Game 28: Holy Cross

Forum Forum Lehigh Sports Lehigh Men’s Basketball Game 28: Holy Cross

This topic contains 16 replies, has 1 voice, and was last updated by  Sader-Fan 15 years, 11 months ago.

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  • #104

    LU65
    Participant

    Game Notes:

    HC:
    http://goholycross.cstv.com/sports/m-ba … 09aab.html

    LU:
    http://www.lehighsports.com/assets/spor … 022809.pdf

    As a fan, I can’t and won’t give up on this young team and coaching staff. I hope some of you feel the same way. The recent falloff in performance is, however, disappointing to say the least. Yet, it’s nothing back to back wins can’t erase from my mind. It was just 16 days ago that we beat Navy by 11 in Annapolis and felt good about ourselves. Since then things haven’t gone our way, except for beating the Raiders of Colgate in what was pretty unspectacular fashion, 49-40. Yet, you need only to look at the fight we exhibited in that 3 OT loss up at Army – playing with just eight men and not having the services of Hall and Carrington in the final five minutes – to know this team has heart. Regrettably, that wasn’t enough to overcome the lights-out shooting of Andrew Brown and Jared Mintz last Saturday as Lafayette squeaked out a two point win in a game that could have been ours. As for the Bucknell loss two days ago, I’m speechless and can only hope it serves us well tomorrow. Going back further you can point to other games where LU put up a good fight only to come up "just" short….taking the league’s best, AU, into OT only to lose. And, a few days later dropping a hard fought and highly competitive game to Navy. Heck, even in our earlier loss to Holy Cross we were tied at 42 with 10:31 to go in the game. But, like so many other times this year, we fell pray that day to poor three-point shooting (17.6%) and "killer" scoring runs by our opponent (14 to 4 and 8 to 0). The combination proved to much to overcome that day and on three to four other occasions this year. That said, we get a chance to redeem ourselves tomorrow up at the Hart Center where Lehigh has won just 3 time in 23 attempts all-time. A win when coupled with either a BU win over Army or a Navy win over Colgate, will earn us home date next Wednesday as the PL playoffs get underway. Who knows, maybe all is not lost.

    A win tomorrow will not be easy to come by, being Senior Day and all. But, you have to wonder how Coach Willard will play it, knowing win or lose his Crusaders have locked-up 2nd place in
    the Standings and will host the 7th ranked team next Wednesday. I’m not suggesting he’ll entirely revamp his lineup but he may give additional minutes to his bench as he looks to ensure the health of his starters. He may go with an "all senior" lineup to start the game, too, asking Dixon, Doherty, Vander Baan and Mc Carthy to join Sr. Forward Cunningham. How long they play is anyone’s guess. One thing is for sure, they won’t be lacking in height, all 6’5" and above, except for Doherty. Just something to watch for. Margins of victory/loss is another point of interest going into this game that gives me a bit of hope. That is, since man-handling Lafayette back in early February, The Crusaders have not dominated anyone, beating Army by 3, losing to Bucknell by 6, beating Navy by 5, losing to American by 6 and beating Colgate by 2. Maybe we do have a chance after all.

    PL All-Access @ 3:30pm.

    #106
    Bison137
    Bison137
    Participant

    1. I expect LU to give HC a very close game.

    2. Your "young" team is actually the third oldest in the PL based on minutes played.

    #107

    lfnadmin
    Keymaster

    http://lehighfootballnation.blogspot.co … pe-to.html

    If LU doesn’t play with wild abandon in this game, something is wrong with them. As I mentioned in the blog, the key for the Hawks is F Phil Anderson. I don’t know if he’s hurt, but we cant’ afford to have him lay any more eggs if we want to win again this year.

    #109

    LU65
    Participant

    Bison 137: Thanks for the "minutes played" stat. I guess when your sophomores give you more minutes than you seniors and your second year head coach is backed by assistants with 4, 2, 1 and 1 years experience each – you get the feeling you’re young. I never thought I’d be saying this to you and the guys out in Lewisburg but "Go Bison!" Beat Army and make our day at the Hart Center that much more meaningful.

