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  #1  
Old 10-14-2006, 02:27 AM
Bison Bison is online now
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Default Patriot League Basketball - 2006/07 Season

With Midnight Madness upon us, it's time to start thinking about college hoops.

As far as the Patriot League goes, it should be a significantly tighter race this year (although I guess it kind of has to be after Bucknell ran the conference table last season.) Bucknell loses two of their best players, so any of Holy Cross, American, Colgate, or Lehigh could get the PL's NCAA bid.

Team Notes in predicted order of finish (with the understanding that I know nothing about the incoming freshmen):

1. Bucknell
Until they're beaten, there's no reason to bump them. They still have center Chris McNaughton and starters (PG) Abe Badmus and (PF) Darren Mastropaolo. Last year's sixth-man Donald Brown will attempt to fill 2005/06 PL POY Charles Lee's shoes at the three, while the SG starting spot is up for grabs between John Griffin and sniper Jason Vegotsky. The Bison certainly won't cruise through the conference like last year, and they most likely won't sniff the Top 25 where they finished last season. But they're still my pick to win the PL.

2. Holy Cross
The Crusaders lose Mr. Everything, Kevin Hamilton, but retain their other four starters from a solid team. Holy Cross will likely feature the best backcourt in the conference with Torey Thomas and Keith Simmons. Tim Clifford, the Big Purple Dog, will hold down the center spot again. This is the team in the conference that scares me.

3. Lehigh
There's no more JUCO Joe for the Mountain Hawks this season. However, the senior backcourt of Jose Olivero and Kyle Neptune should keep Lehigh right in the thick of things in the PL race. However, their lack of frontcourt production will keep them from being in the same class as Bucknell and Holy Cross.

4. American
Andre Ingram could contend for PL POY this season...if he adds some consistency to his performances. When he's on, he could very well be the best player in the league. Unfortunately for the Eagles, that's only about half the games he plays in.

5. Colgate
Colgate had what could only be considered as a disasterous season last year. Predicted by many to challenge Bucknell, they finished the PL season with a 4-10 conference record. I don't understand this team one bit. (G/F) Kyle Roemer is a very solid player, and the Chones brothers, Kyle and Kendall, should be more productive than they are. I'm not entirely sure where the problem lies with this team, but if they figure things out, they could make some noise. I just need to see some evidence that it could happen first.

6. Navy
Navy went 3-11 in-conference last season, and could improve on that by a game or two this season. Junior guard Greg Sprink scored 15 ppg last season, high by Patriot League standards. Overall, not much to get excited about here... but taking the optimistic view, at least they'll beat Army.

7. Lafayette
They finally got scholarships! Fran O'Hanlon is a very good coach, and the school's decision to allow athletic scholarships will certainly help him put together a team to contend for conference titles... in 2009. For now, it's going to be another long season in Easton.

8. Army
The Black Knights may have peaked last season... when they went 1-13 in PL play. They do have a little backcourt talent coming back this season (seems to be a recurring theme in this conference), but they have no inside game to speak of. For the sake of competitiveness, I hope they do get a win or two in-conference.
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Old 10-27-2006, 10:35 AM
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Bumping this thread because all of the other so-called power conferences are starting theirs up.

I agree with your predictions, I think. Bucknell might lose one to Holy Cross, but those two teams should each go no worse than 11-1 against the other 6 teams. I didn't know Lafayette is allowing athletic scholarships now ... maybe they can move up from completely dreadful to just plain suck.
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Old 10-27-2006, 11:19 AM
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Thought I should check in...HC Alum! After exam (thankfully next week!) I need to do some reading on the Patriot league...see who HC is this year! I'm hoping to take my kids up to a couple of games this winter!
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Old 10-27-2006, 11:22 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by udjw828 View Post
Thought I should check in...HC Alum! After exam (thankfully next week!) I need to do some reading on the Patriot league...see who HC is this year! I'm hoping to take my kids up to a couple of games this winter!
If it wasn't Halloween weekend, I'd be heading to yout alma mater this week to watch Lehigh claim their rightful place atop the PL football standings.

However, it would take me forever to just get out of Salem due to all the tourists, so I'll have to live with the Lehigh webcast on yahoo.
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Old 10-27-2006, 01:43 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MountainHawk View Post
Bumping this thread because all of the other so-called power conferences are starting theirs up.

I agree with your predictions, I think. Bucknell might lose one to Holy Cross, but those two teams should each go no worse than 11-1 against the other 6 teams. I didn't know Lafayette is allowing athletic scholarships now ... maybe they can move up from completely dreadful to just plain suck.
I don't know that either BU or HC escapes with only one conference loss. I'm still a little worried about where the points are going to be coming from for Bucknell. For all of McNaughton's strengths, he doesn't shoot as much as he should (although the constant double-teams have a lot to do with that.) Badmus is a strong PG, but hasn't shown a lot in terms of scoring. Donald Brown isn't anywhere near the scorer that Charles Lee was at SF. Hopefully the Griffin/Vegotsky combo at 2G can light it up from the outside.
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Old 11-14-2006, 09:11 PM
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Bucknell goes to halftime up 4 against Wake Forest. But quite a bit of foul trouble, including McNaughton with three.
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Old 11-14-2006, 09:25 PM
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The loss to Albany Saturday, what's the story there? Bucknell's on my watch list and this surprised me.
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Old 11-14-2006, 09:34 PM
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The loss to Albany Saturday, what's the story there? Bucknell's on my watch list and this surprised me.
First off, Albany's a decent team... they put a pretty big scare into UCONN last year in the first round. And the game was in Albany.

As for the game itself, Bucknell had a 15 point lead and just let it evaporate. One problem Bucknell needs to figure out is where the points are going to come from. We lost Charles Lee and Kevin Bettencourt, our two biggest scorers, to graduation. So when teams double McNaughton in the paint, we need to have scoring options outside of bombing threes (which we actually do somewhat well.)

I wasn't at the game, nor did I get to see it, but from what I've read on the BU message boards, we seemed to have a lot good looks rim out. And those nights happen. All in all, I expected a loss in this game, given that there was a LOT of dependency on Charles and Kevin last year.
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Old 11-14-2006, 09:48 PM
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Bucknell up 7 with 12 minutes to go!
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Old 11-14-2006, 09:55 PM
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Hopefully they finish the Deacons off.
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