Patriot League Preview
Last season in the Patriot League was a long roller coaster ride, one that left the diehard fan completely satisfied at the end. Lafayette jumped out quickly, Lehigh stormed ahead, and meanwhile the American Eagles continued their steady, unassuming play to be there until the very end. And with the majority of the teams losing at least one big factor from last season, expect nothing less from the 2004-2005 season. Last season was rightly termed the “year of the guard” in the Patriot League, as all five of the first-team all-League players held court in the backcourt. Although there are some quality guards returning this season – freshman sensations Jose Olivero and Andre Ingram immediately come to find – this season may see more dominating performances from the big men. Bucknell’s Chris McNaughton, Lehigh’s Jason Mgebroff and Holy Cross’ Nate Lufkin are just three of the big men who look to keep the ball headed into the paint all season long. Lafayette, the team that had the most stars last season, graduated four seniors and doesn’t look to play a big role in the title hunt this season. American and Lehigh, the two teams that battled in the league championship game, both graduated a few starters but have two of the best returning sophomores in the league to help elevate their team’s play in 2004-05. Bucknell, meanwhile, a team that was hot and cold for a majority of the league season, returns all five of its starters and looks to be the early favorite to take home the hardware. Looking deeper into last season’s standings, Holy Cross looks poised to rejoin the top teams in the Patriot League after a one-year absence from the upper half. The Navy Midshipmen look to keep heading in the right direction after a quality end to its season last year, while Colgate and Army unfortunately may be heading in the opposite direction.
Preseason Awards
First-Team All-League:
Kevin Bettencourt, Bucknell
Kevin Hamilton, Holy Cross
Andre Ingram, American
Chris McNaughton, Bucknell
Jose Olivero, Lehigh
League MVP:
Kevin Bettencourt, Bucknell
Defensive Player of the Year:
Nate Lufkin, Holy Cross
Coach of the Year:
Pat Flannery, Bucknell
Team-by-Team Previews (In order of expected finish)
1. Bucknell Bison (14-15 overall, 9-5 Patriot League, 4th place)
Projected Starting Five:
Kevin Bettencourt, Guard
Charles Lee, Guard
Abe Badmus, Guard
John Clark, Forward
Chris McNaughton, Center
The Bucknell Bison begin the 2004-2005 season with a huge advantage that no other team in the Patriot League can boast: the team has all five of its starters from last year returning, along with its top scorer off the bench. With that fact in mind, it’s no small wonder that I’m picking the Bison to take the Patriot League crown this year. The three major factors for the team are Bettencourt and Lee, each of whom was named to the Patriot League second-team last season, and McNaughton, who made the all-League freshman team. Bettencourt led the team in scoring (14.9 ppg, second in the league), three-pointers made (2.5 threes per game) and assists (2.8 apg), while Lee was the top assist man for the Bison and McNaughton hauled down the most rebounds. The duo of Bettencourt and McNaughton should be one of the most formidable inside-outside combinations in the league, and they are only a junior and sophomore, respectively – a scary thought for the rest of the Patriot League. Pat Flannery will once again be behind the bench of the Bison this season, despite missing two games against Holy Cross and Colgate late in the year. Flannery underwent an undisclosed precautionary medical procedure in late February, but he return the next weekend to guide the team in the Patriot League Tournament. Flannery and his very experienced team hope to advance further in the postseason then they did last year, when they were knocked out in the semifinals by eventual-champion Lehigh. This year, however, the team has the initial look of a champion. With so many returning players, the Bison have all the necessary weapons in place to contend for its third Patriot League championship. Of course, the team now has to go out and prove it on the court.
2. Lehigh Mountain Hawks (20-11 overall, 10-4 Patriot League, 1st place)
Projected Starting Five:
Jose Olivero, Guard
Nick Monserez, Guard
Dayne Mickelson, Forward
Earl Nurse, Forward
Jason Mgebroff, Center
What can the Lehigh Mountain Hawks do for encore? For sure, it will be very hard for the team to top last season, which saw the Mountain Hawks capture their first-ever Patriot League regular season and postseason championships. The team has a good chance to repeat, but the road will be a lot tougher thanks to the graduation of its main offensive force. Guard Austen Rowland, who had only one year of eligibility remaining after a transfer from Delaware, is now gone and leaves a big hole in the Lehigh offense. Rowland, who never saw a shot that he didn’t like, led the Patriot League in scoring (15.5 ppg) while also leading his team in assists (4.9 apg) and steals (1.9 spg). The explosive scorer, along with graduated guard Ra Tiah, leaves an empty backcourt that must be filled if the Mountain Hawks are to stay near the top of the league.
