Lehigh Football Nation

(Photo Credit: Bruce Winter/The Express-Times ) Lehigh held its first-ever Pro Day at Lehigh this Thursday, and the not-exactly-well-kept secret around campus had senior OL Will Rackley , senior DB Jarard Cribbs and senior DB John Kennedy work out for a wide variety of NFL scouts. A full complement of local press was there to capture the day, where the star of the show, Rackley, did an individual workout to complement the partial workout he performed at the NFL Combine in February. (more)

(Photo Credit: AP/Washington Examiner) When you trumpet on the first page of your blog or newspaper that you have a great pick for a first-round upset, you are truly putting yourself out there.  It is a high-risk, high-reward thing to do.  If you're right, you look like a genius.  If you're wrong, you're supposed to stick to football, kid, and thanks for playing. Yesterday, I really put myself out there , saying (in no particular order) that I 1) had Bucknell beating UConn in all of my brackets, and 2) gave ten reasons as to why it was a rational pick to take the Bison to beat the Huskies. Trust me, it felt and sounded good at the time. But as often happens with the best of us, I was humbled in a massive way by this NCAA Tournament. G Kemba Walker decided to dish the ball instead of shooting it, and the end result was an 81-52 rout that actually was less competitive than the final score indicated. It was one of those games that was over at halftime. Why didn...

Nineteen brackets, four contests, and one fantasy team later, I am finally done with my men's NCAA tournament picks.  (I still have to pick my Women's NCAA tournament brackets  tomorrow.) In every single one of them I have Bucknell beating UConn. Crazy?  Maybe; after all, I spend an inordinate amount of my spare time following Patriot League sports, and while my loathing for all things orange and blue knows no bounds when the Bison Burgers take on Lehigh, once the NCAA tournament happens... madness. I think there are at least ten good reasons as to why Bucknell will win over the Huskies today.  Read them - and then judge for yourself if I'm crazy. (more)

(Photo Credit: Brooke Zumas/Lehigh Athletics) For me, writing about wrestling is difficult. Not that I don't want to celebrate the individual accomplishment of Lehigh's student-athletes in the ring - I do, which is why I do it. Not that I don't wish to shine light on Lehigh's nationally-recognized wrestling program, which is one of the Mountain Hawk programs that can realistically expect to produce some of the best wrestlers in the nation. And one of those wrestlers on this year's team is the No. 1 overall seed in the heavyweight division. As you'll see below the flip, everybody loves heavyweight Zach Rey - from the NCAA to the local papers covering the NCAA Championships in Philadelphia this weekend. (more)

(Photo Credit: Douglas Kilpatrick/The Morning Call) It was almost a week ago today when the Lehigh women's basketball team was denied their chance at an unprecedented three-peat.  Taken to overtime by a scrappy American team and clutch G Alexis Dobbs free-throws, F Liz Leer took over with two gigantic 3-point bombs to advance the Lady Eagles - and not the tearful Lady Hawks - to the Patriot League finals at Navy. It was then up to the Midshipmen to guarantee head coach Sue Troyan her third postseason trip in three years.  A Navy win would mean a guaranteed spot for Lehigh in the WNIT - and they would deliver on Saturday with a 47-40 victory. With the loss to American, a door closes for a third straight NCAA appearance for Lehigh - but another door opens as well. After drawing St. Bonaventure in the WNIT, Lehigh gets a great opportunity at something else - the first postseason victory in program history. (more)

While St. Mary's pointedly does not include the "students" birthdays on their roster page - probably because they carry five players that make a mockery of amateurism rules, meaning they carry 21 year old "freshmen" and "sophomores" like G Matthew Dellavedova (Australia) and F Eividas Petrulis (Lithuania) - folks around the Moraga, California campus have to be wondering what happened. Somehow, the Gaels are preparing for an NIT bid, while USC - whose 17-13 resume includes a 20-point loss to Rider - yes, those Rider Broncos - is going to be playing on Wednesday in an NCAA Tournament Play-In game. It makes me laugh while people like Jay Bilas are moaning about the plight of poor, poor Virginia Tech and Colorado being "snubbed" from NCAA tournament bids that - once again - the big conferences seemed to get the benefit of the doubt a lot more in terms of number of teams and - especially - seeding. (more)