Nov. 23, 2009
Game Notes 
EASTON, Pa. -
GAME 5 • November 24, 2009
Matchup: Lafayette (3-1) vs. Hartford (2-2)
Tip-off: 8:30 p.m.
Site: Easton, Pa.
Arena: Kirby Sports Center (3,500)
Television: LSN
Internet: www.goleopards.com; LSN All-Access
Series: Second Meeting
First Meeting: UH: 97-82 (12/4/08)
Last Meeting: same
Fran O'Hanlon vs. Hartford: 0-1
MATCH UP: Lafayette (3-1) looks for its third straight win of the season when the Leopards host Hartford (2-2) tonight. Lafayette and Hartford have met just once, a 97-82 Hartford win last season.
LAST TIME OUT: Lafayette won its second straight road game on Saturday night as the Leopards out-scored NJIT 35-18 in the second half to win 69-52. Two Leopards scored in double digits: junior forward Jared Mintz (19) and sophomore Jim Mower (14) while Darion Benbow brought down 10 boards.
SOLID START: The Leopards are 3-1 for the first time since 2003-04 when Lafayette began the season 6-1. Lafayette finished 18-10 that season.
NEARLY PERFECT: Junior forward Jared Mintz scored his 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the floor and was 3-of-4 from the line. Mintz is shooting 21-of-23 from the line in his last two games and ranks third in the leagues overall standings.
LEADING THE LEAGUE: Jared Mintz is taking an early lead in the Patriot League statistical standings, sitting first in scoring (18.8 ppg) and field goal percentage (65.9%). He is third from the line (91.3%). Sophomore Jim Mower is also making his name known, ranking third in three-point percentage (53.3) and free throw percentage (90.9%).
Lafayette leads the league in five categories: scoring offense (77 ppg), scoring margin (+6.5), field goal percentage (49.6%), free throw percentage (78.7%) and turnover margin (+3.0).
FOUR IN DOUBLE FIGURES: Lafayette featured four players in double figures against St. Francis (Pa.): Jared Mintz 24, Jim Mower 17, Mike Gruner 17 and Jeff Kari with 12. Lafayette also had four players in double digits against Wagner.
Meet the Captains: Senior guards Jeff Kari and Mike Gruner are holding leadership roles for the 2009-10 season. Kari, who served as a co-captain last year, is the team's top returning scorer (10.7 ppg). Gruner started in 19 games last year and accounted for 61 assists.
DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE: Junior forward Jared Mintz led the team with 20 points and 10 rebounds against Wagner in at 81-72 home victory to start the season. The double-double was Mintz's third of his career.
100 AND STILL GOING: The 2009-10 season marks Lafayette College's 100th season of men's basketball.
197...AND COUNTING: Lafayette head coach Fran O'Hanlon needs three wins to reach the 200-win plateau.
ON THE SIDELINE: The all-time winningest coach in Lafayette history and longest-tenured coach in the Patriot League, Fran O'Hanlon (Villanova, '70) enters his 15th 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.
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 197-211 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.
SCOUTING HARTFORD:Hartford comes into Tuesday night's match-up sitting at 2-2 and coming off a 70-62 victory over Fordham. Junior Joe Zeglinski put together his first double-double of the season, knocking down 10 points and pulling down a career-high 12 rebounds. Junior Morgan Sabia led the Hawks with 20 points while adding five rebounds.
Junior Andres Torres came into the game second in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (11.5), and continued to show why he has been the key to the offense. Dishing out seven assists and pulling down four rebounds, Torres took advantage of scoring opportunities to finish with 16 points, which tied his career high.
Dan Leibovitz (Penn '96) is in his third year behind the bench at Hartford. His team went 7-26 last year.
Drew Dawson joined the Hawks for his second season as Leibovitz's top assistant. Dawson spent the previous four seasons at Lafayette College, including the final two years as the top assistant on Fran O'Hanlon's staff. A 2003 graduate of Lafayette, Dawson was the first of O'Hanlon's former players to join him on the sidelines.
NEXT UP: Lafayette will take its Thanksgiving break and then head down to Washington, D.C. to take on Big East opponent 18/19 Georgetown at the Verizon Center on Saturday at noon.
