American Army Bucknell Colgate Holy Cross Lafayette Lehigh Navy

Premium
The Wire
Recruiting
Alumni
Username Post: AU Today        (Topic#7037)
LU65 
Sophomore
Posts: 133

Reg: 07-30-06
02-10-08 10:49 AM - Post#43333    

The senior stars of last year (Eitutauicius, Lekavicius, Joneliunas and Company) are gone. That's the good news; the bad news is that Mercer and Carr, the talented junior guard duo are here and doing just fine, thank you. Together the pair accounted for 40 points (12-24 shooting....8-12 from three) in our opening night loss to the Eagles. One night wonders, they're not. Check out their 8-game PL production to date.

Mercer
10.2 ppg (16th in PL)
3.88 apg (3rd in PL)
Carr
21.9 ppg (2nd in PL)
.468 from three point land (4th in PL)
4.62 MADE 3' each game (1st in PL) leading the team that cans, on average, 8.75 3's per game. As a point of reference, LU TAKES 9.7 threes per game.

Other concerns we should have going into the game tomorrow include:

a. Our ice cold shooting guards
Keefer...18% over last 4 games
Samll....23% over last 3 games
Sxalachowski....28% over last 4 games

b. AU's current 2 game winning streak in which they buried Lafayette by 11 and Holy Cross by 16.

c. The strength of their defense, currently ranked best in the PL @ .388 FG Against and .333 3FG Against.

d. Playing at Bender Arena. True, it hasn't been a haven for the Eagles just yet (1 win / 2 losses), but ya gotta figure they're due.

e. Rust? Will the 8 day lay off hurt? You could argue that, looking at recent game stats, the offense can't get get much worse. So, maybe - just maybe - the rest will help get our heads back into play and allow us to redouble our efforts to limit Mercer and Carr point production with a defensive intensity the two didn't see in Game One but one that has become our trademark ever since - even in the games we have lost.

f. A second loss to AU would hurt our chances to nail down a top 4 seed come playoff time should we end up tied with the Eagles at the end of the regular season. The same could be said about our game with Navy this coming Wednesday. Splitting the season series with each should be our immediate goal.


What hope do we have?

a. First and foremost, stop Mercer. Over the past six games (4 wins and 2 losses), Mercer has averaged 23.3 in the victories and a more pedestrian 14 ppg in the losses.

b. Realize, despite our loss last week to the Crusaders, we have the talent to win and are, in fact, a 4-3 team - winners of 4 of the last 5 and 11-10 overall this year. This game with AU ends what will be our toughest 4 game stretch of the year with the last three on the road: Lafayette (W), Bucknell (W), Holy Cross (L), and now American (?). Not bad for the youngest team in the league and a rookie coach.

c. The superior height and talent of our forecourt.

d. Our record at Bender ... 4 and 0 over the last four. Arena.

e. Realize that we have not lost the first game of the second half of the season since 2001-02.

f. Hold the high-flying Eagles to less than 60 points. When doing so, we're 7-0 this year.


This will be a tough encounter, to be sure. Even the odds-makers place us as an 8 1/2 underdog, for what that's worth. I do believe the game will be nothing like the first and say "D" will win it - whether it's theirs or ours.



 
LU65 
Sophomore
Posts: 133

Reg: 07-30-06
02-10-08 10:50 AM - Post#43334    
    In response to LU65

Update: Sunday AM

If you thought the standings were tight going into play last night, look them over this morning after BU' LOSS to Navy, Lafayette's LOSS to Holy Cross, and Colgate's LOSS to Army. Now, wonder if LU were to beat AU this afternoon. Yup, Lehigh would be in first place, tied with with that team from Easton at 5-3. Having already beaten them, you could say first place would be ours alone. Now this is exciting PL basketball.


 
Icon Legend Permissions Topic Options
Report Post

Quote Post

Quick Reply

Print Topic

Email Topic

1166 Views

Copyright © 2004-2007 Basketball U. Terms of Use for our Site and Privacy Policy are applicable to you. All rights reserved.
Basketball U. and its subsidiaries are not affiliated in any way with any NCAA athletic conference or member institution.
FusionBB™ Version 2.1 | ©2003-2007 InteractivePHP, Inc.
Execution time: 0.185 seconds.   Total Queries: 16   Zlib Compression is on.
All times are (GMT -0500) Eastern. Current time is 06:01 PM
Top