Rider – Game 3

[LU65Participant]

Game Notes

LU
We await

Rider
We await

According to KenPom

LU (0-2) Ranked 234th
Patriot League = 19th
@
Rider (2-0) Ranked 193rd
MAAC League = 16th
Rider wins 71-65 (73% chance)

A quick glance at KenPom tells us that Rider is the 30th ranked team in the nation when it comes to nailing its 3-point shot @ .457. When it comes to grabbing rebounds off the offensive board, we’re near equals (Rider @ 23.8% and Lehigh @ 25.8%) and ranked in the bottom quartile of all teams in the D-1. And, we seem to have met our equal on the 15’ line, with the Broncs struggling @ .565 and the Mountain Hawks @ 552. Awful!

Views and Notes of Interest

We’re off to a slow start with back to back 12 point losses – one acceptable, the other not. Where we go from here is anyone’s guess as team looks for its identity. I guess it’s all well and good – as frustrating as it is for fans like us. That is, as long as we’re ready to play at 2pm on December 31st when Colgate walks into Stabler. The 40 days of experimentation and preparation continues tomorrow as we travel to Lawrence Township (NJ) to take on the Rider Broncs.

Rider will be the second of three foes we’ll face out of the MAAC. The others: Canisius and Quinnipiac. Rider was picked to finish 7th in their conference pre-season poll (Canisius was tabbed at #10 with Quinnipiac at #5). The Broncs are off to a fair start winning by 16 over the Quakers of Penn at the Palestra after dropping their opener on the road to Princeton by six. Lehigh will be the Broncs’ home opener.

Two nights ago it was #1 for Canisius, Zack Taylor (6’3″ sophisticated pg) that did us in with his play (24 points and 3 steals ). Tomorrow night all eyes must be on – believe it or not – not one but two 195 lb. 6’3” guards. One is a sophomore, the other a junior. First, the second year man: Rider’s #3, Jimmie Taylor. He hasn’t missed a beat concluding his freshman year (played in all 31 games) with a 12.1 ppg mark and nailing 3s at a .469 clip. Named a member of the 2013-14 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference All-Rookie team, he ranked first in the MAAC in three point field goal percentage, 13th in overall field goal percentage, 15th in assists and 24th in scoring. The second is #2, Zedric Sadler. The third year man led the 2013-14 Broncs in assists and was ninth in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference…was third on the team in rebounding and fourth on the team in scoring, three pointers made, and minutes played, and finished ninth in the MAAC in three-point field goal percentage (.400). After two games this year, he’s sporting a 16.0 ppg average on .733 shooting. Taylor and Sadler – two fine backcourt players who should prove to be a true test for Ross, Schaefer and Company.

Last night (Wednesday, 11/19/14) in the PL

Army 74 (now 3-0 on the season)
St. Francis (BKL) 71

Boston U. 71
Norfolk State 63

Holy Cross 80 (now 2-0 on the season)
Brown 65

Lafayette 83
Princeton 66

Loyola (MD) 45
UMBC 38

The PL is now 12-11 against OOC foes

[toddcuddParticipant]

Since we were off last night, I watched some of the other hoops available on PLN last night. After our showing vs. Canisius, I’m left feeling more than a little uneasy about our season. The pards were excellent against Princeton – shot the lights out and did everything well. 54.7% from the floor, 58.8% from 3. Only 7 TOs while turning the Tigers over 17 times. I didn’t see any of their game vs. WVU, but they’ve now had 2 very strong performances against decent teams in Princeton and RMU. Maybe just a reminder of how things can swing from game to game, I dunno. I need to see a bounce-back vs. Rider, and per 65’s info above, Rider should be better than Canisius.
On the upside, I also caught some Loyola vs. UMBC, which was some pretty awful basketball.

[pafan11Participant]

I hope team shows up ready to play because AD will be fired up and I’ll bet he has his teammates fired up. If we think back AD lost his starting spot to AP before he got hurt and you can bet he has not forgotten.
PL: Pards, HC, and Army look like they are playing very solid ball out of the gates. Pards pounding Princeton is a impressive win from what I heard about LU’s scrimmage with Princeton.

