Co-Conspirators
• •
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Talk Hoops
• •
•
•
•
•
•
•
Official Sites
• •
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Friday, December 01, 2006
HOOP TIME NOTEBOOK
It was a popular theme at media day, a party line all eight coaches recited during their comments. "The league is stronger this year," they said
They were right. Heading into Navy's game tonight at Longwood, the Patriot League is a healthy 30-25 against out of conference competition. Five of the eight teams sport winning records, two have RPIs in the top 100. Right now, the Patriot League is the No. 14 conference in the RPI. That is even ahead of the Atlantic Ten.
Last season the Patriot League went a combined 40-58 out of conference, with an RPI of 21.
One big difference this season: Nobody in the league is +300 in the RPI. Only three teams (Colgate -- 267, Lafayette -- 265, and Lehigh -- 254) are even above 200. If Bucknell (195) can improve, and the rest hold their current spots in the top 120 (Army -- 120, American -- 116, Holy Cross -- 90 and Navy --77), the league's top teams ought to see much less negative RPI impact from conference play.
BACK TO BACK: With Bucknell set to play a rare back-to-back set with Northern Iowa and George Mason this weekend, we decided to do a little digging to see how the Bison have fared in back-to-back games over the years. The results are half-empty or half-full, depending on your point of view. That is to say, if form holds, Bucknell will knock off somebody pretty good this weekend. By the same logic, though, they will also lose to such a team.
The split has definitely been the norm over the years. Our quick check back through the years showed 23 times in the Pat Flannery era where the Bison played on successive dates. Fifteen of those occasions resulted in splits. Bucknell has swept three of those sets and lost both ends five times.
The last time Bucknell won games on back-to-back days was at the start of the 1999-2000 season when they won the Marist Pepsi Classic with wins over Maine and Marist. The last they lost both was the start of the 2001-02 season, when they dropped games to Central Connecticut and vermont at the Mohegan Sun Classic.
Might be worth noting that in all of those situations, both games were played the same place, not one in Lewisburg and one on the road in D.C. like they will be this weekend.
FIRE WHEN READY: Looking for keys to Navy's turnaround. Try their shooting. The Midshipmen are shooting 48.7 percent from the field, second best in the league. The Mids lead the league in free throw percentage (81.5 percent) and their average of 10.29 three-pointer per game also tops the Patriot League.
The Mids have made 166 baskets thus far; 72 have been threes. Threes are accounting for 43.1 percent of Navy's scoring, which makes them the ninth most dependent on the three team in the nation, according to stats guru , whose numbers we will have some fun with in future notebooks.
LEND A HAND: Another big plus for Navy has been its assists to turnover ratio, currently a league leading 1.04. The last time Navy finished a season with more assists than turnovers was the 1996-97 season.
Navy's 15.43 assists per game leads the league and the Mids have gone 9 straight games, dating to last season, without more than 20 turnovers in a game. That is the Midshipmen's longest such streak since they went 14 games without 20 turnovers during the 1998 season.
NEW YEAR: It has been quiet and under the radar, but Holy Cross sophomore center Greg mcCarthy is starting to emerge a little for the Crusaders. Last season, some speculated whether McCarthy would ever get off Ralph Willard's bench. The 6-11 McCarthy only played 15 minutes all season, finishing with 4 points and 1 rebound.
Through seven games, McCarthy has not been the second coming of Patrick Whearty, or even of Nate Lufkin. But he is contributing. McCarthy already has played 60 minutes, with 17 points and 6 rebounds to his credit.
LOTS OF EYES: The crowd that watched Holy Cross' loss at Syracuse on Wednesday was the biggest crowd to see a Crusaders regular season game since the school began keeping attendance records in 1982. A total of 19,235 were on hand in the Carrier Dome. That was the third-largest crowd HC has ever played in front of. The 6,612 on hand for their 2002 NCAA Tournament game with Kansas ranks No.1, followed by the Marquette game (20,960) in the following year's Big Dance.
