At the Halfway Mark

[LU65Participant]

Remaining Schedule (Home and Away)

After visiting HC on Saturday (third of three in a row on the road), we finish with 4 of our last 6 at home – including the rematch with Bucknell on 2/18. In fact, our only distant road game will be @ Colgate a week from Saturday. Were to host and win a first round playoff game, we’d be in the Lehigh Valley from 2/17 to 3/9 and maybe beyond. Nice.

LU vs. BU (7 Game PL Stats)

Scoring Offense – 2nd with 68.6ppg (BU is 3rd @ 66.7)
Scoring Defense – 3rd with 59.1ppg (BU is 1st @ 56.7)
FG% – 5th @ .432 (BU is 2nd @.455)
FG% Defense – 2nd @ .392 (BU is 1st @.375)
3FG% – 1st @ .412 (BU is 6th @ .316)
3FG% Defense – 1st @ .250 (BU is 4th @ .353)
Rebounding Margin – 6th @ -1.6 (BU is 1st @ +7.1)

PL Rankings (Ken Pomeroy / Real Time RPI)
BU 58 / 57
LU 70 / 79
LC 199 / 213
Army 204 / 266
HC 227 / 247
CU 247 / 243
AU 254 / 240
Navy 309 / 315

Perhaps a “Make or Break” Weekend for the Top Three

Can only assume the Bison will avoid roundtrip charters to/from Lewisburg and enjoy Lehigh Valley hospitality on the weekend of February 16th when first they play LC on Saturday and follow that up with Lehigh on Monday the 18th. Bet there’ll be a lot of LU fans looking to get into Kirby on Saturday. Beats bussing it up to Colgate that day for LU’s 7 o’clock tip.

Attendance

With BU coming to Stabler on 2/18 in the midst of 4 o’clock exams, there’s no telling what we might see in the way of a student turnout. But, with 3,000 at that game and 1,700 at each of the other remaining home contests (AU, Navy and Army), we could see Lehigh take over the second spot in PL home attendance. Not bad, considering where we were two years ago @931/game.

Winning without CJ?

How have we been able to replace CJ’s 25.7 ppg and, while doing it, win 7 of our last 8 games?

First and foremost, credit our defense for allowing us to win by scoring fewer points. We entered the Muhlenberg game – the first without the services of CJ – averaging 79.4ppg. Since then, we have picked up 7 wins (Muhlenberg + 6 in the PL) with less offensive production (9.1 ppg fewer to be exact) and, thanks in large part to our defense, we have allowed still fewer points (13.2 fewer to be exact). Prior to Muhlenberg the number was 70.7ppg. Since then, our defense has given up a stingy 57.5ppg.

Second, except for Gabe, everyone has picked-up the pace of their scoring. I give you the incremental ppg differences:
BJB + 8.4
JG + 4.0
AD + 2.4
HG + 2.0
SC + 0.7
MM + 0.5

Third, coaching. Here I include Brett, his assistants and CJ. Hard to believe some don’t include Brett’s name in Coach of the Year conversations.

[Bison137Participant]

Since Bucknell has never stayed overnight when playing LC or LU, I’m not sure they’ll stay overnight for two days this time.    Paulsen has always shown a strong preference to practice in Sojka, so that too could be a factor.

[LUHoops00Participant]

Good post 65, we all should and I think are pretty happy with where this team is at. We’re halfway home and are 6-1 in league play, pretty solid record. I believe, if CJ was healthy and we were 6-1 with him and that 1 L included a tough L at BU against a really solid Bison squad, that we’d be pretty happy with where we’re at. Being 6-1 and having won there, mentally allowing our guys to know they can atleast compete with Bison sans CJ is a great thing. Let’s not forget last year we were 11-3 in league play. I had thought 10 wins minus CJ was probably the peak, but this team looks like it could atleast match last years 11 win total and without CJ. Clearly the biggest thing post CJ has been our team defense, really holding opponents down as the team knows this has to be their identity, hot shooting comes and goes but if you bring 4o minutes of D every night good things usually happen….Mackey and BJ have stepped up big from guard spots, Mackey is the best PG in the league and BJ has filled in for some of the missing CJ points but elevating his offensive game while still focusing on the D end….and Greiner does a bit of everything for this team, rebounding extremely well and scoring the ball better than in teh past…depth has been good, seems every night someone from the AD CS SC camp steps up and contributes in a big way and JG has been a good addition to frontcourt..of course good starts are meaningless if you don’t finihs, so its time to finish the 2nd half strong..and it starts in our personal house of horrors, a place I’ve sen countless Ls at, Hart Center on Saturday in Worcester…let’s get this W.

[lehigh90Participant]

Agree guys, great posts, you have to be thrilled with the start and our current standing.  The only frustration is losing to two teams (Bryant and Lafayette) that we should always beat at home.  So, 3 big games left on the schedule at HC, at Lafayette and Bucknell.  The rest should be Ws.  Hope we can run the table.  I won’t make HC, but will see the other 2.  I am also feeling pretty good that we will see #3 suit it up in March.  I think with his injury and the fact that he had surgery, he should be good to go in March (8-9 weeks).   Maybe bring him off the bench in the first two PL Tourney games, and have him ready to start in the final.

 

 

[StablerBumParticipant]

As has been discussed extensively on this board, this squad just lays an egg once in awhile.  Usually when we least expect it.  It’s extremely frustrating but is waht it is.

That said, 6-1 at the midpoint is fantastic.  Even with CJ, I would be pretty happy with that, without him and I’m ecstatic.  It is extremely difficult to dominate league play, wether you are Kansas, Butler, Bucknell, Lehigh – it doesn’t matter.  It’s tough to win night in and night out against teams that know everything about you, and during the inevitable lulls and low energy moments throughout the winter.  I would be very happy with 10 wins in the league, and over the moon with anything more.

This season hasn’t gone the way any of us anticipated, but it’s pretty awesome that there is still a lot of excitement and high expectations around the program.  The recent emergence of JG has also made this year’s incoming class a lot more hopeful.

[norcalfanParticipant]

I am really happy to see JG coming along. He works hard from what I can see on the screen. Teamwork and defense wins games.

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