Cross Your Fingers and Hope for Vlad

Tonight is the night that the top college players in the country dream about: the 2011 NBA Draft. Starting at 7 PM in Newark, New Jersey, 30 teams will call out the names of tomorrow's superstars. All in Eagles Nation will be watching with bated breath as we eagerly wait to hear the name of Vlad Moldoveanu. Hell, we don't even care if they pronounce it right this time.

So this is a reminder to flip on ESPN at 7 PM tonight, cross your fingers, and root for Vlad. He gave us a year and a half of some of the best basketball I've ever seen, so let's make sure to give him a few hours of our time tonight. If every NBA team makes the mistake of not picking him, then we all know he's going to have an incredible career in Europe. Still, there's that glimmer of hope that the greatest Romanian player since Gheorghe Mureşan will have his chance to shine at the highest level.

If you haven't read it yet, make sure to check out the The Washington Time's piece on Vlad's quest to find employment in the NBA.

Finally, I'll put my money where my mouth is and pledge that if Vlad is chosen by the Wizards, I'm buying season tickets tomorrow. You hear that, Wizards? Good.

Here's to you, Vlad. Impale 'em!

IMPAAAAAALED,
Josh

Vlad Moldoveanu Gearing Up For NBA Draft

After the Eagles lost to Lafayette in the second round of the Patriot League Tournament this past March, Vlad Moldoveanu took a week off. He began synthesizing his workout plans, because the NBA draft was just over three months away.

On June 23, Moldoveanu will look to accomplish something no Eagle has done in 38 years: be selected in the NBA Draft.

Bulking Up

When Moldoveanu looked at the average size of a power forward in the NBA, he found that he had some work to do.

"One of my goals is to get stronger, and that's a long process,” Moldoveanu said. “I looked at the list of the average weight of the power forward in Europe it's about 230-235 punds, and in the NBA it's about 240-245. So I want to get to that 235 range."

He’s been working out six times a week ever since spring break ended with Eagles Assistant Coach Lamar Barrett. And team managers Ryan Eskow and Tiana Hakimzadeh have helped him practice shooting. He works out mostly at Bender Arena, but when that’s in use, like it was during graduation weekend, he goes to St. John’ High School, where he played before going to college.

Moldoveanu had a few goals heading into the spring besides gaining muscle. Among them, he wanted to improve his free throw shooting (he finished last season with an 83.2 percent success rate at the line) to around 90 percent.

He’s also been trying to quicken his release time and altering his footwork. He’s found inspiration from his favorite player.

"I like watching Dirk [Nowitzki], and the way he uses his feet. It looks weird, but I've been working on those fade-aways," he said. He’s tried them during pick-up games and says that the move works for him.

But Moldoveanu will need to be more than a shooter for the NBA to come calling.

Vlad Moldoveanu Works out for the Wizards

Vlad Moldoveanu worked out with the Wizards this morning. Media were only allowed access to the last 10 or 15 minutes, but here is a shooting drill that Vlad did towards the end. He had to make eight elbow jumpers, but every time he missed one, he had to sink a layup and it took away from one of his makes. He looked to be on his way to nailing them all in a row but had trouble with the last few shots, which set him back. He did pretty well compared to some of the other players in his group.

"It was an honor to be here," Moldoveanu said. "I've been in D.C. for seven years, and I've been following the Wizards since then. I was watching them when they were the Washington Bullets and they had Gheorghe Muresan so I know a lot about the organization."

Moldoveanu also enjoys a few unique connections with the Wizards. Aside from being friends with Muresan, the Wizards Director of Player Development, Ed Tapscott, was the head coach at AU from 1982-1990. Wizards President and General Manager Ernie Grunfeld is also Romanian, but Moldoveanu says he doesn't know Grunfeld that well.

With the draft coming up around the corner, Moldoveanu isn't trying anything new.

