Ho Ho Ho...Merry Crapmess

Games Last Week: L @Dartmouth 53-56; L VS Vermont 87-101
This Week: @ Fordham
Record: 2-8 (0-2)
Predictions: 2-2

Not a whole lot of jolly spirits as the Bobcats head home to celebrate the holliday with family. The Bobcats are losers of seven straight and they only have one win against a division one opponent. In most eyes the Bobcats are simply looking like losers. They were at the line with a chance to seal the deal against Dartmouth and chocked and then left the defense in New Hampshire as Vermont ran the Bobcats out of their own gym. In the RPI ratings (take them with a grain of salt in December) Quinnipiac is second to last in the nation posting a 334 place. With one non-conference game left on the schedule and the hollidays upon us, I have compiled a top five Quinnipiac wish list!

#5 A Freaking Win
Sounds easy enough, and I'm pretty sure Joey D must have been bad the last year, because instead of his prayers being answered, it is all coal. Seven straight losses is among the nations worst streaks, and the strength of schedule ranks as one of the easiest in the country. The Bobcats should be ashamed of the way they have played as a team, and it's time they wish hard for a win....and maybe a clean shower to erase the stink

#4 The new building to open a month early?
This is one wish that won't come true.....but I'm sure the team is still wishing for it. The new court may bring some much needed fire. Although the team might not be intimidating,but the new building and hopefully some fans that go to the game will be.

#3 Consistancy
It's a DeSantis trade mark to have a team play like 5 different teams throughout the season. It's still unknown how many faces this team will have this year. So far they have had one. The ugly one.

#2 A go to man
Even Christmas was smart enough to have a go to man in Santa Claus. The Bobcats need to find a Mr. Kringle. DeMario Anderson finally had a break out game. 20 pts on 7-9 shooting will at least send the coaching staff to their Holliday dinners with something to look forward to on New Years eve. If he can use that game to start to make this Bobcat team HIS Bobcat team.....we will see what this team is made of.


#1 Free Throws
No one likes getting the crappy free stuff on Christmas. But after awhile you apreciate the 3 dozen pairs of socks your mom got you and that warm nasty looking sweater from Aunt Sue. Free Throws will not get you glory during the game but they will get you victories. Free throws WOULD have changed the fate of AT LEAST 3 games this season. Victor Akinyanju is slowly earning himself the top big man position, but people cringe when he goes into the game because you know the opposing team is going to hack the crap out of him. He is 9-38 on the season shooting a wonderful 23% from the "charity stripe".

My Predictions
Good news: My predicitions are better than the Bobcats Record
Bad News: I now want to predict the Bobcats will lose every game.
Worse News: Bobcats get to play a pretty good mid major on the road against Fordham. I predict they will lose and it will not be much of a game from early on. (please prove me wrong)



Happy Hollidays!

Bobcats Eye First Road Win

Games Last Week: None (Finals)
This week: @ Dartmouth, VS Vermont
Record: 2-6 (0-2)
My predictions: 1-1

The Bobcats are coming off a much needed week of no basketball. After beating LeHigh back on November 22nd, everything has been coming up empty for Quinnipiac. Bad shooting, worse free throw success and the Bobcats are looking to break a five losing streak. After dropping their first two conference games the Bobcats will get a chance to try and get things working the right way as they play a couple of non-conference Northeast oppenents.

Eat your Veggies
Tongitht the Bobcats take on the Big Green of Dartmouth. While a loss won't hurt the Bobats in League play, if they don't win tonight, it may be a long season for the Bobcats. Dartmouth comes in with an identical 2-6 record. It will be evident to the loser of this game who will be playing from the gutters to start the season, and who has the chance to turn it around. The season is early enough to still get on the right foot, but long enough to get the feeling of hoplessness. Moment has swung for Dartmouth who has won two straight and leading scorer Leon Pattman has returned after missing the first 6 games. The bobcats will have a tough task in slowing Pattman who has averaged 20.5 PPG upon his return. The key to the win, if you slow Pattman, you win.

