(11-30-2021 01:37 PM)RamyEMU Wrote: This will be a tough Road Game. I am listing the Sagarin rankings of EMU’s OOC opponents below. It seems so far, EMU clearly can’t hang with the P5. And seems about even with the ~200s teams it played. San Diego seems a bit above that. EMUs near steal of the road game with Indiana was clearly their best game- which might have just been a fluke typical of the first game of the season or might be some reasoning behind it. Curious to how EMU performs against San Diego.
Indiana ( 30 )
Illinois St ( 246 )
Northern Kentucky ( 205 )
Michigan State ( 18 )
Western Illinois ( 194 )
DePaul ( 77 )
San Diego ( 153 )
North wood (NA)
Niagara ( 223 )
Florida International ( 203 )
Valparaiso ( 220 )
EMU did outscore Indiana (ranked 30th), 42-31, in the second half. As Noah was on fire shooting three’s (EMU 4-7 on three’s in second-half) and Indiana couldn’t make an open three (Indiana 0-9 on three’s in the second-half).
I believe, even though the games were close scoring-wise, EMU was clearly better than ISU (246), NKY (ranked 204) and WIU (ranked 194).
Without Noah, EMU may well be playing with one arm tied behind it’s back. We’ll know more when Noah returns. EMU’s with Scott and Noah. Form one of the MAC’s strongest backcourts. Hopefully, In up-coming games, we’ll find-out if Luca can be a solid contributor. EMU needs him to be.
Hopefully, Ballard and Yusef can help improve EMU’s front-court which is in need of an upgrade.
Equally important, EMU’s offensive and defensive schemes need to be modified to take advantage of the strengths of EMU’s players.
Hard to say how good EMU can be as lots of balls ste still up in the air.