    LFN: Would agree on the importance of 6’10" senior Phil Anderson but also include the names of freshmen John Adams (6’6"), Justin Mineri (6’8"), and Jordan Hamilton (6’6"). I expect Holy Cross to present us any number of problems under the boards. The anticipated starting five includes: Keister (6’9′), Meister (6’8"), and Cunningham (6’6"), not to mention Evans (6’3") and Beinert (6’4") at the guard positions. And. it won’t get any easier when the likes of McCarthy (6’11") and Vander Baan (6’9") check into the game. No, Zahir Carrington can’t do it all. The Crusaders are the league’s top offensive rebounding team (PL games only) at 12.92/game and pulled down an absurd 21 OR’s in their game against Colgate three nights ago. They also lead the lead in Rebounding Margin at +7.1/game. Lehigh on the other hand comes in at +0.2/game. Expect a little banging under the boards. Should it result in early foul trouble for Zahir, the game might be over before the halftime intermission.

    #110
    RichH
    RichH
    Participant

    Cross is very big and fairly athletic BUT they are slow. Key as usual is Hall and our guards for offense.Our frontline has to slow down as ba[est they can the Cross forwards

    #111

    ericatbucknell
    Participant

    "Bison137" wrote:

    Your "young" team is actually the third oldest in the PL based on minutes played.

    Not that it provides much consolation at this point, but Lehigh is actually only the fourth oldest team in the PL.

    1. American (3rd nationally)
    2. Navy (70)
    3. Army (92)
    4. Lehigh (151)
    5. Holy Cross (186)
    6. Lafayette (200)
    7. Colgate (226)
    8. Bucknell (256)

    #114

    engin-rear
    Participant

    We got some of what we had hoped for. HC didn’t play thier center at all and started 5 seniors but it didn’t matter. It was ugly early and then HC found their game and we never did. We look like we went backwards this season and have no momentum for the playoffs. Keefer had some points but they were all after we had gone down 20+. Anderson is MIA, he looked worse than when they beat us at home. Zahir did a few things but that was pretty much it. Adams got very excited about making a late basket that closed the gap to 22 points behind :roll: .

    These teams were a tale of two cities, HC didn’t dress their center and started 5 seniors because the game didn’t matter but played hard, We had something on the line and played like we were mailing it in.

    #117
    Bison137
    Bison137
    Participant

    "ericatbucknell" wrote: [quote="Bison137"]

    Your "young" team is actually the third oldest in the PL based on minutes played.

    Not that it provides much consolation at this point, but Lehigh is actually only the fourth oldest team in the PL.

    1. American (3rd nationally)
    2. Navy (70)
    3. Army (92)
    4. Lehigh (151)
    5. Holy Cross (186)
    6. Lafayette (200)
    7. Colgate (226)
    8. Bucknell (256)[/quote]

    I had looked just at PL games. Army has become signficantly "younger" in these games – since freshman Simmons and sophomores Hence and Royal have been playing signficantly more while seniors Williams, Moonshower, and Brewer have all seen their minutes fall.

    #118

    engin-rear
    Participant

    "Bison137" wrote: [quote="ericatbucknell"][quote="Bison137"]

    Your "young" team is actually the third oldest in the PL based on minutes played.

    Not that it provides much consolation at this point, but Lehigh is actually only the fourth oldest team in the PL.

    1. American (3rd nationally)
    2. Navy (70)
    3. Army (92)
    4. Lehigh (151)
    5. Holy Cross (186)
    6. Lafayette (200)
    7. Colgate (226)
    8. Bucknell (256)[/quote]

    I had looked just at PL games. Army has become signficantly "younger" in these games – since freshman Simmons and sophomores Hence and Royal have been playing signficantly more while seniors Williams, Moonshower, and Brewer have all seen their minutes fall.[/quote]

    Have you looked at HC? They had 5 seniors on senior day starting against us. I know 3 of them have been playing against us since they were freshmen so they may be ready to hit a big drop off next season. Maybe next year they and American will be the bottom of the league although HC appears less old in this analysis than I would have thought.

