• If there was any doubt as to the value of a point guard, look no further than Boston University and floor leader D.J. Irving. There are a few reasons the Terriers have now won five games in a row and is tied with Stony Brook (who they beat last Saturday) atop the America East Conference, but Irving’s return to health following a concussion last month is chief among them. That was readily apparent to one opposing coach, who thinks he’s the Terriers’ best player.

  “I think they’re at their best when the ball is in his hands and getting guys shots,” said Albany head coach Will Brown.

• Speaking of the Terriers, if they are to continue this run, they will need to improve on the glass. Albany beat them badly on the backboards Monday night, and that wasn’t an isolated event. It was so bad Monday that if there was a time of possession stat like in football games, the Great Danes would have had a big advantage. It made the Terriers’ defense in the first half that much more impressive.

  “It’s an area of major concern for me,” said head coach Joe Jones, “because I think if we’re going to continue to have success in this league, we’re going to need to defend and rebound at a high rate, much better than we did tonight in terms of the glass, especially when we go on the road.”

• Brown said that the big reason he sat Gerardo Suero, America East’s top scorer, for a lot of the second half against the Terriers was simple. He found that the group he put in was playing well, but also wanted his star to gain something else from it. Suero was just 1-10 from the field on the night for six points, and had eight turnovers.

  “He got frustrated,” said Brown. “With the combination of BU doing a really good job on him and him getting frustrated, it got to a point where he just wasn’t there today.”

• On Thursday, Lafayette used a big second half to overcome a terrible shooting first half to beat Holy Cross in a matchup of two teams that can probably be best characterized as consistently inconsistent this season. The Leopards, who shot 19.4 percent from the field in the first half before shooting 52 percent in the second, haven’t been able to put together a streak of more than two wins together. But they are 2-0 on the road in early Patriot League play and their only loss came against league favorite Bucknell. With co-captain Tony Johnson back and being in better game shape now that he has a few games under his belt, they may be ready to turn a corner.

  “I feel really good about it,” said freshman Dan Trist, one of three Leopards who scored 11 points on the night. “The seniors were telling me how hard it is to win on the road in the Patriot League. Every gym is like a fortress, pretty much.”

• On the other side, Holy Cross head coach Milan Brown was at a loss for words to describe his team’s effort. The real oddity is that the Crusaders got next to nothing from the first unit in the second half, while a new group from a wholesale substitution early on led a rally to regain the lead. Holy Cross has had times where they have played very well, but Thursday’s second half hasn’t been an isolated case although it was probably their worst half of the season.

• It hasn’t been the best stretch for North Carolina. First, they got blown out by 33 at Florida State on Saturday, then Dexter Strickland tore his ACL and is done for the season. It’s not a small loss for this team, as he’s the closest thing they have to a backup point guard.

• Every year, there is at least one key player who is academically ineligible for the second semester. The first one to make news this time around is California sophomore forward Richard Solomon, who started eight of the Golden Bears’ 13 games and led the team in rebounding. That’s a big blow to a team that figures to contend for the Pac-12 title, something which just got more difficult.

“That’s the way it’s been. That’s the way all our games have been,” said head coach Ed DeChellis. “We have a chance to win with three or four minutes to go in the game and we just haven’t been able to do it.”

DeChellis took over the program last spring and has inherited a team with a lot of youth. The Midshipmen have three seniors, only two of whom play significant minutes, and start four sophomores. They bring four freshmen off the bench for significant minutes, along with two more sophomores. At times on Wednesday night, they looked like a young team with their play, but also at one point late that was clear.

There was a stoppage of play with almost three minutes left. Holy Cross headed over to the bench to talk things over while things got sorted out, but Navy’s players didn’t head over to their bench until the stoppage was almost over. It’s a relatively minor point, but that was a missed opportunity to go over something at a time when Holy Cross was almost finished with a decisive 9-0 run for a 65-56 lead.

There is some good talent among the young players. Sophomore forward J.J. Avila is breaking out as the team’s top scorer and rebounder, and the Midshipmen are trying to get him the ball often. Jordan Brickman, who actually sat out the last two seasons, has started 12 of the last 13 games at the point and appears to have settled in there. Sophomore Brennan Wyatt has acquitted himself well as a backup point guard. Worth Smith might be the best of the freshmen, as he has started six games and should be a fixture there given his versatility, while classmate Donya Jackson is athletic and clearly has a future with this team. Smith had a double-double on Wednesday with 13 points and 10 rebounds, going 3-5 from long range.

“We’ve got some good things to build upon,” said DeChellis. “We’re just young everywhere.”

Of late, the Midshipmen are showing signs of progress at the offensive end, an area DeChellis intimated leaves plenty of room for improvement. Evidence of that comes from the Midshipmen holding six opponents below 60 points on the season, but going just 2-4 in those games. After being turnover-prone early, they entered Wednesday’s game with 80 assists and 74 turnovers in the prior six games. They were even better on Wednesday, handing out 16 assists with just nine turnovers. It’s progress, but there was a down side even to that, as Holy Cross made them pay with 16 points off turnovers.

