Falling in love with Paulus all over again

Former Dukie Greg Paulus survives his first season as Navy assistant basketball coach. (AP photo)

Navy basketball coach Billy Lange has predictably fallen in love with former Duke guard and new Navy assistant coach Greg Paulus. So says Washington Post’s Rick Maese, who seemingly also fell for the lovable Dukie’s charms. It’s almost like Dukie, oops, I mean Dick Vitale wrote the story.

We kid. We kid. After Action was similarly smitten with the blond-haired New Jersey product when he took the time to answer some questions for us when first taking the job. Even though this After Action writer might be a rabid Maryland fan, even I had a brief pang of sympathy for Paulus when he was benched his senior year after starting his first three. Note the word brief in that sentence.

Navy has struggled in Paulus’ first year, taking a 6-8 conference record into tonight’s quarterfinal Patriot League matchup with Lehigh. Undersized, Navy often had to work hard on the boards, ranking 310th nationally in rebounds. Shooting has also been a challenge, with the Mids currently having the 328th highest shooting percentage in the nation. Navy did, however, sweep Army in their season series. Small victories.

The real question is how many floor slaps Navy players committed through the season. After Action is still looking for the official number at press time. Please forward if you’ve been keeping count.