There are 347 DI teams...

Pard4Life · Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 300

Wow, 4-1. Not bad for the eighth worst DI team. Alot of decent midmajors on the schedule will surely reveal or strength this year.

carney2 · Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 1174

TheTruth · Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 485

I watched the 2nd half of the Georgetown game on MASN. Georgetown went on a big run to start the 2nd half and put the game away within the first 5 minutes. The announcers (Georgetown's) had very positive things to say about lafayette. They couldn't believe we were picked to finish last in the Patriot League.

Also there was a significant size difference between our players and georgetown's. It was not just height. Their players were much thicker. Should be a decent season if we can keep up with the shooting.

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

Wow! You guys are scaring me with all this positive talk! I think a winning season would be great. I think it is doable, but, we still need to see someone step up in a crunch situation and make a big shot. We needed it last night and it wasn't there.
Still encouraged though!

Go Pards!

Xboreturns · Joined: 31 Aug 2007 Posts: 231

What the hell are you talking about? We made a lot of big shots, clutch shots. Were you even at the game? There were seven ties, seven lead changes. There were big shots all night. Do the names Kari and Mower mean anything to you? What about Gruner's 3 clutch foul shots to tie the game with less than 30 seconds left?

This game was decided under St Pete's boards. They had 18 offensive rebounds to our 10. They had 19 second chance points to our 4. They had 28 points in the paint to our 12.

I'm never happy with a loss but I was happy with the way we battled under the boards. St Pete's is the kind of team we've had trouble with, quick and athletic inside. We just couldn' get that one rebound we needed or the one bounce we needed.

Another tough game at LaSalle on Thursday.

Steve · Joined: 12 Mar 2007 Posts: 29

St. Peter's offensive rebounds, not an inability to hit a clutch shot, cost us this game. A couple of more stats in addition to those cited by Xbo: (1) in the second half, almost half of St. Peter's points (15 of 32) came after offensive rebounds; and (2) St. Peter's had almost as many offensive rebounds (1 Cool

as we had defensive rebounds (21). In a close game, those numbers are very difficult obstacles to overcome. As far as clutch shots, we didn't miss a shot from the field or the line in the last two minutes, and, as Xbo mentioned, Gruner hitting all three foul shots with just under 30 seconds left was huge.

St. Peter's was very quick -- probably one of the quickest teams we'll face all years. They also had pretty good height, a lot of 6'6" swing players. They're a good defensive team, and we struggled at times on offense due to their quickness and length. We did have good success early in the second half hitting some three pointers against their 1-3-1 zone. It was pretty tough to get the ball inside to Mintz against the 1-3-1, although I would have liked for us to get the ball inside more when they switched to man-to-man later in the second half. I did think the team showed good heart in battling back after St. Peter's opened up a 7 point lead early in the second half and when they went up by 4 with about 1:20 left. However, we have to do a much better job on the defensive boards if we want to win many more games this season.

By the way, the dunk by Benbow off the feed from Gruner was as impressive a dunk as I've ever seen by a Lafayette player. I can't believe it isn't included in the highlights from the TV broadcast.

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

[quote="Xboreturns"]What the hell are you talking about? We made a lot of big shots, clutch shots. Were you even at the game?

No, I watched on tv and those ft's were big. Fran's teams have always shot free throws well. It's almost a given. My point is that if the kid doesn't run out at him, it's ball game.

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

By the way, the dunk by Benbow off the feed from Gruner was as impressive a dunk as I've ever seen by a Lafayette player. I can't believe it isn't included in the highlights from the TV broadcast.[/quote]

Yes, agreed, the dunk was impressive!