The majority of the offense from the guard position will be taken over by one of last year’s breakout freshmen, Jose Olivero. Olivero, who hit the game-winning shot to clinch the league championship against American, is the team’s top returning scorer and will likely score more than his 11.6-point average of last year in the absence of Rowland. Down low, sophomore Jason Mgebroff and senior Earl Nurse will continue to crash the boards for Lehigh. Mgebroff was a solid contributor in his freshman campaign, averaging seven points and four rebounds, while Nurse provides a veteran presence to go along with his team-leading 5.2 rebounds per game. A wild card in the team’s offensive plans is Joe Knight, a 6’2″ junior guard who transferred to Lehigh from High Point University in North Carolina. During his second season at High Point, Knight averaged 16.3 points per game, and his presence on the team may help to alleviate the loss of Rowland. Leading the Mountain Hawks for a third season is Billy Taylor, who has taken home the Patriot League Coach of the Year award in both of his first two seasons. Taylor continues to be at the helm of the amazing turnaround of the Lehigh program, which just three years ago went 5-23. After its first league title, you can bet that Taylor and his Hawks will be very hungry for a repeat.
3. Holy Cross Crusaders (13-15 overall, 7-7 Patriot League, 5th place)
Projected Starting Five:
Keith Simmons, Guard
Kevin Hamilton, Guard
Greg Kinsey, Guard
John Hurley, Forward
Nate Lufkin, Center
One team that has been accustomed as of late to seeing its name near the top of the Patriot League is the Holy Cross Crusaders. After three consecutive Patriot League titles, the young team struggled through a down season, but the men will look to return to the upper half of the league behind four returning starters. As opposed to last season, when the Crusaders had only one senior starter on the team, this season will see three seniors providing leadership on the court. Nate Lufkin returns, looking to avoid the injury bug that caught up with him last season. The low-post threat averaged 8.8 points and 4.9 rebounds last year despite missing some time early in the season. John Hurley and Greg Kinsey will also be expected to contribute on both offense and defense, as the team attempts to make up for the graduation of all-everything guard Jave Meade. Meade, who left the court as the league’s all-time assists and steals record-holder, will be missed both for his playmaking ability on offense and his stingy defense. Last year, the Crusaders held opponents to 58.6 points per game, tops in the Patriot League, but in order for that statistic to hold up the guard trio of Keith Simmons, Kevin Hamilton and Torey Thomas will have to step up. On the offensive end, Hamilton, a second-team all-league selection, was first in the league in three-point percentage; on the defensive side he placed second overall in steals. He will take over the bulk of Meade’s responsibilities, but Simmons, a member of the 2004 all-league freshman team, and Thomas will be a pair of very capable sophomores who will be sure to pick up some of the offensive slack. With the amount of experience the Crusader men gained from last season, they will be sure to come back strong this year. With four returning starters and a newfound determination, expect Holy Cross to once again challenge for the Patriot League title, just where it feels it belongs.
4. American Eagles (18-13 overall, 10-4 Patriot League, 2nd place)
Projected Starting Five:
Andre Ingram, Guard
Linas Lekavicius, Guard
Jason Thomas, Guard
Matej Cresnik, Forward
Raimondas Petrauskas, Forward
The American Eagles reached the Patriot League championship game for the third time in three seasons last year, but in three tries the team has yet to win that decisive final game. Last year, the team fielded a very solid team with the potent inside-outside combination of Andres Rodriguez and Jernavis Draughn, but both of those players are gone – and with them so may go American’s three-year streak. With the loss of Rodriguez, head coach Jeff Jones loses one of the most exciting players in recent memory. The stellar guard led the Patriot League in both assists and steals – including a 19-assist game against Navy – and his position as court general will not be easily filled. Draughn, meanwhile, provided the Eagles with a dependable low post presence, leading the team in rebounding and coming in second in scoring. It will remain to be seen whether the loss of these two players will be too much for the Eagles to overcome. One man who will surely be up to the challenge is last year’s Patriot League Freshman of the Year, Andre Ingram. Ingram led the team in scoring (13.6 ppg) in his first season in Washington, D.C., including a Patriot League-leading 78 three-pointers. With the team’s lack of returning height – only one letter winner stands above 6’7″ – you may see a lot more threes raining down from Bender Arena with Ingram around. The rest of the offensive load will fall to players such as Jason Thomas, Matej Cresnik and Raimondas Petrauskas, all of whom played important roles with the team last season but who were not counted upon to score often. That will change this year. Two new possibilities for the Eagles could be freshmen Brayden Bilbe, who stands in at 6’10”, and Coleman LeClair, who stands 6’9″ tall. With the aforementioned lack of height, these two players have the chance to step right in and provide meaningful minutes to the Eagles team. After three great years of success, the Eagles have a tall task ahead of them if they are to return once again to the League title game. But the presence of Ingram alone always will them a chance, and time will tell if some of the younger players can step up to fill the offensive void. But don’t count them out from soaring once again.
