Nov. 20, 2008

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Game Notes

THE MATCHUP: Lafayette continues its three-game homestand tonight against Temple before finishing it out on Sunday against Rider at 1 p.m. Temple is one of three opponents the Leopards face this year who qualified for the post-season in 2007-08. Meanwhile, Rider is the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference defending champion. Both opponents return four starters from last year's squads.

LAST TIME OUT: Lafayette won its home opener on Tuesday night against Stony Brook, 80-71. Senior guard Andrew Brown chipped in a game-high 25 points, feeding off his 22-point performance against Wagner on Nov. 14. Brown was one of three Leopards who reached double-digits in scoring (Jeff Kari, 16; Ryan Willen, 15). In addition to his career-high 16 points, Kari also dished out a career-high seven assists. His previous career high in assists was three.

SEEING DOUBLE: Freshman Ryan Willen seems to be adjusting to college just fine. The Cape Girardeau, Mo. native posted a double-double on Tuesday night against Stony Brook, tallying 15 points and 10 rebounds. It was the first double-double performance since Feb. 23, 2008, when Bilal Abdullah '08 tallied 19 points and 13 rebounds against Lehigh. Willen's performance was the first double-double by a freshman since Abdullah achieved the feat on Jan. 13, 2005, posting 21 points and 10 rebounds. Willen also padded his stats with three assists, two steals, one block and zero turnovers in 28 minutes off the bench.

LOOKING BACK: The last time Lafayette started off the season with a 2-0 record was in 1998-99. In that season, the Leopards defeated Dartmouth, 56-41, and Princeton, 63-47. Lafayette went on to earn a 22-8 record, including a 10-2 record in the Patriot League, and secured a berth to the NCAA Tournament after winning its first Patriot League championship (against Bucknell). Even more impressive, Lafayette achieved all that success despite losing the preseason Player of the Year Stefan Ciosici for the entire season and the 1997-98 Rookie of the Year Tyson Whitfield for seven games in the middle of the conference schedule.

COACHING CONNECTIONS: Lafayette head coach Fran O'Hanlon was a former assistant coach under current Temple head coach Fran Dunphy when the pair were at Penn in the 1990s. O'Hanlon spent six seasons under Dunphy and helped the Quakers earn three consecutive NCAA Tournament berths from 1992-95 and record a perfect 42-0 record in Ivy League play.

TWO OF A KIND: Lafayette freshman Jim Mower and Rider sophomore Matt Griffin both graduated from St. Joseph's Prep. During Mower's junior year, St. Joseph's finished with a 22-8 record and Griffin was named the team's MVP and First Team All-Catholic League. Mower followed up a successful junior campaign with a semifinal appearance in the Philadelphia Catholic League playoffs and was named Associated Press Third-Team All State.

INJURY UPDATE: Junior Michael Gruner may be available for this weekend's games after missing the Stony Brook game with an injury that he suffered in practice earlier this week. If Gruner is not game-ready, sophomore Ben Wheeler will likely be his replacement in the starting lineup. Gruner was a mainstay in the starting lineup last season after he worked his way into the rotation with his defense. He proved to be Lafayette's steadiest ballhandler, dishing out 72 assists to 46 turnovers for a 1.6 assist/turnover ratio. Gruner is also a Marquis Scholar, recipient of the most prestigious academic scholarship awarded to Lafayette students. Coming out of high school in Bethesda, Md., Gruner led his Walt Whitman squad to the Maryland 4A state title while earning Gazette Co-Player of the Year honors along with the NBA's 2007-08 Rookie of the Year Kevin Durant of Montrose Christian.

NEXT UP: After this weekend, Lafayette will hit the road for two games, traveling first to senior guard Andrew Brown's home state for a 9 p.m. matchup against Colorado on Tuesday. The Leopards will then head to New York for a 7 p.m. tipoff against its second Atlantic-10 conference opponent of the season, Fordham, on Nov. 30.

