Forum › Forum › Lehigh Sports › Lehigh Men’s Basketball › PL Awards
This topic contains 9 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by TMH 9 years, 11 months ago.
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March 2, 2015 at 6:04 pm #18817March 2, 2015 at 6:46 pm #18818
How sweet it is!
Now for the big prize which I’m sure either would trade for.
March 2, 2015 at 7:09 pm #18820Congratulations to both of them. Much deserved.
My question is if we have the best player in the league and the best newcomer in the league, why are we the 3rd seed?
March 2, 2015 at 7:52 pm #18821TMH,
The answer is simple there are five players on the court and for most teams 3 to 5 on the bench that must contribute. Congrats to both players and wish them both continued success.March 2, 2015 at 8:22 pm #18824pafan11,
I’m not trying to be disrespectful when I asked that question. I just like good discussion. I’m not sure however that the answer is that simple. Bucknell had 1 1st teamer who was not one of the 2 unanimous selections. They were 13-5 in the PL. Are their players 3-8 far superior to ours? I’m not sure. Do they do a better job of getting everyone involved in the game which spreads the stats around? Do they do a better job schematically which allows them to win more games?
I few years ago, I asked the same question in women’s lacrosse. We had the best player in the league for 4 years and the rookie of the year 4 years in a row but failed to win a PL championship (I think). Did we only get one great recruit every year or did we fail to mesh the talent that we had.
For discussion purposes only.March 2, 2015 at 9:47 pm #18826In this case I think it shows more how evenly matched all the teams are across the board, and how much “team” really comes into play. Just because you have a lot of talent doesn’t mean it meshes into a team in a great way. As great as TK and KR have been, I can point to several games when one or both have struggled or inexplicably disappeared. Though to be fair it’s happening a lot less lately.
On that subject, to me the X Factor in these games has been none other than Jesse Chuku. It really does seem like when he’s firing, Lehigh is very, very hard to stop.
March 3, 2015 at 12:35 am #18827I think our starting 5 are as good or better than any other starting 5 in the league, our first 8 are just a little behind, next year I think that changes for the better as we get a little more experience, Buffs are returning league champs and Gators start 4 seniors, in a league with this much parity, experience makes the difference
March 3, 2015 at 2:48 am #18828I took your comment just as you intended it, TMH. The short answer seems, to me, to be “consistency”. Looking over our shooting % over the year, it’s been crazy erratic. Heck, even from one half to the next. The “why” is the tough part.
Inexperience certainly contributes – and I know people here are sick of hearing it. But the fact that remains that our top 3 offensive contributors this year are 2 sophs and a frosh. Then we’ve got MS, a soph with very limited minutes last year, BA as another frosh, and JC – effectively another sophomore. As JG’s biggest fan, I still think he’s under-utilized, but that’s where we are.
I agree with LFN to an extent about JC. When he’s on, he gives a BIG boost off the bench – can change the game. But when he’s off… wow. Has to be the streakiest shooter I can remember.
I’ve got to believe that we’ll be better still next year – another year under the belt. At the moment, it feels to me like we’re one scorer away from where we need to be; need one more option. MS or BA might grow into that – but I’m also excited to see next year’s class. Holba in particular looks like he could add a game-changing dimension.
Still plenty of fun left this season though! I still believe that we could make a run. Just need to put it together, one half at a time.March 3, 2015 at 3:39 pm #18831TMH,
Didn’t mean to imply that you were being disrespectful but I do think it is that simple. When this team plays as a unit of 8 they are very good. When it becomes an individual game geared solely around TK or KR they struggle. By no means am I saying that TK and KR are the cause of this style of play.March 3, 2015 at 4:00 pm #18832pafan11,
I think I may have found the answer to my original question and it’s something we have discussed a lot on this board.
The rookie class of 2009-2010 is analogous to the group of guys we have now. They went 22-11,had both the Rookie of the Year and the Player of the Year in the same person won the Patriot League Championship, gave Kansas a battle in the NCAA. In addition to the young guns however, they had great senior leadership in Hall and Carrington.
The following year, with that great rookie class now a year older, they go 16-15 and lose in the PL semi-finals. The difference…we were led by a freshman PG and some really good sophs and they played accordingly.
The good news is that team grew up after that year and again won the PL championship and beat Duke. I don’t know about Duke but if this team goes through the same type of maturation process and the incoming class has the type of impact that I think they are capable of, the sky may be the limit next season.
But in the mean time, let’s beat American on Thursday. -
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