Jeff Holton to Transfer; Also, AU Hoops Bracket Standings

At long last, here are the standings from the AU Hoops bracket challenge. Blogspot doesn't do so well with this kind of things, but you should be able to get the gist. Thanks to all of you for participating! Check below for more news.

Rank Team Name Score Correct Champion
1 Lisa Arakaki 103 34 Duke (165)
2 Robert Ruszczyk 78 33 Kansas (137)
3 Bill DeBaun 77 39 Kansas (143)
4 Joshua Kaplan 75 40 Kansas (143)
5 Josh Rothman 66 35 Kansas (102)
6 T Schad 63 38 63 Kentucky (134)
7 roy Lopata 63 34 Kansas (143)
8 Dan Cusimano 60 36 Kansas (148)
9 Ethan Meick 59 35 Baylor (137)
10 Steven Haber 59 36 Kansas (156)
11 Jordan Wells 57 34 Kansas (147)
12 Joe Viddy 56 33 Syracuse (136)
13 Brian Katz 56 33 Kansas (140)
14 larry Lumpkins 56 36 Kansas (149)
15 peter brusoe 54 34 Syracuse (125)
16 Eric Goldstein 54 36 Syracuse (127)
17 Carl Seip 51 34 Kansas (151)

According to Fox Sports' Jeff Goodman, AU freshman forward Jeff Holton will transfer at the end of the season. Holton appeared in four games for the Eagles this season for a grand total of four minutes. He did get a point this season, from the free throw line, and also notched an assist and a rebound to go with two turnovers.

Shame to see Holton leave, as he had a lot of potential it seemed. He had an excellent high school career. I'll be interested to see where he goes. This marks the second year in a row that a freshman forward has transferred. Last year, Mike Technow transferred to the University of South Carolina-Aiken where he played in 27 games, starting 7, and averaged 4.6 points and 3.5 rebounds a game.

All the best, Jeff.

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

Results of the AUHoops Tourney Challenge!

That's right. I'm back. It's the off-season and I'm STILL giving you two entries tonight. How's THAT for dedication?

I'm here tonight to let you know the results of the AU Hoops tourney challenge!

Longtime reader and supporter Lisa, the only person who correctly picked Duke as the tourney champion, came from midway down the standings to claim first place with an impressive 103 points on 34 correct picks! Lisa, your bold pick of America's least favorite team has earned you a regulation sized basketball signed by one of your favorite AU Eagles!

See? I told you there would be a fabulous prize for winning this thing, but nooooo everyone thought I was going to give you a Z Burger token and a high five. This ain't no two-bit circus blog, kids, we're the real deal. Sometimes.

Also a longtime reader and supporter, SquirrelBoy picked up second place. Now, I have to say, SB, I'm a little pissed because you edged me out of second place by one point, but I had six, COUNT THEM, six more correct picks than you did. Damn. In any event, you will also get a prize. I don't know what it will be yet, but I'll find you something nice and AU basketball related. Like a hug from Jeff Jones or the chance to mix up the team's Gatorade for a pre-season game. Mm, lemon lime!

To the other 14 of you who participated, maybe seeing the excellent prizes that those who finished above you were awarded will prompt you to PICK MORE GAMES CORRECTLY NEXT YEAR. If that's not a motivator, I don't know what it is. The early bird gets the hug from Jeff Jones, that's what my RA always told me.

Oh, Carl, since you finished last, I'm going to find you something especially nice. Like a Holy Cross t-shirt or something.

Seriously though, thanks everyone for participating, this was a lot of fun, and I hope we'll be able to do it again next year. I can't see any reason we couldn't, except that we'll have to pick for a 96 team tourney. Can't wait!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

Coach K Guesses It's Okay if the PL Gets Two Teams in a 96-Team Tournament...If They HAVE To

Just a quick hit this morning, from this article about expanding the NCAA tournament field and getting rid of the NIT:

"Keeping conference tournaments intact was a concern for Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.

'What you do with conference tournaments is important,' he said. 'You might have to have them end [earlier]. I think you should still have them. If we do go that far, the people who should be rewarded are the regular-season champs. I think you should still have them in there. Then you should have your conference tournaments and the winners of those should go in, too. If the Patriot League gets two teams in, so be it. That’s good. I would still like to have the conference tournaments. They make a lot of money and it’s a way of each conference celebrating their conference, and I think that’s a good thing.'"

Because it would really be so. freaking. terrible. for some more smaller conferences to be in the tourney? Normally I like Coach K, but today, you can die in a Cameron Indoor Arena fire, pal. Oh, and lose to WVU so I win my office pool please. Thanks.

EDIT: Per usual, Steve has corrected me. His categorization of my post as a gross misunderstanding of Coach K's quote is correct, he wants to reward the regular season champions, which would help smaller conferences like the PL. What I would really like to see under this system is for there to be a stipulation that if the regular season winner also wins the conference championship that they are guaranteed to be in the top 32 teams (so they get a first round bye). That'd be nice, because otherwise you could put both teams from the PL (regular season and tourney champ) in the bottom 64. Don't like that so much. I do owe Coach K an apology. Sorry, Coach K, but I still want you to lose to WVU so I win my office pool. Daddy needs some homebrewing equipment.

