Gooooood evening AU fans. Josh wanted me to title this entry, "Again." I really thought about titling it "Again!?" But ultimately, you got what you're seeing. Fresh from Bender Arena, another evening, another loss. This is one, quite frankly, that I thought we would drop. This is what I wrote on August 10:
"Nov. 18 (Wed) - 7:30p - Mt. St. Mary's (@AU) - As mentioned above, the Mount really kicked in our teeth last year in our only home loss. The Eagles will really have to dig in deep if they want to reverse their fortunes this year, especially since Mt. St. Mary's returns its top four scorers from a year ago. Not looking forward to this game, folks. I'll bring the peroxide because there's a good chance our guys are going to get beat up."
Woo, I'm not awful at predicting things. We lost the game 73-62, and my prediction before the game on Twitter was that if we could keep it to under 10 points in a loss it'd be a moral win. I'll take 11 points, though, because I'm not good at math. In any event, plenty to talk about tonight, so let's get to the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY...
THE GOOD
- MIKE BERSCH. First of all, happy 19th birthday to Mr. Bersch (and yes, after tonight's performance, it is MR. Bersch to all of us). The guy put on a show tonight. Here's the line: 14 points, 4 rebounds, an assist, a block, and 2 turnovers in 22 minutes. Oh yeah, the 14 points? That's on 4-8 from behind the arc. Great hustle out of Bersch tonight, and I think we're going to be seeing a lot more out of him. He could be the perimeter threat that AU so desperately needs right now to keep defenses honest. Seriously, fantastic work tonight, Mike.
- Riley Grafft. This keeps happening with Riley; one game in the good column, the next in the bad. Last game I criticized Riley for being on the perimeter too much and being some kind of perverse swing man. Now, this is not necessarily his fault, Jeff Jones really probably deserves the knock there. Tonight was a happy medium for me; Riley moved out to the perimeter when he had to help out the guards, but then he moved back inside to great effect. 17 points (tied with Lumpkins for game high) on 8-15 shooting (1-1 from behind the arc), 5 rebounds, and a block in 30 minutes. Riley had a fantastic block when Mt. St. Mary's tried to launch the ball down the court and sneak behind the AU defense. He hustled back and stuffed the ball right back in the face of the Mount's Will Holland. Riley really has been a pleasant surprise thus far; Jeff Jones said that he had improved and that we would be surprised, but good Lord, he didn't say he would be arguably the best player on the team right now.
- Riley Grafft's hook shot. Yes, this deserves a completely separate entry. His hook shot is a thing of beauty. He made one once tonight, fine, fluke. Then he made it twice more right over a defender. Fantastic. That, combined with his jumper's soft touch from 15 feet, adds a lot of weapons to his arsenal. Seriously Riley, that hook is fantastic.
- Stephen Lumpkins. Just another average GREAT game from "the Lump" (who I must remind you, you cannot stump) tonight. His second double-double of the season yielded 17 points and 12 rebounds to go with 2 blocks in 26 minutes. Not really sure why he got so few minutes tonight, but he sure made the best of it when he was in. Lumpkins is getting played really solidly down low right now, and the guards are having trouble getting it into him. If we had more of a perimeter game, I think he could be going for 20 a night.
- Nick Hendra. Many of you will be baffled at this. Some of you may be angry. But let me 'splain, Lucy. I've been hard on Hendra lately, and tonight, he didn't try to force it. He made the right passes, he took the right shots, he played hard and made the most of his minutes. The fact that he doesn't have any points to show for it is secondary to the fact that it looks like he's starting to get his head right. He only got 21 minutes tonight, but I think he's got to show Coach that he's going to build back up to being the player we all know he can be. I look forward to putting him in the good column a lot more often this season.
- AU's shooting in general. Against a team like the Mount, I'll take 41% from the field and 43% from behind the arc almost any night of the week. Nice work, guys, you're starting to find your rhythms I think.
- AU's general effort and hustle. Up against a more physical, more experienced, and perhaps more talented team, we fought for every loose ball and rebound. Guys were flying left and right to try to get possession of the ball. Jeff Jones was happy with the effort, and if JJ is happy, you know it must be good. Now for the part I don't like to do...
