Arkansas State Preview

So, BG enters its first game in the Sun Belt challenge.  I love this, by the way.  Great way for us to get a good home game every season against a conference that is comparable to ours.  The Sun Belt last year was #14 ranked and the MAC was #19.  I'm a fan. Based on the Kenpom rankings, this is the 2nd best team on our pre-season schedule.

This is the fifth time we have played Arkansas State.  Each team has won 2.  BG won in 1950 in BG (BG's leading scorers Jim Gerber and Eli Joyce--townie alert).  In 1988 BG played them in Lexington in the Kentucky tournament and Arkansas State won. In 2006, the last Dakich season, we played Arkansas State in a home and home with each team winning at home. (They were the Indians until 2008, now are the Red Wolves.)

They have not been wildly successful.  They have 3 winning seasons in conference in last 10 years, one NCAA trip, which was in 1999 and they were the 15 seed and lost to Utah in the first round.

Bryan Hodgson is their coach, in his first season. You will remember him as the bearded assistant to Nate Oats at UB.  He went with Oats to Alabama and just now has started at Arkansas State.

They are picked 10th in the conference by Blue Ribbon and 9th in their official pre-season poll.

He says they will play in a Nate Oats style.  They will play fast and go for 3s and layups with good defense. 

A brief digression.  I thought Coach Simon said something interesting in the post-game presser after the Chicago State game.  I think some of our fans thought we were not going to worry about playing D.  Coach said it starts with defense and rebounding, which makes sense because you start a fast break with a stop and a rebound. That legendary 2019 UB team was #31 in the nation in defensive efficiency.

They were blown out in their opener by Wisconsin, shooting 4 of 21 from 3FG.

Seven guys got 10 minutes

They have a guy named Caleb Fields, but it's a different Caleb Fields than our guy.  He averaged 11 a game last year and scored 17 in Madison. He also had 4.6 assists per game.

Avery Felts...averaged 8 PPG last year, 39% 3FG shooter.

Freddy Hicks, transfer from Tarleton State, second team All-WAC 6'6".  Had 16 points and 6 rebounds for Tarleton.

Derrian Ford is a transfer from Arkansas and was a 4-star recruit and Arkansas POY in HS twice.

Dyondre Dominquez is 6'9" and a transfer from UMass.  Had 14 points and 8 rebounds in the opener.

Taryn Todd played for TCU, New Mexico, Northwest Florida State  College (same as Trey Diggs) and now ASU.  

LaQuill Hardnett played at UB and had 11 PPG and 7 RPG for the Bulls,