RE: Official Game Thread: @ Northern Kentucky
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.
(This post was last modified: 11-08-2017 06:15 PM by swvabucsfan.)
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