Nov. 27, 2001
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Game Information
Match Up: Lafayette (1-2) vs. St. Peter's (1-3)
Tip: 7:00 p.m.
Site: Easton, Pa.
Arena: Kirby Sports Center (3,500)
Series: Lafayette leads, 3-2
Radio: WEST-AM 1400, www.lafayette.edu
Commentators: Dick Hammer, Carl Schumacher
Television: None
THE STORY LINE: After opening the season with three straight road contests, the Leopards open up their home slate tonight vs. St. Peter's (1-3). Lafayette (1-2) is coming off a 79-69 loss at Miami on Nov. 24.
ST. PETER'S: The Peacocks come into the game with a 1-3 record in 2001-02. St. Peter's lone win came on Nov. 17 against Maine, a 79-70 victory in the consolation game of the Florida International Tournament. St. Peter's losses have come to Florida Intl. (70-59 on Nov. 16), St. Francis, NY (90-83 on Nov. 21) and most recently Boston (70-58 on Nov. 25). Three starters return from a 4-24 squad. This season, the bruising 320-pound Kamaal McQueen is leading the team in scoring with 17.0 ppg at power forward. Sophomore guard Regis Devonish is also scoring in double figures at 10.0 ppg. Junior forward John Corien leads the team in rebounding with 7.3 boards per outing. The Peacocks are coached by Bob Leckie who is in his second season at St. Peter's. Leckie, a 1969 St. Peter's graduate, holds a 5-27 career record.
THE COACH: Head Coach Fran O'Hanlon (Villanova '70) is in his seventh season. O'Hanlon has garnered two Patriot League Coach of the Year honors, while restoring the Lafayette program to a championship level. He guided the Leopards to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances in 1998-99 and 1999-00. O'Hanlon's career record stands at 96-79, including two 20-win seasons.
HOME OPENERS: Tonight's game vs. St. Peter's is the home opener for Lafayette. The Leopards are 69-22 (.758) all-time in home openers, including a record of 22-6 (.786) in Kirby Sports Center. Lafayette has never played St. Peter's to open the home slate. Lafayette has won its last four home openers, beating Cornell in 1997-98, Princeton in 1998-99, Cornell in 1999-00 and Albright in 2000-01. Fran O'Hanlon's only loss in a home opener was to Harvard in 1996-97, and he has won five out of six in his career.
DAVIS, FARRELL SHINE IN SUNSHINE STATE: Tampa, Fla. native Winston Davis scored a career-high 15 points in his first-ever collegiate game in his home state of Florida. Davis went 5-6 from the floor and was a perfect 4-4 from three-point land vs. Miami. Not to be outdone, DeLand, Fla. native Mike Farrell scored a career-high 11 points and added five rebounds and a block.
CRASHING THE BOARDS: Lafayette has outrebounded its opponents in two of the Leopards' first three games. Lafayette outrebounded Albany 28-27 and Miami 39-37. Mick Kuberka grabbed a career-high eight boards to lead the Leopards...The Lafayette players were not the only thing "crashing" in Miami. The team bus was in an accident on the way to pick Lafayette up from practice on Nov. 23, delaying the team's departure by a half hour. The bus and the driver appeared to be uninjured, but the same cannot be said for a red Ford Mustang convertible...In 2000-01, Lafayette outrebounded its opponents seven times, winning five of those games. BURKE SERVING UP A TASTY DISH: Senior Brian Burke is leading the team with 6.0 assists per game through Lafayette's first three games. Burke dished off for six assists versus Albany and seven against Penn State and five against Miami. The co-captain led the team in assists last season, despite missing two months of the season with a punctured lung.
O'HANLON NEARING 100-WIN PLATEAU: Lafayette head coach Fran O'Hanlon needs four wins to reach 100 victories for his career. O'Hanlon, who started the season with 95 wins and moved to 96 against Albany, is in his seventh season at Lafayette. He has managed two 20-win seasons and two NCAA Tournament appearances while achieving two Patriot League Coach of the Year honors.
LAFAYETTE vs. MAAC: It's nearly a dead heat between Lafayette and members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Lafayette has played 115 games against the 10 members of the MAAC, and has a 56-59 (.487) record in those contests. Under Coach O'Hanlon, the Leopards are 3-4 versus the MAAC. Tonight's game is the first of three Lafayette will play against MAAC foes. Lafayette hosts St. Peter's on Thursday and Rider on Jan. 2. Lafayette vs. the MAAC:
Canisius 0-2 Loyola 1-1 Niagara 4-2 Siena 1-2 Fairfield 0-0 Manhattan 5-7 Rider 39-34 Iona 1-6 Marist 2-3 St. Peter's 3-2
THE ALL-TIME SERIES: Lafayette leads the all-time series, 3-2, in a matchup that dates back to the first meeting in 1954. St. Peter's won the last meeting, 76-71 on Nov. 25, 2000 in Jersey City. The last Lafayette win was Dec. 11, 1999, an 81-69 victory in Easton.