    #119
    Bison137
    Bison137
    Participant

    "engin-rear" wrote: [quote="Bison137"][quote="ericatbucknell"]

    Not that it provides much consolation at this point, but Lehigh is actually only the fourth oldest team in the PL.

    1. American (3rd nationally)
    2. Navy (70)
    3. Army (92)
    4. Lehigh (151)
    5. Holy Cross (186)
    6. Lafayette (200)
    7. Colgate (226)
    8. Bucknell (256)

    I had looked just at PL games. Army has become signficantly "younger" in these games – since freshman Simmons and sophomores Hence and Royal have been playing signficantly more while seniors Williams, Moonshower, and Brewer have all seen their minutes fall.[/quote]

    Have you looked at HC? They had 5 seniors on senior day starting against us. I know 3 of them have been playing against us since they were freshmen so they may be ready to hit a big drop off next season. Maybe next year they and American will be the bottom of the league although HC appears less old in this analysis than I would have thought.[/quote]

    Holy Cross should be stronger next year. To begin with, two of the five seniors – McCarthy and Dixon – don’t normally play at all. Secondly, both Doherty and Vander Baan have chronic injuries and are not nearly the players they were a couple of years ago. Add in a transfer from St. John’s, wing Mike Cavataio, who had to sit this year, plus a couple of recruits who should help, and they will likely be better. Also Meister had injury problems this year but will likely be better next year.

    The key to how they do next year will be how they perform at PG. This was a problem this year except for the minutes when Doherty was able to perform at a reasonable level.

    #120

    engin-rear
    Participant

    "Bison137" wrote: [quote="engin-rear"][quote="Bison137"][.

    Holy Cross should be stronger next year. To begin with, two of the five seniors – McCarthy and Dixon – don’t normally play at all. Secondly, both Doherty and Vander Baan have chronic injuries and are not nearly the players they were a couple of years ago. Add in a transfer from St. John’s, wing Mike Cavataio, who had to sit this year, plus a couple of recruits who should help, and they will likely be better. Also Meister had injury problems this year but will likely be better next year.

    The key to how they do next year will be how they perform at PG. This was a problem this year except for the minutes when Doherty was able to perform at a reasonable level.[/quote][/quote]

    But even if they are only losing 3 seniors who played a lot shouldn’t they be worse? Are their transfer and recruits better than Doherty, Cunningham and Vander Bahn? We hope you are wrong because that would have them getting both younger and better??!!

    #121
    Bison137
    Bison137
    Participant

    "engin-rear" wrote:

    But even if they are only losing 3 seniors who played a lot shouldn’t they be worse? Are their transfer and recruits better than Doherty, Cunningham and Vander Bahn? We hope you are wrong because that would have them getting both younger and better??!!

    We’ll have to wait and see, but I could easily see them being a bit better than they were this year. Their two best players were a soph and a frosh (Keister and Evans), and Meister/Beinert are better than the injured VanderBaan and Doherty for the most part. Throw in freshman Devin Brown – who had a solid season – plus May – who had flashes of good play – plus Cavataio – who on paper should be a good PL-level player – and you have a team that should be better IF everyone makes the normal progress you expect from one year to the next.

    BTW, HC’s three seniors played about 33% of HC’s total minutes in PL play, but Cavataio may be able to replace about 15% of the total. Over the years, I think a loss of 35% is about average. Bucknell and Lehigh both lose only role players who accounted for about 20% of their PL minutes, so both should in theory be significantly better. (Bucknell also gets back Stephen Tyree, an All-PL calibre player, who missed the entire year due to injury.)

