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Time for the guys to become road warriors as 5 of the next 7 are on the road (with home games against Bradley and Illinois State).
Need to get it off to a good start at Evansville, whom we hold a 7-game win streak over. Let's keep these streaks going.
Evansville is a bit of a surprise team this year, currently sitting 11-4 and one game back of the Panthers in Valley play at 3-2. That record is a little deceiving though, as they are 10-0 at Roberts. That does include a blow-out win over a decent Western Kentucky team, but they also have 2 non D-I wins and just beat Missouri State by 5 in overtime. Their only road win was at Indiana State, but this game is at Roberts.
They are led by a trio of senior starters. Shy Ely leads the conference in scoring at 17.5 (18 in conf.) and will be a tough match-up for our guards at 6-4. I would guess we would see a rotation on him with Kwadzo, Brown and Dunham, mainly. Jason Holsinger (13 ppg, 34% 3) is the shooting guard and the primary 3-pt threat. Nate Garner (10 ppg, 6.5 reb) is an under-sized 4 but plays bigger. A rotation of Adam Koch and the bruise brothers will have to keep him off the boards. Kaylon Williams and Kavon Lacey rotate at the point and have solid A/TO ratios but are not much of a threat to shoot from outside. The interior is manned by a three-man rotation of Peter von Tongeren (a 6-11 So), James Haarsma (a 6-7 Fr) and Clint Hopf (a 6-8 So). von Tongeren and Hopf are only averaging 12 minutes combined during conference games, so it looks like they would prefer to play smaller. They have a 6-4 Fr G (Denver Holmes) who is avg about 10 mpg in conference games and a 7-ft Fr (Zach House) who has played in 4 conference games but only 8 all season.
The guys need to come out focused and ready for a physical fight on the road. If they continue to play with the energy and effort they have recently shown, continue to execute the offense and play the solid team defense, and rebound the ball (particularly on the defensive side-too many second chances for MSU), I think we can extend both our winning streak this year to 5 games and over Evansville to 8. One game at a time, keep it rolling.
Go Panthers!
Need to get it off to a good start at Evansville, whom we hold a 7-game win streak over. Let's keep these streaks going.
Evansville is a bit of a surprise team this year, currently sitting 11-4 and one game back of the Panthers in Valley play at 3-2. That record is a little deceiving though, as they are 10-0 at Roberts. That does include a blow-out win over a decent Western Kentucky team, but they also have 2 non D-I wins and just beat Missouri State by 5 in overtime. Their only road win was at Indiana State, but this game is at Roberts.
They are led by a trio of senior starters. Shy Ely leads the conference in scoring at 17.5 (18 in conf.) and will be a tough match-up for our guards at 6-4. I would guess we would see a rotation on him with Kwadzo, Brown and Dunham, mainly. Jason Holsinger (13 ppg, 34% 3) is the shooting guard and the primary 3-pt threat. Nate Garner (10 ppg, 6.5 reb) is an under-sized 4 but plays bigger. A rotation of Adam Koch and the bruise brothers will have to keep him off the boards. Kaylon Williams and Kavon Lacey rotate at the point and have solid A/TO ratios but are not much of a threat to shoot from outside. The interior is manned by a three-man rotation of Peter von Tongeren (a 6-11 So), James Haarsma (a 6-7 Fr) and Clint Hopf (a 6-8 So). von Tongeren and Hopf are only averaging 12 minutes combined during conference games, so it looks like they would prefer to play smaller. They have a 6-4 Fr G (Denver Holmes) who is avg about 10 mpg in conference games and a 7-ft Fr (Zach House) who has played in 4 conference games but only 8 all season.
The guys need to come out focused and ready for a physical fight on the road. If they continue to play with the energy and effort they have recently shown, continue to execute the offense and play the solid team defense, and rebound the ball (particularly on the defensive side-too many second chances for MSU), I think we can extend both our winning streak this year to 5 games and over Evansville to 8. One game at a time, keep it rolling.
Go Panthers!
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