There are dozens of ways that this could have happened differently. Jeff Jones could have called for a foul to send Lafayette to the line for two at the end of regulation, instead Ryan Willen ties the game at 53 with a long three. Troy Brewer's three could have rolled in instead of out. Vlad could have hit that three in the corner with six seconds left in the second overtime.
AU had a shot to win the game at the end of regulation and the first overtime, and a chance to extend their lead with a few seconds left in the second overtime. But they didn't get it done. Lafayette had one hectic chance with time expiring in the second overtime, and Jim Mower buried it over a diving Nick Hendra. All of the sudden, that was it. The next full-court inbounds was a formality. Nick Hendra tried to find Vlad Moldoveanu, but his pass was plucked out of the air.
"I'm really sorry," Hendra said through tears, "that this team couldn't bring back the championship to where it belongs. And I feel personally responsible for that."
"I'm not really sure what happened," Moldoveanu said. "We were up six [in the second overtime], and it felt like the next second the game was tied.
"They made big shots, and we - slash, I think I - missed big shots. And kind of like Nick said, I feel really guilty for it. Last year's playoffs, now this year, this game, I got to take a lot of blame for it."
AU had been down most of the second half, but they had always kept the deficit manageable. Five points, three points, but you always knew they would cut it down. If they could make an 18-6 run against Colgate, they could squeak out a 7-0 run on Lafayette.
"I don't think we played well," Jones said. "We played awfully hard."
That might be the epithet written on the 2010-11 Eagles' tombstone. The effort was there, as was the goodwill, but there was always a stretch - however small - of bad play that would come back to doom them, or at least expose their mortality.
What makes tonight's example so excruciating was that the Eagles had their chances. It wasn't sloppy turnovers. It was a three pointer rolling out of the basket.
"Whether you're college age or a 50-year-old coach, it's the kind of thing that sticks with you," Jones said. "Hopefully with time, that pain and that disappointment will subside a little bit."
Maybe. But part of what makes this so shocking is that this year's senior class includes three starters, and Moldoveanu joined the 1,000 point club tonight after just 53 games. He will wind up tied with Gordon Stiles, who scored 1,012 points between 1967-1970. Replacing Moldoveanu's production will no doubt be done by committee. But it will be a committee of unproven players who didn't play much this season.
Stephen Lumpkins will be back. Brewer will be back. Charles Hinkle will be back. We'll probably get our first real look at Wayne Simon II. Jordan Borucki will get more than the six minutes he got this season. Warren Flood, Jr. may get an expanded role. Incoming freshman forward Kyle Kager looks promising. But we don't really know what next year's team will look like. We can guess, but we don't know.
That is the question for the next eight months while Jones and his staff assess the status of the roster. As much as I loved Moldoveanu, and he was one of the best players we will see in Bender for a while, here's hoping the next iteration of the Eagles is more balanced offensively. The difference between the '08-'09 teams and the '10-'11 teams was that you knew who would produce in those first two years. But In the last two seasons, it was Vlad and the rest. It was difficult to judge who else would provide meaningful production every night.
These Eagles gave us great moments. The double overtime win last Friday at Lafayette, the 5-0 start, the Cable Car Classic win, the one-point win at Lehigh, and that magical second half run to put Colgate away last Wednesday. All told, it was another 20-win season, the team's third in four years. After the game, Jones gave a farewell to the three players that won't be here to make another run next season.
"I wanted to thank them," he said. "I hope each of their teammates has an opportunity to thank them. Not just for what they've done as far as basketball, but for them as people and their contributions across the board. You look at it, and Luptak and Hendra are kind of your typical [player]. They've grown up so much and they've come so far. With Vlad, it's hard to believe that somebody in just a year and a half can have as much of an impact on a program. People will either believe me or they won't, but they need to understand, that with Vlad it's not just about him being a good player. He's a damn good player. But he's a great teammate. He's just an outstanding young man and I think has made my job easier and hopefully his teammates have enjoyed playing with him. I think it's rare that you play with someone that good who's also that good a person."
A toast to the 2010-11 AU Eagles. You went before your time, but it was a sweet ride.
Showing posts with label nick hendra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nick hendra. Show all posts
Monday, March 7, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
AU Must Learn How to Win Without Moldoveanu
"That's what you would call an old-fashioned butt-kicking," AU head coach Jeff Jones said as he sat down to talk to the media after the Eagles' 75-60 loss to Bucknell. On a night full of hard lessons for the Eagles, they were nearly dealt a devastating blow.
With just over three minutes left, AU's superstar senior Vlad Moldoveanu took a hard fall. Just as he has the ability to ignite a crowd, Moldoveanu took its entire breath away when he landed on his right shoulder and began writhing in pain.
"The angle I was at, the way his shoulder looked, it looked bad," Jones said. "I grimaced, in fact I looked away."
But somehow, just over a minute later, Moldoveanu stood up. The fans started cheering when he first sat up, let alone when he put weight on both shoulders to propel himself off the ground and returned to the bench.
"They said he was okay to come back but it made no sense to do that, the game was already out of hand," Jones said. "We'll keep an eye on it overnight and if, as I anticipate, it's sore tomorrow then we'll try to hold him out and try to ease him back into things. Probably wouldn't hurt our other guys to play and figure out how to get some stuff done without relying on him so much."
For that brief moment, Eagles coaches, players, and fans were left to wonder if they'd seen the last of Moldoveanu, and what the team might look like without him.
Picture the first 37 minutes of tonight's game, because it was pretty much the same.
Moldoveanu scored just seven points, and the Eagles were bulldozed by Mike Muscala, whose 33 points led the Bison over AU by what Jones said was the largest margin he could remember in his time at Bender.
The Bison dared the Eagles to shoot jump shots all game. Moldoveanu was double teamed with the ball at all times, and Muscala took care of Stephen Lumpkins on both ends of the floor for most of the game. The Bison were happy to allow the Eagles to chuck up threes, and AU did: they shot 5/24 from long range. Meanwhile, Bucknell shot 23 free throws and made 20 of them. AU made all five of their attempts.
In a game in which the Eagles were crying out for someone to pick up the scoring load, nobody answered.
"Collectively we didn't rise to the occasion," senior Nick Hendra said. "It's as simple as that. It was a big game and in games like that everybody has to rise to the occasion. You have to be the cream of the crop and the better team will win. It's as simple as that."
But after the game there was some disagreement as to why the Eagles looked so rusty early.
"No matter what their scheme was, they could have taken away the middle but we weren't knocking down shots," junior Troy Brewer said. "We got the ball down low and we weren't making layups. The way we started out, we weren't prepared to play."
"From an individual standpoint and from a collective standpoint I felt like we were not prepared for today's game," Hendra said.
"I'm going to interpret and hope that what [Brewer and Hendra] meant was that we didn't come out and play nearly as well [as we did against Lehigh]," Jones said. "I think it's a cop-out to say we weren't ready. I think we prepared hard, our players were excited for this game. Bucknell just played better."
