Welcome to the showdown between two of the hottest teams in the Belt! Each team has won four of their last five, both taking a loss to Georgia Southern. This ought to be a good one (I hope).
The Panthers probably will start 6-10, 6-6, 6-6 across the front line. As always, they do a lot of things very well. Most of their scoring is done by Ryan Harrow (20.4 ppg) and R. J. Hunter (19.9 ppg). However, Markus Crider is close with 9.4 ppg. The Panthers shoot very well and defend very well. Their overall shooting percentage differential is is 10.9 percentage points. Any team will win a lot of games shooting that much better than the other folks. They shoot FTs very well, although that is mainly because Hunter and Harrow take most of the shots. In contrast to previous years, they are less than -1 in rebounding.
But the biggest number on the Panthers' stat sheet is the fact that their opponents turn the ball over a lot and they do not. They have almost twice as many steals as the opposition. So if we get sloppy, it could be a LONG night.
As usual in recent years, they do not have much experienced depth. Their rotation is essentially eight men deep, dropping from 15.6 minutes/game with Curtis Washington to 8.9 with Jalen Brown, the 8th man. Obviously, they are not the same team with Harrow or Hunter out of the game, but those two have fouled out only once between them this year, and neither of them averages as much as 3 fouls per game.
Sagarin has the Panthers by 8. RealtimeRPI has them by 3.
This is a big game for both teams, but for different reasons. GSU is trying to lock in post-season, and Little Rock is trying to make sure we make the Belt tournament. Both teams want to maintain their momentum. It sounds funny to say that this could be the biggest game of the year in a season when we swept Arkansas State, but if we were to win it, it would be just that.
I wish we could get the fan base excited, but the only team in Georgia that our myopic sports fans know anything about is that one that plays Fayetteville.
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