January 4, 2023
Tonight marks the beginning of conference play in the Patriot League. How have we done so far?
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2022 Patriot League Standings
TEAM CW CL Pct W L Pct RPI Prestige
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#15 Lafayette 0 0 .000 14 2 .875 36 75
Bucknell 0 0 .000 11 2 .846 25 38
Holy Cross 0 0 .000 9 4 .692 101 51
Navy 0 0 .000 9 5 .643 122 31
Colgate 0 0 .000 8 6 .571 214 36
American 0 0 .000 7 8 .467 52 40
Lehigh 0 0 .000 5 9 .357 226 36
Army 0 0 .000 3 10 .231 128 38
It's good to see Bucknell playing so well. If the Patriot League is going to gain more respect on a national scale, two or three other teams have to become consistent winners.
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#15 LAFAYETTE Schedule
Date Opponent Record RPI Result Score Record
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11/13/22 vs. UCLA 3-10 68 W 75-72 1-0
11/15/22 vs. Nevada 9-3 26 L 82-74 1-1
11/17/22 vs. Syracuse 10-2 69 W 75-53 2-1
11/20/22 at Long Island 4-8 86 W 88-87 3-1
11/26/22 at Binghamton 6-8 266 W 74-69 4-1
11/28/22 at Monmouth 5-8 190 W 70-57 5-1
12/01/22 at Maryland-East Shore 3-9 210 W 82-54 6-1
12/03/22 Penn State 6-6 43 W 68-60 7-1
12/07/22 at Rider 8-7 213 L 90-72 7-2
12/09/22 Fairfield 9-6 41 W 77-76 8-2
12/13/22 La Salle 3-9 211 W 67-56 9-2
12/16/22 Manhattan 5-8 209 W 91-56 10-2
12/19/22 at Liberty 9-5 156 W 80-61 11-2
12/22/22 at St. Francis-NY 6-6 146 W 81-69 12-2
12/28/22 Pennsylvania 3-10 245 W 85-49 13-2
12/30/22 Saint Joseph's 6-7 109 W 93-78 14-2
I forgot to contribute to the construction of the non-conference schedule, so I ended up with a soft one. That's good for our win-loss record, not so good for our RPI.
Thomas Lucy (19 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists) stars in our victory over UCLA in the opening round of the Paradise Shootout. That sets up a matchup against a very good Nevada team, who get the better of us.
Matt Robles has a 13/15 double double, and sixth man
Micah Rodriguez scores 16.
Micah follows that up with 18 more in a blowout victory over Syracuse, who were ranked #25 at the time.
Kurt Ritchie contributes 10 points and 12 boards in a reserve role.
This victory is
#300 for
Graham Sims. His career record is
300-80, and he ranks fourth in the universe's history in wins and winning percentage.
We go out to Long Island next. That game is an instant classic that deserves a post all to itself.
Our crazy run of road games continues with a lucky win at Binghamton. We take a lot of shots and don't shoot very well; just enough of them find the mark.
Asdrubal Cruz pulls in 15 rebounds in a routine win at Monmouth. Before our next game, we welcome the third player to our recruiting class: forward
Carl McGriff.
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RECRUIT DETAILS
#53 SF Carl McGriff
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Height: 6-8
Weight: 236
High School: Valhalla High School
Hometown: Valhalla, NY
GPA: 2.88
Test Score: 1150
Rating: ***
Attributes:
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Type INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK QKN STR JMP STA
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Current: 50 49 28 28 23 47 34 18 62 5 21 27 69 53 82 54
Potential: C C D D C C C F B D C D
Season Stats:
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PTS OREB REB AST TOS A/T STL BLK PFS
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21.0 3.0 8.3 3.5 1.9 1.84 1.7 1.5 2.5
Shooting Averages:
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FGM FGA FG% FTM FTA FT% 3PM 3PA 3P%
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9.6 17.1 .561 1.4 3.3 .431 0.4 1.1 .333
Recruiting Notes:
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Qualified: Yes
Committed to Lafayette
Rankings: #47 SF, East Region #51 Overall, East Region #13 SF
High School Awards: None
Top 5 Schools: Fairleigh Dickinson, *Lafayette, St. Francis-NY
Carl is a very solid three-star player (#219 in his class). If we're scouting him accurately, he has a somewhat funky skill set; he's a very good post defender, but he doesn't block shots or pound the defensive glass. He can create his own shot and flashes a solid jumper, and he's athletic for a big dude. Carl could very well move inside to power forward at some point in his career.
Micah Rodriguez's 20 points keys our victory over Maryland-Eastern Shore, and then it's finally time for our first home game. We host the Penn State team I thought about coaching, and beat them by eight.
Kurt Ritchie blocks 7 shots, the most ever in a game by a Lafayette player not named
Samuel Davis.
We completely forget how to play defense in a horrid loss at Rider. Then, we barely eke out a win against a surprisingly good Fairfield team, whose RPI (41) is 40 points better than our own.
Matt Robles (19p/13r) and
Thomas Lucy (17p/6a) are the stars.
Robles again asserts himself with 20 points and 14 rebounds against La Salle. Then, we give a fine demonstration of the art of long-range shooting against Manhattan, knocking down 12 of our 25 treys.
Byron Shores, who's adjusted perfectly to a starting role and has been scoring 15 unspectacular points or so per game, busts loose with a career-best 31.
Another player who has been doing his job without much fanfare is point guard
Ben Miele. Never much of a scorer, Ben tallies 15 points against Liberty and follows it up with 16 more against Pennsylvania. His career high game, incidentally, is 17. More typical are the 8 assists he hands out in each of those contests, and he adds 9 rebounds for good measure against the Quakers.