Lehigh Basketball

The dream of every player in Division I basketball is to participate in the NCAA Tournament. Players from small conferences dream of playing the game of their lives and pulling off an upset that will be forever remembered.

It is hope of every of every No. 16 seed to defeat a No. 1 seed.

Since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, a one-seed has never beaten a 16. With the aid of the basketball gods and the NCAA Selection Committee, this could be the year this historic event can finally occur. The 22-10 Lehigh Mountain Hawks can defeat Syracuse, and there are several reasons why.

Le Moyne Defeated Syracuse

Back on Nov. 3, a Division II school defeated the Orange 82-79 in an exhibition game. The Dolphins shot 48 percent from the field and made seven three-pointers in the victory. Syracuse lost although star forward Wesley Johnson tallied 34 points.

It was a contest that didn't count in the standings, but it proves anything can happen on a given day. If Le Moyne can beat Syracuse, Lehigh can too.

Syracuse Has Injured Players

Syracuse is entering the NCAA Tournament banged-up. Forward Arinze Onuaku injured his right quadriceps in Syracuse's loss to Georgetown in the Big East Tournament. Onuaku is suppose to practice on Monday, but will probably feel the effects on the injury throughout the tournament.

Johnson is dealing with a right hand he injured on Feb. 10. In the seven games between the injury and the game against Georgetown, Johnson averaged 14.0 points per game and shot 32.2 percent from the field.

Kris Joseph hurt his left knee dunking in a layup drill during a practice before the Mar. 6 game versus Louisville. He has been able to play since the injury, but the knee has been stiffening during times of inactivity.

Lehigh Is On A Winning Streak, and Syracuse Is Not

Lehigh has won seven of its last games and revenged that one loss by defeating Lafayette 74-59 in the Patriot League Tournament final. The Orange has lost its last two games.

Syracuse Has a History Being Upset in the Opening Round

In 2006, Syracuse lost to Texas A&M 66-58 as a No. 5 seed. Back in 2005, Germain Mopa Njila and T.J. Sorrentine hit consecutive three-pointers in overtime to give the Vermont Catamounts a 60-57 victory against the fourth-seeded Orange.

Syracuse became the first two-seed to lose to the 15-seed when the Orange lost to the Richmond Spiders 73-69 in 1991. Due to that loss to Richmond, Syracuse could be preordained to become the first 16-seed to suffer a defeat.

C.J. McCollum Can Dominate a Game

McCollum is the first player in Patriot League history to be named Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year in the same season. For the Mountain Hawks, he has averaged 18.9 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.

McCollum shoots 42.9 percent from three-point range and 81.3 percent from the foul line. He leads all Division I freshmen in scoring and has broken team and conference records in scoring by a freshman.

Along with a sweet jumper, McCollum can score by driving to the basket. He led the Mountain Hawks in scoring 17 times and has tallied at least 20 points in 16 games this season.

Lehigh Has a Deeper Bench than Syracuse

Syracuse mainly uses just Joseph and Scoop Jardine off the bench, although DaShonte Riley and Mookie Jones may receive playing time during the tournament.

Junior Rob Keefer has lost playing time because of MCCullom's emergence, but he did average 8.8 points per game last season and was named the Patriot League Rookie of the Year in 2008.

Guard Michael Ojo is fifth in scoring for Lehigh at 7.0 points per game. Point guard Marquis Hall is backed-up ably by junior Prentice Small. John Adams, Holden Greiner, Justin Maneri, Jordan Hamilton, and David Safstrom can all help along the front line.

Chances of the Game Actually Happening

Because Jackson State lost in the first round of the SWAC Tournament, Arkansas-Pine Bluff is basically a lock for the play-in game. Although the Patriot League has a lower RPI than the Big South, Winthrop is more likely to play on Tuesday since Lehigh won a regular-season title and the Eagles finished third in the Big South.

Assuming the play-in winner will play Kentucky and Lehigh is a 16-seed, the Mountain Hawks will play Kansas, Duke, or Syracuse, assuming those are the other one-seeds. Since Syracuse and Lehigh are not that far apart from one another, this could be a pairing the selection committee will find appealing.

The Orange seems to be the perfect matchup for Lehigh given Syracuse's flaws. Kentucky is too fast for Lehigh and the Blue Devils appear to be too big. The Jayhawks are playing too well currently to even imagine a first-round defeat.