Also, thanks to Steve. Commenter of the week award goes to you my friend.

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

AUHoops Bracket Madness Update

Gooooood evening, AU Hoops fans! Sorry we've been so MIA. I'm working on some entries that I'm hoping to get up soon, but in the meantime, let's take a look at how our bracket competition has been going.

We've got 17 FIERCE competitors. Out of those 17:

- 11 picked Kansas as champion
- 3 people picked Syracuse
- 1 person each picked Baylor, Duke, and Kentucky

Right now yours truly is in the lead, but loyal readers Lisa and Robert both can potentially beat me if Duke beats West Virginia in the national semifinal.

If I should happen to win this challenge, second place gets the fabulous prize that we haven't determined but will definitely award!

This should be exciting. Personally I'm pulling for West Virginia and Butler, and if they both make the national championship, I honestly don't know who to cheer for. Have to love the idea of a Horizon League national champion, but I also like Bob Huggins.

What do you folks think?

Any news on the AU Hoops front anyone has to report?

WNIT matchup and some love for Lump

Man, I'm still reeling from the shock of not being given an at-large bid, but we'll just have to move on I suppose. Two things for tonight, Eagles fans:

1. The WNIT bracket has been announced and we will be taking on the (14-4) Old Dominion Lady Monarchs (before someone jumps down my throat they are actually referred to as the Lady Monarchs) on Wednesday at 7 PM on their home court. ODU is a tough team, as our Eagles well know from our time spent with them in the CAA. In fact, according to the press release the Lady Monarch's 67-53 loss to James Madison in the CAA finals was only their second loss ever in the CAA Tournament. We lost in the WNIT to JMU last year by a slim margin (61-59), so hopefully that can be avenged on Wednesday against Old Dominion. The year before that we lost to Villanova by an equally slim margin of 53-51. For those keeping track, you'll note this is our third straight appearance in the WNIT, setting a program record for consecutive years in the postseason. Furthermore, before this current streak the Eagles had only made the postseason once before, appearing in the WNIT in 1998. We'll be throwing a full preview your way on Tuesday, and join us starting at 6:45 PM on Wednesday for the liveblog! I honestly have no idea where you can find coverage of the game elsewhere, but where there's a will there's a way, so stay tuned!

2. We failed to mention here at AUHoops that Stephen Lumpkins was named to the Patriot League All-Tournament Team. Shame on us! I suppose poor Lump was a little peeved that he didn't make any of the All-Patriot League teams, so he put up three straight double-doubles (and was a single rebound away from a fourth) to end the season, including the beastly 29 point, 15 rebound effort against Navy. When Vlad went cold in the tournament, Lump put the team on his back and kept us in the game. He completely deserves this honor, especially as he was the only non-Lehigh/Lafayette player to make All-Tournament honors. I cannot wait to see what he's capable of next season. Here's how he ranked nationally after the Quarterfinal vs. Navy on March 3rd:

Rebounds:
Points:

Also if you haven't yet put up a bracket for the AUHoops Tourney Challenge, look below and then join in! It's fun, I promise!

GO EAGLES,
Josh

Announcing the AUHoops Tourney Challenge!

Hi everyone. Hope you're all enjoying Selection Sunday! I have to say I'm shocked (shocked!) that the committee didn't see fit to award us an at-large bid. Teams like Florida just burst our bubble, I guess.

Anyway, although the AU men's season is over, the NCAA basketball tournament obviously holds a lot of allure for fans of college basketball. Since we've got a budding community here, I figured it might be fun if we had a basketball pool here.

I've set up a group at CBS Sportsline for us to use. To participate, you will have to sign up for an account, but it takes all of 30 seconds and is free.

The link to the group is: http://auhoops.mayhem.cbssports.com/e and the password is "lumpkinpatch"

Hope I'll be seeing a lot of you participate in this. I think it'll be a lot of fun. I might even be able to scrounge up some kind of prize for whoever wins!

If you have any questions, email at auhoopsblog@gmail.com or post in the comments. I'll try to troubleshoot as best I can.

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

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.

GET PUMPED! BEAT THE HILL PIGEONS!

Weekly Poll is a Litttttle Late

Well, you all are pretty confident that you want a message board at AUHoops, so we'll take a look at that and look at how to integrate one for next season.

For this week though (well, the next two days), I want to know if anyone is actually going to make the trek up to Easton to see the guys play. As I mentioned before, because it's 8pm on a Sunday I won't be able to, but I'm curious to see if there will be any AU contingent there.

Let us know!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

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.

The Road to the National Championships BEGINS TONIGHT

Good morning and welcome to March Madness, AUHoops fans! Today is the big day. Today, our American University Eagles begin the long march (pun intended) toward our first NCAA National Championship! Some may think that such a championship is a foregone conclusion. That our postseason success will be a walk through the arboretum as refreshing and carefree as Sherman's March to the Sea. I say to those, though, "Nay, nay indeed!" Our path to the National Championship will be wrought with perilous dangers, treacherous opponents, and ugly enemy mascots. But I say to you my comrades-in-hoops, take heart! For in a mere matter of weeks our very own Jeff Jones will be wearing a cut-down basketball net as a necklace, and our legacy as the greatest Patriot League team shall be cemented for time without end.