Quinnipiac – Game 7

[LU65Participant]

Overseas for both out home-opener against Quinnipiac on 11/28 and the follow-up contest against Fordham on 12/1. Here’s hoping someone posts Game Notes and comments/observations based on eye-witness or video-scene accounts. Anxious to read.

GO LU!

[StablerBumParticipant]

In honor of LU65, I’ll post a link to the game notes.

http://www.lehighsports.com/assets/1/wo … /46374.PDF

Couple of interesting things:

– Love this part of the game story on Lehighsports.com: "Admission is FREE with Lehigh ID and buses will be running. There will also be FREE food and drink for all Lehigh students, sponsored by RHA." – maybe the administration is starting to take action on the attendance issues

– Quinnipiac leads the entire NATION in rebounding. So that should be a really good test for our big guys to play a determined, athletic, and physical team that loves to rebound. Maybe increased minutes for Baltimore?

– Q-pac is one of our few remaining OOC opponents with a chance for a decent record, so a win would be big. And it goes without saying that opening the home slate with a W always sets a good precedent.

– they also lost @ American by 1 last week and has also beaten Navy by 20+ at home, so they should be a solid test and good gauge of where we stand compared to the rest of the PL.

[lehigh90Participant]

Will be there tonight, and will post report late tonight or tomorrow.

[LUHoops00Participant]

Good notes stablerbum, thanks. I read the Q notes and they are plus 14 in rebounding, so this will be a test for GK and HG, with hopefully a nice effort off bench from JA and JM and CB.

Agreed, Q should end up with good record, so this would go down as a nice OOC win. This is one of those tough OOC games that could go either way, but is imperative to building up record. Letsd hope layoff didn’t slow down momentum that was built in lynchburg.

[norcalfanParticipant]

Nice team effort. Let’s keep it up LU!!! Long season ahead. Keep up the good work team.

[LUHoops00Participant]

I didn’t get to watch the game yet, excited to read lehigh90 recap, but great win by our boys. 5 straight, halfway through ten game mid major stretch of schedule unscathed. interesting to check box score at half and then compare to end of game. At half gabe and holden were big contributors with five off bench for SC. Mackey had zero and cj just 5. In second half cj goes for 18 and mackey gets ten, gabe continues his work and we have huge 45+ half. Good balance scoring again, good to see mackey keep up the better shooting. We outrebounded them, didn’t expect that to happen, big effort by frontcourt. SC I read had a 3 and then a runner at end of first half, L90 did he get any run in second half? As rotation tightens, is SC becoming more reliable off bench scorer then AD, can he take AD minutes when conference play starts?

Off to bronx thursday then cornell saturday in tight turnaround for team.

[lehigh90Participant]

I arrived at Stabler last night about 10 minutes prior to tip-off. I parked about 100 yards from the door, which I knew meant a small crowd. If cars aren’t passed the building on the gravel, it is a bad sign. I got my ticket, and low and behold, I was sitting at center court, 3 rows off the floor. The announced crowd of 893 was really about 300-400. If you took away the cheerleaders and band, the student section was about 50. The entire upper section (yellow seats and benches) were closed off. A sign said something to the effect of "To promote an intimate atmosphere, the sections were closed". The blue seats were about 1/3 full. To early points, Stabler needs a jumbotron of some sort, and a new game announcer. There is zero excitement in that building. All that being said, here is how the game went.

Lehigh started with the standard 5 in man to man. Quinnipiac was big and pretty athletic. Early on, Lehigh ran a lot of set plays for Knutson on the low block, and he was effective. Manieri was the first big off the bench, then Schaefer for Mackey, who picked up 2 early fouls. Mackey sat almost the entire first half. In the first half, Lehigh played almost everyone. D’Orazio, then Adams, then Czrkalj, then Bailey and Baltimore late in the half. The first half was very choppy, a ton of ticky tack fouls both ways, not much flow. The star of the first half was clearly Greiner. He brought a ton of energy, hit a 3, rebounded in traffic, and just played great. Knutson was strong as well. CJ had a tough shooting night from the floor (struggled all night), and just couldn’t finish at the rim. Quinnipiac’s stud, Azotam, who came in averaging 17 and 14, played 5 minutes, picked up 3 fouls, then sat the rest of the game. He sat at the end of the bench with a sleeve on his arm, so I assume he was injured. Without him, Quinnipiac only had one real offensive threat, Johnson, and he had a great game.

