The Duke of Finnegan

Josh "Duke" Ducoulombier.

Not much else to say.

NAME GAME

Well Baronfans...here at the baronblog we are getting a little bored. With no baronball going on we are having a little withdrawl. So to pass the time we are going to do something a little different. It's time for nicknames. Each day we will put up three names, and either:
A) Tell you their nickname and why they have it
or
2) Give you an option for a few nicknames and let you vote on it (if i can figure out the voting thing)

So without further ado, let's get to the name game.

THE BARONS ARE BACK!!!!

Hiram Who?

Lordy Lordy it's an old fashion beat down. What a win Baronballers. All of us in Baron Land could not be more impressed. I'm literally speechless about the win tonight, I don't know what to type... lets just get to some of the Good the Bad and the Ugly, but do it a bit different. Instead of GBU we'll go with the Good the Better and the Best. Stats at the bottom of the post...

THE GOOD
1. The Fans- Not gonna lie, I didn't expect that many students to show up, being reading day and all. But I was wrong, and what we got was a treat. Way to cheer on the team and give them some energy. I still have a criticism though:
- I understand Christian Charity, but its ok to try and intimidate the other teams players a bit. Give 'em an "AIRBALLL AIRBALLLL" when their best three point shooter misses the rim on a wide open three. We won't be sent into eternal darkness for it. Lets make them remember playing infront of the Finnegan Faithful (Finnegan Faithful is a coprighted phrase of Greg Hurst. Used with permission)

2. Matt Lidel sighting (part deux)- yes, again we saw everyone's favortie baronballer from last year cheering on the team. Matt is looking for a return to Franny U next semester, and is hoping to be able to play on the team. Got to admit, getting him would be great. We are loosing our Scotty Pippen with Connor heading to Austria, so having Matt back would help fill that role of scorer/banger. I suggest everyone offer a Rosary a day for Matt's return...no? please? maybe? I'm being heretical? I should stop? Ok...just be hopeful.

THE BETTER
1. Curtis Allen (clap clap clap-clap-clap)- Denacious D my friend, Denacious D. All over the court. Dropped a few threes. Completly clutch from the line. Just played one of the best all around games I've seen him play in my time as a Finnegan Faithful (Finnegan Faithful is a coprighted phrase of Greg Hurst. Used with permission).

2. Donny- He had these guys ready to impress in front the '58 team. They were motivated, focused, and except for a few minutes at the end of the second half, totally and completly dominating. Way to stick to the game plan, and keep the team focused.

3. The '58 Championship Banner- Great to see these guys back in Stubie. I feel an article for the Troub next semester coming together. I just can't wait until I become the first Sports Writer in the Baron Hall of Fame for my excellent team coverage...no? please? maybe? I'm being egotistical? I'll just stop.

4. Duke- Same old same old from the Catholic Kobe Bryant. And only one charge tonight.

THE BEST
1. Ak-47-
$(#)%% ($%# $%(%$!!!!!!!!!!
What a game from the man down low! Kay is really growing into a baller this year. I'm incredibly impressed. Other than fouling out, he held his own in the middle. It was amazing to watch him just go at it with Pfouts (#40) and the other post players, not giving up ground at all. He is the physical presence we needed down low.

2. Hoosier- I think I've found a nickname for little Sam Titus. Not only is he from Indiana, but he just plays like a kid from the Hoosiers movie. Smart little point guard with an excellent basketball IQ. Just like every great guard from the Hoosier State. Only going to get better.

Random Tangent: This nickname got me thinking: is Duke Franciscan's version of Jimmy Chitwood? Think about it. Great player who didn't play at first. Tall and lanky permiter player who can take it to the rim. Took some prodding, finally joined, and led the team in scoring. Freaky. Maybe we actually can do something special this year. Measure the distance from the rim to the floor. It's 10 feet tall in every gym...

3. Energy from the bench- Gotta say I love the way this team supports eachother. Each teammate really cares about the other. And the players on the bench really bring some intensity and encourgement to those on the floor. We've said it before, but we have to say it again: Major props to the way Danny Headband leads this initative. I think he pulls a Hendrix and saturates that headband with that 5 hour energy stuff. Just always focused on the game.

4. We played defense. Well. And we boxed out.

5. Three Pointer falling: But we didn't rely on them. We ran the offense instead of jacking up 45 threes. And it showed.

4. Our spot on prediction: major props to my commrade in arms Crazy Pills for his fearless prediction.

Thats it for the GBU, here's some Fast Facts to end the night. Sorry for the lack of info, but we don't have full box scores yet, or the numbers for Hiram.