“We’re not an explosive offensive team, so we can’t give teams easy, unanswered points with turnovers in the backcourt, and that’s something we’ve done in this streak as well,” DeChellis added.

Part of the offensive struggles have likely come from adjusting to the coaching change. Navy is playing much slower this year than they did under former head coach Billy Lange. In fact, they have gone from playing one of the fastest paces to being near the bottom ten percent in Division I.

The Midshipmen have had some close calls during the losing streak. Not surprisingly, this young team hasn’t quite finished games at times, as nine of their 13 losses have been by single digits (they have won just two of those games). They are 0-4 in one-possession games. With experience, this team should eventually start to turn some of those losses into victories, but DeChellis knows it won’t happen simply by the advancement of time.

“You can’t just will it,” said the Navy mentor. “You’ve got to want it and you have to do what you have to do to be successful.”

When DeChellis made the move to Annapolis from Penn State, it drew plenty of attention last spring. In the end Navy should be the better for it given his track record at East Tennessee State and in Happy Valley. Right now there are some growing pains with the youth of this team, but there is some progress even if it’s not yet showing on the bottom line.

The Crusaders led 60-50 with 38 seconds left after two free throws by Justin Burrell. The game was all but in hand at that point, especially since the Crusaders fought back rallies all night long. Then two missed free throws and two missed turnovers, one in their own end, helped New Hampshire suddenly get within 60-57. Burrell then sank two more free throws to finally seal the game and get the Crusaders over the hump.

“Coach said that we’re a lot different from last year,” said senior guard Devin Brown. “Today, we didn’t win the way people would want us to win, but at the end of the day, we won. That’s something that maybe we wouldn’t have done last year.”

The past couple of seasons have seen the Crusaders drop several heart-breakers as part of disappointing seasons. Last year, they lost three in non-league play where they had a lead in the final minute, including an overtime loss to Yale where they led by four with 26 seconds left. Nothing will top a loss to Loyola (Ill.) two seasons ago, where they led by eight with a minute to play and lost at the buzzer.

So the Crusaders haven’t exactly been experts at finishing close games the last couple of years. Perhaps Saturday night’s win is a sign that the veterans and this team as a whole are turning a corner.

“If teams are going to beat us, they have to beat us with us throwing them our best stuff,” said head coach Milan Brown.

The last minute wasn’t the only missed opportunity for the Crusaders. They played better defense early in the second half, but never broke the game open. At one point in the opening minutes, New Hampshire turned the ball over twice on consecutive possessions in their own end, but the Crusaders didn’t score following either one. They also shot 33.3 percent from the field in the second half, so it’s not as though they caught fire offensively. Missing those chances to break the game open could have come back to haunt them later.

That was another piece of adversity the Crusaders had to overcome on the night. Doing so seems to be a theme of late, as the Crusaders suffered a tough loss a few nights earlier at Providence where they were able to hang around and take the lead late in the game, but couldn’t hang on. Milan Brown said he thought the team got better from the loss and responded positively in practice after that. It showed in the second half when they made mistakes, even late in the game.

“We didn’t look like deer in the headlights when we made those mistakes,” said the second-year Holy Cross mentor. “We just made mistakes trying to make a play. It wasn’t like we weren’t confident trying to make a play.”

Holy Cross fell behind by one about eight minutes into the second half, but over a minute later they regained the lead for good despite a number of challenges to it by the Wildcats. In the last 2:33, they turned a one-point lead into the final margin thanks to eight free throws, including a 6-6 showing from Burrell, who finished with 13 points.

Milan Brown said the players are all on the same page and have bought in to what the staff is trying to do. Add in that they won a game they might have lost a year earlier, and Holy Cross looks like they may be headed in the right direction.

Go coast to coast with a roundup of news from across the nation.