Gonzales not enough
Adam Gonzalez has been the top scorer for the bobcats in 4 of the last 5 games....all games in which the Bobcats have lost. Clearly someone needs to start scoring points besdies Adam. I've said it before, but until Demario Anderson and Chris Wehye start scoring in big numbers, the bobcats will continue to lose.

Vermont
Vermont enters the Burt Kahn court later in the week. The Catamount have a 5-4 record while playing some of the Nations best teams. They took out prominent ACC oponent Boston College earlier in the year and Delaware out of the A-10. They also have a victory over NEC Wagner. The team may be best known for when they defeated Syracuse in the first round of the NCAA tourntament. Expect this as one of the toughest non-conference games for Quinnipiac.

Predictions
The Bobcats have had over a week to prepare for Tonight's televised game. I believe they are long over due for a road win and Demario Anderson will lead all scorers. Win Bobcats
However when they return home they will play a Vermont team that is simply too strong of a mid major program for the Bobcats and Vermont will walk out with a road victory. Loss.

Expensive Throws

Games Last Week: L Mt St Mary's 73-78; L VS FDU 75-80
Next Week: NONE, finals
Record: 2-6(0-2)
My predictions: 1-1

Nothing Comes for Free
Nothing new from Bobcat Men's basketball. The boys find themselves in an early NEC hole as they lose to two weaker programs with a 5 point loss on the road and a 5 point loss at home. Both games could have been easily turned around if the Bobcats could do one thing: Shoot Free throws.

Foul the big men
Other teams are quickly learning that the easiest way to win a game, is to foul the big on Quinnipiac whenever they attempt to shoot. Karl Anderson is 22-38 from the line (57.9%) and Victor Akinyanju is an abysmal 6-24. Akinyanju is trying to attempt to be the worst shooting Bobcat of all time as he shoots 25 percent from the "charity strip". On Thursday the Bobcats as a team shot 20-33 and Saturday on their home court a horrible 12-23. These numbers are exaggerated even more when you lose by single digit margins. The Bobcats can expect a looong season if they can't turn things around from free throw land.

Super Demario Needs a Power Up
Demario Anderson was thought to be the catalyst that would send Quinnipiac toward winning ways. 8 games into the season....it has not been the case. He is 34-88 from the floor shooting 38.6 percent (FG) Numbers resonate at the three point line where he is 3-21 (14.3%!). While Demario's shooting has been bad, the rest of the team can share the feeling. Only ONE PLAYER, Karl Anderson, is shooting above 50% from the floor. Here is a quick look at other Bobcats #'s.

Dale Meinbresse 14-39 .359
Jason Wilson 2-33 .364
Chris Wehye 24-54 .444
Adam Gonzalez 33-71 .465

Shuffle the Cats
Coach DeSantis has not found a starting five he can rely on. 8 players have started 2 or more games for the Bobcats and only Van Crafton has started all 8. Combinations of Bobcats on the floor goes from 4 guards and a Center to the more standard three guards and two forwards. An unlikely trio that looked good on the floor together was Gonzalez, Cosgrove, and Meinbresse in Saturdays loss to FDU. The three helped the Bobcats make a game of it. I'm sure Joe is losing a lot of sleep trying to figure his team out that has been full of surprises, and not the kind you get when you arrive at your own surprise birthday party.

