SE Missouri State Redhawks (1-2) at Oregon Ducks (1-1)
2:00 PT, Matthew Knight Arena
Media: radio, Ozone
We look at directional state schools and figure that it probably means an easy win. That may not be the case for teh Redhawks of the Ohio Valley Conference. Yes, SE Missouri State comes in at 1-2, losing on the road to Missouri and Bradley, and beating a Division II team. But the Missouri loss was relatively close, despite the Redhawks not having their best player, and the Bradley loss was a buzzer beater, so the Redhawks come in confident that they can play with a bigger conference team.
The Redhawks are led by 6'7" forward Leon Powell, averaging 18.0 ppg in two games this season with a field goal percentage .938, or 15/16. Yes, small sample size (as well as around the basket game) as something to do with that, but this will be the first team Powell has faced that has legit bigs. Woods, Ashaolu, Jacob, and Emory will have their work cut out for them dealing with the big guy. The other key players for the Redhawks are forward Tyler Stone, going for 15.3 points and almost seven boards, and PG Marcus Brister, also going for 15.3 points as well as 5.3 assists.
KEYS TO THE GAME:
- CONTROL THE INTERIOR -- Two of their main weapons are posts, but they haven't faced a team with any real size yet. Our big guys need to patrol the paint and lock Powell and Stone down.
- CUT DOWN ON THE TURNOVERS -- Oregon is averaging 20.5 turnovers per game thus far. With a trip to Nebraska looming on Wednesday. Its time to cut this out, now.
- BOX OUT AND CORRAL THE REBOUND -- Its also time to clean up the issues with giving up offensive rebounds. These guys should be boxing out better than that.