When You Cross Three Time Zones To Post A Very Solid Win, Lots of Loose Ends Get Tied Up

NB: If you don't make it to the bottom of the post, we'll be liveblogging tonight's game vs. Delaware starting shortly before the projected 11:15 PM EST tip. A free video feed will be available from Santa Clara's website as well.

Happy Holidays everyone! We were given a late present last night as AU downed the Fordham Rams 73-57 in the first round of the Cable Car Classic on the campus of Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA. Bear with me tonight as I tie up some loose ends and simultaneously try to give you a recap of this game, a preview of today's game, and some thoughts about our previous outing at #6 Pittsburgh, as we failed to adequately do that before. That's a lot of ground to cover, so without further adieu let's delve right in!

Billygoats Can't Find Their Footing in Moving Cable Cars 
Without a doubt, this was one of our most solid wins of the season so far. We found a tempo, burst out to a 10-0 lead, stuck to it, and kept our opponent from finding one of their own. Fordham was riding a four-game win streak, which included an upset of St. John's from the Big East conference, and in no way would I have predicted that we would manhandle them as we did. To be fair, Fordham's three-day trip to Santa Clara could best be described as a harrowing ordeal, so that may have affected their play. Still, they were a formidable opponent for the first time in years (I believe since they left the Patriot League in 1997 they've had one winning season), and we made a statement on the West Coast. Most importantly, we proved we can take on someone our own size, as opposed to beating near-winless teams or standing up to top ten powerhouses. For the trivia buffs out there, despite Fordham being a former member of the Patriot League, this is the first time we ever played them.

There are definitely some highlights I want to touch on. First is the point guard play this game. That's right, I want to compliment our point guards, which we don't have an opportunity to do nearly enough. The Munoz and Luptake duo combined for all 40 minutes at the 1 spot, together contributing 7 points, 6 assists, and a steal. What's missing there? You may notice that not a single turnover is listed. That's right: ZERO TURNOVERS from the point this game. Additionally, they held While Danny and Steve may not be an offensive spark all the time, their ball handling skills are commendable, and with the rest of the scoring options we have, that may be enough to get us back to the Tournament this March.

Next up on my congratulatory list is Stephen Lumpkins. The Lump proved to be unstumpable yet again, posting his fourth double-double of the season with 18 points and 11 boards, plus an assist for good measure. Fordham's frontcourt was highly touted coming into the game, with forward like Chris Gaston averaging a double-double. We held Gaston to 10 points and 9 boards (just shy of that double-double), with foul trouble keeping him out for a while and Lump locking him down the rest of the time. Vlad also poured in a solid game, with 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists. He didn't lead the team, and it's good to see that he doesn't always have to - surely Fordham felt all they'd need to do to win was stop Vlad, but we had more weapons than them, and it showed.

While we were edged slightly on the boards by the Rams, 39-37, we entered the game ranked very low in the NCAA in rebounds per game, with the Rams definitely in the top 50, if not 30. We didn't kill them on the boards, but we certainly didn't let it drag us down, either. Our frontcourt proved last night they could hang with big men as good as you'll find anywhere in the Patriot League, and they did so handily.

There was one other major standout performance last night, but we'll get to that in a bit. Some things that could have been better (and I am truly loathe to criticize anything that happened in this game) was that once we smelled blood in the water, we went for it and played very aggressively - so aggressively that with 10 minutes left in the second half, Fordham was already in the double bonus. We need to limit the needless fouls, and we are fortunate that the Rams struggled mightily from the line. If they hadn't, the game might have swung differently. However from beginning to end we took control, and were never seriously threatened. In that vein, though, I was surprised that the transfer duo of Troy and Charles was relatively quiet. Ultimately, they played solid defense, pulled their weight, and kept Fordham honest, but if either of them (or hey, both) had really gone off offensively then it would have been an incredible blowout. However, the game was definitely highlighted by none other than...

