Saturday’s game against the Lamar Cardinals was certainly a humbling experience for Niners players and fans alike. With the loss of Chris Braswell due to a bout with the flu, the Niners were manhandled by Lamar 72-54. The Niners were hampered by poor shooting (32.8% for the game) and were out-rebounded handily, with the Cardinals enjoying a 52-28 advantage on the glass. As awful as it was, don’t worry, we’re not gonna do what you all think we’re gonna do, which is, you know, FLIP OUT!
The Niners can get back on track Tuesday night (7:30 PM, Halton Arena) against the East Tennessee State Buccaneers with their first of two games against Atlantic Sun programs (Kennesaw State being the other). ETSU enters the game with a record of 2-1, boasting wins against Crappalachian State and Troy, with their lone loss coming against Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The Buccaneers are coming off a 24-win season that saw them fall just short of the NCAA tournament with a ASUN Conference Tourny loss to North Florida. Gone from that squad is several quality basketball players, including top two leading scorers Mike Smith and Micah Williams. The Bucs have replaced that scoring somewhat by committee, with expanded roles of returnees and a newcomer in Marcus Dubose. Dubose is a Jr. transfer into the program and is leading the team with 15.0 ppg. He’s not a particularly skilled shooter, only hitting 38.3% from the field and 5-22 (22.7%) from behind the arc. If the Niners were anyone but the Niners, we’d want Dubose shooting the ball a lot, but since they are we know he’ll probably hit 8-11 from 3 point land.
ETSU is not a particularly deep team, choosing to use 8 players most nights and relying heavily on the trio of Sheldon Cooley (6’3″ Jr. G), Adam Sollazzo (6’6″ Sr. G) and Tommy Hubbard (6’4″ Sr. ‘athlete’) who have each played over 30 minutes/game for ETSU this season. The Bucs have one of the larger backcourts the Niners will see this year, particularly at the point with Sollazzo who’s having a fine start to the season averaging 11.7 ppg., 6.3 rpg. and 6.0 apg. With Sollazzo (who was probably the first alternate to be on Jersey Shore) likely to get big minutes at the point, it will be interesting to see how Alan Major counters. Deuce Briscoe would have a substantial size disadvantage if he matched up with Sollazzo, and might limit his usage to the off-guard again -how many minutes though will be the question.
In the frontcourt the Bucs appear to have a significant disadvantage, with their tallest post player being 6’8″ 5th yr Sr. Isiah Brown. Brown certainly has the talent to produce against top competition, having scored 25 points against Kentucky last year, but appears to struggle with consistent production which sounds similar to Javarris Barnett. The only other post player with appreciable size is 6’8″ Jr. F Lukas Poderis.
Looking at ETSU’s stats over their first three games the turnovers-caused at first glance looks alarming, as the Bucs have averaged 20 turnovers forced/game. That’s not exactly something Niner fans want to see; however, those numbers are rather inflated due to Crapp State chalking up a 29 turnover performance in their loss to ETSU… and we thought we had trouble taking care of the ball.
Keys to the game
- Get Braswell going early: Niners looked like they were psychologically deflated not having Braswell out there Saturday versus Lamar. His play has been a key for the Niners so far and we expect the Niners to go as he goes most nights.
- Limit turnovers: ETSU forced 29 turnovers against ASU. While that might be a bit of a fluke it’s definitely attention getting.
- Better outside shooting. Murry Bartow should strongly consider playing zone against the Niners tomorrow night. If he does, the Niners long distance shooters like Green, Briscoe and Barnett need to connect on open jumpers to punish the Bucs.
- Make your layups! It was devastating to see the Niners miss so many layups Saturday against Lamar. Whether it was overthinking if they would draw contact or something else, the Niners need to stick to the basics and let the refs worry about calling fouls.
This is a game the Niners should expect to win with the squad back at full strength; however, ETSU is a quality team that should compete for the ASUN title with Belmont this season. Lightly regarding them will put the Niners at 2-2 instead of the 3-1 fans should expect at 00:00 tomorrow.
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