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Thursday, December 28, 2006
The short holiday break ends with five teams back in action tonight.
It is a schedule full of challenges, with the Patriot League teams likely to be considered underdogs in all five games.
If Holy Cross were healthy, that might not be the case. But with a depleted rotation, the Crusaders will have their hands full with LaSalle, the team they face in the first of a three-in-three days trip to LaSalle's Explorer Classic ().
We'll be there for our first look at HC, when they take on the Explorers (and for Friday's game with Niagara and Saturday's matchup with Delaware), who come in 6-3, with really only one impressive opponent on their schedule to date -- Villanova, which beat the Explorers at LaSalle in a Philadelphia Big Five matchup. LaSalle also lost at home to UMBC and on a neutral floor against Coppin State.
Young and inexperienced, prone to turnovers, LaSalle is the sort of team Holy Cross usually feasts upon when it is at full strength.
LaSalle is led by freshman forward Rodney Green, a 6-5 hometown Philly kid who is averaging 16 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. Green is all about the paint. He has only taken four threes all season and has yet to make one. Inside the arc, though, he is tough to stop, shooting 62.4 percent from the field.
Green is one of five freshmen in LaSalle's nine-man rotation. All five stand between 6-5 and 6-7, which is pretty much the case for the entire rotation, except 6-1 junior guard Darnell Harris, the Explorers' second leading scorer at 14.7 ppg, and 6-8 starter Mike St. John, the only senior in the rotation.
Freshman Sherman Diaz has been the team's defensive stopper. A 6-5 forward, Diaz leads the Explorers in blocks (15) and steals (11).
Colgate is also in a tournament tonight, taking on host Santa Clara () in the first round of the Cable Car Classic (). The are ranked No. 17 in the Mid Major Top 25. Waiting in the second round for the Raiders will be either 7-2 George Washington or 11-1 Air Force, which is in the Top 25 in both major polls (No. 23 AP, No. 17 ESPN-USA Today).
American takes on its second straight ACC foe when it meets 7-3 Virginia (). It's a homecoming of sorts for Jeff Jones, who played and coach at UVa. Jones' return to Charlottsville is the storyline in all the papers covering the Wahoos ( | | | | | ).
Army, which lost at Notre Dame last time out, faces another difficulty test at 11-2 Michigan () and
Hard to image saying this, but perhaps the weakest opponent for a league team tonight is Temple, which hosts Lafayette (). The Owls are 5-4 in their first season under former Penn coach Fran Dunphy. It is the 12th straight season Lafayette coach Fran O'Hanlon has faced off against his old boss' teams. The other 11, of course, were against Penn, which despite being an Ivy League power, was never as athletic as this Temple team. It will be a toigh task for the Leopards, who will be without Jamaal Hillard (stress fracture in a foot, out another 2-4 weeks) and 6-7 freshman Jesper Andersson (sprained ankle). Lafayette freshman forward Andre Hines is also questionable with a stomach virus. ( -- includes some HC notes)
It is a schedule full of challenges, with the Patriot League teams likely to be considered underdogs in all five games.
If Holy Cross were healthy, that might not be the case. But with a depleted rotation, the Crusaders will have their hands full with LaSalle, the team they face in the first of a three-in-three days trip to LaSalle's Explorer Classic ().
We'll be there for our first look at HC, when they take on the Explorers (and for Friday's game with Niagara and Saturday's matchup with Delaware), who come in 6-3, with really only one impressive opponent on their schedule to date -- Villanova, which beat the Explorers at LaSalle in a Philadelphia Big Five matchup. LaSalle also lost at home to UMBC and on a neutral floor against Coppin State.
Young and inexperienced, prone to turnovers, LaSalle is the sort of team Holy Cross usually feasts upon when it is at full strength.
LaSalle is led by freshman forward Rodney Green, a 6-5 hometown Philly kid who is averaging 16 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. Green is all about the paint. He has only taken four threes all season and has yet to make one. Inside the arc, though, he is tough to stop, shooting 62.4 percent from the field.
Green is one of five freshmen in LaSalle's nine-man rotation. All five stand between 6-5 and 6-7, which is pretty much the case for the entire rotation, except 6-1 junior guard Darnell Harris, the Explorers' second leading scorer at 14.7 ppg, and 6-8 starter Mike St. John, the only senior in the rotation.
Freshman Sherman Diaz has been the team's defensive stopper. A 6-5 forward, Diaz leads the Explorers in blocks (15) and steals (11).
Colgate is also in a tournament tonight, taking on host Santa Clara () in the first round of the Cable Car Classic (). The are ranked No. 17 in the Mid Major Top 25. Waiting in the second round for the Raiders will be either 7-2 George Washington or 11-1 Air Force, which is in the Top 25 in both major polls (No. 23 AP, No. 17 ESPN-USA Today).
American takes on its second straight ACC foe when it meets 7-3 Virginia (). It's a homecoming of sorts for Jeff Jones, who played and coach at UVa. Jones' return to Charlottsville is the storyline in all the papers covering the Wahoos ( | | | | | ).
Army, which lost at Notre Dame last time out, faces another difficulty test at 11-2 Michigan () and
Hard to image saying this, but perhaps the weakest opponent for a league team tonight is Temple, which hosts Lafayette (). The Owls are 5-4 in their first season under former Penn coach Fran Dunphy. It is the 12th straight season Lafayette coach Fran O'Hanlon has faced off against his old boss' teams. The other 11, of course, were against Penn, which despite being an Ivy League power, was never as athletic as this Temple team. It will be a toigh task for the Leopards, who will be without Jamaal Hillard (stress fracture in a foot, out another 2-4 weeks) and 6-7 freshman Jesper Andersson (sprained ankle). Lafayette freshman forward Andre Hines is also questionable with a stomach virus. ( -- includes some HC notes)
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