Speculation Tuesday Has All Kinds of Updates

Gooooood evening AUHoops fans! If you haven't read through the spirited discussion that took place in the comments section of the last post, I highly suggest you do so as it's a very interesting read. I've got to be honest, I'm having a pretty busy week at work, so you won't get the normal volume of posts. I'll do my best, but no promises. In any event, I have some articles and such I want to share:

Speculation Tuesday is Community-Driven

Evening AU Hoops fans! I've had a hell of a day so this is going to be short and sweet tonight. Mostly because what I have to say isn't that important; per usual, what YOU all have to say is more important.

I wondered how long it would be until a message board was brought up. Well, it's been brought up (thanks Matt B). Josh and I have spoken in private about setting up a message board a la CROSSPORTS. We decided not to do it in the middle of the season, but my feeling is that's a direction things could go.

Speculation Tuesday Doesn't Have Much to Speculate About...Again

Things are pretty quiet on the Speculation front right now. We can speculate about how the Patriot League is going to play out, but I kind of did that last night.

I guess the question I've had since the Bucknell game is, did Vlad lose his opportunity at Patriot League Player of the Year with the 2 point performance he put up against the Buffalo Burgers?

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!

Speculation Tuesday Has News About Tony Wroblicky and Wonders About PL Finish

Evening everyone! If you're in the DC area, hope you're careful on the roads tonight as we're due to get 3-4 inches of the white stuff tonight. I've got some news to share and some speculating to do, so be sure to join me after the jump!

Speculation Tuesday Doesn't Have Much to Speculate About

To be perfectly honest, I don't have entirely too much to speculate about. Let's look at it this way:

- We've got all the recruits we're going to get for next year
- Blake Jolivette is benched for the foreseeable future; we know why he's benched, and the only way we'll know when he's out of the doghouse is when he actually gets called up in a game.
- Mike Bersch's benching has also been widely confirmed as a lack of physicality in play
- The lineup isn't going to shift anytime soon with Lumpkins back to his dominant earlier season self and Riley becoming a shadow of the player he was earlier this season
- Hendra and Vlad have been consistent recently
- No other bench player has really made a push recently to make it into the starting five

So, wow. I guess I could speculate about whether or not we'll win against Navy tomorrow, but that's what the Navy preview will be for.

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:

Speculation Tuesday Ties Up Loose Ends Nicely

We've got a lot of people who take advantage of our AU Hoops blog tip line to send us interesting things. This week, we've had a lot of people write in and offer up some interesting tidbits for us. I want to dispense some of them to you before I speculate about lineup changes.

EAGLES WIN! EAGLES WIN! Speculation Tuesday and GOOD, BAD, and UGLY All in One? WHY NOT!? WE WON!

Gooooooooooood evening AU Hoops fans! We won! We won! We got a win! We were victorious! Ah, savor it. Having something other than a zero in the win column. Marvelous. CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TEAM!

Ah, effusive joy and happiness concluded, it's time to get back to reality-ville. We won, but it was against an 0-7 team. And it was a very close game, 59-53. There is a lot to talk about in the good column tonight, but there's also some in the bad and ugly. We've also got a piece of news that will come at the end of this entry, and I'll do a very, very quick Speculation Tuesday at the end that will leave you with some questions to think about.

Alright here we goooooo with what should be a pretty long entry!

Let's Talk Turkey: SPECULATION TUESDAY

Get it? Talk turkey? Thanksgiving is coming up? Oh God I need some more material. In any event, here we are, everyone, 0-5. Fear, not, however! There is an end in sight to this losing streak. Without too much introductory nonsense (you don't really come here for that, do you?) Here are my items for Speculation Tuesday:

Will Jeff Jones tone down the profanity? Should the Blue Crew be the Red Crew? Is it Speculation Tuesday? Only one question can be answered YES

Why do I speculate on Tuesdays? It could be because I first had the idea to do a weekly post full of speculations on a Tuesday, or it could be because our site traffic needs a boost on Tuesday. But why hasn't there been a Speculation Tuesday entry since the first one like three weeks ago? It could be because I'm forgetful or easily distracted by shiny objects. Or it could be because the blue paint I use on myself isn't quite as non-toxic as it says it is on the label.

In any event, I'll be trying to make this a more regular feature on the site. Have things you want me to speculate about? Send them to auhoopsblog@gmail.com! I'll do my best to provide you some kind of answer, but of course it would just be pure speculation. Just like the rest of these...

TWO WEEKS TO GO. INTRODUCING, "Speculation Tuesday!"

Sorry for the lack of new content lately, thanks to Josh for picking up the slack during my quasi-absence. As you can see from the post title, this time two weeks from now, your AU Eagles will be playing Randolph-Macon in Bender Arena!

God knows I'm excited about that. Hell, I bought my body paint for the year today! I want to share some links with you in case you want to get well-equipped for the upcoming season!

Blue Body Paint - 1 gallon

Giant Blue Foam Cowboy Hat

Red, White, and Blue Mardi Gras Beads

Eagle Mascot Halloween Costume

I'll have a Randolph-Macon preview for you soon, but for now I want to introduce a new regular segment here at the AU Hoops Blog. It's called Speculation Tuesday. Now, most of you are AU students or alums, so I think you're smart enough to figure out what the point of Speculation Tuesday is. I'm going to ask a number of questions that I don't know the answers to, and I want you all to post your thoughts on them in the comments.

Without further unnecessary explanation:

1. Who's starting the season at the point? Luptak makes sense, but there's a lot of hype about Daniel Munoz and Blake Jolivette.
2. If Luptak does start, will he be a suitable replacement for Mercer? How short will his leash be?

3. What is the team going to do at the four and five spots to start the season? Lumpkins is a lock to start at the five, but who will get the four? Riley Grafft, who played a grand total of seven minutes last season? Or one of the freshmen?
4. Last year Hendra didn't always necessarily make the right choice going inside, sometimes opting for the flashy play rather than the smart one. Is he ready to put this team on his back and be its leader?
5. Is this non-conference schedule going to toughen up our Eagles or demoralize them? I'm anticipating some major struggles early on as the team jells. Florida, Penn State, and Georgetown, among others. How's this going to play out?
6. How long will it take before we see the promise in the freshman class in action?
7. Which of the guards are going to emerge out of practices to back-up the starting one and two guards?
8. Will we see an increase in Bender attendance this season after two straight PL championships?

That's a good start. Have at it in the comments!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!