PATRIOT LEAGUE FEVER: CATCH IT!

02:03
02:03 REBOUND (DEF) by Eitutavicius, Arvyda
01:37 FOUL by Ingram, Andre
01:37 TURNOVR by Ingram, Andre
TIMEOUT 30sec 01:14
MISSED 3 PTR by Simon, Jon 01:06
REBOUND (OFF) by Vinson, Trevaron 01:06
MISSED LAYUP by Vinson, Trevaron 01:01
REBOUND (OFF) by Vinson, Trevaron 01:01
MISSED LAYUP by Chones, Kendall 00:30
00:30 REBOUND (DEF) by Ingram, Andre
00:23 TURNOVR by Mercer, Derrick
00:23 FOUL by Mercer, Derrick
TIMEOUT TEAM 00:23
MISSED JUMPER by Simon, Jon 00:02
REBOUND (OFF) by Gentile, Dan 00:02
GOOD! JUMPER by Gentile, Dan 00:01 51-49 H 2
00:01 TIMEOUT 30sec
TIMEOUT 30sec 00:01
FOUL by Chones, Kyle 00:01
00:01 51-50 H 1 GOOD! FT SHOT by Eitutavicius, Arvyda
00:01 51-51 T 7 GOOD! FT SHOT by Eitutavicius, Arvyda  @ 2:56 PM 2 HC Alums are angry about this post | Bitch about it on the PL hoops messageboard

  DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE IT'S A SEQUEL

Hi there. Did you miss me? I missed you. Let's never fight again.

The real PL season is about to start, and these are exciting times. I thought I'd weigh in with a few thoughts.

For all the talk about how the league is improving, the top of the league is as bad as it has been in a long time. The top teams from the last 5 years would destroy the competition in this year's version of the league. With AU playing Jekyll and Hyde, HC looking like a M*A*S*H unit, and Bucknell dropping games to West Arkansas Tech, the bottom teams in the league gotta feel like they have a chance here, especially because...

The bottom of the league is better than it used to be. Army is not embarassing and Navy continues to be respectable. There aren't even any teams in the 300s as far as RPI rankings go. Whoever voted for Army in the Mid Major 25 poll is smoking angeldust, but the Plebes should be good for at least 4-5 league wins this year.

AU is an interesting squad this year. There are times where they look the best they've ever looked, and there are times when they are completely unwatchable. Here are the reasons I like AU's chances this year, from a completely biased standpoint:

1) They are the deepest team in the league. No freshmen at all on the team. The minutes that Jeff Jones gave the current group of sophomores last year are paying off. AU's legit post players go six deep: Billbe, Paul Jones, Nichols, Guibunda, Travis Lay, and Brian Gilmore. It's true that none of those guys has been totally consistent so far, but each of them has had great games. JJ had Lay and Nichols in the post together for much of the run that allowed AU to come back from 18 down against SFPA. Arvydas Eitutavicius comes off the bench for 20 minutes a game, and can shoot the lights out when he's on.
2) Andre Ingram looks like the 2005 model instead of the 2006 one. His point totals are getting back to where they ought to be, he is the team's leading rebounder, and he's looking for his shots again.
3) Garrison Carr has yet to score consistently. Some may take this as a bad sign, but I'm of the belief that shooting is a skill and it's not something that just disappears. Carr will light it up eventually, and probably win AU a game somewhere when he does.
4) Brayden Billbe has been playing great, particularly when he's visibly angry. When SFPA's JR Enright (who, in a move that screams trash, has the letters JR tattooed on his arm) started pushing, grabbing and talking trash to Billbe during the 2nd half Tuesday night, Billbe responded by hitting a bucket, forcing a foul, and then forcing a turnover by Enright, who promptly went to the bench. It was a great sequence to watch. JJ ought to consider punching Billbe in the mouth before each game, just to get him nice and pissed off.

Now, the negatives:

1) This team is a bunch of girls sometimes. In the 5-6 games I've seen them, AU has made maybe two hard fouls. They also have a tendency to get knocked on their ass a lot. Some of this may have to do with the old cliche of the soft European player (except in the case of Linas Lekavicius who probably spends his spare time like Happy Gilmore, taking baseballs to the chest in the batting cages). Whatever it is, there is a certain killer instinct that is lacking. Someone on AU needs to be mean, dirty, whatever you want to call it. I don't care who it is. I want to see someone on this team knock an opponent on their ass, and look like they actually mean business.
2) AU has yet to play consistently for 40 minutes, and Tuesday's game was a microcosm of that. They refused to cover anyone beyond the 3 point line for the first 15 minutes or so, and they paid the price. Then they came out in the second half and were playing defense like Finland circa 1940.