"I think at this point and time really, with a week and a half left before the draft, you can't really blow anybody's mind," Moldoveanu said. "You're not really going to show something that they haven't seen before. These guys have been scouting for years. They go to games, sometimes they go to practices, they talk to a lot of people about you, and it's not something where you're going to come and just blow their minds. You just got to be confident and you got to do what you do and do it really well. That's what it is about the NBA; every guy is really really good at what they do."

Here are a few photos from the workout.

Amid the Shock, Uncertainty Ahead for Eagles

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.

Good Thing There's Toothpaste Jokes, Because I've Got No Puns for "Raiders"

Well, here we are again. You know, I'd like to say it gets boring hosting (at minimum) a quarterfinal Patriot League game every year, it doesn't. It really, really doesn't. Though the Blue Crew has been surprisingly lackluster at times this year, I really hope that they turn out en masse tonight to cheer on our Eagles as they go for their third win over the Colgate Raiders tonight.

We've beaten the Raiders by 9 both times we played them this year. In both of those games, Troy, Vlad, and Lump all scored in double digits. Vlad and Troy have been on a hot streak that hopefully they will ride into Patriot League play and Bender Arena tonight.

The game plan should be the same as it's been the past two games against Colgate: keep the defense spread out by feeding Vlad and Troy a steady diet of 3s and 18-footers off of screens and make them pay on the interior using Lumpkins. Colgate has no big man inside to pose a real challenge to Lumpkins, especially if we can hit our perimeter shots. Add in a little bit of roleplaying from guys like Luptak, Munoz, and McCormack, and a sprinkle of dribble penetration and lane-slashing from Nick Hendra and we've got a winning combination and a trifecta over the toothpaste merchants.

Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00pm, and we hope that you will BE THERE. BE BLUE. AND BE AU!

We'll be liveblogging per usual, so if you can't make it to Bender, be sure to log in and keep apprised of what's going on!

GOOD LUCK EAGLES! THREE MORE WINS TIL THE DANCE!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

Eagles Must Stay Grounded Despite Clinching Second Seed

With two games left against lesser teams in the Patriot League, it would be easy for the Eagles (19-8, 9-3) to pack it in and take the next few games off. They've clinched second place in the tournament - their best finish since 2008-09, when they finished first - and can't move up or down.

The Eagles have senior night against Navy (10-18, 5-7) on Wednesday and a road game at Lafayette (10-17, 5-7) on Saturday.

"I wouldn't call either of those games tune-up games," senior guard Nick Hendra said. "Earlier in the season we got our butts kicked up at Navy. So we're looking to come out for senior night at home ready to play."

"I'd be shocked and disappointed if these guys needed me to say much of anything to get them ready against [Navy] on Wednesday night," Head Coach Jeff Jones said.

Eagles Fall to the Buffalo Herd in Sojka

First of all, thanks to everyone who joined us in the liveblog last night. It was a very lively discussion and great to "see" so many of you in there to talk about the pretty crazy game that we were able to listen to. Here's the recap, and here's the box score. I have some thoughts from this game, so please join me as I tip-toe through the tulips below.

- You've probably noticed I don't do the GOOD, BAD, and UGLY anymore, but in this case, I think it's warranted to give Vlad a BAD for last night. In your biggest games, you need your biggest players to step up. In two games against Bucknell this year, Vlad shot 5-20 and 1-4 from the 3 point line. He's averaging 8 points a game (12 points below his average). He is averaging 6.5 rebounds in these games, but it's not enough. You need Vlad to step up. Haywood points out that it looks like Vlad was sick last night, or at least something was off. If that's the case, sorry to put the BAD on you, Vlad. We'll hope to see you bounce back against Colgate.

- Troy has really stepped it up the past few games. In his past 3, he's averaging 14 points on 48% from the field. He was the only one who kept the Eagles afloat in the dismal first 10 minutes of yesterday's first half. The one gripe I had about him last night was that he doesn't ever pull up for jumpers in the lane. He has some trouble finishing at the hoop, so why not shake off the defender with a sudden stop and pull-up? Keep up the good work, Troy.

