It should be a good early season test for the Black Knights when they take on George Mason this weekend. The Patriots return two players that hit over 20 home runs last season, yikes! Army can win if their pitchers keep the ball down, as George Mason's pitching staff isn't the best around. I'd expect to see Army win some games if they can put up a touchdown or more. If the bats come out cold, it could be a LONG weekend in Fairfax.

For you fans that also like to follow Army baseball ... we have a treat for you.

Starting today, GoBlackKnights.com will kick-off season preview, followed by our weekly updates (articles) on the 2009 Black Knights' baseball season.

Please stay tuned

Well, As predicted - 6-8 in the Patriot League with a dominating road win against Bucknell this evening. For the first time in Army Basketball History , they have earned the right to host a league playoff game. No doubt that the 10-18 record is disappointing, but the team has played much closer to their potential the last month and the results show. If they can shoot 43% + and come out +/- 5 on board play, they can make some noise in the tournement with the right draws. Even the 2 games against American - blowouts on the scoreboard - were not that dominanted by the Eagles. Very poor shooting hurt badly in both games.

To summarize the tank analogy - let's look at league record:

2002-03 thru 2005-06 ( 4 seasons)
Patriot League Record : 5 -51 - That is not a misprint !

2006-07 - 2008-09 ( 3 seasons)
Patriot League Record: 16-26 ...... last 2 seasons: 12-16

This program will continue to move forward and should improve their position again next season. Men's Basketball is becoming relevant again at West Point. Anything less than a winning record in league play will be a disappointment. ( Don't know the out of conference schedule yet).

Believe we open up tournement play against Lehigh - should be a tight game - hope we can bring some noise to Christl !

Not sure whether to chalk up this weekends performance to team flu or what? Matt Fouch was awesome on Saturday morning. The bats were alive enough. Funny though, the hitting star wasn't who you'd think, it was Ben Koenigsfeld, 4-4 with 2 doubles. He cooled down progressively the next two games as the flu took hold of him. He wasn't quite all there for his Saturday night start either.

Some positive plebe notes, Zach Price, the frosh MIF, went 1-2 with a pair of RBI's and a great play diving to his right at 2B. Bruggeman did well in his first college start, looked solid. Ryan Davis, although touched up a bit, actually looked pretty good in relief. J.T. Watkins is the real deal behind the dish. Take charge, take no crap kind of catcher. Hopefully the coaches can get his game calling skills where they need to be at this level so we can quit calling pitches from the dugout and slowing the game to a snails pace.

Other positives yet to come...Ben Gibbs, RHP, soph, got knocked around some in his first mound appearance in 2 years. My bet is that he's going to be fine, and by year end will have played a major role in the teams success. Kevin McKauge looked good in an inning of relief on the mound. Joey Henshaw and Kirk Porter both had great bullpens as they wind down on rehab and are nearing a jump back into the rotation. Expect to see both on the bump in some capacity at George Mason in 2 weeks.

This weekend at USC Upstate will be interesting. We should be past our illness and hungry to avenge two ugly losses.

Go Knights!

This post was edited on 2/24 9:33 AM by chipporter

Well,
A little improved shooting from the field and foul line have paid some dividends over the past week as the Black Knight 5 pulled off their 3rd consecutive win in the last seven days, almost matching the 4 "W's" earned up to that Point. Today's win over Bucknell had its moments but a late surge in the closing minutes of the first half that delivered an 8 point halftime lead stood a late second half surge by the Bison. Effective free throw shooting by Army kept Bucknell at bay. This team might now be over the hump and are gaining some much needed confidence. Army is now in the middle of the pack, tied with Navy ( going into this evening's action) at 3-3 in Patriot League play. The measuring stick of where we stand will come on Wednesday night in the nation's capital as we meet defending league champion American Univ. on their home floor. On Wednesday, Navy was edged by one point , at home, by American , who carry a 5-1 record in leagued play at this time. The challenges do not end there as Army plays 6 of their next 8 games on the road where they have earned just 2 wins year to date.

Some basketball tidbids:

Until yesterday - there is no record of Army EVER playing a triple over time game. EVER !

Army was one of the founding schools in the Patriot. Since its founding in 1990-91 Army has NEVER had a .500 record in the league. Best season - 2 times - matched last year: 6-8.

IMO 6-8 is where we will be again. Stand at 4-6 at press time. Last 3 games could have easily been 3 wins or 3 losses - 1-2 is how it has fallen out. Looking at a 4-5-6 seed. A 4 seed would be for first time Army has earned a first round home game since the league moved it's playoffs to that schedule in order to raise attendence for the league. In the one season Army had the tourney at home, The Black Knights seeded #7 pulled off a big upset over #2 Lehigh ( can't recall the exact season but was mid-90's).

Army ha never played for the conference championship that includes an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournement. Should lightening stike - expect Army to be forced to play in the "play-in" game for seeds 64-65.....

Wednesday's home game against American is a challenge - As the season has progressed, they have clearly played like the class of the league. The quiet gym with less than 500 fans on hand can actually halp Army as teams sometime start slow in that type of environment. The Eagles dominant victory in Washington was truly just that - Dominant with a capital "D" ( Get it....Capital -DC ) - it's the only game in the last 7 that Army was not in it until the final minute of play (4-3 record in that sequence).

My condolences to former Army great Kevin and his family.

