Nov. 9, 2006
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Tip-Off: 7:00 p.m. EST
Match Up: Lafayette (0-0) at Wagner (0-0)
Site: Staten Island, N.Y.
Arena: Spiro Sports Center
Series: Lafayette leads, 2-0
Radio: None
AT A GLANCE: Lafayette opens the 2006-07 season at Wagner on Friday, Nov. 10. It marks the 13th straight season that Lafayette has opened its campaign on the road.
FOR OPENERS: The Lafayette basketball program is 61-36 all-time in season openers, including a 20-23 mark in season opening games on the road. Since head coach Fran O'Hanlon's arrival on College Hill in 1995-96, Lafayette has begun every season on the road. The Leopards have won three of their last six and five out of their last eight season-opening games with wins over Dartmouth in 1998-99 (56-41), Columbia in 1999-00 (59-52), Cornell in 2000-01 (72-62), Albany in 2001-02 (80-72) and Duquesne in 2004-05 (85-71). The losses in the eight-year span came at Binghamton in 2002-03 (77-68), at Rutgers (71-65) in 2003-04 and at St. Joseph's (70-47) last season.
EARLIER AND EARLIER: Lafayette's Nov. 10 start to the season is the earliest in the program's history and is four days earlier than the previous earliest beginning (1998-99).
IN PREPARATION: Lafayette did not play any traditional exhibition games to prepare for the 2006-07 season, choosing to hold two closed scrimmages vs. Penn and at Monmouth. Lafayette and Monmouth also scrimmaged prior to last season.
ON THE SIDELINE: Two-time Patriot League Coach of the Year Fran O'Hanlon (Villanova, '70) is in his 12th season as the Leopards' head coach. He has twice led Lafayette's program to the NCAA Tournament and lays claim to three Patriot League regular-season titles among his credentials. O'Hanlon's career record stands at 162-152, a mark that includes two 20-win seasons. 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 7, 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.
YOUTH BY HIS SIDE: Lafayette features one of if not the youngest assistant coaching staffs in the country. Top assistant Drew Dawson is just 27 years old while Andy Toole is 26 and Mike Farrell is just 24. Dawson and Farrell are intimately familiar with the program, both having played for O'Hanlon.
NEXT UP: Lafayette remains on the road when the Leopards participate in the 2006-07 NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament. The Leopards were placed in the Indianapolis "pod" at Conseco Field House where they will face Indiana in the opening round on Nov. 13 and either Notre Dame or Butler in the second round on Nov. 14. Lafayette's opening round game with Indiana can be seen at 9 p.m. on ESPN2.
ABOUT WAGNER: Wagner is coming off a 13-14 campaign in 2005-06. This season, the Seahawks have been picked to finish sixth in the 11-team Northeast Conference preseason poll.
The Seahawks will be without their top player Durell Vinson who has been suspended. Vinson nearly averaged a double-double last season with 15.2 points and 9.6 rebounds per game. Senior forward Matt Vitale will take over the leadership reigns in the frontcourt. Vitale averaged 6.2 points and 3.3 rebounds in 27 games last season. Vitale will be joined by Jamal Smith and James Ulrich. Smith (8.0 ppg, 3.9 rpg) was an NEC All-Rookie Team selection. Ulrich (6.3 ppg, 4.4 rpg) started in 23 games in 05-06.
Junior Mark Porter and sophomore Justin Drummond will likely hold down the starting spots in the backcourt. Porter averaged 11.9 points and 3.3 assists per game as a sophomore. Drummond took a medical redshirt last season after playing in 30 games as a freshman
. Mike Deane (Potsdam '74) is in his fourth season with the Seahawks (40-46). Deane has previous D-I head coaching stops at Lamar, Siena and Marquette and he is one of 28 coaches in NCAA history to lead three different teams to the NCAA Tournament.
