PL's Dismal Start

Forum Forum Lehigh Sports Lehigh Men’s Basketball PL's Dismal Start

This topic contains 2 replies, has 1 voice, and was last updated by RichH RichH 14 years, 3 months ago.

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  • #1345

    LU65
    Participant

    The combined W-L record of the eight Patriot League teams thru play yesterday stands at 27-50 or .351%. That places us on the 28th rung of the Division I / 33 league ladder. The PL leads only the Northeast, Mid-Eastern, Southwestern, Independents, and Great West conferences. It’s hard to argue strength of schedule (SOS), as 5 of our members are playing schedules ranked below the 300 mark. Only Holy Cross and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Colgate are playing what might be called difficult schedules. Toss out their records and the leagues is still limping along at a .431 clip (25 wins -33 losses). Have our members ever been off to a slower start? What’s to blame?

    School / W-L Record / Sagarin Ranking (347) / Opponent SOS (347) / Scoring Margin
    (Listing shown in Sagarin Ranking order)

    Army / 7-2 / 112 / 311 / +6.2
    Lehigh / 3-5 / 227 / 176 / -5.0
    Lafayette / 6-5 / 242 / 338 / -0.1
    Holy Cross / 2-8 / 251 / 70 / -8.5
    Bucknell / 4-6 / 253 / 317 / +0.1
    Navy / 4-7 / 282 / 309 / -3.9
    Colgate / 0-9 / 326 / 139 / -12.3
    American / 1-8 / 336 / 340 / -8.8

    Comments or correlations?

    #1351

    LU65
    Participant

    It’s always fun to compare ourselves to the Ivies. This year is no exception. While the PL and IL are knotted up at 6-6 with 9 games to go (LU gets Dartmouth and Yale – both at home), the Ivies have done a bit better in OOC play winning 31 of 69 games played to date (.449%). or just enough when one considers their advanced SOS to place them now 7 steps up that D-I ladder, standing securely on the 21st rung. Seven of their eight teams post SOS’s above the 300 mark while only 3 of the PL’s 8 teams (Holy Cross, Colgate and Lehigh) can make the same claim. As for top performers, the Ivies boast two in the nation’s Top 100: Cornell and Harvard. The PL’s nearest competitor is Army at 108.
    Is this not the worst start in PL basketball? Does anyone have historical information to back up or refute that claim?

    For those of us who buy into the Sagarin theories, consider this…….
    were the Mountain Hawks to play the Orangemen of Syracuse – the #1 team in America – at the Carrier Dome, Syracuse would be favored to win by 29. Conversely, if LU were to travel to Lorman, Mississippi – home of the Alcorn State Brave -ranked last in D-I at 347, LU would be favored by 11. Lehigh is seen as the 227th best team in America, beating out 120 teams in D-I basketball. Pomeroy places LU at 228; RPI on the other hand awards LU a 176 ranking. Go figure.

    Next up for Lehigh: 12/17 … home to Dartmouth

    #1354
    RichH
    RichH
    Participant

    Given injury to Z and flu among players cannot complain about start. As you said greatthat Greiner and Knutson got lotsof minutes Reed can safely go 10 deep in rotation .No other PL teamcan do that.

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