Date: December 22nd, 2017
Time: 7:00 PM
Opponent: Georgia Southern (9-3, 0-0 Sun Belt)
Place: Freedom Hall
Television: none
Webcast:
ESPN 3
Radio online:
640WXSM.com
GSU 2016-2017
Schedule
GSU 2016-2017
Roster
GSU
Message Board
to keep the discussion in one thread:
Georgia Southern is ranked 87th by KenPom, better than any SoCon team and better than any team on our OOC schedule except Kentucky and Xavier.
They are 9-3 and 3-2 on the road with a win at Wake Forest 85-83 in their first game of the season. Wake got off to a very rocky 1-4 start but is now riding a 6 game win streak. Wins for Georgia Southern include a 23 point road win at 5-7 George Mason, an 11 point home win over 3-10 Savannah State in a game that was a 2 pointer with 6:10 left, (ETSU beat Savannah State on the road by 15 in a game that wasn’t that close), and neutral site squeakers over Missouri State by 1 and UMKC by 3. Most recent win is on the road by 9 at 2-9 Kennesaw State.
Their three losses are: at Bradley by 5, neutral site to Towson by 3, and a split decision to CSU Bakersfield, losing on the road by 2, but winning at home by 18. Nobody’s beaten them by more than 5. But they have several close wins, too. They are used to the close games. A win over Georgia Southern is likely to be a close one.
Blue Ribbon rates Georgia Southern as the top back court in the Sunbelt. The team is heavily dependent on those guards, with 4 of them leading the team in minutes played and points scored. 5-11 180 Jr PG Tookie Brown was Preseason 1st team All Sunbelt Conference along with our old friends from Troy, Jordon Varnado and Wesley Person. He’s a premier, do-it-all player, scoring 17.3 on .570 FG% and .485 from 3 (but only 1.3 makes), to go with 5.2 assists, 2.4 t.o.’s, 2.4 steals and 3.8 rebounds. Other guards put up points but are less efficient scorers. 6-4 210 Ike Smith 13.0 ppg on .381 FG% is physical (4.3 rebounds) and led the Sunbelt in scoring last year with 19.6 per game. But GS is a more balanced team this year. Smith shot .391 from 3 last year but is hitting only .233 this year (1.2 makes). 6-5 186 Jake Allsmiller is the best long range shooter: 12.5 ppg on .394 FG% but .382 from 3 (3.6 makes). 6-3 190 Mike Hughes is the second best 3 pt shooter hitting 11.4 ppg on .346 FG% but .338 from 3 (2.2 makes).
The Front Court has 1 real hoss, 6-8 230 Jr Montae Glenn (24.6 minutes, 9.2 rebounds and 9.1 points on .540 FG%), and 3 supporting players: 6-8 240 Coye Simmons getting 14.2 minutes, 5.5 rebounds and 2.9 points, 6-6 210 B.J. Gladden getting 12.6 minutes, 4.1 rebounds, 2.1 points, and 6-8 210 Shawn O’Connell getting 8.5 minutes, 2.5 rebounds, 2.6 points. Between them they have hit 1 three on the year: 6-8 Montae Glenn is 1-1. 6-8 240 Simmons and 6-6 210 Gladden are strong and physical, as of course is 6-8 230 Montae Glenn. Physical athletic guys this size, like Jordon Varnado have given us trouble.
Scoring at 80.4 is 79th in D1; Scoring margin of 14.4 is 44th in the country.
Turnover margin is excellent +4.5, tied with NKU for 23rd in D1. Bucs are about 50th at about 3.4 and have been improving. Southern is 44th in the country in steals at 8.1 per game. The Bucs are 18th at 9.3. Both teams will be ball hawking hard and going to force turnovers.
Georgia Southern does a solid job of holding opponents to low shooting percentages: FG% of .400 (50th in D1) and 3 point % of .303 (42nd in D1). It’s not easy to score against them. ETSU’s numbers are .417 and .354… not as impressive.
Three’s per game at 8.5 is 117th in D1. 3 point shooting percentage of .333 is 247th . ETSU 3pt percentage is .309 placing at 302nd . Bucs per game is 7.3 in 209th place.
Rebounding is solid, +2.8, 133rd in D1, despite the dependence on guards and the lack of front court length. Bucs are +1.2.