    American loses almost all of their players (although they will add a decent transfer and a pretty good recruiting class and maybe some juco’s), while Navy loses almost 47% of their minutes (although it is not as bad as it sounds because they too will get an injured starter back). Army loses only 18.5% of their minutes, while Colgate loses about 27.5% of their minutes, but – like Bucknell – they get back an All-PL calibre player (Roemer) who missed the year due to injury. LC only loses 15% of their minutes (Brown) unless Kari opts to not return for his 5th year, which would bring their lost minutes up to 30%.

    #122

    lfnadmin
    Keymaster

    "engin-rear" wrote: BTW, HC’s three seniors played about 33% of HC’s total minutes in PL play, but Cavataio may be able to replace about 15% of the total. Over the years, I think a loss of 35% is about average. Bucknell and Lehigh both lose only role players who accounted for about 20% of their PL minutes, so both should in theory be significantly better. (Bucknell also gets back Stephen Tyree, an All-PL calibre player, who missed the entire year due to injury.)

    American loses almost all of their players (although they will add a decent transfer and a pretty good recruiting class and maybe some juco’s), while Navy loses almost 47% of their minutes (although it is not as bad as it sounds because they too will get an injured starter back). Army loses only 18.5% of their minutes, while Colgate loses about 27.5% of their minutes, but – like Bucknell – they get back an All-PL calibre player (Roemer) who missed the year due to injury. LC only loses 15% of their minutes (Brown) unless Kari opts to not return for his 5th year, which would bring their lost minutes up to 30%.

    How does the new AI – and banding system for basketball – affect all of this, especially for American? From what I understand, the days where a PL school takes in three Juco’s and a transfer to rebuild are over. Also, before we anoint HC’s transfer from St. John’s the second coming of Bob Cousy, I think it’s awfully rare that a transfer comes in and makes a huge impact – Rowland being a notable exception to that rule.

    I don’t know how good Lehigh will be next year, but of the seniors graduating it’s clear that the three best players are not seniors.

    #123
    Bison137
    Bison137
    Participant

    "lfnadmin" wrote:
    How does the new AI – and banding system for basketball – affect all of this, especially for American? From what I understand, the days where a PL school takes in three Juco’s and a transfer to rebuild are over. Also, before we anoint HC’s transfer from St. John’s the second coming of Bob Cousy, I think it’s awfully rare that a transfer comes in and makes a huge impact – Rowland being a notable exception to that rule.

    I don’t know how good Lehigh will be next year, but of the seniors graduating it’s clear that the three best players are not seniors.

    1. I think it depends on the academics of the Juco’s. I know that the new banding system addressed standards for JC transfers, but AU’s last group of juco’s probably would have been acceptable with today’s AI. Three of the four that they brought in two years ago had good academics and three (at least) were qualifiers out of H.S. One example is Bryce Simon who was his H.S. valedictorian with a 4.0 GPA and was a Presidential Scholar at his juco. He and Borden went to juco’s simply because they did not have D1 offers out of H.S.

    As for the transfer (Vlad Moldoveanu), fwiw he had a 3.6 GPA at St. John’s College High School. Don’t know how he did at GMU.

    2. Yes, it’s rare for a transfer to make an immediate impact in the PL, but it’s also rare to get a transfer from the Big East. He reportedly has played well in practice but we’ll have to wait and see. Hopefully he will turn out to be just another player.

    3. Yes, LU is not graduating any of its top three, but given the injury situations of Doherty and Vander Baan it’s very possible that HC has not lost any of their top three either. Army and Bucknell also return their top three (Bucknell returns their top five actually), while Colgate returns three of their top four.

    #124

    engin-rear
    Participant

    Was their transfer a walk-on in the Big East? He was probably a decent HS player that hustled his way onto the roster and then decided he should play more. If he is from St John’s he may be a local LI kid who made 2nd team all-league in Massapequa and walked on.

    As for us, we aren’t really losing anyone but the lack of progress this season makes me question how we will make out. Anderson should have been much better but it never happened and I wasn’t that excited about our freshmen. I think they have some talent but we need help up front and I don’t know who can provide it.

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