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2019 Opponent Thread

fun game to watch.
Only caught the last 9 minutes or so.
Thought Rams were going to give it back in the last two minutes, but nice win for them and league, as urfan1 pointed out. The one announcer did make a good point about the committee looking at games like this at end of year.
 
Entertaining game on the CBS Sports Network. Charleston is tied with Oklahoma State at the half.
It's good to see our future coach.......er, opponent (sorry, Freudian slip)....in action.
 
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A10 Teams in Action:

1) VCU got the big win over a ranked LSU team. This was a big win for them and the stats I will post is not to disparage their win at all but simply show why maybe we can match-up well with them this year. VCU shot 32% from 3 and 41% overall. LSU shot 51% but VCU made their money at the line going 23-29. They were absolutely pounded on the glass though. They only had one fewer offensive rebound than LSU but that doesn't tell the story.

There were 33 rebounds available after LSU missed shots. VCU grabbed 18 and LSU grabbed 15. That means after each LSU missed shot there was a 45% chance LSU would end up with the ball again. This number decreased to 37%.

Again this was a HUGE win for VCU. These were just certain stats that it appears may be able to go slightly in our favor this season.

2) Saint Joseph's beat UCONN in a buy game. For UCONN that is the epitome of brutality. The Hawks let a 27 point lead dwindle down to just 3 with 5:32 left and it looked like they may not hold on. Ryan Daly had 30 in this one and stopping him will be the key to beating this team. He has been wildly inconsistent this season with 26, 8, and 30 points. He is averaging 32.4% from the field (5.5 for 17...yikes!)

3) Fordham beats Fairleigh Dickinson in a close one that never saw the lead by either team stretch to more than 7. The teams combined to go 5 for 34 from 3 with 22 assists and 33 turnovers. Ugly win by Fordham but they move to 2-0

4) George Mason beats Long Island. Mason is now 3-0 but they only beat Long Island by 6 (this is Long Island's first season as a D1 program). They never were able to stretch the lead past 8 and only won the rebounding battle by one. Just like Fordham though they got the job done and right now we just want as many A10 teams as possible to go +1 in the win column.

5) Saint Louis beats Eastern Washington in a rout to move to 3-0. The Billikens held their opponents to 30.2% from the field while winning the rebounding battle by 1 (but being outrebounded on offense 15-7). St. Louis had 23 assists on 31 made bucks. Keep in mind this was a 2-0 Eastern Washington team they played.

6) La Salle loses to Penn. This Penn team already knocked off Alabama but then was throttled by Rice. La Salle was destroyed on the boards in a way that would make Chris Mooney blush. They were -17 overall and had 3 offensive rebounds to 16 for Penn. The Explorers went 3-14 from 3 and in the entire game had 5 assists. That isn't a typo. They also had 16 turnovers. This team does not have a forgiving OOC schedule coming up.

Non-Conference Opponents

1) St. Francis (PA)
is able to get their first win of the season with a 6 point win over Morgan State. They outrebounded the Bears 45-27 but committed 21 turnovers (Morgan State only committed 10). They won this game by going 31-35 from the free throw line. This was a bad Morgan State team, so we will see how St. Francis fares in their upcoming games.

2) Wisconsin beats McNeese in a 2-for-1 as both of these teams are on our schedule! Wisconsin only led by 3 at the half but picked up the win by 20 (McNeese led by as many as 8 at one point though). Wisconsin only had 7 offensive rebounds and only won the rebounding battle by 4. The talent differential was clear though as the AST/TO ratio for McNeese was 13/18 while being 19/10 for Wisconsin.

3) Boston College beats High Point 59-33. Both teams had 41 rebounds but High Point committed 29 turnovers (to only 6 assists!!). BC went 3-25 from 3 and only shot 37% from the field (High Point shot 25%). I think if we had played this BC team today we would have beat them.

4) Charleston loses to Oklahoma State by 19. This was a home game for Charleston and a chance at a good win (OK State is now 3-0). Charleston shot 33% while OK State shot 52%. Charleston also went 18.5% from 3, was -5 in rebounding, and committed 5 more turnovers than assists (14 to 9). We can only hope they play this poorly against us.

5) Old Dominion beats Loyola (MD). Old Dominion was +2 in rebounding and committed 13 turnovers to 14 assists. Loyola had 21 turnovers to 12 assists. Old Dominion moves to 2-1 (one of their wins is against St. Joes by 13).

That wraps up today's games!
 
Long Island was the former LIU Brooklyn I believe. They merged their athletic program with LIU Post when both campuses merged.
 
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Long Island was the former LIU Brooklyn I believe. They merged their athletic program with LIU Post when both campuses merged.

