American was supposed to be one of the worst teams in the country

[mikewebb68]

But they beat George Mason, who was supposed to be significantly better than them, tonight. Tells how it is tough to judge teams early (including us). Still expect a decent-sized win, but probably not the cakewalk I originally thought this would be...

 

[rwhitney014]

Good. It's always good to have the teams you play win more games.

 

[Wrestlerneverdiesasacatfan]

But they beat George Mason, who was supposed to be significantly better than them, tonight. Tells how it is tough to judge teams early (including us). Still expect a decent-sized win, but probably not the cakewalk I originally thought this would be...

We will some em and get ranked soon.

 

[CatJones]

American uses an intricate, deliberate, disciplined, passing and cutting, back-door utilizing system that that can keep the team competitive when playing teams with superior talent. This game should be of interest for NU fans.

 

[willycat]

American uses an intricate, deliberate, disciplined, passing and cutting, back-door utilizing system that that can keep the team competitive when playing teams with superior talent. This game should be of interest for NU fans.

Who's their coach? Sounds familiar, no?

 

[NJCat]

American uses an intricate, deliberate, disciplined, passing and cutting, back-door utilizing system that that can keep the team competitive when playing teams with superior talent. This game should be of interest for NU fans.

Might as well just schedule Holy Cross!!

 

[Hungry Jack]

American uses an intricate, deliberate, disciplined, passing and cutting, back-door utilizing system that that can keep the team competitive when playing teams with superior talent. This game should be of interest for NU fans.

Well played

 

[CoralSpringsCat]

Yale beat Cal and Stonybrook defeated South Carolina!

 

[scru]

Yale beat Cal and Stonybrook defeated South Carolina!

And SIU gave Kentucky all they wanted. Actually makes me feel better about the New Orleans game. Hopefully NU continues to improve over the next couple weeks and have a better rhythm when heading to Bloomington.

 

[Redactor]

American uses an intricate, deliberate, disciplined, passing and cutting, back-door utilizing system that that can keep the team competitive when playing teams with superior talent. This game should be of interest for NU fans.

Hi, AU fan here. Preseason rankings are a joke, generally, as most people who make them have never seen the teams they're ranking play, or have any idea about why a team's record the previous season was what it was. In our case, we were 6-24 because a) we were playing five freshmen all season; b) we had SIX players miss at least one game last year because of concussions, something I've never seen at any level of basketball, and c) one of those six players was our starting center from the year before, Mark Gasperini, who missed the entire 2017-18 season because of his concussion.

The Eagles are coming off a huge 78-75 overtime win Friday at George Mason, which was ranked at 124 on KenPom coming into the game and picked as high as five in Atlantic 10 preseason rankings. We do run a lot of Princeton offense, but not nearly as much as we used to. (Carmody is running a lot more Princeton at Holy Cross, if you're at all curious.) With Sa'eed Nelson (our junior PG who was picked as the Patriot League's Preseason Player of the year), we're using a lot more high pick and roll to get him in space and create driving/passing lanes. Sa'eed had 24 points and 4 assists Friday at Mason, including the game-winning three-point play in overtime. We'll use Princeton now to get us back in an offensive rhythm if we start getting stagnant.

To give you an idea of how meaningless those rankings are, we just moved up 100 spots in KenPom after one game.

Look forward to the game Monday.

 

[mikewebb68]

Hi, AU fan here. Preseason rankings are a joke, generally, as most people who make them have never seen the teams they're ranking play, or have any idea about why a team's record the previous season was what it was. In our case, we were 6-24 because a) we were playing five freshmen all season; b) we had SIX players miss at least one game last year because of concussions, something I've never seen at any level of basketball, and c) one of those six players was our starting center from the year before, Mark Gasperini, who missed the entire 2017-18 season because of his concussion.

The Eagles are coming off a huge 78-75 overtime win Friday at George Mason, which was ranked at 124 on KenPom coming into the game and picked as high as five in Atlantic 10 preseason rankings. We do run a lot of Princeton offense, but not nearly as much as we used to. (Carmody is running a lot more Princeton at Holy Cross, if you're at all curious.) With Sa'eed Nelson (our junior PG who was picked as the Patriot League's Preseason Player of the year), we're using a lot more high pick and roll to get him in space and create driving/passing lanes. Sa'eed had 24 points and 4 assists Friday at Mason, including the game-winning three-point play in overtime. We'll use Princeton now to get us back in an offensive rhythm if we start getting stagnant.

