When you beat your arch-nemeses, in front of a packed arena, and your coach gets his 300th win, there's a lot of GOOD and not much BAD or UGLY

What a glorious, glorious day to be an Eagle. Packed crowd. Tie at halftime. Eagles win. Ah. Makes me so happy. Be sure to check out the following resources: AU's recap, the box score, Mike Unger's liveblog of the game, and Hoop Time's livetweeting and recap of the game. Woo that's a lot of resources. Alright let's get down to the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY!



THE GOOD

All five of AU's starters - I'm going to talk about them individually, but they really did a fantastic job. They scored 65 of 71 points, played smart basketball for 165 out of 200 possible minutes, and looked really fluid and loose. It took 20 games, but I think JJ finally found the right combination of five starters. I hope I'm right.

Stephen Lumpkins - Recorded his third double-double of the season with 17 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. Was a beast inside and really kept Andrew "AK34" Keister quiet (7 points, 7 rebounds) all game. Lump has hit a groove the past couple of games, and to my unbelievable delight, he's finishing his shots like he was at the beginning of the season. He's still favoring going left a tad too much (makes him a bit predictable), but that's something to discuss another day. For today, he did his job in the paint on both ends as well as he could have. Great game Lumpkins.

Vlad "the Impaler" Moldoveanu - At halftime, Vlad had 6 points on 2-6 shooting, but most importantly, he only had 1 Voul. He had a great second half, going 4-7 (1-2 from behind the arc) and 5-6 from the line for 14 total points. He also kicked in 8 rebounds, 5 assists, a block, and a steal and only one turnover in 40 minutes. More importantly than any of this was how much Vlad was on the ground today. He must've initiated at least 5 jump balls, at least half of his rebounds were ripped away from HC players. He was really physical and dispelled the idea that European players are scoring machines only. A really complete game for Vlad today.

Danny Munoz - Danny didn't have a spectacular day shooting. He finished 2-9 (1-4, 3-4) for 8 points, but he chipped in 5 assists, 2 rebounds, and a steal against ONLY ONE SOLITARY TURNOVER in 31 minutes. He's looked a lot better the past couple of games, and I think it may be because he knows he's not playing for his starting job anymore. He can relax, be loose, and start to get into a rhythm with the other starters. It's really showing, and he's been reliable for the past few games. He also missed what I think was his first free throw all day today, that means he's still 99.99999% from the line.

Nick Hendra - Hendra's line isn't the prettiest we've ever seen from him. Only 10 points, 5 assists (but 5 turnovers countering them), and only 4 rebounds. But the reason he's here is because he was often guarding and being guarded by R.J. Evans. R.J. didn't have a terrible game, but he sure didn't have a breakout game either. 14 points, yes, but on just 6-16 shooting. Hendra did good work today and continued R.J. Evans's streak of not playing well in Bender, ever. I heard his dad is going to help R.J. Evans write his auto-biography, too. Tentative title: Joke and Choke - A Crusader's Tale

Simon McCormack - Ah, Simon. Dear consistent Simon. Simon, you work hard, you know, and it shows. And I want to tell you what I like about you as a player. I like that you don't shoot a lot, but when you do, it usually goes in. Today you were 4-4. That mean you were 100% from the field. That's helpful. Also helpful? Your 3 rebounds and 2 assists. Not as helpful - your two turnovers. But hey, you had 10 points, you helped us play great defense, and overall, I like the cut of your jib.

Jeff Jones - Now, when you watch the movie 300, you can look at people and be like "I have that many wins as a college basketball coach." That's what I would do anyway. It was nice to see you fired up today, JJ. I know you're into it because the fans around me wince when they hear you in the huddle. That's the coach we know and love. I look forward to seeing your post-game audio from Hoop Time.

The Blue Crew and Pep Band - A great day for the AU basketball community. The attendance today was reported as 2,743, and I think we provided a big 6th man advantage today. We weren't consistently loud, but we were loud when it counted. The band sounded fantastic as always. Note to band, please learn the Eastern Motors theme song.

THE BAD and THE UGLY

Well. Not much to say here. The free throws weren't great 20-32, and missing some down the stretch almost let Holy Cross right back into the game. But I'm not going to nitpick after this win, either. Everybody did what they had to do for us to win this game.

So let's do this. The Bad is that Holy Cross lost this game, as much or maybe more because of their sloppy play as because of our great play. The Ugly is that they have the long, long ride back to Worcester to think about it.

We'll check in tomorrow with post-game audio!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!