The Lafayette Leopards, Post-Game
At 1:00 PM this afternoon we close out the first half of our Patriot League schedule in Easton, PA, facing down the Leopards of Lafayette College. Yup, the team with a leading 5-1 conference mark in the Patriot League. Also the team picked in the pre-season to finish dead last the league. That seem backwards to you? Me too! My confused attempt to make sense of this madness after the jump!
So, Eagles faithful, this is going to be a tough game for us. Sure, we are coming off of our first consecutive win streak of the season, with solid victories over the two Patriot League teams I most love to beat. I think we put together some fairly complete games. We had 21 assists versus Holy Cross, and I cannot remember the last time that happened. We outrebounded both teams by pretty good margins, and of course Vlad proved to be an absolute beast versus Navy with his 37 point, 9 rebound performance. Of course, Vlad isn't the only Eagle to notch an impressive individual performance this season. While he was one rebound short of a double-double on Saturday, he's already had two this season. Lumpkins has had three. Nick Hendra and Riley Grafft have each had one. That's seven total. In the last two seasons COMBINED we had three. Impressive indeed.
Of course, if you're a loyal reader of this blog you know exactly what our team's capable of. You know that despite a wealth of talent, youth and inexperience have led to a debilitating Jekyll/Hyde complex, that we seemed to have only begun to shrug off. The key this afternoon will be to again suppress Mr. Hyde as we leave the confines of Bender Arena. Why is this? So far in the Patriot League, we are 3-0 at home...and 0-3 on the road. Nasty. Anyone who says that we've been playing the same way on the road as at home is absolutely dead wrong. I have seen nothing but great performances from our Eagles in Bender (as far as PL play is concerned) this season, which have contributed to the 20-game conference home winning streak we sport. That's right, we have not dropped a game to a Patriot League opponent in Bender for just about two weeks shy of TWO YEARS (our streak began with Lehigh on 2/10/08). Yet compare these games to the absolutely listless performance we saw at Army and the Jekyll/Hyde comparison is obvious. Why is this important? Lafayette (14-7), whom we have jokingly referred to as Laugh-ayette on this blog in recent days, has far exceeded all expectations this season.
For years, Lafayette has been the toilet of the Patriot League. Ever since the League started allowing scholarship athletes early last decade, Lafayette just hasn't been able to keep up. Sure, in the late 90's they were an absolute force, and are still the only Patriot League team to win three consecutive League Championships. You would never have guessed that over the past few seasons, however. Despite a small scare during our last regular-season game last year, we handed the Leopards their pelts three times. In fact, we've won the past 10 meetings with Lafayette, and it's been 15-5 in our favor since we joined the League in 2001-02 (incidentally the same year basketball scholarships became legal in the League). So of course weeks ago we here at AUHoops.com never thought we'd be worrying about the Lafayette game halfway through our conference slate. In fact, we thought it would surely be a reprieve in a Patriot League schedule that would test our young team's mettle. Yet just as we defied the pre-season poll by leaps and bounds in 2007-08, Lafayette is doing the same. Let's look at the numbers:
Per usual, we will be running an incredibly awesome liveblog here on AUHoops.com beginning shortly before 1 PM. You can also catch the game on Patriot League All-Access, live on RCN Cable, and it will be replayed on Sunday at 3 PM on MASN (perfect for watching replays of an incredible Eagles victory). No matter where you may be tuning in from, follow our usual mantra of BE LOUD, BE BLUE, BE AU. Keep the faith and we can take home not just a quality win, but an upset this will turn the first half of the Patriot League schedule on its head. This conference is wide open right now, and it's ours for the taking.
UPDATE: Just remembered that the 2007-2008 Lafayette squad also started 5-1 to everyone's surprise, lost to us, then ended up 6-8 in the League (dropping 7 of the next 8). Fingers crossed this could happen again for the hapless Leopards, at least this afternoon. Thanks, weekly Patriot League Update!