- Every once in a while Danny Munoz has one of these tremendous outputs that you wish, hope, and pray would be what we'd see on a consistent basis. Munoz exploded for 11 points and 4 assists last night. The 11 points came on 3-4 from long range (a season high) and his point total tied a season high too. Great performance, Danny really stepped up when a lot of the other roleplayers didn't.

- Mike Muscala is a force. That is all.

- Lump had a decent, but not great, game last night against the best big man in the Patriot League. 11 points (1 pt below average) and 5 rebounds (almost a season low), weren't a tremendous output. There were times when Lump got the better of Muscala, with a little up and under trickery that completely faked out the big buffalo. We needed Lump to have the game of his life last night, and we didn't get it, but we certainly can't lay this loss at his feet given the other subpar performances we got.

- What an unbelievable comeback by the Eagles for this game to even be a bitter loss. Down 14 points early, this looked like it was going to be a repeat of the Bender Blowout earlier this season. But the Eagles bite and clawed their way back to get a lead late in the second half. Clutch three point shooting really helped; without those buckets from Munoz and Charles (help comes from unexpected places!) we'd be tearing our eyeballs out at a double-digit loss today. Down the stretch we just couldn't hit a clutch basket. We missed a few chances to re-take the lead. Muscala came up huge at the end for Bucknell and we didn't have anyone step up in the last few minutes. We came together enough to get it close, but just couldn't get over the hump.

I fully, FULLY expect us to bounce back (again) against Colgate this Saturday. One game at a time from here on out, it's completely improbable that we will get the #1 seed now, but we can work on keeping the #2 seed firmly in our grasp.

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

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.

Sharing the Holiday Hoops Wishes

As a part of the AU community, we'd like to join in sharing AU's first-ever holiday video card with our readers. It's really impressive, and does a great job encapsulating all the things that make us great. Don't miss  basketball players Vlad Moldoveanu, Jordan Borucki, and Wayne Simon II at the 00:24 mark, giving us their wish for an NCAA Tournament run this March. Hey, that's our wish too!




AUHoops hopes everyone is enjoying their holiday season, and we'll be right here with you as the men's basketball team gives us the great present of a few more wins before the New Year.

Pro Deo Et Patria and Happy Holidays,
Josh

We're Like One of Those Birds That Lands in a Croc's Mouth to Clean Its Teeth Except the Croc Eats Us

Well, that was fun. AU loses its third game in a row, 67-48 against the Florida Gators at the Verizon Center. Sorry again that we didn't have the liveblog. Sometimes our schedules just aren't conducive to doing them. Unfortunately, this was one of those times. Ah well. In any event, here is the AUEagles recap, the AP recap, and the box score. For the second straight game, I'm not going to review how things went in the Good, Bad, and Ugly format. I think I'm going to abandon that format from now on, actually. Here are my reasons why, then I'll talk about the game:


First, Good, Bad, and Ugly has been decreasingly enjoyable for me to write. This is because I feel badly about labeling our players' performances either as "Bad" or "Ugly." I'm not opposed to criticizing their performances (I'm going to criticize a number of them tonight, for example), I just think it's unduly negative to categorize them as such in broad categories. Second, the Good, Bad, and Ugly format doesn't allow for nuances of description. If, for example, some aspects of a player's game were good but others were bad or ugly, it makes it difficult to do the write-up. Third, I wasn't really using the Ugly category. Because of reason one, I was never going to put a player in the Ugly category. That again made the format less useful. If anyone misses this format terribly, I'm sorry. I'll listen to compelling reasons why I should continue it, but otherwise I will probably continue without it.

On another note, I need a new name for the recap. "Random Thoughts About the Game" just doesn't have the same gravitas, so come up with something good for me.

Anyway, to the game.

And They Would've Won, Too, If It Weren't for You Meddlesome Eagles! The GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Two games for our Eagles, and two wins! According to AUEagles.com, this is only the second time under Jeff Jones that the Eagles have started 2-0. Pretty surprising given the level of success we've enjoyed overall during the JJ era. In any event, we played an Albany team that was more or less overmatched the entire game. We jumped out to an 8-2 lead and never looked back. Were there areas we definitely could've improved upon? Yes. In some ways, the margin almost could've been higher. This is an Albany team that was missing its best player and was in foul trouble all game. When you read the rest of this, it might actually read like a GOOD, BAD, and UGLY from a loss. There weren't a lot of standout individual performances. This is a night where the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. Still, a win is a win. Let's get into it.