[jimk72Participant]

Curious if any of our board brethren will be in the stands at Rider tomorrow night…? And does anyone know a decent route from Allentown to Lawrenceville? Map seems to indicate it’s a mess to get there from here, particularly with late afternoon traffic.

[LUHoops00Participant]

Wish I was 72 but not making trek to NYC area until early early sat morning to meet buddies in the city for some morning cocktails pre game. Should be a good game, nothing like a road win to get us started.

[lehigh90Participant]

I live pretty close to Rider, but I’m going to miss this one as well. I’ll be watching basketball, but of the youth variety.

Jimk72, I would take 78 into Jersey and down Rte 31 to Rider. I would avoid going the other way down NE Ext, PA Turnpike then into Jersey, as traffic will be bad.

They usually have a good atmosphere in there.

[toddcuddParticipant]

Tonight’s game can be streamed online via Rider, but it appears to be subscription based. Looks like a single-game option is available for $5.95. I think I’ll probably suck it up and spend the 6 bucks this time around; I need to see things turn around.

Rider Schedule with video links

[toddcuddParticipant]

[jimk72Participant]

I was there. And was shocked when I got home and saw the stats. Out rebounded them 34-22….(11-6 offensive boards us !). 100 F***ing % from the foul line (13 for 13)! How did we lose this? 17 turn overs to their 8. And though total shots from the field were fairly even (53-52 us), they shot 25 times from the foul line to our 13. They had way more possessions because of the TO’s. Again. But the Mora video is appropriate. Another perfectly winnable game if we don’t get sloppy with the ball.
Subjective notes….. It seemed they came up with easy baskets when we tied or on the few occasions when we led. Seemed we lost focus on defense at just the wrong moments. Or we’d throw the ball away or walk. They hit tough 3’s at about 2 on the shot clock twice, and hit a long three at the buzzer in the first half. Rider isn’t bad and they are rather big, making this lose even more frustrating. I know we are what our record says we are. But the pieces and talent are there. BA had 30 generally impressive minutes. AP got it going again for the most part. And TK with another double double. But why such limited use of Goldie? And JC with just one rebound?

[LU65Participant]

I couldn’t get to the game or see the BroncVision broadcast on the net. Family commitments, you know. Therefore, anxious to read everyone’s take on the event. Left only with a stat sheet, it’s clear we shot the ball well but done-in again by our sloppy play! Here’s a case where the numbers don’t lie.

Opponent/Our Turnovers/Their Pts. Scored Off Them

Villanova / 31 / 23
Canisius / 9 / 20
Rider / 17 / 17

3- Game Totals / 57 / 60

KenPom reports turnovers in a different but highly revealing way. He looks at the percent of our offensive possessions that result in a turnover. Sadly, we rank among the worse in the nation @ 338th and last in the PL losing possession of the ball 28.6% of the time. Of equal importance, we force an opponent turnover in just 14.3% of their possessions.

[StablerBumParticipant]

Bad news: another winnable game slips away and turnovers are out of control

Good news: 88% of points, 85% of rebounds, and 100% of assists were from freshman and sophomores. Patience this year gentlemen, building something special. Just hope these guys continue to get better through the year and have learned how to win some of these games as the season continues.

[lehigh90Participant]

Didn’t see game, just box. But, are we headed to a starting 5 of KR, AP, TK, BA and JC? Another big night for BA and another poor performance from CS. We are getting nothing out of our seniors.

[LUHoops00Participant]

Not much to add from 72 recap, well done.

Seems staff has figured out our best four players are ross alston price and kempton and I am not sure it’s close after that.

This was a weird game, our offense was running at a higher level but couldn’t get that one big stop when we needed it. Rider was hot from deep and we had no answers for orekaefor. Price looked very good and fluid, commentators erer talking about how quick his first step is, my god he has improved. And it’s going to be hard, mean really hard, to keep alston off the floor. He’s a scorer from the wing and we need that. We have some high end talent, we young as SBum figured out so staff job is to figure out how to get a young team to win, not easy. Talent there. Hopefully we get a couple wins and some momentum soon.

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