Game 9: Fordham

Forum Forum Lehigh Sports Lehigh Men’s Basketball Game 9: Fordham

This topic contains 17 replies, has 7 voices, and was last updated by  TMH 11 years, 3 months ago.

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  • #8273

    LU65
    Participant

    Game Notes
    http://www.lehighsports.com/assets/1/workflow_staging/Sport/50601.PDF

    KenPom’s Rankings and Chance of Winning
    LU (6-2) 59th*
    FU (1-6) 253rd
    LU Wins 86-67 (93% chance)
    * Highest ranking of the season. For comparison purposes, Pitt (7-1) is ranked 11th and Baylor (5-2) is ranked 21st. Bucknell (7-1) currently holds down the 43rd spot.

    Perhaps the biggest news of the day relative to tomorrow night’s game is old news. It comes from Raphielle Johnson of collegehoopsnet.com who on November 16th wrote
    ,”Fordham loses forward Chris Gaston for a month due to knee injury

    .” I quote:
    “It was bad enough for Tom Pecora’s Fordham Rams to drop their first three games of the regular season, but things got even worse as senior forward Chris Gaston had to deal with pain and swelling in one of his knees.
    As a result of the issue Gaston is undergoing an arthroscopic procedure on the knee and will have to sit for the next month or so. For a program still looking to find its way in the second season under Pecora, this is the last thing Fordham needed to have happen.
    Gaston, who averaged 17.1 points and 9.9 rebounds per game last season, was a preseason All-Atlantic 10 selection and will be a key piece for the Rams if they’re to qualify for the Atlantic 10 tournament for the first time since 2008. He entered the season ranked 11th on the Fordham all-time scoring list.
    With Gaston out the Rams become very young inside, as freshmen Ryan Rhoomes and Travion Leonard will compete for minutes along with sophomore Luke Zivkovic.”

    Gaston, a 6’7″ / 231 lb senior forward, is a difference maker and someone our players remember well. In fact, I caught more than one of them scanning the Fordham bench for his likeness when the Rams came to Stabler two weeks ago to take on Penn and Fairfield in the NIT Consolation Round. In short: a no-show then and a highly probable no-show tomorrow night. In a way, that’s too bad. His presence would have certainly tested Gabe, Holden, Conroy and Justin. A look back at games played in 2011 and 2010 – games we split with Fordham – Gaston averaged 18 ppg, 16 rpg, and 34 mpg.

    Mismatches could turn this game into a rout. For starters, take Fordham’s likely backcourt of Thomas and Myers – both freshmen – against CJ and MM. Throw in Canty, a 6’9″ sophomore, to man their post and you can expect a Lehigh point explosion. When Canty tires, he’ll be spelled by one of three guys all 6’8″ but all underclassmen (Leonard {fr}, Zivkovic {So}, or Rhoomes {Fr}). If ever there was a game to get Baltimore, Goldsbourgh, and Carter to get extended minutes, this is it! Throw in “home court advantage” and a spirited crowd and you could see Lehigh tacking on 90+.

    #8276

    TMH
    Participant

    I plan to be there. Anybody else?

    #8286
    jimk72
    jimk72
    Participant

    I plan to attend.  Don’t want to miss any of the CJ era I can get to.

    #8287

    LU65
    Participant

    Family commitments keep me away for a change. I look forward to reading many first hand reports.

    #8292

    lehigh90
    Participant

    Going to try to make it up tonight.

    #8297

    LU2007
    Participant

    Yes – I am going to make the trip with two other alums. We will be seated in Section 4.

    #8298

    Hawk07
    Participant

    CJ now projected as #9 pick in the draft to Charlotte – http://www.nbadraft.net/.  He also earned mid-major player of the week for his dominant performances vs Quinnipiac and FDU.

    Interesting that two potential lottery picks will be on the court when Lehigh travels to North Texas.

    #8301

    TMH
    Participant

    I’ll be the older guy in a brown zipper down Lehigh sweatshirt near the entrance at halftime if anyone wishes to discuss the 1st half.