1. Starting next season, players will no longer be able to test the NBA Draft waters. According to the Associated Press, the NCAA approved a rules change that forces players to decide whether they wish to remain eligible for the NBA Draft by the first day of the spring signing period for recruits. This move helps college coaches replace departing players. But it kills players’ opportunity to gauge their draft stock as few NBA teams are prepared to provide full predictions by mid-April.
2. George Mason wasted no time in finding a new coach. According to the Associated Press, the Colonials picked former Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt, who was fired at Georgia Tech this past season after 11 years and a 190-162 record. In more than a decade with the Yellow Jackets, Hewitt established a reputation for recruiting top-notch talent, but he only made one deep run in the NCAA Tournament, losing to Connecticut in the 2004 championship game. He replaces Jim Larranaga, who left the school to coach Miami.
3. Nearby, in Washington, D.C., George Washington will be in search of a new coach after firing Karl Hobbs, according to the Associated Press. Hobbs led the Colonials for 10 years, including a great 2005-06 season in which George Washington finished 27-3 and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
4. And in Atlanta, Georgia Tech replaced Paul Hewitt with Brian Gregory, choosing Dayton’s coach over several other candidates, including a 15-year-old from Connecticut. Wha?! According to the Sporting News’ Mike DeCourcy, Ethan Peikes sent Georgia Tech Athletic Director Dan Radakovich a letter containing a cogent argument for why Peikes should become the Yellow Jackets’ next coach.
5. Colgate presumably didn’t get any applications from 15-year-olds, but the school did find its coach from a relatively young member of the coaching ranks. According to the Associated Press, Colgate hired 33-year-old Temple assistant Matt Langel to replace Emmett Davis, who was dismissed after 13 seasons and a 165-212 record.
6. Wisconsin extended the contract of coach Bo Ryan through 2015-16, ensuring stability for one of the best programs in the Big Ten, according to the Associated Press. Ryan has a 242-91 record in 10 seasons in Madison, and his teams regularly excel in the NCAA Tournament and enjoy one of the toughest home court advantages in basketball.
7. Likewise, in Athens, Ga., coach Mark Fox received an extension with Georgia. The Bulldogs will keep Fox through 2015-16 and increase his pay to $1.7 million per year, according to the Associated Press.
8. Amid coaching changes, some players decide it’s time for a fresh start, especially if a new coach has a significantly different system. That looks to be the case at North Carolina State, according to Eamonn Brennan of ESPN.com’s “College Basketball Nation” blog. Freshman point guard Ryan Harrow will leave the Wolfpack to look for a fresh start rather than play for new coach Mark Gottfried.
9. Give coach Bill Self credit. Even though Kansas is losing plenty of firepower this off-season, the Jayhawks will face a brutal schedule next season, with Kentucky and Ohio State definitely on the horizon, according to the Associated Press. Kansas also will be in the Maui Invitational with Duke, UCLA, Georgetown, Memphis, Tennessee and Michigan.
10. And Kansas might find some tougher competition out of Oklahoma in the Big 12 than originally expected. New Sooners coach Lon Kruger has added two Juco players recently to help hasten the rebuilding of the Oklahoma program, according to Sports Illustrated’s “Fan Nation” blog.
11. Louisville coach Rick Pitino has completed a major overhaul of his staff, according to the Associated Press. Pitino added Kevin Keatts as an assistant coach. Keatts arrives at Louisville after coaching Hargrave Military Academy for 10 seasons and winning two national prep championships. Keatts joins Wyking Jones and Pitino’s son Richard on the staff.
12. Quick hits from the NCAA’s attendance report, via ESPN.com’s Eamonn Brennan for the “College Basketball Nation” blog: total number of people attending games is up compared with 2009-10, average per Division I game is down a tad (because of more Division I schools), and average NCAA Tournament attendance is down slightly.

HOME COURT ADVANTAGE

The general consensus is that the NCAA is being selfish in its decision to change the rules on players testing the NBA Draft as early entrants. It’s hard to argue with that sentiment, though the NCAA has an opportunity to do right by student-athletes.

The NCAA is responsible for guiding student-athletes through the collegiate educational experience. That’s not my take; it’s theirs. From the NCAA’s website:

The NCAA’s core purpose is to govern competition in a fair, safe, equitable and sportsmanlike manner, and to integrate intercollegiate athletics into higher education so that the educational experience of the student-athlete is paramount.

By shifting the deadline for players to decide whether they will remain in the NBA Draft or return to school to mid-April, the NCAA is robbing student-athletes of a chance to maximize their educational experience. To borrow a Texas Hold ‘Em poker analogy, the NCAA will be forcing players to go all-in or fold before the flop while letting them see only one card.

In recent years, players have been able to figure out the strength of their draft hand — to see that other card — by receiving evaluations from NBA scouts during late April and May. A few years ago, players had until June to decide whether they’d remain in the draft or return to school. NCAA coaches hated that because they didn’t know what their roster would like and how they should adjust their recruiting strategy in the spring.

The first step in this anti-player direction was a change to the players’ decision deadline to early May. That prevents players from receiving much information, but they can at least make an educated decision about the likelihood that a team will pick them in the first round.

To clarify what’s at stake, the NBA only guarantees contracts to first-round picks. If you’re No. 31, you have to compete with every other unrestricted free agent, NBA Developmental League player and international walk-on who wants a shot at an NBA contract. Good luck. Oh, and you can’t go back to your college team. When early entrants remain in the draft, they’re no longer eligible. You don’t hear of too many players who pay to earn a degree without a scholarship from a school if they fall out of the first round and don’t receive a contract.

