Date: November 10th, 2017

Time: 7:00 PM

Opponent: Northern Kentucky (0-0, 0-0 Horizon)

Place: BB&T Arena

Television: none

Webcast: ESPN 3

Radio online: 640WXSM.com

NKU 2016-2017 Schedule

NKU 2016-2017 Roster

NKU Message Board

What do they return from last years tourney team?

The Bucs get one of their toughest OOC tests right out of the gate, on the road at NKU. NKU was 24-11, 12-6 last year. They won the Horizon tournament and played Kentucky tough, losing 70-79 in the NCAA’s. Thus earning 2nd year coach John Brannen Horizon Coach of the Year. They are picked 111th in the SI poll to ETSU’s 110. College Insider's Mid Major poll picks them 11th, with ETSU 'also getting votes' at about 34th. The Norse are picked 2nd this year in both BR and Horizon League polls to 1st place Oakland. So far this year they have a fairly meaningless 81-26 win over DII Urbana, 12-17 last year. It's only fairly meaningless, because, well it was accomplished without lead guard Lavone Holland, and because it's pretty hard to beat anybody 81-26.

Drew McDonald 6-7 250 F/C JR. is the preseason POY by Horizon league voters. 16.4 ppg on .473 with .384 from 3 on 53 makes. Lavone Holland 6-1 185 G Sr. Horizon Tournament MVP, is pre season 2nd team all-conference. 14.3 ppg on .442 with .379 from 3 also on 53 makes, 3.9 ast, 1.3 stl. Also 6-5 230 So. F Horizon All-Freshman Carson Williams with 10.8 ppg (0 3’s) and 5.9 rebounds in 24.8 minutes. 6-5 220 Sr. F Garnett Jordan 23.7 minutes, 4.8 pts and 3.3 rebounds. 6-5 170 Rs-Fr F Jalen Tate only got in 8 games before injury, but was getting 18.8 minutes, 4.6 points and 2.0 rebounds.

They return their top 3 and lost only 1 of top 9. Unfortunately that was their best shooter Cole Murray with 1/3 of their made 3’s (100 of 300). However Murray is replaced by 6-5 RS RS-FR Jalen Tate who was starting ahead of him till he was injured after 8 games last year, but who hadn’t demonstrated much 3 point shooting in those 8 games (1-10).

Not much length. But some muscle and very good rebounding (+4.4, 46th in D1). 6-7 250; 6-6 220; 3 guys 6-5 (205 to 230). 7 foot 225 freshman Chris Vogt is not looked to play much. If you think that the relatively weak front court of Asheville ‘exposed’ our front court, then look out for this test.

Scoring margin was +4.3 points (75.97 to 71.63). Rebounding margin was +4.4 rebounds. They made 1.2 more t.o.’s than opponents. They held opponents to .440 (scored .456 themselves). They held opponents to .325 from 3 (227 makes) and hit .356 (330 makes), but lost best 3 point shooter Cole Murray.

Other guard possibilities are
6-1 165 Sr. Mason Faulkner, 20.4 minutes and 10.4 ppg in conference,
6-5 205 So. Dantez Walton with 10.4 minutes, 3.9 ppg and 2.3 reb., and newcomers
5-10 185 So. Tre Cobbs only got in 9 games, 1.7 ppg, 0.9 rpg
6-1 185 So former Louisville walk-on Tyler Sharpe and
6-4 190 FR Paul Djoko from Strasbourg, France.

Keep McDonald from having an All-American night and hit the boards hard. Based on Asheville I am hopeful the Bucs have enough offensive fire power.

I'm making the road trip. Got to be there for opening night !

It seems REALLY odd to be playing a game without a public exhibition.

(11-07-2017 01:41 PM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  It seems REALLY odd to be playing a game without a public exhibition.

Yes it does. Moving the bluenanza and not having an exhibition have flattened the pre-season excitement for me but winning Friday will make up for it.

Especially since the NCAA granted its teams an opportunity to play an additional exhibition game for charity/hurricane relief this year. Not sure why we did not take advantage of this extra practice opportunity like a few of our SoCon teams did. See Mercer-Troy, Samford-Western Kentucky. Plus many other schools played each other like Kansas-Missouri, Tennessee-Clemson, South Carolina-VA Tech, Kentucky-Morehead, Georgia-Michigan State and so on.
I for one, find it disappointing that we did not try to be a part of this fine cause, be it home or away.

Understand that fans want to see team play but there is/was no reason to put anything on tape for NKY. Much more can be accomplished in closed scrimmages.

(11-07-2017 08:05 PM)PreacherPurl Wrote:  Understand that fans want to see team play but there is/was no reason to put anything on tape for NKY. Much more can be accomplished in closed scrimmages.

I agree 100%.

Starting five: Bradford, Payne, Long, Burrell, Jurkin

https://twitter.com/WJHL_Kane/status/928328945732333568

Forbes really likes Long.

He’s probably got Long in for help with ballhandling and defense.

Not too surprised about Long. Forbes likes guys that hustle and play defense, Long does that and Petey did that too, despite neither being big time scorers.

Long, as I've said multiple times before, brings a "special sauce"; an intangible aspect to our team, that no one else can. And we know that so far that has also brought some mistakes, and, shall we say, "overly-aggressive ideas" to his plays. But if he can become more harnessed........look out. This would be especially true if he can up his outside-shot effectiveness. He *will* bring some exciting plays onto the court.
With that said, that Forbes is going to start him is a very positive sign that he thinks the good outweighs the downside risk. Duh.

Also I noticed there at the end that Forbes said Mladen and Bo have made up the most ground in terms of being starter.

Yeah, and based on that and what PreacherPurl's been saying, I've actually been questioning whether I've been confusing Mladden and Overstreet on the court in the two examples of watching them.
I'm beginning to think that's quite possible. They do bear a significant resemblance from the stands.

If that's the case, I would sure need to go back and amend/correct several of my posts.

Good to hear that Jurkin makes the cut - hope that it gives him a boost after a rough last year.

We may see a little different side of Forbes this year - the last two years bringing on 5th years and JUCO's and molding them into a team. This year maybe developing freshmen like Hodges and Armus.

First off the bench? Maybe McCloud along with Bo and Armus.

I like the lineup. Also gives us a pretty good 2nd 5 with McCloud, KOR, Bo, Edwards, and MLaden.

(11-08-2017 05:29 PM)Bucs06 Wrote:  I like the lineup. Also gives us a pretty good 2nd 5 with McCloud, KOR, Bo, Edwards, and MLaden.

Or maybe Bo, Harrison and Mladen upfront?