What Can Brown Do For Us? Well, Lose, That's What

How great would it be to finish with a 10-5 out-of-conference record after last season's 3-12 debacle? Well,  that's a very real possibility this evening when the face the Bears of Brown University (5-6) at 7:30 PM in the familiar confines of Bender Arena for the first time in eight games and over a month. In fact, this will be Charles' first true home game, if you can imagine that. Brown is a formidable squad, and surprisingly we are 2-4 all-time against the Bears (2-1 since the 80's, though), although we have seen victory for the past two seasons. Who's going to bring down Brown? These guys:

That's right, folks. You are looking upon the CABLE CAR CLASSIC 2010 CHAMPIONS! OK, OK, maybe it's not the most important in-season tournament in the world, but it was both an accomplishment and a statement. What looked like a pitiful field of competition before the season started turned into a formidable mid-major tournament, and this is still the same Cable Car Classic that Michael Jordan won with the Tar Heels in the early 80's. OK, how about a more relevant statistic: last year's MVP, Matt Janning of Northeastern, went on to the NBA. This year's MVP? None other than Vlad Moldoveanu, averaging 24 points and 5.5 rebounds in the the tournament, 3,000 miles away from Bender Arena. Or how about Stephen Lumpkins, averaging a double-double with 16.5 ppg and 10 rpg? I'll get to Brown in a second, but it cannot be overstated how impressed I am that we went to Santa Clara and handily dominated two very decent mid-major teams for a full 80 minutes of regulation. We never trailed, and our lead was never seriously threatened. Until this point, we had proven ourselves primarily against teams with records far below .500, or teams in the top echelon of college hoops where merely standing our ground was a moral victory. At the Cable Car Classic, we proved we can take down teams our own size, which will be important this evening in Bender.

The Bears are no pushover team. While their 5-6 record doesn't put them near the top of the Ivy League, they've played some very close games this season against familiar competition. Brown opened the season by downing Fordham 69-65, and on December 21st they defeated fellow Patriot League member Army 88-86. Other than those games, the Bears' best competition this season has been Rhode Island and Providence College, which both resulted in losses for Brown. Needless to say, Brown is lacking a signature win on the still-young season, and we would make an excellent feather in their furry cap.

So let's cut to the chase. Will they beat us? I don't think so. We are a road-hardened team whose pieces have really started to come together, and we've spent the last month playing some of the best competition in the country in difficult arenas, while Brown sports a 2-5 record on the road. Playing a middling Ivy league team in Bender should be a piece of cake by comparison. Of course, it's hard to forget that our worst loss of the season so far came to such a team - Columbia's narrow victory (and our last true home game) still burns my fingers to write about. However,  this time it's a different story. First, to the best of my knowlege Vlad will not be out this game, and although it is far from a valid excuse, his absence more than anything else was what allowed Columbia to slip past us for the victory. Additionally, Charles is eligible this time as well, providing a boost of toughness that Brown will be hard-pressed to match. Second, we have a chip on our shoulder, and I don't see us letting another Columbia happen as we gear up for Patriot League play. Third, Assistant Coach Lamar Barrett comes to us straight from Brown (and spent the last two seasons watching us beat them from the other bench), providing a tactical advantage. Finally, if last year's squad was able to hand the Bears a 76-68 spanking on their home court (and 75% of Brown's team remains the same), we should be able to do the same this year too. Convinced yet?

Despite this, we cannot rest on our laurels if we wish to avoid another embarrassing defeat to a team pretentious enough to wrap its logo in Microsoft Paint ivy:

I can't make this stuff up

The Bears do have a few outstanding players, including three that average double figures. Senior forward Patrick Sullivan averages 14 ppg and is solid from beyond the arc. If Charles can adequately guard him, we should be OK from the perimeter, although this is still no excuse to lob up endless threes with 20 seconds left on the clock. Brown is also a relatively large team for the Ivy League, with four players standing at 6'8". Two of them, Tucker Halpern and Andrew McCarthy, are solid in the post, between them averaging 15 ppg and 10 rpg. This shouldn't be more than Lump can handle, though. Our biggest problem I can see if Garrett Lefellman, who is averaging 10 ppg at the one. Danny and Steve are going to have to maintain their streak of excellent ball handling (between the two of them they had 12 assists and only one turnover in BOTH games of the Cable Car Classic - that's a 6.0 A:TO ratio), and stay on Lefellman on the defensive end like a fly on a sweaty bear (see what I did there)?

Ultimately, we out-talent the bears in just about every way. We're bigger, more athletic, and more experienced. By all means, this should be a W and a great way to close out our out-of-conference schedule. We'll be liveblogging the game tonight, starting shortly before 7:30, so come on over if you aren't able to make it to campus. If you can make it to Bender, however, then our guys need your support more than ever after their long roadtrip. As always, BE LOUD, BE PROUD, and BE BLUE and give the Eagles the best home court advantage in the Patriot or Ivy Leagues. What do we eat? BEAR MEAT!

Finally, here's the long-awaited results of our most recent Poll of the Week:

Which Patriot League opponent will be our greatest contender for the title?

Bucknell (4-6)	18 (31%)
Holy Cross (0-8)	3 (5%)
Lehigh (5-5)	27 (47%)
Lafayette (4-7)	2 (3%)
Navy (4-8)	4 (7%)
Colgate (0-8)	1 (1%)
Army (5-5)	2 (3%)

Votes so far: 57

The results are more or less as expected, with Bucknell and Lehigh dominating. I think folks might be underestimating Holy Cross a bit, as even though they've ended up going 1-12 so far, they've had a number of close games against a decently tough strength of schedule (and even with our 3-12 record last year, we went 7-7 in the League). Going up to Worcester will be a challenge no matter the Crusaders' record.

However, what might be more off is the deference voters gave to The CJ McCollum Show-- erm, I mean Lehigh. While they are definitely good, have a solid record, and will be a tough matchup, Bucknell really hit its stride and went 7-1 in December to improve its record to 8-7. While this doesn't seem that impressive, they had the toughest strength of schedule in the League, and posted impressive victories over LaSalle and Richmond (the latter coming off a last-second buzzer beater to win by a single point). Additionally they absolutely pasted Dartmouth at home by about 30 points (in a way we've failed to do this season to vastly inferior teams), and narrowly lost to the ACC's Boston College 84-80 after leading at halftime.

Without a doubt, Bucknell is the most well-rounded of our League opposition and will be a serious challenge, especially at Sojka Pavilion. I'm confident we can pull it out though, and bring home another Patriot League Championship despite the Bison's best efforts. Of course, these are just my opinions, which is why we have the poll in the first place! This week we ask, "What will our Patriot League record be?"

Pro Deo Et Patria and GO EAGLES!
Josh