Fast Facts:
- Duke led the team with 19 points
-Kay and Connor with 17
-Allen 15 (7-8 from the charity stripe. clutch)
-Hoosier had 16, dropping 4 of 5 from behind the arc
-Hiram shot only 37% from the floor tonight

We brought our: A++ game
Record: 3-3
Next Game: Sunday 6PM AT HOME vs University Pitt-Bradford. Its a Conference Game, so we hope to see all our Superfans back out there. Forget studying for finals...no? Please?

THE BARONS ARE BACK!!!!!!!!!!

Back to .500?

The Hiram College Terriers come to Steubs tomorrow to play the Barons' first Friday night home-game at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.  The Terriers are in the middle of a four game road-trip and will have to travel about an hour and 45 minutes to Finnegan Fieldhouse.  It is hard to win four away games in a row let alone three, so naturally I am predicting a win for our Barons.  Hiram is averaging 84.7 ppg while Franciscan is putting up only 68.4, but Finnegan is a really tough place to play in.  I mean we had an attendance of 215 at the home-opener.  The Barons don't take prisoners in the Ville's House.  

Fearless Prediction: Barons 86-80.

Welcome Troub Readers

To all you excellent people who have popped over here cause of Greg's article, we welcome you with open arms. Welcome to the baron blog! Please remember that anything we have ever said is not personal but professional, and to those who read and think we are "uncharitable"... o well.

Kidding aside I look forward to bringing some actual talent to the troub sports section next semester (kidding Greg). I think he's done a great job this past year, and left me alot to expand on. From the limited time I've spent with the Troub staff there seems to be some new and semi-exciting things that will be happening next semester, including maybe/hopefully moving onto the internet, allowing me to start an actual blog on an actual website. Not that anyone would read that one either.

Well thats all for now, enjoy perusing our site. My personally favorite is "Royalty Wanted", one of if not my first post on the blog. Gotta say we were right about getting Duke...And yes, there will be a Duke day coming soon.
Peace,
The Baronbloggers
including the newly crowned sports editor Jake Krempel (can't hide behind my computer anymore eh? thanks Greg)

O yeah- we don't think Greg hates us anymore... he accepted our bribe money didn't he?

THE BARONS ARE BACK!!!!

Spot-on Prediction, Blowout

Duuuuuuuuke!  Josh Ducoulombier played out of his mind, 25 points and 19 rebounds are the statistics of a Man.  Yes, the Nittany Lions of New Kensington did not have much height but there must be a "Duke Day" very soon. 

The game started off a little slow with countless fouls and numerous clock stoppages, but the Barons got it rolling shortly thereafter.  Andrew Kay, John Moore and Dan O'Brien all added energy and a spark coming off the bench.  Andrew Kay should have his number changed to 47, I mean the official petition starts now, right here.  John Moore showed flashes of explosiveness that I have not seen the past two years and I think Dan's headband is pure energy.

How about those tickets that were given prior to entry, congratulations Finnegan, you are really stepping it up.  If you did not see the tickets, they were strapped with Flanagan looking like he was about to kick someone's ass, and as usual Number 5 kicked ass and took names adding 15 points.

Easily the most exiting part of the  night was a Matt Liedel Sighting.  Another petition coming soon for the return of "5fer5."  Another exiting development is moving from 10th place in the standings to" a getting close to respectable" 7th place.  AMCC Standings.

Penn State New Kensington has not yet posted an article of their embarrassing defeat, but here is the article from FUS.

Tony "Showtime" Houghton Kicked Our Ass

Our Barons dropped the season-opener 91-74 to Penn State Beaver.  The score does not indicate a close game, but from here and here a different story is told.  Apparently, the Barons jumped out to an 8-0 lead and eventually a 15 point lead.  But by half-time the Nittany Lions trailed only by one point.  Then in second half Tony "Showtime" Houghton put on a clinic and made some key plays to put the Barons to rest.  

Last season the Barons defeated Penn State Beaver 77-75  when FUS won four of their last six game, so it is a shame that we lost.  But I really wasn't expecting our young team to win their first road game this season.

Wednesday marks the home-opener for the Barons, they will open against the Penn State New Kensington Nittany Lions at 8:00 p.m.  The Barons have had mixed results when playing the NK Lions.  FUS has lost 74-61 (2.11.08 away), lost 79-64 (1.31.07 away) and won 63-45 (11.10.06 home) in the past two seasons.  If the trends continue then FUS should blow out the Nittany Lions tomorrow.  But I am not even going to worry about the history, I believe that our FUS Barons will ride the opening night success to a 1-1 record come Wednesday at 11:00. 

Last Place Already?