ON THE PERIMETER: The Leopards are going to have to get a bulk of their scoring from the outside, and that task is going to fall to an experienced backcourt led by seniors Jamaal Hilliard and Marcus Harley. The senior tandem missed much of the 2005-06 season due to injury but is back and healthy for 2006-07. Harley averaged 9.1 points per game as a sophomore and made at least 40 three-pointers in each of his first two campaigns. He will begin the season at point guard. The Lafayette coaching staff will look to Hilliard to average in double figures. Hilliard has shown the ability to shoot from the outside and drive to the hoop and get to the line. Junior Bilal Abdullah will likely fill the other guard spot. Abdullah can create off the dribble and is the team's top returning scorer at 9.9 points per game.
Fellow junior Paul Cummins will also be in the guard rotation at shooting guard. He made 51 three-pointers as a sophomore. Sophomore Andrew Brown also expects to see a lot of playing time at point guard where he earned Patriot League All-Rookie Team honors. He made 51 three-pointers and is the first freshman to lead the team in assists (84) during Fran O'Hanlon's tenure.
IN THE PAINT: Juniors Ted Detmer and Everest Schmidt are going to be called on to patrol the lane for the Leopards. Both averaged over five points and four rebounds per game as sophomores and spent the majority of the season in the starting lineup. Classmate Matt Betley has made the move to small forward and will help strengthen the rebounding effort along with freshmen Andre Hines and Marek Koltun. The Leopards ranked 308th in the nation in rebounding margin in 2005-06.
THE O'HANLON SHUFFLE: The scorer's table has been a busy place during Fran O'Hanlon's 12 seasons at Lafayette. O'Hanlon will frequently shuffle in players to keep them fresh while also looking for the best matchups on both ends of the court. The moves also force the opponents to spend a great deal of time figuring out their own defensive matchups. O'Hanlon will often play "offense-defense" at the end of the first half and in the final minutes of the game whenever there is a stoppage of play and a chance to substitute.
...IN A RELATED NOTE: In 2005-06, with a team defined by youth and inexperience O'Hanlon used 12 different starting lineups.
AT THE LINE: Lafayette ranked 37th in the nation in free throw percentage in 2005-06 according to the final NCAA stats and ranked as high as ninth. Lafayette finished the season at 74 percent. Jamaal Hilliard, who shot at a 91 percent clip in 2004-05 (fifth in the nation), hit for 81 percent while graduated senior Andrei Capusan '06 shot a team-best 82 percent and ranked 91st in the country.
THE PRESEASON POLL: Lafayette has been picked to finish sixth in the Patriot League Preseason Poll. The poll is voted on by the conference head coaches and sports information directors. Bucknell was picked first in the poll followed by Holy Cross, American, Lehigh, Colgate, Lafayette, Navy and Army.
INJURY REPORT: Sophomore Derek Heckendorn is out for the season, as the same condition that kept him out of the entire 2005-06 season will again force him to undergo surgery and miss the 2006-07 campaign. At the outset of the season, the rest of the team is healthy.
PERSONNEL NEWS: Soph. Dave Smith will transfer following the 2006 fall semester. His destination is undetermined. Smith played in 14 games in 05-06, averaging 0.4 points rebounds per game.
WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?: Andrew Brown can distribute the ball. The Littleton, Colo. native led the team with 84 assists as a freshman and cracked into the starting lineup by the third game of the 2005-06 season and ended up starting 25 of 28 games. Brown was named to the Patriot League All-Rookie Team after twice being named Patriot Rookie of the Week. Brown also led the team with 51 three-pointers.
LEOPARDS FROM DOWNTOWN: Lafayette entered 2005-06 knowing it would rely on a perimeter-oriented offense. Over the course of the season, that was reflected in the national statistical rankings. Lafayette finished ranked 40th in the nation for three-pointers per game, dialing up long distance a league-best 7.9 times per game. Lafayette hit at least 10 triples in six games in 2005-06.
This season, perimeter play will again be a focus for Fran O'Hanlon's group as the Leopards feature an experienced backcourt. In O'Hanlon's 12 seasons, the Leopards have smashed the school single-season records for three-pointers and three-pointers attempted.
THE CAPTAINS: Lafayette's three seniors, Marcus Harley, Jamaal Hilliard and Kerry Kenny, are serving as the team captains in 2006-07. Harley was a full-time starter in his sophomore season and will likely spend some time in the starting lineup as a senior after missing almost all of his junior campaign due to injury. Hilliard has been in the starting lineup the past two seasons. He missed 10 games last year due to a leg injury and broken finger, but is expected to start at guard. Kenny bring named captain is a tribute to his perseverance. He came is as an unrecruited player, served as a team manager as a freshman and has worked his way into 17 games last season.
