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Old 01-05-2022, 10:47 AM   #1
Queens_NYC
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SMU

Thursday, January 6th, 2022
9:30 PM
Fifth Third Arena
ESPN2

The Mustangs (11-3, 2-0, NET #66, KenPom #62) come to town for a nationally televised broadcast on the backs of an 8-game winning streak.

They are led by 4th-year PG and early AAC POY candidate, Kendric Davis, who is averaging 21.5 ppg, 5 rpg, and 5.5 apg on an impressive 49/39/89 shooting line.

SMU ranks 35th in KenPom's AdjO rankings and haven't had many weaknesses exploited in their team, although KenPom only ranks their current SOS as the 261st toughest in the country (ours is #280 for comparison).

Despite our recent struggles, we have beaten SMU 8 consecutive times and have never lost to the Mustangs at home.
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Old 01-05-2022, 04:31 PM   #2
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An interesting battle in this one will be if we can force SMU to take midrange shots. Less than 19% of their attempts come from midrange, but we force our opponents to take more than 35%.

They are pretty balanced overall. A couple areas of weakness are having a lot of shots blocked because they attack the rim so much and relatively poor defensive rebounding. They also don't force a lot of turnovers, so we should be patient on offense and work for a high percentage shot (LOL).

As always with this team I just want to see some evidence that we are capable of running an offense. Right now our starting backcourt trio each have effective field goal percentages under 43%. That's awful. It's like we're running three Trevor Moores out there.
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Old 01-06-2022, 09:16 AM   #3
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We're 2-point favorites.

That's surprising given recent results, but hopefully a sign that we're not too far from turning things around.
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Old 01-06-2022, 12:31 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Queens_NYC View Post
We're 2-point favorites.

That's surprising given recent results, but hopefully a sign that we're not too far from turning things around.
That is very surprising. Our trend is down and theirs is way up. Their last 6 games have been pretty good. I would rank them in the top 40 or so over their last 6. And I would rank us around 125-150.

This is a game an SMU fans should put some money on. I don't bet against the Bearcats. Those spreads are factoring in our first 5 games which we haven't looked like since then. Meanwhile SMU struggled early and now looks to be humming along.

All I can say is we better make some shots. SMU should be favored by around 5 or so IMO.
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Old 01-06-2022, 08:35 PM   #5
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If I were betting, I'd definitely take SMU straight up. Maybe we turn it around tonight, but I'm not expecting it.
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Old 01-06-2022, 08:47 PM   #6
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We are looking good so far, running the make shots offense and playing pretty tight defense.
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Old 01-06-2022, 11:59 PM   #7
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Right now our starting backcourt trio each have effective field goal percentages under 43%. That's awful.
Tonight the starting backcourt had an effective field goal percentage of 66%, including 50% from three. We had 20 assists and 10 turnovers. More of that please. We only had 6 attempts at the rim for the entire game though, which is not a great recipe for long term success. When we're hitting jump shots the offense looks great, but when the shots aren't falling we lose to Tulane.

We didn't force a lot of midrange attempts, but we did defend the rim extremely well, holding them to 40%.
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Old 01-07-2022, 08:05 AM   #8
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Our NET ranking rises to 58 from 75 after last night's win.

SMU (#74) becomes our first Q2 win of the season and only our third non-Q4 win along with Illinois (Q1) and Miami (Q3).
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Old 01-07-2022, 08:54 AM   #9
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I like the look with Newman in the middle of the zone. It puts him in an area that he doesn't seem to be able to get to off the bounce. Also he's not that good of a 3 ball shooter.

Vik is sure struggling with getting the ball stripped or getting jump balls called. It's only going to get worse as other teams see the film. Just double him. Vik needs to pass the ball or move before the double.

Newman has a decent fade away and he's a pretty decent passer. Height is not optimal but right now it might be the best option. We need JD on the wing for shots. I hope he is the key for us to fix the zone problem.
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Old 01-06-2022, 09:20 PM   #10
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SMU seems to be running illegal screens.
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