Sunday, January 16, 2005
WHO AM I AND WHY AM I HERE: PONDERING EXISTENCE AND BASKETBALL IDENTITY
The four games this Saturday were an extension of the Patriot League season as a whole this year; a continual effort for teams to find their identity.
Is AU a three point shooting, tough defense squad? Or are they a team that can play off the dribble, with four legitimate big men off the bench to provide rebounding? Linas Lekavicius' development will decide that.
Is Holy Cross a guard centered, or post centered offense this year? Their offense (and defense for that matter) has always rotated around the 4 and 5 players, but they don't neccessarily have those parts this year.
Who is the leader of Lehigh? Is Joe Knight the new Austen Rowland? He seems up some nights (see 25 pts against Navy Saturday) and down others. Can Jose Olivero fill that gap?
And for the love of God, what in the hell is going on over at Army?
I don't have any answers to those questions, but it's going to be fun to see how they play out.
WEAK WEEKEND
All the games on Saturday turned out as expected: with the top four teams (AU HC BU and LU) beating the other four teams. But the games were actually made interesting. Bucknell only led by two at the half, as Army's defense actually decided to play. AU, HC, and LU all needed heroics in the last minutes to win their contests.
The most dramatic game was AU/Lafayette, where Andre Ingram hit an off-balance jumper with .4 seconds to go to win the game. This game never should have gotten to that point, with AU's previously discussed crappy press break (see below) causing serious problems in the last minute. Linas Lekavicius played a great game, but again, he's a liability in the last few minutes with his poor free throws. Otherwise, he was magnificent, making me think that my optimism about his abilities weren't completely out of line.
Other notes from AU/LC:
- Sean Knitter was subbed out on defense every time the clock stopped in the last five minutes. The guy runs like a girl, and has the speed of a crippled skunk. He is a great spot shooter, but not a ballplayer. That's why he's coming off the bench, rather than starting.
- George Mirsean (sp?) of My Giant fame (man Billy Crystal made some shitty movies) was in attendance, impressive because I'm pretty sure he was in his regular seat at the Wizards game later that night. George is a true hoops fan.
- According to some, a Lafayette player flipped the AU crowd the bird at some point.
- They probably deserved it, as the AU crowd is the meanest group of fans outside of Veterans Stadium. At one point I think they were chanting "you are ugly" at some guy.
- There was a good crowd in attendance at the game, and they gave out pizza and tshirts to the student sections. The tshirts are by far the best free swag I've gotten from AU, as previous shirts were pretty lame ("I Helped Phil Bender" being the worst").
That's all for today. Happy MLK day. @ 8:32 PM
The four games this Saturday were an extension of the Patriot League season as a whole this year; a continual effort for teams to find their identity.
Is AU a three point shooting, tough defense squad? Or are they a team that can play off the dribble, with four legitimate big men off the bench to provide rebounding? Linas Lekavicius' development will decide that.
Is Holy Cross a guard centered, or post centered offense this year? Their offense (and defense for that matter) has always rotated around the 4 and 5 players, but they don't neccessarily have those parts this year.
Who is the leader of Lehigh? Is Joe Knight the new Austen Rowland? He seems up some nights (see 25 pts against Navy Saturday) and down others. Can Jose Olivero fill that gap?
And for the love of God, what in the hell is going on over at Army?
I don't have any answers to those questions, but it's going to be fun to see how they play out.
WEAK WEEKEND
All the games on Saturday turned out as expected: with the top four teams (AU HC BU and LU) beating the other four teams. But the games were actually made interesting. Bucknell only led by two at the half, as Army's defense actually decided to play. AU, HC, and LU all needed heroics in the last minutes to win their contests.
The most dramatic game was AU/Lafayette, where Andre Ingram hit an off-balance jumper with .4 seconds to go to win the game. This game never should have gotten to that point, with AU's previously discussed crappy press break (see below) causing serious problems in the last minute. Linas Lekavicius played a great game, but again, he's a liability in the last few minutes with his poor free throws. Otherwise, he was magnificent, making me think that my optimism about his abilities weren't completely out of line.
Other notes from AU/LC:
- Sean Knitter was subbed out on defense every time the clock stopped in the last five minutes. The guy runs like a girl, and has the speed of a crippled skunk. He is a great spot shooter, but not a ballplayer. That's why he's coming off the bench, rather than starting.
- George Mirsean (sp?) of My Giant fame (man Billy Crystal made some shitty movies) was in attendance, impressive because I'm pretty sure he was in his regular seat at the Wizards game later that night. George is a true hoops fan.
- According to some, a Lafayette player flipped the AU crowd the bird at some point.
- They probably deserved it, as the AU crowd is the meanest group of fans outside of Veterans Stadium. At one point I think they were chanting "you are ugly" at some guy.
- There was a good crowd in attendance at the game, and they gave out pizza and tshirts to the student sections. The tshirts are by far the best free swag I've gotten from AU, as previous shirts were pretty lame ("I Helped Phil Bender" being the worst").
That's all for today. Happy MLK day. @ 8:32 PM
