1-0 folks. As long as we're being honest, that's the only number in this entire post that matters. One in the win column. Revenge earned after last year's second half collapse at St. Francis. Actually, come to think of it, this year was kind of the reverse of last year's. We went into halftime trailing by 9 and then outscored St. Francis 35-16 in the second half to get the 10 point victory. It wasn't often pretty, and at times, it was downright ugly. Here are the resources you'll want: box score and recap. Let's get into it...with the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY
THE GOOD
Vlad "the Impaler" Moldoveanu - 24 points to lead all scorers, including draining the three (off a sweet Nick Hendra pass) that finally tied the game up with 12:07 left in the second half. Not the prettiest line Vlad will ever put up, and Jeff Jones noted that "this was not his best game," but he still got it done. 7-15, 2-5, and 8-10 with 6 rebounds, 2 blocks, and an assist, unfortunately he also had 4 turnovers.
Troy Brewer - We need to get some kind of nickname for Troy, and I'm going to recommend Peter Parker or Spiderman. Seriously, the guy's vertical leap is out of control. I think he could hurdle Lumpkins if he wanted to. Last night he went up for a block, and I swear his head was even with the rim when he did so. Unbelievably athletic, and I think he's going to give AU the ability to open up some fast breaks. He's got a good instinct for it and is already halfway down the court looking for an outlet pass when there's even a hint of the Eagles forcing a turnover. Troy put in 36 minutes, and 12 points on 5-11 shooting. He was 0-3 from behind the arc, unfortunately. AU could've used some long range shots in the first half. He also chipped in 5 boards.
Nick Hendra - In the post-game conference, Jeff Jones said that Nick has already played with more sustained intensity and focus this season than he has at any point in his career with AU. That's a hell of a statement, and it's good that we're seeing Hendra take up this intensity on the court. He's got a ton of experience as a senior, and he has a ton of talent as well. Last night, though, you could see the unbelievable intensity he was playing with. He seems like some kind of field general out there now. Pointing to his guys and making sure they're in the right places, distributing the ball, hustling for loose balls. He had 5 points last night, but they were huge. He scored the first five non-free throw points of the second half, which, with Lumps' two free throws, sparked the 7-0 run that brought the Eagles back into the game.
Danny Munoz - Hell of a game last night from Danny. Coach Jones said this might have been his best game as an Eagle thus far and that he was looking for his shot more than in any game last year. 10 points, including two 3's. Danny seems to have made the long ball a more regular part of his game than last year. He seems to be more comfortable shooting from behind the arc, or at least has been these first two games. Danny also has done a good job driving into the lane and getting some good dribble penetration. No assists in 24 minutes though isn't such a good stat from our point guard though; hopefully that will improve.
The Blue Crew - An attendance of over 2,800 last night, on a Friday night? Awesome. The atmosphere in Bender was nothing short of electric, and the crowd did its best to keep St. Francis unsettled. KEEP IT UP, folks. The guys need us to provide the PL's best home court advantage. What a great start to the season for the AU fans.
The second half - Any time you outscore your opponent 35-16 in a half, that's a quality half for sure. We came out of the locker room ready to play and really locked down St. Francis with an intensity that was completely lacking in the first half. The shooting in the second half also improved: 12-25, 4-8, and 7-11.
THE BAD
Stephen Lumpkins - Lump was stumped last night. St. Francis's big man, Mislav Jukic, was a real beast last night, and he made Lump look bad most of the night. Coach Jones said Lumpkins was "overmatched" going one-on-one with Jukic, who finished 9-12 with 21 points and 7 rebounds. Lump's line? 3-6 for 9 points and 6 rebounds. Not a bad line, but we've come to expect more out of the big guy. There's a lot of other talented big men Lump will have to face this year. Hell, just in the PL he's got Gate's John Brandenburg, Mike Muscala from Bucknell, and Jared Mintz at Lafeyette. Hopefully he learned some lessons from facing Jukic that he can apply later this year.
I'd add more to the Bad here, but there's really more Ugly than Bad. So let's move onto that.
THE UGLY
The first half for the Eagles - Jeff Jones said in the press conference that St. Francis just came out and punched us right in the mouth. Yep, that's pretty much how it went. They got out to a 9-0 lead before it seemed we even had our shoes laced up. Completely not ready to play. In the first half, we were 10-26 overall and 1-11 from behind the line. Ugly, ugly, ugly.
3 point shooting overall - 5-19 for the game isn't going to get it done. Surprisingly, only Danny Munoz had any kind of consistent touch from behind the arc. While the 3's we had were big, 14 missed shots from behind the arc is something we're definitely going to have to improve on.
I think that'll do it for me. Anything I missed, folks? A good start for the season for the Eagles, now we get to venture up to Albany and face the Scooby-Doos!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
It's great to have a win and the fans were amazing.
ReplyDeleteBucknell made a good showing last night against Villanova. This worries me, because as mentioned above, our inside game (especially on defense) leaves a lot to be desired. Lump looked like he has made little progress over the last two seasons (especially in the strength category). Maybe, this can be attributed to off-season rust (he usually plays baseball in the off-season), or perhaps he is just legitimately outmatched by bigmen like Jukic?