    #8311

    LUHoops00
    Participant

    So awesome so many of you guys got to go, pretty sloppy game, but hey on a night when our all american struggled from the field we still won by 18…granted it was Fordham!

    All 5 starters in double figures tonight, AD had a nice game, big 3 when lead got down to 9. Gabe down low was great. Holden was very active off the dribble, made some things happen, playing with a ton of confidence.

    Mackey, that shooting sleeve has to stay, he played well tonight, couple careless turnovers but was in attack mode, liked what I saw.

    Stat of the night, through tonight, your back up bigs…clearly, we need improvement.

    Baltimore fouls/rebounds on season: 27/30, 26 points on year.

    Goldy fouls/rebounds on season: 11/21, 5 points on year.

     

     

    We’ll keep beating these mid majors, excited for VCU matchup.

    #8312

    LUHoops00
    Participant

    Messed up Baltimore, 27 rebounds 30 fouls, sorry.

    #8313

    LUHoops00
    Participant

    Question in postgame to reed on rebounding, are you concerned about frontcourt,and I tried to type quick enough to recap it for you –  “Yes, we gave up 21 offensive rebounds, we are concerned on frontcourt rebounding. Conroy always in foul trouble. Need to bring along Goldy. At times tonight played Holden at 3. We’ll try just about everything to overcome deficiency on team, it has to be a focus, to a man we have to be committed and determined to get the ball. I have no special solution from scheme standpoint.”

    “We’re going to try to hang hats on strengths and try to minimize wekanesses. Unless gabe puts on 45 lbs it wont be immediate fix, try to improve it and strengths come to forefront.”

    I got one idea…how about using your full scholly allotment!! that joke is old, sorry.

    #8315

    TMH
    Participant

    I’m not nearly as astute as many here but I’ll try to give my impression of the game tonight.
    1.)At times I felt like I was watching 2 different teams. There were long stretches where they did all the little things right. There was great intensity on defense, great court vision, nice distribution of the ball, getting it into the right hands at the right time. There were also long stretches where they seem to get really lazy with the ball and the 1st guy who saw a relatively open 3 took it. Perhaps the adrenaline burned off.
    2.)CJ picked a good time to have an “off” night. He still finds ways to contribute.
    3.)The best players for me tonight were AD and HG. Both showed incredible hustle, diving after loose balls. AD played great man defense, had some nice tight passes, quick hands. He may be tougher than we thin to get out of the lineup. HG just seemed to be everywhere,contributed in a lot of ways.
    4.)MM is still Jekyl and Hyde to me. When he is good, he is really good but when he isn’t, it is usually because he is out of control. Tonight he was much more on than off.
    5.)Gabe scored a lot of points tonight. He really knows how to post up and he was given the ball in great position often. He just didn’t seem to contribute in many other ways tonight.
    6.)CS is sort of the anti-Mackey. He won’t wow you but also won’t disappoint you. He is just fundamentally very solid. That’s a nice asset to have on your team.
    7.)SC was virtually non-existent tonight but that happens.
    8.)I feel sorry for CB right now. I think this foul issue is in his head now and he’s playing just a little bit scared. His first foul was committed right in front of me and I honestly didn’t see it. I thought if there was any infraction, it might be on SC. The second was just good help defense underneath. The third apparently was a body foul. Again I didn’t see it. The 4th was not being able to get out of the way of a runaway train. JG on the other hand was just out of control.
    My biggest critique is rebounding. Why doesn’t our frontcourt leave their feet? There were about 5-6 times where we had good position but the Fordham rebounder jumped while ours waited for the ball to get to them. Often we had 2-3 guys around the ball and lost the rebound. I would put a lid on the basket in practice and make sure everyone tried to get to the ball at its highest point. Forget height, technically be suffer in this department.
    All in all, it was a nice win. When we are functioning on all cylinders, like most of the 1st half, this team is great fun to watch.

    #8318

    lehigh90
    Participant

    I didn’t make it up to Stabler last night.  I had the misfortune of being given Sixers tickets and chose them over Lehigh.  That was a mistake, as I think Lehigh could have beaten the Sixers last night.  So, I didn’t see us live or on video or audio.  So, I am looking at a dry box score, but have a lot of questions for those in attendance.