Led by McCollum and three senior starters in Hall, Zahir Carrington, and Dave Buchberger, Lehigh is poised to make a splash at the Big Dance. The Mountain Hawks just need the right paring to make history.

Photo Credit: GUHoyas.com

I'm talking Bethlehem, Pennsylvania not the biblical Bethlehem. Actually I'm talking the entire Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania that encompasses Bethlehem, Easton, Allentown (ya know the city Billy Joel sang about), and much more.

The Valley sits smack dab in between New York City and Philadelphia. It seems like half the people that live here commute to either city every day for work.

This dynamic has created a large fan base of Philadelphia, New York, and even some Pittsburgh fans.

It allows fans to be around 90 minutes from two of the greatest sports cities in America.

But the mix of NYC and Philly fans isn't even the beginning of what makes this area a sports paradise.

It's amateur basketball tournaments, high school football, and professional sports. In part one, I'll detail the great amateur sports history of the Lehigh Valley.

Starting tomorrow one of the top amateur sports competitions in the country begins. Think of a sport, there's probably a tournament for the sport during SportsFest. 10,000 amateur athletes will compete in over 40 sports ranging from arm wrestling to celtic games to flag football.

The premier event? The 13th annual Stellar Construction "Catch A Rising Star" basketball tournament. It's four days of 64 high school boys varsity teams, 23 girls varsity teams, 20 JV teams, and 14 adult/college teams.

Teams from hundreds of miles away compete in the, "Catch A Rising Star" Tournament. Just two years ago, a squad from Glen Falls, New York located outside Albany made the five hour trip down to Allentown to take the title.

SportsFest is only a taste of the amateur sports in the area.

The high school sports in the Lehigh Valley are some of the best in the country. The Emmaus girls soccer team in 2006 had one of the best seasons in the country. They allowed five goals all season, but lost in the state playoffs despite their number one ranking in the country.

The Lehigh Valley also features according to Gatorade, the top track and field athlete in America. Chanel Price won the Gatorade National Scholastic Track and Field Athlete of the Year. She'll attend the ESPY's as a candidate for Girl's High School Athlete of the Year.

What did she do to earn this accolade? Finish in the top five percent of her class and run the second fastest scholastic 800 meters ever.

The Lehigh Valley is one the most scorching spots in the country for wrestling. Several area programs are routinely ranked first in the state, if not the country every season. Lehigh University's wrestling program has also been one of the nation's most reputable.

While I'm on the subject of Lehigh, they've played Lafayette in football a mere 143 times. This rivalry is so deep that it's nickname is well "The Rivalry." It's the rivalry to end all rivalries. 143 games since 1884 make it the longest running football rivalry in the country. This rivalry is so old that the winning team keeps the ball because the first game was played before trophies were hip.

And the games usually mean something. The Patriot League Championship was decided three of the four years based on the outcome of the game.

The Lehigh-Lafayette rivalry isn't the only football rivalry that calls the Valley home.

Northampton and Cattasauqua have been playing on Thanksgiving for years, but their rivalry ranks far behind the two premier match ups of the area.

In 1967, Bethlehem High School split into two schools, Freedom and Liberty being the original school just renamed. The Freedom Patriot's first year of exist they were barely able to fill out a full football schedule with a meek football team.

But in the first contest between the schools, Freedom won the game on a field goal. The field goal being the only points of the entire game. The Patriots won 3-0.

Each year over 10,000 people cram the Bethlehem Area School District Stadium to witness the game. If the game isn't shaping up to be great, the fans still come see one of the greatest high school battle of the bands in the state. Both schools' marching bands redesign their field shows adding in violinists on cherry-pickers and drum solos you wouldn't think were possible.

As great as the Freedom-Liberty rivalry that I grew up with is, the Easton-Phillipsburg is the greatest of them all.

They've been playing for over a century. A Pennsylvania powerhouse vs. a New Jersey powerhouse. The Red Rovers vs. the Stateliners. A rivalry that's been on ESPN on Thanksgiving multiple times.

USA Today called it the greatest High School Rivalry in the country. State playoff schedules usually force both teams to play three games in only six or seven days.

Most players will admit they'd rather have a win on Thanksgiving than a win in the state playoffs.

Over 15,000 usually attend the game and in 1946 attendance reached its highest point when 23,000 saw P-burg win 19-0.

The Lehigh Valley is amateur sports. Amateur sports are the Lehigh Valley.

Part Two detailing the professional sports aspect of the Valley will appear in the coming days.