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Sunday, January 14, 2007
Win over Lehigh gives cadets something to cheer
By CHRIS A. COUROGEN
There are reasons why Army plays its home games in front of crowds that average under 600 per game.
Put West Point into the destination field on Mapquest and unless your starting point is Highland Falls, N.Y., the directions that pop up say "Can't get there from here."
It's a beautiful place, filled with impressive old granite buildings, perched on a cliff above the Hudson River valley. But getting there from the outside world requires a perilous trek over Bear Mountain. Thank God we're having a mild winter. The first hint of snow -- even flurries -- would be enough to make any rational person turn back.
Army beat writer Ken MicMillan of the Times Herald-Record says Army needs to do a better job marketing the team.
A good first step would be finding an arena reachable without the aid of sherpas and playing home games there. A stop-gap measure might be at least placing a sign or two on campus with an arrow pointing towards Christl Arena.
Christl itself is a nice enough building. Although it shares a lot of the raw, industrial warehouse traits of Lehigh's Stabler Arena, the steeper slope of the empty seats makes it seem more intimate; the bright yellow paint on the huge ventilation tubes in the ceiling make it seem brighter.
The cement block and concrete design of the place gives it the acoustical ambience of a construction site. It is not the place you want to see a concert, but if they could fill the place even halfway full, it would be a loud, intimidating place for opposing teams to vist.
But they don't fill it half full. Matter of fact, the Black Knights don't even draw half that. The place holds over 5,000. Army's average crowd is a little over 500.
Of course prior to this season, there hasn't exactly been a lot to give fans a reason to make the trip. Just look at the banners, or lack thereof, hanging in Christl. There are five, total -- just one for a championship, and that is for last year's women's team. The two on the men's end of the floor tout ECAC regional appearances in the 1970s and NIT invites, only two of which came more recent than the Summer of Love, none since 1978.
The crowd for Saturday's Lehigh game was a little bigger than usual. It wasn't at the tip, but about seven minutes in a bunch of cadets filed in , filling most of the small bleachers behind each basket. A cadet with a clipboard under his arm and a lot of stripes on that arm explained they were late because they had to go through inspection. The ones who are here are on "hours," he explained. It's a disciplinary thing.
At halftime I asked another cadet what he did to get in trouble.
"I missed a class sir," he replied.
He chuckled when I asked if missing two classes meant having to stay for the women's game.
Actually, those misbehaved cadets did stay for the women's game. Matter of fact, they seem more fired up for that one than the men's game. From Army's first basket they are jumping around, acting excited, making noise. Maybe it's the byproduct of the Army men's 64-59 win over Lehigh in the first game of the men's-women's double-dip.
After all, despite their polite demeanor when they first filed in, by the end of the game they had been whipped into a frenzy by the Black Knights' first Patriot League win over a team not named Navy since 2004. It was Army's first league win at home in over two seasons and snapped an 11-game league losing streak.
Maybe all that enthusiasm for the women's game was the product of the way the Black Knights managed to hang tough down the stretch, making enough big defensive plays to overcome missing 6 of 14 free throws in the final 2:20. Actually, the excitement that was lacking most of the game -- even though Army took the lead for good with 8:42 to go in the first half -- really started to build when Mashall Jackson and Jarrell Brown hit back to back three-pointers after Lehigh cut the Army lead to 48-45 late in the game.
"Marshall made some big plays. Jarrell did. We had a whole slew of guys make big plays," said Army coach Jim Crews.
That is the difference between this Army team, which improved to 11-7 overall, 2-1 in the league, and the Army teams in Crews' first four seasons that never won more than six games.
"The previous years, we didn't have an all around team," said Brown, who led all scorers with 18 points. "We weren't balanced."
The arrival of 6-8 freshman center Chris Walker was a big part of that. Walker, who starts and shares time with 6-7 sophomore Doug Williams, gives Army a presence in the post that 6-11 senior Jimmy Sewell never managed to provide in three seasons of declining playing time.
Walker only scored 2 points and missed some bunnies he'd love to have back. But after being in foul trouble in Army's first two league games -- an overtime loss at Colgate and a loss at Holy Cross -- Walker managed to stay on the floor against Lehigh, picking up just one foul. Walker spent most of his 25 minutes setting screen after bone-jarring screen, helping free Army's perimeter folks, who took advantage by knocking down 9 of 16 three-pointers. Walker also helped set the tone on the offensive glass, pulling down three of Army's 15 offensive rebounds.
"That was the number one thing on my list -- play fundamental defense and don't do anything stupid," Walker said.
Those offensive boards were huge since the Black Knights needed every shot they could get. Army only shot 17 for 55 (30.9 percent) from the field. But between the offensive rebounding and 22 Lehigh turnovers -- including 17 steals, the most by an Army team in at least two seasons -- Army had enough extra possessions to overcome that cold shooting. It didn't hurt that Army hit nine treys (on 16 tries). The 32 trips to the foul line (21 made) didn't hurt either.
