Lehigh Weekend: Huge Tests for Men's and Women's Hoops

"Unselfish" greets you when you visit Lehighsports.com to preview this weekend's basketball games, starting with a No. 1 versus No. 2 showdown up at the Hart Center in Worcester, MA.

The 16-5 Lady Hawks (Real Time RPI: 111) travel to a place where they haven't won since 2004 and have only won twice in twenty tries - and also playing against the team who beat in the semifinals of the Patriot League tournament last year.

Lehigh enters this game red-hot, winners of six of their last seven games - including their latest victory, a 66-53 win over Bucknell. Sophomore G Erica Prosser "only" had 13 points on the evening, but it's the other two of the guard trio - junior G Alex Ross and senior G Tricia Smith - who would score 10 and 17 points, respectively, to blow past the Lady Bison.

But 7-12 Holy Cross (Real Time RPI: 230) have always given Lehigh problems, and their record is misleading with losses to No. 1 UConn (96-37), Boston College (82-69) and other power teams. A win would put the Crusaders, the preseason favorite to win the Patriot League, back into a first-place tie with Lehigh. Junior G Brianna McFadden (15.3 ppg, 4.8 rpg) will give Prosser a big test from the perimiter, and if junior G Bethany O'Dell is also on the court (11.0 ppg, 3.9 rpg) it will be a challenge for the Lady Hawks in this one. Crucial will be another big game from Smith and Ross - it will be a whale of a game at 1:00 P.M., broadcast on Lehighsports.com.

At the same time, the inconsistent men's basketball team won't be able to nap against the first-placed Crusaders at Stabler Arena at 1:00 P.M. on Saturday. While junior G Marquis Hall provided the three-point buzzer-beater in a 61-59 come-from-behind win over 5-15 Bucknell on Wednesday, the 13-7 Mountain Hawks (Real Time RPI: 221) will have to play better than they did on Wednesday to knock off 10-11 Holy Cross (Real Time RPI: 188). (In their defense, according to the Easton Express-Times Lehigh was not at 100% due to an illness making its way through the team).

In the first half against the Bison, Lehigh only shot 31% from the field to fall behind 30-21, but pull things together in time to get the victory. Junior F Zahir Carrington continued his MVP-type season with 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Mountain Hawks, while sophomore G Rob Keefer scored 10 key points and dished three assists.

Holy Cross looks exactly like the type of team that might give Lehigh problems: deep (as a team, they've outrebounded opponents 36-28, with no player averaging more than 5 rebounds a game, including senior F Colin Cunningham) with balaced scoring (freshman G R.J. Evans leads the team with 13.3 ppg, with a host of players averaging 7-10 ppg). They'll need to play their most complete Patriot League game this year in order to come away with the "W".

The action will be at Stabler at 1:00 P.M., and it should be a great game.

How The Ivy League Is Able To Break the NCAA's Scholarship Limits and Still Consider Themselves FCS

By now you've seen the results. In 2018, the Ivy League has taken the FCS by storm. Perhaps it was Penn's 30-10 defeat of Lehigh a couple of weeks ago . Or maybe it was Princeton's 50-9 drubbing of another team that made the FCS Playoffs last year, Monmouth. Or maybe it was Yale's shockingly dominant 35-14 win over nationally-ranked Maine last weekend. The Ivy League has gone an astounding 12-4 so far in out-of-conference play, many of those wins coming against the Patriot League. But it's not just against the Patriot League where the Ivy League has excelled. Every Ivy League school has at least one out-of-conference victory, which is remarkable since it is only three games into their football season. The four losses - Rhode Island over Harvard, Holy Cross over Yale, Delaware over Cornell, and Cal Poly over Brown - were either close losses that could have gone either way or expected blowouts of teams picked to be at the bottom of the Ivy League. W

Made-Up Midseason Grades for Lehigh Football

We are now officially midway through the 2023 Lehigh football season. The Mountain Hawks sit at 1-5 overall, and 0-1 in the Patriot League. I thought I'd go ahead and make up some midseason grades, and set some "fan goals" for the second half. The 2023 Mountain Hawks were picked to finish fifth in the seven team Patriot League. In order to meet or exceed that expectation, they'll probably have to go at least 3-2 the rest of the way in conference play. Their remaining games are vs. Georgetown, at Bucknell, vs. Holy Cross, at Colgate, and vs. Lafayette in The Rivalry. Can they do it? Culture Changing: B+ . I was there in the Bronx last week after the tough 38-35 defeat to Fordham, and there wasn't a single player emerging from the locker room that looked like they didn't care. Every face was glum. They didn't even seem sad. More frustrated and angry. That may seem normal, considering the agonizing way the Mountain Hawks lost, but it was a marked chan

Fifteen Guys Who Might be Lehigh's Next Football Coach (and Five More)

If you've been following my Twitter account, you might have caught some "possibilities" as Lehigh's next head football coach like Lou Holtz, Brett Favre and Bo Pelini . The chance that any of those three guys actually are offered and accept the Lehigh head coaching position are somewhere between zero and zero. (The full list of my Twitter "possibilities" are all on this thread on the Lehigh Sports Forum .) However the actual Lehigh head football coaching search is well underway, with real names and real possibilities. I've come up with a list of fifteen possible names, some which I've heard whispered as candidates, others which might be good fits at Lehigh for a variety of reasons. UPDATE: I have found five more names of possible head coaches that I am adding to this list below. Who are the twenty people? Here they are, in alphabetical order.

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