Saturday, February 18, 2012

Game Preview: Evansville


Tonight the Leathernecks have traveled to take on the Purple Aces of the University of Evansville as part of the SEARS Bracket Buster series.  For those who do not know, Bracket Busters basically matches up mid-major teams with similar RPI's and has them play each other at this point in the season.  It's a really cool thing and gets a lot of national coverage.  This year our whole conference is participating and Oral Roberts was actually on ESPN2 earlier today. 

WIU comes in to the game with a 14-11 record and are 8-8 in the Summit League.  Evansville is 13-13 and they are 8-8 in their conference (they play in the Missouri Valley Conference).  Both teams are fighting for position in their respective conferences and trying to improve their seeding.  WIU sits at 5th in the Summit and Evansville is currently tied for 4th with three other teams in the MVC.

Western is fresh off a big win against UMKC on Wednesday 47-42, a game that they had to fight in but were able to do enough down the stretch to get the W and clinch a spot in the Summit League Tournament.  Another win in the conference play, or a loss by IUPUI will guarantee them at least a six seed.  Evansville is coming off thrilling win against Northern Iowa 63-62, and not too long ago they beat Creighton (currently 2nd in the MVC) 65-57.  So these teams have pretty similar resumes.

I won't bother going through some of the current Summit League rankings because this is a non-conference game, but I will look at the national rankings.  WIU has the 25th best defense in the nation and are letting up just 59 points per games.  They are also 25 in three point percentage and are making 38% of their three's.  They are continuing to take GREAT care of the ball and are only turning it over 10 times a game, good enough to put them at 16th in the nation.  They're turnover margin and personal fouls per game also are pretty good.  They rank 34th and 19th in those two categories.  However, free throws continue to be a problem.  In the last four games, they are shooting just 56% at the free throw line.  That is nothing short of awful.  That NEEDS to improve.

As for individuals, Ceola Clark had continued his big year and is now 4th in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio.  That is a very impressive feat.  He is also 5th in three point shooting this year and is making 47% of his three's.  Terell Parks is 54th in rebounding at 8.8 per game.  Unfortunately, he is still just short of being eligible to be ranked nationally in field goal percentage, or he would be in the top ten.

For Evansville, they also take pretty good care of the ball and are ahead of us at 9th in the nation.  Unlike Western, they have not had struggles at the free throw line and are one of the best teams of the nation at the line.  They are currently making 76% of their free throws which puts them at 10th in the nation.  They also score 72 points per game, good enough for 73rd in the nation.

They're best player is a man by the name Colt Ryan.  He is the 15th leading scorer in the nation at just over 20 points per game and is a very good free throw shooter.  He makes 86% of his free throws, which puts him at 30th in the nation.  They have two other guys who score in double figures, those guys are Kenneth Harris and Denver Holmes who both average 11 points per game. 

The big key in this game for WIU is to get back in a groove at the free throw line.  They have really been struggling there and it has cost them some games in the past couple weeks.  They also need to put the lock down on Colt Ryan.  I would expect Ceola, who did a PHENOMENAL job on Reggie Chamberlain against UMKC, to get the match up on him.  Evansville will likely have a good crowd so another key is going to be taking them out of the game early.  Tip-off in Evansville is set for 7:05pm...GO LEATHERNECKS!!!

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