Hendra Sends Resounding Message Back to New York City
NICK HENDRA! The NYC native sent a powerful message back with the Rams, scoring a career-high 22 points, 7 boards, 6 assists, and a really incredible block. He played incredibly hard and smart the entire game, set up Lump and Vlad with incredible passes, fearlessly drove to the basket without trying to be showy, and shot lights out from beyond the arc. He created his own shot, and made everyone around him better. This is the Nick Hendra we've been waiting for for over three years. If he continues to play like this, we're golden. If he continues to play half as well as this, heck, I'll be happy. Needless to say, I can safely predict that his starting spot is absolutely safe.

The Transitive Property of Basketball
While I could speak volumes about how if every game was played like this, we'd skip our way into March, I'd like to leave some room for those with a higher basketball IQ than myself to show me up in the comments. I do want to take some time, however, to talk about the most useless statistic of all in college hoops (so useless, it's practically not real): the transitive property of basketball.

So here's where I'll talk about Pitt. We lost to Pitt by 16 points. In Pitt's next game, which happened to be the Big East opener vs. #4 UConn (and I'll be transparent and say I'm from Connecticut and am a lifelong Huskies fan), the Panthers won by 16. Curious - but it gets curiouser. Vlad scored 23 of our 46 points in the loss, exactly 50%. UConn's Kemba Walker, the leading scorer in the entire NCAA, scored 31 of UConn's 66 points, pretty darn close to 50%. While I cannot find the link right now for the life of me, I distinctly remember reading an interview after the Pitt game where one of their players said that our slow, grind-it-out style reminded him of a Big East game, which I took as an utmost compliment. It's noteworthy that prior to our game, Pitt was averaging 82 points per game, and we held them to 21 below that. What does this all mean? Absolutely nothing. But for the sake of seeing if we can make something of nothing let's continue.

So as previously mentioned, Fordham's marquee win on the young season was an intra-city upset of St. John's of the Big East. They also handily Lehigh (aka the CJ McCollum show) on their home court, but I digress. Immediately after losing to Fordham, St. John's rebounded in a big way by beating West Virginia on their home court, followed by a drubbing of Northwestern at home. Coincidental that we held our own against both of those teams in recent days, no?

However, this can all be spun the other way. Sure, I could talk about a team that beat us (say, Columbia), and some team that beat them handily, and how that means we're inferior to whatever team beat the Lions. As I said, it's all rubbish. Yet it's worth noting that the RPI actually considers the transitive property noteworthy, as (correct me if I'm wrong), 25% of the calculation is the record of opponents' opponents. So when we beat Fordham, who beat St. John's, who beat two teams that beat us - well, the complex computer algorithm really likes that, and that's all I have to say on the matter.

Up Next: The Fightin' Blue Hens
OK, deep breath. Phew, we're almost done. I'm sure this entire time you've been itching to find out if we'll win the Cable Car Classic crown (which is why I provided the handy headers in case you became impatient and decided to scroll down). Well, I believe our chances are pretty good, as we lucked out with the best possible matchup (of two, so that's not saying too much) for this game. Delaware will not have the home court advantage of Santa Clara, and is also operating on eastern time, in case anyone is feeling the jet lag.

The Blue Hens (6-4) have gone 3-3 on the road so far this season, including last night's narrow 54-53 win over Santa Clara where they rallied from a 6-point halftime deficit. Their other two wins come against Hampton and Lafayette, and both were relatively close games. The losses were a little less close, and came to Ohio University, Cornell, and #10 Villanova. So while Delaware does not yet have something as solid as our Fordham win on their road resume, they are not a team to be trifled with.

The only major threat on UD's team that I can see is guard Jawan Carter, who pours in 15 ppg. Big man Jamelle Hagins rebounds about as well as Lumpkins, and has 3.8 bpg to boot. Otherwise, there are some very solid roleplayers that might not be stars in their own right, but have won their fair share of contests this season.

