OUTLOOK: Holy Cross is the only team that has ever been able to string together three straight Patriot League titles (2001-03) and while American has a chance to match that feat, the odds of it happening for head coach Jeff Jones and his crew are not good. The Eagles have the unenviable task of competing with an entirely new starting five, a fact that will more than likely keep American from even finishing in the top half of the standing in 2009-10.

A team that could return to prominence is Holy Cross, given how well the Crusaders have maintained their roster and the talent that they have available. Giving Holy Cross a run for the top will be Lehigh with a pair of senior who earned all-conference honors a year ago, as well as Bucknell which tends to give most teams in the Patriot League fits, even though the team celebrated a mere seven victories last season. The academies, Army and Navy, are both in transition this season as the former opens up West Point to a brand new head coach and the latter says goodbye to the league's top scorer from 2008-09.

With its top three scorers back from last season, Colgate could easily rub some opponents the wrong way, but not enough to make a serious run at elite status, which is more than can be said for a Lafayette program that, despite returning all but one player from last season, simply doesn't have the firepower to make a truly sustained charge.

CONFERENCE CHAMPION: Holy Cross

PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH: 1. Holy Cross; 2. Lehigh; 3. Bucknell; 4. Army; 5. Colgate; 6. American; 7. Navy; 8. Lafayette

TEAM BY TEAM ANALYSIS:

HOLY CROSS: Having served a decade with the Crusaders, Ralph Willard departed as head coach in June, making way for first-year head coach Sean Kearney. Having spent the last nine years as an assistant at Notre Dame, Kearney has seen first-hand what it takes to build a successful program. Lucky for him, the construction of a top-notch team has already taken place at Holy Cross with four starters returning from last year's team that finished 18-14 and finished second in the league standings at 11-3. When it comes to the action on the floor of the Hart Center, much of the attention will be focused on sophomore guard R.J. Evans who is a star in the making. Evans, the reigning Patriot League Rookie of the Year and a preseason all-league choice this time around, led the team in scoring with his 13.4 ppg. The only player on the roster to hit for double figures, Evans also came up with 5.2 rpg and was first on the team with his 54 steals. As a team, Holy Cross struggled mightily beyond the arc in 2008-09, converting just 31.4 percent of its opportunities, mainly because Evans was so erratic. Evans and his mates will have to make up for the loss of Colin Cunningham who generated 8.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game and that means someone like senior forward Eric Meister will have to shoulder even more of the load after he logged 6.7 points and 4.9 rebounds per contest last year. Junior forward Andrew Keister is another player who needs to step up after putting up 8.5 ppg and team-best 6.3 rpg.

LEHIGH: The Mountain Hawks had a pair of double-digit scorers on the squad last year and the good news is they are both on the roster once more for third-year head coach Brett Reed. Zahir Carrington, a senior forward, brings his 6-7 frame back into the paint where he was able to dominate and register 14.0 ppg and 8.6 rpg, both of which led the program. Carrington was also second on the team with his 20 blocked shots, a number that almost rivaled his lackluster assists total of 29 in 29 games. While Carrington is considered a local product (Philadelphia), senior guard Marquis Hall brings his talents all the way across the country from Oregon, talents that brought him and his team 13.9 ppg a season ago. More than just a point producer, Hall is a player who can be found all over the floor doing a myriad of things, ranging from rebounding (5.1 rpg) to passing (4.1 apg) to defense (49 steals). Junior guard Rob Keefer accounted for 8.8 ppg a season ago and he will be asked to improve The Mountain Hawks thrived in the paint last year as the offense came up with a league-best 39.6 rpg. While having some success out on the perimeter could help this team in 2009-10, it might be smarter to stick with what makes them strong right now.

BUCKNELL: Pat Flannery, who was named the Patriot League Coach of the Year three different times, finally gave up his spot on the sidelines in 2008 and allowed Dave Paulsen to take the reins. A leader at tiny Williams College where he led the program to the NCAA Division III National Championship in 2002-03, Paulsen knows what it takes to win. Unfortunately, last year he didn't have an opportunity to fully execute that knowledge as the Bison went belly up with a record of just 7-23. The squad was a mere 4-10 in league play and failed to win back-to-back games over the final five weeks of the season. This year Bucknell might be able to get back on track thanks to having four returning starters back. Senior forward Patrick Behan will be a key ingredient to the team's resurgence after he led the program in scoring and rebounding with 13.8 points and 6.8 boards per contest, en route to being named to the All-Patriot League Second Team last season. Second on the team in scoring as he played more than 1,000 minutes over the course of 30 games, Bryan Cohen came up with 11.8 ppg for the Bison. While he was named to the All-Patriot Rookie Team, Cohen did have areas that needed fixing, specifically his shooting accuracy which settled in at 36.5 percent from the field and only 32.7 percent behind the three-point line. A combination guard/forward, G.W. Boon (9.8 ppg) is another player who can contribute significant points, while junior guard Darryl Shazier (7.8 ppg) is the one who is responsible for keeping his teammates in the action with his team-best 4.6 apg. More good news for Bucknell is the return of senior Stephen Tyree, who missed all of last season with injury.