Army's balance extended beyond Walker's presence in the paint. Everybody knows brown and Matt Bell (11 points) are going to score for the Black Knights. Lehigh probably did not expect the offense generated by seniors Jackson and Cory Sinning. Sinning, who has averaged less than 5 points per game over the course of his career and less than 3 per game this season, had three of Army's nine treys, finishing with a season-high 11 points.
Sinning has shown the ability to score before. Twice in his career he has posted 20 point games. Jackson's four three-pointers and 14-points -- both career highs -- came out of the blue. Jackson not only has barely been a 30 percent shooter for his career, but he'd only taken two three-pointers all season.
Toss in a team defensive effort that held Jose Olivero to a 2 for 6, 7-point afternoon and you have the makings of the Mountain Hawks first loss in league play and their first on-court loss to Army since 2002. Marquis Hall had an impressive -- 8 for 9, career-best 21-points -- showing to keep Lehigh in the game and Phil Anderson added a career-high 14, including a pair of step-out threes. But the crowd, swelled to 1,295 -- more than double Army's average -- by the punishment detail still went home happy.
Army stays home for its next two, hosting American Wednesday and archrival Navy next Sunday. It seems strange to type this -- but the matchups with American look pretty good for the Black Knights, especially if Walker can stay out of foul trouble. Win that one and put on a decent show for what should be a big crowd of cadets for the Navy game, and who knows what might happen.
West Point is starved for a winner. The PL women's hoops title last season was the biggest thing to happen to the old fortress above the Hudson since the football team went to the Poulan Weedeater Bowl in 1996. Aside from the women beating Holy Cross in that league championship game, the last time Army won anything of significance in a major sport was the 1985 Peach Bowl.
A winning hoops team might just start drawing decent crowds. There is not much else for the students to do and global warming has helped keep the mountain trails that lead to West Point passable. They used to say Army would win in hoops when hell freezes over. Maybe what they really meant was when Bear Mountain thaws.
Is Army ready to challenge for the league title? Let's not get carried away. One step at a time, as the saying goes. Lehigh has had trouble on the road all season and the Mountain Hawks played without senior center Jason Mgebroff, who would have been an entirely different matchup for Walker than Anderson of any of the two others (John Gourlay and Zahir Carrington) Billy Taylor played in the post.
Still for a team that has gone through the amount of losing Army has the past four seasons, knocking off Lehigh was a pretty big step.
Box score | Postgame audio (with Jim Crews, Jarell Brown, Marshall Jackson, Chris Walker and Lehigh guard Jose Olivero) | Times Herald-Record
By CHRIS A. COUROGEN
There are reasons why Army plays its home games in front of crowds that average under 600 per game.
Put West Point into the destination field on Mapquest and unless your starting point is Highland Falls, N.Y., the directions that pop up say "Can't get there from here."
It's a beautiful place, filled with impressive old granite buildings, perched on a cliff above the Hudson River valley. But getting there from the outside world requires a perilous trek over Bear Mountain. Thank God we're having a mild winter. The first hint of snow -- even flurries -- would be enough to make any rational person turn back.
Army beat writer Ken MicMillan of the Times Herald-Record says Army needs to do a better job marketing the team.
A good first step would be finding an arena reachable without the aid of sherpas and playing home games there. A stop-gap measure might be at least placing a sign or two on campus with an arrow pointing towards Christl Arena.
Christl itself is a nice enough building. Although it shares a lot of the raw, industrial warehouse traits of Lehigh's Stabler Arena, the steeper slope of the empty seats makes it seem more intimate; the bright yellow paint on the huge ventilation tubes in the ceiling make it seem brighter.
The cement block and concrete design of the place gives it the acoustical ambience of a construction site. It is not the place you want to see a concert, but if they could fill the place even halfway full, it would be a loud, intimidating place for opposing teams to vist.
But they don't fill it half full. Matter of fact, the Black Knights don't even draw half that. The place holds over 5,000. Army's average crowd is a little over 500.
Of course prior to this season, there hasn't exactly been a lot to give fans a reason to make the trip. Just look at the banners, or lack thereof, hanging in Christl. There are five, total -- just one for a championship, and that is for last year's women's team. The two on the men's end of the floor tout ECAC regional appearances in the 1970s and NIT invites, only two of which came more recent than the Summer of Love, none since 1978.
The crowd for Saturday's Lehigh game was a little bigger than usual. It wasn't at the tip, but about seven minutes in a bunch of cadets filed in , filling most of the small bleachers behind each basket. A cadet with a clipboard under his arm and a lot of stripes on that arm explained they were late because they had to go through inspection. The ones who are here are on "hours," he explained. It's a disciplinary thing.
At halftime I asked another cadet what he did to get in trouble.
"I missed a class sir," he replied.
He chuckled when I asked if missing two classes meant having to stay for the women's game.
Actually, those misbehaved cadets did stay for the women's game. Matter of fact, they seem more fired up for that one than the men's game. From Army's first basket they are jumping around, acting excited, making noise. Maybe it's the byproduct of the Army men's 64-59 win over Lehigh in the first game of the men's-women's double-dip.
