Navy – Game 7

[LU65Participant]

Game Notes

LU’s

We await

Navy’s

We await

KenPom
Navy (7-11, 3-3) and ranked 282nd
@
Lehigh (8-9, 2-4) and ranked 225th
Lehigh wins 66-60 (75% chance)

Pomeroy predicted we would beat Holy Cross by five, 67-62 (71% chance) on Saturday. As it turned out, we did win and it was by five, 69-64. Let’s hope he’s on target tomorrow night. It’s also interesting to note that, except for our game in which Pomeroy projects a 6-point margin of victory, he’s going with a bunch of one-point affairs in each of the other League games to be contested tomorrow night, i.e., Bucknell over Loyola, Lafayette over Holy Cross, Army over Colgate, and BU over American. Sounds like a good night to channel surf PL Live.

Things to consider in handicaping the upcoming game against Navy:
1. We each beat Army by 9 on the road
2. We each lost to Colgate on our home court……Navy by 2 and us by 7
3. Navy beat Loyola by 23 at home; we lost to the Greyhounds by 5 at home
4. Home Court Advantage? Going 1 and 2 at Stable in early PL play is not what any of us had hoped for. But, a crowd of 1,295 on Saturday (I know it’s not big in Bucknell terms) was certainly a step in the right direction. And, that’s with our students on break. Now that classes have resumed, let’s hope there’s a buzz on campus regarding the recent outstanding play of TK and KR. Maybe even the pep band and cheerleaders will decide to come on Wednesday. One could only hope.
5. No team in America allows a greater percentage of opponent’s “3’s to fall than Navy @ 42.6%. Now if only we could hit some!
6. Head-to-Head Player Matchups to Watch (PL games only stats)
TK (6’10” Soph.) Worth Smith (6’6” Sr.)*
18.3 PPG 16.5
9.8 RPG 7.0
.539 FG% .554

• While Smith’s stats are better, TK can expect to see Navy’s Ed Alade (6’9” So.) in the “5” hole. Alade is averaging 7.0 pts. and 3.9 rebounds per game over the season-long 17 games played this year.

KR (5’11” Fr.) Tilman Dunbar (6’0” Jr.)
9.7 PPG 8.9
6.0 APG 3.8
2.8 TO/G 1.3
2.8 A/TO 2.9

[LU65Participant]

Game Notes

LU’s
http://www.lehighsports.com/custompages/Game%20Notes/Men's%20Basketball/2014-15/18%20-%20Navy%20Notes%201.21.15.pdf

Navy’s
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/navy/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/2014-15/release/release.pdf

Facts that jump off the page that should be considered “fair warnings” as we game-plan for tonight’s game: In conference play, Navy is first in fewest turnovers per game (8.7), first in assist to turnover ratio (1.6), second in rebounding margin (+2.2), second in field goal percentage (.464), second in steals per game (6.7) and second in turnover margin (+2.5).

[RichHParticipant]

BA and JC stepped up. Nive win. Q tho,Cz
CS on the Ct for 23 min with 0 shots. Huh?
WBB lost vme in the 1st half. Treated the ball like it had cooties So many TOs. Almost all of N’s pts came off TOs,mostly bad passes.

[toddcuddParticipant]

Really, really nice game from BA. Stepped up when we needed a lift. He has quietly become our best 3pt shooter this season, and truly showed it tonight. I hope we see more of this! KR looked very good again, and JG filled the void on an off night for TK, offensively.
The balance was good, and I was pleased to see us bounce back from a VERY ugly shooting start. The start of this game had me very worried; nothing would fall.
All of that said, we were playing a gimpy Navy squad. They definitely missed Worth Smith tonight. Their shooting made us look much better. But it’s momentum heading into ‘pardville – I’ll take it.

[jimk72Participant]

Not very optimistic about Saturday, but if we could somehow get this next game we are right in it. I feel Saturday will be the swing game for our confidence and the league schedule.