THE LAST TIME THEY MET (November 25, 2000): Keith Sellers scored 20 points, leading four double-figure scorers, as St. Peter's edged Lafayette, 76-71. Sellers scored eight of his second-half points in the last 2:30 as part of a late SPC charge. Tim Bieg scored 16 points to lead Lafayette, while Frank Barr added 14 points. The win for St. Peter's was its first under new coach Bob Leckie and it also broke a 16-game losing streak. Lafayette led early, 9-8, after Rob Worthington made a free throw with 15:02 left in the first half. Sellers scored on a tip-in 14 seconds later and St. Peter's never trailed again. The game was tied one more time, 19-19, with 8:15 left in the first half, before St. Peter's scored 12 unanswered points over the next 2:30, capped by back-to-back three-pointers. Leading at the half, 40-30, St. Peter's was never able to extend its second-half lead beyond 11 points. Lafayette twice cut the margin to three points, 53-50, on a three-point basket by Mick Kuberka with 10:26 left and 72-69, on a pair of free throws by Brian Burke with 30 seconds left. St. Peter's responded with a bucket on the next possession each time. After Burke cut the deficit to 72-69, the Leopards quickly fouled Sellers, who made two free throws with 29 seconds left to seal the game.
THEY'RE NOT SHY: Fran O'Hanlon's Lafayette teams have been known to hoist it up from the perimeter. Lafayette has hit 200 or more three-pointers in each of the last four seasons, recording 225 in 2000-01, 249 in 1999-00, 238 in 1998-99 and 207 in 1997-98. Lafayette made 7-of-13 three-point attempts at Albany on Nov. 17, shot an uncharacteristic 5-of-21 at Penn State, but rebounded with an 11-27 effort at Miami. It was the first time since Jan. 27, 2001 that Lafayette has made 10 or more three-pointers in a game and the first time since Dec. 11, 2000 that Lafayette hit more three-point field goals than two-pointers.
FOUR-GUARD SET: Many teams employ a three-guard set, but few rarely play four guards on the floor at a time. Head Coach Fran O'Hanlon has been using combinations of Justin DeBerry, Brian Burke, Ben Saxton, Kenny Grant and Winston Davis along with power forward Mike Farrell or center Mick Kuberka. Offensively, it gives Lafayette better ballhandling in addition to quickness. With Grant in the lineup, DeBerry can move to shooting guard, his true position. Defensively, the Leopards cope by having their two tallest guards, Burke (6-5) and Saxton (6-5), guard post players. SOPHOMORE STARTERS: Four of the the players who have been in the Lafayette starting lineup are members of the sophomore class. Justin DeBerry is holding down the point guard position along with Ben Saxton and Winston Davis rotating at shooting gurd and Mike Farrell at power forward. Nine of the 14 players on Fran O'Hanlon's squad are members of either the freshman or sophomore class.
INJURY REPORT: Freshman Brad Anderson has been hit hard by the injury bug in the preseason. Anderson first broke a bone in his hand which forced him to miss significant practice time at the start of the season. Recently, he fractured his nose and had to have plastic surgery to reconstruct it. He will be in uniform today and is awaiting clearance by the team physician.
ON THE RADIO: Today's game can be heard live on WEST-AM 1400, the 66th year of broadcasting Lafayette Athletics. Dick Hammer is in his 35th year of calling the play-by-play for Lafayette men's basketball.
PATRIOT LEAGUE PRESEASON POLL: Lafayette was picked to finish seventh in the Patriot League in the preseason coaches and sports information directors' poll. Lafayette, which was slotted to finish second in 2000-01 and ended tied for fifth, is looking for just the opposite to happen this season on College Hill.
ALL-TIME AT LAFAYETTE: In the 91 seasons of men's basketball at Lafayette College, the Leopards hold an overall record of 1106-954 (.537) that spans back to the first season in 1900-01.
FROM THE LINE: Lafayette shot 73 percent from the free throw line as a team in 2000-01. This season, Lafayette is shooting 60 percent (22-35) from the stripe. Brian Burke, a career 88 percent free throw shooter, leads the Leopards this season with a 90 percent clip. Burke holds the Patriot League record for consecutive free throws with 49, a mark he set in 1999-00.
SENIOR C0-CAPTAINS: Seniors Brian Burke and Rob Worthington are serving as the team captains for the 2001-02 season. Burke is the top returning scorer for Lafayette, having averaged 14.0 points per game in 2000-01. Worthington is the team's top returning rebounder and started 32 games in his sophomore and junior seasons. Burke and Worthington were selected co-captains by head coach Fran O'Hanlon. The two have been roommates since their freshman years and are both English majors.
DAWSON LEAVES TEAM: Junior guard Drew Dawson is no longer a member of the Lafayette basketball program. Dawson informed the coaching staff of his desire to leave the team, citing personal reasons.
SUMMER CAMP: Sophomore Mike Farrell worked the camp circuit this summer. He finished up his tour at NBA player Chris Dudley's camp in Portland, Ore. Farrell, a diabetic himself, worked with diabetic youngsters at the camp. Mick Kuberka worked on Wall Street with a Lafayette alumnus. Ben Saxton was a sales intern in Walker Valley, N.Y.
