Hoop Time -- The Online News Source for Patriot League Basketball

Friday, February 09, 2007

Here I am again right where I know I shouldn't be
I've been caught inside this trap too many times
I must've walked these steps and said these words a thousand times before
It seems like I know everybody's lines.

-- David Bromberg

The whole league is better. It's not just Bucknell and Holy Cross anymore. Yeah, right.

That's what everybody tried to tell us back in November, when the whole league was 0-0 and tied in the standings. They kept it up throughout December, when teams like Army and Navy raced out to impressive records that had all the credibility of a house of cards. When Bucknell started out 0-4, and Holy Cross followed with a four-game losing streak of its own during a 2-5 month of December, it was hard not to wonder if it was true.

So why is it that David Bromberg song keeps running through my head on this fine, frigid February morning?

The answer to that one is pretty obvious. If you need a hint, click here.

Yes, there is more parity in the Patriot League. The bottom of the league is definitely better. Army is vastly improved. Navy is better. Lafayette is a slightly different story, but now that he has scholarships, give Fran O'Hanlon a recruiting class of two and they will get better in a hurry.

But the middle of the league is still the middle. Colgate remains an enigma, a team seemingly full of under performing talent and a coach that would be on the hot seat if there enough fans interested in the team to generate some heat and any media covering the team to write about it.

American is once again a talented roster -- this year you can even add the adjective "experienced" to that description -- that seems to lack chemistry and the mental toughness it takes to win close games.

Lehigh is still there in third, telling everybody it can win the league, but once again lacking the necessary big man to back those boasts (a caveat: if Jason Mgebroff is able to come back and play at the level he was at before being hurt in December, the Mountain Hawks could be a very different team down the stretch).

Which leaves us where we have been the last two seasons, getting set for another matchup between the Bison and the Crusaders with league championship implications.

Winning this game all but clinches the homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs for Holy Cross. Mathematically, a two-game lead with three to play is not insurmountable. Realistically, though, Bucknell has a better chance of the Easter bunny bringing them a championship than it has of Holy Cross losing all three down the stretch. Since Easter does not come until April 8, it seems they'd best take matters in their own hands tonight.

Even if Bucknell wins, Holy Cross is still in the driver's seat thanks to the RPI tiebreaker, which would kick in if both teams finish 13-1. The Crusaders are far enough ahead of Bucknell in those rankings to have a lock on the higher number under that scenario. But HC still has to run a three-game gauntlet that includes suddenly dangerous Colgate and a trip to Bethlehem to face a Lehigh team that likely will have Mgrebroff back by then.

In other words, win here and Bucknell's beacon of hope still flickers.

That would seem to mean all the pressure is on Bucknell. It's not.

Holy Cross is chasing history, and haunted by it a little, too. The Crusaders are trying to become just the second team in 17 seasons of Patriot League play to run the conference table. To do it, they need to win tonight in Sojka Pavilion, something nobody on the current roster has done, something nobody in the league has done in Bucknell's last 31 home games.

There is also the pressure of the Crusaders' 12-game win streak, the second longest in the nation (behind Florida's 15).

Of course all the talk about pressure probably will mean very little when the two teams take the floor, unless you mean the defensive pressure both will look to apply. The two teams come in ranked 1-2 in scoring defense, with Holy Cross less than a point per game better in that category.

Bucknell will be without Donald Brown, who remains out with a broken hand suffered at Colgate. The Bison have gone 2-0 in his absence.

While they certainly will miss the presence of their leading scorer and the league's top rebounder, Darren Mastropaolo, who started on both of the Bison's NCAA Tournament teams, is a more than capable fill in.

For Bucknell, the keys to this one are pretty simple. On offense, they need to knock down some shots from the perimeter to keep Holy Cross from ganging up on Chris McNaughton in the paint. Abe Badmus did not score a point when HC beat the Bison in Worcester earlier this season. If that happens again, Bucknell will be in trouble.

On defense, they have to keep Torey Thomas and Keith Simmons away from the basket. Easier said than done. Guard penetration killed the Bison in the first game, not just in terms of scoring, but also by getting Brown and McNaughton into foul trouble. McNaughton only played 22 minutes, and scored only 4 points, in Worcester. Bucknell needs a lot more from him tonight.

Holy Cross won't make that easy. The Crusaders big men are strong inside defenders and they will get a lot of help from the guards. Simmons and Thomas both have the kind of jet pack quickness that allows them to dig down and still recover when the ball is kicked out.

A big (pardon the pun) key for the Crusaders will be center Tim Clifford. Like McNaughton, Clifford was in early foul trouble in the first game, going scoreless in just 9 minutes before the intermission. In the second half he went 5 for 6 from the field and pulled won 6 of his team-high 8 rebounds. If he plays like that the whole game tonight, it could be a long night for Bucknell.

For those who doubt how big this rivalry has become, here are a few factoids lifted straight from Bucknell's game notes:

The Bison and Crusaders have combined to win five of the last six Patriot League titles, and they are the only two league teams to have won in the postseason (Bucknell in the 2005 and 2006 NCAA Tournaments, Holy Cross in the 2005 NIT).
These two teams have met 10 times in 16 Patriot League Tournaments, including three times in the championship game. Bucknell defeated Holy Cross in the 2005 and 2006 title tilts, while the Crusders topped the Bison in the final in 1993.
Excluding games against each other, Bucknell and Holy Cross are a combined 71-3 against the rest of the Patriot League since the start of the 2004-05 season. The Bison have not lost to a PL team other than the Crusaders since Jan. 30, 2005 at Navy.
The Bison and Crusaders had never met until the formation of the Patriot League in 1990-91, but in 16 years since then they have clashed 43 times, an average of 2.6 meetings per year.
Bucknell had won four straight and six of the last seven in the series before Holy Cross ended that streak with a 65-60 win at the Hart Center earlier this season. Bucknell now leads the series 24-19.
Bucknell is 11-7 against Holy Cross in Lewisburg, including 4-1 at Sojka Pavilion.

Labels: BU, HC, previews

Published at 7:55 AM by Hoop Time.

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