Patriot League play starts on Saturday

[KnightNight]

The young Black Knight ballers are meeting my modest 2011-12 expectations to date. Winners of 3 of their last 4, they have raised their record to 7-8. Very young team with lots of minutes by plebes is evident but upperclass leadership is being displayed by Firstie Julian Simmons who recently eclipsed the 1000 point barrier for his USMA career and especially Cow Ella Ellis who has , IMO, a real shot at making the conference first team at season's end. He is carving out a very nice career at Army and is clearly the player Army can least afford to lose.

Team's 19 point victory at home against a poor Longwood Team (Navy, with only 3 wins, beat them by 8 at Longwood to open the season) was the result of one of those too rare good shooting nights. Army will earn another surprise win or two by having a hot night beyond the arc. Fouls and turnovers remain major issues. Free throw shooting which started out very strong has tapered off significantly in recent games. It must reverse itself immediately if Army expects to compete in league play.

It must be noted that the Black Knights have earned their 7 wins against the now easiest schedule in D1 basketball, yep 345/345. It also includes an inexcusable loss at home to NJIT. The team is averging barely 500 fans /game and will remain close to that for all remaining weeknight games.

Army has N-E-V-E-R attained a .500 season or better in the Patriot League with over 20 years of opportunity in the rear view mirror. I am not optimistic that the trend will change this season. The aforementioned issues of ball control, sporatic shooting from game-game, fouls resulting in large negative total free throw attempts/game compared to opposition and general youth all stack against the Black Knights. Frankly, a 5-9 conference record would be deemed successful and be an improvement over last year 3-11 season.

Program is not going backwards but not quite ready to breakout either. I do like the current scheduling philosophy that allows Army to post some wins on the schedule early that earns the program some confidence and something to talk about when coaches go on the recruiting trail ( we can win..... see !). The year Army can go into league play with a universal opinion by Patriot League coaches voting Army as the 3rd or forth best school preseason ( Almost exclusively 7th and 8th sincejoining) and earn an 8-6 record in the league would constitute a dream season. Keeping more of each recruiting class and developing a deep core of Jr.-Sr. leadership is essential to attaining that dream. We were there 3 years ago but we have been restocking from a softer base since our competitive 6-8 league seasons in 2007-08 and 2008-09 years.
This post was edited on 1/6 3:08 PM by KnightNight

 

[DocJayy]

Great write up KnightNight !

 

[Airstrike]

Expect another young team next year with an influx of this year's USMAPS players. Opened the new Prep gym facility Thursday night with a resounding 96-67 thumping of CJEOTO, their 4th lopsided win over the CJEOTO program this year. For the record, USMAPS had never beaten any CJEOTO team before this year. The Prepsters also claimed the MLK Classic Showcase last weekend in Newark, which included (2) 100+ point games that were blowout wins. USMAPS also canned (18) 3-pointers in one of the games, which is 2 more than the USMA record of (16) made 3s, set Wednesday night against Colgate.

USMAPS features strong perimeter shooting from 3 big guards (6', 6'-3" and 6'-4"), a 6'-4" PG who orchestrates the team with high assists and low turnovers, 3 strong forwards (6'-5", 6'-6" and 6'-8") who can score inside and be physical and a 6'-10" center who is skilled around the basket and is a shot blocker. These guys are big, strong and fast and are gaining more confidence each game they play.

This group has been described in tournament press coverage as the best West Point Prep team ever. That's hard to determine but the point is they are turning heads and beating some very good prep teams by large margins. They are Coach Spiker's first real recruiting class and if this is a representative example of his recruiting, Army Basketball has a brighter future than ever before.
This post was edited on 1/20 1:34 AM by Airstrike

West Point Prep Men's Basketball 2011-2012

 

[KnightNight]

Thanks for the insights Airstrike. B-ball players , even more than the football types, have histoically had a propensity to leave after an especially strong season at USMA Prep. Hope they are developing a brotherhood of sorts and have the will to carry it though their common Academy career. We could sure use some inside help for both physical presence and another scoring resource. American owned way too many offesnive rebounds and their 6' 10" had a career day against our overmatch inside defense.

The current roster has hope and is very young with some athletic talent. They are still too small. Zach earned a superb reputation as a recruiter at Cornell. Since he leaft, Cornell has struggled on bringing talent in and are currently falling back to the depths of Ivy League B-ball. If Zach can coax some 18-20 wins seasons out of Army, no matter how soft the schedule, he will be a VERY HOT coaching commodity.