For NCAA early entrants, the NBA Draft can be a life-altering decision. Because the NCAA will restrict the relevant information that student-athletes can gather by the mid-April deadline, the NCAA has the responsibility to fulfill its core purpose: ensure that the educational experience is paramount. And that experience is paramount to the self-centered interests of coaches who fear they’ll lose their jobs without NBA-caliber players on their roster instead of leftover recruits.

For the NCAA to fulfill that purpose, it needs to create a method for student-athletes to receive NBA evaluations throughout the season. Perhaps the NCAA should form a consortium of current or former NBA scouts who provide monthly ratings or reviews, citing comments from NBA executives. If the NCAA wants to follow the money, it would need to wade into the world of sports agents, who are perhaps most motivated to gauge players’ value and translate that into NBA dollars. An objective sports agent might not exist, but that’s for the NCAA to figure out.

As the rules stand now, the NCAA is failing its student-athletes. A failed system is bound too fall apart as soon as a better alternative presents itself. And that could quickly emerge from the heavily financed underworld of unscrupulous sports agencies and self-employed talent consultants, who might take an even more aggressive stance and try to fill a need in this evaluation process — if the NCAA doesn’t step up to fully educate its players.

“My freshman year, we lost to Holy Cross on the road in the championship, and I could never get that taste out of my mouth, until right now,” said the Bucknell senior guard.

In the middle of the last decade, Bucknell was one of the teams that ruled the Patriot League, along with Holy Cross. Those were the two schools you could expect to contend every year, and they waged some epic battles that included championship games, and Bucknell won twice. They won a game in the NCAA Tournament each of those years and was a No. 9 seed in 2006 after some good wins outside the Patriot League.

Those were halcyon days for the program, and probably seemed like many years ago to fans of the program after Dave Paulsen’s first year at the helm. But the Bison are going back to the NCAA Tournament as the clear top team in the Patriot League after Friday’s 72-57 win in the championship game over Lafayette.

It’s been a long road back to the NCAA Tournament, but Tyree probably knows it better than anyone and not just because of the loss in the title game his freshman year. As a sophomore, he was the league’s top defensive player and appeared to be well on his way to a career full of all-league honors while leading the Bison to more wins and possibly more NCAA Tournament appearances. But before his junior year, he tore an ACL and had to miss the season. He wasn’t the same player last year, and suffered another ACL injury this year but opted not to have surgery. While he didn’t play a big role on the surface, he’s certainly a reason this program has produced another champion.

The road back all started after Paulsen succeeded Pat Flannery, who had retired. Paulsen’s first season wasn’t one for the books on the bottom line, aided by the injury to Tyree, but the recruiting efforts that year landed an impact group that is now the core of this team going forward. In his first season, they also established how they would play, which was an adjustment for the holdovers, but Paulsen said they all bought in despite the struggles to a 7-23 mark. That helped lead to this year’s success, and now the Bison are well-positioned to stay on top of the Patriot League for a while.

The sophomores have already made their mark, and will continue to do that. Center Mike Muscala was the league Player of the Year and the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. Bryson Johnson is much-improved not only with his shooting, but in many other facets of the game, much as Paulsen admits that he gets a little nervous when Johnson puts the ball on the floor. Joe Willman hasn’t had the same accolades this season but is no less a contributor, especially at the defensive end.

They made their mark on Friday, as did freshman Cameron Ayers with a nice reserve effort (12 points, six rebounds). But one needs to look back to the last remnants of the Flannery era for perhaps the three biggest reasons this team is headed back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years.

The Bison have one of the most underrated floor leaders in Darryl Shazier. There’s only one number you need to know with Shazier, an intelligent player who has a consistent, calm demeanor on the floor no matter what the situation: his 3.78 assist-to-turnover ratio. He simply knows not only how to find teammates, but also how not to give the ball away, a trait that is under-appreciated. After handing out three assists with no turnovers on Friday, the senior has 185 assists with just 49 turnovers.

A key wing has been G.W. Boon, who can be a character when he’s not playing solid basketball. He’s also an excellent biomedical engineering student who spent last summer doing research with the Geisenger Medical Center, where he worked on the design of a special pacifier used to extract DNA from babies. The well-built wing hasn’t had eye-popping numbers in his career, but Friday’s contributions are fairly typical: eight points, five rebounds in 21 minutes. What’s also interesting is Boon’s connection to the program’s prior success.

“I was a Kansas fan when they beat Kansas, so I was cheering against them,” said Boon with a smile. “I was really upset about that win, but when (Bucknell) came knocking on my the door next summer to try and recruit me, I automatically knew who they were, and I knew it was a team and a program that was about winning. That’s what I signed up for, and now to have that come to fruition at the end of my senior year, it’s amazing.”

And then there’s Tyree, who Boon raved about back when he missed the 2008-09 season because of the torn ACL. With him, it’s all about the intangibles.

