OOC WRAPUP AND LEAGUE PLAY PREVIEW

With out of conference play nearly wrapped up (there are a few remaining games that will go into league play-- note Bucknell inexplicably playing Villanova Feb. 15), it's time to take a look at what we know so far and what each team has to look forward to getting into league play.

TOP FIVE
Here's the top five stories so far, as I see it:

1. Bucknell is the most formidable team going into league play that the PL has ever seen.

The Bison are on a tear, with six straight victories, including defeats of good teams like Niagara and Pittsburgh, a consistent A10 contender in St. Joes, and three teams they ought to beat, Yale, Robert Morris, and Cornell. (On a side note, schools named after people always bother me. George Washington, Johns Hopkins, James Madison.. they all sound silly. No one person knew enough for an worth entire institute of learning) BU has only one "bad" loss, a five point home defeat by St. Francis PA, the less crappy of the St. Franciseses. The Bison are for real.

2. Joe Knight ain't quite Austen Rowland yet

Lehigh has struggled to a 5-7 record (no, beating a DIII team doesn't count as a win), with their only victories coming over some of the worst teams in the country. Losses to Stony Brook, LIU, Columbia, Harvard, and Cornell indicate that there may not be a Lehigh dynasty in the making. Moreover, Joe Knight has not performed at the level many expected him to, with only 11.5 ppg, good for only 14th in the league. I'm not ready to discount the reigning champs just yet, but things aren't looking good on Mountain Hawk Hill.

3. The academies still suck

No nice way to say it, but Navy (3-8) and Army (0-9) are just plain lousy. Jim Crews better win both the games against Navy this year, or he may be out of the picture sooner rather than later. Not a lot of programs are going to put up with a winless season, and I don't see how Army is going to avoid it. FREE MATT BELL.

4. Lafayette is beginning a slow march to the bottom

Being non-scholarship, combined with a lack of anyone who can play defense, is killing the Leopards, and things aren't going to get much better when league play starts. They're 3-8 on the season, in stark contrast to their excellent performance out of conference last year and their clean sweep in the first half of league play.

5. The Cross Consistent

Holy Cross has won the games it should, and won one it shouldn't have. While they dropped contests when they were the underdog (Princeton, BC, Vermont, Minnesota), they won the contests they were supposed to (Harvard, Marist, Brown, etc). They also beat 8-3 Boston University, a tossup contest. That kind of performance bodes well for HC going into league play, where competition gets more intense, and it's easy to lose focus and get beaten by an Army or Lafayette when you shouldn't. If HC can continue to win the games they should, then they'll end up with no less than a three seed in the conference tournament, and may end up even better than that.

TEAM OOC RECAPS

American
6-4, RPI 118
Averaging 65 ppg, Giving up 66 ppg

• BEST WIN: Beat Vermont at home (RPI 42)
  
• WORST LOSS: Lost to LaSalle at home (RPI 188)
  
• THE GOOD NEWS: Andre Ingram continues to produce offensively, while Linas Lekavicius looks much better than he did early in the season. Can go four deep in the post, and surprising (although erratic) offensive output from Jason Thomas a welcome surprise.
  
• THE BAD NEWS: Lekavicius still looks like an underclassman at times, and when AU can't hit their three pointers, things get ugly. Same is true of teams they face- they can play excellent zone defense to limit post scoring (see Vermont) but when their opponent starts hitting outside jumpers, that defense becomes less valuable.
  
• PREDICTION I WILL COME TO REGRET:AU finishes league play with a 10-4 record, good enough for a #2 seed. Lekavicius finishes with the most assists/game and a assist/turnover ratio over 1.8.

Army
0-9, RPI 330
Averaging 59 ppg, Giving up 67 ppg

• BEST WIN: uh...
  
• WORST LOSS: At home, to Sacred Heart, SH's only victory thus far
  
• THE GOOD NEWS: Matt Bell is a diamond in the rough, second in the league in scoring, second in 3 point shooting %. He is also the reciepient of an awesome first name and last initial.
  
• THE BAD NEWS: They're really, really bad and may go winless on the season
  
• PREDICTION I WILL COME TO REGRET: Army will pull out at least one win, probably over Navy, and maybe one against Lafayette.

