Game 7: SFU

[LU65Participant]

Game Notes

LU’s

We await

SFU’s

We await

KenPom Predictions

LU (0-6) and ranked 199th (PL ranked 20th)
@
SFU(1-3) and ranked 280th (NEC ranked 30th)

SFU wins by one, 70-69

Commentary

We’re about to see if SOS means anything. Lehigh has faced, by KenPom’s account anyway, the 3rd toughest opening schedule of any D-1 team in the nation, whereas St. Francis (PA) comes into this game touting the 101st toughest early season schedule. Their only Top 100 foe was Notre Dame on opening night. Since then, it’s been a steady diet of teams ranked 200 and above. Their one and only win came against AU – a team they handled with ease, beating the Eagles out in Loretto (PA) by 20 eleven days ago. Perhaps this could be viewed as a yardstick game for Lehigh. And, don’t ya just know how SFU would like to go 2-0 against the PL this season. FYI, the Red Flash were picked to finish 8th in the 10 team NEC pack. Of note, too, is the fact that Mt. Saint Mary’s and Robert Morris were picked to finish 1 and 2, respectively. Yeah, wouldn’t ya know, we’ll see them both later this month. Perhaps it’s best now to pass along a primer on the NEC in the form of their pre-season poll story and a report on SFU’s win over AU.

http://www.northeastconference.org/news/2015/10/24/MBB_PreseasonPollRel_NEC_2015-16.aspx

http://www.sfuathletics.com/news/2015/11/21/MBB_1121153042.aspx?path=mbball

Watching to see if…………

KL, the team’s leading 3pt shooter among
hose not playing the “5,” gets the start. He’s also the team’s hottest shooter over the past two games @ .538.

the upward trend in minutes (…11, 17, and 25) for JG continues. Along with minutes we need to see a rise in effectiveness if we have any hope of competing for a PL title.

there’s any improvement to be seen in our team rebounding ability. The closest we’ve come to out-rebounding our opponent took place up at Syracuse on Day One, losing the battle 38 to 40. Today, our average mark stands at 31.7 to 41.8. It’s worse on the Offensive end where we’re 6th from the bottom and ranked 345th across American in terms of allowing the OR to go to our opponent whose playing with the ball.

we stay out of foul trouble. Twenty-two a game, with our 3 “bigs” picking up 15+ / game won’t cut it.

MH is out of his boot.

[lehigh90Participant]

I think we can safely say, we are in must win territory. We need a 2-0 week. I would usually look at SFU and Rochester and say these 2 are money in the bank. But, the SFU 20 point win vs. American, and playing out there, has me very worried. In the weekend game, this Rochester College is no walkover game, either. They have dominated NAIA competition, and appear to be a strong player in that level of basketball. And, they played a MAC team, Western Michigan, pretty close, about a week ago. WMU is no juggernaut, but Rochester shows that as their only loss in early action. They are stepping into the deeper end of the pool, but that game worries me a bit as well.

[lfnadminKeymaster]

I think it’s must-win. This team needs to remove the stink of losing. Sure, they lost to the best, but losing still stinks either way.

[RichHParticipant]

Like the way you saved the punchline until the last line.

[toddcuddParticipant]

At least from a psychological perspective, I’m with ya – I’m sure the guys need a win. It would certainly make all of us feel better too.
It may be a barometer game in one sense. If this one doesn’t go our way, things look pretty bleak for a while. I took a fresh look at the schedule, and I don’t even want to talk about when the next D1 game we could feel confident about would be.

[toddcuddParticipant]

Preview is available at SFU’s site, including a link to their media notes:

SFU – LU Preview

Quickly looking over their numbers, it looks like their offense will come primarily from inside, including a lot of FTs. Not much so far in terms of 3-pt scoring. They don’t appear to turn the ball over very much, and seem to rebound pretty well. Especially at the offensive end, which is a genuine concern for us, I think.
Primary score threats appear to be Sr. Greg Brown and Fr. Isaiah Blackmon – both guards.

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