The SS American VictoryPictured above is the SS American Victory, a World War II-era battleship that is now a museum permanently docked in Tampa, Florida. The aptly named vessel is significant for many reasons. For one, it is named for American University in thanks for the use of our campus during both World Wards. Secondly, tonight our dear Eagles travel to Annapolis to take on the Midshipmen of the Naval Academy at promptly 1900 hours (7:00 PM civilian time). So there you have it Navy, we have a ship too! Now on to more basketball, and less obscure history lessons after the jump!
Well boy, I must say that I am still smarting from the relentless spanking we suffered at the hands of Holy Cross on Saturday. That was just plain ugly. If you want the quick and dirty preview here, this is it - to have any chance at 13-14 (7-5 PL) Navy, we need to do almost everything we did at Holy Cross in exactly the opposite fashion. Boom, that's it. Simple, right? If you said yes, then where have you been this season?
We've got roughly reasons to worry, and two of them are usually part of my breakfast: OJ and Sugar. In this case, OJ Avworo and Jordan Sugars specifically. Averaging 8 and 15 points respectively, both are very talented guards and gave us fits last time out (although we did come away with the 69-59 win). Our third headache is not part of a healthy diet, but will undoubtedly be the biggest thorn in our side. Chris Harris, the Patriot League's leading scorer at 20.9 ppg, is, for lack of a better term, a BEAST. We were able to hold him down relatively well in Bender, as he only scored...21.
Harris usually never fails to put up Vlad-esque numbers, and he is undoubtedly the main gear in Navy's success this season. When he breaks down, as he did in the Mids' last outing versus Army, the entire team does, to the tune of a 50-69 beating at the hands of the Black Knights. Sound familiar? Well, Harris also enjoys the assistance of 2-3 other excellent guards (Romeo Garcia included), which is not something Vlad can always count on. One-on-one, I'd say Vlad would impale Harris six ways to Tuesday, but there's five guys on the court for a reason.
I won't continue to act like a broken record with constant calls for Lumpkins to play the post well, Simon to hustle, Hendra to be in the game, etc etc. We know that by now. I can only hope that Vlad is back to the top of his game, as when he is on fire our chances of winning increase exponentially. We know we can beat Navy, we already did it once this season in a convincing fashion, but Alumni Hall is a TOUGH place to play if the midshipmen are out in force (by that, I mean they are ordered to attend). I've been there, and it's intimidating. Fortunately, Annapolis is only a hop, skip, and a jump away so hopefully there will be a strong contingent wearing the AU Red and Blue as well.
In lieu of my usual pseudo-analysis that's predicated on painfully basic knowledge of the intricacies of basketball, I'll throw out some questions:
1. Will Nick Hendra start again? Has he been stripped of starter status for the rest of the season? Will Joe Hill be his permanent replacement?
2. To contend with Navy's 3-4 guard rotation, will we utilize....Mike Bersch? Oh, I know, this is a pipe dream that has been re-hashed to death. Even if I am beating a dead horse, just watch, if he does see play you will come back and say "Josh, I can't believe you were right", to which I will respond "yeah, neither can !"
3. If we beat Navy and Lafayette, and Lehigh loses to Bucknell and Holy Cross and Lafayette both lose the next two games, do we have a chance of hosting a first-round League game?
4. What is keeping The Impaler from, you know, impaling recently? Is he getting discouraged? Did he suffer an injury? Is he just having a few off games for no other reason than it just happens sometimes? Nothing says Speculation Tuesday like Wednesday!
Alright folks, that's all I have. I'm not sure if there will be a liveblog here, as the AUHoops Crew might be making the trek to Annapolis to catch the game live. If so, expect a steady stream of livetweets (assuming B^3's blackberry isn't busted). Worse comes to worse, Patriot League All-Access will have the game in all of its patriotic glory. Before you go, make sure to scroll down a little to Speculation Tuesday and let us know your thoughts on an AUHoops message board, I'm itching for some feedback on the matter!