Interesting I did not know that, thank you for the info! I was shocked when I saw them in D1 as I believed I knew every D1 program (obviously not from heart but if I heard the school would be able to place it) and was not familiar with them. This would definitely help with explaining that.
 
A10 Teams in Action:

1) VCU got the big win over a ranked LSU team. This was a big win for them and the stats I will post is not to disparage their win at all but simply show why maybe we can match-up well with them this year. VCU shot 32% from 3 and 41% overall. LSU shot 51% but VCU made their money at the line going 23-29. They were absolutely pounded on the glass though. They only had one fewer offensive rebound than LSU but that doesn't tell the story.

There were 33 rebounds available after LSU missed shots. VCU grabbed 18 and LSU grabbed 15. That means after each LSU missed shot there was a 45% chance LSU would end up with the ball again. This number decreased to 37%.

Again this was a HUGE win for VCU. These were just certain stats that it appears may be able to go slightly in our favor this season.

2) Saint Joseph's beat UCONN in a buy game. For UCONN that is the epitome of brutality. The Hawks let a 27 point lead dwindle down to just 3 with 5:32 left and it looked like they may not hold on. Ryan Daly had 30 in this one and stopping him will be the key to beating this team. He has been wildly inconsistent this season with 26, 8, and 30 points. He is averaging 32.4% from the field (5.5 for 17...yikes!)

3) Fordham beats Fairleigh Dickinson in a close one that never saw the lead by either team stretch to more than 7. The teams combined to go 5 for 34 from 3 with 22 assists and 33 turnovers. Ugly win by Fordham but they move to 2-0

4) George Mason beats Long Island. Mason is now 3-0 but they only beat Long Island by 6 (this is Long Island's first season as a D1 program). They never were able to stretch the lead past 8 and only won the rebounding battle by one. Just like Fordham though they got the job done and right now we just want as many A10 teams as possible to go +1 in the win column.

5) Saint Louis beats Eastern Washington in a rout to move to 3-0. The Billikens held their opponents to 30.2% from the field while winning the rebounding battle by 1 (but being outrebounded on offense 15-7). St. Louis had 23 assists on 31 made bucks. Keep in mind this was a 2-0 Eastern Washington team they played.

6) La Salle loses to Penn. This Penn team already knocked off Alabama but then was throttled by Rice. La Salle was destroyed on the boards in a way that would make Chris Mooney blush. They were -17 overall and had 3 offensive rebounds to 16 for Penn. The Explorers went 3-14 from 3 and in the entire game had 5 assists. That isn't a typo. They also had 16 turnovers. This team does not have a forgiving OOC schedule coming up.

Non-Conference Opponents

1) St. Francis (PA)
is able to get their first win of the season with a 6 point win over Morgan State. They outrebounded the Bears 45-27 but committed 21 turnovers (Morgan State only committed 10). They won this game by going 31-35 from the free throw line. This was a bad Morgan State team, so we will see how St. Francis fares in their upcoming games.

2) Wisconsin beats McNeese in a 2-for-1 as both of these teams are on our schedule! Wisconsin only led by 3 at the half but picked up the win by 20 (McNeese led by as many as 8 at one point though). Wisconsin only had 7 offensive rebounds and only won the rebounding battle by 4. The talent differential was clear though as the AST/TO ratio for McNeese was 13/18 while being 19/10 for Wisconsin.

3) Boston College beats High Point 59-33. Both teams had 41 rebounds but High Point committed 29 turnovers (to only 6 assists!!). BC went 3-25 from 3 and only shot 37% from the field (High Point shot 25%). I think if we had played this BC team today we would have beat them.

4) Charleston loses to Oklahoma State by 19. This was a home game for Charleston and a chance at a good win (OK State is now 3-0). Charleston shot 33% while OK State shot 52%. Charleston also went 18.5% from 3, was -5 in rebounding, and committed 5 more turnovers than assists (14 to 9). We can only hope they play this poorly against us.

5) Old Dominion beats Loyola (MD). Old Dominion was +2 in rebounding and committed 13 turnovers to 14 assists. Loyola had 21 turnovers to 12 assists. Old Dominion moves to 2-1 (one of their wins is against St. Joes by 13).

That wraps up today's games!
Great stuff, plydogg. Thanks.

Saint Louis is playing with a lot of confidence. They look like they may be another sleeper for the top of the A10. Winning the A10 tournament usually precedes a Top 2 finish the following year (except for St. Joe's). They play BC right before we do, so that will be another 2-for-1 preview.

I had written off LSU + 3 1/2 as a loss, so that final score was a nice surprise. Also, a very high score for VCU. Still a good win for the conference.