After all, despite their polite demeanor when they first filed in, by the end of the game they had been whipped into a frenzy by the Black Knights' first Patriot League win over a team not named Navy since 2004. It was Army's first league win at home in over two seasons and snapped an 11-game league losing streak.
Maybe all that enthusiasm for the women's game was the product of the way the Black Knights managed to hang tough down the stretch, making enough big defensive plays to overcome missing 6 of 14 free throws in the final 2:20. Actually, the excitement that was lacking most of the game -- even though Army took the lead for good with 8:42 to go in the first half -- really started to build when Mashall Jackson and Jarrell Brown hit back to back three-pointers after Lehigh cut the Army lead to 48-45 late in the game.
"Marshall made some big plays. Jarrell did. We had a whole slew of guys make big plays," said Army coach Jim Crews.
That is the difference between this Army team, which improved to 11-7 overall, 2-1 in the league, and the Army teams in Crews' first four seasons that never won more than six games.
"The previous years, we didn't have an all around team," said Brown, who led all scorers with 18 points. "We weren't balanced."
The arrival of 6-8 freshman center Chris Walker was a big part of that. Walker, who starts and shares time with 6-7 sophomore Doug Williams, gives Army a presence in the post that 6-11 senior Jimmy Sewell never managed to provide in three seasons of declining playing time.
Walker only scored 2 points and missed some bunnies he'd love to have back. But after being in foul trouble in Army's first two league games -- an overtime loss at Colgate and a loss at Holy Cross -- Walker managed to stay on the floor against Lehigh, picking up just one foul. Walker spent most of his 25 minutes setting screen after bone-jarring screen, helping free Army's perimeter folks, who took advantage by knocking down 9 of 16 three-pointers. Walker also helped set the tone on the offensive glass, pulling down three of Army's 15 offensive rebounds.
"That was the number one thing on my list -- play fundamental defense and don't do anything stupid," Walker said.
Those offensive boards were huge since the Black Knights needed every shot they could get. Army only shot 17 for 55 (30.9 percent) from the field. But between the offensive rebounding and 22 Lehigh turnovers -- including 17 steals, the most by an Army team in at least two seasons -- Army had enough extra possessions to overcome that cold shooting. It didn't hurt that Army hit nine treys (on 16 tries). The 32 trips to the foul line (21 made) didn't hurt either.
Army's balance extended beyond Walker's presence in the paint. Everybody knows brown and Matt Bell (11 points) are going to score for the Black Knights. Lehigh probably did not expect the offense generated by seniors Jackson and Cory Sinning. Sinning, who has averaged less than 5 points per game over the course of his career and less than 3 per game this season, had three of Army's nine treys, finishing with a season-high 11 points.
Sinning has shown the ability to score before. Twice in his career he has posted 20 point games. Jackson's four three-pointers and 14-points -- both career highs -- came out of the blue. Jackson not only has barely been a 30 percent shooter for his career, but he'd only taken two three-pointers all season.
Toss in a team defensive effort that held Jose Olivero to a 2 for 6, 7-point afternoon and you have the makings of the Mountain Hawks first loss in league play and their first on-court loss to Army since 2002. Marquis Hall had an impressive -- 8 for 9, career-best 21-points -- showing to keep Lehigh in the game and Phil Anderson added a career-high 14, including a pair of step-out threes. But the crowd, swelled to 1,295 -- more than double Army's average -- by the punishment detail still went home happy.
Army stays home for its next two, hosting American Wednesday and archrival Navy next Sunday. It seems strange to type this -- but the matchups with American look pretty good for the Black Knights, especially if Walker can stay out of foul trouble. Win that one and put on a decent show for what should be a big crowd of cadets for the Navy game, and who knows what might happen.
West Point is starved for a winner. The PL women's hoops title last season was the biggest thing to happen to the old fortress above the Hudson since the football team went to the Poulan Weedeater Bowl in 1996. Aside from the women beating Holy Cross in that league championship game, the last time Army won anything of significance in a major sport was the 1985 Peach Bowl.
A winning hoops team might just start drawing decent crowds. There is not much else for the students to do and global warming has helped keep the mountain trails that lead to West Point passable. They used to say Army would win in hoops when hell freezes over. Maybe what they really meant was when Bear Mountain thaws.
Is Army ready to challenge for the league title? Let's not get carried away. One step at a time, as the saying goes. Lehigh has had trouble on the road all season and the Mountain Hawks played without senior center Jason Mgebroff, who would have been an entirely different matchup for Walker than Anderson of any of the two others (John Gourlay and Zahir Carrington) Billy Taylor played in the post.
Still for a team that has gone through the amount of losing Army has the past four seasons, knocking off Lehigh was a pretty big step.
Box score | Postgame audio (with Jim Crews, Jarell Brown, Marshall Jackson, Chris Walker and Lehigh guard Jose Olivero) | Times Herald-Record
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