PLAYING ABROAD: Freshman Kenny Grant spent some time playing basketball not with sophomore teammate Rob Dill, but rather against him this summer. Grant played for the Swedish Junior National Under-20 team and participated in tournaments across Europe. Grant's team faced off against Dill's German squad in a scrimmage. The Swedish squad faced national teams from Spain, Iceland, Estonia, Denmark and Russia. Grant had his best game against Russia when he scored 18 points.
HANDLING THE BALL: A hallmark of Fran O'Hanlon's basketball programs has been adept ballhandling. The Leopards displayed that last season holding a 1.4 assist/turnover ratio. The Leopards dished out 434 assist compared to 418 turnovers. Brian Burke lead the team in assist/turnover ratio with a 2.18 mark. Of the nine returning players who played 20 or more games in 2000-01, seven have a positive assist/turnover ratio.
LEADING THE LEAGUE IN ATTENDANCE: The Lafayette men's basketball program has led the Patriot League in home attendance the last four seasons. In 2000-01, Lafayette averaged over 2,500 fans per home game in its 3,500-seat arena. Over 30,000 fans came through the Kirby Sports Center gates to watch Lafayette's 12 home games. Lafayette beat out Navy, which averaged nearly 150 fewer fans per game (2,356), in the regular-season. Lafayette had four home games with over 3,000 people in attendance in 2000-01: Princeton (3,154 on Dec. 6), Lehigh (3,128 on Jan. 10), Army (3,026 on Jan. 27) and Colgate (3,192 on Feb. 24). The Leopards' last regular-season game, vs. Colgate, proved to be the largest home crowd of the season In 1999-2000, Lafayette averaged 2,474 fans per home contest. The highwater mark came vs. Navy in the Patriot League Finals with over 4,000 people in attendance for the 87-61 victory (3/10/00). The Leopards also drew over 16,000 fans for the Patriot League Tournament, the second highest attendance in league history. In 1998-99, six games garnered 3,000 or more fans, as the Leopards drew an average of 2,864 fans per home meeting. The 1997-98 season brought in an average of 2,045 people per home game, the first season ever that Lafayette led the Patriot League in attendance. Bucknell drew the biggest crowd of the season on Feb. 7, 1998, with 3,174 fans.
LAFAYETTE ON THE WEB: The best source for information on the Lafayette basketball program is on the web. Click on "Sports" at www.lafayette.edu. The site is continuously updated with press releases, game notes, schedules, rosters, statistics, players features, photos and more. This season, all games will be broadcasted through the site.
BURKE'S WEEKLY JOURNAL: Brian Burke will chronicle the 2001-02 season through his weekly journal on www.GoLeopards.com. Burke is coming off his debut season of his weekly journal entries. His first journal debuted on Nov. 21 and will be posted every Tuesday.
LAFAYETTE ON TELEVISION: For the fourth-straight season, Lafayette features the most expansive television package in the Patriot League. The Leopards have 14 games televised, with the possible addition of three more television contests in the Patriot League Tournament. The Lafayette Sports Network will air 12 games to more than 5.2 million viewers in the Lehigh Valley, Pocono region and Philadelphia, central New Jersey, New York City and Boston. Locally the telecasts can be seen on RCN Cable channels 4 and 60, Service Electric Cable channel 51, Blue Ridge Cable channel 5 and broadcast channel 60. Lafayette will also be seen on the Patriot League Television Network at Colgate. Locally, that game will be broadcasted on WFMZ-TV 69. The Lafayette at Lehigh game on Feb. 20 can be seen on Service Electric TV-2.
MEDAL OF HONOR: Following the 2000-01 season, Brian Burke was selected as one of four 2000-01 recipients of the Eastern College Athletic Conference Award of Valor. It is awarded annually to ECAC student-athletes whose courage, motivation and relentless determination serve as an inspiration to all. The recipients of the Award of Valor exemplify strength of character, perseverance, and most importantly, accomplishment deserving recognition as being truly triumphant. Burke led the team in assists and finished third on the team in scoring despite missing 13 games after suffering a punctured lung in a game at Fordham on Dec. 11. Burke was playing the best game of his career, having scored a career-high 24 points, including five three-pointers. With five minutes left in the game, Burke's night came to an end as he was removed from the arena on a stretcher after complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath.
The junior suffered severe internal bleeding and was later diagnosed with a punctured lung, losing one third of his blood supply. After an initial 10-day hospital stay, Burke suffered another setback as he was preparing to return home. On Dec. 21 when the doctors removed the chest tubes, Burke's lung collapsed and prolonged his hospital stay. Burke's recovery was slow but determined and he returned to classes in late January. The coaches and doctors planned on Burke missing the remainder of the season and concerns arose that he may never play competitive basketball again. On February 11, exactly two months after a punctured lung left his career and health in jeopardy, Burke returned to the court, scoring a game-high 23 points, just one point shy of his career-high. His effort helped lead Lafayette to an 87-78 win over Navy. Burke went on to play in Lafayette's six remaining games. He was presented with the award two weeks before the start of the 2001-02 season.
