As a mid-major team early in the season, there are going to be games on the schedule that you are “supposed to lose.” That said, the Patriot League teams aren’t going down without a fight, and have won a majority of the “50/50 games.”
The conference, which has been down the past season or two after losing NBA players like Bucknell’s Mike Muscala and Lehigh’s C.J. McCollum, may be on the upswing this season.
It started from the first friday of College Hoops when Lehigh lost to Villanova by only 11 points, Navy lost to Michigan State by only five, Loyola lost to Texas Tech by just 12 and American narrowly gave away a three point victory to Temple. Continuing on that, Army beat Air Force. A win for not only the group of servicemen, but a win for the Patriot League over the Mountain West as well. Lafayette blew out Robert Morris of the NEC and Bucknell took down the MAAC’s Marist Red Foxes.
The following day, off a back-to-back, Army took down VMI; and Colgate, who finished in the lower portion of the Patriot League last season, took the Atlantic 10’s LaSalle Explorers to a five point game.
The Patriot League finally had a breakthrough on Sunday when Holy Cross took down the in-state, and 25th ranked, Harvard Crimson. Boston University also took a nine point lead at the half over Northeastern, but yielded 44 points in the second half and ended up losing by six. The Ivy League took another loss when Cornell, who looks significantly better than last season – noted by their victory over George Mason – fell to Loyola on the road by six.
There is a lot of basketball ahead, but early hype is all part of the fun. All that can be said is that so far, the teams from the second highest regarded academic conference in the nation seem to be turning a few heads early in the year by beating similar teams from other conferences and competing with the best of the best. Eh, best of the best. . . an exaggeration. But, some good teams nonetheless. If a team like Holy Cross or Army wins 25-26-27 games, but falls in a conference tournament, it wouldn’t be unprecedented for the league to sneak two teams in the big dance.
Army’s Kyle Wilson was named Patriot League player of the opening week, averaging 22 points in the Armed Service tournament that was held in West Point this weekend. Wilson eclipsed 1,000 points in just the second contest of his junior year.
It could be a fun season of mid-major basketball all over the east coast, especially within the Patriot League.
*Section Photo credit to Anson Marsh, City of Basketball Love; Featured Photo (above) credit to Steven Senne, Associated Press
