Willen All Rookie Team

Kiltedpard · Joined: 28 Feb 2007 Posts: 293 Location: Bethlehem, PA

Congrats to Ryan Willen for making the all rookie team! A bright spot. (Pun intended!) I guess tihs is where we begin to measure our future.

As for this year, we finished where they said we would. LAST! SIGH!
Nice effort Sat., but, Carr drains 3 - 3's in OT and we don't get a shot when we need it. Crowd finally got into it in the second half and actually booed the officiating. Justifyably so! Now we have to play AU again on Weds.
I really thought we'd be at least 6-8 this year and hoping for 7-7. Losing 3 out of 4 to the academies doesn't sit well with me. (and getting blown out by 24 at home to Army, really doesn't sit well)
I did see the 3 top teams (AU, HC, Navy) in person and I'll say again. These teams are physically bigger than we are. Not taller, bigger. Gruner, Koltun and Orchowski are the only ones who seem to have the same physical presence. We also had 3 walking wounded - Petkovich, Visockas, and Benbow. I don't know, do we have a strength and conditioning issue?
Mercer and Carr both played 40 + minutes and both looked like they could have played some more. (As an aside, unless he's got something hiding on the bench, or some juco's transfering in, Jeff's team is going to be sucking wind next year - 6 out of top 8 were seniors.)

Kinda disappointing considering what we did 10 years ago without scholarships.

bison137 · Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 206

Kiltedpard · Joined: 28 Feb 2007 Posts: 293 Location: Bethlehem, PA

.......and so-so academic standards, it's likely that he'll find a starter or two via that route.
quote]

Thanks for the update. Could you elaborate on the academic std. statement?

carney2 · Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 1173

My only in person appearance at Kirby this year. I lost even more respect for our shambles of a hoops program. American is number one in the league (13-1 so far) and, in my not so knowledgeable opinion, are not all that good. They are make or break off the performance of Carr and Mercer, both of whom can play, but are undersized back court players. They don't appear to have any truly talented big men and, though better than our crew, their inside game is nothing to write home about. As someone already noted, their bench is not deep. The last time I looked (still some time to go) Jones had only gone 3 deep down his bench.

My long winded point is that it doesn't take a complete team, or really all that much, to be king of the hill in the Patriot League. Jones is doing it with two undersized guards. To be just competitive - to have some kind of a chance every time out - it takes even less. The Lafayette program is none of the above - and based on the scanty information available, has no help on the way. They will apparently finish at 8-22. You can say "they're young," but what does that mean? What can we do next year? 12-16? Be still my heart. Both teams - men and women - stunk the place out this year, and last, and... Something needs to be done. BRUCE, time to get a backbone.

Long Time Fan · Joined: 23 May 2007 Posts: 30

Lafalum · Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 843

Can anyone ansewer a question that was asked in stands and brought up in this thread. Most of the teams we play are bigger ( not taller). Does Fran believe in weight training? Our kid are lean but are not as strong or obviously muscled as the other teams I have seen this year. To a certain extent its in the DNA but perhaps the off-season weight room doesn't see too many basketball players??

By the way I agree there is no chance of any major change coming in the men's program unless there is magic somewhere in this group of assistants. No way will the school buy out Fran's large long term contract!!

carney2 · Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 1173

TheTruth · Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 485

caney2, i agree with your assessment about American to a point. I watched the game on MASN so I had the benefit of replays and multiple angles. Yes, the success of American is dictated by Mercer and Carr. These two guards are head and shoulders above any other guard combination in the league. Mercer is incredibly steady running the offense and could easily be a 20 point scorer in this league. They have other players like Brian Gilmore (2nd team all-league). And one of their starters, i believe it was Frank Borden, was in foul trouble early and didn't play most of the first half. They also play good defense. the quickness of their guards and forwards can disrupt a team's offense. Also their Sagarin rating of 107 is hard to deny.

I'm still amazed that the game went into overtime. We had to work for every basket. I thought we could have done more inside. this game shows that there is very little difference from the top to the bottom of the league. If you can win your home games and steal 1 or 2 games on the road, you can find yourself in the top 3.

The encouraging part is we only lose one player who I believe is very talented but tried to carry too much of the burden this year. We do have some talented players returning. Who knows what a year of maturity will do? They need to work in the weight room this off-season.

I do agree that something needs to be done to jump start both basketball programs. I always thought basketball was our premiere sport.

carney2 · Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 1173

Kiltedpard · Joined: 28 Feb 2007 Posts: 293 Location: Bethlehem, PA

Here are the statistics. This was our worse season (8-22, assumes a loss tomorrow night @ AU) under Fran since his first (7-20). In his 14 year tenure, he's had 5 winning seasons and 6 non losing seasons (15-15 last yr). 2 PL titles and 2 trips to the big dance, which believe it or not was now 10 years ago. He's the winningest coach in school history. He'a also has the most losses. His winning percentage is 47.9% and is contracted through 2014.