RE: UTEP Thursday
Doing some research on UTEP, looks like this is their first home game after a 4-game away stretch, so even without 3rd place on the line, the crowd should be into it. Projected starting lineup is Harris, Artis, Willims, Thomas and Flaggart. Looking at the individual stats:
Omega Harris was the leading scorer w/ 11 pts during last years contest in Norfolk. This year the 6'3" Jr Guard is avg 16.6 ppg and has a 78.1 FT%. He makes the most 3's on the team at 42 off of 116 attempts (36.2 %). Baker will get this assignment on defense.
Dominic Artis, 6'3" Sr Guard, is the player getting the most minutes (1027 on the year, 36.7 per game) and is the only one that has started every game for the Miners. He's averaging 15.3 ppg and has the most rebounds/game at 6.4. Artis takes the most shots on the team (359 fga and 129 fta) has a 43.5 FG% overall but only a 29.5 3pt% on 112 attempts (2nd most on team, Harris has 116 and a 36.2 3pt%). He also only has a 63.6 FT%. He also dishes out a great 5.9 assists per game. Caver gets this assignment on defense.
Matt Willims, 7'1" Jr Center who is also from Ontario Canada, averages 11.9 ppg. He must not get challenged very often in the post, since he has a 60.8 FG% and has only taken 99 free throws this season (compared to 114 and 129 for the two players above). I expect a battle down low with us rotating Stith, Taylor, Porter, Kah and maybe even Talley on him. I also think we're going to try and make him earn his points by fouling hard anytime he takes a shot. He has only a 57.6 FT%, which is somehow only 4th worst on the team (2 of the other 3 have played in all 28 games and had significant minutes, the last and worst one hasn't seen much time at all). Only 1 ODU player has a worse percentage with as much usage (Taylor, 41.7FT%).
Paul Thomas, 6'8" So Forward, is averaging 8.0 ppg and 6.2 rpg. He is one of the ones with a worse FT% than Willms (56.1% on 66 attempts). He also leads the team in personal fouls committed (104) and is tied with Jake Flaggart for most disqualifications (8). For reference, Taylor has committed the most fouls for ODU (89) and Baker has the most disqualifications (2). Thomas also has a fairly decent 21 steals on the year, which makes me think he's good at anticipating passes into the paint.
Jake Flaggart, 6'7" Jr Forward, is averaging 5.4 ppg on 28.7 min/game, along with 3.0 rpg and has 77.8 FT% on 27 attempts. These may not be amazing stats, but he's a stretch forward that makes 1.5 3pt FG's a game and has a nice 40.4 3pt%. He will force our defense to the outside opening up the inside for Thomas and Willms. I imagine BJ and Talley will get the majority of the minutes on his assignment since they can keep with his height and close out to the arc quickly.
As a team, UTEP scores 69.3 ppg and holds opponents to 68.4 ppg, has a 65.7 FT%, 47.1 FG% and has a slight +0.6 rebound margin over their opponents. The team is somewhat similar to ODU, in that multiple players often get into double figures. 73.8% of all their points come from Harris, Artis, Willms, and Thomas (whereas only 65.3% of ODU's points come from our top 4 scorers Caver, Talley, Brandan, and BJ), limiting the Miners' depth.
I expect a hard-nosed contest from UTEP. Fouling will happen early and often as ODU tries to limit the Miner's production in the post, taking advantage of poor free throw percentages from certain players. We will also compliment this by utilizing a heavy rotation of all our post players to keep us fresh, limit foul trouble, and to wear them down. Other than the above, the only post players that get significant minutes is Kelvin Jones, a 6'11" center who gets 12.6 min/game, 3.4 ppg, and has a 45.2 FT%. Making transition buckets and midrange shots will be of particular significance so we can prevent UTEP from setting up or properly executing their funky defenses.
(This post was last modified: 03-02-2017 12:30 PM by Blue_Trombone.)
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