(The Return Of) Speculation Tuesday

While some might call this day Wednesday, I am not such a person. Nay! I call this day...Speculation Tuesday! Some data crunching, free throw shooting, and even a strange primate, all after the jump!

There are a few things on my mind this Speculation Tuesday, but the most important is classic literature. I am sure many of us have read the timeless tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Two very different men, and only a quick sip of an elixir and one transforms into the other. It makes me wonder, just what elixir does our team drink during time outs? What makes them go from NCAA contender to Division III doormat in under 30 seconds? You might have noticed that within six minutes at Columbia, we lead 13-5. In the following eighteen, yes, EIGHTEEN minutes of play, we had ONE FIELD GOAL. This allowed a lovely 13-0 Columbia run to end the first half, and our sad streak continued into the second and we just couldn't catch up and hold on. If you can figure out who's spiking the water cooler, please let us know.

That also reminds me, as the season began I thought to myself "well, it seems, we've lost just about everything from last season, but at least we turned that abysmal free throw shooting around!" I am now kicking myself for thinking that, because at Columbia our pathetic showing from the charity stripe COST US THE GAME. Is it the long road stretch that's killing our ability to make free points? Is it something Coach Jones says? Is there a free throw fairy whom we have angered, and she has cursed us? Speculation abounds, which is appropriate, as it is Speculation Tuesday.

So amid the speculation, I have realized that we have come to a great turning point in the season - the end of non-conference play. As this ugly 3-12 chapter falls swiftly behind us, we can look ahead to a Patriot League slate of teams much closer to our size. Army (9-4) is inexplicably the only team that doesn't seem to be struggling against the most middling of opponents this season (although Holy Cross' identical record to our own fills me with great joy at their misfortune). During the Columbia liveblog, which was truly the highlight of the game as the lively company kept it engaging (if you missed out on this one, be sure to catch the Lehigh liveblog this Saturday), we took a quick poll to see what you, our readers, thought our Patriot League record this season will be. Here are the final tallies:

0-3 - 11%
4-7 - 44%
8-11 - 44%
12-14 - 0%

It seems the majority of you think we have somewhere between 4 and 11 wins. I would be apt to agree, maybe coming in on the lower end of that scale a bit (6-8 at most), but I think the optimism of our fans might be a positive factor toward this end if it translates into good Blue Crew support at home games. As there is nothing I love more than spreading the speculation, if you didn't have a chance to vote in the liveblog poll, take a shot at speculating our Patriot League record in the comments - we'll take a look at the updated results next Speculation Tuesday!

Last, I'd like to speculate on something positive. I have spent far too many paragraphs bashing our poor team, and as a proud Eagle I can only do that so much before breaking down and saying something nice. So I definitely want to speculate about just what it is that made Nick Hendra completely turn around the season (barring Columbia, we'll call that an aberration)? Did Vlad's presence make him more comfortable? Does he drink from a different elixir cup than the rest of the team? Does our blog empower him? Whatever it is, I hope it keeps working.

Wow, so much of this Speculation Tuesday has been serious. What a mess! So I'd like to end this speculation Tuesday by asking - what are the best nicknames for each player on the team? Sure, we have Stephen "The Lump" Lumpkins, Vlad "The Impaler" Moldoveanu, and Nick "Smell the Glove" Hendra (and if you didn't know Nick's dad was in This Is Spinal Tap, you now do**). Do you think Riley "Skin Grafft" Grafft should come into style? How about Danny "Munitions" Munoz? Perhaps Matt "Mr. Wiiiilsooooon" Wilson? Give us your best suggestions in the comments!

Ah...did you think that was all? I have one final piece of speculation for this Tuesday. Earlier this season, a small image appeared of an oddly dressed man cheering for the Eagles. This man was dressed as a gorilla. This is a bit of a head scratcher, as we are the Eagles, and not the Gorillas. In fact, Eagles and Gorillas are not much alike in any way, other than they're both animals with spinal cords. So we here at AU Hoops Blog did some undercover work, and came up with this incriminating photo:

Who is this gorilla? Why is he posing with Clawed - and in a Blue Crew shirt no less? What exactly does Clawed do on the weekends? Will we be seeing some odd, freakish baby mascot soon that should never see the light of day? Are we trying to best GW's odd choice of a hippo? Will this Gorilla show up in the stands this season?

Well I'm all speculated out for today! See you later today for a new Poll of the Week and again on Friday for the Lehigh preview!

Pro Deo Et Patria,
Josh

**While the IMDB is Nick's father, the This Is Spinal Tap image does not include Nick's father