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Friday, December 02, 2005
Army, Navy in action tonight
Now that they found the Commander In Chief trophy hidden in a dorm broom closet, the Cadets and the Mids can turn their attention to hoops tonight, before shining the spotlight on their annual gridiron classic in Philly tomorrow.

Patriot League scoreboards
ESPN | CBS Sportsline | PennLive.com | Yahoo! | Mid-Majority.com


NAVY at Penn 5 p.m.: Now this is what we call smart and creative scheduling: a Navy basketball game in Philly on the eve of the Army-Navy football game. We are not so sure about the five o'clock start, but if the Mids can get a nice turnout of alums and Midshipmen to skip happy hour for hoops, then it might make the Palestra just a little friendlier for Navy.

That would be great, because Navy will need any help it can get against the 2-0 Quakers, who are picked to win the Ivy League.

From Penn's game notes:
To say that the Quakers have had success against Patriot League teams would be an understatement; in fact, they have won 19-straight games against the Patriots, with the last loss coming January 27, 1997 at Lafayette. Since the last time Penn played Navy, Dunphy’s teams have gone a combined 30-1 against the Patriot League
Adding to the challenge, the Mids will be without point guard Corey Johnson, who is out at least two games with a knee injury.

It will be interesting to see if Penn gets caught looking ahead to Saturday's Big 5 matchup with Temple.
Navy notes (pdf) | Navy notes | USA Today matchup | Gametracker | Navy radio

ARMY at Columbia 7 p.m.: We find out tonight if Army battling UConn was a sign of UConn taking the night off or Army being vastly improved. Undefeated Columbia (5-0) is no UConn, but as the record shows, they are certainly plenty of challenge for the Black Knights.

Of course as a foul-mouthed student columnist at the Columbia Spectator points out:
Then again, it's just five games into the season. The combined record of (Columbia's)opponents? A stunning 4-15. The talent pool they've been playing against? Let's just say if they played Oak Hill Academy, I wouldn't touch the line. They went wire-to-wire against some horrendous teams.
Look for 6-8 sophomore forward John Baumann to be a real matchup problem for Army. The Lions' leading scorer and co-leading rebounder averages 15.6 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. With Baumann and 6-9 center Nwachukwu (12.6 ppg, 7.8 rpg.), Columbia's frontcourt will be tough for undersized Army to handle.

As a team, Columbia is shooting better than 50 percent and holding opponents under 39 percent. That hot shooting is not all the big men inside close to the basket. The Lions shoot over 43 percent from the arc.
Army notes (pdf) | Columbia notes | USA Today matchup | Gametracker
Published at 3:19 PM by Hoop Time.
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