Bucknell
9-4, RPI 71
Averaging 63 ppg, Giving up 59 ppg

• BEST WIN: At Pitt (RPI 69 after the loss)
  
• WORST LOSS: vs. St. Francis PA (inflated RPI of 62) at home
  
• THE GOOD NEWS: Won the biggest game in school and league history. McNaughton dominant, Lee and Bettencourt sharpshooters.
  
• THE BAD NEWS: Won't matter if they don't win league tournament
  
• PREDICTION I WILL COME TO REGRET: McNaughton ends up with player of the year award, Flannery gets coach of year, but BU upended by whoever they face in the final game of the tournament

Colgate
2-8, RPI 285
Averaging 69 ppg, Giving up 71 ppg

• BEST WIN: At FAU (RPI 258)
  
• WORST LOSS: Either CCSU or Cal-Fullerton
  
• THE GOOD NEWS: Andrew Zidar and Jon Simon can score
  
• THE BAD NEWS: Choneses are gone, fans don't care, and they have to live in Hamilton, NY
  
• PREDICTION I WILL COME TO REGRET:They finish somewhere in the middle of the pack, at 6-8 or 7-7, and exit in the first round of the tourney. CU will not have a crowd larger than 500 this year.

Holy Cross
7-4, RPI 37
Averaging 63 ppg, Giving up 58 ppg

• BEST WIN: at Boston University (RPI 80)
  
• WORST LOSS: by 16 to Minnesota
  
• THE GOOD NEWS: Won games they should have won, good defense will keep them in any game they play. Kevin Hamilton and Keith Simmons are puting up points.
  
• THE BAD NEWS: Lack of legitimate post scoring threat (a staple of previous championship teams) may come back to haunt them.
  
• PREDICTION I WILL COME TO REGRET:HC ends up with the 3 seed in the tournament with a 9-5 record. Eliminated in 2nd round. HC fans rue the curse of Neil Fingleton.

Lafayette
3-8, RPI 240
Averaging 68 ppg, Giving up 75 ppg

• BEST WIN: vs Columbia (RPI 171) at home
  
• WORST LOSS: at Cornell, a team I totally overrated (RPI 304)
  
• THE GOOD NEWS: Jamal Douglas is hitting the boards like a beast, averaging 7+ rebounds per game.
  
• THE BAD NEWS: They can't shoot, and they can't play defense. They've got a terrible FG% (40%) and they give up a ton of points.
  
• PREDICTION I WILL COME TO REGRET: They finish sixth, but beat a couple of good teams while doing so. First round exit.

Lehigh
5-7, RPI 270
Averaging 59 ppg, Giving up 59 ppg

• BEST WIN: at home vs. Albany (RPI 235)
  
• WORST LOSS: at home vs. Cornell (RPI 305)
  
• THE GOOD NEWS: Jose Olivero is good and is going to be great.
  
• THE BAD NEWS: Joe Knight and Jason Mbegroff disappointments thus far in the season. Lehigh scheduled a bunch of softball games and then promptly lost half of them. Not performing as one would expect a league champ to.
  
• PREDICTION I WILL COME TO REGRET:Finish fourth in the league, with a 7-7 record, leave tournament early. Olivero averages 18 ppg in league play.

Navy
3-7, RPI 307
Averaging 70 ppg, Giving up 77 ppg

• BEST WIN: At home vs Morgan State (RPI 308)
  
• WORST LOSS: At home vs DIII Gettysburg (wow that's bad)
  
• THE GOOD NEWS: They beat 3 divison I teams, and are scoring lots of points. Hooper and Mergerson playing well. New coach's uptempo style will win them a few games.
  
• THE BAD NEWS: They lost to Gettysburg, a tough reminder of where they stand in the scheme of things.
  
• PREDICTION I WILL COME TO REGRET: They'll definitely be the 7th place finisher, but not without beating a Lehigh or Lafayette somewhere along the way.

Stay tuned for your all-conference out of conference team (read it again, I swear that makes sense) and my predictions on this weekend's opening matchups. Probably tomorrow or Friday.  @ 5:18 PM