THE GOOD

The point guard position - Danny and Steve combined tonight to go 4-8 overall and 2-5 from behind the arc for 10 points. They also had 6 assists and no turnovers. For a position that was supposed to be the weakest part of AU's game, these two have done a pretty good job platooning at the point. Danny's improvement from behind the arc is noticeable and could be a big factor that allows us to spread out the defense even further as the season goes on.

Mike Bersch - Only 11 minutes, but 5 points and a rebound on 2-4 shooting, including his first of what I suspect will be many this season from behind the arc. Welcome back to the good column, Mike.

Stephen Lumpkins - It seemed like Lump has having some trouble finishing his shots during the game, but the 5-10 shooting line wasn't as bad as I thought it was. Add to that his 8 boards and 2 blocks and the fact that he shut down Albany's John Puk (no shots, one rebound, five fouls) all night and he definitely deserves to be here.

Assist to turnover ratio - Any time AU has a 2.0 assist/turnover ratio it deserves to be in the good column. All due praise to the ball handling tonight.

THE BAD

Shot selection - Like I said above, this was a game where we were in the driver's seat the entire way. So let's look at the shot selection: 21-48 overall, but 7-23 from long range. Just under half of our shots were three point attempts. That's unbelievable and inexcusable against an opponent like Albany. Why shoot like you're down 15 when you were up 15 for most of the game? There's no reason to take that many shots from long range. I think it's an indictment of our ability to get the ball inside for us to take that many shots from outside. Not only was the number of 3's we took too high, but the number we made was way too low. Vlad: 1-7, Troy: 2-6. Come on, guys. There will be games you're going to need to rely on the 3. This wasn't one of them.

Free throws - 8-15 tonight. Better improve on that quickly because it will really hurt us later in the season if we're shooting ~50% from the line. Credit to Simon McCormack who hit all 6 of his tonight.

Second half slump - Yes we didn't play with a ton of urgency because we had a big lead, but we only outscored Albany 23-21 in the second half. We also shot 14% worse. Against a team that had 12 fouls in the first half, we only forced one guy to foul out. Felt like we were going through the motions a little bit because of our lead.

Rebounding - Outrebounded 38-31.

THE UGLY

The announcing for this game - The two guys who announced this game for the radio feed should stick with the play-by-play at the duck pond. Couldn't pronounce names for their lives (Vlad Moldano, Mike Hendra, anyone?) With 3 minutes left, and Albany down 14, they were still talking about how they could come back and win it. Just a very poor broadcasting crew. Was tough to listen to. Not like our very own Dan Laing.

Maryland Eastern Shore's loss to Columbia - Columbia hung ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT points on UMES tonight and had 6 players score in double digits. As ugly as that is, I sure hope Wednesday's matchup against UMES will get even uglier for the Hawks. The sweet, sweet revenge tour of '10-'11 continues. We've avenged our losses to Randolph-Macon, St. Francis (PA), and Albany. UMES is next.

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

When Your Team Plays Like a Robert Louis Stevenson Novel, There's GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

1-0 folks. As long as we're being honest, that's the only number in this entire post that matters. One in the win column. Revenge earned after last year's second half collapse at St. Francis. Actually, come to think of it, this year was kind of the reverse of last year's. We went into halftime trailing by 9 and then outscored St. Francis 35-16 in the second half to get the 10 point victory. It wasn't often pretty, and at times, it was downright ugly. Here are the resources you'll want: box score and recap. Let's get into it...with the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY

THE GOOD

Vlad "the Impaler" Moldoveanu - 24 points to lead all scorers, including draining the three (off a sweet Nick Hendra pass) that finally tied the game up with 12:07 left in the second half. Not the prettiest line Vlad will ever put up, and Jeff Jones noted that "this was not his best game," but he still got it done. 7-15, 2-5, and 8-10 with 6 rebounds, 2 blocks, and an assist, unfortunately he also had 4 turnovers.

