less than stellar. We're still not getting much in the way of offensive production out of either of them. They combined to go 1-5, 0-2, 2-4 with 4 points (all Munoz), 3 assists, and 4 turnovers. I don't think Luptak is long for his starting position. Munoz is at least kicking in something on the offensive end and brings the ability to slash to the basket.
Assists-to-turnovers - We'd done with on assists-to-turnovers the past few games, but yesterday it was just 1:1. In the second half we only had two assists. That's a sign of an offense that's not functioning well and not working together. The evidence is there: Vlad and Lump had to put the scoring on their backs all second half.
THE UGLY
Number of fouls: We committed 29 fouls yesterday. TWENTY-NINE. Unreal. The game was called tightly on both sides (49 total fouls called), but that was not a disciplined showing yesterday from the Eagles.
The elephant in the room: THE FACT THAT WE ALMOST BLEW A 22 POINT LEAD - Yes, a win is a win. And I'd much rather be 4-0 than 3-1, but that second half was ugly yesterday. It felt like we were playing not to lose. We were very lucky to escape yesterday with the W. Like Mike Jarvis said after the game, 8 or 9 times out of 10, FAU is supposed to win that game. We made the 1 out of 10 as ugly as possible before getting the hell out of Boca Raton.
Other thoughts about the game yesterday?
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
THE GOOD
Stephen Lumpkins - Well, being benched certainly seems to have motivated Lumpkins. After not starting yesterday, Lump had his best game of the season and played 32 minutes. Along with Vlad and Hendra, he was one of the few Eagles who was effective in the second half. This was Lump's first double-double of the season (22 points, 15 rebounds). The shooting percentage was excellent as well (8-12, 6-9 from the line). Overall just a tremendous game for Lump, who had his hands full on defense with Kore White and Brett Royster, but still only earned three fouls. This is the Lump we've been waiting to see, and hopefully he's here to stay.
Vlad Moldoveanu - Vlad had a tremendous second half again (scoring 19 of his 22 post-halftime). His free throw shooting was clutch down the stretch and sealed what was a very tenuous victory for the Eagles. Vlad played in foul trouble most of the game but did a great job not fouling out. He didn't have his touch from long range (1-5 from 3) but his inside game was great as he did a great job penetrating and getting to the basket. He also did a good job limiting turnovers (read: eliminating them, since he had 0) and also kicked in 7 boards.
Nick Hendra - Hendra's stat line was again secondary to what he contributed with intangibles. From the call of the game you could hear that he was all over, pressuring FAU's hordes of guards on the perimeter, chasing loose balls, and still carrying his own weight on the offensive end. He finished with 11 points, 4 boards, 3 assists, and a steal. Your efforts are not being overlooked, Hendra, you're critical to this team's flow right now, and we acknowledge it!
Troy Brewer's first half - This is the Troy Brewer that we heard about and expected. At the half, Troy was the game's leading scorer with 14. 5-5 from the field, including 4-4 from 3. He also chipped in 2 steals, 2 assists, and 3 boards. Just an absolute beast. Which is what makes his second half so disappointing. We'll get to it in a minute.
First half offense - Just awesome. 16-29 overall, 7-11 from 3, and 8-9 from the line. All of this with 9 assists and outrebounding the Owls.
First half defense - Similarly awesome, we held the Owls to 21% shooting (6-28), and 2-6 from behind the arc. The only bad thing about this in the first half was the number of fouls we committed (a whopping FOURTEEN) that resulted in the Owls going 16-19 from the line. Without those fouls we would have had them completely locked down.
THE BAD
Troy Brewer's second half - Well, first watch this video. Only replace the word "Yankees" with "Troy Brewer":
Troy was awesome in the first half. And not so awesome in the second half. In the second half he went 0-3, 0-2 from behind the arc, with just one point (a free throw). He did chip in 2 boards, 2 blocks, and a steal, but he also earned three fouls and just completely disappeared on offense. Like we've said here, is defense merits him being on the floor, but we've got to get some consistency. We needed someone else other than Lump, Nick, and Vlad to step up and play in the second half. That's where Troy is supposed to come in, and he did not.
The point guard position - While Danny and Steve played good defense on the FAU guards in the first half, their commitment of multiple fouls resulted in a much less efficient second half. Luckily, neither fouled out, but the defense in the second half was less than stellar. We're still not getting much in the way of offensive production out of either of them. They combined to go 1-5, 0-2, 2-4 with 4 points (all Munoz), 3 assists, and 4 turnovers. I don't think Luptak is long for his starting position. Munoz is at least kicking in something on the offensive end and brings the ability to slash to the basket.
Assists-to-turnovers - We'd done with on assists-to-turnovers the past few games, but yesterday it was just 1:1. In the second half we only had two assists. That's a sign of an offense that's not functioning well and not working together. The evidence is there: Vlad and Lump had to put the scoring on their backs all second half.
THE UGLY
Number of fouls: We committed 29 fouls yesterday. TWENTY-NINE. Unreal. The game was called tightly on both sides (49 total fouls called), but that was not a disciplined showing yesterday from the Eagles.
The elephant in the room: THE FACT THAT WE ALMOST BLEW A 22 POINT LEAD - Yes, a win is a win. And I'd much rather be 4-0 than 3-1, but that second half was ugly yesterday. It felt like we were playing not to lose. We were very lucky to escape yesterday with the W. Like Mike Jarvis said after the game, 8 or 9 times out of 10, FAU is supposed to win that game. We made the 1 out of 10 as ugly as possible before getting the hell out of Boca Raton.
Other thoughts about the game yesterday?
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
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