“We have four core values on the left side of our board in the locker room: passion, talk, focus and toughness,” said Shazier. “Coach says no one embodies those values more than Stephen. The best way that we could pick him up as a team was to embrace those even more.”

The seniors have also seen the younger players handle success well. They haven’t acted like they have arrived and don’t need to work anymore, and the improvement is clear. Junior Bryan Cohen, who can easily be forgotten between the senior leaders and the super sophomores, is one of the most underrated players around and the best defensive player in the conference. He’s also seen them continue to improve while his role has changed.

While Muscala improved to the point of winning the league’s Player of the Year honors, perhaps no one has improved as much as Johnson. A talented shooter, he was up and down as a freshman, but his potential was clear. He’s shooting better, largely because of better shot selection, but he’s better using the dribble to either get a good shot or create something else, and he’s clearly better defensively. He consistently helped cut off passing lanes on Friday to slow the Lafayette offense. And he probably typifies the improvement of the young players who weren’t satisfied of being a trio of teammates to make the league’s all-rookie team last season.

“I used to do shooting drills with Bryson last year. We’d be neck-and-neck, I usually would win,” Boon said with a straight face, with laughter then erupting among his teammates. “I would win a lot of them, but this year, the kid is killing me in every shooting drill that we do. That just shows the way he’s worked in the off-season, and it shows in the games.”

Paulsen, who won a national title as a Division III head coach, said he’s never had a group that’s practiced like this one or been as coachable. He’s happy to see this effort rewarded for his players and the fans. And soon, Stephen Tyree won’t be numb anymore. He’ll be feeling quite happy now that he and his team are going to the NCAA Tournament in his last go-round.

Thursday night’s 79-72 loss is a stinger. Colgate had shot better than 45 percent from the field just once all season prior to Thursday night’s game. So a look at the final box score showing that the Red Raiders shot 55.4 percent from the field would be the first sign that this wasn’t a good night.

“It was definitely disappointing to see us not defend the way we’re capable of defending,” head coach Milan Brown said.

But that was only the beginning of the problems, in more ways than one. In a chronological sense, once the Crusaders’ defensive struggles materialized out of the gates, Colgate just gained more confidence as they shot over 57 percent in the first half. Brown wasn’t surprised by that, because a struggling offensive team can do that if they get confidence early on. Considering Colgate won both meetings a year ago, they probably came in with some confidence in the first place despite their 1-4 Patriot League record coming in.

“They made a couple of tough shots early, we had a couple of opportunities to score that we messed up on, and I don’t think we came out with the desire and passion we needed to start the game with,” said junior guard Devin Brown.

To make things worse, the Crusaders were out-rebounded 34-23, surrendering 11 offensive rebounds. Holy Cross entered the game with a +3 rebound margin on the season, while the Red Raiders were getting out-rebounded by a small margin. In Patriot League play, the Crusaders’ margin is nearly +7. Andrew Keister led the charge with six rebounds, but aside from Mike Cavataio’s five, he didn’t have much help.

“If nothing else proves we were out of character tonight, we had 23 rebounds,” said Brown. “We average 36 or 37, so when you do that, we’re not ready to go. If anything, we rebound the basketball. We had 23 rebounds.”

While the Crusaders don’t have great size with Phil Beans out and Keister continuing to battle gamely with an Achilles issue that has greatly limited his practice time, size alone wasn’t the issue. Brown didn’t chalk the lack of rebounding or defense up to just effort, though. There seemed to be more to it than just that, especially since he wasn’t sure a lack of effort was the biggest problem.

“Some of the stuff is that we didn’t play smart,” said Brown. “Guys that are drivers, we played more like shooters, and the shooters, we played like drivers. We let the post guys post us up anywhere they wanted.”

The unfortunate thing is that the Crusaders came into the night with a chance to get back into a tie for second place in the Patriot League. In addition, they seemed to be coming alive with league play having begun, but they have now hit a three-game losing streak with two of the losses coming at home.

What is also a problem is that Thursday night wasn’t the first time they didn’t seem to have the passion or effort, as that was the feeling after the loss to Saint Joseph’s about a month ago. It happened again on Saturday, with Lehigh making eight of their first 10 shots to jump out to a 16-8 lead. Early in the second half, Lehigh pushed the lead to a dozen, similar to Colgate at one point leading 72-54.

The sense of urgency wasn’t there early, but it came late in both games. On Thursday, it was too deep a hole to dig out of, even though pride kicked in at one point.

“You look at the scoreboard and you’re down 18, you don’t want to be embarrassed at home, so you’ve got to come back and do whatever you can to get back into the ballgame,” said Cavataio.

Holy Cross now finds itself in a pack of five teams tied at 3-4 in third place in the Patriot League at the halfway point. They are three games behind Bucknell and two behind American, who looked like the class of the league in non-league play and have done little to dispel that in the last few weeks. But the Crusaders aren’t far away; three of the four losses have been by four points or less, and the other one was by seven points. Turning those into wins will prove difficult if the reasons behind a number of the losses, both in and out of league, aren’t rectified soon.