Troy Brewer - We need to get some kind of nickname for Troy, and I'm going to recommend Peter Parker or Spiderman. Seriously, the guy's vertical leap is out of control. I think he could hurdle Lumpkins if he wanted to. Last night he went up for a block, and I swear his head was even with the rim when he did so. Unbelievably athletic, and I think he's going to give AU the ability to open up some fast breaks. He's got a good instinct for it and is already halfway down the court looking for an outlet pass when there's even a hint of the Eagles forcing a turnover. Troy put in 36 minutes, and 12 points on 5-11 shooting. He was 0-3 from behind the arc, unfortunately. AU could've used some long range shots in the first half. He also chipped in 5 boards.

Nick Hendra - In the post-game conference, Jeff Jones said that Nick has already played with more sustained intensity and focus this season than he has at any point in his career with AU. That's a hell of a statement, and it's good that we're seeing Hendra take up this intensity on the court. He's got a ton of experience as a senior, and he has a ton of talent as well. Last night, though, you could see the unbelievable intensity he was playing with. He seems like some kind of field general out there now. Pointing to his guys and making sure they're in the right places, distributing the ball, hustling for loose balls. He had 5 points last night, but they were huge. He scored the first five non-free throw points of the second half, which, with Lumps' two free throws, sparked the 7-0 run that brought the Eagles back into the game.

Danny Munoz - Hell of a game last night from Danny. Coach Jones said this might have been his best game as an Eagle thus far and that he was looking for his shot more than in any game last year. 10 points, including two 3's. Danny seems to have made the long ball a more regular part of his game than last year. He seems to be more comfortable shooting from behind the arc, or at least has been these first two games. Danny also has done a good job driving into the lane and getting some good dribble penetration. No assists in 24 minutes though isn't such a good stat from our point guard though; hopefully that will improve.

The Blue Crew - An attendance of over 2,800 last night, on a Friday night? Awesome. The atmosphere in Bender was nothing short of electric, and the crowd did its best to keep St. Francis unsettled. KEEP IT UP, folks. The guys need us to provide the PL's best home court advantage. What a great start to the season for the AU fans.

The second half - Any time you outscore your opponent 35-16 in a half, that's a quality half for sure. We came out of the locker room ready to play and really locked down St. Francis with an intensity that was completely lacking in the first half. The shooting in the second half also improved: 12-25, 4-8, and 7-11.

THE BAD

Stephen Lumpkins - Lump was stumped last night. St. Francis's big man, Mislav Jukic, was a real beast last night, and he made Lump look bad most of the night. Coach Jones said Lumpkins was "overmatched" going one-on-one with Jukic, who finished 9-12 with 21 points and 7 rebounds. Lump's line? 3-6 for 9 points and 6 rebounds. Not a bad line, but we've come to expect more out of the big guy. There's a lot of other talented big men Lump will have to face this year. Hell, just in the PL he's got Gate's John Brandenburg, Mike Muscala from Bucknell, and Jared Mintz at Lafeyette. Hopefully he learned some lessons from facing Jukic that he can apply later this year.

 I'd add more to the Bad here, but there's really more Ugly than Bad. So let's move onto that.

THE UGLY

The first half for the Eagles - Jeff Jones said in the press conference that St. Francis just came out and punched us right in the mouth. Yep, that's pretty much how it went. They got out to a 9-0 lead before it seemed we even had our shoes laced up. Completely not ready to play. In the first half, we were 10-26 overall and 1-11 from behind the line. Ugly, ugly, ugly.

3 point shooting overall - 5-19 for the game isn't going to get it done. Surprisingly, only Danny Munoz had any kind of consistent touch from behind the arc. While the 3's we had were big, 14 missed shots from behind the arc is something we're definitely going to have to improve on.

