Patriot League Pains

Okay, I can deal with Lehigh losing to LIU. I can even understand LC beating an A-10 team.

But Bucknell losing to St. Francis PA? That just doesnt make any damn sense. The NEC should not be beating Patriot League teams. Ever.

And yet:

Sacred Heart 67, at Army 52
St. Francis (PA) 70, at Bucknell 65
at Long Island-Brooklyn 66, Lehigh 56
at Central Connecticut State 87, Colgate 70

These aren't even the GOOD teams in the NEC. Hell, St. Francis PA isn't even the best team named St. Francis in their conference!

I guess that's why they play the games. On tonight's docket in league play:

Wagner at American: AU attempts to get its first victory, and score a blow for the PL against the NEC. Okay, really they only care about their first victory, but man, it would be nice to show that there IS a conference below the PL. Wagner is a very young team, with a very balanced attack (this is a nice way of saying no one is spectacular on their team). Hopefully AU can get a W.


Holy Cross at Hahvaad: The Crimson were not very good last year. They might be decent this year, but the Cross have already vanquished a much more impressive local foe in Boston University. They should be able to win this one as well, barring some crazyness or freshman heroics. This is the first PL/Ivy contest, and the PL ought to win the series since all the lousy Ivy schools play PL teams, while Penn and Princeton only play one or two.

The third game involves a rivalry between two teams in an area of the world I would never live in. Upstate NY nerds Colgate and Cornell will battle amidst blistering cold and a crowd of dozens in Hamilton. Cornell is coming off a pair of tough losses, and I think they should be able to regroup and beat a Colgate squad that needs someone, anyone, to step up. Without the Choneses, who knows what they will do.

Lafayette takes on St. Peters. St. Peter's mascot is a peacock. Am I supposed to take that seriously? Nonetheless, they're a decent MAAC squad that should keep Lafayette on their heels. If LC wins this one, we will have to start considering them a real threat to make a run during the tournament. Certain people have shrugged them off as "losers" for not going scholarship, but if they end up decent, those people will look pretty dumb.

Finally, Navy takes on their new head coach's former employer, the Merchant Marine Academy. What is a Merchant Marine, you ask? Frankly, I have no idea. All I know is that my uncle the Marine doesn't have nice words for them when I brought it up. This guy is in charge there. Navy is going to be facing a team smaller than it for once, and will win this battle of the aquatic related education centers.

Tomorrow, Army is going to lose at Stony Brook and Lehigh is going to beat Sacred Heart. Not a lot more to say about those games.

By the way, the Patriot League player of the week (according to the league office) was Kevin Bettencourt but anyone paying attention knows that Andre Ingram was clearly better last week. The problem is that AU apparently doesn't nominate its players for weekly awards. No one probably notices, but I mention it anyway because it bugs me.  @ 1:52 PM