Eagles Swoop Into a Surprisingly Competitive Cable Car Classic

This year's Cable Car Classic, at first glance, had all the excitement of taking your dog to the senior prom. Considering the four teams involved this year (Santa Clara, Fordham, Delaware, AU) posted a combined 31-88 record last year, I figured AU's revamped and reloaded lineup would make this a pretty easy invitational win for the Eagles. Well. It's not going to be the cakewalk I thought. This year, all four teams are over .500, including Fordham, which went a truly hideous 2-26 last year.

The Santa Clara Broncos will open up against the Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens (you can't make this stuff up) on Wednesday, and AU will take the court against the Fordham Billygoats upon the first game's conclusion. The next day, the two non-winners (let's keep it Little League here, folks) will play a consolation game, and AU and whoever wins the Delaware and Santa Clara game will play in the championship. (See how I did that? With the presumption of an AU victory? Slick, huh? I've been taking some writing classes.) For more info on the Cable Car Classic, click here.

Joking aside, this match-up with Fordham is going to be a tough one. This is a team that pulled off an upset of a pretty good St. John's team and also beat Lehigh on their home court. (The former achievement certainly trumps the latter, but if Lehigh is a team in our comparison basket, it doesn't bode well for us). With four players in double figures, the Billygoats can get production from almost any of their starters. They're averaging a tremendous 40 boards a game and have an 8 rebound margin on their opponents. They also average 4.5 blocks per game. The frontcourt here, anchored by Chris Gaston (who averages a double-double with ~16 points, 12 boards, and almost 2 blocks a game), is beastly. Lump will have his work cut out for him again against this big man, who has really turned it on in his past 3 games and put up over 20 in each. The backcourt, led by redshirt senior Brenton Butler, has a lot of experience as well. This will be a really physical matchup for our guards. We'll need some of Luptak's vaunted defense to try to limit Butler's effectiveness. Troy will also need to come out on the perimeter and try and get in the passing lanes with his long arms.

Vlad will really be the key here. Gaston is tremendous down low, but he and Lump will battle all night. Will Vlad be able to get around the smaller, quicker defender that will assuredly be on him? There won't really be anyone else in the paint that Fordham can spare to take Vlad, so if he can get his inside game going, that will be a big boon for the Eagles. Will his shot selection be smart? Will he take over the game in the way we know he can? Hard to say. We'll have to wait and see.

For the second game, neither Santa Clara nor UDel will be a cupcake. I think I'd rather see us have to play the Blue Hens. Jawan Carter is a potential CAA Player of the Year candidate, but the rest of the team is comprised of roleplayers. I like our odds if we can put Troy on Carter and make someone else on the team step up. I like those odds much better than I do those of us handling the inside-outside duo of Kevin Foster and Marc Trasolini, but we'll cross that bridge when and if we get to it.

We won't be liveblogging this game as it goes on at 11:15p on Wednesday night and we all have bedtimes. We'll keep you updated with a recap though!

What are your thoughts on our prospects for the Cable Car Classic? Leave it in the comments!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!