Jan. 1 Power Rankings
1 January, 2007At long last, we’ve reached our final pre-Patriot League play ranking. Six teams have midweek tune-up games this week, with only Bucknell and Lafayette resting, before Saturday marks the opening day of conference games.
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| 1. | Holy Cross (8-6) | 1 | The loss to Niagara showed how much the Crusaders are going to miss injured Pat Doherty, but given their overall performance this season Holy Cross is still the team to beat in the Patriot League. Keith Simmons still hasn’t found his long-range touch from the past (36.9 percent from the arc, compared to 47.6 percent last year) but his stats are all up elsewhere, especially defensively. |
| 2. | Army (10-4) | 4 | Winning on a last-second shot over Sacred Heart is a huge momentum boost. If Army can keep the ball rolling Tuesday against Dartmouth, they have the opportunity to bring big momentum into the start of conference play. Army begins the PL season with trips to Colgate and Holy Cross. |
| 3. | Bucknell (6-7) | 2 | If there was any question if the Bison mojo from last year was still alive, the loss to Central Arkansas had to answer it. Donald Brown is doing an impressive job of trying to carry Bucknell to victories, and has answered critics who were unsure if he could handle an increased workload. But Chris McNaughton is getting stymied by double-teams and not taking many shots, and guards John Griffin, Jason Vegotsky and Abe Badmus are taking way too many bad looks. |
| 4. | Navy (9-5) | 5 | The home loss to Yale (who was without its best scorer for the entire second half) demonstrates that for all the progress Navy has made, there’s still a long way to go. The have done a good job spreading the offense (all five starters average more than 8 points per game) but they need a bench player to step up and assert himself as a scorer. Navy starts league play at Bucknell, in a huge indicator of if Navy will be able to hang with the top of the league. |
| 5. | American (7-6) | 3 | Suddenly American can’t buy a win. Getting roughed up by Virginia is understandable, but losing to the same Longwood team that the Eagles dominated a month ago reflects big problems in D.C. Arvydas Eitutavicius is averaging double digits scoring in 23 minutes per game; it may be time to move him into the starting lineup ahead of Linas Lekavicius. The Eagles travel to Lehigh and then Bucknell to start the season. Given American’s already-brewing negative momentum, Jeff Jones and Co. need to win one of those two games to stop any further downward spiral. |
| 6. | Lafayette (6-9) | 7 | The Leopards showed in losses at Temple and San Diego State that they can at least put points on the board in fast-paced games. The problem for Lafayette is defense. The Leopards start out the year hosting Holy Cross, a very tough match-up. |
| 7. | Lehigh (5-10) | 6 | Lehigh is in trouble without Jason Mgebroff. None of their other inside players are scorers, so teams will be able to clamp down on Jose Olivero and Kyle Neptune, who will need superhuman scoring efforts to keep the Mountain Hawks in games. Lehigh begins PL play facing American and Navy, two mid-tier league schools. Based on the competitiveness of these two games we should get a feel for how good Lehigh can be without Mgebroff. |
| 8. | Colgate (5-7) | 8 | Mendoza Line alert: Colgate’s starting backcourt of Jon Simon and Daniel Waddy are shooting 34.9 percent and 33.3 percent respectively on field goals. When the schedule game out, the season-opener of Army at Colgate looked to be a battle between the likely last place team and the surprising dark horse. It still is; the roles are just the opposite of what was expected. |