In the Crusaders’ 58-57 loss at George Washington, they were more short-handed than they have been at other times this season. R.J. Evans missed his fourth straight game with a sports hernia, and may be out a while longer since he can’t do anything physical, including conditioning. Phil Beans has been out for the same amount of time with a foot injury. Now, Andrew Keister has joined the walking wounded with an Achilles injury that they have to be careful with.

Head coach Milan Brown said Keister has had the injury for a while but has continued to compete. Not surprisingly, holding him out until Patriot League play isn’t what the senior forward wants, but it’s a practical matter. Brown said the word he got is that there is a risk of rupturing it if he keeps playing without some rest, so the hope is that resting him until Patriot League play begins in another week will help heal it and lessen the risk of it rupturing. From there, Brown summed up what it all means.

“It killed him to do it, but sometimes you have to make that decision,” said the first-year Crusader head coach. “Basically, I’m putting all my chips in for the Patriot League.”

At this point, the remaining two non-league games can help Holy Cross from the standpoint of the current players on the floor getting better. Wins and losses might matter to the psyche, but aside from that it’s about the Patriot League. That’s not to say there is nothing to be gained on the court; if the 58-57 loss at George Washington is any indication, there is plenty.

As Brown noted, the injuries give other players a chance to contribute. That certainly happened against the Colonials, as Jordan Stevens and Josh Jones picked up the slack for players who struggled. Both players had a career-high 13 points, with Stevens going 3-7 from long range two games after he went 3-6. Stevens was slowed by injury earlier in the season, but appears to be finding his stroke and at a good time. With Devin Brown struggling of late and Mike Cavataio being up and down, they could use more wing production.

“He’s been doing that the last couple of games, so it’s been great to see us get that from the wing position,” said Brown.

Jones played a grand total of 88 minutes in his first three seasons in Worcester, but has already shattered that with 130 this season. The senior forward is taking advantage of the extra chances, and more will be coming at least in the foreseeable future with Keister out.

Brown said he was encouraged by how the team battled in the nation’s capital, especially given the adversity they have faced. He said they “had every excuse in the book to come out and lay an egg,” but they didn’t. Not only were guys down, Brown, the team’s leading scorer, scored in single digits for the second straight game largely from a lack of shots. That’s one more troubling trend for the Crusaders.

At this point, Patriot League play will be all that matters. That is usually the case from the bottom line standpoint, but this time around more so than usual for Holy Cross.

For a little over a half, the Crusaders were right with Boston College. Even when BC went up 55-40 and seemed to be in control, Holy Cross scored seven straight to get within striking distance. But the Eagles followed up with a 14-2 run to put the game away.

“They made a three, then we turned it over and they made an and-one,” said head coach Milan Brown. “So they scored six points in about 30 seconds, and it hurt us.”

The culprit for the Crusaders hasn’t been the same thing every game. Against College of Charleston, they ran into a hot team and didn’t have any way of stopping them en route to shooting 63.6 percent from the field. Offense was more the issue against Harvard, where they never really got untracked and it also hurt on the defensive end, as well as New Hampshire on Saturday. In each of the prior two games, they shot below 40 percent from the field, and in all three games they had more turnovers than assists (which they did again on Monday as they had nine assists and 12 turnovers).

The blowout loss at Harvard was illustrative of one thing the Crusaders picked up on as something that could help them. In that game, Harvard consistently got back on defense and never allowed the Crusaders to get an easy basket or two, which set a tone all night long. That was also elusive against Boston College.

“We’re going to do what we need to do on the defensive end, but I also know we have to find ways to score points and hopefully score some easier baskets just to loosen the other team up,” Brown said. “We can’t play against halfcourt defense the entire night and think we’re going to score 70 points, it’s just not going to happen.”

One of his seniors concurs, and can see the effect that missing some of the good looks they have been able to get in the halfcourt has had on the team.

“It’s hard to score against teams in their halfcourt set, so we’ve got to get some throw-ahead shots or throw-ahead duck-ins for layups just to make it easier on ourselves,” said forward Andrew Keister. “Getting those kinds of points can easily turn the tide.”

Brown added that the team has been more reactionary than pro-active on both ends. The Crusaders haven’t been able to dictate anything, whether it’s the pace of the game or how plays happen. The turnovers have certainly been part of that at the offensive end. Even when they have been able to get a good look, they have had some missed opportunities.

“Some of it isn’t just the turnovers, but we’ve had some looks that we haven’t finished,” Brown said. “Sometimes, when you miss those, the rim gets a little tighter.”

