Goooood evening AU hoops fans! Hope you're all enjoying this week. Should be niiice and quiet until Saturday, when we have a HUGE game against the Lehigh Hill Pigeons. Some news to discuss today about the Patriot League. Join me after the jump as I show you what for.
Vlad "THE IMPALER" Moldoveanu, as I suspected he might, picked up his second consecutive, and third overall Patriot League Player of the Week award. Here is his citation:
Moldoveanu receives his second straight Patriot League/Anaconda Player of the Week award, and now leads all players with three honors this season, after leading the streaking Eagles to a pair of wins last week. He scored 37 points, the most in League play in exactly two seasons, to lead the Eagles past Navy, 69-59, on Wednesday. Moldoveanu made 10-of-17 shots and 14-of-15 free throws in the game, and also pulled down nine rebounds. It was the highest-scoring output in a Patriot League game since Greg Sprink totaled 37 for Navy in the same matchup on Jan. 30, 2008, and the most points for an American player since Andre Ingram scored 37 in a 93-87 overtime loss at Lafayette on February 19, 2005. Moldoveanu again led all scorers with 21 points while shooting 7-of-12 from the field and 5-of-6 at the line in a 76-66 win at first-place Lafayette on Saturday. He averaged 29.0 points and 7.5 rebounds in the two games while making 58.6% (17-of-29) from the field and 90.5% (19-of-21) from the line. He also hit 5-of-12 three-pointers. Moldoveanu is second in Patriot League play with 22.7 points and 8.3 rebounds per contest, and is making more than 50 percent of his shots in League action.
The bad news is that Lehigh's Gabe Knutson gave Lehigh the fifth consecutive Rookie of the Week award. Between he and C.J. McCollum, Zahir Carrington, and of course Marquis Hall, we have our work cut out for us this weekend. We'll talk about that more later, but woooo boy do they have a lot of talent.
Other PL tidbits:
We're Halfway There
The race for the 2010 Patriot League regular-season title, and all important seeding in the League Tournament, has hit the midway point with five teams separated by just one game at the top of the standings. Lehigh and Lafayette are tied for first at 5-2 in League action, with the Mountain Hawks pulling into the tie by beating Holy Cross, 78-60, on Sunday after Lafayette fell at home against American, 76-66, on Saturday. American improved to 4-3 with the win over Lafayette, and remains in a tie for third place with Bucknell and Navy after each of those teams won on Saturday as well. The Bison defeated Army, 55-48, while the Mids beat Colgate, 100-91. Colgate, Army and Holy Cross are all at 2-5 in League action.
Home-Court Advantage
The host schools held their own during the first half of the Patriot League schedule, as the home team has a 20-8 mark as the schedule hits the back end. While the four games were split between road and home squads over the weekend, home squads have still won 13 of the past 16 Patriot League games. Lehigh and American are a perfect 3-0 at home in League play, while Lafayette, Bucknell and Navy are all 3-1 and no team has a losing mark on its home court. On the other side, only co-leaders Lafayette (2-1) and Lehigh (2-2) are at or above .500 on the road in League action. The home success is consistent with the entire season to date. Lehigh leads the way at 9-1 at home, while Army is 8-1, Lafayette is 9-2 and Navy holds a 7-3 mark. Patriot League teams are 51-28 at home this season and 26-70 away.
Sweeps or Splits
Home teams held serve throughout the first half of League play, so most teams looking for sweeps of a season series will do so on the road. That's true of three of the four Patriot League games coming up this weekend. The first-place co-leaders go on the road looking for season sweeps of their opponents on Saturday, as Lehigh visits American and Lafayette goes to Holy Cross. Colgate goes for a sweep over Army when the two meet at West Point on Sunday at Noon in a CBS College Sports Network telecast. Navy is the one team with the chance for a sweep at home as the Mids take on Bucknell on Saturday.
We'll check in again tomorrow after Yahoo! Sports releases its weekly team report, which is always good for a chuckle.
Oh! Some other things. Check out this week's Jeff Jones Radio Show episode. Dr. Neil Kerwin is the guest star! Very interesting episode.
Also check out the auction items that Athletics has up right now. Very enticing is the sign that was signed by last year's MBB team while they cut down the nets during the PL championship. Awesome!
As I leave, here's some food for thought that you can talk about in the comments...how should we look at the fact that we have no game midweek this week? Is it a time for the team to recharge its batteries, correct some things in practice, and rest up for a HUGE game on Saturday or is it a risky time that leaves us open to get risky and lose some of the momentum we accumulated over the past three games? Let me know your thoughts!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
I think our record up until Patriot League play this season was poor enough that we can't really tell if these kind of breaks are good for us or not. I'm going to side with the view that it will give us time to rest and figure out what was working and what wasn't, as there's definitely stuff we could have done better the past few games. Certainly our young team can get worn out after too many consecutive games, and that 3-game win strike will energize them regardless. What most impresses me is having THREE CONSECUTIVE games with 20+ assists after not doing it once in the past three years. That tells me this team is really gelling, which will be critical versus the Hill Pigeons on Saturday. After Lehigh we have a home game versus Bucknell, and both are chances to prove that we are contenders for the title this year. The past few games I've felt like I've been watching a completely different team than I did for most of the season, and it's incredibly refreshing. Let's keep the win streak going. Go Eagles.
ReplyDeletePart of me wants to bid on the sign and then donate it to the student body. We shouldn't be selling off our history.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I could set up a Paypal account on the site, take donations to bid on it, and then donate it back to the Blue Crew. Hrm.
ReplyDeleteI just put in a bid for $125.00
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