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Date Posted: 10:02:49 12/02/08 Tue
Author: LU 65 (Mt. Hawks Step Up in Class)
Subject: B'ball Tonight vs. St. Joe's

The arena should be rocking tonight, as the Hawks of St. Joe swoop into Stabler. Don't let the respective 5-1 (LU) and 2-3 (SJU) records deceive you. Instead, look behind the numbers at the Sagarin Power Ranking and Schedule Strengths of both LU and SJU and their opponents. Other than our holiday visit to the West Coast to take on the Huskies of Washington, this should be our toughest test of the year. While a Mountain Hawk win tonight is not out of the question, a lot (and I mean a lot) of things have to go right. More about that later. First the numbers with Sagarin's Power Rankings and Schedule Strength shown in (xxx):

Lehigh (148 and 317)
win over Dartmouth (336 and 323)
win over Rutgers (180 and 321)
win over St. Francis (PA) (253 and 156)
loss to Rider (100 and 143)
win over Delaware St. (322 and 8)
win over St. Peter's (317 and 236)

St. Joe's (90 and 63)
loss to Alabama (102 and 219)
win over Indiana (129 and 160)
loss to Texas (15 and 170)
loss to Holy Cross (235 and 202)
win over Rider (100 and 143)


Keys to any win we might dream of:

1. Slow down (doubtful we'll stop) their 6'9" Sr. F out of St. Anthony's in Jersey City, Ahmad Nivins (18.0 ppg and 10.8 rpg) who boast a cool FG% of .681. Ahmad is a guy some think will be playing for money this time next year. Can Zahir Carrington and company limit his chances down low to 7 or 8 attempts while keeping him off the FT line? There he hits with team-high (.813) regularity.

2. Force St. Joe's to beat us from beyond the arc while staying in the face of Darrin Govens, their 6'1" Jr.
Guard at all times. You can bet our stopper, David Buchberger, has been watching some game film over the last few days. Govens is their only player hitting >.400 from deep and he also takes 42% of their long range shots. The rest of the team hits at a .217 clip.

3. Balanced scoring out of Lehigh. Continue to make our opponent guess from where our shots will come. Point production out of our starting five is any coach's dream: 29.2ppg from our forwards and 27.8 from our guards.

4. Another hot shooting night by Marquis Hall (28 vs. Rutgers) or Prentice Small (always good for 14-16 once a year....this could be it) wouldn't hurt either.

Actually, the "pack-it-in down low / challenge the long range shooters" defense we employed against Rutgers might work again tonight. Only trouble, SJU is not RU. It would seem, no matter what, we must enjoy one of those 45%+ shooting nights to walk away with a victory.

See you at Stabler!!!

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Replies:

[> Re: B'ball Tonight vs. St. Joe's -- LU 65 (Game Notes), 10:52:27 12/02/08 Tue

The game will be featured tonight on Fox College Sports (FCS) Atlantic.

LU Game Notes follow:
http://www.lehighsports.com/assets/sports/mbball/Game%20seven%20Lehigh%20vs%20St%20Josephs%20120208.pdf

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[> LFN's St. Joe's Preview -- LFN, 11:31:31 12/02/08 Tue

http://lehighfootballnation.blogspot.com/2008/12/st-joes-hawks-swoop-into-bethlehem.html

My preview for the big game is up too!

To me, the key to this game will be rebounding. Carrington and Anderson will need big games on the boards, and hopefully at least one will have double-digits.

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[> Re: B'ball Tonight vs. St. Joe's -- lufan, 13:08:17 12/02/08 Tue

and still nobody will care enough to be at stabler...face the facts.

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[> [> Re: B'ball Tonight vs. St. Joe's -- LFN, 21:51:12 12/02/08 Tue

Try: 2,400 cared.

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[> [> [> crowd estimate appeared to be legit -- BERTHA, 09:22:38 12/03/08 Wed

No estimates of 980 with about 250 there. Once again proving that when there is a good crowd at Stabler, there is a lot less to complain about.

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[> Re: B'ball Tonight vs. St. Joe's -- MODERATOR, 14:41:16 12/02/08 Tue

Should be an LU win by 8 points. St Joes lost to Holy Cross and they stink.