    1.  Seems like game was blowout from the jump, up 20 at half and cruising.  Why so few minutes for the bench, starters all played heavy minutes?  Bigs limited minutes, DC one minute, etc.

    2.  In relation to #1, only 6 points from the bench?  4 for CS and 2 free throws for CB. 

    3.  Outrebounded by 15 boards by a lesser team without their star who is a big rebounder for them?  Our 3 “big” players last night combined for 3 rebounds (GK 2, JG 1, CB 0).  That is terrible.  How does GK get 2 rebounds in heavy minutes against a team that shoots under 45%.  To make it worse, one of GK’s rebounds was offensive as was JG’s single rebound.  So, between those 3, we cleared 1 defensive rebound!!! One defensive rebound for our big guys against a team under 45%.  That is terrible.  Terrible effort, terrible postioning, terrible blocking out, terrible everything.

    4.  As noted above, more fouls than points for CB and JG?

    5.  Another issue, in regards to SC.  If he is going to be our bench offense/sniper, how can you throw up a doughnut?  Coming off a 20 point performance, then 0.  How about a little consistency from Reed in minutes and from SC?

    Obviously CJ had an off night and the other starters picked it up.  Like the stats of HG, GK, MM, and especially AD.

    Crowd of 1,350.  Not bad, if accurate, for a Tuesday.  We looked empty at over 2,000 for FDU, so I assume it was a mausoleum?  Never good when you can hear the sneakers on every cut.

     

    #8319

    TMH
    Participant

    I’ll try my best Lehigh90

    1.)The team looked great in the 1st half.That 20 point lead though was as high as it got. Funny thing though, much of that lead was built with CJ on the bench. If the starters would have come out strong in the 2nd half, you would have seen much more bench clearing.
    2.)I believe Brett played his normal 8 man rotation, the bench simply didn’t shoot the ball much. Fouls limited CB and JG yet again. I think CS and SC got normal minutes. I focused on CB while he was in. I thought there was significant improvement since the Penn game. He moved his feet well, fought through screens, switched when appropriate. He got hit with a couple of ticky tack fouls early again and I think that plays with his head.
    3.)Our rebounding is terrible.I said this last year too. Even when we establish position, we don’t get off our feet. Our guards do a better jog of catching the ball at the highest point. It is not so much size that hurts us, it’s all the other things.
    4.)JG seemed to play out of control at the end of the game, trying to swat balls he should have stayed away from. CB, last night at least,just seemed to be victimized but that is my opinion. BTW, Brett seems to have settled into a substitution pattern of taking Gabe out after 8-10 minutes and substituting CB. At 6-6, he is now forced to guard guys much bigger than himself. He always seemed to be guarding the biggest guy on the court.
    5.)The trouble with the 3 is you can have off nights. CJ didn’t shoot the ball particularly well last night either. You already noted how badly Bucknell’s sniper has performed on occasion too. When it becomes a pattern, I’ll worry. Not quite yet though.
    I hope this helps.

    #8320

    lehigh90
    Participant

    Thanks TMH.  Didn’t realize the lead narrowed in the second half requiring the starters to play more minutes.  I would like to see CS and SC getting 15 minutes per game at a minimum, particularly in OOC.  If you give AD 20-25 minutes, and MM 30 minutes, that should open it up for those 2.  CB should play at least 10 to spell GK and HG.  JG is going to need to probably get 5-10 out of necessity.  I think you are pretty much going to be stuck with HG and CJ up at around 35 minutes in tight games, unless BJB is back. 

    Was BJB in street clothes again?  We need him to help us rebound the basketball.

    Anybody headed out to Loretto on Saturday?  It is a bit of a trek.  I saw PA and thought it must be pretty close, but over 4 hours for me.  If I could convince my wife it is possible.  I would doubt they draw too well out there.  St. Francis, PA played Lafayette very tough in Kirby last night, losing by a few late.  Army just demolished Marist.  They look improved.  Bucknell handled Kent State.  American lost to Howard.  They are looking softer than expected.

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