Patriot League Check-in: Laugh-ayette ain't the laughing stock anymore

Evening AU hoops fans, hope you all had a great MLK Day and that you spent the day (or part of it) in service. I had to work today, but I'll provide this service to you: updating you on the Patriot League!

So the standings right now are pretty muddled. Lafayette remains the only undefeated team in the PL (after having been picked to be last in the pre-season poll). A combination of talented sophomores and senior leadership is winning them a lot of games (and running up the point totals like whoa).

Navy and Lehigh follow Lafayette at 2-1, and everyone else is 1-2. We'll see some more separation after this Wednesday's game (AU has Army in NY this week).

Holy Cross is the surprise of the PL at 4-14 (1-2) after having been picked to win the league in resounding fashion (having won 13 of 16 possible votes).

Some other notes from the PL's e-mail today that I find to be of note:

- For the second week in a row Vlad was an honorable mention for PL Player of the Week:
Vlad Moldoveanu, American Jr., F, 6'9, 215, Bucharest, Romania/St. John's College
Moldoveanu had his second straight double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds in an overtime loss to Bucknell on Saturday, then tallied 16 points and seven boards in Sunday's win over Colgate.

- Scoring is Up Early in League Play
If the early returns are indicative of a trend, the scoring numbers could be way up in Patriot League play this year. Through only 12 total League games, there have already been seven 80+ point outings after only four were recorded in the entire 2009 season. Lafayette has topped 80 points in all three of its victories, while Navy, Lehigh, Holy Cross and Colgate have each done it once. Lafayette defeated Colgate, 95-82, on Wednesday and Navy beat Lehigh, 94-83, on Thursday, then Lafayette beat Navy, 90-77, on Saturday. There was just one 90-point performance in all of the 2009 League schedule, while there were not any games last year where the losing team topped 80 points. No team topped 80 points more than once in League play a year ago. The 95 points for Lafayette were the most in a Patriot League game since the Leopards beat Navy, 103-99, on Jan. 19, 2008. Lafayette leads the way with 89.7 points per game in League play, with Navy at 80.0 and every team but Army averaging more than the 68.9 points per game that led the League last year. - Seems to me like it's not an issue of scoring being more efficient but PL defenses being more INefficient.

- Coaching Milestones
American's Jeff Jones moved within one victory of his 300th career win with Sunday's triumph over Colgate, which will add to a lenghty list of significant numbers for Patriot League coaches this season. - If we should happen to drop the game against Army this week (Clawed forbid), JJ could pick up his 300th career win at Phil Bender on Saturday when we CRUCIFY HOLY CROSS. That'd be nice, eh? Gives a silver lining in case the Black Knights should prevail over us.

Anyway, that's that. More as we keep playing them, I suppose. I'll leave you with the pre-season PL poll, in case anyone forgot it:

1. Holy Cross (13 first-place votes) 95
2. Lehigh (3) 78
3. Bucknell 63
4. Army 59
5. Colgate 51
6. American 45
7. Navy 43
8. Lafayette 14

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!