The Big Picture
-As radio announcer Billy Mecca said over the air on Saturday, the Bobcats can't over analyze these games. If they made free throws, they would have walked away with 2 wins. Even with bad shooting, energy from Adam Gonzalez gave the Bobcats chances to win in both games. If they hit free throws, they can win games.
-But the Bobcats do need a scorer to step up. Expectations continue to be placed on Demario Anderson. It would be nice if Chris Wehye can drop his slump and take some weight off the transfers shoulders.
-The next three games will be the Bobcats final non-conference games of the year. While they don't need to win all of them or even two of them, they need to find combinations that work. Come January 4th they need to forget about the last 5 games and learn to have confidence in the basics of their game that have allowed them to play division one basketball

My predictions
Well I was right about the Mt. St Mary's game.....it was ugly, and it ended in a close Mount win dropping my first prediction of the year. I got the second one right evening my record at 1-1
My only prediction this week is that the Bobcats pass all of their exams and get Job Casimir back. Although he will be an added addition to the already heavy pg position, he is not game changer. They need to revive Demario Anderson, Wehye, and Vick needs to calm down, and have confidence from the free throw line.

Mid Minor

This weekend is the kick off for the Northeast Conference. After Central CT and St Francis NY kicked things off last week, 7 conference games will be played between Thursday and Saturday. The Bobcats highlight two of the games, and before conference play starts....I just want everyone to take a step backwards and take a reality check on the NEC.

Play in Game Hero

The conference is coming off a Play in Game victory as representative Monmouth destroyed Hampton on National TV and then played a pretty good game in the first round. However, if the conference wants to work on maybe pulling in something higher than a 16 in this years tourny, the teams as a whole need to win now, in non-conference action.

Thanks to some great stats on http://www.midmajority.com we can easily see how the NEC is fairing in the early going. In the 17 conferences the NEC has played this year they only having a winning record against two of them (Metro Atlantic and Sun Belt). While FDU did pull off a win against Big East member Seton Hall, in 7 other games against that conference the team fell short. In 7 attempts against regionally close Patriot League, only the Bobcats were able to steal a win (against Lehigh). Out of the 11 teams in the conference, only two, Robert Morris and FDU have winning records. Only 4 teams have tasted victory 3 or more times. With more than half of the non-confernce games finished, the NEC will have to pull out a ton of wins if they plan to have any chance at recieving a seed higher than 16...and as of now it looks like another play in game year for the NEC as the conference is ranked dead last in RPI, and 31- out of 32 in Strength of Schedule.

By sunday we should see some VERY early seperation in the league and a tingle of excitment as the NEC, a mid minor, gets under way!

B is for Bobcats

Last Week: @ Colgate L71-80, @ Brown L80-74
This Week: @ Mt. St. Mary's, VS FDU
Predictions: 0-0

Expect Unexpected
It's not exactly the begging of the season and the Bobcats are up to their old tricks again. Inconsistant basketball, enough hope to make people believe they have the players that can put them in a position to win, and a scrappy style. Those makings are nothing new for the Bobcats. But this year certainly has the makings for story lines!

"Jobs, Buildings, and Cats...Oh My"
Before you walk into the Bobcats basketball gym this season....don't think it is going to be like every other year. No no, those in charge of the University want to see more than just their name on the losing end of the ESPN ticker at the bottom of the screen. With the near completion of the TD Bank North Center that has cost the University $52 million dollars...President John Lahey and the board EXPECT to see the Bobcats PLAYING on not only ESPN.....but CBS come March.

Joe DeSantis has had a love hate relationship with Quinnipiac in the last several years. While the man took his team to the conference championships a few years back, he also flopped on a team picked to win the league and is coming off a first round loss in the NEC tourntament. After fellow winter coaches in Women's basketball and Men's and Women's ice hockey got contract extensions over the summer the message is now clear...Win or Move on. Many Bobcat fans and media memebers have wondered how he has stuck around this long. Joe did bring Quinnipiac out of D-2 and has one of the most up tempo-ed styles of play in the country. With a new building coming in January he will be able to beat out opponents in recruiting....however, if he doesn't show success this year, his recruits will be playing for someone else.

Chicken or Fish
In what seems to be a scene out of Airplane....much of the Basketball team got sick after their road trip to Colgate. I know what you're thinking, but no...it was not from the 36.4% 1st half field goal shooting by the Bobcats.....it was from food poisening. The round of sickness can be explain the 80-74 loss to Brown.