It certainly doesn’t get easier for the Crusaders, who have two more road games – at UMass and Wake Forest – before coming home again. At that point, they play America East contender Stony Brook and MAAC favorite Fairfield. The effort hasn’t been an issue, according to Brown, but they have to do more than they have done to this point.

“They’re playing hard, which is first and foremost, and now we have to make a few more winning plays,” Brown said.

Milan Brown came to the school this spring after starting his head coaching career at Mount St. Mary’s. He took over for legendary coach Jim Phelan and spent seven seasons there, leading them to two postseason appearances the past three seasons. His style fits the profile of successful Holy Cross teams as a defense-oriented coach, as his teams made their mark at that end of the floor. In contrast, last season’s head coach, Sean Kearney, tried to play much faster on offense than the team has often played, and the team struggled defensively.

With a third coach in three years comes a little different challenge for veteran players. Brown acknowledges that while also remembering the bottom line for himself and the team.

“It’s definitely tough on the veteran guys because they’ve heard more voices, so it does make it a little tougher,” said Brown, who has liked the way they have bought in. “I have some sympathy for that, but on the other side, we need to develop ourselves into a good basketball team that can win basketball games. As much as we might need some time, anybody that we’re going to play isn’t going to care about that.”

This year’s team will clearly be stronger in the backcourt, which is never a bad place to start. In Monday’s exhibition win over Assumption, point guards Andrew Beinert and Dee Goens combined for 13 assists and three turnovers. Beinert has had some struggles with turnovers during his career, but the senior improved in that category last year and has always been a threat from deep. Goens looks ready to be a better backup this year, and they didn’t miss a beat while he was on the court.

The Crusaders have plenty of talent off the ball. Junior R.J. Evans is a known quantity off the ball, as the former Patriot League Rookie of the Year is a fine scorer and rebounds well for his position. Classmate Devin Brown has always been able to score, especially from long range, and that was on display in the win over Assumption as he scored 25 points on 7-15 shooting from deep. It won’t be a surprise to see both on the floor at the same time on occasion.

The wing is likely to be occupied by junior Mike Cavataio and sophomore Jordan Stevens. Cavataio has a great motor and plays bigger than his size, and if the Crusaders ever want to go small they can play him as an undersized power forward. Stevens hasn’t yet gotten untracked, but he’s athletic and can shoot better than the 3-13 he posted against Assumption indicates.

Andrew Keister will anchor the front line, as the senior has been an All-Patriot League selection the past two seasons. Senior Josh Jones has played sparingly in his career to date but looks to be in line to play more minutes this year. Sophomore Eric Obeysekere had some good moments last season in limited minutes, and two likely regulars were out of action in Monday night’s game. Brown was optimistic that freshman Dave Dudzinski would be able to play in Saturday night’s opener against the College of Charleston, and indicated that sophomore Phil Beans was less certain to be a go although that depended on what information they would get from the doctor in the middle of the week.

As is usually the case, the Crusaders will play a challenging non-league slate. They open with Southern Conference contender College of Charleston, then play Ivy League contender Harvard. Later, they head to Boston College, UMass, Wake Forest and George Washington while hosting America East contender Stony Brook and MAAC contender Fairfield.

As much as the team is going through a change, he is as well with the new job, and you could see it as his two young daughters excitedly ran up to him during our interview. Brown knows about the tradition at the school and said his time on the job has been what he imagined based on it. That was part of his message to the team leading into the season, and certainly any fan might give a similar message after last season’s 9-22 showing.

“I’ve talked to the guys about how we have some responsibility to uphold the tradition,” Brown said. “I think every night that people come out and watch us play, we want them to hopefully walk away and say, that’s Holy Cross basketball.”

Last year, Lehigh showed signs of contending when they made a great non-league run, but they didn’t get it done in league play. This year, the Mountain Hawks were the best team for much of the season, and they carried that into the league tournament with three wins for the title. A big reason for that was, oddly enough, a freshman. C.J. McCollum wasted no time becoming a star, as he won Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year honors, the first player in league history to do so. He was second in the league in scoring overall, but it was in league play where he shined the most as he led in scoring, was sixth in rebounding and field goal percentage, third in three-point percentage and seventh in assists and assist/turnover ratio.

McCollum is symbolic of something else that is different about the league, which is the young talent. Oftentimes, young players in a league like this take a back seat to the veterans, but the Patriot League had a lot of young talent this year. Five of the top ten scorers, four of the top nine rebounders and five of the top seven three-point marksmen were underclassmen. McCollum wasn’t the only freshman on his team to be a key player, as Gabe Knutson was also a starter and key player for the Mountain Hawks. Bucknell placed three players on the All-Rookie team, the first team in league history to do that, and all played significant roles for the Bison this season along with sophomore Bryan Cohen, an All-Rookie selection a year ago. Lafayette got to the final in no small part due to the work of sophomores Jim Mower and Ryan Willen. Holy Cross was at times carried by sophomores R.J. Evans and Devin Brown. Jordan Sugars was the main complement to senior Chris Harris at Navy. Stephen Lumpkins teamed with George Mason transfer Vlad Moldoveanu for a solid 1-2 punch inside for American.