PREDICTIONS: IF I GET ANY WRONG, I'M SURE YOU'LL LET ME KNOW

- Holy Cross will win the regular season, if they can field a 5 man team for most of the games.
- I picked AU in the PL tournament pool at the office.
- Navy wins a tourney game.
- Lafayette wins no more than 2 games the rest of the season.
- Lehigh finishes over .500 in league play.
- Global warming causes a lack of snow and panic in Hamilton, NY, as melting snow reveals dozens of corpses around the Colgate campus.  @ 11:45 AM 4 HC Alums are angry about this post | Bitch about it on the PL hoops messageboard

  NEW FEATURE AT PATRIOTLEAGUEHOOPS.COM: FLANNERY MELTDOWN METER



This week brings the introduction of a new feature here at PLHOOPS.COM, the Flannery Meltdown Meter. This week Pat is at a 6. With zero wins and four losses, you have to think that another few losses in a row might drive Coach Flannery into a rage that will be dangerous for everyone in the surrounding area. If it gets to this point, your PL blogger will issue a warning. Stay tuned.  @ 4:00 PM 2 HC Alums are angry about this post | Bitch about it on the PL hoops messageboard

  COMPLETELY UNRELATED: MATTB CAESAR - THE STORY OF MATTB'S FANTASY FOOTBALL TEAM

Clinton Portis: O Caesar

Caes Brunell: Wilt thou lift up Olympus?

Julius Jones: Great Caesar

Portis: Does not Donovan bootlesse kneele?

Donovan McNabb: Speake hands for me.

They stab Matt Caesar.

Matt Caesar: Et Tu Donovan? - Then fall Matt Caesar

Dyes

Brunell: Liberty, Freedome; Tyranny is dead, Run hence, proclaime, cry it about the Streets

Portis: Some to the common Pulpits, and cry out Liberty, Freedome, and Enfranchisement

McNabb: People and Senators, be not affrighted: Fly not, stand still: Ambitions debt is paid  @ 11:42 PM 0 HC Alums are angry about this post | Bitch about it on the PL hoops messageboard

  SOME THOUGHTS, IN OLD TIMEY NEWSPAPER ITEM STYLE

ITEM! What is the worse scenario, Dick Vitale doing commentary on a Lafayette basketball game, or Lafayette not being on TV at all?

ITEM! Chris McNaughton was 1-3 from FG and 2-6 from the line with one rebound in only 20 minutes versus Wake Forest. This follows a 3-10 FG performance versus Albany in 35 minutes, tallying four rebounds. Is this a Super-Senior Slump?

ITEM! Navy's Freshman Sensation Trey Stanton has come out of nowhere to lead the team in scoring and shooting percentage, while averaging the second highest amount of minutes on the team. A steal for Billy Lange!

ITEM! American University is 2-0, and your PL blogger has not even seen them live yet! Could it be that he is a jinx on the program? Stay tuned!

ITEM! Did anyone else notice the irony of Wake Forest jumping around and being overjoyed at defeating Bucknell on the road? Did the scene remind you of anything?

ITEM! Navy's foul troubles continue this season, while they've slowed down their previously speedy offense. But they're winning. This blogger still likes Navy to win 1-2 league tournament games!

ITEM! Yeah, I know I said I was going to slow down on blogging, but sometimes it is a helpful procrastination tool!  @ 1:20 PM 2 HC Alums are angry about this post | Bitch about it on the PL hoops messageboard

  GONE FISHIN

I don't plan on doing much blogging this year. But you already knew that. Chris at Hoop Time is putting us all to shame with his excellent work lately. Also, if you pay for Basketball U's stupid service, you are an idiot. Wow, a list of links to news articles about the Patriot League. Google News alerts are basically the same thing. Give your money to charity (or better yet, Hoop Time) instead. At least Chris does it because he likes it, not because he's trying to turn a profit.

