...and so does everyone else who is a Lafayette LeopardSchool: Lafayette Leopards
Last year's record: 19-13 (8-6 Patriot League) - Lost in the finals to Lehigh
Last year's record against AU: 0-2. Not too much to report here. The Eagles made the kitties look silly twice last season. In the match-up in Bender, Vlad and Lumpkins scored 50 of the Eagles' 78 points as the Eagles rolled by 18. In Easton, four Eagles scored in double figures and AU won by 10, 76-66.
Key losses - The Kitties only lost one starter last year, Michael Gruner, who was the fifth leading scorer on the team. The also lost senior Marek Koltun who was a mop-up player at best. Nothing too substantial lost here.
Key additions - Two freshmen guards come in and join a squad that has more depth at point guard than AU does, which is really saying something. These two will probably enjoy watching the games from the bench for most of the season. They do, however, bring in 7'0" center Jake Kreuser, who could end up being a force in the paint, though hopefully not this year.
Non-conference - Villanova and Gonzaga are the non-conference highlights for the Kitty Cats this year. Those two losses should be assuaged by the ease of playing such teams as Sacred (read: Scared) Heart, Columbia, Long Island, NJIT, and Fairleigh Dickinson. Shouldn't get too cocky though, Penn is still more than capable of putting kitty in the litterbox.
Outlook against the Eagles - I'm a little confused about Lafayette. They made it to the PL finals but were pretty easily handled by a subpar AU team, twice, last year. I can't imagine the Eagles having too much trouble with the Leopards this year. Jared Mintz did give Lumpkins fits last year, but hopefully Lump comes back a year wiser and dunks all over him this year. Laugh-ayette has a number of talented guards, but if they couldn't cut it against last year's team, I don't see much hope against this year.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
1. Under "key losses", you failed to list Jeff Kari, who led Lafayette in minutes played last year. Although he only started 10 games, he was a key player. So LC lost two of their top four players in terms of minutes played.
ReplyDelete2. I think PG is a question mark for LC, with Gruner and Kari gone. The only returning PG is soph Tony Johnson, who came off the bench last year and didn't have the pressure of having to run the team. He also has had an injury issue in practice. As for the freshmen, they brought in only one freshman guard and he mostly played the two. (They also added a walk-on freshman guard who will not play at all.)