Needless to say, if we play like we did yesterday, this one is in the bag. However, that is far from guaranteed. Hopefully we're still fired up from yesterday's win, but if fatigue or jet lag sets in, it could hurt, and we'll have to hope that the Blue Hens find themselves in the same situation. The trick to repeating last night's success is a balanced attack, solid ball handling, and playing at our speed and not rushing the 3. A few less fouls would be nice, too, because if UD is on their game then they'll likely shoot much better from the charity stripe than Fordham. If all these things can come together, we'll find ourselves crowned Cable Car Classic champion, a dream that was dashed the one other time we participated in the Classic in the late 80's by Santa Clara in the second round. As always, let's live the dream.

The Blue Crew, Coast to Coast
Finally, I just want to point out yet again how we have the greatest fan section in the Patriot League. The advantage the Blue Crew brings officially spreads from coast to coast, as three native Californians (Lumpkins, Tony Wroblicky, and Charles Hinkle) have a homecoming of sorts this week.

EDIT: I was quite remiss in forgetting that Jordan Borucki is also from California. My apologies to Jordan and thanks to the commenter who pointed this out to me!

Below are some pictures of Lump and Tony's families absolutely rocking Santa Clara's Leavey Center. Huge kudos to the Lumpkins for bringing so many Lumpkins Patch shirts back with them from their last trip to Bender!

The signs speak for themselves

"Cali Boys Welcome Home"

Next season I can see Tony the Tiger becoming a fast moniker

Incredible excitement from a sizable AU section for a game played 3,000 miles from home

That's all for today, folks, and thanks for sticking with us! We'll be back tonight at 11:15 PM EST to liveblog the AU-UD game. Santa Clara is again providing a live video feed on their site for free, and we'll have all the appropriate links up tonight so everyone willing to burn the midnight oil can watch. While it's a bit of a bummer the games are so late, we had a great crowd for last night's liveblog, so a huge kudos to everyone that joined us. Time and again, you make us proud to write this blog. See you tonight, and remember: BE THERE, BE LOUD, BE BLUE! GO EAGLES!

Pro Deo Et Patria
Josh

Vlad's Revenge: A Tale of an Unfortunate Yellow Jacket

This is it, folks. Our Eagles are about to take the court again for a lone exhibition game this year. In less than 48 hours, we will tip off against the Yellow Jackets of Randolph-Macon College, a powerful D3 squad that narrowly stole the first collegiate game of approximately half our team last year 49-47.

Oh, victory will be sweet. Yes, I'm calling it already, but we'll get to that in good time. Let's first put some backstory on this exhibition matchup of championship proportions. This time a year ago, only two of our (eligible) players had seen any time on the court in a college game, let alone experience starting. Coach Jones scheduled not one, but two exhibition games to help ready the team for what was destined to be a difficult season. Being the no-holds-barred coach that he is, Jones made sure that even the exhibition games wouldn't be total cakewalks for his fresh squad. No, he chose the R-MC Yellow Jackets of the powerful ODAC, perennially one of the toughest Division 3 opponents in the country.

How tough is tough? Only a year before, they had knocked off another Division 1 team not too far from Tenleytown. In November of 2008, the George Mason Patriots, another young team with big aspirations of repeating the Final Four miracle of recent years, fell 73-72 to the Yellow Jackets on their home court. Sophomore Vlad Moldoveanu played three minutes in this game, contributing two successful free throws to his team's sordid effort. For the other 37 minutes of regulation, he looked on hopelessly from the bench as the Yellow Jackets humiliated a team that was only two years removed from being the greatest mid-major team of all time.

