Checking in on the… Patriot League
Posted by rtmsf on December 13th, 2008Marty Leon is the RTC correspondent for the Patriot League.
Patriot League Struggles Out Of Conference
Navy Sole Survivor of Titanic Two Weeks. The past two weeks have been brutal on the majority of teams in the Patriot League. Army had an unthinkable loss to Presbyterian. Holy Cross lost to midwest power(?) Loyola of Chicago. Lafayette went down to Fordham, Central Connecticut and Hartford, while a young Colgate team struggling to score, lost at home to Kennesaw State. Bucknell took it on the chin against Wagner. had a twenty point loss to Stonybrook, and preseason conference favorite American bowed to Mount St. Mary’s.
According to our calculations the league was 9-24 over the past 14 days!! Navy has been the only team earning a morsel of respect with wins over Radford, Texas-San Antonio and Mt. St. Mary’s. They also played Virginia Tech tough in a nine point loss. Kaleo Kina leads the league in scoring averaging 20.8 a game for the Midshipmen, and Chris Harris is in the fifth spot at 15.5 a night. Kina is the Patriot’s fourth leading rebounder as well doing a little bit of everything, which equals a lot. Marquis Hall of Lehigh is second in the conference in assists, fifth in rebounding and third in points per game. A great start to the year, and a huge reason for their 6-3 start. Phil Anderson is the #1 three point marksmen at 59% for Lehigh, and Devin Brown of Holy Cross is a scorching 28-30 from the free throw line.
Whispers. With losses to teams out of the Ivy League, America East Conference and the Northeast Conference, any hopes for a decent NCAA tourney seed for the conference winner is by the board. After failing at his alma mater Virginia, it looked like Jeff Jones was moving ahead at American, but they were pounded by Oklahoma and Georgetown, and they should not be losing to Mount St. Mary’s and Fairfield. Ralph Willard is at his alma mater, but all in Worcester know Holy Cross has been a huge disappointment. Colgate and Bucknell have legit reasons to be patient. The gate received word Kyle Roemer will get a medical waiver and return for a sixth year next season. Parity was the word we used to describe the Patriot in our preseason review. Unless teams improve “mediocrity at best” may have been the better description!!!