The Eagles will pack their bags and head to Colgate for a game Saturday. Three of the next four games will be on the road against conference opponents.
The blueprint to beat AU is out there. Unless the Eagles can develop a consistent threat from mid-to-long range on offense outside of Moldoveanu, they will see similar defenses.
"If you think it's hard to win at home, it's about twice as hard to win on the road," Hendra said.
With just over three minutes left, AU's superstar senior Vlad Moldoveanu took a hard fall. Just as he has the ability to ignite a crowd, Moldoveanu took its entire breath away when he landed on his right shoulder and began writhing in pain.
"The angle I was at, the way his shoulder looked, it looked bad," Jones said. "I grimaced, in fact I looked away."
But somehow, just over a minute later, Moldoveanu stood up. The fans started cheering when he first sat up, let alone when he put weight on both shoulders to propel himself off the ground and returned to the bench.
"They said he was okay to come back but it made no sense to do that, the game was already out of hand," Jones said. "We'll keep an eye on it overnight and if, as I anticipate, it's sore tomorrow then we'll try to hold him out and try to ease him back into things. Probably wouldn't hurt our other guys to play and figure out how to get some stuff done without relying on him so much."
For that brief moment, Eagles coaches, players, and fans were left to wonder if they'd seen the last of Moldoveanu, and what the team might look like without him.
Picture the first 37 minutes of tonight's game, because it was pretty much the same.
Moldoveanu scored just seven points, and the Eagles were bulldozed by Mike Muscala, whose 33 points led the Bison over AU by what Jones said was the largest margin he could remember in his time at Bender.
The Bison dared the Eagles to shoot jump shots all game. Moldoveanu was double teamed with the ball at all times, and Muscala took care of Stephen Lumpkins on both ends of the floor for most of the game. The Bison were happy to allow the Eagles to chuck up threes, and AU did: they shot 5/24 from long range. Meanwhile, Bucknell shot 23 free throws and made 20 of them. AU made all five of their attempts.
In a game in which the Eagles were crying out for someone to pick up the scoring load, nobody answered.
"Collectively we didn't rise to the occasion," senior Nick Hendra said. "It's as simple as that. It was a big game and in games like that everybody has to rise to the occasion. You have to be the cream of the crop and the better team will win. It's as simple as that."
But after the game there was some disagreement as to why the Eagles looked so rusty early.
"No matter what their scheme was, they could have taken away the middle but we weren't knocking down shots," junior Troy Brewer said. "We got the ball down low and we weren't making layups. The way we started out, we weren't prepared to play."
"From an individual standpoint and from a collective standpoint I felt like we were not prepared for today's game," Hendra said.
"I'm going to interpret and hope that what [Brewer and Hendra] meant was that we didn't come out and play nearly as well [as we did against Lehigh]," Jones said. "I think it's a cop-out to say we weren't ready. I think we prepared hard, our players were excited for this game. Bucknell just played better."
The Eagles will pack their bags and head to Colgate for a game Saturday. Three of the next four games will be on the road against conference opponents.
The blueprint to beat AU is out there. Unless the Eagles can develop a consistent threat from mid-to-long range on offense outside of Moldoveanu, they will see similar defenses.
"If you think it's hard to win at home, it's about twice as hard to win on the road," Hendra said.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
When You Cross Three Time Zones To Post A Very Solid Win, Lots of Loose Ends Get Tied Up
NB: If you don't make it to the bottom of the post, we'll be liveblogging tonight's game vs. Delaware starting shortly before the projected 11:15 PM EST tip. A free video feed will be available from Santa Clara's website as well.
Happy Holidays everyone! We were given a late present last night as AU downed the Fordham Rams 73-57 in the first round of the Cable Car Classic on the campus of Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA. Bear with me tonight as I tie up some loose ends and simultaneously try to give you a recap of this game, a preview of today's game, and some thoughts about our previous outing at #6 Pittsburgh, as we failed to adequately do that before. That's a lot of ground to cover, so without further adieu let's delve right in!
Billygoats Can't Find Their Footing in Moving Cable Cars
Without a doubt, this was one of our most solid wins of the season so far. We found a tempo, burst out to a 10-0 lead, stuck to it, and kept our opponent from finding one of their own. Fordham was riding a four-game win streak, which included an upset of St. John's from the Big East conference, and in no way would I have predicted that we would manhandle them as we did. To be fair, Fordham's three-day trip to Santa Clara could best be described as a harrowing ordeal, so that may have affected their play. Still, they were a formidable opponent for the first time in years (I believe since they left the Patriot League in 1997 they've had one winning season), and we made a statement on the West Coast. Most importantly, we proved we can take on someone our own size, as opposed to beating near-winless teams or standing up to top ten powerhouses. For the trivia buffs out there, despite Fordham being a former member of the Patriot League, this is the first time we ever played them.
There are definitely some highlights I want to touch on. First is the point guard play this game. That's right, I want to compliment our point guards, which we don't have an opportunity to do nearly enough. The Munoz and Luptake duo combined for all 40 minutes at the 1 spot, together contributing 7 points, 6 assists, and a steal. What's missing there? You may notice that not a single turnover is listed. That's right: ZERO TURNOVERS from the point this game. Additionally, they held While Danny and Steve may not be an offensive spark all the time, their ball handling skills are commendable, and with the rest of the scoring options we have, that may be enough to get us back to the Tournament this March.
Next up on my congratulatory list is Stephen Lumpkins. The Lump proved to be unstumpable yet again, posting his fourth double-double of the season with 18 points and 11 boards, plus an assist for good measure. Fordham's frontcourt was highly touted coming into the game, with forward like Chris Gaston averaging a double-double. We held Gaston to 10 points and 9 boards (just shy of that double-double), with foul trouble keeping him out for a while and Lump locking him down the rest of the time. Vlad also poured in a solid game, with 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists. He didn't lead the team, and it's good to see that he doesn't always have to - surely Fordham felt all they'd need to do to win was stop Vlad, but we had more weapons than them, and it showed.
While we were edged slightly on the boards by the Rams, 39-37, we entered the game ranked very low in the NCAA in rebounds per game, with the Rams definitely in the top 50, if not 30. We didn't kill them on the boards, but we certainly didn't let it drag us down, either. Our frontcourt proved last night they could hang with big men as good as you'll find anywhere in the Patriot League, and they did so handily.
There was one other major standout performance last night, but we'll get to that in a bit. Some things that could have been better (and I am truly loathe to criticize anything that happened in this game) was that once we smelled blood in the water, we went for it and played very aggressively - so aggressively that with 10 minutes left in the second half, Fordham was already in the double bonus. We need to limit the needless fouls, and we are fortunate that the Rams struggled mightily from the line. If they hadn't, the game might have swung differently. However from beginning to end we took control, and were never seriously threatened. In that vein, though, I was surprised that the transfer duo of Troy and Charles was relatively quiet. Ultimately, they played solid defense, pulled their weight, and kept Fordham honest, but if either of them (or hey, both) had really gone off offensively then it would have been an incredible blowout. However, the game was definitely highlighted by none other than...