LAFAYETTE VS. THE PATRIOT LEAGUE: Lafayette has played 594 games against the seven members of the Patriot League, and has a 333-261 record in all games against them. In Patriot League play, Lafayette is 92-118 in the regular season and 10-14 in the Patriot League Tournament. Under Fran O'Hanlon, the Leopards are 77-65 in Patriot League regular-season play.
BIG MAN WITH THE QUICK HANDS: Forward Ted Detmer is a rarity in college basketball, a four-man who leads the team in steals (47). Detmer averaged 1.81 steals per game and managed four steals in four different games in 2005-06. He finished ranked fifth in the Patriot League in steals per game.
OFF THE BENCH: If Fran O'Hanlon stays true to form, expect Lafayette to go 10 deep off the bench early on in the season. Marcus Harley, Jamaal Hilliard, Bilal Abdullah, Ted Detmer and Everest Schmidt are the probable starters, but O'Hanlon will go with the hot hand, and who is on the floor at the end of the game is more indicative of his confidence in a player than who is there for the opening tip. Andrew Brown looks to be one of the first players off the bench at the point guard spot, allowing Harley to also play the two-guard. Potent shooter Paul Cummins will see time at the guard spot along with freshman Jesper Andersson.
In the frontcourt, freshmen Andre Hines and Marek Koltun will also see some time in the middle with Hines likely to place the most of any of the freshmen early in the season. In 2005-06, Lafayette consistently played nine players, all of whom have averaged at least 17 minutes a game.
BENCH SCORING: Lafayette was far from dependent on its starting five for scoring in 2005-06. The Leopards' bench averaged 26.1 points per game of the team's 66.4 points per game average, 39 percent of the team's scoring.
RANKED OPPONENTS: Since 1948-49, Lafayette has played 39 games against ranked opponents, coming away with a 3-36 record. Lafayette hosted Bucknell, ranked No. 24 in both the ESPN/USA Today and Associated Press top-25 polls on Feb. 25, 2006. Prior to that, the last time Lafayette hosted a ranked opponent was January 14, 1987 when No. 19 Navy came to Kirby Sports Center and escaped with a 75-71 win. The last time Lafayette beat a ranked opponent was Dec. 2, 1978 when Lafayette topped No. 16 Rutgers, 77-70. In 2004-05, Lafayette faced Louisville (17) and Georgia Tech (9) on the road.
INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR: Lafayette features three players from foreign countries. Junior Paul Cummins comes from Kildare, Ireland. Cummins spent two years at Ravenscroft School in Raleigh, N.C. before spending a post-grad year at South Kent School in Connecticut. Two of Lafayette's four freshmen come from Europe with Marek Koltun hailing from Krakow, Poland and Jesper Andersson from Norrkoping, Sweden. Koltun spent the 2005-06 schoolyear at Caravel Academy in Delaware.
THE JUNIOR CLASS: Lafayette's Class of 2008 is not only one the most numerous class on the roster, but also one of the most productive recruiting classes in recent season. Junior Bilal Abdullah is the leading returning scorer. Fellow juniors Ted Detmer and Everest Schmidt also expect to find them in the starting lineup after tying for the team lead in rebounds in 2005-06. Matt Betley has made the move from wing to small forward and is also competing for a starting spot in the frontcourt. Paul Cummins will likely see significant playing time in the backcourt.
ON THE BOARDS: Being undersized at nearly every position, rebounding was a tough task for Lafayette and will, again, be a challenge in 2006-07. Two forwards, Ted Detmer and Everest Schmidt both averaged 4.1 rebounds per game to lead the team and were followed closely by Matt Betley. Lafayette won the battle of the boards on eight occasions in 2005-06, resulting in seven wins.
ALL-TIME AT LAFAYETTE: In the 96 seasons of men's basketball at Lafayette College, the Leopards hold an overall record of 1172-1027 (.531). Lafayette's first season of basketball was in 1900-01 when the team had a winning record of 4-3.