Even though I'm on about a year long hiatus, here's my predictions for the 2007 final standings:

1) AU - I'm going back to partisanship. AU is too old and too deep to not finally get it done for your PL blogger.
2) Holy Cross - Because they can still play D
3) Bucknell - McNaughton gets exposed without the wing play he had last year
4) Navy - I am a Billy Lange Believer
5) Lehigh - Unless Olivero scores 30 a night, who is going to get it done?
6) Colgate - The best PL team in NY! How long will Emmett Davis be allowed to field sub-.500 teams? Probably until Hell freezes over or Hamilton, NY melts.
7) Army - This is your last chance to watch Matt B in action. Matt Bell that is. If he's healthy, they could move up to #6.
8) Lafayette - Should have gone to DIII.  @ 10:58 PM 5 HC Alums are angry about this post | Bitch about it on the PL hoops messageboard

  YOU FORGOT POLAND

Quick update on K-Ham in Today's Worcester Daily Sauce:

Former Holy Cross basketball star Kevin Hamilton checked in this week from Poland, where he is playing for the Polpak Swiecie team. Hamilton said things are going well and that he is playing point guard. “It’s a little different from school,” Hamilton said, “but I am adjusting.” He’s averaging 9.7 points and 5.7 assists in the team’s first three games. Hamilton, who played for this year’s Boston Celtics summer league team, has been overseas for about a month.

BASKETBALL FACTORY

George Will is similar to your PL blogger in that many people consider him an uninformed pompous ass, but he gets it right here.  @ 5:38 PM 0 HC Alums are angry about this post | Bitch about it on the PL hoops messageboard

  Nice preseason article in Das Kapital

I really, really like the Navy program. Like, more than the AU program sometimes. The Annapolis Capital does a great job covering them: HometownAnnapolis.com, Navy Sports - Fresh approach enriches work for Midshipmen  @ 11:44 PM 0 HC Alums are angry about this post | Bitch about it on the PL hoops messageboard

  CLASS OF 2010: HOLY CROSS

This is part five in an ongoing series

Thanks for waiting. Before we start, I'd like to give a Patriot League Hoops Blog Wag of the Finger to the two Massachusetts elementary schools that recently banned playing tag. Not cool. Many great Holy Cross basketball alumni were born and raised in Massachusetts. If this trend continues, recruiting will dry up in 15 years as the mental toughness that tag gives kids will disappear. This means that I will have fewer HC alumni to argue with on the Internet, and I just can't stand for that. I'm watching you, Massachusetts!

Now, onto better things. I'm going to keep this short, as I have other posts I want to do, but I didn't want to leave you short without saying a couple of things about HC's recruits.

Holy Cross is one of a number of teams that will need its underclassmen to perform if they are to have a shot at the PL title. The Crusaders have a question mark at small forward, which may end up being a rotating door, given the fact that they'll have to rely on Freshman and Sophomores. The most likely candidates are Adam May and Andrew Keister.

May is a 6'7" 200 pounder from outside Cleveland, and may end up being the starting 3 for the Cross. Word has it that his range extends beyond the arc, and while the league has gotten bigger over the last few years as recruiting has improved, being 6'7" and able to shoot from three with accuracy will make May quite valuable to Coach Ralph Willard.

Keister, 6'9", will probably look to get time at the 4, where, barring some significant improvement, Alex Vander Baan is probably not the answer. Unless Tim Clifford has become a sprinter in the off season, there are minutes up for grabs in the post, where Clifford is the only impact player but only averaged 22 minutes a game last year.

Just to confuse me and everyone else, HC also has a guy named Eric Meister coming in. Say it with me, Meister...Keister.....Keister...Meister. We'll just call him Eric so I don't get mixed up. Eric is apparently a local legend from State College, PA, where they set up "Meisterville" during state playoffs. Seriously. To me, he's the question mark here. How many of the three 6'7"-6'9" guys can Willard really find playing time for? Hard to say.

Eric Keister is a project, and HC fans shouldn't expect anything for a while. Fun fact: he missed his junior year with mono. I had mono once, in the 9th grade. From then on, I never kissed girls without a condom on.

Next: pre-season all league team and predictions.  @ 8:50 AM 0 HC Alums are angry about this post | Bitch about it on the PL hoops messageboard

  CLASS OF 2010: AMERICAN

Don't say I never blog anymore. Here is an update on AU's class of 2010: There is none.

Back later to cover Holy Cross' 2010 recruits (I'm sure no one will disagree with my assesments).  @ 11:31 AM 0 HC Alums are angry about this post | Bitch about it on the PL hoops messageboard

  AN UPDATE ON JARION CHILDS

Longtime PL blog readers will remember the tragic case of former AU standout guard Jarion Childs two years ago. Childs was killed under weird circumstances, shot in the back while allegedly robbing a Dairy Queen.