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[> Re: B'ball Tonight vs. St. Joe's -- bison137, 15:05:41 12/02/08 Tue

>>>Should be an LU win by 8 points. St Joes lost to Holy Cross and they stink<<<


LU could win if they play well, but St. Joes is favored.

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[> Re: B'ball Tonight vs. St. Joe's -- JC, 05:19:36 12/03/08 Wed

there were more people than normal at stabler. unfortunately most were st joes fans.

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[> Re: B'ball Tonight vs. St. Joe's -- LU 65 (Out-muscled by SJU), 07:01:17 12/03/08 Wed

Seeing John Gourlay's number up in lights to start the night didn't give me much comfort. I'm sure I wasn't alone. There is street clothes, at the end of the bench, was our #3 scorer (9.8 ppg), #3 rebounder (5.7rpg), and #3 minute man (23.8mpg) 6'10" Forward, Phil Anderson. Okay, no excuses. We didn't lose the game because we didn't have Phil.

We loss to a very talented St. Joe's squad who came out on fire (LU never held the lead) and took the battle to us. We couldn't and didn't respond well with no answer for their superstar, Ahmad Nivins. He has his customary 20 pt / 17 rebound game. The rest of their team did as expected, too. SJU's FGs and "3's" were falling at a somewhat acceptable rate of 42.9% and 31.3% rates, respectively, as well. Actually, we nearly matched them in FG%, but suffered from the line hitting only 8 of 17 chances. SJU tallied 18 of 23 from the stripe. SJU did, however, put on a clinic, however, in ball control (20 assists to 11 turnovers) and block shots (5 to LU's 0). Bottom line: the 13 for 22 shot performance coupled with the combined 22 rebounding effort of their interior players (Nivins and Hilliard) was just too much for John Gourlay / Zahir Carrington to handle. Our big guys were assisted by Freshmen Forwards Adams (17 minutes) and Mineri (11 minutes). That had to be quite a learning experience for them - a positive on a night like this if you're looking for one. Another positive? Try 2449 fans in attendance. Yeah, I know many (perhaps most) were SJU backers. But, so what! Stabler had life and it was good to see.

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[> [> Re: B'ball Tonight vs. St. Joe's -- MODERATOR, 07:40:06 12/03/08 Wed

Nivins was the difference. He was tripled teamed on occasion and still scored. Unfortunately, that's the kind of player the PL teams can't get.

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[> Re: B'ball Tonight vs. St. Joe's -- ///, 09:32:39 12/03/08 Wed

"Try: 2,400 cared"



Yes - 1000 Lehigh fans and 1400 St Joe fans.

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[> [> Re: B'ball Tonight vs. St. Joe's -- Neighbor, 13:10:00 12/03/08 Wed

Lehigh's recent attendance problems can also be blamed on factors other than the team's quality of play. The quality of play is as good as its ever been, I think.

Stabler Arena no longer works. Its off-campus location is a real pain for today's student body. Too many other choices that are MUCH more flexible. Add in more stringent restrictions on natural young adult behavior (some students probably expect to be body-searched at the door) and you have an enviornment that can easily be avoided.

For me, taking away the women's game on the same evening has been a real turn-off. That was good basketball, gave fans 2 chances to go home a winner, and made for a longer evening of entertainment value. Those double-headers presented Lehigh basketball all on one evening.

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[> [> [> Re: B'ball Tonight vs. St. Joe's -- MODERATOR, 13:50:03 12/03/08 Wed

That's a problem throughout the league. This was decided by a vote of the ADs (hopefully after talking to both the mens and womens coaches). I've been told that only Lafayette voted to retain the double-headers.

It has basically divided the fan base. Most people don't have the time or in some cases the money to support both programs. It has also put an additional cost on the cost of hosting the games. You now have twice as many dates and twice as many setups, need staffing for twice as many dates, etc.

This is the Patriot League, I don't see any sellouts for the league games. It should be changed back but it won't be.

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[> [> [> [> Re: B'ball Tonight vs. St. Joe's -- Ted, 11:38:58 12/04/08 Thu

Most men's coaches were in favor of single games, the women mostly were not. HC and American were the only schools unanimously in favor of single games.

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