FRESH FACES: Head coach Fran O'Hanlon added two new coaches to his staff this season. Pat Doherty is a familiar face to the Lafayette program, graduating from Lafayette in 2004. Doherty was an assistant coach at Williams College in 2008-09, helping lead Williams to a 17-9 overall record. In 2007-08 Doherty served as an assistant coach at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ).
Matt Blue holds down the final assistant coaching spot. Blue, a 2007 graduate of St. Lawrence comes to Lafayette after spending the 2008-09 season at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa. He helped lead the Crusaders to an 18-8 overall mark and a 13-3 finish in the Landmark Conference.
FRESH IMPACT: Freshman Tony Johnson has begun to make an impact on the court for the Leopards. Johnson is averaging 17.3 minutes per game and has done a solid job of handling the ball. Johnson had three assists at St. Francis (Pa.) and is averaging 1.8 per game. Johnson is second in steals and is also third on the team in rebounding. Johnson, a 6-0 guard, hails from Folsom, Calif. and is the only true point guard on the team.
Fellow first-year player Levi Giese has seen action in all four games while averaging 1.8 points and 1.0 rebounds per game. A 6-9 forward, Giese comes from Tulsa, Okla. and brings solid perimeter skills.
D.C. DANDIES: Though players from 11 states and three countries are represented on Lafayette's roster, the Leopards do have a tendency 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. Junior Ben Wheeler played at Chantilly where he garnered first team all-district and second team all-region accolades his senior year. Sophomore 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 four international players are featured on the roster for tonight's matchup? Lafayette boasts three international players in Jared Mintz (Toronto, Canada), Marek Koltun (Krakow, Poland) and Deirunas Visockas (Lithuania), while Hartford has Andres Torres (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico).
BASKETBALL IQ: Lafayette placed a program-best three student-athletes on the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll during the 2008-09 season. The distinction recognizes those individuals who have earned a varsity letter and maintained a 3.2 GPA during the spring semester. Senior Michael Gruner and sophomores Rob Delaney and Andy Moore each earned a nod.
GRUNER GETS IT DONE: If senior Michael Gruner picks up where he left off last season, the Leopards will be in pretty good shape. Gruner has been a mainstay in the lineup the past two seasons. In 2008-09, he proved to be Lafayette's steadiest ballhandler, dishing out 61 assists to 44 turnovers for a 1.4 assist/turnover ratio and 196 points (8.2 ppg). Gruner is also a Marquis Scholar, the college's most prestigious academic scholarship.
This season, Gruner is contributing 8.5 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game. He had a standout performance against Saint Francis with 17 points and hit a running banked three-pointer before half to pad the halftime lead to 42-33.
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.
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. Holy Cross was picked to finish first with 13 first place votes, followed by Lehigh, Bucknell, Army, Colgate, American and Navy.
IN THE RANKS: Seven of Lafayette's non-conference opponents were picked to finish within the top five of their respective leagues in the preseason polls. At No. 2, Long Island is the highest ranked non-conference opponent the Leopards will face. Lafayette will tip off against six opponents from the Northeast Conference -- the most of any one conference on the Leopards' schedule.
LAFAYETTE ON TELEVISION: The Leopards will have 13 of their regular-season games televised during the 2009-10 season. The Leopards will also lead the Patriot League with seven nationally-televised games, as MASN (available through both DIRECTV and DISH Network) will air Lafayette's entire slate of home league contests on a tape-delay basis. Emmy-nominated local sports broadcaster Gary Laubach will handle all of Lafayette's play-by-play duties for the 13th straight season. Former Lafayette men's basketball coach John Leone will provide color analysis for the 11th season.
SUPER SOPHOMORE: Sophomore forward Ryan Willen was named to the All-Patriot League Rookie team in 2008-09. He was the first freshman since Andrew Brown '09 and the seventh freshman in school history to earn the accolade.
This season, Willen is the Leopard's third leading scorer, averaging 10.8 points per game and is shooting 71.4 percent from the line. In addition to his work on the court, Willen is currently enrolled in organic chemistry, ethics, introduction to psychology, religions in world cultures and two labs.
ON THE RADIO: The road games of the 2009-10 Lafayette men's basketball season will air on WSAN-AM 1470 "The Fox." Entering his 43nd 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.