Now his mother is suing the guy that shot him. No commentary here as I don't know any of the facts of the case, other than that the whole thing is very sad.  @ 10:23 AM 1 HC Alums are angry about this post | Bitch about it on the PL hoops messageboard

  ED MC'G MAKES ME PROUD

Ed McLaughlin's, AU's former AD for External Affairs (and public face of the AU hoops program), got appointed as AD at Niagara University today. Ed has been great to Matt B for a good amount of time, and I wish him the best. Ed and I met first when I showed up at a Colgate game in Hamilton, where he was shocked that me and my jerk friends would actually drive all that way to see AU hoops. Since then he's been nothing but great to me.

He has been deserving of this kind of responsibility for some time, and NU now has another fan in the PL Hoops Blog. Good luck to Ed in all he does.  @ 11:50 PM 0 HC Alums are angry about this post | Bitch about it on the PL hoops messageboard

  THE GHOST OF DON DEVOE

"I don't think military schools are attractive to student-athletes in basketball."
- Don DeVoe, February 2004

HometownAnnapolis.com, Navy Sports - Men's basketball: Mids hope recruits can transform program  @ 4:41 PM 1 HC Alums are angry about this post | Bitch about it on the PL hoops messageboard

  WHY THE PATRIOT LEAGUE MUST EXIST SLASH THE SOLUTION TO THE NCAAS BS THAT NO ONE WILL TAKE SERIOUSLY BUT WHICH ULTIMATELY MUST COME TO PASS

From Thursday's Washington Post:Recruits From Dubious Prep Schools Allowed To Play Next Season

Quote:

"Yesterday's announcement was a major victory for Lutheran Christian Academy in Philadelphia. The Post reported in February that Lutheran Christian, which sent players to Georgetown and George Washington, was operated out of a community center, has no textbooks and has only one full-time employee, basketball coach Darryl Schofield, a former sanitation worker with no college degree."

Look, as far as the Joe Knight thing sucked and made Lehigh look like scumbags, it was worlds upon worlds away from the kind of thing that is going on in any major basketball program, and most mid-major basketball programs. It is no longer a stretch to say that more than half of college basketball programs are little less than minor league programs for professional basketball. And that's not just major conference programs, either.

Who's to blame? Not the coaches who get the best players they can at a minimum of academic needs. They're just trying to do their job as best they can within the rules. When the NCAA rules get broken, then you can get mad at the coaches who break them. But coaches are recruiting under the type of NCAA rules like those above, where there is no such thing as academic standards.

The only group that is at fault is the NCAA leadership that has traded in academic excellence for better ratings during March Madness.

And money (via ratings) is what this is all about anyway. NCAA tournament ratings haven't been great in the last few years, with last year's finals rating the second worst of all time compared to 2004's UConn-GTech matchup. Much of that can be attributed justly to matchups that not many people were interested in (GMU, pulling 3-4k mid season last year to home games, didn't exactly have a built in fanbase). But part of the equation is that NCAA teams nowadays are less talented on average than NCAA teams in the past.

Part of the reason for their deficiency is a thinning of the talent pool. Division I basketball has been slowly expanding for over a decade, with the numbers somewhere in the 330s at this point. When Longwood University starts to offer scholarships, you know that the available talent out there are not going to be Blue Chip prospects.

As the number of teams that offer scholarships continues to expand (and have no doubt, the fact that 7 or 8 [help here on the exact numbers is appreciated] Patriot League teams have converted to scholarships in the last half-decade is a real influence here), the number of 18 year olds who can 1. Play basketball at a D-I level and can also 2. Compose a complete sentence to the extent that they are academically qualified for such fine institutions as IUPUI becomes fairly shallow.



As the talent pool at the bottoms starts to barrel out, the talent pool at the top starts to suffer as well. Think of it as reverse Reaganomics: this is trickle-down suck. As the poor get poorer, so they suck down the talent at the top.

Sure, early exits to the NBA play a very major role as well. But there is a problem in that there are too damn many NCAA teams, and it's creating a dearth of talent. That leaves the NCAA with two options: either watch the level of play steadily decrease as the talent gets spread thinner every year, or increase the talent pool by allowing anyone to play college hoops, regardless of whether they can spell their name.

I AIN'T GONNA WORK ON MILES BRAND'S FARM NO MORE
You know who really wins out on this decision? The NBA and, to a lesser extent, the European leagues. Instead of having to take chances on 18 year old kids who may or may not pan out (see much of the MLB draft), they get to have colleges develop talent for them, and then evaluate players 3-4 years later, at no cost to them. Meanwhile, by creating low academic standards, the NCAA does a disservice to the 18 year old basketball phenom who is interested in basketball and not books. If there were higher standards, then these players would be shut out of the college system, making it neccessary for the pro leagues to step in and pay the kid to play if they think he has any talent. Instead, under the current system the kid is essentially an apprentice for a few years, stuck having to prove himself at the college level before he sees dime one for his talent. If he doesn't pan out, sure, he might end up with a college degree. But more and more often, the kids that go to the Cincinnatis and Farleigh Dickinsons of the world end up dropping out instead.