ARMY: Despite posting a couple of three-game win streaks last season, 2008-09 was yet another tough campaign for the Black Knights. It was thought that Jim Crews might be able to lead them on to a more favorable outcome, after finishing 11-19 overall and just 6-8 in conference play, but Crews was let go by the academy in late September and the program had to scramble to find a replacement. The new face on the bench at West Point is first-year head coach Zach Spiker who spent the past five seasons as an assistant at Cornell. Spiker, who is just 33 years old, does have the luxury of bringing back as many as four starters from last year's group, with the focus being on junior guard Marcus Nelson who was named the Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year. As a group the Black Knights were one of the stingiest defenses in the league, placing second behind only American with just 60.8 ppg allowed. Nelson, who appeared in all 30 games, was responsible for 32 blocked shots and 28 steals, to go along with his 75 assists and 98 rebounds. Senior guard Josh Miller paced the group a year ago with his 97 assists and was also the second- leading scorer with his 9.2 ppg, but it is senior guard Cleveland Richard who will again draw much of the attention for Army after he led the team with his 12.0 ppg and was also credited with a team-best 50 steals. While he is in just his second year with the program, sophomore guard Julian Simmons is another talent that will have to be accounted for after he turned in a modest 7.4 ppg while playing limited minutes over the course of 28 appearances.

COLGATE: Last year the Raiders had three players register double-digit scoring for the duration of the 30-game campaign, and the good news for head coach Emmett Davis is that every single one of the trio is back on the roster for another season. Junior guard Mike Venezia, who scored in double figures in all but one game from the end of September on, was tops on the scoring list with his 10.8 ppg, while Ben Jonson and Yaw Gyawu accounted for 10.4 and 10.2 ppg, respectively. In the case of Jonson, he is someone who can handle himself in the paint, coming up with better than five rebounds per game. Colgate was last in the league, and among the worst in the nation, in scoring with a mere 56.7 ppg last year. That number must improve if there is to be any movement up the conference ladder. Making a return to the hardwood for the Raiders is senior guard/forward Kyle Roemer, who missed all of the 2008-09 campaign with an injury after being a Second-Team All-Patriot League performer a year earlier.

AMERICAN: Two years ago American head coach Jeff Jones was coming off a 16-14 campaign and wasn't supposed to challenge the big dogs of the Patriot League (Holy Cross and Bucknell), but something strange happened on the way to the postseason as the Eagles finished 21-12 and found themselves in the NCAA Tournament. Last year the cat was out of the bag for coach Jones because everyone in the conference knew he and the Eagles were the ones to beat, yet none of the other coaches could figure out how to get it done consistently, leaving American with a 24-8 record overall, a magical 13-1 league tally and a second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. Certainly a great story for the program and Jones, who was named the Patriot League Coach of the Year for 2008-09. There isn't a single returning starter back in 2009-10. The top scoring defense in the league last year, allowing just 59.1 ppg, the Eagles will be tested early and often this time around. The scary part is, there is just one senior on the roster in Matthew Wilson, a 6-2 guard who played a total of just 57 minutes last season. The top three scorers from a year ago are now gone, leaving junior guard Nick Hendra as the most recognizable option after averaging 6.3 ppg. Sophomore forward Stephen Lumpkins is another one who will have to pick up the slack for the Eagles after he tallied 3.4 ppg and 2.6 rpg. The bottom line for American, a team that will be tested by Big East foes Georgetown and DePaul, along with Florida during the month of December, is that there are a total of seven freshmen on the roster, so this could be a rebuilding year.

NAVY: Even though the Midshipmen bowed to Colgate in the Patriot League Tournament, 64-59 in overtime, Navy was still one of the hottest teams coming down the stretch in 2008-09. Head coach Billy Lange, the league's coach of the year in 2007-08, was able to get his team to 19-11 overall and 8-6 in conference play, although some of the non-conference opponents on the schedule made the outcome a little easier to come by. Coach Lange is bringing back three starters from a season ago, but one of them is not Kaleo Kina, who led the program in scoring with 18.0 ppg as he scored in double digits in all but three contests. Instead, the focus will fall on senior guard Chris Harris who played the most minutes of anyone on the roster and responded by putting up 15.4 ppg and leading the group with his 42 steals. Labeled as the tallest player on the team at a towering 6-11, junior center Mark Veasey (7.9 ppg) should be in line for bigger and better things this season if he can just keep himself out of foul trouble and spend more time on the floor where he led the program in shooting at 53.5 percent. Junior guard Romeo Garcia made the Patriot League All-Rookie Team in 2007-08, but last season he was limited to only nine games, so his return will be a welcomed sight for the Midshipmen. Navy showed that it could play strong perimeter defense last year, holding opponents to a mere 31.6 percent accuracy beyond the arc, so the goal now this year is to fashion the same intensity on the inside after opponents beat down the Midshipmen to the tune of 38.7 rpg, second-most in the Patriot over the course of 30 games.

LAFAYETTE: Head coach Fran O'Hanlon enters his 15th season with the Leopards, the most of any coach in Patriot League history, but he probably won't be celebrating anytime soon. O'Hanlon, who led the program to the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back season in 1999 and 2000, had his worst campaign last year since going a mere 7-20 back in 1995-96. Lafayette failed to post a winning record for the fifth consecutive year, but it was much more than that because the team managed a mere 8-22 record and was 4-10 in league competition. Andrew Brown, a member of the Patriot League All-Rookie Team back in 2005-06, led the squad in scoring a year ago with his 13.6 ppg, although he shot just 34.5 percent from the floor and a miserable 29.2 percent behind the three-point line. As poor as his accuracy might have been, O'Hanlon would love to have him back for another year, but as it stands the team has just a single double- digit scorer coming back in senior guard Jeff Kari who was responsible for 10.7 ppg, adding 3.7 rpg and 2.7 apg as well. Even though points were sometimes hard to come by, Lafayette managed to turn just 65.3 ppg into the second-highest scoring average in the conference. However, the team could not sustain a presence at the defensive end of the floor and ended up allowing a league-high 73.2 ppg. Now a senior, guard Michael Gruner (8.2 ppg) placed second in the league in steals with his 43 thefts, an effort that his teammates would be smart to emulate if the Leopards are going to keep themselves out of the Patriot basement this year.

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