Fire Up Chips!

Yeah, I know, it sounds silly to me too.

The Falcons make the trip up to Mt. Pleasant for the first of two very winnable road games, in this case, against the CMU Chippewas, who are struggling this season. At 6-14, the Chips are among the 60 lowest ranked teams in D1 hoops, and among those six wins are victories over NIU, Princeton, and Alcorn State, each among the worst teams in the country. They also lost to Toledo and EMU, a pretty exclusive club this year.

They have four home losses. They did, for what it is worth, play Buffalo really though in their last game, and there is some reason to think their play is trending up at least a little.

On the stat sheet, CMU scores worse than Bowling and allows almost 70 points a game, which in today's MAC is tantamount to being the Denver Nuggets of the 1990's. They shoot free throws poorly, don't rebound very well and have a high turnover percentage. On the plus sides, they do force a few turnovers here and there, so if they can pressure our guards, they could keep themselves in the game.

They have very balanced scoring with five players in double figures, which could also present a challenge for the Falcons. Chris Kellerman, their best scorer, is injured and out for the year.

This is another one of those games. On paper, the Falcons should win. Unfortunately, it is not on paper, but on the floor at the Rose Center. The Falcons can make it five straight with this victory, and every time they win one like this, they further establish themselves as a team that can beat the teams it should be, at home or on the road.