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What can we expect out of the PL this year? If Game 1 is your guide, expect the unexpected and 10 teams tied at 9 and 9 when it’s all over. What should have happened – at least according to Sagarin’s Ratings – and what did happen yesterday follows:
Colgate beat Lehigh by 7 / Lehigh was expected to win by 7
Lafayette beat Army by 14 / Army was expected to win by 4
Bucknell beat American by 4 / American was expected to win by 4
Boston U. beat Holy Cross by 3 / Holy Cross was expected to win by 5
Navy beat Loyola by 23 / Navy was expected to win by 1
As feared, looking back at an earlier post, we had no answer for Ethan Jacobs, CU’s 6’11” forward who likes to take three-point shots. This time he happened to hit 4 out of 4, to go along with his 5 for 5 from inside the arc, and was clearly the hero of the day. As for our 3-point defense, it had been a Top 100 performer. Not any more it isn’t. We allowed both UMBC and Colgate to hit 10 of 20 from deep in out last two outings.
And, forget about home court advantage. We now sit 2 and 3 with one of those W’s coming against someone called Penn State (Mont Alto). Too bad, as for a change we played before over 1200 fans yesterday or about twice the normal number of people to make it out to Stabler.
Besides not defending the “3” yesterday, we could not shoot the ball either. And, I mean from in close! Our starting five hit 14 of 36 (.389 FG%) from close-in, “led” by TK’s 6 of 16 (.375 FG%). Take away sub Brandon Alston’s superior 5 for 7 effort, you’re looking at a team that connected on just 34.5% of its shots. Don’t get me wrong, I like TK and his potential to lead us. But after 43 D-1 contests, I’m now looking for more. Our “big,” and perhaps our “go-to,” guy, can’t be shooting .434 (all from in close) and failing to bust the .500 barrier in 10 of his 12 games played this year. The other “go-to” guy many of us look to, Austin Price – now in his second year with 44 D-1 games played – can’t be giving us 19 of 57 (.333 FG%) in his last seven. Yes, there’s work to be done on the offensive side of the ball, as well.
Boston U. and a chance to redeem ourselves can’t come quick enough.
