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Post by purplehaze on Jan 11, 2021 10:11:11 GMT -5
the team is staying overnight, of course ! Colgate stayed in Boston Saturday night between their games vs. BU - The 'no overnight' rule does have some logical limitations, thank God.
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Post by HC92 on Jan 11, 2021 10:56:00 GMT -5
Colgate has to be the runaway favorite for now. BU hasn’t played with a full team yet so tough to know how good they will be in the end. If the poll were redone today, it’s possible 3 of the top 4 would be in the North. Curious as to who you have as the other 2 of the top 3 North teams besides Colgate. Hopefully you are considering your jinx power. BU and Army obviously. We’ll be lucky to win another game. 😀
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Post by timholycross on Jan 11, 2021 11:06:42 GMT -5
In a normal year, what time do they head to West Point for an afternoon game? The night before or early in the morning? Did they change that this year? I assume that whatever HC did on Sunday, Army did for the Saturday game in Worcester.
In any case, HC has this Colgate trip then a repeat in a couple weeks of this Army home-and-home. Everything else is home or a bus ride to Comm. Ave. Until the tournament!
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Post by lou on Jan 11, 2021 11:13:03 GMT -5
I don't think the teams ever traveled on game day before this year, except to Boston
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Post by Tom on Jan 11, 2021 12:35:57 GMT -5
First of all, in "normal" years, I don't think they play in the afternoon. Army is usually a Wed night game.
Even with the night game, standard practice would be to head down to West Point Tuesday evening after classes and maybe a quick shoot around/walk thru
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Post by bringbackcaro on Jan 11, 2021 13:39:54 GMT -5
I was wondering why 2-2 felt so good, and just looked back to find out that we entered a PL game at or above .500 in the pL a grand total of four times in the 19-20, 18-19, and 17-18 seasons.
19-20: 1-1 vs Lafayette 18-19: 1-0 vs Navy, 1-1 vs Lehigh, 2-2 vs Bucknell 17-18: (null)
Another example of just where this program was when Nelson arrived last year.
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Post by WorcesterGray on Jan 11, 2021 13:56:47 GMT -5
Last time Holy Cross won its first two road games in conference play was 2009.
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Post by timholycross on Jan 11, 2021 14:53:20 GMT -5
First of all, in "normal" years, I don't think they play in the afternoon. Army is usually a Wed night game. Even with the night game, standard practice would be to head down to West Point Tuesday evening after classes and maybe a quick shoot around/walk thru Makes sense. You can't go to class, take a 3 hour bus ride and play a game all on the same day; at least one where you're expected to play well. Any idea what they did for the Sunday game? Sleep over Saturday or bus down Sunday AM (due to Covid)?
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Post by Non Alum Dave on Jan 11, 2021 15:08:25 GMT -5
Getting back to Colgate, I have a lot of respect for the job Langel has done there; Colgate was wise to have patience with him. He really seems to have a solid process in place: make the NE preps a priority, and (apparently) sell his program as a place for transfers to flourish. If he were to leave tomorrow, the program would be in much better shape than when he got there......and at a place that had to have been one of the most challenging jobs in D-1.
Just looks to be a real tough matchup on paper. Maybe you try to make their big guys run up and down with a real fast pace, but that just might play into Burns' and Cummings' hands. MF has to be careful or he could foul out before halftime - maybe the guys could receive a post Christmas miracle and have Louth ready for just a few minutes.
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Post by hchoops on Jan 11, 2021 15:26:52 GMT -5
The good news is that they split with Army. So we could be competitive. Or not.
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Post by HC92 on Jan 11, 2021 15:26:57 GMT -5
If PL history is any guide, having a strong coach who then leaves does not necessarily correlate to sustained success under a new coach. Colgate could easily go back to being a doormat two years post-Langel.
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Post by HC92 on Jan 11, 2021 15:31:29 GMT -5
The good news is that they split with Army. So we could be competitive. Or not. I fear the second Army game was the fluke. The other three wins have been pretty scary for the rest of us. It at least shows they’re human but going to require a huge effort to win one this weekend.
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Post by WorcesterGray on Jan 11, 2021 15:38:50 GMT -5
Maybe you try to make their big guys run up and down with a real fast pace, but that just might play into Burns' and Cummings' hands. Based on possessions per game, Holy Cross (73.1) is probably playing at its fastest pace since the Blaney era. Army, BU, and Colgate have also been averaging 72+ ppg so far.
What we managed to do at the defensive end against Army in the second half was force them to use bigger and bigger chunks of the shot clock each time down, using relentless on-ball pressure on the guards/wings with Bo, Bubba, and Ryan to make them work harder to get inside. We'll have to do that for two halves this weekend.