Hendra Sends Resounding Message Back to New York City
NICK HENDRA! The NYC native sent a powerful message back with the Rams, scoring a career-high 22 points, 7 boards, 6 assists, and a really incredible block. He played incredibly hard and smart the entire game, set up Lump and Vlad with incredible passes, fearlessly drove to the basket without trying to be showy, and shot lights out from beyond the arc. He created his own shot, and made everyone around him better. This is the Nick Hendra we've been waiting for for over three years. If he continues to play like this, we're golden. If he continues to play half as well as this, heck, I'll be happy. Needless to say, I can safely predict that his starting spot is absolutely safe.
The Transitive Property of Basketball
While I could speak volumes about how if every game was played like this, we'd skip our way into March, I'd like to leave some room for those with a higher basketball IQ than myself to show me up in the comments. I do want to take some time, however, to talk about the most useless statistic of all in college hoops (so useless, it's practically not real): the transitive property of basketball.
So here's where I'll talk about Pitt. We lost to Pitt by 16 points. In Pitt's next game, which happened to be the Big East opener vs. #4 UConn (and I'll be transparent and say I'm from Connecticut and am a lifelong Huskies fan), the Panthers won by 16. Curious - but it gets curiouser. Vlad scored 23 of our 46 points in the loss, exactly 50%. UConn's Kemba Walker, the leading scorer in the entire NCAA, scored 31 of UConn's 66 points, pretty darn close to 50%. While I cannot find the link right now for the life of me, I distinctly remember reading an interview after the Pitt game where one of their players said that our slow, grind-it-out style reminded him of a Big East game, which I took as an utmost compliment. It's noteworthy that prior to our game, Pitt was averaging 82 points per game, and we held them to 21 below that. What does this all mean? Absolutely nothing. But for the sake of seeing if we can make something of nothing let's continue.
So as previously mentioned, Fordham's marquee win on the young season was an intra-city upset of St. John's of the Big East. They also handily Lehigh (aka the CJ McCollum show) on their home court, but I digress. Immediately after losing to Fordham, St. John's rebounded in a big way by beating West Virginia on their home court, followed by a drubbing of Northwestern at home. Coincidental that we held our own against both of those teams in recent days, no?
However, this can all be spun the other way. Sure, I could talk about a team that beat us (say, Columbia), and some team that beat them handily, and how that means we're inferior to whatever team beat the Lions. As I said, it's all rubbish. Yet it's worth noting that the RPI actually considers the transitive property noteworthy, as (correct me if I'm wrong), 25% of the calculation is the record of opponents' opponents. So when we beat Fordham, who beat St. John's, who beat two teams that beat us - well, the complex computer algorithm really likes that, and that's all I have to say on the matter.
Up Next: The Fightin' Blue Hens
OK, deep breath. Phew, we're almost done. I'm sure this entire time you've been itching to find out if we'll win the Cable Car Classic crown (which is why I provided the handy headers in case you became impatient and decided to scroll down). Well, I believe our chances are pretty good, as we lucked out with the best possible matchup (of two, so that's not saying too much) for this game. Delaware will not have the home court advantage of Santa Clara, and is also operating on eastern time, in case anyone is feeling the jet lag.
The Blue Hens (6-4) have gone 3-3 on the road so far this season, including last night's narrow 54-53 win over Santa Clara where they rallied from a 6-point halftime deficit. Their other two wins come against Hampton and Lafayette, and both were relatively close games. The losses were a little less close, and came to Ohio University, Cornell, and #10 Villanova. So while Delaware does not yet have something as solid as our Fordham win on their road resume, they are not a team to be trifled with.
The only major threat on UD's team that I can see is guard Jawan Carter, who pours in 15 ppg. Big man Jamelle Hagins rebounds about as well as Lumpkins, and has 3.8 bpg to boot. Otherwise, there are some very solid roleplayers that might not be stars in their own right, but have won their fair share of contests this season.
Needless to say, if we play like we did yesterday, this one is in the bag. However, that is far from guaranteed. Hopefully we're still fired up from yesterday's win, but if fatigue or jet lag sets in, it could hurt, and we'll have to hope that the Blue Hens find themselves in the same situation. The trick to repeating last night's success is a balanced attack, solid ball handling, and playing at our speed and not rushing the 3. A few less fouls would be nice, too, because if UD is on their game then they'll likely shoot much better from the charity stripe than Fordham. If all these things can come together, we'll find ourselves crowned Cable Car Classic champion, a dream that was dashed the one other time we participated in the Classic in the late 80's by Santa Clara in the second round. As always, let's live the dream.
The Blue Crew, Coast to Coast
Finally, I just want to point out yet again how we have the greatest fan section in the Patriot League. The advantage the Blue Crew brings officially spreads from coast to coast, as three native Californians (Lumpkins, Tony Wroblicky, and Charles Hinkle) have a homecoming of sorts this week.
EDIT: I was quite remiss in forgetting that Jordan Borucki is also from California. My apologies to Jordan and thanks to the commenter who pointed this out to me!
Below are some pictures of Lump and Tony's families absolutely rocking Santa Clara's Leavey Center. Huge kudos to the Lumpkins for bringing so many Lumpkins Patch shirts back with them from their last trip to Bender!
That's all for today, folks, and thanks for sticking with us! We'll be back tonight at 11:15 PM EST to liveblog the AU-UD game. Santa Clara is again providing a live video feed on their site for free, and we'll have all the appropriate links up tonight so everyone willing to burn the midnight oil can watch. While it's a bit of a bummer the games are so late, we had a great crowd for last night's liveblog, so a huge kudos to everyone that joined us. Time and again, you make us proud to write this blog. See you tonight, and remember: BE THERE, BE LOUD, BE BLUE! GO EAGLES!
Pro Deo Et Patria
Josh
Happy Holidays everyone! We were given a late present last night as AU downed the Fordham Rams 73-57 in the first round of the Cable Car Classic on the campus of Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA. Bear with me tonight as I tie up some loose ends and simultaneously try to give you a recap of this game, a preview of today's game, and some thoughts about our previous outing at #6 Pittsburgh, as we failed to adequately do that before. That's a lot of ground to cover, so without further adieu let's delve right in!
Billygoats Can't Find Their Footing in Moving Cable Cars
Without a doubt, this was one of our most solid wins of the season so far. We found a tempo, burst out to a 10-0 lead, stuck to it, and kept our opponent from finding one of their own. Fordham was riding a four-game win streak, which included an upset of St. John's from the Big East conference, and in no way would I have predicted that we would manhandle them as we did. To be fair, Fordham's three-day trip to Santa Clara could best be described as a harrowing ordeal, so that may have affected their play. Still, they were a formidable opponent for the first time in years (I believe since they left the Patriot League in 1997 they've had one winning season), and we made a statement on the West Coast. Most importantly, we proved we can take on someone our own size, as opposed to beating near-winless teams or standing up to top ten powerhouses. For the trivia buffs out there, despite Fordham being a former member of the Patriot League, this is the first time we ever played them.
