Just stand by. This one will be interesting.

The Bears are 3-3, but their three wins have been over Ozarks and teams from the MEAC and SWAC. They look better than they are because of some gaudy offensive numbers they have put up. However, they did take UCLA to overtime, even if the Bruins were somewhat in disarray because of being shorthanded with the distractions created by the China fiasco.

This year's UCA team is as close to an utterly one-dimensional team as you are likely to see. They don't play defense - at all. They get beat on the boards. They have one guys who shoots - and makes - a lot of 3-point baskets, and that is IT! Shut him down, and we will win the game. Simple game plan. But that also was the plan against GCU and we didn't get it done there.

They likely will start 7-0, 6-6, 6-5 along the front line, and they also have another 7-0, 6-9 and three 6-8s on the roster. So, they have plenty of size.

Jordan Howard is a 5-11 senior who averages 26.2 ppg and shoots 48% from the arc. He has taken more than twice as many shots and more than twice as many 3-pointers than anyone else on the team. But by himself he will torch you in a hurry if you do not have someone on him like a glove. I am sure he is looking at the fact that our opponents have shot over 40% from the arc and is licking his chops. After Jordan their scoring drops down to single digits. They do have other guys who can shoot; they just don't shoot much.

The good news? Their perimeter defense is even worse than ours, if that is possible. Their opponents have shot 47.3% from the arc. Basically all they do it wave at them and let it go at that.

Sagarin picks us to win by 4.
RealtimeRPI has us by 15.

If we let one guy beat us, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

This likely is going to be a run-and-jack game. We are going to have to resist the temptation to do that, or we will turn the ball over 30 times, and Jones will have half of those by himself.

Doesn't appear that we have a defensive stopper or, at least, haven't identified him as yet. We need someone to clamp down on Howard or it will be a long night.

Maybe John Fowler has some eligibility left.

(11-27-2017 10:56 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  Maybe John Fowler has some eligibility left.

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe I'm giving UCA too much credit for taking UCLA to overtime, but this game really scares me. Really need to beat them here, since beating them in Conway seems unlikely.

It ought to scare us. If our defense is not better than usual, UCA will have a field day.

UCA improved their record to 4-3 last night with a close win at home over Morehead State. Again they lived by the 3, but it was Mathieu Kamba who did most of the damage from inside the arc with 20 points, so they showed a new wrinkle. That makes them more dangerous. Jordan Howard had an off night with only 2 of 11 from 3PT range.

Here is the link to the UCA message board.

http://www.ucafans.com/forum/viewforum.p...fd198df63f

From their message board:

UCA freshman SK SH-ITTU (hyphenated for filters) suffered a medical incident where his heart stopped after a pickup game at the Farris Center. He was revived and rushed to Conway Regional. His future in basketball is in question. But there's more important things in life than sports when something like this happens.


I got to see this young man play against County Line last season, and he looked like a genuine talent. Sorry to hear about this.

Sometimes it only takes a little thing to jump-start a team. Maybe that first win was it.