Penn Recap

[lehigh90Participant]

I didn’t make it up to Stabler for either of the last two games, but it was a nice two days for Lehigh.  Good recaps from those in attendance.  Last night seemed like what has become the typical for Lehigh.  Good games from the big 4, CM, MM, HG and GK, and little from anybody else.  Quite frankly, I don’t see anybody contributing greatly this season outside of these 4.  And, next year is starting to look like a scary proposition.  Outside of the big 4, you have an emerging CS, who is doing everything correctly, and becoming the go to guard off the bench.  You have a shooter in SC, who doesn’t often shoot it too well, and some bodies in AD, and the bigs JG and CB.  I don’t see big contributions this season from the guys outside of the top 4 and CS.  I think at this point CS gives you a multi-dimensional game that the others lack.  He can handle the ball, he can penetrate and dish, he can shoot it from the outside, and he is pretty fearless in his style of play.  He is a willing defender although not the quickest, but he does the most, and, in my opinion, has earned the minutes.  I am more comfortable with him on the floor than AD and SC.  I also think he becomes a key player and starter after this season.  I think at this point there is no doubt that on this roster, CS is a starter in his junior and senior seasons.  Not what I projected last season, but he has shown a lot in the early going.

The only card left to play for Lehigh is, of course, BB, when and if he returns.  I think, if healthy, he immediately jumps into the starting 5 for AD.  His defense alone warrants that, and he gives more on offense than AD as well.  So, you have a very solid 5, with CS a solid 6, then some bodies to fill in minutes.  Again, I don’t see anything but minor contributions from the 2 bigs (JG and CB) and AD and SC.  At this point, I really have no expectations for DC.  He is obviously buried, for some reason (injury?), but impossible to project him as a factor this season.  Huge disappointment.

So, I’m hopeful to cruise in the rest of the OOC games, with the exception of VCU, which will be a big test.  Bucknell looks like a step above Lehigh in the early going, and although we will always have the best player on the floor, our lack of quality size is going to be a killer.  If CB and JG progress maybe we are contenders.  If not, we have to hope for CJ to strap everybody to his back and carry us (a la Danny Manning for Kansas years ago).

Final thought, attendance.  Dismal.  Two games against quality opponents and under 1000 for both.  It’s a disgrace.  I am partially to blame, I guess, as I missed both games as well, but terribly disappointed.  Attendance figures and current roster after Big 3 does not give me a ton of promise for the post-CJ era.  We could be a 10 win team next season.

 

• This topic was modified 12 years, 2 months ago by  lehigh90.

[LU65Participant]

Great recap.

Of added interest………….

Moring Call reporter, Tom Housenick, tells us in today’s paper that “For the second night in a row, Reed went with an eight-man rotation, getting only 38 minutes combined from his bench.”

Allow me to add a personal commentary…………….
“Of the 38 bench minutes, 12 were awarded to “bigs” and therein lies the problem. It’s become clear that Reed doesn’t trust Goldsborough. If he did, we’d see him pulling reserve duty in OOC play – like last night – when W’s & L’s don’t really matter. That is, of course, unless Reed and Co. thinks getting 25+ wins will get us bid should be fail to win 3 in March. I don’t see that as a viable consideration, however. Remember, Coach Reed would regularly play 10-12 guys in games leading up to January. It was uncommon in years past for 8 players to have 12 + minutes of playing time. So then, why? My guess, barring an undisclosed injury, is that JG and DC are simply not ready to defend the ball in the manner needed at this level of play. Nothing gets under the Good Doctor’s skin more than giving up easy baskets and poor defense, in general. Unless that condition changes and changes soon, we’re left hoping – perhaps against hope – that Gabe and Holden can (a) give us 28+ minutes/night and (b) make it through the season unscathed by injury. Both are mighty tall orders. Oh, how I wish Jesse Chuku could trade-in his practice jersey for a game-day jersey.”

[TMHParticipant]

I missed the Fairfield game due to a prior commitment. Managed to see this year’s team play Penn though. For not being there Lehigh90s synopsis was spot on IMHO.
I thought Gabe was the best player on the court yesterday. He seemed to be able to post up at will although will didn’t seem to come around as often as I would have liked. It seemed like every rebound he got was a battle. HG had a nice game too. He showed me plenty of hustle. CJ seemed to have one of those games I’ve seen so often in the past. He didn’t seem quite into it but when all the smoke cleared he had 21-4-4. MM is a bit of an enigma to me. There are times he looks brilliant and times he looks out of control but all in all, I’m glad he’s on my team. Like Lehigh90 said, there was almost no production from anyone else. Does anyone know what the status of BJB is? I’ll assume he is waiting for clearance but is it likely to come this season?
Penn by the way impressed me. I don’t think they are all that talented this year but the coach went deep into the bench so there was a lot of motion off the ball and screens galore on every play. Lehigh, by contrast, seemed to stand still a lot and let the ballhandler try to create something. Perhaps it was just my imagination.