There are definitely some highlights I want to touch on. First is the point guard play this game. That's right, I want to compliment our point guards, which we don't have an opportunity to do nearly enough. The Munoz and Luptake duo combined for all 40 minutes at the 1 spot, together contributing 7 points, 6 assists, and a steal. What's missing there? You may notice that not a single turnover is listed. That's right: ZERO TURNOVERS from the point this game. Additionally, they held While Danny and Steve may not be an offensive spark all the time, their ball handling skills are commendable, and with the rest of the scoring options we have, that may be enough to get us back to the Tournament this March.
Next up on my congratulatory list is Stephen Lumpkins. The Lump proved to be unstumpable yet again, posting his fourth double-double of the season with 18 points and 11 boards, plus an assist for good measure. Fordham's frontcourt was highly touted coming into the game, with forward like Chris Gaston averaging a double-double. We held Gaston to 10 points and 9 boards (just shy of that double-double), with foul trouble keeping him out for a while and Lump locking him down the rest of the time. Vlad also poured in a solid game, with 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists. He didn't lead the team, and it's good to see that he doesn't always have to - surely Fordham felt all they'd need to do to win was stop Vlad, but we had more weapons than them, and it showed.
While we were edged slightly on the boards by the Rams, 39-37, we entered the game ranked very low in the NCAA in rebounds per game, with the Rams definitely in the top 50, if not 30. We didn't kill them on the boards, but we certainly didn't let it drag us down, either. Our frontcourt proved last night they could hang with big men as good as you'll find anywhere in the Patriot League, and they did so handily.
There was one other major standout performance last night, but we'll get to that in a bit. Some things that could have been better (and I am truly loathe to criticize anything that happened in this game) was that once we smelled blood in the water, we went for it and played very aggressively - so aggressively that with 10 minutes left in the second half, Fordham was already in the double bonus. We need to limit the needless fouls, and we are fortunate that the Rams struggled mightily from the line. If they hadn't, the game might have swung differently. However from beginning to end we took control, and were never seriously threatened. In that vein, though, I was surprised that the transfer duo of Troy and Charles was relatively quiet. Ultimately, they played solid defense, pulled their weight, and kept Fordham honest, but if either of them (or hey, both) had really gone off offensively then it would have been an incredible blowout. However, the game was definitely highlighted by none other than...
Hendra Sends Resounding Message Back to New York City
NICK HENDRA! The NYC native sent a powerful message back with the Rams, scoring a career-high 22 points, 7 boards, 6 assists, and a really incredible block. He played incredibly hard and smart the entire game, set up Lump and Vlad with incredible passes, fearlessly drove to the basket without trying to be showy, and shot lights out from beyond the arc. He created his own shot, and made everyone around him better. This is the Nick Hendra we've been waiting for for over three years. If he continues to play like this, we're golden. If he continues to play half as well as this, heck, I'll be happy. Needless to say, I can safely predict that his starting spot is absolutely safe.
The Transitive Property of Basketball
While I could speak volumes about how if every game was played like this, we'd skip our way into March, I'd like to leave some room for those with a higher basketball IQ than myself to show me up in the comments. I do want to take some time, however, to talk about the most useless statistic of all in college hoops (so useless, it's practically not real): the transitive property of basketball.
So here's where I'll talk about Pitt. We lost to Pitt by 16 points. In Pitt's next game, which happened to be the Big East opener vs. #4 UConn (and I'll be transparent and say I'm from Connecticut and am a lifelong Huskies fan), the Panthers won by 16. Curious - but it gets curiouser. Vlad scored 23 of our 46 points in the loss, exactly 50%. UConn's Kemba Walker, the leading scorer in the entire NCAA, scored 31 of UConn's 66 points, pretty darn close to 50%. While I cannot find the link right now for the life of me, I distinctly remember reading an interview after the Pitt game where one of their players said that our slow, grind-it-out style reminded him of a Big East game, which I took as an utmost compliment. It's noteworthy that prior to our game, Pitt was averaging 82 points per game, and we held them to 21 below that. What does this all mean? Absolutely nothing. But for the sake of seeing if we can make something of nothing let's continue.
So as previously mentioned, Fordham's marquee win on the young season was an intra-city upset of St. John's of the Big East. They also handily Lehigh (aka the CJ McCollum show) on their home court, but I digress. Immediately after losing to Fordham, St. John's rebounded in a big way by beating West Virginia on their home court, followed by a drubbing of Northwestern at home. Coincidental that we held our own against both of those teams in recent days, no?
However, this can all be spun the other way. Sure, I could talk about a team that beat us (say, Columbia), and some team that beat them handily, and how that means we're inferior to whatever team beat the Lions. As I said, it's all rubbish. Yet it's worth noting that the RPI actually considers the transitive property noteworthy, as (correct me if I'm wrong), 25% of the calculation is the record of opponents' opponents. So when we beat Fordham, who beat St. John's, who beat two teams that beat us - well, the complex computer algorithm really likes that, and that's all I have to say on the matter.
Up Next: The Fightin' Blue Hens
OK, deep breath. Phew, we're almost done. I'm sure this entire time you've been itching to find out if we'll win the Cable Car Classic crown (which is why I provided the handy headers in case you became impatient and decided to scroll down). Well, I believe our chances are pretty good, as we lucked out with the best possible matchup (of two, so that's not saying too much) for this game. Delaware will not have the home court advantage of Santa Clara, and is also operating on eastern time, in case anyone is feeling the jet lag.
The Blue Hens (6-4) have gone 3-3 on the road so far this season, including last night's narrow 54-53 win over Santa Clara where they rallied from a 6-point halftime deficit. Their other two wins come against Hampton and Lafayette, and both were relatively close games. The losses were a little less close, and came to Ohio University, Cornell, and #10 Villanova. So while Delaware does not yet have something as solid as our Fordham win on their road resume, they are not a team to be trifled with.
The only major threat on UD's team that I can see is guard Jawan Carter, who pours in 15 ppg. Big man Jamelle Hagins rebounds about as well as Lumpkins, and has 3.8 bpg to boot. Otherwise, there are some very solid roleplayers that might not be stars in their own right, but have won their fair share of contests this season.
Needless to say, if we play like we did yesterday, this one is in the bag. However, that is far from guaranteed. Hopefully we're still fired up from yesterday's win, but if fatigue or jet lag sets in, it could hurt, and we'll have to hope that the Blue Hens find themselves in the same situation. The trick to repeating last night's success is a balanced attack, solid ball handling, and playing at our speed and not rushing the 3. A few less fouls would be nice, too, because if UD is on their game then they'll likely shoot much better from the charity stripe than Fordham. If all these things can come together, we'll find ourselves crowned Cable Car Classic champion, a dream that was dashed the one other time we participated in the Classic in the late 80's by Santa Clara in the second round. As always, let's live the dream.
