Patriot League quick hits
Just wrapped up a conference call with coaches from the Patriot League that took about 90 minutes. I’ll have more throughout the week, but here are a few points of interest from Wednesday’s session:
*As expected, Army was named the preseason favorite to capture the league championship, accumulating 12 of 14 first-place votes. The Black Knights won last year’s title and upended 2008 and 2009 national champion Syracuse in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but coach Joe Alberici said the current squad can’t be concerned with repeating that success. “Really, it’s a new season, a new life,” he said. “… We understand how fragile this is. So I don’t think this team is taking anything for granted. The truth of the matter is, we’re not talking about anybody but ourselves.”
*Navy was second, but the Midshipmen are trying to bounce back from a 2010 campaign that included getting swept by Army and failing to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2003. “We’re in a situation now where we have to be humble,” said coach Richie Meade, who has guided the program to five of the last seven league tournament crowns. “We got humbled last year. … We’ve embraced reality. We know the mission.”
*Five of Bucknell’s six losses last season were by one goal, and the Bison’s season ended with a 9-7 setback to Army in a league tournament semifinal. Coach Frank Fedorjaka, whose team was picked third in the preseason poll, said he wants his players to remember how close they were to changing their outcomes and perhaps their future. “We’re actually looking back at last year quite a bit,” he said. “We kind of either won big or lost some close ones. So our focus after we lost in the Patriot League semifinals to Army at Army, we started our efforts towards the following season in the locker room that afternoon and basically we talked about being mentally and physically tough and what kind of steps we were going to take to do that. So that’s been our only focus since that afternoon.”
*Colgate and Lehigh were picked to finish fourth and fifth, but Lafayette, which accrued a school-record eight wins and appeared in its first league tournament, was dropped to sixth. To be fair, the Leopards absorbed some losses on the defensive end, which could account for the lowered expectations. Coach Terry Mangan, however, said he didn’t anticipate using the slight as a motivational tool for his players. “Anybody’s expectations can’t really affect what we’re doing,” he said. “… I think our motivation has to come from within. … We want to be motivated for the right reasons. Trying to prove somebody wrong is hollow.”
*Holy Cross was selected seventh. Army swept the individual honors, too. Senior attackman Jeremy Boltus and senior defenseman Bill Henderson was named the preseason offensive and defensive players of the year, respectively.
