Longwood vs Houston the Matchup

Cougar Basketball
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My Breakdown of our first game

Starter Stats
Walyn Napper 14.6p 5.2r 6.0a ; 6’1 pg top scorer/assist leader/top defender - poor shooter
D. Houston 7.2p 3.0r 2.4a ; 6’1 guard - nothing too notable but his last name is houston and he is from houston
J. Granlund 4.4p 1.4r 0.6a ; 6’6 Euro shooter but low volume
M. Christmas 8.8p 4.4r 0.6a ; 6’6 Stretch 4, but more of a driver
Elijah Tucker 8.5p 4.8r 0.3a ; 6’8 Xavier transfer; agile, not a shooter
Rotational Bench
Szymon Zapala 12.2p 6.0r 0.2a ; 7footer was starter for most of the season but benched to go small (not athletic)
J. Massie 9.8p 4.4r 1.6a ; 6’6 Wing
E. Richards 7.2p 4.0r 0.6a ; 6’4 wing

note: the stats arent up to date, but i dont think up to date stats are that important to the analysis in regards to work needed to update

Short summary:
This team is a small, energetic group known for their defensive (at their level), primarily employing man-to-man, despite being a poor shooting team. Their offense leverages opportunities more than skill, with tactics including driving against weak defenders, shooting open three-pointers, passing to players cutting to the basket, or utilizing their 7-foot center’s size in post plays every now and then.

Resume evaluation:
Their record stands at 21-13, though this is somewhat misleading due to the high number of games against Division II schools. Within their mid-major conference, their record is only 6-11. However, they’ve shown promise recently, defeating the top two teams in their league in their last three games, including a significant victory over the league’s number one team their last game. Their performance against stronger non-conference teams, St. Bonaventure and Dayton, was respectable not getting blown out, they didn’t get embarrassed against the quality-ish teams theyve played.

Analysis:
It’s unlikely we’ll face much challenge from them. Their shooting struggles, lack of size, and offense reliant on exploiting weaker defenses don’t pose a threat to our well-rounded capabilities. Despite a solid defense, they’ve not been tested against an offense of our caliber, with several teams scoring over 80 points against them. Their three-point shooting (bottom 30 nationally in made 3s per game) and passing are notable weaknesses that will really work against them vs our style of play. and while they’re adept at drawing fouls, our depth is an issue, we’ll likely have packed up this game before that becomes an issue. Expecting a blowout win, as they don’t match well against our strengths, everything that defines them as decent (defense, rebounding, pg play) we are just better than them at it, and by many folds. they also arent built to really take advantage of our weakness

Prediction: lots of points our way, way less points for them

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Thanks, pesik :+1:

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Trey Hicks is available.

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I forget who said “i feel sorry for those Longwood kids, Houston is going be mad after Iowa St”
Let’s start strong

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some game previews

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Sampson didn’t get in much of a preview on the radio but did say that Longwood is four seniors and a transfer “they’re old”. Said everybody in the tournament is champions. I’m sure we’ll be ready

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Coogs by 35-40.

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The COOGS should be embarrassed… and pissed off.

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Embarrassed about what ? Please. Called Sports, unexpected happens and will always be part of any Sport if you follow closely.

Edit : They won the Regular Season SHIP in best CBB Conf. Zero to be P… about imo.

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Hopefully we get ahead and play subs for more minutes than usual in this game.

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Better rest our top 7 as much as possible.

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That leaves Lath and Elvin. I’d like them to play as much as possible, but don’t think they’ll get long stretches of playing time, even against Longwood.

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believe Lath will get minutes, doubt Elvin will tho.

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You mean like how we wanted payback with the Kansas game?

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Would luv to see every member of the team get good minutes, especially in these first couple of games. Its just practical, heaven forbid but what if we lost a couple of our key players, say Sharp, maybe even Shead getting hobbled for a while and we just had to have bodies on the floor. Putting someone out there with a little experience and able to work with the rest of the team sure would be better than a cold turkey strutting out.

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What subs?

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I think we’ll see Sampson experiment with the sub rotation like he discussed last week. He’ll use this game to see how his various combinations will work. Even if the game is well in-hand, he’s going to use the minutes to prepare for the next one.

People saying “rest the regulars” are ignoring the math.

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I think he rests the 7 regular rotation players and goes with the killer big-small team of Elvin and Lath.

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That 2 man inside-out game will make it impossible for other teams to properly scout us. :thinking:

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Just try not to play them 35 minutes each if game is in hand.