The Blue Crew, Coast to Coast
Finally, I just want to point out yet again how we have the greatest fan section in the Patriot League. The advantage the Blue Crew brings officially spreads from coast to coast, as three native Californians (Lumpkins, Tony Wroblicky, and Charles Hinkle) have a homecoming of sorts this week.
EDIT: I was quite remiss in forgetting that Jordan Borucki is also from California. My apologies to Jordan and thanks to the commenter who pointed this out to me!
Below are some pictures of Lump and Tony's families absolutely rocking Santa Clara's Leavey Center. Huge kudos to the Lumpkins for bringing so many Lumpkins Patch shirts back with them from their last trip to Bender!
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| The signs speak for themselves |
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| "Cali Boys Welcome Home" |
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| Next season I can see Tony the Tiger becoming a fast moniker |
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| Incredible excitement from a sizable AU section for a game played 3,000 miles from home |
Pro Deo Et Patria
Josh
Monday, December 13, 2010
The Fans Speak: Point Guard Palooza
Often the Poll of the Week results get rolled into some post or another, but this week I think the voice of the fans deserves its own space. We asked, "Who should start at point guard?", and the results are close indeed:
Steve Luptak: 13 (25%)
Daniel Munoz: 7 (13%)
Nick Hendra: 16 (31%)
Blake Jolivette: 15 (29%)
Total Votes: 51 (100%)
Hendra leads with 16 votes, which on one hand is surprising as he is the least like a true point guard of the four. On the other hand, he is definitely the biggest offensive spark and leads the team in assists, although is ball-handling skills and knowledge of the offense from the one spot might not be as great as the others.
Neck-and-neck with Hendra is Blake Jolivette, who has only seen about a minute and a half of play time this season. We've speculated for months as to why he's been riding the pine for about a year now, as last season he shared the starting spot with Danny Munoz up until late December. A fantastic 3-point conversion at West Virginia gave fuel to the "Let Blake Play" camp, although others are quick to point out that it was in the final seconds versus WVU's scrub team. Still, with a dearth of dribble penetration from our other guards, it still holds merit.
Following closely behind Jolivette is Steve Luptak, the first candidate to actually see significant play time at the point guard position this season. He's probably the best defender of the bunch, but the weakest on offense. His ball handling skills are not as tight as Danny's, but his bigger frame helps him hold onto the ball better in tight situations, and his experience as a Senior and accompanying leadership skills get him the starting spot as of now.
Last, surprisingly, is Danny Munoz. I think Steve and Danny coming in 3rd and 4th place respectively speaks to fans' collective disappointment with how weak this position is for us right now, but I didn't expect Danny to fall behind the rest of the pack quite so much. As stated, Danny probably has the best ball-handling skills of the bunch, can hit the occasional three, and against softer teams can make it to the basket every now and then. While I think he should be higher, that's just my opinion, and if my opinion was the only one that mattered then why take a poll?
Last, I do want to mention option #5, Wayne Simon II. As he's new to the team and stands little chance of starting this season, he wasn't included in the poll. This being said, in the years to come we will likely see a lot of him. He's tiny, but quick, and from what I've seen can drive to the basket and pick much larger defenders like it's nobody's business. He has the opportunity to get a bit bigger this summer too, and the cleanup minutes he's been seeing so far have hopefully been helping him adjust to the college game. When we lose Nick and Steve to graduation after this season, we'll likely look to Wayne to step up and contribute much more, along with fellow freshman Tony Wroblicky. This team has a bright future, and Wayne will definitely be a part of it.
Thanks to everyone who voted. AUHoops only gets better when there's more voices being heard. If you have further thoughts on the point guards (and I'm sure you do), share them with us in the comments, then vote in this week's poll, "Which Patriot League opponent will be our greatest contender for the title?" We'll be back shortly with a preview of tomorrow's UMBC game.
Pro Deo Et Patria and GO EAGLES!
Josh
Daniel Munoz: 7 (13%)
Nick Hendra: 16 (31%)
Blake Jolivette: 15 (29%)
Total Votes: 51 (100%)
Hendra leads with 16 votes, which on one hand is surprising as he is the least like a true point guard of the four. On the other hand, he is definitely the biggest offensive spark and leads the team in assists, although is ball-handling skills and knowledge of the offense from the one spot might not be as great as the others.
Neck-and-neck with Hendra is Blake Jolivette, who has only seen about a minute and a half of play time this season. We've speculated for months as to why he's been riding the pine for about a year now, as last season he shared the starting spot with Danny Munoz up until late December. A fantastic 3-point conversion at West Virginia gave fuel to the "Let Blake Play" camp, although others are quick to point out that it was in the final seconds versus WVU's scrub team. Still, with a dearth of dribble penetration from our other guards, it still holds merit.
Following closely behind Jolivette is Steve Luptak, the first candidate to actually see significant play time at the point guard position this season. He's probably the best defender of the bunch, but the weakest on offense. His ball handling skills are not as tight as Danny's, but his bigger frame helps him hold onto the ball better in tight situations, and his experience as a Senior and accompanying leadership skills get him the starting spot as of now.
Last, surprisingly, is Danny Munoz. I think Steve and Danny coming in 3rd and 4th place respectively speaks to fans' collective disappointment with how weak this position is for us right now, but I didn't expect Danny to fall behind the rest of the pack quite so much. As stated, Danny probably has the best ball-handling skills of the bunch, can hit the occasional three, and against softer teams can make it to the basket every now and then. While I think he should be higher, that's just my opinion, and if my opinion was the only one that mattered then why take a poll?
Last, I do want to mention option #5, Wayne Simon II. As he's new to the team and stands little chance of starting this season, he wasn't included in the poll. This being said, in the years to come we will likely see a lot of him. He's tiny, but quick, and from what I've seen can drive to the basket and pick much larger defenders like it's nobody's business. He has the opportunity to get a bit bigger this summer too, and the cleanup minutes he's been seeing so far have hopefully been helping him adjust to the college game. When we lose Nick and Steve to graduation after this season, we'll likely look to Wayne to step up and contribute much more, along with fellow freshman Tony Wroblicky. This team has a bright future, and Wayne will definitely be a part of it.
Thanks to everyone who voted. AUHoops only gets better when there's more voices being heard. If you have further thoughts on the point guards (and I'm sure you do), share them with us in the comments, then vote in this week's poll, "Which Patriot League opponent will be our greatest contender for the title?" We'll be back shortly with a preview of tomorrow's UMBC game.
Pro Deo Et Patria and GO EAGLES!