The lack of academic standards eventually sets these kids up for disaster at the college level: regardless of whether or not they are smart enough for college, they often just do not have the background academically to take college-level classes. You can't jump into microeconomics if you haven't taken social studies for the past 12 years in grade and high school. So, unsurprisingly, they often struggle, despite whatever tutors or other support systems the schools try to implement.

And let's not fool ourselves about who the people getting screwed here are: it's mostly black kids. From the Lapchick study of 2005's tourney teams:

"More than two out of five (25, or 42 percent) of the men’s tournament teams graduated 60 percent or more of their white basketball student-athletes, while fewer than one in five schools (12, or 19 percent) graduated 60 percent or more of their African-American basketball student athletes...Less than three in 10 (17, or 28 percent) of the men’s tournament teams graduated 70 percent or more of their white basketball student-athletes, while only 10 (16 percent) graduated 70 percent or more of their African-American basketball student-athletes."

And that's not all: "Lapchick continued, “Among all college sports, men’s basketball has the worst track record for graduation rates. When we look at all 328 Division I teams, 45 did not graduate a single African-American basketball student-athlete in six years. This is in a sport in which 58 percent of Division I male basketball student-athletes are African-American."

Now there are a million things to talk about when it comes to that study, (for instance, whether college basketball is taking more from black athletes than it is giving, and whether anyone in charge at the collegiate level gives a shit) all of which I would like to address in the future, but for now let's just focus on the fact that lowered academic entrance standards are unlikely to improve the graduation rates of college basketball players, which is particularly harmful for young black men. I find that bothersome, but you can be your own judge here. The point is, college athletics is hurting kids where it ought to be helping them.

HERE'S WHERE YOU START TO DISAGREE WITH ME

So what is the NCAA committee to do about academic concerns brought on by an increase in demand for basketball players where supply stays constant? They can't simply continue to allow every school in the country to sponsor D-I basketball while continuing to lower standards. There is a reason D-II and D-III exist-- to keep kids that are out of their league away from kids that are a level above them. At some point, you reach a critical mass where there are too many teams in D-I and you need to get rid of some programs. We have reached that point.

My solution? Let me offer you this thought: college basketball academic standards have become a joke, thus we need something that sounds like a joke to fix them.

The NCAA should eliminate one team from division I basketball every year, via a "loser leaves town" NCAA tournament. Every year, the 8 teams ranked lowest in RPI should all get together for a seeded tournament in which the loser gets dropped to D-II. Last year, this would have included North Florida, The Citadel, Jacksonville, UMaryland-ES, Army, Prairie View A+M, Morgan State, and Savannah State. Every team would play until it won, with the first team to lose 3 in a row eliminated from D-I for the next 10 years.

Imagine the drama that would be involved. If the NCAA really wants to make money, they would put this event together in a heartbeat. While no one wanted to see who would come in 2nd between Florida and LSU, everyone would want to see kids fighting for their programs continued existence, moreover for their scholarships to continue to exist. This is survivor meets Knight School meets the Super Bowl. Jim Boeheim and a number of other coaches want to expand the NCAA tourney, so why not this way?

Think about it Miles. And save me the "serving the student-athlete" crap. Ultimately, no student is served by being given the lesson that failure is without consequences. Let's get this thing rolling. Call my agent.

As the number of NCAA teams drops, so will the demand for talent, therefore allowing the NCAA to increase academic standards, as they are no longer desperate for any warm body that can shoot a 12 foot jumper.

Or, alternatively, you could just have a little integrity and force schools to actually have student-athletes who know how to do their times tables (or at the very least, how to operate a calculator). But that would hurt the product. Which would lose colleges money. Which is what this is all about.  @ 2:38 AM 0 HC Alums are angry about this post | Bitch about it on the PL hoops messageboard

  NERDS TAKING OVER NBA

Oh, you laughed at me when I posted points per pound, but check it out, the Rockets are
totally hiring other stat dorks. Perhaps NCAA teams will be next in line. I'm waiting for your call, Joni Comstock.  @ 1:22 PM 0 HC Alums are angry about this post | Bitch about it on the PL hoops messageboard