Flash back to Bender Arena this time last year. Determined to not fall into the same youthful trap the Patriots had a year earlier, our beloved Eagles fought hard against a similarly young Yellow Jackets cohort. Despite their top Division 3 rankings, R-MC had a team just as young as ours, playing in a Division 1 arena they had never seen before. Yet our youthful indiscretion proved greater than theirs - despite a game-high 18 points from relative veteran Stephen Lumpkins and 12 from junior Nick Hendra, Hendra's last-second attempt from downtown was grabbed by R-MC's Eric Pugh and taken from coast to coast to steal the victory at the buzzer. This time, recent transfer Vlad Moldoveanu had to spend all 40 minutes staring from the sidelines as the Division 3 upstarts took yet another victory from his team. Surely, if he had been on the court, the outcome would have been different this time.

Now it's November 2010, and the Yellow Jackets are making the journey to Washington yet again to test their mettle against the Eagles. This time, neither team is loaded with new blood, both returning a full roster of hardened veterans with a chip on their shoulder. That's right, both the Yellow Jackets and Eagles return all five starters. Clearly, with their reputation as a veritable giant killer, the Yellow Jackets have enough reason to trek to the nation's capital, but what's our motivation for this epic rematch? Simple: Revenge. Revenge for last year's narrow loss, revenge for our honor, even revenge for the Patriots. Most of all, however, this is Vlad's Revenge. For the first time in three years, Vlad will see victory over Randolph-Macon, and the legion of fans filling Sections 114 and 115, clad in blue, will celebrate this momentous occasion with him.

I warn everyone, it will not be easy. Sporting News has awarded the Yellow Jackets with a third place pre-season ranking in all of Division 3, while D3Hoops.com has them pegged at second. Clearly, we will be playing the cream of the D3 crop (or, in other words, beating up the biggest kid on the playground). Like us, they return all five starters, including senior Guard Eric Pugh, whose last-second layup from across the court doomed our inaugural effort last year. 6'8", 240 lb. senior Center Billy Campion will try to lock down our frontcourt in the post, while Danny Jones, Brandon Baxton, Jordan Brown, and Pugh all bring a scoring attack that averaged more than 10 ppg apiece last year. All these players enjoyed a trip to the Division 3 Final Four last year which capped off a 26-7 record. This won't be the Yellow Jackets' first outing this season either - last night they posted a commanding 101-25 victory over the Hawksbury Jets from Australia.

Of course, we're not the team we were a year ago either. Through a season that can only be described as brutal (if you can think of any other way to describe an 0-7 start capped off by a win over a Big East team, let me know), everyone who saw play time last year against the Yellow Jackets is much more comfortable on the hardwood now. Lumpkins put up 18 points over R-MC last year, without the help of Vlad to give him more space under the basket. Nick contributed another 12 from the wing, without the addition of versatile and athletic Troy Brewer to draw away defenders. Moreover, we'll have a number of options at the point that have had at least seven starts each in the past year. My prediction is that Jones gives the starting nod to Steve Luptak, as from what I've heard he's made great strides to improve for his senior year.

Therefore here's my predicted starting five: Steve Luptak, Nick Hendra, Troy Brewer, Vlad Moldoveanu, Stephen Lumpkins.

I'd like to see the "mighty" Yellow Jackets conquer that. I've been referring to this game for weeks as "Sweet, Sweet Revenge Day" for a reason. Sure, its an exhibition, and the final outcome doesn't matter one bit toward our final record this season. This is bigger than statistics, though. This is about honor. This is about pride. This is about IMPALEMENT!

I hope you will be able to join me in Bender Arena this Thursday at 7:30 PM. Cover yourself in Blue, never sit down, and help make sure that the Yellow Jackets don't three-peat against Division 1. If you can't make it to Bender, I'll be live-tweeting the game, so make sure to follow us at @AUHoops. In the days to come, we'll also have a smorgasboard of content here on the blog as we finish our Patriot League Preview series, recap everything that happened this summer, and gear up for American Madness, Coach Jones' Chalk Talk, the inaugural faculty-staff classic, and finally the regular season in only 10 days. Phew, that's what I call a heady start to our second season!

BE THERE, BE LOUD, BE BLUE...but most of all BEAT RANDOLPH-MACON!

PRO DEO ET PATRIA AND GO EAGLES!
Josh