Rest In Peace Liz

LIZ HOUSTON, 44, MOURNED

Well, this would be a classic opportunity to ask for more cohorts to jump on the bandwagon arfer an important win against Navy. Unfortunately, I just can't ask for that. The 76-71 over the Mids was a needed win by a desperate team. If they would have completely blown the nice 18 point lead earned midway through the 2nd half, I might have started to think the unthinkable - The team might have written the season off.

After opening League play with losses by 22,11 and 20 points, while averaging a mindnumbing 46 PPG, all the cards were on the table . We needed each and every one of them to cash this victory in. I hope some of the football recruits were able to attend and feel the general intensity of the rivalry. Maybe they we the catalyst for victory ?

In many ways the scores and record to date for Army asketball are somewhat deceiving, but the now famous Bill Parcells line " You are what you are" rings true with this year's basketball team. They run offense with satisfactory precision and work hard on the defensive side of the ball but huge issues persist. Woeful issues with turnovers, incredibly poor free throw shooting and equally inempt field goal shooting have caused what should have been a promising season into an uneventful march to nowhere.

Personally, I cannot stand the thought of another single digit win season and power rating in the 320's. Basketball, as a key sport in America, should matter at West Point. The Patriot League is not exactly the limelight of the sport. Again, and as we have seen far too often in sports we care about, Navy finds ways to win. We should too.

This team must find a way to play to their potential. The skillsets are there , they can match up in this league to positive effect. I prefer not to attempt to point any fingers but am grateful that their shooting eye emerged on the right day against the right team. They need and should expect to win both remaining games in this current 6 of 7 games at home homestand. Hopefully, today was a snapshot of what will be for the last full month of the season - EXPECT to win because we're ARMY. Crush Lafayette on Wednesday. Beat Navy again in February !

Outstanding job by the pilot and crew of US Airways flight 1594. Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III is a '73 grad of USAFA, and is a hero IMO for being able to prevent catastrophic loss of life yesterday. Of course, I'm sure help from above played a larger roll in that. Amazing story, and I am glad everyone is ok. Things like this put life back into perspective, especially since I'm jumping on a US Airways plane on Monday!

go

Though the squard is off to a slow start - Nice opportunity to see the team in action on ESPN U tomorrow eveing ( Wednesday 12/9, vs. Penn State. The Nittany Lions, though recently a Big 10 doormat are improved. The challenge is probably the biggest we will face this year. Poor shooting and inconsistent play on the defensive side of the court ( inability to get stops when needed) define reasons for our early season struggles. Keys to a competitive game - Shoot 40 % plus, run offense deep into the shot clock and play even on the turnover margin. Defensively, need to hold own on boards and keep bigs out of foul trouble. The line-up continues to be one of experimentation with many combinations being used. Will be interesting to see what plays out in the next few weeks as we enter another Patriot League Season.

Will have an interview/update on him this weekend.

Season 106 for the Black Knights in 90 minutes. I fully expect to see as balanced and physical a team that we have seen in many years. Team chemistry should not be an issue with so many returning players. Looking forward to seeing how deep the rotation is this season. I believe up to 10 Cadets will see extensive action with lots of movable pieces.

Also like the fact that in pre-season poll we were picked 7th of year in the Patriot League. Though last year's balance in the league was literally unbelievable ( take a look at last year's standings) we could have easily been anywhere from 2nd to 8th finishing 5th in the end - our team really lost less than just about anyone. Jarrell Brown was a terrific player throughout his Army career but as the season progressed to March, he became less and less the only scoring threat we had. Coach Crews has been laying low but look for this team to win 15-17 contests in the '08-'09 season. Success will be defined by a top 4 seed in the league at season's end with a home game to start off the league tournament ( would be a first for Army) and an appearance in the league championship game. Anything beyond that ( NCAA appearance !!!!) would be icing on the cake.

American appears to be the team to beat, expect Holy Cross to re-emerge after last season's debacle. Defense will again be THE strength and is much needed to earn some easy baskets. Beat the Big Green !!

Best Wishes to Coach Hamburg on accepting the Head Coaching position at St. Joes. Although only a year of interaction, it was easy to tell he was well liked and even more respected.

see link below

Click Here

Can't wait to play you guys to open up are season with tubby as are head coach,good luck!By the way who is the player on your team i should look out for?

Only 58 !

Click Here

This team was a rollercoaster all year. How truly disappointing to bow out after such a hard fought comeback to prominence. There are some very good players coming back and the future looks so very promising, but the long shadow of loss that comes with graduation leaves a hollow and empty feeling.

To all the seniors, farewell and good luck. It was my pleasure to have had the opportunity to watch, root for and mingle with you this one short season. What a tremendous group of men, I only wish I had more time with them.

FYI

click here

Here are this week's projections.

Rivals 64

Here are this week's projections.

Rivals 64

This weekend starts it all..tough competition lies ahead..link below is SEBaseball.com's projections...

Army 4 seed going to NC State...looks like 1st regional could make its way to St Johns as well

Field of 64 Projection

Here are this week's projections.

Rivals 64

Just heard about this...congrats to Milan and Army baseball! He is a great pitcher but I never imagined him going from rookie ball to AAA (especially since he was injured and only played in 4 games).

Does anybody have more info? Did he have an amazing spring??

http://www.goarmysports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=11100&ATCLID=1448759

I'd say we need to take 3 out of 4 to have a chance to host all the way! Any news on the team?