What ever the case may be, without an established point guard position, the Eagles cannot afford to be pushed around inside. As mentioned, PL teams like Bucknell are solid and they have solid bigmen. I know it is not realistic to have Tony W. to pack on more muscle during the season (those gains are usually made during the off-season), but we will need him to step up this year. The good news is that Tony W. looked good in the few moments that he played last night.
Aside from that, if we keep getting handled inside, then hopefully Hinkle will be able to step down low to add extra strength. He should try to put on as much additional muscle as possible before he becomes eligible next semester.
With this said, the Eagles are lucky to have such a strategic minded coach. So, I am confident that JJ will develop the best solution to their inside-game woes. It will be interesting to hear his comments on today's radio show.
Where can we see or hear JJ's post-game interviews (not his Radio Show, but his comments to the press immediately after the games)? And, the players' post-game comments as well?
ReplyDeletei said to my AU BB buddy "weasel" during warmups before the game that our kids seemed too happy. Last years team would have not come back. i was impressed that the kids and coaches came out in the 2nd half and played with intensity. Hopefully it was a great learning experience that they can take no opponent for granted, home or away. Your analysis is right on. i think this team can get much better by PL season in January.
ReplyDeleteHi, boys and girls. Did you miss me?
ReplyDeleteTime to dust off the fingers and start typing again about AU basketball, the game none of us can live without!
First, GREAT turnout on Friday. Everyone should be proud for coming out in such huge numbers. That was a PL tournament-level crowd, both in numbers and intensity. I hope we can keep it up through the next couple of weeks.
Second, Troy Brewer is terrific. We haven't had an athlete like him on the team since...man, it's been a while. Andre Ingram? You can always measure a team by how good its third option is, and if Troy is our third, we're going to be pretty good. (Maybe Lump is our third option now!)
Third, it's obvious we're going to be a much better defensive team this year--or, at least, we CAN be. We didn't do much in the first half, but in the second, we were active, got a lot of deflections, turned St. Francis over and got some fast-break chances. Nick was really, really good defensively, and that gives me great hope that with him and Brewer out front we'll be able to defend out on the perimeter this season. We still don't shoot the ball that well and the ballhandling is still a little sketchy, but if we don't have to slug it out in the halfcourt every time down the floor, we'll have a shot.
Fourth, Munoz is much improved over last year. Looks much bigger in the upper body. Hopefully he'll be able to finish at the rim with contact this year. Liked the aggressiveness in the second half.
Fifth, hope you all enjoyed your Mike Bersch sighting!
Sixth, love the depth. When Hinkle starts playing in December he'll give us four legit big bodies--with Vlad, Lump, and Wroblicky--to use. That's three more than we had at the start of last season. Progress.
It's just one game, and there will be lots of ups and downs this season. But I'm very encouraged. The floor is yours, Lord Baltimore.
Anonymous #2 - We'll try to have them up after some games, but that's dependent on how much technology we can bring to bear. Sometimes athletics will posts a video of the presser as well, and we'll provide a link if they do for this game. Finally, I know we have at least a rough transcript of the post-game presser that we jotted down, which was used heavily for this recap, so you know most of it already.
ReplyDeleteBottom Line Boots - Agreed, if we can take real learning opportunities away from these first few games, regardless of the outcome, we'll be much better come January. Last year, going 0-7 was really demoralizing and the addition of Vlad may have been the only thing that stopped the morale hemorrhaging (beating a Big East team will do that). Since no matter what happens now, we have at least one mark in the win column, it will be easier to translate less-than-stellar experiences into lessons, rather than discouragement.
NJJ - Great to have you back! I was just telling myself the other day, "the season hasn't really started until NJJ and LB are back on the blog."
I'd like to also bring up how great the Blue Crew was at this game. Electric is not a strong enough word to describe the crowd - it was an incredible season opener and made me so proud to be an Eagle. Here are two examples of how great it was:
- In St. Francis' official recap, they make a point of saying that Jukic's lone three-pointer "silenced Eagles' fans." While it may have been a down moment, it didn't quiet us for long, and the fact that they felt it worthy to mention that we had to be "silenced" really says something about the atmosphere we created in Bender.
- In AU's official recap, the lead image was a picture of the filled stands. Normally, that's only used for play-off games, because it is not that often the stands are filled enough to make a picture like that worthwhile. For that to happen in the season opener, coming off a down year, against an opponent that isn't necessarily a big rival says a lot about our fan base. While there is no way to prove the additionality, I'd like to believe that the incredible fan turnout helped inspire the team to their second-half resurgence.
But really, I can sum this up in one sentence - THANK YOU BLUE CREW!
Finally, I'd also like to dedicate our incredible second-half comeback to the birthday spirit of Brian Gilmore. The legacy of #14 certainly lived on.
I'm not sure I like the idea of seeing AU play two weeks before Thanksgiving. The result is a promising glimpse of Troy Brewer and watching everyone else watch Vlad trying to make a move. Few assists for AU. Don't look for teamwork this early. Defense was made up of watching Jukic calmly catch the ball down low. Mostly I got tired of watching the team watch what was going on. I'm glad they turned it up in the second half, but that mostly exposed how weak an opponent we faced.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to seeing AU gel as a team.