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Saturday, November 10, 2007
Saturday scouting reports
(Originally posted Fri. at 7:40 a.m., Updated with additional links at 9:23 a.m. Sat.)
A busy day ahead, with five league teams opening the season. Interesting matchups abound, with Lehigh visiting Ivy favorite Cornell, Bucknell and Holy Cross hosting top flight mid major programs Albany and Hofstra and Army at rebuilding Minnesota. Rounding out the slate is new-look American at Saint Francis Pa. Here's the scouting reports.

SCOUTING CORNELL: Lehigh has a tough opener tomorrow night, traveling to what could be snowy Ithaca, N.Y. to take on Ivy favorite Cornell. The Big Red went 16-12 last season, playing with a roster full of talented freshmen. That young, but experienced Big Big Red roster is bolstered by the return of star guard Adam Gore, the 2005-06 Ivy rookie of the year who missed all of last season after blowing out a knee in an opening game win over Northwestern, a trio of transfers who might seem eerily familiar to Lehigh fans. One is a 7-foot project and another, 6-5 dunker Andre Williams, who shares his name with the Morning Call's Lehigh beat writer and spent a year at a Texas juco. The athloetic 6-5 four man ended up at Blinn Jr. College after changing his mind not once, but twice, about his original commitments when the head coaches at Brown, and then Charleston, left for greener pastures after he had committted. The best of the three, though, might be 6-foot guard Collin Robinson, who landed in Ithaca after leaving Tim Floyd's Southern Cal program.
BONUS LINKS:
  • Cornell basketball blog
  • Lehigh depending on a Hall of a player (Morning Call)
  • Lehigh walking into the unknown (Ithaca journal)

    SCOUTING ALBANY: The Albany Times Union has a good look at Bucknell's first opponent, the University of Albany Danes. The short version: The Danes are a lot like Bucknell, a team that has gotten used to winning and now looks to see if it can maintain that lifestyle after losing two all-league players, including one of the best in school history. The longer version: The Danes are bigger than last year, with nine guys 6-5 or taller, stronger and more athletic. And they will play a lot of zone to cover up some of their defensive liabilities, according to coach Will Brown. The full version is right here.
    BONUS LINKS:
  • TU columnist Mark (not the steroids slugger) McGuire on Albany's scheduling
  • Bison adjust on the run (Daily Item)
  • Danes testing their bite and fight (Times Union)
  • New year, same goals (Bucknellian)

    SCOUTING ST. FRANCIS (PA.): After finishing last in the Northeast Conference the past two seasons, the Red Flash are expected to move to the middle of the NEC pack this season. The good news for coach Bobby Jones is that he has all five starters back. The bad news: that same group lost 15 in a row en route to an 8-21 season a year ago. Those losses included a 73-63 AU comeback win in Bender in a game that AU trailed by 18 in at one point. Optimism comes from having won four of their last five and the return of sophomore Devin Sweetney and junior Chris Berry. Sweetney's 13.0 ppg were tops among NEC freshmen a year ago. He also pulled 7.7 rpg. Alongside on the wing will be Chris Berry, a junior who averaged 11.7 ppg and 4.9 rpg. Berry averaged 11.7 points and 4.9 rebounds as a sophomore.
    BONUS LINKS:
  • St. Francis game notes
  • SFU radio broadcast

    SCOUTING MINNESOTA: Minnesota has a new coach and new optimism after going a miserable 9-22 last season. Tubby Smith arrives with a streak of 14 straight 20-win seasons and 14-straight NCAA Tournament appearances in his last three stops (Tulsa, Georgia and Kentucky). He inherits a depleted roster. Four players transferred when the Golden Gophers changed coaches, three others are recovering from injuries. With senior guard Lawrence McKenzie nursing a groin pull, freshman point guard Al Nolen Jr. showed a penchant for scoring with a 6-for-6 from the field, 7-for-7 from the line, 24 points showing in an exhibition win over D-II Southwest Minnesota State. McKenzie, the seventh-leading scorer in the Big Ten last season, set a school record with 78 threes last season. An Oklahoma transfer, he is one of three Gophers who have played in the NCAA Tournament, having been to the dance with the Sooners. The other two were freshmen when Minnesota last got a bid. No word on the Gophers' site on the status of McKenzie for the Army game.
    BONUS LINKS:
  • Army aiming high in hoops (Times Herald-Record)
  • Gophers tread long road back (Detroit Free Press)
  • Gophers feeling good, aiming high under Tubby's tutelage (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
  • Tubby's time is here, but how fast can Gophers get better?... (AP)

    SCOUTING HOFSTRA: With 6-4 backcourt recruit Ameer Brown watching from the Hart Center bleachers, Holy Cross will open with its BracketBusters rematch against Hofstra. Picked to finish fifth in the tough Colonial Athletic Conference, Hofstra fell 10 points shy of earning a spot in the preseason Mid Major Top 25, ranking an unofficial 27th in the poll. Despite the loss of backcourt stars Loren Stokes and Carlos Rivera from last season's team, Hofstra might be bigger and deeper than they were a year ago, according to NY Daily News writer Sean Brennan. Hofstra will be led by high-scoring 6-3 guard Antoine Agudio, a returning first team all league and preseason player of the year pick who averaged over 20 ppg last season. Agudio put up 25 points last week in Hofsta's exhibition win over a Rollie Massimino coached NAIA school (Northwood). While HC will have its hands full with Agudio, Hofstra will start a 6-10 redshirt freshman Greg Washington at center. If he cannot contain Patriot League preseason player of the year Tim Clifford, it could be a long bus ride back to Long Island for the Pride.
    BONUS LINKS:
  • Hofstra game notes | CAA Zone
  • CAA Insider
  • A couple of big pieces gone (Boston Globe)

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    • Published at 9:23 AM by Hoop Time.
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