5. Lafayette Leopards (18-10 overall, 9-5 Patriot League, 3rd place)
Projected Starting Five:
Marcus Harley, Guard
Pat Betley, Guard
Jamaal Douglas, Forward
Andrei Capusan, Forward
Sean Knitter, Center
Last year was THE year for the Lafayette Leopards to win the Patriot League championship. With a star-studded senior class, the Leopards had all the tools in place to take home the title – and for the first half of the season, it seemed they would do just that. But the team collapsed down the stretch, didn’t win it all, and now faces a big rebuilding year. Justin DeBerry, Winston Davis, Mike Farrell and Rob Dill take away with them not just four roster spots, but a combined average of 44.2 points, 14.8 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game. Those are the type of statistics that are not easily replaced, especially when the Fab Four accounted for almost 60 percent of the team’s points. DeBerry and Davis, both all-League first team selections, will be especially hard for the Leopard backcourt to replace. Senior guard Pat Betley is the lone returning starter for the Leopards in 2004-2005, and will, along with sophomore Marcus Harley, be expected to fill the huge shoes of Davis and DeBerry. Together, the duo averaged 14.1 points per game, almost one point behind DeBerry’s season average of 14.9 ppg. The main returning offensive force for Lafayette is senior Sean Knitter. Knitter, another Delaware transfer who was overshadowed by his fellow former Blue Hen teammate Austen Rowland, put together a solid season last year and should blossom in his senior season. The forward averaged 9.4 points and four rebounds per game last season and will be the main frontcourt man, while oft-injured center Jamie Hughes and Andrei Capusan will look to provide some help under the glass. This will be the year for Lafayette’s five sophomores to get some significant playing time while also providing an opportunity for the team’s five freshmen – including Betley’s cousin Matt – to make a mark. Don’t count on any fast starts from this year’s Lafayette team, though, because their best chance for a league title just passed them by.
6. Navy Midshipmen (5-23 overall, 2-12 Patriot League, 8th place)
Projected Starting Five:
Taj Mathews, Guard
David Hooper, Guard
Carlton Baldwin, Forward (injured)
Chika Onyekanne, Forward
Laramie Mergerson, Forward
In the last season under legendary head coach Don DeVoe, the Navy Midshipmen did absolutely nothing during the majority of the regular season, but then showed some flashes of light near season’s end. The team defeated Lafayette and Army on the road, and then should have beaten Lehigh in the opening round of the Patriot League Tournament before losing in overtime. This year, the team looks to keep that momentum rolling. New head coach Billy Lange will welcome back three returning starters to this year’s squad, although one of those three will be out of action for a while. Sophomore Carlton Baldwin, who last season led the team in points (8.0 ppg) and rebounds (4.1 rpg), was supposed to be the focal point of the offense, but Baldwin is sidelined by a fractured toe on his left foot. The Mids expect Baldwin to be back in time for the team’s Patriot League slate, which begins in January. The team will hope that Baldwin can return and continue to be the inside presence that he was last season, as he is one of the many keys to the team’s offensive success this year. Besides Baldwin, Navy also returns second-leading scorer and rebounder David Hooper as well as senior center Laramie Mergerson, whose excellent play coincided with the emergence of the Midshipmen down the stretch in the beginning months of 2004.
That trio will look to surpass the play of graduated guards Kwame Ofori and Jeff Charles, and I think the solid play that the team had near the end of last season shows that they will have little trouble in replacing them. It was too bad that the team couldn’t give coach DeVoe a more proper send off than two League wins, but the team that DeVoe helped to construct will be sure to make him proud this season. Navy might not seem that impressive, but I think the Middies may sneak up on a few teams this year.
