Dec. 18 Power Rankings
18 December, 2006The last seven days have seen only a handful of games as the players were focusing on final exams. There will be a lot more action this week, as teams begin to prepare for league play. Bucknell gets top billing, playing at Texas Tech on ESPN2, but Navy, American, Lehigh, Holy Cross and Colgate are also traveling to power-conference schools this week (technically Navy’s game against Georgetown is at the Verizon Center and not on campus, but who do you think will have a bigger fanbase in attendance?).
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| 1. | Holy Cross (6-3) | 1 | Big week for the ‘Saders. They first travel to Providence, who has been both dominant (big wins over George Washington and BC) and dominated (lost 51-41 at home vs. Brown). The Crusaders then host a George Mason squad with a bigger reputation than their talent level this year; almost unfairly, a Holy Cross win would be a headline-maker. |
| 2. | Bucknell (4-5) | 2 | The dominant Bison rarely needed to show late-moments mettle last year, but their closing run at Cornell showed a toughness and killer instinct that was absent in close losses earlier this season. Bucknell visits Xavier as a warm-up to their televised battle with Bob Knight’s boys. |
| 3. | American (7-3) | 3 | American’s annual jaunt to  College Park is this Saturday. One of these years a solid, battle-tested American squad will knock off the Terps. This is probably not that year; Maryland is ranked 5th in Ken Pomeroy’s ratings and 17th in RPI. |
| 4. | Army (8-2) | 4 | Thursday’s trip to Notre Dame should be a harsh reality check for the Black Knights. But Army is riding a 6-game win streak and won a pair of games over sub-D1 schools by a combined 111 points, and right now they’re playing like a team that can tear apart the bottom teams of the league and give hell to the top teams. |
| 5. | Navy (8-3) | 5 | Enthusiasm about Navy’s big start is further dampened by their shaky win over D3 Delaware Valley. The Mids have a prayer against Georgetown this weekend, but really the game should be a tune-up for the final non-conference games against Yale and NJIT, who may as well be Patriot League teams this year. |
| 6. | Lehigh (5-8) | 6 | Despite Lehigh’s tepid start, their game at Rutgers this weekend is huge for the league: Ken Pomeroy’s predictor gives the Mountain Hawks a 38 percent chance of winning. Lehigh needs Marquis Hall to shoot better for three, or stop shooting so much (27.9 percent on 43 attempts). |
| 7. | Lafayette (4-7) | 7 | The ugly loss to Columbia is a rude awakening for Leopards fans who were enthused by a three-game win streak before that. While most of the rest of the league has big-name opponents this week, Lafayette has two easy games against King’s College and Mount St. Mary’s as they try to find anything that will work. |
| 8. | Colgate (4-4) | 8 | It’s fun and sun for the Raiders this week, heading to Arizona State and UC-Riverside. Jon Simon is shooting just 38.0 percent on two-point shots; Colgate would be well-served if he stuck to threes (39.0 percent) and left two-pointers to Kendall Chones (55.8 percent) and Tim Pounds (51.4 percent). |
