Reply To: Can't wait.

[LU65Participant]

What’s left to be said? Lehigh90, whom Lehigh00 and I finally got a chance to meet prior to the opening tip, summed-up the night well – as you would expect. Dog tired from the overnight stay followed by attendance at the LU-Colgate football game in Hamilton and the 4 hour drive back to NJ last night, I find it hard to embellish on what “90” and others have already posted. Other than to say, in my humble opinion, our poor shooting – especially the three –had, in great part, be due to the ridiculous sight lines our shooters faced in the cavernous Dome. Many shots launched from NBA 3 distances had no chance of finding their target. Throw in the shock and awe aspect of playing before an opening night crowd of 21,286 fans – 99.5% of them dressed in orange (I did allow for the 50 or so Brown and White decked fans sitting the first three rows behind our bench, the three in Section 125 and the four of us in Section 123 – and you can begin to understand the fearful expression on the faces of many a Lehigh player. What the coaches said at halftime should be bottled and stored for another event. Our 2nd half play was inspired, holding Syracuse to 25 points on 8 for 23 shooting coupled with four tacked on from the line. Not bad. In fact, to the casual fan who woke up on Saturday morning and read the newspaper, would think we played well. After all, we limited The Orange to 57 points and lost by just 10. Consider, too, the fact that Syracuse played 31 games last year and was held to 57 or fewer points just 6 times. Ha, we joined the ranks of: Duke, UVA, NC State, Clemson, Georgia Tech, and St. John’s. Feel better? Not really. That said, our biggest disappointments of the night: KR (not finding a way to attack the zone, his 0 for 3 performance from deep, and inability to knock down his free throws – all this in 36 minutes of playing time), and JG (0 for 3 and never seemed to get into the flow during his 12 minutes). Mystery Man – as he was much of last year: JC (while you had to love his work on the boards and baseline moves resulting in buckets, his three “3’s” continue to be off center. Leave them to someone else. You’re needed down low. Want to see more from and liked what I did see: JRG and KL. Still unsure about: TJ and DC (despite his 4 points). Solid performances – as needed and expected -from: AP and TK.

The team is staying upstate over the weekend and should be ready and well rested to play on Monday night. Let’s hope for a different outcome we face off against Canisius.