Pro Deo Et Patria,
Josh
Well boy, I must say that I am still smarting from the relentless spanking we suffered at the hands of Holy Cross on Saturday. That was just plain ugly. If you want the quick and dirty preview here, this is it - to have any chance at 13-14 (7-5 PL) Navy, we need to do almost everything we did at Holy Cross in exactly the opposite fashion. Boom, that's it. Simple, right? If you said yes, then where have you been this season?
We've got roughly reasons to worry, and two of them are usually part of my breakfast: OJ and Sugar. In this case, OJ Avworo and Jordan Sugars specifically. Averaging 8 and 15 points respectively, both are very talented guards and gave us fits last time out (although we did come away with the 69-59 win). Our third headache is not part of a healthy diet, but will undoubtedly be the biggest thorn in our side. Chris Harris, the Patriot League's leading scorer at 20.9 ppg, is, for lack of a better term, a BEAST. We were able to hold him down relatively well in Bender, as he only scored...21.
Harris usually never fails to put up Vlad-esque numbers, and he is undoubtedly the main gear in Navy's success this season. When he breaks down, as he did in the Mids' last outing versus Army, the entire team does, to the tune of a 50-69 beating at the hands of the Black Knights. Sound familiar? Well, Harris also enjoys the assistance of 2-3 other excellent guards (Romeo Garcia included), which is not something Vlad can always count on. One-on-one, I'd say Vlad would impale Harris six ways to Tuesday, but there's five guys on the court for a reason.
I won't continue to act like a broken record with constant calls for Lumpkins to play the post well, Simon to hustle, Hendra to be in the game, etc etc. We know that by now. I can only hope that Vlad is back to the top of his game, as when he is on fire our chances of winning increase exponentially. We know we can beat Navy, we already did it once this season in a convincing fashion, but Alumni Hall is a TOUGH place to play if the midshipmen are out in force (by that, I mean they are ordered to attend). I've been there, and it's intimidating. Fortunately, Annapolis is only a hop, skip, and a jump away so hopefully there will be a strong contingent wearing the AU Red and Blue as well.
In lieu of my usual pseudo-analysis that's predicated on painfully basic knowledge of the intricacies of basketball, I'll throw out some questions:
1. Will Nick Hendra start again? Has he been stripped of starter status for the rest of the season? Will Joe Hill be his permanent replacement?
2. To contend with Navy's 3-4 guard rotation, will we utilize....Mike Bersch? Oh, I know, this is a pipe dream that has been re-hashed to death. Even if I am beating a dead horse, just watch, if he does see play you will come back and say "Josh, I can't believe you were right", to which I will respond "yeah, neither can !"
3. If we beat Navy and Lafayette, and Lehigh loses to Bucknell and Holy Cross and Lafayette both lose the next two games, do we have a chance of hosting a first-round League game?
4. What is keeping The Impaler from, you know, impaling recently? Is he getting discouraged? Did he suffer an injury? Is he just having a few off games for no other reason than it just happens sometimes? Nothing says Speculation Tuesday like Wednesday!
Alright folks, that's all I have. I'm not sure if there will be a liveblog here, as the AUHoops Crew might be making the trek to Annapolis to catch the game live. If so, expect a steady stream of livetweets (assuming B^3's blackberry isn't busted). Worse comes to worse, Patriot League All-Access will have the game in all of its patriotic glory. Before you go, make sure to scroll down a little to Speculation Tuesday and let us know your thoughts on an AUHoops message board, I'm itching for some feedback on the matter!
Pro Deo Et Patria,
Josh
Josh, it is 1900 not 0700. Don't want the military folks to think they missed the game this morning. Go AU.
ReplyDeleteI am going to be live-tweeting the game from the AUhoops twitter account. I will try to take some photos too before my phone dies.
ReplyDeleteStill can't get "Eastern Motors" out of my head...
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, thanks for the correction! A 7 AM basketball game would indeed be sparsely attended.
ReplyDelete