I Can Has 20-win Season? The LOLCats Revisited.

Lafayette Superfan

WHO: Laughayette LOLCats (11-17, 6-7) vs. AU Eagles (20-8, 10-3)
WHAT: Final regular season Patriot League contest for both teams
WHERE: Kirby Sports Center, Somewhere Hopelessly Remote, PA
WHEN: Saturday, February 26th, 4:00 PM
WHY: The only thing better than a 13-game win streak against the Leopards is a 14-game win streak against the Leopards

Ho hum. With the second seed locked up, Saturday's games have a lot of relevance for everyone not named American or Bucknell. Fortunately, that's not us! The key is to not let that make us complacent, which fortunately was not the case against Navy on Wednesday. We need to keep up the intensity, and if we can stay at 100%, we have a real chance of having a great March.

Key to this intensity is, obviously, the Vlad-Lump-Troy trifecta of power, with a little Hendra glue to hold it all together. While the Unstumpable One was, oddly, stumped against guard-heavy Navy, he has proven himself against Lafayette once already this season. Way back on January 29th, we came out roaring for Phil Bender 2011 in a 73-60 defeat of the Leopards. Lumpkins lead all scorers with 21 points, and threw in 9 boards, 4 blocks, and a steal to ensure that Laugh-ayette would be frowning on the bus ride home. I can only imagine that there will be a fire under his behind of unimaginable intensity to mere mortals (read: those under 6'9").

The greatest obstacles to victory will be the trifecta-of-significantly-less-power of Jared Mintz, Ryan Willen, and Jim Mower. While this trio put up 12, 11, and 10 points respectively a month ago in Bender, it was not nearly enough to stop us from steamrolling them in a fashion that the final score doesn't quite convey. I see no reason other than that dreaded complacency that that couldn't happen again.

For more on the Leopards, check out our preview, liveblog, and recap of Phil Bender 2011. Take your time, we'll wait. Ok, done? Let's go ahead and try to wrap our heads around the implications of this game for the bottom 6.

Actually, there are so many possible seeding permutations at this point, I'll go ahead and defer to the Patriot League website, which has already laid them out in excruciating detail. Click here for all possible seeding scenarios.

Phew, you came back? Excellent! Let's break down what's most important to us:

• We will face either Army or Colgate in the first round
• If Army beats Bucknell today, we play them in the first round, and Bucknell in theory becomes more vulnerable, and that is great for us
• If Army loses to Bucknell, they then immediately play Bucknell again in the first round, and although they are dead last in the League, they are the only team to have beaten Bucknell, and that is great for us
• Therefore, it is preferable that Army lose, then win
• Holy Cross and Lehigh will be battling for a #3 seed, which will be dependent both on their game and whether we beat Lafayette
• I'd rather play Holy Cross in the second round, as we've had too many close calls with CJ McCollum so far and I like the chance of Milan Brown dropping another heartbreaker to us than having to beat CJ again
• Therefore, it is preferable that Holy Cross beat Lehigh
• Everything else only affects us marginally

On that note, it's an appropriate time to reference this week's Poll of the Week, which looked a lot like this:

What, if improved upon, would help clinch the Patriot League Championship this season?

While most agree that Bucknell getting the flu is the quickest route to the Dance, improving the play of our point guards may do the trick as well. I tend to agree with the first outcome, but honestly at this point our point guards are what they are. With a team average of 13.5 turnovers per game prior to Navy (where we had an abysmal season-high 21, but I'll call that a fluke), they're handling the ball well, and receiving a lot of help from Hendra as well who's been playing pseudo-point at times and is 4th in the League in A:T ratio with a solid 2.0. Moreover, while they're not even close to the scoring threats we had in our backcourt a few seasons ago, Danny did pour in 11 points at Bucknell, which is promising, as it shows that they can step in when a team throws everything they have at Vlad. I'm much more prone to say that leadership and a strong desire to win (aka play a full 40 minutes each game) will help us see three straight victories in the PL Tournament. Hopefully, both carry us to victory.

Some final notes:

• Vlad is painfully close to the 1,000 point plateau in only a season and a half, with 926 career points with the Eagles. If he can average 19 ppg between now and the Patriot League Championship, he will go down in the annals as a 1,000-point scorer
• Similarly, Stephen Lumpkins has notched 573 career rebounds, placing him at 21st in school history and solidly in the 500-rebound club. A single rebound at Lafayette will tie him for #20, and if he can make it to 1,000 points next season, they'll have to update that big banner near the entrance to Bender yet again

That's all for now, folks. You can catch the game at 4 PM on RCN cable, or check back here for our fabulous and always-lively liveblog. Wherever you are, just make sure to cheer our Eagles on to a well-deserved 21st victory this season.

Pro Deo Et Patria and GO EAGLES!

Josh