Some realizations about the first half and the game really. Hamilton is miles ahead of the others for the last starting spot. He plays hard, good on the ball defender, and is big enough to be a presence on the glass. He can also shoot the ball effectively and is a leader. D’Orazio can shoot if left open, but can’t get his own shot off the dribble, and struggles on the defensive end. Czrkalj can really stroke it from the outside. You can see it even in the warmups. But, he is strictly a guy you need to run off screens to get open. He also can’t get his shot off the dribble yet, and is a liability on the defensive end. A telling play for him in the first half was they ran a play for him off a timeout, he came off a screen and knocked down a 3. But, then he lost his man at the other end, who promptly hit a 3. But, he can shoot it. Schaefer is a solid player. Not flashy, but can shoot it, and runs offense pretty well. His biggest problem is going to be at the defensive end of the floor. He can’t stay with a quick guards. In fact, outside of Mackey, nobody can stay with quicker guards. Lehigh tried everybody on Johnson in the first half, and he just blew by everybody. Bailey looked athletic on him, but picked up 3 quickies in about 5 minutes. He looks very athletic on the floor, but just finding himself after a long layoff. He pressured Johnson on the ball too tight 25 feet from the basket, then picked up ticky tack fouls on the perimeter. Lehigh had a solid lead at the 10 minute mark, then Quinnipiac made a run, and actually took the lead later in the half. Lehigh ended the half on a run to lead by about 7 at the half. The interesting thing about the run was the lineup on the floor. Reed ran CJ at the point, a so-called "big" lineup with Bailey, Knutson, Greiner, and Hamilton. CJ was effective in that lineup on the offensive end where he penetrated easily from the top of the key, and was effective on Johnson at the defensive end. He showed me a lot in that short run. He is a good defender when you need him to be.

Lehigh dominated in the second half. Johnson got worn down, and they had limited other options. They had a big 6’9" frosh Darme, who was solid, but outside of that Quinnipiac had little. They were athletes but not really basketball players. Reed shortened his bench greatly in the second half. Mackey was the key in the second half. He was up and down, but he could push the tempo, and could defend on the perimeter. Those were the keys in the second half. Mackey was chomping at the bit to start the second half after sitting so long in the first. But, after the first 3 possessions I thought he was going to find himself back on the bench. He forced a bad 3 on the first trip (you could see Reed roll his eyes), then on the second trip, he drove out of control and turned it over, then another bad 3 late in the clock on the third trip.
I thought for sure Reed was going to pull him, but he stuck with him, and he played really well the rest of the half. Hit 2 3s, penetrated effectively, and defended well. He really pushed the ball up the court which created more space for CJ to operate. CJ scored a lot of points in the second half. What I really like about his game is his ability to get fouled. He had a terrible game from the floor, but still scored in the 20’s because he took almost 20 foul shots, and hit almost all of them. His biggest problem is finishing off the dribble. He tries to take it at big players in the paint, and has a tough time knocking those difficult shots down. He has a great ability to draw fouls, but I would like to see him develop a pull up game from 6-8 feet. He is deadly in the open floor, but he need Mackey to run with him and push the ball. He is not the vocal leader of this group, that is Greiner and Knutson, but he leads with his play.

Throughout the game, Lehigh shot the ball very well from 3. A number of guys hit, even Adams at one point. Any time Quinnipiac made a run, Lehigh answered with a 3 to stop the run. Lehigh pushed it to a lead of about 15 later in the second, then Quinnipiac made a late run back to 7-8 before the final margin. Interestingly, Quinnipiac did not foul late in the game. They just let Lehigh run clock, and didn’t put them at the line and try to trade 2 for 3. So, it was a good win. The refs really didn’t let anybody play, which hampered the flow, but Lehigh played pretty well. Mackey is going to be key for this group. He needs to play and stay out of foul trouble, because once he goes to the bench his replacements aren’t nearly as athletic which hurts on both ends. Final thoughts, Manieri added some decent minutes last night off the bench. He is clearly ahead of Adams. That group of bigs will hopefully continue to improve, because if Knutson or Greiner find themselves in foul trouble, it will be trouble. I would like to see more minutes from Baltimore. He played about 5 minutes in the first half and immediately added an offensive rebound and putback. What surprised me about him is that he is not that big. He doesn’t have the size to bang inside with bigger players. He was dwarfed by a couple of the Quinnipiac players. Lehigh is missing a quick player off the bench like a Prentice Small. Their wings and backup PG options aren’t athletic enough. As a group they shoot the ball well, but lack foot speed and quickness. Knutson is really developing. He is consistently posting and calling for the ball on the low block, and when it goes inside he is effective with the little half hook in the paint. I loved his leadership and desire for the ball. The 3 man core of Greiner, CJ and Knutson is very good. I think late in the season, you may see Bailey develop as a 6th man type off the bench. You can just tell by watching him that he can play. He just needs game action. He has all the tools.