I'm assuming that Wisconsin-McNeese game was a Legends Classic sub-regional.
 
Yes the Wisconsin-McNeese game was one of the campus games of the Legends Classic.
 
CSUN @ Auburn tonight on SEC Network.
I noticed that Colgate is only playing 1 regional game, while McNeese is playing 3.
 
CSUN @ Auburn tonight on SEC Network.
I noticed that Colgate is only playing 1 regional game, while McNeese is playing 3.
Is it correct that CSUN & GB play 2 teams headed to Brooklyn and 2 that are not, while Colgate gets 1 Brooklyn team and 2 not.
McNeese plays 3 Brooklyn teams and 0 not?

Looks like Green Bay is holding their own 3 day event.
Colgate vs CSUN @GB
CSUN @GB
Colgate @GB
 
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Looks like Green Bay is holding their own 3 day event.
Colgate vs CSUN @GB
CSUN @GB
Colgate @GB
Yes, that is the sub-regional. Something must have prevented McNeese from attending that, so they got an extra Regional game. Now they, along with Colgate, get 3 games. The tournament is set up so that all participants get 4 games.
 
Yes, that is the sub-regional. Something must have prevented McNeese from attending that, so they got an extra Regional game. Now they, along with Colgate, get 3 games. The tournament is set up so that all participants get 4 games.
Too bad about McNeese. Otherwise They could have played Colgate, replaced Colgate against CSUN, and...
we could have gotten Colgate (the elusive NCAA team) instead of McNeese.
 
Too bad about McNeese. Otherwise They could have played Colgate, replaced Colgate against CSUN, and...
we could have gotten Colgate instead of NcNeese.
We had McNeese and CSUN from the start. Whatever happened didn't affect us.
 
We had McNeese and CSUN from the start. Whatever happened didn't affect us.

Although Jabba the Hardt was propping up the 3 potential NCAA opponents from Legends this summer in his newsletter. That only worked if we got Colgate. The chances are & always were immeasurably greater we got just 1 ncaa team out of this deal. But let's beat Wisco and hopefully meet in the middle!
 
Yes, that is the sub-regional. Something must have prevented McNeese from attending that, so they got an extra Regional game. Now they, along with Colgate, get 3 games. The tournament is set up so that all participants get 4 games.
Too bad about McNeese. Otherwise They could have played Colgate, replaced Colga
We had McNeese and CSUN from the start. Whatever happened didn't affect us.
I know. I just wanted them to switch with us instead of Wisconsin or New Mexico...
 
Auburn took out CSUN 116-70 tonight and pulled starters with half second half to go. Last I heard Auburn had 17 threes.
CSUN has their best player out for academic reasons and had one player get injured tonight (knee he could not put weight on). They do have one guy that lit it up from outside and scored 20 something.
 
I have been insanely busy the past few days but here is the opponent breakdown for the past two days. I will do it all in one post that covers Thursday and Friday games. There were not many of them:

A-10 Action:

1) Duquesne
vs. Lipscomb. Duquesne moved to 3-0 with a commanding 58-36 win. This is a 1-3 Lipscomb team who is yet to beat a D1 team and also lost to Middle Tennesse State (by 3) and Tennessee State (by 1). So this does show that Duquesne had a commanding win and not one that came down to the final possession. Duquesne actually show only 37% from the field and 4.5% from 3 (1 for 22) so the fact they were able to win this spoke to their defense as Lipscomb went 0-18 from 3. Nobody topped 13 points for the Dukes but they did have 3 players reach double digits. 12 assists to 13 turnovers and 12 offensive boards were notable state for Duquesne.

2) Rhode Island vs. Alabama. This is 2-for-1! Rhode Island absolutely throttled Bama with a 14 point win (93-79) and saw their lead stretch all the way to 22. Rhode Island shot 52% and had 5 players in double digits. Dowtin and Russell both had over 20 points and Langevine had 6 assists. Dowtin and Russell is an absolutely commanding backcourt and one that most teams in the country will struggle with. Bama meanwhile shot 47% but were done in by 22 turnovers (to 16 assists). Rhode Island had 4 offensive rebounds to Bama's 10 and Bama was +9 overall on the boards.

Non-Conference Teams:

1) Cal State Northridge
loses to Auburn 116-70. An absolute drubbing that included a 28 point lead at the half. Northridge is now 0-4 on the season and are next on our schedule. This is a game we should win pretty comfortably. Both teams had 11 offensive rebounds but Northridge was -19 in rebounding differential. They had 16 assists to 14 turnovers so this looks like it was more to do with a very good Auburn team than anything about how the Matadors played.