Pro Deo Et Patria and GO EAGLES,
Josh
So, Eagles faithful, this is going to be a tough game for us. Sure, we are coming off of our first consecutive win streak of the season, with solid victories over the two Patriot League teams I most love to beat. I think we put together some fairly complete games. We had 21 assists versus Holy Cross, and I cannot remember the last time that happened. We outrebounded both teams by pretty good margins, and of course Vlad proved to be an absolute beast versus Navy with his 37 point, 9 rebound performance. Of course, Vlad isn't the only Eagle to notch an impressive individual performance this season. While he was one rebound short of a double-double on Saturday, he's already had two this season. Lumpkins has had three. Nick Hendra and Riley Grafft have each had one. That's seven total. In the last two seasons COMBINED we had three. Impressive indeed.
Of course, if you're a loyal reader of this blog you know exactly what our team's capable of. You know that despite a wealth of talent, youth and inexperience have led to a debilitating Jekyll/Hyde complex, that we seemed to have only begun to shrug off. The key this afternoon will be to again suppress Mr. Hyde as we leave the confines of Bender Arena. Why is this? So far in the Patriot League, we are 3-0 at home...and 0-3 on the road. Nasty. Anyone who says that we've been playing the same way on the road as at home is absolutely dead wrong. I have seen nothing but great performances from our Eagles in Bender (as far as PL play is concerned) this season, which have contributed to the 20-game conference home winning streak we sport. That's right, we have not dropped a game to a Patriot League opponent in Bender for just about two weeks shy of TWO YEARS (our streak began with Lehigh on 2/10/08). Yet compare these games to the absolutely listless performance we saw at Army and the Jekyll/Hyde comparison is obvious. Why is this important? Lafayette (14-7), whom we have jokingly referred to as Laugh-ayette on this blog in recent days, has far exceeded all expectations this season.
For years, Lafayette has been the toilet of the Patriot League. Ever since the League started allowing scholarship athletes early last decade, Lafayette just hasn't been able to keep up. Sure, in the late 90's they were an absolute force, and are still the only Patriot League team to win three consecutive League Championships. You would never have guessed that over the past few seasons, however. Despite a small scare during our last regular-season game last year, we handed the Leopards their pelts three times. In fact, we've won the past 10 meetings with Lafayette, and it's been 15-5 in our favor since we joined the League in 2001-02 (incidentally the same year basketball scholarships became legal in the League). So of course weeks ago we here at AUHoops.com never thought we'd be worrying about the Lafayette game halfway through our conference slate. In fact, we thought it would surely be a reprieve in a Patriot League schedule that would test our young team's mettle. Yet just as we defied the pre-season poll by leaps and bounds in 2007-08, Lafayette is doing the same. Let's look at the numbers:
- Lafayette is 14-7 on the season, almost doubling their win total for last season (8-22)
- Lafayette has won seven of their last eight and 10 of their last 12 games
- Lafayette is 9-1 at home this season
- Lafayette is averaging 76 ppg at home and 72 ppg on the road
- Lafayette Junior Jared Mintz was named Patriot League Player of the Week twice so far this season, in back-to-back weeks, and for good reason. He is a beast in most statistical categories
Per usual, we will be running an incredibly awesome liveblog here on AUHoops.com beginning shortly before 1 PM. You can also catch the game on Patriot League All-Access, live on RCN Cable, and it will be replayed on Sunday at 3 PM on MASN (perfect for watching replays of an incredible Eagles victory). No matter where you may be tuning in from, follow our usual mantra of BE LOUD, BE BLUE, BE AU. Keep the faith and we can take home not just a quality win, but an upset this will turn the first half of the Patriot League schedule on its head. This conference is wide open right now, and it's ours for the taking.
UPDATE: Just remembered that the 2007-2008 Lafayette squad also started 5-1 to everyone's surprise, lost to us, then ended up 6-8 in the League (dropping 7 of the next 8). Fingers crossed this could happen again for the hapless Leopards, at least this afternoon. Thanks, weekly Patriot League Update!
Pro Deo Et Patria and GO EAGLES,
Josh
MASN on Sunday at 3
ReplyDeleteThanks Viddy! All fixed!
ReplyDeleteAnyone who hasn't read Feinstein's "The Last Amateurs" should. Its a terrific look at Patriot League basketball. Its also really interesting to see how the League has changed in ten years.
ReplyDelete