WELCOME TO COLLEGE: Four of Lafayette's seven freshmen made it out on to the court in Lafayette's season opener at Wagner. Ryan Willen played the most minutes (20) out of the group: Jim Mower (4), J.D. Pelham (4) and Alex Orchowski (1). Willen's clutch free throw shooting may have secured Lafayette's win. In the last four minutes, the Seahawks went on an 8-3 run, closing in on Lafayette's lead 70-67, before fouling Willen with 11.4 seconds remaining. With a rowdy group of Wagner fans doing their best to distract him, the rookie sank both free throws, making it a two-possession game. Willen finished with seven points and three rebounds in his first outing. Mower knocked down a three-pointer for his first collegiate points and recorded his first career rebound, assist and block in win against Stony Brook. Nick Petkovich saw his first collegiate minutes and also scored his first career points against Stony Brook.

BRAVO, BROWN: Senior guard Andrew Brown was selected to the Preseason All-Patriot League Team in late October. Brown was an All-Patriot League Second-Team pick at the end of the 2007-08 season after leading the Leopards in scoring 14 times and averaging a team-best 15.9 ppg. He also led the team in assists (85). Brown is climbing the all-time career scoring record. Brown's 22-point and 25-point performances have catapulted him from 35th to 27th among career scoring leaders. His 1,078 career points recently surpassed Dave Brown '70, and he needs 18 more to move up to the 26th spot.

FROM DOWNTOWN: Senior guard Andrew Brown's hot hands from behind the arc last year helped him cement his name in the Lafayette record books. Brown owns the school record for most three-pointers in a game (9), most three-point field goal attempts in a season (247) and most treys made in a season (99). After sinking eight threes in Lafayette's two wins, he now has 227 three-pointers to his name and needs 45 more to break the career record held by Tyson Whitfield '01.

ON THE SIDELINE: The all-time winningest coach in Lafayette history and the second-longest tenured coach in the Patriot League, Fran O'Hanlon (Villanova, '70) enters his 14th season as the Leopards' head coach. A two-time Patriot League Coach of the Year recipient, O'Hanlon has twice led Lafayette's program to the NCAA Tournament and lays claim to three Patriot League regular-season titles among his credentials. With a 75-71 double-overtime victory over Lehigh on Feb. 18, 2007, O'Hanlon became the winningest coach in Lafayette history and now holds an all-time record of 188-188 on College Hill. O'Hanlon's overall record does not necessarily tell an accurate story of the job he has done at Lafayette. The Philadelphia native inherited a 2-25 team when he took over in 1995-96 and won seven, 11, 19, 22 and 24 games over the next five seasons. From 1997-2000, Lafayette was 65-24 overall and 31-5 in the conference with two NCAA Tournament appearances. In 1996, the Patriot League, which was originally founded based on the principle of need-based financial aid only, began allowing athletic scholarships. However, it was not until 2006 that Lafayette chose to do so. By no coincidence during that span, Lafayette posted a 79-91 mark and was 38-44 in the league.

LEOPARD LEADERSHIP: Senior guard Andrew Brown and junior guard Jeff Kari are serving as the team captains. Brown is the lone member of the class of 2009 and is the team's top returning scorer (15.9 ppg). He has played in 89 games in his career. Kari played in 30 games in his first season on College Hill after transferring from East Carolina and has been the second-leading scorer behind Brown in the first two games this season.

IN THE RANKS: Seven of Lafayette's non-conference opponents were picked to finish within the top five of their respective leagues in the p re-season polls. At No. 1, Mount St. Mary's is the highest ranked nonconference opponent the Leopards will face. Lafayette will tip off against five opponents from the Northeast Conference -- the most of any one conference on the Leopards' schedule.

WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?: Andrew Brown can distribute the ball. The Littleton, Colo. native led the team in assists his first three years on College Hill. Brown dished out 94 assists (3.1 apg) as sophomore and started 27 of 30 games. He had 84 assists as a freshman, starting all but three games, and was the first freshman during the Fran O'Hanlon era to lead the team in assists. Brown finished his junior year with a team-high 85 assists in 30 games (2.8 apg), despite taking a more active scoring role. Brown can shoot the ball too. He averaged 9.3 ppg as a freshman when he hit 51 three-pointers and followed that by scoring 10.4 ppg while netting 69 three-pointers in his second season on College Hill. In 2007-08, Brown led the Leopards in scoring 14 times and has continued that trend so far this season with 22-point and 25-point performances in Lafayette's first two games. Brown is stellar from the line. In his sophomore year, he shot 91 percent from the charity stripe, connecting on 42-of-46 attempts. Last season, Brown went to the line 82 times and connected on 82.9 percent of his shots. He reached the line a career-high 10 times in the season opener, connecting on eight. Brown makes big shots. Last year at Stony Brook, Brown went 7-for-8 at the line with five of those makes coming in overtime. Brown was responsible for the tying baskets that sent the Stony Brook and UMBC games to overtime. At Mount St. Mary's, Brown's ninth three-pointer of the game came in overtime and gave Lafayette a 76-72 win. With 48 seconds left in overtime at Navy, a Brown three claimed the lead for the Leopards (97-94) before they went on to win it 103-99.

WORKING OVERTIME IN 2007-08: The Leopards set an NCAA single-season record with five overtime wins on the road (at Navy -- 103-99 on Jan. 19, at Colgate 69-68 on Jan. 16, at Princeton -- 76-71 on Jan. 9, at Towson -- 79-69 on Dec. 19 and at Stony Brook -- 78-67 on Nov. 12) in 2007-08. The lone win at home in overtime came Nov. 20 vs. UMBC (87-84) to give the team a total of six overtime victories and tie the NCAA team record for overtime victories in a season. Wake Forest (6-1 in 1988-89) and Chattanooga (6-0 in 1983-84) share the mark. Fran O'Hanlon is 16-10 in overtime.

D.C. DANDIES: Though players from 11 states and three countries are represented on Lafayette's roster, the Leopards do have a preference for the D.C. area. Prior to arriving on College Hill, three of Lafayette's guards attended schools within 25 miles of the nation's capital. Michael Gruner shined at Walt Whitman High School, where he led his team to a state championship. Sophomore Ben Wheeler played at Chantilly where he garnered first team all-district and second team all-region accolades his senior year. Freshman Nick Petkovich is the most recent addition from the D.C. area, an All-IAC Conference First-Team selection from Bullis Prep.

AROUND THE WORLD: Did you know that six international players are featured between the three rosters of this weekend's games? Lafayette boasts three international players in Jared Mintz (Toronto, Canada), Marek Koltun (Krakow, Poland) and Deirunas Visockas (Lithuania). Temple features Sergio Olmos (Valencia, Spain) and Micheal Eric (Lagos, Nigeria), and Rider's lone international player is Justin Robinson (London, England).

THE PRESEASON POLL: Lafayette was chosen to finish eighth in the Patriot League Preseason Poll. The poll is voted on by the conference head coaches and sports information directors. Defending champion American was selected to repeat in 2009 followed by Lehigh, Holy Cross, Colgate, Bucknell, Navy and Army.

BASKETBALL IQ: Lafayette placed a program-best five student-athletes on the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll during the 2007-08 season. The distinction recognizes those individuals who have earned a varsity letter and maintained a 3.2 GPA during the spring semester. Junior Michael Gruner and sophomores Deirunas Visockas and Ben Wheeler along with graduated players Matt Betley and Paul Cummins each earned the nod.

LAFAYETTE ON TELEVISION: The Leopards have 15 games televised broadcasted at home. Fourteen telecasts will be produced by the Lafayette Sports Network (LSN). The Leopards will also garner national exposure on ESPNU when they visit Penn State on Dec. 21 for the first time in seven years and again when they travel to Bethlehem for a matchup against their archrival, Lehigh, in late February. Emmy-nominated local sports broadcaster Gary Laubach will handle all of Lafayette's play-by-play duties for the 12th straight season. Former Lafayette men's basketball coach John Leone will provide color analysis for the 11th season.

ON THE RADIO: The entire 2008-09 Lafayette men's basketball season will air on WSAN-AM 1470 "The Fox." Entering his 42nd season as the radio voice of Lafayette athletics, Dick Hammer will continue to call the play-by-play action. Joining Hammer courtside for most contests will be Lafayette Sports Information Director Phil LaBella.