Josh
Thursday, November 18, 2010
When You Make It Harder Than It Should Be But Get the W Anyway, There's GOOD, BAD, and UGLY
Hellooooooooo AUHoops fans! Welcome to the wonderful realm of being 3-0. First time this has been the case in the Jeff Jones era, and the first time this has happened to AU since 1989-90 when I was just learning how to eat my Cheerios without spilling all the milk out of the bowl. As predicted, we got the win against the U-MESS Chickenhawks last night, but boy it was a lot closer than me or Josh thought it would be. U-MESS was within 2 with 75 seconds to go last night; that was particularly surprising since before the game I thought they wouldn't have been within 20 with that much time left. Definitely some GOOD, BAD, and UGLY to take out of the game last night, but the overriding thought I have is, a win is a win, and now we'll take our 3-0 record on the road against what will be a very tough match-up against the FAU Hooters.
THE GOOD
VLAD THE IMPALER - No getting around it, folks, Vlad the Impaler was the crown jewel of last night's game. He scored 31 of our 65 points and, along with Nick Hendra who I'll get to in a minute, put this team on his back to get the victory. At half, Vlad had 13 of 23 points and was 3-4 from long range (the rest of the team? 0-8). In the second half, Vlad really turned it on. After getting into some foul trouble and riding the bench with Lumpkins for a long stretch in the middle of the second half, he came back in with the score tied at 45. He then proceeded to rattle off 13 straight AU points including three long range buckets from Garrison Carr range. The third was a contested shot in the corner where he shot around the defender who was in his face while off-balanced and on one leg. Unreal. He finished 9-5, 6-7, and 7-9 from the line with 5 boards, 3 assists, and 2 turnovers. A classic impaling last night.
Nick Hendra - Hell of a game last night for Hendra, and the intangibles were more important than the score sheet. When UMES made their run in the second half to tie it up at 45, Hendra got real fired up and let the rest of the team know about it. He lead by example last night, fighting for loose balls, picking off passes, and at one point hurdling the courtside fans to try to save a ball. All of this isn't to say that Hendra did nothing tangible last night. At halftime he was our second leading scorer with 6, he finished with 9 pts, 5 boards, 6 assists (to only 2 turnovers), and 2 steals. Now that the pressure is off of him to be a primary scorer for the team, Hendra seems to be flourishing in his new role and is facilitating the offense in a tremendous way, including the awesome alley-oop to Troy Brewer late in the second half.
Stephen Lumpkins - Lump was stumped in the first half, going just 1-5 but grabbing four boards. We were having trouble getting it inside to him, and he was having some trouble finishing. Lump was also very predictable down low in the first half (catching the ball with back to defender, spin move left, finish with left hand). Luckily for us, the team came out ready to feed the hungry big man in the second half. He scored the first 10 AU points in the second half and showed all kinds of move in the post. After that the Chickenhawks locked him up for the rest of the game, but he finished with 12 points, 6 boards, and 3 steals. Also did play in foul trouble for most of the second half.
AU's ball handling/distribution - For the second straight game we had a 2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio, last night it was 18 to 9. At half it was 7 to 2, so while we distributed the ball well in the 2nd half, we also gave it away a fair amount. Kudos to Danny Munoz who had 5 assists to 0 turnovers in 23 minutes of action last night.
Tony Wroblicky - Great game from the freshman big man last night who has quickly become a crowd favorite in Bender. 6 pts and 6 boards on 3-6 shooting, and he was able to step in for Lumpkins who had foul issues throughout the game. Nice moves inside, and it didn't look like the ankle sprain JJ talked about post-St. Francis was bothering him at all.
AU's first half defense - Lest I forget this two games in a row, AU's defense in the first half was awesome. Gave up on 18 points and held U-MESS to 31% shooting. Unfortunately, the defense in the second half was much more porous, which brings me to...
THE BAD
AU's second half defense - After playing great D in the first half, the Eagles let the U-MESS backcourt have too much slack in the second. Lots of drives inside by Kevin White and Tim Burns led to 20 points in the paint allowed in the second half versus just 6 in the first. U-MESS shot just under 50% in the second half as well.
Offensive production from the PG position - Danny and Steve combined to go 0-2 with 0 points last night. They did a great job limiting turnovers, and they combined for 6 assists, but they looked overmatched last night against the U-MESS backcourt.
Troy Brewer - It pains me to do this, but I've got to. Troy has a tremendous amount of athletic ability, but has definitely not his groove yet. For a guy who has the reputation as a 3 pt. sniper he's now 2-13 on the season and was 0-4 last night. He's 10-29 overall (2-10 last night) from the field this season. Troy is also very quick, but on two fast breaks last night he lost the handle and turned the ball over. I think Troy is going to be a tremendous asset to us, and he already is on defense. He's long and quick and a real pain for opposing players, but his shooting % has to improve.
Mike Bersch - Bersch is doing a fine job passing, and he looks better on defense, but the guy is a 3 pt specialist and so far he's 1-9 on the season. He drains them like crazy in practice apparently, but in a game situation it's been very different this year. 0-3 last night, until he starts shooting better he's going to see his minutes be even more limited.
THE UGLY
Non-Vlad 3-point shooting - Vlad: 6-7, rest of the team: 1-12. Terrible. That's really, really bad. We're going to the 3 too early in possession, and our sets, thankfully, are giving us open shots, but we are just missing the shots like crazy. We should be feeding the ball inside more to Lump to give him a shot at the opportunities we're squandering from the outside.
All of the easy missed shots - This isn't a statistic that we keep track of, I guess, but it just seemed like we had a lot of trouble finishing lay-ins and point blank shots last night. If we had made these shots, the game would've been a blowout, but we kept missing freebie easy buckets. It wasn't anyone in particular either, it was a team-wide problem last night. As a senior AU official said to me last night, sometimes the shots go in, and sometimes they don't. Let's hope we don't have too many nights where they don't going forward.
How close this game was - This is part of the problem above, but U-MESS is a team that just gave up 100 points to Columbia. We should not have had as big a problem with the Chickenhawks as we did. We let them back into the game and gave that team a lot of hope. A team with hope is dangerous. YOU HAVE TO CRUSH IT LIKE A TOTALITARIAN REGIME WOULD.
Anyway, that's that. Big game coming up against FAU's Hooters. What were everyone else's thoughts about the game last night?
THE GOOD
VLAD THE IMPALER - No getting around it, folks, Vlad the Impaler was the crown jewel of last night's game. He scored 31 of our 65 points and, along with Nick Hendra who I'll get to in a minute, put this team on his back to get the victory. At half, Vlad had 13 of 23 points and was 3-4 from long range (the rest of the team? 0-8). In the second half, Vlad really turned it on. After getting into some foul trouble and riding the bench with Lumpkins for a long stretch in the middle of the second half, he came back in with the score tied at 45. He then proceeded to rattle off 13 straight AU points including three long range buckets from Garrison Carr range. The third was a contested shot in the corner where he shot around the defender who was in his face while off-balanced and on one leg. Unreal. He finished 9-5, 6-7, and 7-9 from the line with 5 boards, 3 assists, and 2 turnovers. A classic impaling last night.
