Tomorrow night (TUESDAY) is a huge game for us. My hope is to tread water at a minimum for the first month of the SEC schedule and be no worse than 4-4 after the first eight. Given that those first eight games include Tennessee, Auburn, Ole Miss, Kentucky and Alabama.....well Vandy is probably more winnable than all of those. So getting this one is important in that regard. It's winnable for sure, but going up there is seemingly always challenging.
Vandy's schedule has been atrocious. Their SOS is 338 at KenPom and 265 at BPI (non-con). Their best win according to the NET was Saturday's win in Baton Rouge. That's a quad 1 win for now but barely. After that, there are neutral court wins over TCU and Nevada and then a bunch of Q3 and Q4 wins to run up the win total. For comparison, we are 3-0 in Q1 and 2-1 in Q2. Our SOS numbers are 128 at KenPom and 43 at BPI. For them, we will be the best team they have played. For us, this is sort of in line with playing Memphis or SMU.
While the competition levels have been different, the outcomes and the statistical results have been very, very similar. In short, their numbers are a little better offensively, ours are a little better defensively. We rebound it a little better that them, they are better than us from the FT line (getting there more and making more). Otherwise, not just a lot of differences in the numbers, it's just that we have done it against much better competition than they have. (Did you ever think we would face off with Vandy and be the team with the higher 3 point shooting percentage?)
We should be able to dominate them in the paint though, because according to their roster, all they have is point guards.
(The new coach made them list it this way in the preseason and it's still listed this way on their website.)
Players to watch:
They will probably play 9 guys. Four average double figures.
Jason Edwards, 6-1 guard, 18.3 ppg; transfer from North Texas; we saw him last year when he had 11 points in Tupelo; shooting it well and getting to the line a lot
Devin McGlockton - transfer from BC; leading rebounder and second leading scorer
Tyler Nickel - 3 years, 3 schools; almost exclusively a 3 pt shooter
AJ Hoggard - Michigan State transfer so we saw him last year too
But there's always the building. That darn building. We are 11-49 in Nashville all time. Not sure how many of those were in Memorial but it opened in 1952 so probably most of them.
Let's be positive until there's a reason not to be. Dogs win 78-76.
Vandy's schedule has been atrocious. Their SOS is 338 at KenPom and 265 at BPI (non-con). Their best win according to the NET was Saturday's win in Baton Rouge. That's a quad 1 win for now but barely. After that, there are neutral court wins over TCU and Nevada and then a bunch of Q3 and Q4 wins to run up the win total. For comparison, we are 3-0 in Q1 and 2-1 in Q2. Our SOS numbers are 128 at KenPom and 43 at BPI. For them, we will be the best team they have played. For us, this is sort of in line with playing Memphis or SMU.
While the competition levels have been different, the outcomes and the statistical results have been very, very similar. In short, their numbers are a little better offensively, ours are a little better defensively. We rebound it a little better that them, they are better than us from the FT line (getting there more and making more). Otherwise, not just a lot of differences in the numbers, it's just that we have done it against much better competition than they have. (Did you ever think we would face off with Vandy and be the team with the higher 3 point shooting percentage?)
We should be able to dominate them in the paint though, because according to their roster, all they have is point guards.
(The new coach made them list it this way in the preseason and it's still listed this way on their website.)
Players to watch:
They will probably play 9 guys. Four average double figures.
Jason Edwards, 6-1 guard, 18.3 ppg; transfer from North Texas; we saw him last year when he had 11 points in Tupelo; shooting it well and getting to the line a lot
Devin McGlockton - transfer from BC; leading rebounder and second leading scorer
Tyler Nickel - 3 years, 3 schools; almost exclusively a 3 pt shooter
AJ Hoggard - Michigan State transfer so we saw him last year too
But there's always the building. That darn building. We are 11-49 in Nashville all time. Not sure how many of those were in Memorial but it opened in 1952 so probably most of them.
Let's be positive until there's a reason not to be. Dogs win 78-76.
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