Learn from Defeat
The Bobcats, while losing to Brown learned some very helpful facts about themselves:
-Casey Cosgrove is the Bobcat floor general. While Adam Gonzalez did score 18pts...Cosgrove is the true pt guard. He makes others look good and adds passing abilities to the Bobcats! Cosgrove tallied a lone minute on Saturday.
-The Bobcats will not win without Karl Anderson. Anderson only tallied 3 minutes on Saturday. Not only is he the tallest Bobcat, but without him the paint becomes accesible. Big men cover Big areas. While he is not the quickest of Centers, he certainly is hard to climb over.

NEC WEEK
This weekend will be an enourmous road weekend for the Bobcats as they play Thursday at Mount St Mary's in Maryland and Saturday home against Farleigh Dickenson.

-The Mt have one of the worst 3pt defenses in the entire country. The Bobcats will find easy success if they can hit from the outside. The problem for Quinnipiac is they have yet to find a friendly bounce outside of Hamden. They will head into conference play without a road win in three attempts.
-FDU will be a tough early opponent. FDU is traditionally one of the power houses in the N-E-C and have a deep relationship with shooting three pointers. Quinnipiac will have home court advantage and a deeper bench. If Quinnipiac can get some of their stars in foul trouble and utilize advantages against bench players, Quinnipiac can win.

Predicition
I believe this weekend will be backwards weekend as far as where you are supposed to win. I think Quinnipiac will split the weekend with a sloppy win on the road and a hard fought loss at home against FDU to put them at 1-1

Basketball Game Report
An Inside look at URI VS Quinnipiac
Final Score: US: 72 THEM 87 Loss

"The Bobcats chose to live or die by the outside shooting, and it appears they have died"

With that quote by my good friend "the voice" it pretty much wraps up a game in which the Bobcats shot just over 35% in field goals compared to the Rhams 53.4%.....With a trip down the windy 138 to the beautiful Ryan Center I watched what was an "off night" for the streaky bobcats.

Don't let the Injury Bugs Bite
Everyone knows the only thing worse than the bed bug, is the injury bug, and it appears it has hit the Bobcats hard. Victor Akinyanju was wearing a medical boot on his right foot and sat out this contest. Time was therefor split between the aching knees of Kevin Jolley and the still injured Karl Anderson. Anderson played 23 minutes in his first game back in 6 contests. He was still visably rehabing on the sidelines by using a stationary bike. So the Bobcats 3 big men who looked so promising to start the season, are looking for some injury bug repellant, and fast

He Shoots, He.......ummmm....yeah
The Bobcats missed several must makes including lay ups, wide open 3's, and fast breaks. The one thing that lost this game for the Bobcats was not their absence of a big man, but their absence of some basic fundamentals.

Van Crafton's point numbers looked good on paper, but his performance looked abysmal for most of the game. He lofted up 13 three pointers and missed 9 of them in only 17 minutes of play. Every time he got his hands on the ball with any opening, he threw it up, and clunked basket after basket off the rim. (If you shoot as much as Crafton did you will eventually score and he did end up with 14 on the night). His bad shooting was shared by others...
John Winchester 4-12 FG
Craig Benson 4-15 FG
Van Crafton 5-14 FG

Bad shooting can make you lose a game in a hurry and for the Bobcats, it was self destruction

I'm Going Streaking
One of the few signs of life from the Bobcats was the dedication to claw back. After several turn overs put them down as much as 16 in the first half, strong play from John Winchester, Karl Anderson, and one heck of a lucky shot by Chris Wehye put the Bobcats only down 6 at the half and they would tie the game with 14:10 remaining in the game. However, it would be all Rhams the rest of the way led by an unstoppable Dawan Robinson who ended the night with a career high 37 points.