While the league is looking different, the young talent is evidence that there is good basketball ahead for the league in the immediate future. The difference in the standings shows that teams have done their best to rise to the level that Holy Cross and Bucknell were at just a few years ago, and some have succeeded.

Final Standings

League Tournament

The story of the Patriot League Tournament was the dominance of eventual champion Lehigh, as the Mountain Hawks won all three games by at least 15 points. They took care of Army in the quarterfinals by pulling away late, while Lafayette and American won at home and Holy Cross was the lone road team to pull out a win as they knocked off Bucknell 67-64 in Lewisburg. The Mountain Hawks weren’t seriously challenged by American in a 79-57 semifinal win, while Lafayette won a back-and-forth battle with Holy Cross 66-63. That set up a championship game between two arch-rivals.

Lehigh led from start to finish, but was challenged in the second half by Lafayette. The Leopards made several runs at the lead, but could never tie the game. The final ten minutes were dominated by Lehigh senior Zahir Carrington, who took home the tournament MVP honors as he helped the Mountain Hawks pull away for a 74-59 win. Lehigh finished the game on a 12-1 run.

Postseason Awards

Player of the Year: C.J. McCollum, Lehigh

Rookie of the Year: C.J. McCollum, Lehigh

Defensive Player of the Year: Bryan Cohen, Bucknell

Coach of the Year: Fran O’Hanlon, Lafayette

All-Conference Team

Chris Harris, Sr. G, Navy

C.J. McCollum, Fr. G, Lehigh

Jared Mintz, Jr. F, Lafayette

Vlad Moldoveanu, Jr. F, American

Kyle Roemer, Sr. F, Colgate

Season Highlights

• Marquis Hall, who had a fine freshman season of his own three years ago, finished his career most importantly with a Patriot League title, but also with a great accomplishment. The two-time Patriot League Scholar Athlete of the Year graduates as the only player in league history to surpass 1,500 points and 500 assists.
• Army got a lot of buzz in non-league play, as new head coach Zach Spiker was getting results right away. The Black Knights haven’t lacked talent in recent years, so their record before league play wasn’t a big surprise. They rode winning streaks of five and four games to a 10-4 mark.
• Vlad Moldoveanu made an instant impact for American once he was eligible in December after transferring from George Mason. He was third in scoring and rebounding in league games, as he didn’t play in enough games to qualify for the overall lead in any categories.
• Lehigh was eighth in the nation in three-point field goal percentage at just under 40 percent from behind the arc.

What we expected, and it happened: Bucknell was more like the Bucknell of a few years ago. The Bison were hit hard by injuries in 2008-09 and also had a coaching change to adjust to. With a year under Dave Paulson and a good freshman class, the Bison had some growing pains in non-league play but finished second in the league behind Lehigh.

What we expected, and it didn’t happen: Holy Cross was the pick of many as the favorite before the season, but they didn’t come close to that, finishing 9-22 and seventh in the standings, a game out of last place. The Crusaders struggled at the defensive end for much of the season, and it showed in the win-loss column. Sean Kearney lasted just one season as the head coach, replaced by former Mount St. Mary’s head coach Milan Brown.

What we didn’t expect, and it happened: Lafayette was in contention for the top spot and made it to the championship game. The Leopards won eight games a year ago and didn’t look the part of a contender coming in, but they were right in the mix for the top spot and gave Lehigh a good game in the final of the tournament before a late run put the game away.

Team(s) on the rise: Bucknell. The Bison are back and the likely preseason favorite next year after a good showing in league play. Four of their top five were freshmen or sophomores this past season.

Team(s) on the decline: Colgate. A couple of years ago, the Raiders were in the title game. Now Kyle Roemer and Ben Jonson are gone from a team that finished sixth in the league.

2010-11 Patriot League Outlook

With the younger talent in the league, the future is bright. Just about every team projects to be better next season, so the league should improve on its non-league mark in addition to having a hotly contested race for the top starting in January. Six of the ten all-league players return, and all of the All-Rookie selections should contend for spots on that team before long.

Lehigh will have a chance to repeat, but the early favorite has to be Bucknell as the Bison bring back a lot of young talent that will only get better. Lafayette should be in the mix as they also bring back a lot, while American had growing pains with a less experienced roster this year. Holy Cross and Army each have the personnel to potentially make a jump into the top half as well.

If the league has the kind of year it could next year, ultimately it would be safe to say that the rest of the league succeeded in getting better to catch up to Holy Cross and Bucknell. They had little choice but to do so, and having done so the Crusaders and Bison are certainly not dominating the league any longer and not because they have fallen apart.