Titan Preview--No More Ray Jr
OK, kids, men's basketballl again. The final home game of 2013 comes your way...the Detroit Titans, a common BG opponent will be coming to town.
Things are a little different for UDM. First of all, their star player (Ray McCallum, Jr) is now a Portland Trailblazer. Their #3 and #4 scorers also graduated, which left Jason Calliste, the #2 scorer to carry the load, except he decided very late to transfer to Oregon (where he is scoring in double figures), leaving the Titans really short-handed.
They were picked to finish 2nd-last in the Horizon.
For all that, they are 5-7 this year, 4-7 against D1 competition. They are 0-3 in the MAC, losing at home to UT after having a huge lead, then losing @Savage and @the JAR, both in double figures. They also have losses to UConn and NC State. Their best win was a 5-point win @South Florida, a team that beat BG and then 3 team with RPIs over 200. They are 2-5 on the road this year.
The Titans play relatively upbeat ball at 72 possessions per game. They are scoring 1.04 points per possession which is about average, but they are also allowing 1.04 points per possession.
On offense, they are simply not a good shooting team. At 41%/31%, their effective FG% is worse than BG's. They help make up for this by taking very good care of the ball, being a decent offensive rebounding percentage and shooting FTs very effectively, at 77%.
Defensively, they are holding teams to 43% shooting overall, but that includes 38% against the 3. Sadly, this is weakness BG is probably ill-suited to exploit. They are averaging protecting the offensive glass and do force a decent number of turnovers. They are averaging over 21 fouls per game, which is an excellent opportunity for the Falcons if the foul shots are falling.
Individually, they are led in scoring by Juwan Howard, Jr, with 17 very inefficient points per game (38% FG shooting)...deadly at the line though. Evan Bruinsma is their second double digit scorer at 12 PPG and he adds 7.7 RPG. Michigan transfer Carlton Brundige is scoring 9 points a game on 33% shooting. Ugochukwu Njoku, a 6'10" C, is averaging 7 rebounds per game.
One thing this team has is length. They have some tall guys and a lot of mid-range guys.
This should be a very interesting game. Detroit has played well in a couple of spots and BG is playing better than expected and especially well at home. BG is the superior defensive team, and if they can assert that against the Titans, BG should be able to score enough to win. BG will need to shoot FTs well and keep UDM off the line.
Overall, I'm pretty optimistic BG can get the win. They have won the last two over the Titans, both at the Stroh. A win would put them over .500 for the first meaningful time this year.
They were picked to finish 2nd-last in the Horizon.
For all that, they are 5-7 this year, 4-7 against D1 competition. They are 0-3 in the MAC, losing at home to UT after having a huge lead, then losing @Savage and @the JAR, both in double figures. They also have losses to UConn and NC State. Their best win was a 5-point win @South Florida, a team that beat BG and then 3 team with RPIs over 200. They are 2-5 on the road this year.
The Titans play relatively upbeat ball at 72 possessions per game. They are scoring 1.04 points per possession which is about average, but they are also allowing 1.04 points per possession.
On offense, they are simply not a good shooting team. At 41%/31%, their effective FG% is worse than BG's. They help make up for this by taking very good care of the ball, being a decent offensive rebounding percentage and shooting FTs very effectively, at 77%.
Defensively, they are holding teams to 43% shooting overall, but that includes 38% against the 3. Sadly, this is weakness BG is probably ill-suited to exploit. They are averaging protecting the offensive glass and do force a decent number of turnovers. They are averaging over 21 fouls per game, which is an excellent opportunity for the Falcons if the foul shots are falling.
Individually, they are led in scoring by Juwan Howard, Jr, with 17 very inefficient points per game (38% FG shooting)...deadly at the line though. Evan Bruinsma is their second double digit scorer at 12 PPG and he adds 7.7 RPG. Michigan transfer Carlton Brundige is scoring 9 points a game on 33% shooting. Ugochukwu Njoku, a 6'10" C, is averaging 7 rebounds per game.
One thing this team has is length. They have some tall guys and a lot of mid-range guys.
This should be a very interesting game. Detroit has played well in a couple of spots and BG is playing better than expected and especially well at home. BG is the superior defensive team, and if they can assert that against the Titans, BG should be able to score enough to win. BG will need to shoot FTs well and keep UDM off the line.
Overall, I'm pretty optimistic BG can get the win. They have won the last two over the Titans, both at the Stroh. A win would put them over .500 for the first meaningful time this year.
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