Princeton heads to Brooklyn on Saturday to face Fordham in the Brooklyn Hoops Winter Festival and Know! Your! Foe! is back with a preview of the Fordham Rams.

Joining the site this afternoon is John Templon from Big Apple Buckets, a fantastic, ever-expanding site covering teams from the five boroughs and beyond.

My questions and his responses follow after the jump. I'll be returning the favor with a few answers about Princeton on John's site shortly.

If you cover a team the Tigers will tackle down the line, let us know. I'd love to talk with you.

Fordham's 1-8 on the season. How much of that is due to quality of opposition (six losses against Pomeroy Top 200 teams) and how much of that is due to Tom Pecora's team just not being very good?

Unfortunately, I think it's more of the latter. The Rams are definitely still developing as a team. That said, Pecora also knows he scheduled way too hard. Pittsburgh, Robert Morris, Fairfield, Harvard, Lehigh, St. John's might not sound like a murder's row, but they are all in the Top 150 of Pomeroy's rankings and most are in the Top 100. With a team this young, especially now that Chris Gaston is injured, that's an almost impossible schedule to navigate. It's also worth noting that Fordham has played just one game at home, the Battle of the Bronx against Manhattan. It doesn't end here either. After Princeton the Rams still have to go on the road and take on UConn, Mississippi and Georgia Tech.

What - if anything - has gone right for the Rams despite that dismal record?

Not a whole lot. Though the development of sophomore forward Ryan Canty has been great to watch. We'll talk a bit more about him in a minute.

Senior forward Chris Gaston played in his team's first three games before being lost due to a knee injury. Any chance he returns on Saturday?

Gaston had arthroscopic knee surgery on Nov. 16 and was expected to be out a month. The Princeton game happens to be one day before that month is up and the Rams will be cautious with him anyways, considering he's definitely the best player on the team.

Who has stepped up in Gaston's absence?

What's been a nice surprise is that Canty has really stepped up for the Rams in Gaston's absence. He's scored in double figures each of the past four games and has grabbed at least eight boards in each of the last three. Against St. John's he was an absolute beast on the boards, grabbing 16.

There are two even younger players, Ryan Rhoomes and Travion Leonard, that have also gotten some more playing time due to Gaston's injury. The freshmen have played inconsistently, which is probably to be expected, but Leonard has showed some decent offensive skills even though he doesn't have the best hands in the world. Rhoomes was a big recruit, but he hasn't done much on offense. Canty and Leonard are especially foul prone, so it's good that there is three of them.

What sort of player is Fordham leading scorer Branden Frazier? I see he's leading the team in scoring with 15.2 ppg but he's also attempted 51 more field goals than anyone else on the roster...

Frazier is the team's "lead guard", though he's not really their point guard. He hands out a lot of assists because he's got the ball in his hands a lot (27.4% usage rate). He does a lot of dribbling on the perimeter looking for lanes to drive into, but he's prone to taking a lot of mid-range jump shots. That's why he's shooting 38.5% on two-point field goals. He's only shooting 25.5% on threes right now, but past history says that will go up a little bit. He's a volume scorer, but he's the best offensive weapon that Fordham has right now.

How concerned should Princeton fans be about the fact the Rams grabbed 24 offensive rebounds in their last contest versus St. John's?

Part of the reason Fordham grabbed so many offensive rebounds is that the Red Storm are young and undisciplined and Pecora had his team prepared to take advantage of that fact. Yeah, Chris Obekpa blocks a ton of shots, but that also means that he's not available to hit the defensive glass. Fordham took advantage of that fact. Team's like to play zone against Fordham because the Rams can't shoot, but when St. John's went to zone it really hurt them rebounding the basketball.

All that said, considering Princeton is tall, experienced and a decent defensive rebounding team I don't think the Tigers have too much to worry about. Offensive rebounding is Fordham's strength, but it's one that Princeton has the personnel and scheme to neutralize.

Blank fillin', mister: Fordham doubles their win total on Saturday afternoon if...

Fordham is able to get second chance opportunities and Bryan Smith has a big game for the Rams. Someone besides Frazier has to score for the Rams to win and Smith - who scored 14 points when Fordham beat Robert Morris - is the best option.

Princeton's constantly swinging pendulum glides back from negative to positive if...

The Tigers use their experience to get Fordham's big men, especially Canty, in foul trouble early and force Frazier into one of his classic 3-14 shooting days.

Can you update people on Big Apple Buckets? The site seems to be constantly growing and building its coverage as 2012-13 unfolds. It is impressive to watch from afar.

Now in it's second full season of coverage, Big Apple Buckets has expanded its roster of writers to three. Ryan Restivo and Ryan Peters have joined me to help cover the MAAC and NEC respectively. I still go to a ton of games and write about both conferences, but this should allow me to focus more on conferences like the Ivy League and do some more detailed analysis as the season continues. They've been a great help with all the breaking news. We've also been able to talk to a lot more coaches and players.

We're focused on mid-major basketball in and around New York City and the northeast in general (well, depending on where expansion takes us). I think we've got a great niche and some really good writers and I can't wait to see where the rest of the season takes us.