2) Hampton loses to William & Mary 78-65. Jermaine Marrow had 30 points and Ben Staley had 20. The rest of the Pirates combined for 15 points. While Marrow did have 30 points he went 11-29 from the field and 1-6 from 3, so he was highly inefficient. Hampton had 12 offensive boards but were -11 in rebounding differential. They had only 8 assists but only 8 turnovers. Marrow had 6 of the 8 assists so it appears that he is the focal point any key of the offense (he played all 40 minutes).

3) South Alabama loses to Chattanooga 90-72. South Alabama followed up their one point loss to Auburn with a blowout loss which does not look good for them. The Jaguars had 11 assists to 13 turnovers and 9 offensive rebounds while losing the rebounding differential by 6. Andre Fox led the way for them with 24 points while shooting 7-17.

4) Radford loses to Georgia Southern 76-73. Radford had some foul trouble in this one and actually had 12 players appear in this game. They grabbed 13 offensive boards and were +5 in rebounding differential. The Highlanders had 12 assists to 13 turnovers, with guard Carlik Jones being their best producer with 18 points, 7 assists, and 6 rebounds. He did however have 7 turnovers.

My Thoughts?

This went about as badly as it could have for our opponents. When including Alabama all 5 of our OOC opponents lost for a grant total of 0-5. At least the A10 teams were able to win but this just decreased the quality of all of these future opponents.

I know there are a lot of games today but that post will not come until later tonight when I have more time to dissect them all. For now though here we go!
 
Here is the breakdown of today's games (10/17)

A-10 Action:

1) George Washington
loses to Morgan State 68-64. GW moves to 1-3 and this win was Morgan State's first against a D1 team. GW has now only beaten Howard and Howard is 0-4 and has lost to a non-D1 team. This is a bad loss for GW, plain and simple. They allowed 17 offensive rebounds and were -16 overall in rebound differential. They had 10 assists to 12 turnovers. GW looks like the bottom dweller in the conference this year and we play them twice. These will be must win games and if we lose either it will truly be awful for team and fan morale.

2) UMass beats Centrall Connecticut 89-43. Don't look now but the Minutemen are 4-0. Yes their schedule has been fairly easy but credit to them for winning the games they are supposed to. Next up for them is a home matchup against Rider, so they could easily be 5-0 going into their neutral court matchup with UVA.

3) La Salle loses to Temple 70-65. This is a 3-0 Temple team and the Explorers fought hard to close in after a 14 point halftime deficit. Both teams had 15 offensive boards and the differential in total rebounds was only one. La Salle looks like a team that will be up and down this year and not a team I would want to play when they are hot and hitting their 3's. This loss moves La Salle to 1-2.

4) Saint Joseph's loses to Loyola Chicago 85-68. Most of the recognizable games from the Final Four team are gone but the Ramblers themselves have become a household name. St. Joe's led by 3 at the half but were outscored 43-23 in the second half as they absolutely fell apart. They shot poorly and committed 24 turnovers which really made it impossible for them to win. They move to 2-2 but do have a quality win over UConn. They still have Florida and Villanova on their OOC schedule.

5) Davidson beats UNC Wilmington 87-49. Davidson finally remembered how to play and took it out on the poor Seahawks to get their first win of the season. They were +15 in rebound differential and had 16 assists to 10 turnovers. Luka Brajkovic led the way with 21 points and it will be interesting to see if this Davidson team is truly going to underachieve or if they are just having a tough start. Kellen Grady has been a big disappointment this year with only 13PPG and 3 turnovers per game.

6) Dayton beats Charleston Southern 90-61. The Flyers never trailed in this one and had an easy win. They were also +15 in rebound differential and had 27 assists! They also only committed 10 fouls the entire game so everything that could have gone right went right. All 5 starters scored in double digits and Obi Toppin led the way with 21. Dayton is now 2-0 and should pickup another easy win before heading an interesting matchup with Georgia on the 25th.

7) Fordham beats Marist 58-41. Don't look now but Fordham is 3-0! No they haven't played anybody but outside of a matchup with Nevada every game on their OOC schedule is very winnable. I would not be surprised if they have 8-9 wins heading into conference play. The Rams were +16 in rebound differential and didn't shoot the ball particularly well. They had 13 assists to 14 turnovers but held Marist to 27% from the field.

8) George Mason beats James Madison 83-70. Don't look now but the Patriots are 4-0! I feel like I need a new saying here. Mason was +5 in rebound differential and shot 44% to just 33% for the Dukes. They had 14 assists while committing just 9 turnovers. The most amazing statline from this game was that Mason had 10 blocks! I would not be surprised to see this George Mason team be 5-0 heading into their matchup with Maryland next week.

