Well, it's still only three winning seasons in the past 40 years for Army Men's Basketball ('84-'85, '12-'13, '15-'16). They lost the tourney game to Lafayette tonight, 73-68.
I didn't really think it was likely that they were going to beat Lafayette for a third time in a season. Army never led and was down by as much as 18 in the second half. A late surge put them within striking distance in the final two minutes; they were within four twice with the ball but couldn't score. 3 of 8 for the team from the foul line didn't help, but it wasn't decisive. Wilson had a bit of an off night scoring 15 points on 7-17 from the field. Funk had 21 pts playing his usual 40 minutes. The factor lacking for Army in this game was that neither King nor Grayson contributed much. They shot a combined 5 of 18 from the field and 0 for 3 at the foul line.
On the bright side, achieving a .500 season record ties this season's team with the '14-'15 team for the fourth best record over the past four decades, and they finished much better than the early season play indicated they would.
Conversely, unless Jimmy Allen has some surprising Plebe talent rising out of the Prep School or the recruiting pipeline, Next year is likely a bottom four finish in the Patriot League. They have a number of experienced players returning, but I don't think their level of talent stacks up well compared to what other teams across the Patriot League will have coming back.
I didn't really think it was likely that they were going to beat Lafayette for a third time in a season. Army never led and was down by as much as 18 in the second half. A late surge put them within striking distance in the final two minutes; they were within four twice with the ball but couldn't score. 3 of 8 for the team from the foul line didn't help, but it wasn't decisive. Wilson had a bit of an off night scoring 15 points on 7-17 from the field. Funk had 21 pts playing his usual 40 minutes. The factor lacking for Army in this game was that neither King nor Grayson contributed much. They shot a combined 5 of 18 from the field and 0 for 3 at the foul line.
On the bright side, achieving a .500 season record ties this season's team with the '14-'15 team for the fourth best record over the past four decades, and they finished much better than the early season play indicated they would.
Conversely, unless Jimmy Allen has some surprising Plebe talent rising out of the Prep School or the recruiting pipeline, Next year is likely a bottom four finish in the Patriot League. They have a number of experienced players returning, but I don't think their level of talent stacks up well compared to what other teams across the Patriot League will have coming back.