CAUTIONARY TALE: A midst the intoxicating excitement of the unexpected fast starts teams like Army and Navy, a sobering
tale from the Army record books. Army's 5-2 start is the best at West Point since the 1994-95 team also started 5-2. A win at the Citadel Saturday would equal the 6-2 start of Army's 1978-79 team, coached by none other than Mike Krzyzewski.
The 94-95 start resulted in a 12-16 final record, 4-10, just ahead of last place Lafayette, in the Patriot League. Krzyzewski's team did a little better, finishing 14-11 in what would be Coach K's next to last season by the Hudson.
CONCENTRATION: Not hard to figure out where the ball is going in Army's offense. Through the first seven games, Jarrell Brown and Matt Bell have combined to score 235 of Army's 460 points (51.1 percent). At their current pace the duo will combine for 1,000 points this season.
Through the first seven, each has reached double figures six times. Brown, who leads the team with an 18.1 points per game average, has led the Black Knight's in scoring four time. Bell, who averages 15.4 ppg, has been top scorer for Army in the other three.
BALANCING ACT: If there is a team that is the antithesis to Army when it comes to scoring balance, it would be Bucknell, which has nobody averaging in double figures, but six guys averaging between 8.3 and 9.5 points per game. Chris McNaughton, the team's leading scorer, has tallied 57 points thus far. Donald Brown has 55. John Griffin, Abe Badmus and Jason Vegotsky each have 53 and Darren Mastropaolo has scored 50.
Each has led the team in scoring at least one game. Brown has done it in the past two. Rob Thomas shared the honors with Abe Badmus (16 points) against Wake Forest. Two others, Andrew Morrison and Justin Castleberry, have also recorded double figures games for the Bison.
BONUS LINKS: (Tom Housenick's column)
(brown and White)
It was a popular theme at media day, a party line all eight coaches recited during their comments. "The league is stronger this year," they said
They were right. Heading into Navy's game tonight at Longwood, the Patriot League is a healthy 30-25 against out of conference competition. Five of the eight teams sport winning records, two have RPIs in the top 100. Right now, the Patriot League is the No. 14 conference in the RPI. That is even ahead of the Atlantic Ten.
Last season the Patriot League went a combined 40-58 out of conference, with an RPI of 21.
One big difference this season: Nobody in the league is +300 in the RPI. Only three teams (Colgate -- 267, Lafayette -- 265, and Lehigh -- 254) are even above 200. If Bucknell (195) can improve, and the rest hold their current spots in the top 120 (Army -- 120, American -- 116, Holy Cross -- 90 and Navy --77), the league's top teams ought to see much less negative RPI impact from conference play.
BACK TO BACK: With Bucknell set to play a rare back-to-back set with Northern Iowa and George Mason this weekend, we decided to do a little digging to see how the Bison have fared in back-to-back games over the years. The results are half-empty or half-full, depending on your point of view. That is to say, if form holds, Bucknell will knock off somebody pretty good this weekend. By the same logic, though, they will also lose to such a team.
The split has definitely been the norm over the years. Our quick check back through the years showed 23 times in the Pat Flannery era where the Bison played on successive dates. Fifteen of those occasions resulted in splits. Bucknell has swept three of those sets and lost both ends five times.
The last time Bucknell won games on back-to-back days was at the start of the 1999-2000 season when they won the Marist Pepsi Classic with wins over Maine and Marist. The last they lost both was the start of the 2001-02 season, when they dropped games to Central Connecticut and vermont at the Mohegan Sun Classic.
Might be worth noting that in all of those situations, both games were played the same place, not one in Lewisburg and one on the road in D.C. like they will be this weekend.
FIRE WHEN READY: Looking for keys to Navy's turnaround. Try their shooting. The Midshipmen are shooting 48.7 percent from the field, second best in the league. The Mids lead the league in free throw percentage (81.5 percent) and their average of 10.29 three-pointer per game also tops the Patriot League.
The Mids have made 166 baskets thus far; 72 have been threes. Threes are accounting for 43.1 percent of Navy's scoring, which makes them the ninth most dependent on the three team in the nation, according to stats guru , whose numbers we will have some fun with in future notebooks.