To give you an idea of how meaningless those rankings are, we just moved up 100 spots in KenPom after one game.

Look forward to the game Monday.

Thanks for the preview, since I knew something about New Orleans since we played them in the past, but don't think we've played American in awhile. And congrats on the win; wasn't expecting it, but it is hard to tell at the beginning at the season how good or bad your team or your opponents teams are (and that applies to us as well; we looked decent vs. New Orleans, but we don't know how good or bad they are yet)

Do you have any size? One of our strengths is that we have size at all five positions...

 

[NJCat]

Thanks for the preview, since I knew something about New Orleans since we played them in the past, but don't think we've played American in awhile. And congrats on the win; wasn't expecting it, but it is hard to tell at the beginning at the season how good or bad your team or your opponents teams are (and that applies to us as well; we looked decent vs. New Orleans, but we don't know how good or bad they are yet)

Do you have any size? One of our strengths is that we have size at all five positions...

NU has played AU just once, back in 2010:

American
NU leads 1-0
W 78-62

 

[mikewebb68]

NU has played AU just once, back in 2010:

American
NU leads 1-0
W 78-62

Thanks; figured it hadn't been in awhile, if at all. Have zero recollection of that game...

 

[Redactor]

Thanks for the preview, since I knew something about New Orleans since we played them in the past, but don't think we've played American in awhile. And congrats on the win; wasn't expecting it, but it is hard to tell at the beginning at the season how good or bad your team or your opponents teams are (and that applies to us as well; we looked decent vs. New Orleans, but we don't know how good or bad they are yet)

Do you have any size? One of our strengths is that we have size at all five positions...

This year, yes. Again, when detailing why we were 6-24 last year, one rather significant reason was that because of all the injuries/concussions, our fives last year were a) a 178-pound freshman center, and b) a 6-5 freshman wing who we had to play in the hole because he was actually bigger than the 178-pound center. Neither are starting in the middle this year.

Our bigs are Mark Gasperini (Soph.,approx 6-9, 250), who, as mentioned before, was our starting center in 2016-17, but missed all of last season due to concussion; Yilret Yiljep (Gr., 6-7, 240), who was cleared to return to play this year after being out the last three years due to a heart condition (which has either healed or was misdiagnosed in the first place); Josh Alexander (Fr., 6-8, 240), our top incoming recruit, from upstate New York, and Jesse Little (Soph, 6-11), the aforementioned 178-pound freshman who's now around 200 pounds as a sophomore.

Decent size on the wings; our 2s/3s are all in the 6-4/6-6 range. The best is Sam Iorio (Soph), who was on the Patriot League all-rookie team and had a double-double Friday against George Mason. Sa'eed Nelson, our point guard, is small at 5-11.

 

[mikewebb68]

This year, yes. Again, when detailing why we were 6-24 last year, one rather significant reason was that because of all the injuries/concussions, our fives last year were a) a 178-pound freshman center, and b) a 6-5 freshman wing who we had to play in the hole because he was actually bigger than the 178-pound center. Neither are starting in the middle this year.

Our bigs are Mark Gasperini (Soph.,approx 6-9, 250), who, as mentioned before, was our starting center in 2016-17, but missed all of last season due to concussion; Yilret Yiljep (Gr., 6-7, 240), who was cleared to return to play this year after being out the last three years due to a heart condition (which has either healed or was misdiagnosed in the first place); Josh Alexander (Fr., 6-8, 240), our top incoming recruit, from upstate New York, and Jesse Little (Soph, 6-11), the aforementioned 178-pound freshman who's now around 200 pounds as a sophomore.

Decent size on the wings; our 2s/3s are all in the 6-4/6-6 range. The best is Sam Iorio (Soph), who was on the Patriot League all-rookie team and had a double-double Friday against George Mason. Sa'eed Nelson, our point guard, is small at 5-11.

Wow, that's some beefy guys down low! Should be an interesting game, gl to you!