Nick Hendra - Hell of a game last night for Hendra, and the intangibles were more important than the score sheet. When UMES made their run in the second half to tie it up at 45, Hendra got real fired up and let the rest of the team know about it. He lead by example last night, fighting for loose balls, picking off passes, and at one point hurdling the courtside fans to try to save a ball. All of this isn't to say that Hendra did nothing tangible last night. At halftime he was our second leading scorer with 6, he finished with 9 pts, 5 boards, 6 assists (to only 2 turnovers), and 2 steals. Now that the pressure is off of him to be a primary scorer for the team, Hendra seems to be flourishing in his new role and is facilitating the offense in a tremendous way, including the awesome alley-oop to Troy Brewer late in the second half.
Stephen Lumpkins - Lump was stumped in the first half, going just 1-5 but grabbing four boards. We were having trouble getting it inside to him, and he was having some trouble finishing. Lump was also very predictable down low in the first half (catching the ball with back to defender, spin move left, finish with left hand). Luckily for us, the team came out ready to feed the hungry big man in the second half. He scored the first 10 AU points in the second half and showed all kinds of move in the post. After that the Chickenhawks locked him up for the rest of the game, but he finished with 12 points, 6 boards, and 3 steals. Also did play in foul trouble for most of the second half.
AU's ball handling/distribution - For the second straight game we had a 2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio, last night it was 18 to 9. At half it was 7 to 2, so while we distributed the ball well in the 2nd half, we also gave it away a fair amount. Kudos to Danny Munoz who had 5 assists to 0 turnovers in 23 minutes of action last night.
Tony Wroblicky - Great game from the freshman big man last night who has quickly become a crowd favorite in Bender. 6 pts and 6 boards on 3-6 shooting, and he was able to step in for Lumpkins who had foul issues throughout the game. Nice moves inside, and it didn't look like the ankle sprain JJ talked about post-St. Francis was bothering him at all.
AU's first half defense - Lest I forget this two games in a row, AU's defense in the first half was awesome. Gave up on 18 points and held U-MESS to 31% shooting. Unfortunately, the defense in the second half was much more porous, which brings me to...
THE BAD
AU's second half defense - After playing great D in the first half, the Eagles let the U-MESS backcourt have too much slack in the second. Lots of drives inside by Kevin White and Tim Burns led to 20 points in the paint allowed in the second half versus just 6 in the first. U-MESS shot just under 50% in the second half as well.
Offensive production from the PG position - Danny and Steve combined to go 0-2 with 0 points last night. They did a great job limiting turnovers, and they combined for 6 assists, but they looked overmatched last night against the U-MESS backcourt.
Troy Brewer - It pains me to do this, but I've got to. Troy has a tremendous amount of athletic ability, but has definitely not his groove yet. For a guy who has the reputation as a 3 pt. sniper he's now 2-13 on the season and was 0-4 last night. He's 10-29 overall (2-10 last night) from the field this season. Troy is also very quick, but on two fast breaks last night he lost the handle and turned the ball over. I think Troy is going to be a tremendous asset to us, and he already is on defense. He's long and quick and a real pain for opposing players, but his shooting % has to improve.
Mike Bersch - Bersch is doing a fine job passing, and he looks better on defense, but the guy is a 3 pt specialist and so far he's 1-9 on the season. He drains them like crazy in practice apparently, but in a game situation it's been very different this year. 0-3 last night, until he starts shooting better he's going to see his minutes be even more limited.
THE UGLY
Non-Vlad 3-point shooting - Vlad: 6-7, rest of the team: 1-12. Terrible. That's really, really bad. We're going to the 3 too early in possession, and our sets, thankfully, are giving us open shots, but we are just missing the shots like crazy. We should be feeding the ball inside more to Lump to give him a shot at the opportunities we're squandering from the outside.
All of the easy missed shots - This isn't a statistic that we keep track of, I guess, but it just seemed like we had a lot of trouble finishing lay-ins and point blank shots last night. If we had made these shots, the game would've been a blowout, but we kept missing freebie easy buckets. It wasn't anyone in particular either, it was a team-wide problem last night. As a senior AU official said to me last night, sometimes the shots go in, and sometimes they don't. Let's hope we don't have too many nights where they don't going forward.
How close this game was - This is part of the problem above, but U-MESS is a team that just gave up 100 points to Columbia. We should not have had as big a problem with the Chickenhawks as we did. We let them back into the game and gave that team a lot of hope. A team with hope is dangerous. YOU HAVE TO CRUSH IT LIKE A TOTALITARIAN REGIME WOULD.
Anyway, that's that. Big game coming up against FAU's Hooters. What were everyone else's thoughts about the game last night?
Sunday, March 7, 2010
In the time following the loss, let's focus on the GOOD
Well, good evening AU Hoops fans. After a long season full of ups and downs, the train finally chugged along to a stop tonight against the Lehigh Hill Pigeons who looked decidedly un-pigeon-like tonight. We got completely outplayed tonight in virtually every facet of the game. We came out flat against a team that was more experienced, more cohesive, and more talented. The game wasn't really ever that close. Still, we lost in the semifinals, and that's farther than a lot of people thought we would go this season. (I just wanted to host a home game in the quarters, personally). In light of what the team did achieve, I'm only going to focus on the GOOD from tonight's game. There is plenty of BAD and UGLY to point out, but I'll abstain. I imagine we can talk about it in the comments, but for now, join me after the jump.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
9 straight quarterfinal wins, 9 straight wins over Navy, 9 games away from an NCAA championship...coincidence? I think not. The GOOD, BAD, and UGLY
Gooooood evening AUHoops fans! Well, this team has really pulled it together toward the end of the season and avoided three potentially unfortunate distinctions. We've never finished below 4th in the PL, we've never finished below .500 in the PL, and after tonight's victory against Navy, we have always made it into the semifinals of the PL tourney. It was a great win tonight, although a little more cardiac toward the end than it needed to be (more on that later). We played 38 solid minutes and then almost gave it up in the last two minutes. We'll be playing Lehigh at 8pm (what a ridiculous time) on Sunday. The EIWA wrestling championships are being held at Lehigh and won't be done until after 5pm. Because it's so late and on a Sunday, I'll be liveblogging rather than actually attending. Sorry about that. Anyway, let's get to it.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
When your team plays a great first half and ends up avenging an earlier loss that's GOOD, when it almost gives the game away in the 2nd it's BAD/UGLY
Goooood evening AU Hoops fans. Hope you're all having a good night. I have to say I'm just catching my breath from that loss. I feel like I didn't breathe very well during tonight's second half. I guess you could say I was breathing about as well as our Eagles were playing. All's well that ends well, I guess, and since Cleveland Richard's desperation 3-point heave at the end of the game rimmed out, all is well. Still, I can't help but think that we should have never let it get as close as we did in the second half. Anyway, the night isn't getting any younger. Meet me after the jump for our normal post-game ritual.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
An Apple A Day Keeps The Raiders Away
Will the toothpaste jokes ever end? Doubtful.Wow...just wow. That was my reaction after watching the Bucknell Bison stampede all over us on Thursday. This is just not the same team I watched notch consecutive triumphs over Holy Cross, Navy, and Lafayette not too long ago. Worst of all is what Bucknell did to our beloved Impaler. After not being held to less than 14 points since he began playing in December (including against the likes of Penn State, Florida, and DePaul), Bucknell only allowed Vlad to score a single layup. While many other things went wrong in this game (and oh there were so very many), I'm willing to look past it all. No, I'm not crazy. Today at 2 PM we have an excellent chance to redeem ourselves when we take on the Colgate Raiders in Hamilton, NY. Find out why I'm not fearing for our feathers after the jump!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
I'm so frustrated with this team. I can't take it anymore. I can, however, still write about GOOD, BAD, and UGLY things for perusal and critique
I don't even know what to say. If I spent six hours putting pen to paper I couldn't fully express the depth of my disappointment in the team's performance tonight or disdain for the officiating. I'm not going to take that six hours because I feel like the team already wasted my Thursday night with the game they just played. If I had to sum up how this game went from the AU perspective, I would say it was like this (Photo courtesy of The Eagle):
It was really that terrible. If you haven't read the tweets from tonight, I encourage you to do so. Additionally, here's the box score from tonight in case you need some material to look at forlornly while you cry yourself to sleep in the fetal position tonight. Here's the post-game video and recap also.