I think that'll do it for me. Anything I missed, folks? A good start for the season for the Eagles, now we get to venture up to Albany and face the Scooby-Doos!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

18-3

This Eagle Means Business

The title of today's preview is 18-3. Can anyone forward a guess as to why I chose this arrangement of numbers? Well, for starters it's our all-time record against the Army Black Knights, whom we face at 7:30 PM on Wednesday in Bender Arena. Only one of those games (a loss) occurred before we joined the Patriot League, in 1963. That is also the only time Army has ever beaten us in Bender Arena. You can see why this blogger doesn't like losing to Army. See if my dreams will be crushed after the jump!

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?

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!

Monday Wrap-up

Evening folks. Lots of stuff to talk about, so let's get down to business and spare the niceties.

As much GOOD as there was in the DePaul win, there's as much BAD and UGLY in the UMBC loss

Gooood evening AU fans. I'm not feeling very well (I didn't even make it to the game today), so this will be a pretty perfunctory edition of good, bad, and ugly. Sorry about that. In any event.

THE GOOD, THE BETTER, AND THE BEST!

I've got to give you an abbreviated post tonight (look for the full one for tomorrow), but let me lay it out for you:

EAGLES BEAT DEPAUL 62-57! EAGLES WIN! EAGLES WIN! VLAD THE IMPALER SCORES 26 IN HIS DEBUT, HENDRA WITH A CAREER HIGH 17! EAGLES WINNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

PRO DEO ET PATRIA AND GO EAGLES!

AU Eagles vs. DePaul Blue Demons LIVEBLOG!

Join us in the Liveblog! Free, as always!

Rivals.com Thinks AU Will Finish AT LEAST SIXTH IN Patriot League

I think it's pretty clear to most of you that read this blog that I'm not a professional blogger. (Is there such a thing as a professional blogger?) No matter, I'm just a guy with an unhealthy love of AU basketball who loves to slather himself with blue body paint. I can't lie, friends and fans, sometimes I have trouble thinking about what I want to write in this paragon of basketball bloggerism here each night. But sometimes, JUST SOMETIMES, things fall in my lap where I'm like, "Hey, I could make an entry out of that."

TONIGHT IS JUST SUCH A NIGHT.

Courtesy of rare AU Basketball Central contributor the Earl of GWU, it has come to my attention that Rivals.com, a subsidiary of Yahoo.com, has been releasing it's top 347 rankings of NCAA Division I basketball teams. I want to share these rankings with you and then give you my commentary. Seems about right, right? Now, DISCLAIMER: THESE ARE ALL COURTESY OF http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball I AM JUST GOING TO SHARE THEM WITH YOU HERE.

I'll do it in the order that they appear on Rivals' list.

171. Holy Cross
CONFERENCE: Patriot
BEST PLAYER: C Andrew Keister
QUICK TAKE: New coach Sean Kearney had been a Notre Dame assistant for the past nine seasons.
BUZZ: Is a second consecutive second-place finish in store for the Crusaders? Kearney will try to win a title in his first season at Holy Cross. It's possible if he can get more out of talented big man Keister (8.5 ppg, 6.3 rpg) and sophomore guard R.J. Evans (13.4 ppg). Three valuable seniors from last season's team are gone, though.

188. Navy
CONFERENCE: Patriot
BEST PLAYER: G Chris Harris
QUICK TAKE: The run-and-gun Midshipmen should be the best of the three service academies this season.
BUZZ: When it comes to entertainment value, there's no contest in the Patriot League. Navy and its fast-paced offense is a treat to watch. The question is whether it can be as much fun without Kaleo Kina and his 18 points per game. Harris (15.4 ppg) will get even more shots, and that's a good thing. Center Mark Veazey (7.9 ppg, 5.5 rpg) might be the key.

217. Army
CONFERENCE: Patriot
BEST PLAYER: G Cleveland Richard
QUICK TAKE: The Black Knights are stingy defensively, especially on the perimeter. But a lack of size hurts.
BUZZ: A fast, ball-hawking backcourt keys a defense that gives Army a chance to be a long-shot contender. Richard (12.0 ppg), Patriot League top defender Marcus Nelson and talented sophomore Julian Simmons make up a mean perimeter trio. The Black Knights need to be more consistent offensively, though, and a third shooter to complement Richard and Simmons would help.