THE BAD
- Simon McCormack. I'm sad that I have to put him here because no one has been a bigger fan of his play than me this season. But I've gotta call it like I see it. Simon didn't look anything like the player we've seen the past four games tonight. He looked tired, out of sync, just not right. And the production showed: 4 points, 4 rebounds, 3 fouls, an assist and a turnover in 22 minutes. Not an awful line, to be sure, but I've come to expect more. It also glosses up what I thought was a pretty lackluster performance. Maybe he didn't sleep well last night or something. We'll look for him to rebound (literally and figuratively) for Saturday's game against FAU.
- Blake Jolivette and Daniel Munoz. Yep, a package set in the bad column tonight. At various times tonight it seemed like Jeff Jones was playing "pick your point guard poison." Yes, the two of them were being guarded by the Mount's Jeremy Goode, who is a disgustingly talented Garrison Carr/Derrick Mercer hybrid, but they really had some trouble with the handle tonight and combined for 6 of the team's 12 turnovers. This was the particularly "bad" part of the performance, the rest of it just wasn't "good"
- AU's perimeter defense. We let the Mount go 10-23 from behind the arc tonight. Yes, it seemed at times like they were shooting into a garbage can lid sized rim, but we were just not challenging them the way we should've been. There should've been a halftime adjustment to beef up the perimeter defense, but it just didn't happen. If we could've averted just a few of those three balls, we might've had a fighting chance at winning this game.
- The AU Blue Crew. Seriously, NOT a good turnout tonight. I don't know what the deal was, but the Mount's fans were louder (and I think, more numerous) than our AU Blue Crew. Completely unacceptable. Everyone needs to start bringing friends to the game, myself included. There's a reason we're the best home court advantage in the Patriot League, time to show it in non-conference play, too.
THE UGLY
- Good news is, no individual AU performance deserved being here tonight. So that's good (maybe it should go in the good column). However:
- The play by the AU Eagles in the first 90 seconds of the second half. After going into the half down only 3, it looked like AU was going to be competitive in the second half and maybe make an improbable run at winning the game. The first 90 seconds of the second half dispelled any possibility of that happening as we gave up 7 points in a blindingly quick fashion. From then, we never got it within 8, and it really took the wind out of the sails of the team and the crowd. Not sure what's going on during halftime with this team, but something is not right at all.
In any event, that's the end of GOOD, BAD, and UGLY for this evening. Saturday we should have a good chance to pick up our first regular season W against Florida Atlantic. I won't be at the game (because another one of my hobbies is intersecting with the birthday of a friend at a conflicting time), but I'm sure that Josh will be and will take over GOOD, BAD, and UGLY duties for me for the day. Additionally, be sure to check in between now and Saturday for some additional content that will spruce up your life, including checking in on how our fellow PL teams have done in the first week of the regular season.
Hold your heads high, AU fans near and far, better days are coming.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
I've actually got to disagree with you on part of your assessment on the Blue Crew tonight, Bill. I have to admit that the Mount fans were definitely a few decibel levels higher than their numbers suggested, but I don't think they outnumbered us. For some reason they all sat very high up and split between two sections, whereas we (like good fans) were all courtside. Certainly not a great performance, but I don't think it had to do with numbers. We just weren't as loud as we usually are, and whether that was based on the team's performance or just mid-week fatigue I couldn't tell you. Anyway, to echo Bill's sentiments - bring your friends, your enemies, just bring SOMEONE to the game on Saturday. We are the BLUE CREW, let's act like it!
ReplyDeleteSounds like the bandwagon jumpers are staying away. Sadly, in the PL, that seems to be the student section norm. Bucknell's student turnout has been down a lot the past two seasons, though I'd still rank their student section one of the top 3 in the league with HC and AU ... but it's a dubious distinction. Back in the day when Lafayette was near the top of the league, they had a bunch called the Zoo Crew. I'm not even sure they still make t-shirts, let alone show up. Lehigh sometimes doesn't have enough students to spell out the school's name when they body paint. Navy gets a pretty good turnout, but when you are there because you were ordered to be, it doesn't count. Colgate? nobody, including the students, shows up in Hamilton (not since Adonal Foyle left town). At Army, most of those who show up are part of some group that "grounded" for disciplinary reasons. That's just the way it is, unfortunately, in the Patriot.
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