With the most experienced roster in the Patriot League and confidence after a successful offseason trip to Europe, the AU men's basketball team began the season with dreams of winning the school's first Patriot League championship.
After starting out the season with a 9-2 record, the Eagles appeared to be ready to make some noise in conference play, but a 3-7 start left the team looking for answers.
"We've been inconsistent; we started off the season pretty hot. A lot of that carried over from our trip to Europe," said senior forward Brayden Billbe. "We hit kind of a rough patch, but we didn't stop believing."
If the Eagles do end up reaching their own preseason expectations, they can look back to their February 11 victory over Colgate as the turning point. Down two points with just 0.2 seconds remaining, Arvydas Eitutavicius drew a miracle foul and sank both free throws to send the game into overtime.
AU ended up winning that game, and followed it up with a 15-point victory over Army on Wednesday night. Despite the two important victories, Coach Jones still believes that his team can play better.
"I think the truth is we may not have played as well in the Colgate game and tonight as we did in some of those other games that we lost," said Coach Jones.
The victories over Colgate and Army have given the Eagles a chance to control their own destiny, as they will be assured of a home game in the PL tournament if they win the next two games.
"You never want to depend on another team to do something for you to benefit yourself," said senior guard Andre Ingram. "If we can carry this momentum into Navy, that would be big for us."
Although the Eagles have a chance to capture fourth place and finish with a .500 conference record for the second straight year, they still have to prove that they can beat the elite teams in the PL.
This season, the Eagles have gone 0-6 against Holy Cross, Bucknell and Lehigh, the top three teams in the conference, and are just 2-18 against those teams in the last three seasons. However, AU has played better against the top teams in the PL this season, including two two-point losses to Lehigh, an overtime loss against Holy Cross and a three-point loss against Bucknell.
"We know that if we play hard and execute, we can play with everyone in the league," Billbe said. "We can beat these teams; we just have to put it all together at the right time."
Perhaps the most encouraging sign for the Eagles has been the resurgence of senior guard Linas Lekavicius. At the end of last season, Lekavicius was the best player on the team, averaging 19.5 points per game in the PL tournament. Against Bucknell, he single-handedly kept the Eagles in the game on the offensive end, scoring 21 of the Eagles 50 points in a 14-point loss.
Lekavicius hurt his ankle a few days prior to the start of the season, limiting his effectiveness in the first few games. He appeared to be back to normal after scoring 16 points in just 20 minutes against NJIT on November 29, but he appeared to re-injure his ankle in the next game against Longwood. Although he returned to play in that game, he played just 24 total minutes over the next two games.
Lekavicius continued to struggle throughout winter break, and was one of three Eagles to lose their starting spots on Jan. 24 against Navy. Lekavicius played just two minutes in that game, and came off the bench for the next two games before reclaiming his spot in the starting line-up against Lehigh on Feb. 3.
Since returning to the starting line-up, Lekavicius has been one of AU's best players, dishing out eight assists against Bucknell and scoring 12 points in a season-high 31 minutes at Colgate.
"The pattern for him, and we're hoping that it holds true, has been that each of the last couple years he's gone through ups and downs over the course of the year, but he has always finished strong," Coach Jones said. "Hopefully this is a sign that he is ready to finish strong for us."
Lekavicius is one of six seniors who were a part of the last AU team to make the PL tournament final, a last-second loss at Lehigh in 2004. With just two regular season games left in their careers, they cannot afford to overlook the next two games against Navy (who split the season series with AU last year) and Lafayette (who defeated Lehigh on Sunday afternoon).
"It's the last go-around for six of us, so we need to play these next two games hard," Billbe said.