9) St. Bonaventure beats Rutgers 80-74 in the upset of the night. The Bonnies were 0-3 on the season and gave Rutgers (3-0) their first loss of the season. Shooting 46% from 3 will definitely help you knock off a better team. Rutgers had 20 offensive rebounds but the Bonnies limited turnovers (11) while having 16 assists en route to this victory. Four starters scored in double digits and this one was a true shocked.

OOC Teams:

1) McNeese
loses to New Mexico 90-80. McNeese moves to 1-4 and I'm surprised they only lost by 10 (and never trailed by more than 10 the entire game) to this Lobos team that is now 4-0. McNeese is yet to beat a D1 team and their next game is against another D2 school before playing us.The Cowboys only had 6 offensive rebounds and were -11 in rebounding differential. They had 24 assists on 28 made buckets which was truly astonishing. The downside was that they committed 22 turnovers. Also their 3 starting guards combined for a total of 10 points.

2) Boston College loses to Belmont 100-85. BC only pulled down 3 offensive rebounds and were -14 in total rebounds. They had 18 assists to 12 turnovers but Belmont hit 15 3's and shot 58% from deep and the Eagles really just never had a chance in this one once Belmont went on a run. BC is now 3-1 and do have wins over Wake and USF already this season. They play Saint Louis the game before us which will be a good one to watch.

3) Old Dominion beats Northeastern 76-69. The Monarchs had 14 offensive rebounds and were +10 in rebounding differential. They only had 8 assists though but also only committed 12 turnovers. They shot poorly from deep (27%) while shooting over 50% overall from the field. They are now 3-1 and we will get to see them play George Mason and VCU before playing us.
 
It sure looks like the young talent in the A10 is making the league much stronger than the last two years.
 
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#322 UMass
#345 Fordham
#333 GM

OOC rankings so far. Good for them though winning those games. Hopefully Mooney's team does the same this season. ;)
 
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GW losing at home to Morgan State is A-10 expulsion-worthy. I don't care if they have a team of all freshmen (they don't), it wouldn't be an excuse. I think their new coach will be good there, but damn.
 
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McNeese State is up next, and they are probably worse than CSUN. Their only win is against an 0-7 NAIA team.

I wouldn't say that. They lost at Lafayette by 5, at W. Mich. by 10, at New Mex by 10, and at Wisky by 20. CSUN lost to New Mex by 27, and lost to Auburn by 46.
 
CSUN: Sagarin 295, KenPom 237, BPI 192, Massey 300
McNeese: Sagarin 290, KenPom 310, BPI 275, Massey 335

Yes, it's early so there's a lot of deviation in the rankings. But there's a reason McNeese scheduled 3 non-NCAA teams in their OOC. They stink.
We should destroy them.
 
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Wisconsin looking good. Only loss right now is 2 points to 18th ranked St. Mary's on opening night. Since then they have won 3 in a row - including a 16 point win over Marquette.
 
CSUN: Sagarin 295, KenPom 237, BPI 192, Massey 300
McNeese: Sagarin 290, KenPom 310, BPI 275, Massey 335

Yes, it's early so there's a lot of deviation in the rankings. But there's a reason McNeese scheduled 3 non-NCAA teams in their OOC. They stink.
We should destroy them.

I was just going by the actual games played so far. Mcneese was only down by three at halftime to Wisky, and hung in there all game with New Mex. ( It was a tie game with just over two minutes left).
 
CSUN: Sagarin 295, KenPom 237, BPI 192, Massey 300
McNeese: Sagarin 290, KenPom 310, BPI 275, Massey 335

Yes, it's early so there's a lot of deviation in the rankings. But there's a reason McNeese scheduled 3 non-NCAA teams in their OOC. They stink.
We should destroy them.
McNeese and CSUN are both bottom dwelling Quad 4 teams. Best class ever should not allow either within striking distance on our home court. We didn't with CSUN, would expect the same with McNeese St.
 
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McNeese and CSUN are both bottom dwelling Quad 4 teams. Best class ever should not allow either within striking distance on our home court. We didn't with CSUN, would expect the same with McNeese St.
I agree that we shouldn't. However Wisconsin led McNeese 35-34 at the half before a 36-18 3rd quarter.
They made adjustments, I think a fast start is our better option.

So I'll be looking for that wonderfully accurate distributive property in basketball...
 
I also see McNeese was down 41-39 to New Mexico at the half and the New Mexico largest lead was the 10 point final.

Random thought of the day - Noticed Aleem Ford in the Wisconsin Box Score...
 
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