Weekend Wrapup: Home Cookin' for Grapplers and Lady Hawks

The big news for Lehigh Athletics this weekend was two big home wins for the wrestlers and women's basketball teams - and a tough, shorthanded effort at West Point by the men's basketball team that fell just short.

The wrestlers made short work of two EIWA foes on Saturday: winning seven of ten matches against Army (27-12) before drilling Franklin & Marshall (29-18) to cruise to a perfect 8-0 against EIWA foes and an amazing 22-1 overall dual record. Only one dual remains before the EIWA championships and NCAA nationals in March.

I mentioned in my preview that Lehigh would need big performances at 133 (with No. 15-ranked Matt Fisk) and at 165 (with No. 14-ranked Mike Galante) in order to beat Army, and they delivered with Fisk's pin of Michael McCarthy and Galante's major decision over Mike Gorman for bonus points. Not to be lost, though, in the weekend's bouts were two wins by freshman 157 lb Sean Bilodeau (one for bouns points against Army) and sophomore heavyweight Zach Rey (with bonus points against Franklin & Marshall).

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The Lady Hawks enacted revenge for their fall-from-ahead loss at West Point this year. The Lehigh women's baskebtall team kept their 12-game home winning streak intact with a 66-57 win over Army in front of more than 1,500 fans. Freshman C Alexa Williams was the story of the game, nailing 13 of 16 free throws on Valentine's day to give her 17 points and 4 rebounds on the evening. She joined sophomore G Erica Prosser (17 points) and junior G Alex Ross (17 points) with double-digits scoring, while senior G Tricia Smith got a scrappy 8 points and 8 rebounds.

The 19-6 Lady Hawks (Real Time RPI: 77) are enjoying a historic season that seems set to continue this Wednesday against struggling 5-20 Colgate (Real Time RPI: 337). Even on the road, the goal has to be for the Lady Hawks just to keep everything rolling - and to keep up the unselfish play that has gotten them here.

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They're already calling the Lehigh men's triple-overtime loss to Army an "epic affair", where four Mountain Hawk basketball players were on the court for more than 40 minutes. It was the wrong time for a marathon, as three Lehigh players didn't even make the trip to West Point due to injury, giving Brett Reed an eight man bench - and with the extra stanzas and three players eventually fouling out, Lehigh almost didn't have enough players to finish the game.

Junior G Dave Buchburger's 3-point shot (15 points, 11 rebounds) put Lehigh in the first overtime, but both overtime sessions were thrillingly close. Lehigh ran out to a 7 point lead in the first overtime, but Army battled back and tied it up twice. At the end of both overtime periods there were chances to win the game - but both shots were missed. Ultimately, with junior G Marquis Hall (25 points, 9 rebounds) and junior F Zahir Carrington (17 points, 10 rebounds) fouling out, Army would win the war of attrition despite some real quality play off of Lehigh's bench from freshman F Jordan Hamilton (8 points, 4 rebounds in 22 minutes).

A home game in the first round of Patriot League may be on the line this Wednesday as 14-10 Lehigh (Real Time RPI: 206) tries to enact revenge against 9-15 Colgate (Real Time RPI: 287) at Stabler Arena this weekend. It would be the perfect time to make up for their ugly 58-45 loss up in Hamilton last month: a win would but them in line for the No. 4 seed in the tournament, with an eye for the No. 3-overall seed with some luck (and some Navy losses).

The men's and women's basketball games will be on Lehghsports.com this Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.

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.

Lehigh Football Nation

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