It was really that terrible. If you haven't read the tweets from tonight, I encourage you to do so. Additionally, here's the box score from tonight in case you need some material to look at forlornly while you cry yourself to sleep in the fetal position tonight. Here's the post-game video and recap also.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Speculation Tuesday Has Something Pretty Obvious to Speculate About
Goooood afternoon and welcome to the snowbound AU Hoops blog Speculation Tuesday. When will it stop? Will it ever stop? Oh God, what if it never stops? These are all questions weighing heavily on other people's minds, but not mine. I'm all about it coming down for a week straight, at least until it knocks out my power, in which case, I will be happy to have it end. Luckily, I don't have to speculate too much on any of these questions because we know the answers to all or most of these questions. One more uppercut to the collective face of the District of Columbia in terms of a snowpocalypse, snowmageddon, snowgasm, snoverit, whatever, and then smooooth sailing into Thursday's game against the Bucknell Bacon-covered Bison Burgers. So what will I speculate about today? Well, join me after the jump and see!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
When you get beat on both ends of the court by a team that just flat out outplayed you, there's always GOOD, BAD, and UGLY
Wow. Well this day is just turning out greeeeeat. Hendra suspended, three game win streak snapped, 20 game home PL win streak snapped, chance to enter into a tie for 1st place lost. Yeah, it was one of those days. Check out the AU Examiner's coverage of the game today for a good recap (and the post-game audio from Jeff Jones). Here's the box score. We didn't play well today. We made a ton of mistakes, and we didn't look like we really had our heads in the game. Lehigh also runs a very solid defense. I think even if we had played extraordinarily well, however, we would've had trouble. We didn't, of course, play extraordinarily well. Lehigh has four very good weapons, inside and outside. There's a ton of talent and depth on that team, and while we'll be better suited to competing with them next year, we just don't have the diversity of scorers required to make them spread their pressure out. Anyway, let's get down to it. No one likes ripping off Band-Aids, but it's best to just do it and get it over with.
BREAKING: Nick Hendra Suspended Indefinitely
As if today's loss wasn't fun enough, Jeff Jones revealed at the post-game press conference today that Nick Hendra, who did not dress for today's game, is "suspended indefinitely" for violations of team rules. Actual journalists/bloggers (people other than me) are looking into the situation, and I'll be sure to pass on whatever they turn up.
Given Joe Hill's performance today filling in for Hendra, I'd say this is really terrible news for the Eagles. We'll wait and see how it goes pending more information I guess.
Thanks to Bobby Oler (www.auexaminer.com) and Tom Schad (www.theeagleonline.com) for keeping us informed about this.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Given Joe Hill's performance today filling in for Hendra, I'd say this is really terrible news for the Eagles. We'll wait and see how it goes pending more information I guess.
Thanks to Bobby Oler (www.auexaminer.com) and Tom Schad (www.theeagleonline.com) for keeping us informed about this.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
When your team beats the (current) 1st place team and climbs to 2nd place it makes you happy to write about the game's GOOD, BAD, and UGLY
Goooooooooood afternoon AU hoops fans! Hope you all had a chance to watch our AU Eagles declaw the Laugh-ayette Kittycats! There were a few ties and lead changes in this game, but to be honest we had the game in hand for a majority of the time, and it was really a matter of "Are we going to blow this?" more than "Are they going to come back?" The answer to both questions, of course, is no! This win, our third straight, means we will finish this weekend no lower than tied for second place. What a great day to be an AU Eagles fan. I hope you're all enjoying the snow and being careful and all that. Do yourself a favor, don't go outside, stay right here and join me as I dish out the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
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!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Speculation Tuesday Wants to Know If We've Turned the Corner
If you're at all like me, you run a blog about AU basketball but are routinely outwitted by the very clever anonymous commenters who post there and keep you supplied with nice tidbits of news about said AU basketball team. Alternatively, you could be like me and still be basking in the glow of the win against Colgate this past Sunday.
The question is, is this the game where it finally sticks? After we beat DePaul on the road we came back to Bender and dropped a game against 0-10 UMBC. After we beat Brown we came back and played what was a very disappointing game against Columbia. Can we finally string together a two game winning streak this season? I think so, for a couple of reasons:
The question is, is this the game where it finally sticks? After we beat DePaul on the road we came back to Bender and dropped a game against 0-10 UMBC. After we beat Brown we came back and played what was a very disappointing game against Columbia. Can we finally string together a two game winning streak this season? I think so, for a couple of reasons:
Sunday, January 17, 2010
When you play a complete game on your home court and it fills me with a warm fuzzy feeling, I'm happy to write a GOOD, BAD, and UGLY
Goooood evening AU Hoops fans. What a game, what a GAME. I hope you were able to make it to Bender today to see our AU Eagles beat Colgate 73-63. Barring that, I hope you were able to watch it in some form. This was one of the more enjoyable games I've ever seen at Bender, to be honest. Lots of passion from a very fired up team as they extended the PL home winning streak to 18. The recap is here and the box score is here. I also have to say I'm very happy to see the post-game press conference video up, nice touch athletics! Let's get to dishing out the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY after the jump!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
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.
Monday, January 4, 2010
The Great Battle of the Jones (aka Spank That Lion, Jeff!)
The Great Battles of the Jones? What? Have I finally lost it? Well...yes and no. Yes, because I am crazy enough to predict our first winning streak of the season. No, because this is actually a battle between two coaches named Jones. How will our Eagles down the Lions? How will the announcers tell the coaches apart? Will one actually spank the other? Find out the answer to these questions, and oh so many more, after the jump!
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