[toddcuddParticipant]

Agreed, jim. We should probably get blown out. ‘pards are among best shooting teams in the nation, and we’re still struggling to shoot. And on their court. But based on season-to-date, that probably means we’ll play great.

[toddcuddParticipant]

Nice article on this game from CoBL. Sounds like they, like we, are looking forward to the KR-BA combo for years to come.

Lehigh-Navy

p.s. there’s a highlight in the Lehigh Sports recap video, around the 1:47 mark, where KR makes a defender look really silly. Fakes a pass to the wing and goes to the rack – defender is completely fooled. Worth a look!

• This reply was modified 9 years, 3 months ago by  toddcudd.

[lfnadminKeymaster]

Certainly was a complete team effort yesterday. One of the enormous factors that contributed to the win, though, was staying out of foul trouble, especially in the paint. When TK and JG only end with 3 fouls apiece, that’s a real positive towards a win.

Reed seemed to switch to a 3-guard lineup in order to get BA those extra minutes. Not sure if we’ll be able to do that against many more teams the rest of the way. Was a weird game because while AP had a below-average game overall, he did get a hot streak from 3 at the end of the first half that allowed Lehigh to keep a critical lead. TK, too, put the team on his back in the first half when nothing was falling. (I thought he had a double-double, with 10 boards? The box score reads 9.)

On paper the Hoops Rivalry looks like Lafayette plays into one of our biggest weaknesses, perimeter defense. But it’s the Rivalry. We’ll see. Personally it would be damned nice to beat them at Kirby to wash away some of the disappointment of 150.

[vanParticipant]

Navy had almost no inside game, thus our bigs stayed out of foul trouble, we still need work on how to beat zone D

[TMHParticipant]

lfnadmin,
I believe all Lehigh plays is a 3 guard offense. BA’s minutes are coming at the expense of CS and to a lesser extent AP.
Brett should pretty much resign himself to the fact that most teams will be packing in the zone during the second time around. Of course, the way to beat that is with the 3.
BA was a 47% 3 pt shooter in HS. Expect his minutes to increase. AP can get really hot from the 3 but he will need to be more consistent with it. MS was a know sniper in HS. CS makes 38% of his 3s but seemingly disappears for long stretches. SC is supposed to be our marksman but is shooting less than 30%. If we make the long distance shots, the middle will open up. If you can make 36% from the 3 that is the equivalent of 54% from inside.
On another note though, I continually forget to look but do we even play a match up zone at all. It would be ideal vs Lafayette. Plan B, play up-tempo offensively. 3 point shooters tend to lose their shot as their legs tire.

[lehigh90Participant]

Missed game, but by all reports and box, looks like a solid win with a lot of contributors. Only 764 in the stands, which is disappointing. What impresses me from box is that Lehigh held opponent to under 50 points, and Navy shot it very poorly, hopefully, as the shots were contested, and we outrebounded them.
From minutes, we went small, but looks like JC was back in a bigger role, and taking minutes from JG.
I think the changing of the guard is pretty much complete on this squad, the heavy minutes moving away from the Srs. and Jrs. and down to the Sophs and Frosh. CS opportunities fading with AP and BA taking over as perimeter players. Slowly becoming KR’s show to run, and we look to have pieces at 3 keys spots (point, pivot, wing).

Hopefully, we can pull upset in Kirby, should be a great atmosphere.

[TMHParticipant]

Another way to beat the zone is having our bigs kick the ball back outside. I think Brett likes to run the offense through TK. The problem is that when he gets the ball, the defense tends to collapse on him and the ball rarely comes out. I don’t know if we are averaging even one assist per game from any of our big guys.
Interestingly, looking at he Bucknell stat sheet after 20 games, they have 8 guys with 19 or more assists. Lehigh has 4. Teams become harder to defend when players are not so limited in their roles. Just my opinion.

[Author]

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