Inconsistant play has been a staple of Joe Desantis's team in the last few years. Although a URI win really doesn't hurt the Bobcats come March(nor will the final score of the upcoming Uconn game), they need to learn fast how to make smarter decisions on the court. It is still an early season with alot of new faces to get used to.

Husky Hell
"Why in God's name do we play Uconn ever year?" you may be asking yourself and Uconn fans may be wondering "why in Gods name do we play Quinnipiac every year". Sorry Uconn fans, I don't have an answer for you but for the Bobcats fans I do.... Playing Uconn, no matter what the final outcome is an excellent oppurtunity. For recruits, they want to get their moment against the best, and this Uconn team may certainly be the best team in the country. It gives the school legitmacy if we are seen on Sports Center, even if Rudy Gay just dropped a 720 behind the back off the back board dunk over John Winchester. Also, it is never bas to play in front of more than 15,000 people. This is important because it is a fun atmosphere and I enjoy the free food they give to press.
-Last year the Huskies scored 123 pts against the bobcats and the year before that we lost by 33 points
-Expect.............about the same...this Uconn team is stronger, faster, and don't miss.
-This will be a hard game to watch, Uconn is simply just that much bigger than every man on court
-In the past Joe Desantis has decided to run fast breaks. Getting into a running game with Uconn means they score more points, they dunk more balls, and it looks ugly on TV

LEAGUE PLAY
After Uconn the Bobcats head to New York City to play Wagner. This will be a must win for the Bobcats since they have dug themselves in an early 0-2 hole in NEC play. The Bobcats are leading in several catagories in the league and if you take this Rhode Island game out of the picture it's been a nice start for the Bobcats. For the holidays I wish them HEALTH as it will be needed if they plan to make a mark in the NEC's this year.

Happy Holidays everybody!

Bobcats winning wrong games as they lose second straight NEC Game

The bobcats came into Saturday with a winning record of 4-2...not too shabadalicous. They had seen promise in their new talent such as Winchester, Akinyanju, and Gonzalez. However this weekends match was a pivotal one in the young season because with a loss, the Bobcats would be more like the Cub Scouts sitting in last place at 0-2.

The Bobcats had no answer for Robert Morris's outside parameter shooting as Derek Coleman went 5-6 from 3 point land and lead all scorers with 26. Robert Morris overcame a half time deficit to take the road victory 90-85 and the lowly Bobcats now are the lone bottom feeder of the NEC. Robert Morris was picked to finish 10th in the preseaon poll and disregarded their critics as they take their first NEC win.

The Good
-Victor Akinyanju still looks good. He scored 21 points and had 11 rebounds to lead the Bobcats. It's been awhile since the Bobcats had a healthy strong inside presence. If the health of Karl Anderson comes back over the break this could be the position where Quinnipiac wins games and has depth.

The Bad
Kevin Jolley who arguably is the most loved player on campus received treatment on his knee last season. At the start of this season his other knee began bothering him and doctors say he needs surgery. Jolley has decided instead of ending his collegiate career he will fight out the pain and receive minimal minutes coming off the bench. His seniority will be much missed this year for Quinnipiac.

The Ugly
Quinnipiac is now in a familiar spot, the bottom of the NEC. They will have to wait through finals and into the new year before they will get a shot to climb up the ladder out of the early hole. Good news is this year is certainly early and Bobcats are a competitive team. There is no reason to lose hope so early in the season, esp since they have played tight in their two NEC games.

The basketball season is a long one and you can never judge a team on it's December performances. The Bobcats got an unlucky draw by having to play two NEC games very early in the year with this new look team. The Bobcats go into a the marquee part of their schedule when they play URI and UCONN on the road. Don't look at the scores from these games (cause they could be very ugly) but look at the team. These are teams that can take Quinnipiac's weaknesses and exploit them, which is good to see before conference play.

Next Game: December 19th VS Dartmouth at the Burt Khan Court 7:00
Televised on NESN