248. Colgate
CONFERENCE: Patriot
BEST PLAYER: F Yaw Gyawu
QUICK TAKE: The Raiders have a chance to make some noise in the league; a top-three finish is possible.
BUZZ: Gyawu's is a name that will be mispronounced often in the next few years. He showed a lot of ability for Colgate as a freshman last season, scoring 10.2 points a game. Fellow frosh Nick Pascale has the potential to be a force at center, and Mike Venezia (10.8 ppg) and Ben Jonson (10.4 ppg) make up a solid backcourt. The Raiders bear watching.

255. Bucknell
CONFERENCE: Patriot
BEST PLAYER: F Patrick Behan
QUICK TAKE: The Bison were last in the Patriot League last season, but they appear to be slowly climbing back into the mix.
BUZZ: Expect a significant leap from last season's last-place showing. The young Bison lose Justin Castleberry, but Behan (13.8 ppg, 6.8 rpg) should be one of the league's top scorers. Sophomore guard Bryan Cohen (11.8 ppg) is terrific as well. He and wing forward G.W. Boon (9.8 ppg) combined for 104 3-pointers last season.

259. American
CONFERENCE: Patriot
BEST PLAYER: G Nick Hendra
QUICK TAKE: The Eagles have made back-to-back NCAA appearances. They lost way too much talent to get a third consecutive bid.
BUZZ: Coach Jeff Jones and American wowed college basketball by building a 14-point lead on Villanova in the first round of the NCAA tournament, only to fade late against a team that went on to the Final Four. Jones' program is strong, but this year could be trying without Garrison Carr, Brian Gilmore and Derrick Mercer and their 42.1 points per game. A plummet appears inevitable.

339. Lafayette
CONFERENCE: Patriot
BEST PLAYER: F Ryan Willen
QUICK TAKE: Remember the "Lafayette, we are here!" cry from World War I? Now, it's "We're Lafayette, and we're down here!"
BUZZ: Lafayette can score in bunches but has trouble limiting others from doing the same. Leading scorer Andrew Brown is gone, but G Jeff Kari (10.7 ppg) and the explosive 6-8 Willen (9.4 ppg) can produce more. Still, the only way the Leopards are getting out of the basement is by figuring a way to get some stops.

Now for those of you keeping score, that sets the ranking at:

1. Holy Cross
2. Navy
3. Army
4. Colgate
5. Bucknell
6. American
7. Lafayette

Now for those particularly astute readers out there, you'll realize that Lehigh is not listed or described here. That's because Rivals has not released the top 100. Either they left Lehigh off the list because they think Lehigh will be abominable (read: worse than NJIT? for real? for. real.) or Lehigh is in the top 100. One of those options makes me chuckle, the other makes me cringe. Since you were certainly astute enough to realize Lehigh wasn't here, you're definitely astute enough to figure out which facial expression I'm wearing.

The prospect of a top 100 ranked Lehigh isn't particularly pleasant, but I also think that the analysis given here is a little off. Do I think AU is going to struggle this year? Yes, I do. I'll go on record as saying it. But there are a lot of uncertainties about our beloved Eagles, too. Still, I think that we're still going to be able to challenge Bucknell and Colgate this year, especially given that I think that AU has one of the strongest recruiting classes (and ESPN/Rivals back me up on this) and that the Rivals rankings take into account neither the incoming classes nor the transfers, and I have already documented how big an impact I think Vlad the Impaler will have.

It's a mixed bag, friends and fans, and I think it will continue to be, to be frank with you. We can't know how the freshmen will perform until they get on the court, and we won't know if Vlad is going to be the force he's been in FIBA until he becomes eligible. Still, Rivals sets some preliminary analysis here, and that's always positive. I'll update you when they post where Lehigh is ranked, and we'll go from there.

Next up, what Rivals and ESPN say about our freshmen recruits. Stay tuned!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!