Charlie Coles, the evil genius of the hardwood, makes his final visit to Anderson Arena today, a court he has competed on for decades, at two different schools, and including any number of diabolical plans for winning basketball games and seeking world domination. Part Rasputin, part Potemkin, part Rodney Dangerfield, the evil genius has undoubtedly been in his laboratory, cooking up the potions and antidotes that will protect his Redhawks in the MAC wars. The medium is the message. Keep the children at home. Don't look at him directly. You have been warned.
The Miami RedHawks make their final visit to Anderson Arena. It is possible that they have played in Anderson more than any other team over the years....it almost has to be between them and Ohio U. They will be led by Charlie Coles, the evil genius (see above) who is the official favorite opposing Coach of the Falcon Nation.
Coles has a formula. They play a ridiculous non-conference schedule--the 5th toughest in D1. They have played Duke, Kansas, San Diego State and Ohio State...along with UC, Xavier, Belmont. The idea is that you don't rack up a great record, but you are battle-tough for the MAC season.
It is playing to form. They are 7-9 but 2-0 in the MAC, with a 3OT win @OU. Their players attributed their toughness in the win at the Convo to the time spent at Cameron and the Phog, etc.
I understand there is a lot of debate in Oxford on Coach Coles. Here are the facts. Their last #1 was 6 seasons ago and their last title was 5 years ago. For consistency, though, they are tough to beat. They have earned a first-round bye in 7 of the last 8 seasons, and in the one they missed they were the 5 seed. They are often the team no one wants to play. Their victory over #1 seeded Falcons in 2000 ripped the heart from the Nation's chest, and stands with the fat punter in the great tragedies of our people.
Coach Coles himself expressed some doubt about this strategy in the newspaper recently. He said that while he likes the experience, he always worries that the team will get discouraged, as they seemed to be following the Kansas loss. He said he did some "soul searching." We'll see what happens.
The Miami style is to play a verrrry slow paced game, with a deliberate half court offense and stifling half court D designed to lower your FG%. This year's team is different, and like most teams in the East, they are good but not without flaws.
Although it is limiting, I'm focusing my preview on their 2 conference games alone. Given who they played, I suspect it will be difficult to translate those results into MAC games.
Their results are a little atypical for them. They are tied for 3rd in points per possession and 8th in points per possession allowed. Obviously, at 2-0, they have a net scoring advantage, but it is not normal for them to allow that much scoring. Last year, their EFG% allowed was 45% and this year it is 52%.
They are the best free throwing shooting team in the MAC, #1 on the offensive Boards and #4 on the defensive boards. They got 46% of the offensive boards against OU and 36% against Buffalo.
Now for some flaws. Their biggest flaw is a propensity to turn the ball over. They are last in the MAC with turnovers on 27% of their possessions, and this is 6% more than the second team. BG's defense has largely lived on forcing turnovers when we have been effective, and BG simply has to force this part of the game on Sunday. (Miami also is last in the MAC in allowing steals).
Beyond that, BG has to be able to score. Both OU and Buffalo had effective and efficient offenses against Miami, and BG will need the same. If BG can force enough turnovers to negate the Miami shooting and then get some shooting on its own, the Falcons can compete in this game. Also, BG has been good about not fouling, and the same needs to happen again. Oh, and hitting some free throws of our own would be nice.
They are led by 3 very good veteran plays who are big and play big. Julian Mavunga is a 6'8" Jr who is scoring 13 ppg and 6.7 rpg, both leading the team. He also leads the team in assists, which is something we will get to in a minute.
He is complimented by 2 seniors. Nick Winbush is 6'7", who is scoring 12 ppg and getting 5.7 rpg along with being the best 3FG shooter. Finally, Antonio Ballard is a 6.4" Sr, with 12 points a game and 6 rpg. In fact, it is pretty shocking, when you look at these three guys. In the boxscore, they are virtual replicas of each other.
BG likes to play inside-out, and these guys will make it a challenge. BG will need strong games from the bigs: Calhoun, Black and McElroy to combat this, along with strong inside play from Scott Thomas.
Guard would appear to be a less strong point for Miami. Of course, they lost Kenny Hayes, one of the better guards in the conference, and freshmen Quentin Rollins has gotten 14 starts, without a huge amount of success. If BG's guard can play well, as they have shown they can, the Falcons have a shot at the win.
The game is on our floor, where we have played well. Miami does present some opportunities for us in terms of giving the ball up. We will need to play our best all-round game, however, to beat this team and leave the evil genius with a bad final memory from AA.
Or we will see this.
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