9 Games to the National Championship and Counting

The Hill Pigeon (Columba rupestris), officially the least intimidating mascot I have ever seen

Mmmmmh, gravy. This is all gravy. Our valiant Eagles, against all odds, successfully hosted and won the quarterfinal of the Patriot League tournament. Therefore, anything else is just gravy to me. However, gravy tastes great on grilled Mountain Haw-- er, Hill Pigeon, so I'm thinking I'd like some of that too. It's certainly going to be a battle of the ages up in Bethlehem, PA tomorrow at 8:05 PM, but we're certainly going to give those mutant chickens a hell of a fight. Will we win? I think we have a decent shot. Find out why we could be on our way to a third consecutive Patriot League Championship game after the jump!

This won't be easy. Lehigh solidly swept us this season, but not overwhelmingly. We've certainly gelled as a team as the season has progressed more than the other Patriot League teams, I feel, and we're a different team now than we were in January or even for most of February. Lumpkins is on a HOT streak right now, although Lehigh is not the best matchup for him thanks to their abundance of halfway-decent forwards. This is in contrast to Navy, who plays four guards at any given time who have no ability to Stump the Lump in the post. However this also means they have a tougher time countering Vlad, who scored 24 points BOTH times we played Lehigh this season.

As always, if Hendra, Simon (who hopefully will avoid the foul trouble he encountered at Navy), Luptak, or Danny can turn out to be a legitimate scoring threat and open up both Vlad and Lump, we have a real shot. If a few of them are having an off game, we won't. Pretty simple. We can't let the Pigeons dictate the pace of the game, which is something I think we've really improved upon as of late. Also decent shooting from the charity stripe (with exception of the last 2 minutes of the last Navy game, of course) has really made the difference recently as well. The Patriot League is so close this year that I think any of the four teams currently remaining could win the Championship, us included.

Our biggest problem, of course, is going to be Patriot League Player and Rookie of the Year CJ McCollum. This kid is a beast in scoring, rebounding, assists, and just about everything you can expect a guard to do. It'll be tough for us to stop him, but I trust that Simon, Hendra, or whoever ends up guarding him knows that already. His biggest asset this year, however, is his ability to open up Zahir Carrington and Marquis Hall to score. He's actually, according to raw stats, not as good as Danny with assists, but he doesn't even need to set up the plays. By merely being an offensive threat, we put more attention than we normally would on a guard. It's something our team really lacks this year, but hopefully will be taken care of next season. Next season McCollum will, presumably, need to put a lot more of the Hill Pigeons on his back, which will make this an easier matchup for us in a few months as well. But I'm not worried about Lehigh next January, I'm worried about Lehigh in less than 24 hours.

It'll help us that Lehigh is on spring break, so they'll have less of a contingent there to make it a hostile atmosphere. I know a good number of Eagles, including myself, who will be there as well, and we are going to be as LOUD, PROUD, and BLUE as we can possibly be without getting kicked out of Stabler Arena. Unfortunately due to the time of the game, Bill won't be able to make it, but fortunately that means he'll be liveblogging here at AUHoops.com, which should be a treat.

I also want to point out that according to Lehigh's releases for the game, because it's a tournament game they emphasize that students will have to pay for tickets. I give SO MUCH credit to our athletics department for spending the money to buy out the student section during the Patriot League tournament. I did not pay a cent to see the Eagles beat Navy on Wednesday, and I wholeheartedly thank AU Athletics for making that possible. So, if any AU Athletics staff members are reading this, thanks for thinking of the students!! It's too bad that Lehigh students are going to have to pay to see the Pigeons lose tomorrow, but that's life I suppose.

If any of our readers can make it out to Lehigh tomorrow, then by all means come! We need all the support we can get, and even if we're outnumbered we're still the loudest, bluest, and best fans in the Patriot League and we'll definitely give our guys an edge by showing them that support. If you're not in the Lehigh Valley area or can't make the drive, then tune in here to AUHoops.com for our fabulous liveblog. I don't believe the game will be on Patriot League All-Access, which is carrying the nearby Holy Cross-Lafayette game instead. Our game will be televised on CBS College Sports, but I still don't know anyone who gets that channel. One perk of that though is that they'll be more easily able to review ticky-tack plays. Fingers crossed the reffing is halfway decent tomorrow (not holding my breath).

This preview is relatively short because we've already played Lehigh twice this season, so we know what they can do. There's a whole lot more on the line now, as our march toward Dayton continues in earnest. Only 9 games away is that coveted National Championship, which I have to assume we'll handily win. Eat that, Kansas. It all starts tomorrow night at 8:05 PM Eastern in Bethlehem, PA.

All Hail The Mighty AU Eagles,
We'll Conquer All Adversity,
So Let's All Join In And Give A Yell For...
AU AND VIC-TO-RY!
- Josh

P.S. - Also give me a shout in the comments if you'll be joining me at Lehigh tomorrow for the game. My phone can't do twitter, but if you have one that does and are willing, I may appoint you the official AUHoops live-tweeter for the evening! What a dubious honor!

UPDATE: My awesome roommate has pledged his iPhone to the cause. Thanks anyway and still give a shout if you'll be there, the more Eagles the better when we make grilled Pigeon in Bethlehem tomorrow!