Three Thoughts: St. Francis Brooklyn 73, Sacred Heart 71

Leadership bringing intangibles to the party, but just what are intangibles? And what exactly is leadership?

Alas, even KenPom can’t help us there, but St. Francis Brooklyn gave us a pretty good idea Saturday afternoon in its NEC opener. The Terriers, picked to win the NEC for the first time (they’ve never won, either, obviously), found themselves down 18 late in the first half at upstart Sacred Heart, who was looking to get the last vestiges of a 2-14 NEC (and 5-26 overall) campaign out of their mouths.

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Three Thoughts: Boston University 75, Lehigh 56

Allowing 17 straight points is usually a terrible way to end a game. But it was just a garbage-time footnote for Boston University on Saturday afternoon, not even halving what had been a 75-39 lead. The Terriers led for all but 12 seconds of their home conference opener, burying Lehigh with a barrage of three-pointers to improve to 2-0 in Patriot League play, and dropping the Mountain Hawks to 0-2. Continue reading “Three Thoughts: Boston University 75, Lehigh 56” →

On Quinnipiac And Rebound Margin (Which Is Still Alive Somehow)

(photo courtesy: Quinnipiac Athletics)

On the front page of their media notes (and game program), Quinnipiac proclaims – with statistical evidence attached – that it leads the nation in rebounds per game and rebounding margin, while it ranks second in offensive rebounds per game.

Furthermore, if you read on, since 2010-11 the Bobcats haven’t finished lower than fourth in any of those three categories, impressively leading the nation in all three last season. In fact, of 350 or so Division I teams, little old Quinnipiac is tops two years running in rebounding and three in offensive boards per game.

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Three Thoughts: Lafayette 92, Army 78

Game 45: Lafayette at Army – Conference play! #TMMlegacy

A photo posted by Ray Curren (@goldenbally) on

//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.jsThe tough, really unfair to be honest, thing about being in a one NCAA bid conference like the Patriot League is that the non-conference season is pretty much meaningless. Zach Spiker went 9-2 with Army the last two months, including wins over Air Force and USC, which are not Kentucky and Duke (although one the losses was at Cameron Indoor Stadium and the Black Knights were respectable in it), but Spiker is running a program that has a single winning season (barely) in three decades, and he was the one that got it two seasons ago, so that’s a fairly remarkable achievement. Continue reading “Three Thoughts: Lafayette 92, Army 78” →

Three Thoughts: Yale 70, Sacred Heart 64

I’ve (pretty much unsuccessfully) tried to start the #RoadGamesAreHard hashtag this season, so I should have been less surprised than most to see Yale struggle to put away Sacred Heart Tuesday afternoon. They finally did 70-64 to go to 10-4 on the season, but it wasn’t pretty to watch, with 20 turnovers (in 64 possessions) and a spirited rally from an improved Pioneer team late.

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Seton Hall 78, St. John’s 67: More Than Isaiah Whitehead

Seton Hall is the youngest team in the Big East, but for roughly two-thirds of today’s game against St. John’s, the Hall appeared to have morphed into their cross-river elders. Largely comprised of underclassmen and newcomers, the Pirates played as if this was their third or fourth conference opener, building a lead that stretched to 11 points with seven or so minutes remaining in the game. Continue reading “Seton Hall 78, St. John’s 67: More Than Isaiah Whitehead” →