We'll see if Colgate adjusts its approach to take advantage of its size. They're fonder of shooting from deep than most teams (40%+ three-point rate), and have been very good at it (39%, 18th best in the country). If they choose to stick with that, and have an off-night, believe we have a chance.
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Post by gocrossgo on Jan 11, 2021 16:12:59 GMT -5
Hoping with a full week of practice Rabinovich will be ready to contribute solid minutes because we’ll need the size.
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Post by bison137 on Jan 11, 2021 20:22:48 GMT -5
Getting back to Colgate, I have a lot of respect for the job Langel has done there; Colgate was wise to have patience with him. He really seems to have a solid process in place: make the NE preps a priority, and (apparently) sell his program as a place for transfers to flourish. If he were to leave tomorrow, the program would be in much better shape than when he got there......and at a place that had to have been one of the most challenging jobs in D-1. Agree completely. I think St. Joe’s made a major blunder when they decided to hire Billy Lange instead of Langel.
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Post by Sons of Vaval on Jan 11, 2021 21:02:31 GMT -5
Getting back to Colgate, I have a lot of respect for the job Langel has done there; Colgate was wise to have patience with him. He really seems to have a solid process in place: make the NE preps a priority, and (apparently) sell his program as a place for transfers to flourish. If he were to leave tomorrow, the program would be in much better shape than when he got there......and at a place that had to have been one of the most challenging jobs in D-1. St. Joe's was really stupid to hire Billy Lange over Langel. ^ I see 137 beat me to it.
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Post by newfieguy74 on Jan 11, 2021 21:08:44 GMT -5
The good news is that they split with Army. So we could be competitive. Or not. I fear the second Army game was the fluke. The other three wins have been pretty scary for the rest of us. It at least shows they’re human but going to require a huge effort to win one this weekend. I find it encouraging that on the AWP message board the AWP coach attributed their Sunday loss to HC getting physical defensively. I'm not saying HC can beat Colgate but I like that Nelson is building an athletic defensively aggressive team.
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Post by rgs318 on Jan 12, 2021 5:45:02 GMT -5
I see that ESPN+ has Saturday's game as a 1:00pm tip off (with the women starting at 3:00pm). Is that correct?
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Post by sader1970 on Jan 12, 2021 10:37:44 GMT -5
That's what it says on the updated HC schedule site.
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Post by rgs318 on Jan 12, 2021 10:44:29 GMT -5
That's what it says on the updated HC schedule site. Thanks, I guess they added that this morning. So we now have: Men = Colgate (Away) Saturday (1:00pm) and Sunday (1:00pm) Women = Colgate (Home) Saturday (3:00pm) and Sunday (2:00pm).
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Post by sader1970 on Jan 12, 2021 10:48:08 GMT -5
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Post by DiMarz on Jan 12, 2021 12:41:48 GMT -5
That's what it says on the updated HC schedule site. Thanks, I guess they added that this morning. So we now have: Men = Colgate (Away) Saturday (1:00pm) and Sunday (1:00pm) Women = Colgate (Home) Saturday (3:00pm) and Sunday (2:00pm). It would be a great idea if the Men played at 1 and the women played at 3...Use those times for all the weekend games, and they could be swap as the school decides....That would allow all of us the opportunity to see both games live if we so desire...I think this would be a great way for the Patriot League to allow their fans to see the teams "live", even if we can't be there!
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Post by rgs318 on Jan 12, 2021 12:52:20 GMT -5
I do like the 1 and 3 o'clock starts (less so the 1 and 2 o'clock). It is nice to be able to watch clips during the game to see how things are going, and then to see the full game later. However, I prefer to be able to concentrate on one game at a time.
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Post by crusader1970 on Jan 12, 2021 16:34:21 GMT -5
Watching us play this year, I think most would agree that we are a "small" team by today's college hoop standards.
However, when I read the listed heights of our starters (even though they may be overstated a tad), all of them are 6'5" or taller but Johnson.
When you compare us to Colgate, our starters average 6'5" and they average 6'4", Not bad.
My bet is that we will start to get dominated off the boards when both teams go to their subs and they march out there a couple of 6'11' and 6'9" players.
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Jan 12, 2021 17:00:21 GMT -5
KenPom, of course, tracks heights. I believe he multiplies them by minutes played to get a team's playing height.
To date HC has played at 76.8" (approx 6-4&3/4) which is #201 in D-1. Colgate has played at 76.5" and is thus #238 in the country. Colgate has two starters at 6-0, Burns and Cummings, who play 25-30 minutes per game.
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