Bet on a high scoring game with a lot of ballhawking defense. Peter and Mladen will have a length advantage – be interesting if they could use it to score. This should be a good game for Bo with fewer blockers to stop him getting to the rim.
Must defend the 3 – these guys will fire them up, even though they don’t hit a very high percentage as a team.
Nobody has blown these guys out. Expect a battle all the way.
Guard
#4 5-11 180 Jr PG Tookie Brown, 31.4 minutes, 17.3 points, .570 FG%, .485 from 3 (1.3 makes), 5.2 assists, 2.4 t.o.’s, 2.4 steals, 3.8 rebounds
#3 6-4 201 Jr G Ike Smith, 24.8 minutes, 13.0 points, .381 FG%, .233 from 3 (1.2 makes), 4.3 rebounds
#10 6-5 185 Sr G Jake Allsmiller, 27.9 minutes, 12.5 points, .394 FG%, .382 from 3 (3.6 makes), 2.0 rebounds
#2 6-3 190 Sr G Mike Hughes, 28.4 minutes, 11.4 points on .346 FG%, .338 from 3 (2.2 makes), 1.6 assists, 1.4 t.o.’s, 1.4 steals
#13 6-4 180 Fr G Quan Jackson, 13.6 minutes, 5.8 points, .428 FG%, 1.8 rebounds
#24 6-0 160 So David-Lee Jones Jr., 12.7 minutes, 3.6 points on .342 from 3 (0.5 makes)
Front Court:
#0 6-8 230 Jr F Montae Glenn, 24.6 minutes, 9.4 points, 9.1 rebounds
#14 6-8 240 Sr F Coye Simmons, 14.2 minutes, 2.9 points, 5.5 rebounds
#5 6-6 210 Sr F B.J. Gladden, 12.6 minutes, 4.1 points, 2.1 rebounds
#11 6-8 210 Jr F Shawn O’Connell, 8.5 minutes, 2.6 points, 2.5 rebounds
Seeing Wofford beat UNC, Mercer outplay Alabama, Furman take UT to the wire and UNCG beat NC State, I will have to retract my statement that this will be the toughest home game of the year. And if Samford can get Wyatt Walker healthy, look out for them, too. The ETSU team that smacked NKU and went toe to toe with Xavier can play with any of them. But conference will be a battle every night out.
Season ticket holders will really get their money's worth this year.
Nonetheless, this Georgia Southern team is on the same level. Expect no less of a battle.
I'm ready to fight tooth and nail as fan against Wofford, UNCG, Furman, Mercer, Samford, and anyone else that comes our way.
(12-21-2017 10:40 AM)etsuandpurdue3 Wrote: [ -> ]I'm ready to fight tooth and nail as fan against Wofford, UNCG, Furman, Mercer, Samford, and anyone else that comes our way.
You need to get a bunch of your Boone friends to come and do the same thing. Same goes for the rest of us. A full Freedom Hall will make the difference in some of those games.
The crowd makes a difference in every game.
(12-21-2017 03:17 PM)Buc76 Wrote: [ -> ]The crowd makes a difference in every game.
I think Jason Williams's family and our Flint boys made more noise than the home Detroit "crowd".
Has anyone heard if Devontavius is good to go tomorrow?
They need to figure their **** out fast with this door security mess. The line is out to the pickup circle just to get in, tickets in hand. This looks absurd and could discourage attendance on a cold, rainy night. Anyways, Go Bucs.
Anyone know why the video board isn’t on?
Video board is now on and it looks like new white uniforms
Yup, gold numbers. Clean look.
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Coach Forbes rocking a ETSU tacky Christmas sweater tonight. Pure class. Love those new uniforms.
Someone else is wearing the same ugly sweater as me, lol....Solid 1st half, but we would be up at least 10 if we had some production out of Armus and Long. Long, especially, as he’s missed like 5 open shots.
I wish Long would quit shooting threes. What is he on the year? 1/25?
Coach Forbes has this team ready for conference play. Lets go!
This was a really good win. GSUs RPI is in the 60s. I also realized I've missed beating down GSU in basketball.
Total dominance. I believe I like this team best of Forbes’ teams so far.
Great effort tonight. Surprised. Maybe that will get us in the Mid Major top 25.
Gsu's 3 losses were by a combined 10 points. Really impressive beat down. Bring on the socon!