The Falcons travel to Ypsi on Saturday for a game against the surprise team of the MAC, the EMU Eagles. Now, how much of a surprise they are will be revealed from their trip through the East. They have already met last year's win total. In fact, last year, they were 9-22 with an RPI of 328, and plain dreadful on top of it. Note, too, that their best player Brandon Bowery, had graduated off an already weak team. They fired their coach, and brought in Syracuse Assistant Rob Murphy, and he has shown some success right out of the gate.
Now, to put that "success" in context, their out of conference wins were really soft. They had only 5 wins, 4 D1 wins, and their best win was over UALR (#191) in Ypsi. Three of their wins were over teams with RPI over #256 and they lost @Colgate (298) and @Texas Southern (#241).
I think people were thinking it was more of the same when they opened MAC play beating NIU and then losing to CMU at home. The Eagles then went on a 3-game winning streak, winning @Ball State, and beating WMU and UT (both in Ypsi). Their first cross-over game was @Buffalo and they lost by 18.
Based on this, I'd say they are not as good as their record. They are 5-2 at home, however, and have one more quality road win in the MAC than BG does...this is the kind of game you need if you are trying to break out of the .500 track...and BG has 1 road win and 2 home losses, so a win just gets us to even.
EMU has been making its bones on defense--incredible rock solid defense. They play the slowest paced game in the MAC at 59.7 possessions per game (all numbers here are conference only). They lead the MAC in allowing only .87 points per possession, which is #10 in all of D1.
We have seen in the past there are are a couple ways of doing that--creating turnovers or defending the shot--and they are clearly the latter. They allow a straight FG% of 38.6 and an effective field goal% of 42.6%, both of which lead the MAC and are 9th and 17th in the NCAA respectively. They are still strong, though in the middle of the MAC, in allowing free throws, preventing offensive rebounds and forcing turnovers.
As an aside, and I don't know the answer to this, but if they are playing a 2-3 with the residue of last year's team and getting these kinds of results and BG has been playing and recruiting for it for five years...
Anyway. They're playing great defense but they are only 9-11/4-2, so you have to expect that their are not scoring the ball great. They are last in the MAC in offensive efficiency, effective field goal %, and 10th in offensive rebounding. They are 11th in turning the ball over, and only rise to the middle of the pack in their ability to get to the free throw line, in which they are 7th.
Now, it is worth nothing that this is the 2nd most experienced team in the MAC, behind only Kent State, so Murphy is partly building on that. Darrell Lampley, a senior G, leads the team with 10 points per game in conference play. To get there, he is shooting 32% from the field.
Jamell Harris, a 6'9" Jr., is 7th in the MAC in rebounding at 6.8. They have another big man, 7'0" So Da'Shonte Riley who transferred from Syracuse. He actually received hardship status because he wanted to move closer to home to be near his grandparents (he is from Detroit). He is averaging 5.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game.
This will be an interesting game. You have a one-dimensional team in EMU, but they are at least strong in that one dimension. BG needs to string some strong games together, and this would be a time to start. It will be interesting to see what the Falcons show tomorrow.
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