There wasn't a whole lot of GOOD last night, but there were heaping helpings of BAD and UGLY

Gooooood afternoon AU Hoops fans. Hope everyone out there is having a good day and enjoying the Ravens beating the snot out of the Patriots. Kind of like how the Lehigh Hill Pigeons beat our beloved AU Eagles last night. The first half of that game was probably one of the worst that I've ever seen out of AU basketball. There's a little bit of everything today, so let's get down to it.

THE GOOD

Vlad "the Impaler" Moldoveanu - Vlad recorded the first of what will hopefully be many double-doubles of his AU career last night. A game-high 24 points and 11 rebounds. Only one turnover and three fouls in 35 minutes! Solid all-around. The only gripe I have is that he was 1-6 from long range, but aside from that, great game from Vlad. We'll need him to consistently play well in order to get anywhere in league play.

Nick Hendra - Nick had a nice second half, as he only had two points at halftime last night. He rattled off 11 in the second half to finish with 13 on 4-14 shooting, including 2-4 from the line and 3-5 from behind the arc. He also got 6 rebounds, dished out 3 assists, had two steals, and committed only one turnover in 37 minutes. The 4-14 isn't particularly good especially since he only went to the line for 4 shots, but we have to take points where we can get them, I guess, and Nick has been a consistent source.

Stephen Lumpkins - The past couple of games for Lumpkins have been really good. Last night he was great. 6-11 shooting, 6 rebounds, and 2 blocks in 26 minutes. The one knock I have is that Lumpkins did not fare well against Lehigh's Zahir Carrington (who, to be fair, is a pre-season all PL pick).

The second half - Outscoring Lehigh 45-38 in the second half was good, but it was too little too late after the putrid first half. Still, nice job recovering in the second half guys. I'll give credit where credit is due

THE BAD

Scoring from anyone without the surname Moldoveanu, Hendra, or Lumpkins - As one of our commenters pointed out last night: "Riley 9 minutes 0 points, Simon 30 minutes 5 points, Dan Fisher 0 points 10 minutes, Luptak 2 points 6 minutes, Joe Hill 3 points 13 minutes. Total 10 points, 68 minutes." Add in Munoz and you get 16 points in 90 minutes. Still not good. We can't get even passable contributions from anyone other than the 3 in the good column, and it's making it way too easy for defenses to lock us down.

Defense - Giving up 40 points in 20 minutes? Awful. Giving up 78 points total? Ugly. We didn't play well against Lehigh's transition game at all last night in the first half. Fast break points were 12-2 in Lehigh's favor. Yes Marquis Hall is a very, very talented guard, but we just looked lost out there, and as one commenter pointed out last night, getting beat going back on transition isn't a talent issue, it's a hustle one.

THE UGLY

Shooting - 8-31 from the field on the first half and 0-7 from behind the arc? Hideous. Just over 25%. Much better in the second half - 17-32, but we still shot less than 40% from the game and less than 30% from three-point range.

The possibility that all this losing has to do with attitude - We had a nice discussion in the liveblog at halftime about the causes of this bad play. I'll copy paste some thoughts. I'm not sure how true all of it is, but I want to put it out there for public consideration. I'm not trying to dog the players on what's been a tough season, I'm sure, but it'll only get tougher if maximum effort isn't being put out.

Tom: When I've seen AU play, they just look like an uninspired team

Joe Viddy: it looks like in their mind this season is a foregone conclusion. sad

Bill: Guest, I think it's because of the lack of experience on the team overall. We're relying on freshmen, who in turn are looking up to players like Hendra and Lumpkins who were only role players last season

Tom: They're going through the motions of every game and are easily flustered. Deep down, I don't think they mind losing because they can blame it on their youth.

Tom: It's a mindset issue, not a talent issue.

Tom: Hopefully we'll grow up sometime down the road this season and start playing for our pride instead of our record.

Brian: I think a lot of it does have to do with inexperience. Tom made some valuable points too. I just hope they can dig down and play hard and get back into this game.

Just something to think about. We'll see if we can do any better against Bucknell on Wednesday.

As always, thoughts questions and concerns in the comments. What did I miss from last night in this write-up?

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!