7. Colgate Raiders (15-14 overall, 6-8 Patriot League, 6th place)
Projected Starting Five:
Alvin Reed, Guard
Jon Simon, Guard
Keith Williams, Guard
Kendall Chones, Forward (academically ineligible, first semester)
Andrew Zidar, Center
After a season filled with disappointments and injuries, the Colgate Raiders return for another season looking for improvement and consistency. Head coach Emmett Davis, who himself has been feeling some pressure to perform, knew that this year’s task would be much tougher than last year’s, and it may have gotten a little tougher to begin things. This year will begin a new era of Raider basketball, as both Howard Blue and Mark Linebaugh graduated. The two, one of the most formidable guard-forward combos in the school’s history, combined to average 26.5 points and 10 rebounds per game – a figure that would have been higher if Blue had not injured his knee and missed a significant amount of time in midseason. Their leadership on and off the court was invaluable to the program, and a young cast of characters will hope to make up for their absences. Senior center Andrew Zidar and junior guard Alvin Reed are the two most productive returning players. Zidar led the League in rebounding last year (6.6 rpg) and placed fourth on the team in scoring, while Reed led the Raiders in assists and was the team’s third-leading scorer behind Blue and Linebaugh. The team recently encountered another speed bump when it learned that Kendall and Kyle Chones, twin brothers who played integral roles in sparking the team down the stretch last season, are both academically ineligible for the fall semester. Kendall, who filled in very nicely (7.4 ppg, 4.7 rpg) for Blue, was expected to fill Blue’s spot in the starting lineup, while Kyle was expected to be one of the first men off the bench. While both players will likely return for the spring semester, it will remain to be seen how their absence affects both them and their teammates. With only two seniors on the team, the Raiders will look to the underclassmen who received plenty of playing time last season to step up and contribute. While players such as Zidar and Reed are proven scorers, it remains to be seen whether the Chones brothers and guard Jon Simon can keep up the intensity throughout an entire season to lead the Raiders to the top half of the league. If not, coach Davis might start hearing some whispers behind him very quickly.
8. Army Black Knights (6-21 overall, 3-11 Patriot League, 7th place)
Projected Starting Five:
Travis Owsley, Guard
Marshall Jackson, Guard
Matt Bell, Guard
Colin Harris, Forward
Jimmy Sewell, Forward
For Jim Crews, last year was a perpetual nightmare season for his Black Knights. The team finished last in the league in scoring, averaging a mere 50.5 points per game while shooting a terrible 36 percent from the floor, epitomized especially by the team’s two games last year against Bucknell: in the two games, Army scored 48 points…combined. In the process, it almost broke the record for fewest points in a game in the shot-clock era. The good news? Last season is over. The bad news? This year might not be any better. Of the team’s 13 returning players, 11 of them are sophomores that gained their first collegiate experience last season as freshmen. With one senior and one junior, there will not be a lot of upperclassmen leadership, and so the sophomores will have to step up their play to help replace the trio of Josh Wilson, Sean O’Keefe and Bill Mohr. Matt Bell is the top returning scorer for Army, having averaged only 6.5 points per game last season. Travis Owsley, Colin Harris and Marshall Jackson also contributed somewhat to the team last year, but unfortunately for the Black Knights, it will take a whole lot more than what they can offer for the team to get itself out of the Patriot League basement. For Army, it would not take much to better last season’s terrible year. Unfortunately for Crews and his crew, this team may not have what it takes to get more than six wins this season, and most likely won’t get the requisite three Patriot League victories. If the amazingly young Black Knights finish outside the Patriot League cellar this season, it will come as a big surprise to this writer.
As everyone knows, preseason predictions don’t mean much until the teams get out onto the floor and play the games. But at this point the very experienced Bucknell Bison squad looks ready to take over the top of the Patriot League, while conversely the very inexperienced Black Knights team will likely end the season in the basement. There are a lot of teams in the middle of the pack who may or may not deliver on preseason expectations, and the regular season will be very entertaining in seeing which teams can separate themselves from the pack. But that’s the fun of playing the games. And while the Patriot League may not have the prestige of the ACC or the exposure of the Big 10, the teams that make up the league make sure to put on a show each and every night for their fans. Gentlemen, let the games begin…
