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The Patriot League and ESPN have announced an extension of their partnership through the 2007-08 season. The release states that a minimum 12 regular season basketball games (men’s and women’s combined) will be broadcast next year, up from 11 this season. The new agreement also guarantees that all eight Patriot League programs will be eligible to participate in ESPN’s BracketBusters event.

A late collective slide turned what was looking like a dream season for the Patriot League early on into merely a very solid one. But with many questions left unanswered on the eve of league play, let’s take the time go beyond the records, the RPI rankings, and the perceptions to take a closer look at how Patriot teams have performed in the non-league portion of the schedule. What you’ll find below are normalized statistics, designed to take out skewing factors such as pace of play and data contamination by other factors.

Here are the numbers — taken from games against Division I opponents — along with team-by-team breakdowns of what the data means:

Key sequence: Columbia trailed by three when Niko Scott was fouled, hitting both free throws to make it a one-point game with 1:56 remaining. Jose Olivero couldn’t connect on a three-pointer, but Lehigh was awarded the ball out of bounds. Following a missed Neptune jumper, Scott was called for traveling with 52 seconds left. The Mountain Hawks ran down the shot clock before Marquis Hall misfired and Columbia called timeout with 14.8 seconds left. Out of the timeout, Foley put up an airball from three, but Scott was there to grab the offensive board. Lehigh’s Phil Anderson was whistled for what Lehigh sports information termed a “questionable” foul just before the buzzer, sending Scott back to the line for two attempts.

Key sequence: Cornell had weathered a string of nine unanswered Bucknell points bridging halftime and built its lead back up to 13 at 56-43 with 11:49 left. But the Bison scored eight points on their next three possessions for a quick 8-0 spurt, and after a Louis Dale layup, John Griffin hit a three-pointer to draw Bucknell within four at the 9:17 mark. A game that had seen the Big Red lead by double digits most of the way suddenly became a tight affair the rest of the way.