Murray State

Going to be tough. SJU 70-68

Agree. I also noticed Canaan and Stacy Wilson were the only two players who scored in double figures (two others had 8 a piece). Contain Canaan, and we'll be victorious.

I also read on one of the Auburn boards that Murray State played quite a bit of man. That would play into our hands, if they choose to go that route tomorrow. I also read that Auburn played a "very soft" zone defense. I seriously doubt they'll face a soft zone tomorrow.

Regardless, it'll be a tough outing, but we should come out on top in a close one.
 
I think as long as we have our legs under us tomorrow we'll be fine... I just worry about getting tired..third game in 4 days is tough...a big part of our game is the energy
 
Wow, you guys thought Charleston was a tough match for us and now some of you are saying we'll be fine for Murray? Hope you are right, but I think we lose to Murray rather convincingly. They can just flat out shoot and our offense cannot keep up with them. If we win this game though, we have already built a nice little resume beating 2 of the top mid majors in the nation and 1 scrappy Charleston team. If we somehow beat Murray and then beat Baylor, we might even enter the top 25 or at the very least the national media will have to talk about us.
 
I think as long as we have our legs under us tomorrow we'll be fine... I just worry about getting tired..third game in 4 days is tough...a big part of our game is the energy

Could be a problem, but I think we'll be fine. I expect D'Lo to find his rhythm from 3 at some point here, so why not tomorrow? If he's on from outside, it opens up the interior where I think our size and quickness will dominate them. A close one, but 74-69 SJU sounds right to me.
 
Tough, tough game. Canaan is better than Harrison and McCollum. Murray State will do some damage from deep. A win here will be huge.
 
Agreed Marillac. If we beat them, we will certainly receive votes in the top 25. If we beat Baylor too, we enter the top 25. Murray State is an amazing team in terms of scoring. They will score a ton on us...inside or outside. The question is, how much of a factor can Obekpa and Sampson be on the defensive end, and can we keep up with their scoring with D'Lo, Garrett, and Greene? If we hold Canaan under 20, our chances vastly improve. This would be an amazing win to have especially if we are on the bubble come NCAA tourney time.
 
Im worried about this one because we gave Charelston some open threes tonight and they just didnt capitilize. But Canaan and his team will so we need to tighten up on the three point line. If we do that we should over power them down low and take advantage if they play man
 
I probably don't know tactics of bball as well as you guys. I presume we play a lot of man-on-man tomorrow and sick Garrett and Pointer on their two outside shooters? I presume their all-american guy would just decimate a zone defense - is that not the right way to game plan it; lots of man to man D?

Thanks in advance.
 
Agreed Marillac. If we beat them, we will certainly receive votes in the top 25. If we beat Baylor too, we enter the top 25. Murray State is an amazing team in terms of scoring. They will score a ton on us...inside or outside. The question is, how much of a factor can Obekpa and Sampson be on the defensive end, and can we keep up with their scoring with D'Lo, Garrett, and Greene? If we hold Canaan under 20, our chances vastly improve. This would be an amazing win to have especially if we are on the bubble come NCAA tourney time.

We have the advantage inside, without a doubt. The only guys scoring for them are their guards as none of their forwards hit double figures against an awful Auburn team. Our forwards overmatch theirs. The key is to limit Canaan a bit as well as Wilson and make them go to their forwards or to make their guards take bad shots. Lavin said his goal was to make opposing teams pass up shots from the outside in favor of driving to the hoop where we have guys like Jones, Jakarr, Obekpa guarding the rim. This is certainly the toughest game we have faced thus far, but we have advantages too, namely our frontcourt and overall athleticism. Winning would be huge for us and create a very nice early season resume'.
 
I'll add that very few teams win on threes alone. If we control the glass and control tempo, we're likely to win regardless.
 
Tough tough game. It's our third game in 4 days, and we're playing a team that can put up points quickly.
I don't see this one going our way. Hope I'm wrong. They start 4 seniors and a junior. Too much experience, and our guys just don't have the confidence in the half court offense to make quick decisions yet.

But a game I'm really looking forward to. Let's see what our guys have.
 
somethin tells me win. Harrison really hasnt even got hot yet.
 
somethin tells me win. Harrison really hasnt even got hot yet.

Even more than just Harrison, Phil Greene has been playing great ball overall. Having both in the backcourt playing well and we can do damage.
 
I actually think this will be the second worst beating we take all season. I will be very, very impressed with our guys if they win.
 
Yes, as much as it hurts me to say, I wouldn't be surprised if we lost by 15 or 20. Their FG% is ridiculous and they seem to shoot lights out from 3 routinely. To our credit though, they've played only cupcakes so far while we played 1 very good team and 1 scrappy team. Hopefully Murray takes us lightly and thinks they can just sit back and things will go their way like vs. Auburn. If we had Branch, Marco, and Sanchez vs. Murray I'd say we should win. The only way we beat Murray is if Sampson finally gives us a spark on offense and if we can stop Canaan (less than 20 pts). He can't be this bad offensively...he will have his 20 pt games. This is going to be one of those games where we can look up and it's 20-7 right away. Can we keep up with their offense, or do we get steamrolled? We shall see.
 
Also, I wonder if Canaan's height becomes a problem against a major team like us with some height. Canaan is only 6'1 and Obekpa is 6'9, Jakarr is 6'8, etc. They need to use their big height advantage against him.
 
Well D`Lo did say 2 years then he`s going to the NBA, no? Well if you`re nba caliber then go out tomorrow and match Canaan. If he can match him then we`ll be looking good to win tonights game
I like our chances with St. John`s minus Harrison vs Murray St. minus Canaan.
 
"The Darkhorse: St. John's

The Johnnies have a tough opener against Charleston, but if they're able to get past the Cougars, they have the right blend of talent and size to give a team like Murray State fits. D'Angelo Harrison lit it up from the outside in the Red Storm's win over Detroit, while freshman Chris Obekpa set a school record for blocks in his first college game."

SB nation labeled us as the darkhorse...kinda cool. How sweet would it feel to take down Murray St, Baylor, and Detroit all early in the season? It would certainly get the Big East and the nation talking and to see us ranked as a top 25 team would really raise eyebrows. This team becomes scary if Sampson starts to average 10 PPG, Harrison gets hot from 3, Obekpa batting away shots, and Branch/Marco/Sanchez join us and turn out to be the real deal. That's not even including Garrett and Greene! I really feel like Murray St will shoot us out of the gym tomorrow, but I hope we find a way to win.
 
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