LEND A HAND: Another big plus for Navy has been its assists to turnover ratio, currently a league leading 1.04. The last time Navy finished a season with more assists than turnovers was the 1996-97 season.
Navy's 15.43 assists per game leads the league and the Mids have gone 9 straight games, dating to last season, without more than 20 turnovers in a game. That is the Midshipmen's longest such streak since they went 14 games without 20 turnovers during the 1998 season.
NEW YEAR: It has been quiet and under the radar, but Holy Cross sophomore center Greg mcCarthy is starting to emerge a little for the Crusaders. Last season, some speculated whether McCarthy would ever get off Ralph Willard's bench. The 6-11 McCarthy only played 15 minutes all season, finishing with 4 points and 1 rebound.
Through seven games, McCarthy has not been the second coming of Patrick Whearty, or even of Nate Lufkin. But he is contributing. McCarthy already has played 60 minutes, with 17 points and 6 rebounds to his credit.
LOTS OF EYES: The crowd that watched Holy Cross' loss at Syracuse on Wednesday was the biggest crowd to see a Crusaders regular season game since the school began keeping attendance records in 1982. A total of 19,235 were on hand in the Carrier Dome. That was the third-largest crowd HC has ever played in front of. The 6,612 on hand for their 2002 NCAA Tournament game with Kansas ranks No.1, followed by the Marquette game (20,960) in the following year's Big Dance.
CAUTIONARY TALE: A midst the intoxicating excitement of the unexpected fast starts teams like Army and Navy, a sobering
tale from the Army record books. Army's 5-2 start is the best at West Point since the 1994-95 team also started 5-2. A win at the Citadel Saturday would equal the 6-2 start of Army's 1978-79 team, coached by none other than Mike Krzyzewski.
The 94-95 start resulted in a 12-16 final record, 4-10, just ahead of last place Lafayette, in the Patriot League. Krzyzewski's team did a little better, finishing 14-11 in what would be Coach K's next to last season by the Hudson.
CONCENTRATION: Not hard to figure out where the ball is going in Army's offense. Through the first seven games, Jarrell Brown and Matt Bell have combined to score 235 of Army's 460 points (51.1 percent). At their current pace the duo will combine for 1,000 points this season.
Through the first seven, each has reached double figures six times. Brown, who leads the team with an 18.1 points per game average, has led the Black Knight's in scoring four time. Bell, who averages 15.4 ppg, has been top scorer for Army in the other three.
BALANCING ACT: If there is a team that is the antithesis to Army when it comes to scoring balance, it would be Bucknell, which has nobody averaging in double figures, but six guys averaging between 8.3 and 9.5 points per game. Chris McNaughton, the team's leading scorer, has tallied 57 points thus far. Donald Brown has 55. John Griffin, Abe Badmus and Jason Vegotsky each have 53 and Darren Mastropaolo has scored 50.
Each has led the team in scoring at least one game. Brown has done it in the past two. Rob Thomas shared the honors with Abe Badmus (16 points) against Wake Forest. Two others, Andrew Morrison and Justin Castleberry, have also recorded double figures games for the Bison.
BONUS LINKS:
Help Hoop Time
Recent Items
• Patriot teams sweep 5• Busy Wednesday night ahead
• Academies roll; 'Pards fall short
• Quickie preview
• Guibunda gives AU a lift
• Lehigh, HC fall to big boys, Colgate wins
• AU - MSM gameblog
• 'Saders' road test tops 4-game schedule
• HC, Army win; rest struggle
• Bison get first win
Archive
• • November 2005
• December 2005
• January 2006
• February 2006
• March 2006
• April 2006
• May 2006
• June 2006
• July 2006
• August 2006
• September 2006
• October 2006
• November 2006
• December 2006
• January 2007
• February 2007
• March 2007
• April 2007
• May 2007
• June 2007
• July 2007
• August 2007
• September 2007
• October 2007
• November 2007
Feeds
©2006 Hoop Time. All rights reserved.