Now that Franciscan University of Steubenville is right in the middle of all the action in the AMCC, the standings, player of the week and history of the AMCC can be checked out.  Who does these polls and why do they hate us so much?  There is no way Mount Aloysius should be in ahead of our Barons.  Here are the standings 

AMCC Preseason Poll (last season AMCC), (last season overall)

1. Penn State Behrend  (15-3) (24-5)

2. La Roche (10-8) (13-13)

3. Medaille (9-9) (15-13)

4. Penn State Altoona (10-8) (14-13)

5. Frostburg State (8-10) (9-16)

6. Pitt-Bradford (6-12) (10-15)

7. Pitt-Greensburg (10-8) (11-15)

8. Hilbert (8-10) (12-13)

9. Mount Aloysius (1-17) (5-20)

10. Franciscan (6-19)

and here is the site.

11.17.08

Tryouts are over and the roster is set, although it probably was not that hard.  Wednesday marked the first day of tryouts and sources revealed that about fifteen eager ballers came to tryout.  But Big D's run and gun atmosphere must have been too much for some of those ballers to handle, resulting in only twelve tryoutees to show.  So the team is set, and now we wait.  

Roster coming soon.

They're Back

Today marked the first day of tryouts for the Men's Basketball Team for your Franciscan University Barons.  Open tryouts were scheduled from 9-11 p.m. eastern time tonight, and continue until Friday.  Tomorrow Crazy Pills and Chris Mullin will try to visit these open tryouts and try and get a pulse of these '08-'09 Barons. 

We actually do have sportswriters.

Apparently the Finnegan Fieldhouse operates through Christmas Break. Today I was rummaging around the Athletics section of one of my favorite websites and found that there has been some new game recaps posted about our beloved Barons. I cannot say when they were put up because they have no time stamp, but I can say two things about them.
1. The game recaps are a little bit late.
2. (And since we do not like to be critical here at the Baron Blog) at least there are recaps up.

Here are the two latest games
Waynesburg and Altoona
and here are two other game recaps that were recently posted
Ohio University Eastern and Hiram.

Altoona?

At least I have one more chance for Santa to give me a Baron win.
Last night the Barons fell to the Altoon Lions, or whatever they call themselves. It wasn't a pretty score, 76-57, but it was close at one point when the score was 48-43 with 13 minutes left in the second half. Maybe the score was a little lopsided because we jacked up 28 3s. I don't know, maybe? Chas Marks led the way with 20 and Nate got 17. And apparently Nate Stanton is going to join the AMC conference next year, I guess thats pretty rare for a player. That little tidbit is courtesy of the Penn State Altoona website. You can read the rest of their coverage here, but you will be unable to find any FUS coverage. Interesting, no?
The Barons have another game tonight when we travel to Waynesburg University, game time at 7:30.
Prediction: I think we get this losing streak done with, get some momentum going into the second half of season with a win.
Fearless Predictions:
1) Score-68-60
2) "5-5" has another huge game
3) Zach brings down 15, all offensive boards

Breaking Down the Match-up: St. Vincent's @ FUS

Big game tomorrow night as the Barons take on the Bearcats of St. Vincent for the second time this season. Last game was a complete blowout, 96-48. The Barons badly need a win to get off this losing streak. Here's our keys to the game:

1. Get the Arby's Train out of the gate early- Liedel was held to only 4 points the last time these two met. For us to have a chance for a 50 point turn around and win this game, we need Matt to get hot early, and often. Adding on to this, everyone needs to shoot better. We are constantly shooting below 30% (including 26.7% in the last match up). For a gunning team we need to do better.

2. Limit the Turnovers- We committed 23 turnovers last time. 23! We need to stop that.

3. Play Defense- This is pretty self-explanatory. Too many Offensive Rebounds. BOX OUT! PRESS!!!! USE ALL OUR PLAYERS!!!! PRESS!!!!!! PRESS!!!!!!! PRESS!!!!!! AND PLEASE BOX OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!

4. Play Smart- This is the most important. Run our Offense, Play Smart Defense. No stupid shots or stupid fouls. Most importantly we need to play with confidence. Overcome our age and not fold under pressure.

Thats it for now. Let's go get win number two! See ya at the game... THE BARONS ARE BACK!!!!

The Barons are Back!

Welcome to the first post of the baron blog. We are self-appointed analysts of Franciscan sports, intramural and varsity. We will be providing our insights, insults, and intelligent and sometimes irreverent observations of the teams at FUS. Just think of us as the guys who say what everyone else is thinking ; tourettes-inflicted sports fans, so to speak.



the thoughts of this blogs do not reflect those of the university or athletic department of FUS