[TMHParticipant]

With regards to the future, check out this nice article on Whitfield

http://future150.com/hs/basketball-news/whitfield-could-prove-to-be-a-steal-for-lehigh

[RichHParticipant]

With Jesse next yr’s class looks outstanding. A spaceeater would be nice.
On Devon, he may not be in Doc’s doghouse altogether. He spent Thanksgiving at Doc’s house.

[LUHoops00Participant]

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to everyone on here who shares the same passion as I, LU Basketball. Lots of good commentary to discuss.

1.) Goldy – Listen, I don’t care if he is ready or not right now, he HAS TO PLAY. We have a roster of 4 guys bigger then 6’6, and he is one of them, and he gets 1 minute combined these past two games in preseason NIT. We need to develop this guy, and he needs to improve between now and the PL Tourney, and the best way for that to happen is by getting game experience. Even 10 minutes a game is good right now, we will need him in any heavy whistled game, can’t just have GK, HG, and CB as “bigs”. Just can’t do it.

2.) Bench – Got 2 points vs Penn, we’re very top heavy, atleast until BB gets back. Really haven’t seen JG or CB take a step forward, and we need one of them to break right quickly.

3.) CS – yes, been most pleasant surprise so far through 5 games. His game has improved, as 90 has said. Agreed, he’s above AD and since he is more multi-dimensional then SC he is earning more PT. I don’t think it is a 100% guarantee that he starts next year however. You have MM back at the 1 and AP coming in, and I don’t want to count out DC yet. DC is buried, it is shocking to me, I don’t think it is injury or doghouse related, just think that each other backup guard minus AD brings something more to the table. With AD you have more experience, but I could see DC beating him out by end of yearor once BB comes back and reenters the starting lineup. With CS you got another ball handler and some offense. With SC you got instant sniper offense off the bench. I don’t want to say DC won’t ever amount to anything because he is backed up on pine right now, we are loaded at guard and maybe Reed just bringing him along slowly, aka BB last year. This will be interesting to see how it plays out, but with BB returning, any real shot at minutes this year seems low right now, as he’ll be behind MM, BB, CJ, and CS at a minimum. Can he beat out AD and SC by end of year, I guess that is the question, but not sure of it, and if he does he is still the 5th guard at best.

4.) Next Year – Agree with 90, going to have a ton of holes to fix, obviously. I think we’re all pretty high on AP and SW, and TK as a class. TK has at the least has a couple things going for him. First is size, in recent tweets back and forth between him and GK, TK showed pics of him being taller then his old man and GK said that both TK’s were taller than him. So of the listings we’ve seen on TK, it appears 6’9 is a legit height, and he appears to be getting stronger. Second, good bloodlines and work ethic to get bigger and better. Maybe he’ll be a steal for us. We got JC back next year, so those 4 need to be immediate impact. I am leaning way towards BB not being back next year, just can’t see it happening at this point, I really can’t. So assuming BB is out, you got the following next year:

MM, CS, AP, SC, AD, DC

SW, JC, JG, TK

In other words, without BB, guess what, we could be playing TWO MEN DOWN again next year. Wouldn’t that be lovely. If JC and SW are legit, we could be pretty solid next year, because I think we’ll still be decent at guards with MM, CS, and hopefully a day 1 ready AP to add to DC/SC/AD. We should be good at guard play, not great, not phenomenal, but should have a good mid-major guard attach. If JC and SW are both legit, well then you got some hybrids/mismatch forwards to add to JG and TK up front.

Either way, if BB stays or goes, we got one more scholly. I really hope we learn from this year and USE IT.

 

[norcalfanParticipant]

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to all.

 

If I may, I believe all the comments are right on. This may be out of Reed’s hands on some level. In the few years that I have watched LU basketball, the seniors have always led the team. Perhaps they can encourage the “bigs.” They need toughness down the stretch. An eight man rotation this early in the season is not a good sign. Team work wins games! Let’s go Lehigh!!

[sundayamqbParticipant]

Sorry for the late post.

I was at Penn game, too.

1) Attendance was dismal, but most kids had gone home for holiday.

2) CJ: Great player, but this game showed what could be his Kryptonite: collecting too many fouls. He sat in first half after getting two fouls.

CJ tries to do so much (and drew one or two offensive fouls), but he’s needed as an offensive threat. Great defender, too, but has to be careful.

3) Knutson probably had best game on court.

4) Lehigh needs to have more guys in game to help spread the foul load to cover opposing big men.

5) Corey Schaefer was biggest upside surprise for me. Handles ball well and, judging from shoot-arounds before game, can nail it.

6) Greiner played his tail off, though not on his best shooting game …

7) Cvrkalj looked great in shootarounds. Wish I could have seen him play more.

8) I heard some serious doubt as to whether BJ would be back — a huge loss for the team, but perhaps in his best interest academically. He’s gone through a lot: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/lehigh/index.ssf/2012/02/bj_bailey_overcomes_numerous_o.html

As we all know, academics are way more important than risking our bodies to even more injuries that can cripple us for life.

Should be an exciting, challenging year. What a fun group to watch!

 

 

 

 

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