Murray State

"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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10-11 points a game this year was what I was expecting from JS and not really more.
Offense is not necessarily his strong suit but rebounding and shot blocking are.
If he can average double digits in scoring we can be very good. However, I would not be counting on him for too many 20 point games.
 
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.
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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'.[/quote

Why don't we box and one him and see if that slows him up With our with our length and quickness we should still be able to stabilize the zone If it isn;t working a 1 3 1 with obekpa underneath switching to man to man in between
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What worries me is that we were outrebounded a bit speading out to use our quickness and take opponents off
dribble keeps us away from the rim
 
The spread for this game has not come out as of yet but I imagine we will be underdogs. Yesterday we were underdogs against Charleston (between 2 1/2 and 5 points depending on where) and I believe Murray State is a much stronger team. In fact the remaining teams in this tourney Murray plus Colorado and Baylor all made it to the round of 32 in last year's NCAA tournament (Baylor went all the way to the elite eight). A win against any of them would be a feather in this young group's cap. That being said I believe we are capable of pulling an upset and winning against any of these three if we play at our best. I like what I see here and think there is a big upside to this team if we continue to grow, remain healthy and add back some of our ineligible players.
 
Harrison and Greene have been playing way too many minutes. Greene went all the way against Detroit and Harrison against CoC. Fatigue worries me in a big way.

Jakarr also looked extremely winded against CoC.

Dom is going to need 3-4 steals and hounding defense to keep us in this. Our interior defense has been good every game but our perimeter defense has been porous. Not a good sign going into this game.

My hope is that we get their front court into foul trouble which will extend our defensive pressure to their guards.

I don't have my hopes up for this one. I hope they surprise me.
 
D'Lo can't force shots the next two games or we probably lose. We have to play more efficiently on offense to take on these better teams. Defense and hustle are there. Transition game looks solid when we are able to push the ball.. Just got to play smarter on offense and hopefully that will be enough.
 
somethin tells me win. Harrison really hasnt even got hot yet.
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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.
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I'm really starting to trust Amir's decision making. Never figured baseball player to progress this quickly. Team leader is the only guy who pouts. When he cuts it out we'll have a bunch of kids who dig in on every play. Nice having Sampson get those 10 boards. When he starts working around the rim, guys will have a bunch of open looks if he sees the help coming. We might have enough without the jucs, but would still love to see them part of this team. Is there still hope?
 
What worries me is that we were outrebounded a bit speading out to use our quickness and take opponents off
dribble keeps us away from the rim
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That's what happened last year also. The upside to the pressure 3-2 we play is Amir or Dom up top create problems for their ballhandlers and we have more size and depth at the back this year. The problem is once they get to the corners or penetrate and our guys rotate that leaves men open to shoot and our guys sometimes out of position to rebound. But that's the kind of D Lavin wants to run most of the time because it forces tempo and we are much much better when we are in transition rather than the half court, at least until marco gets eligible.
 
I like our match up zone with Pointer at the top against a small guards like Canaan and Wilson. But this will be a tough game for us. If we win we eke out a close one at the end.
 
Nervous for tonight. We are gonna have to get out on their shooters, use our wingspan to create some havoc. Hopefully just dominate inside.. I think this game goes either way. Would be a HUGE win.
 
What worries me is that we were outrebounded a bit speading out to use our quickness and take opponents off
dribble keeps us away from the rim
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That's what happened last year also. The upside to the pressure 3-2 we play is Amir or Dom up top create problems for their ballhandlers and we have more size and depth at the back this year. The problem is once they get to the corners or penetrate and our guys rotate that leaves men open to shoot and our guys sometimes out of position to rebound. But that's the kind of D Lavin wants to run most of the time because it forces tempo and we are much much better when we are in transition rather than the half court, at least until marco gets eligible.
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Helpful in our 1-2-2 is Obekpa and Jakarr down low. Both can rotate, have length and can recover relatively quickly. We got beat in the gaps a few times, but I think we have to be creative to win these early games against experienced opponents. We are also playing zone because of the onslaught of games this week as well as the fact that we are still a few players short in our rotation.
 
What worries me is that we were outrebounded a bit speading out to use our quickness and take opponents off
dribble keeps us away from the rim
Click to expand...

That's what happened last year also. The upside to the pressure 3-2 we play is Amir or Dom up top create problems for their ballhandlers and we have more size and depth at the back this year. The problem is once they get to the corners or penetrate and our guys rotate that leaves men open to shoot and our guys sometimes out of position to rebound. But that's the kind of D Lavin wants to run most of the time because it forces tempo and we are much much better when we are in transition rather than the half court, at least until marco gets eligible.
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Helpful in our 1-2-2 is Obekpa and Jakarr down low. Both can rotate, have length and can recover relatively quickly. We got beat in the gaps a few times, but I think we have to be creative to win these early games against experienced opponents. We are also playing zone because of the onslaught of games this week as well as the fact that we are still a few players short in our rotation.
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It will be the third and fourth rotations that will be key. Canaan is a stud and and NBA player. He's going to hit threes and use pump-fakes to get in the lane on reckless closeouts.

I wonder if Lavin will also throw in a 2-3 at some point this season. Obekpa played that zone almost exclusively at OSNA, and that keeps him in the middle.

This is a game our guards have to put up or shut up. Are they elite? Time to make the case.
 
If i'm reading bracket correct if we win today we play Sunday 830 on espn2 and if we lose we play the 3rd place game 6 pm Sunday on espnu? Can someone please confirm that ??????? Thanks
 
Good stuff. Big boost to the weakest part of this team - in the halfcourt. Not going to able to help off of him. Should make life for DLo a little easier


Kieran Lynch ‏@Kieran_Lynch
According to @steveinman, Bourgault has been cleared by the NCAA. Reportedly raised his hand in class, said he was cleared and left. #stjbb

Torch Sports ‏@TorchSports
Marco Bourgault has been cleared to play by the NCAA, according to sources. #stjbb
 
Harrison and Greene have been playing way too many minutes. Greene went all the way against Detroit and Harrison against CoC. Fatigue worries me in a big way.

Jakarr also looked extremely winded against CoC.

Dom is going to need 3-4 steals and hounding defense to keep us in this. Our interior defense has been good every game but our perimeter defense has been porous. Not a good sign going into this game.

My hope is that we get their front court into foul trouble which will extend our defensive pressure to their guards.

I don't have my hopes up for this one. I hope they surprise me.
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I was thinking the same thing. Now that Marco is cleared he could play some 2 and give those 2 a breather. Re: the foward positions , we have 5 players for 3 positions, that should be enough, so the Fs can get breathers.
 
manbearpig asks

does anyone know of bars in the city that will show the game on espn3?
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i know i'm new here, but does anyone know?
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honestly I dont think any place will show it on TV's...It doesn't make sense for them. They would need to plug a laptop or an xbox 360 into one of their TV's...Just don't see anyone going through that trouble for what to a bar or restaurant is a meaningless game...
 
If i'm reading bracket correct if we win today we play Sunday 830 on espn2 and if we lose we play the 3rd place game 6 pm Sunday on espnu? Can someone please confirm that ??????? Thanks
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I ask a Q and nobody can answer me other than myself? You guys really suck sometimes
 
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