Final note, somebody needs to do something to get fans in the seats. It is about as sterile an atmosphere as you could have. Hard to motivate for me to drive up there to watch in that environment. I would much rather watch them on the road. The game day experience is really lacking. I hate to harp on that but why does it take the ticket lady 5 minutes to get you a ticket when the arena is 90% empty, and why is there a 20 minute wait at the half for concessions when there are 400 people in the arena. Why is nobody selling Lehigh paraphenalia. It mush be demoralizing to the players to play in that home arena.

[lehigh90Participant]

LUHoops00, didn’t see your questions. SC played only in the first half, and scored 5. He hit the 3, I mentioned, off a set play out of a timeout. Then at the end of the first half, he attempted a 3 with about 8 seconds to go. It was blocked easily by his defender, but he followed the loose ball and hit a runner in the lane as time expired. So, that was a big momentum push for the second half. Like I said early, the kid can stroke it from deep. But, he has a really slow release, so he needs to be open at the 3 point line with space. His second 3 he didn’t have that, so it was eaten up. He could be a candidate for more minutes, but he needs to pick it up on the defensive end. He gets lost in screens, and needs to develop quickness and strength to fight around screens on defense. If he improves at the defensive end, he will get more minutes. He and AD are similar players, although SC better shooter, AD bigger player. AD hit a 3 when open in the game, but, he, too, had one badly blocked later in the game. I don’t see AD getting major minutes in PL play. I think he loses minutes to Bailey and perhaps SC. The starters are going to play major minutes on this team. I don’t see a 20 minute bench player in the group, unless they develop more confidence and better defensive discipline. They really could use some quickness on the perimeter.

[StablerBumParticipant]

I watched the live video last night. Nice team effort and a nice job on the glass. The first half was destroyed by the referees with I believe had 28 total foul calls and both teams in the bonus for 8+ minutes. I have to say that Q did miss a number of lay-ups and that their best player was limited to only 4 minutes for unknown reasons. Overall I would say that the performance deserves a B, which is pretty good when it results in an 11 point win over a good program.

Gabe had a great game, and Holden an outstanding 1st half. The bench was also very good at coming in and filling their roles. BJ got some first half minutes which might be a sign of things to come (although he didn’t do much). Nice to see CJ still go for 20+ on a night when he struggled to shoot the ball. JM, JA, and CB all gave some nice frontcourt minutes off the bench, and SC added an offensive spark. He does struggle on D though and immediately negated his made 3 by giving up a wide open 3 on the next trip down for Q.

Mackey had another off night – early foul trouble and then tried to overcompensate in the second half. He did knock down 2 big threes, although one was a brick with a lucky bounce. But the team continues to play well. Hopefully he can right the ship which will only make this team more dangerous. 5 in a row is terrific heading into a road game at an A-10 school. A pretty bad Fordham team won at Stabler last year, so hopefully the guys have redemption on their mind.

[StablerBumParticipant]

Great write-up ’90. I think we were writing our posts at the same time, and your analysis blew mine out of the water. I agree with 100% of your observations.

[RichHParticipant]

Thanks for all the recaps. Up in NYC so I will try to get to FU game. Not an expert but BJ seems to me to be a key. Rusty true but he is fast and athletic . Mackey still gets himself out of position early and then has to sit.BJ will match up well as he gets his feel back against the more athletic 2Gs we see. I love AD’s intensity and spark but he is out matched at times. SC is as advertised. Until he can atleast show up on D, 5 or so minutes 6-10 pts.

[LU65Participant]

Thanks guys for the writeups!

Sitting somewhere off the coast of Belize and happy to read all the reports.
LU65

[norcalfanParticipant]

Lehigh90,

Thanks for the thorough analysis of the game. The administration does not understand how lack of student participation affect motivation of the players. As I have stated on numerous occasions, some of these young men came from packed houses. It would be hard to get excited when your high school crowd is 4 times the size of your college team. As I sit in the gym at high school, I am still blown away by the number of fans in attendance. Reed has recruited very well the past few years. One must admit, Lehigh is a great education!

[Author]

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