Lafayette – Game 21 (PL's 8th)

Forum Forum Lehigh Sports Lehigh Men’s Basketball Lafayette – Game 21 (PL's 8th)

This topic contains 9 replies, has 7 voices, and was last updated by  LU65 10 years, 2 months ago.

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  • #13296

    LU65
    Participant

    Game Notes

    http://lehighsports.com/custompages/Game%20Notes/Men%27s%20Basketball/2013-14/21%20-%20Lafayette.pdf

    KenPom

    LC (9-11, 2-5) 221st
    @
    LU (4-14, 0-7) 284th

    LU wins 76-69 (77% chance)

    LU in the PL

    2 OT Wins and 5 Losses (4 by a combined 10 points). The question remains in the minds of many of us, I’m sure: Are we as good as the team that in the span of 11 days loss by a combined 6 points to the league’s 3 best in BU, Army, and AU or are we as bad as the team that laid an egg up in Worcester, losing by 19? It’s probably somewhere in between. A win tomorrow would go a long way to answering that question. So, too, does a loss.

    Simply, the pressure is on us to win.
    1. We’re at home.
    2. It is a rivalry game.
    3. Our opponent hasn’t won a D-1 game since December 7th. That’s 7 weeks to the day.
    4. Lafayette ranks dead last or 10th in the PL when it comes to 2 and 3 pt. defense allowing teams to hit 54.3% and 45.1% of their shots, respectively. In fact, the Leopards rank 349th (4th worst in the nation) in “points allowed opponents per 100 possessions” @ 119.4.
    5. A loss would drop our record to 2 & 6 and two games out of 6th should Loyola, playing at home, down Colgate. There no way anyone wants to finish 7th thru 10th and play what would amount to be a “play-in” game (7th vs. 10th and 8th vs. 9th) on Monday, March 3rd.

    I’m expecting Mackey, Corey and perhaps even Stefan to demonstrate poise and “senior” or better said
    “upper class” leadership in this game. Its’ the “been there – done that” sort of thinking. AP, TK, SW, JC and other first year players who might see action are in for a wild ride. It’s Lehigh-Lafayette!

    #13311
    RichH
    RichH
    Participant

    Love the win TK and JG were outstanding. We still close like shit but we played a consistent game for a change. Sadly, Pards are really a bad team that we barely beat on our home court.

    Made the huge mistake watching LUWBB. That team has disintegrated since start of PL sched.

    #13316

    toddcudd
    Participant

    Granted, I’m thrilled to beat the ‘pards, so take this with a grain of salt. But I think I saw a break-though tonight. I was admittedly worried about putting TK and JG on the floor at the same time, for depth concerns. But it was huge. Completely changed the defensive approach for the ‘pards. If we can run that for extended periods, opponents can’t double (triple) the post the way we’ve seen them do recently.
    Suddenly, JG is Kevin Garnett. He is confident and effective in the post – consistently. And his presence gives TK room to do his thing. It is WAY out of character for us to play 2 true bigs like that – but the results can’t be questioned. JG – 8 for 9 from the floor, TK – 7 for 10. I think we found the formula.
    It gets better from here, I’m feelin’ good.

    #13317
    sundayamqb
    sundayamqb
    Participant

    Great observations, toddcudd. Best game (I saw last 10 or so mins) I’ve seen JG play — he looked really dominant on O down stretch with both hands, real fluid. I guess Doc Reed can play the hot hand and work whatever matchup he needs on any given night and hope something clicks. Great to have that kind of depth. Hitting FTs at end is/will be key.

    #13318
    sundayamqb
    sundayamqb
    Participant

    BTW: Stabler looked empty. Sad. Someone needs to develop a marketing plan to pack the place. With all he tight games, it’s been a great place to watch hoops this year. This team’s too much fun to watch to have it so empty.

    #13338
    StablerBum
    StablerBum
    Participant

    Love the progress out of JG. Imagine how dangerous the frontcourt could be if all three of JG, JC, and TK are clicking at the same time. JC is in a MAJOR funk right now (2-18 in his last 5 games and 1 for his last 16 from 3), but we know he is better than his recent performances. He needs a few lucky rolls and to attack the glass to get some confidence. We still have over 2 full years of those 3 guys figuring things out, and that is a very exciting prospect. I have to admit that I did NOT see this coming from JG at all, and I give the coaches a ton of credit for getting him up to this level of production.

    The crowd was pretty disappointing. Not sure why the athletic department insists on charging students $5 for the Lafayette game. Is that really a significant revenue source? In my mind it would make a lot more sense to make ALL the games free for students, and use the Lafayette game as a way to introduce otherwise apathetic students to how much fun basketball games can be. Instead you are creating a barrier to get kids in the door for what would otherwise be your best shot at capturing new fans.

    #13339
    RichH
    RichH
    Participant

    I do salivate (drool) over possibilities for our frontline.
    are they still running promos to get students to games? I agree not much revenue,why not just let students in for free, at least at TV games,altho I would doit for all PL regular season games.

    • This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by RichH RichH.
    #13342

    TMH
    Participant

    The only thing consistent about this team is its inconsistency. Ahh the problem of youth. See wrestling and WBB too. I’m glad to see JG’s recent success. I hope he too can remain consistent at this level. He seems to be the only big willing to leave his feet. I love his athleticism.
    I noticed that students still are getting their ID cards swiped at halftime. Is it possible that students get free admission if they attended other games? I agree however, there is absolutely no reason to limit attendance when the stands are only half full.

    #13350
    ngineer
    ngineer
    Participant

    I was at the game and thought the crowd was smaller than usual for an LC game, but then, LC has been losing a ton and they brought very few to the game. In years past I’ve seen over 1,000 LC fans in the stands. I’d be surprised if there were 100.
    As for the game, Gouldsboro is starting to show that he CAN become a force. Just play with your talent man and stop thinking too much! The game should not have been that close. Main reason was horrendous foul shooting. It is inexcuseable, and yet you see the problem nation wide. No one wants to drill and spend the TIME it takes to shoot foul shots. I wonder how much time is actually spent on foul shooting? With decent foul shooting we might have four more wins! Spend the time that has the most impact on the ‘bottom line”!

    #13351

    LU65
    Participant

    While there have been numerous examples of pitiful team shooting performances from the line since the start of play (SD State @.444, Houston @.467, and Sacred Heart @.571), oddly enough the team ranks first in FT Shooting Percentage when it comes to its performance in PL games alone @.760. See numbers below.

    Team % (all games): .701
    Team % (8 PL games): .760 (#1)
    Our best % (all games): CS @ .806, MM @ .775
    Rest of team % (all games): .660

    No doubt, Shane @ .535 needs to spend the most time at the line in practice programs.

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