2-0 with wins over San Diego State and East Carolina. They also beat a couple non-D1s. 1st year head coach Chris Beard was a 10-year assistant at Texas Tech and 2-year head coach at D2 Angelo State, who recruited 5 transfers to this Little Rock team and plays an 11-man rotation consisting of entirely juniors and seniors.
Led by 5-11 juco transfer Marcus Johnson and 4-year senior guard Josh Hagins. Hagins had 20 points, 7 assists in their 78-73 loss to Tulsa last year. They've also got grad transfer Jermaine Ruttley, who averaged 17.4 ppg last year for 2-27 Florida A&M. He was headed to LaTech before Mike White took the Florida job.
Their big guys aren't complete stiffs either. Lis Shosi is a rail thin 6-11 euro center who's a good shot blocker and rebounder that can also shoot a little and 6-9 Mareik Isom was a 45% 3-point shooter who hit a couple against us last year.
What's fascinating about their first 2 games (one of which was arguably the biggest upset of the season so far), is that they haven't hit the broad side of a barn from the field in either game. Per KenPom's effective FG%, they're dead last of 351 teams in D1. But they've hit free throws (87%) and they haven't turned the ball over (0 turnovers in the first half against SDSU; 0 turnovers in the second half against ECU) and that's enough when you only give up 44.5 points per game. For San Diego State, the problem was cold shooting (32% inside the arc, 25% outside the arc, 61% at the line). For East Carolina, it was 22 turnovers on 64 possessions.
I watched the 2nd half of their first game and while the defense was good, SDSU also missed a ton of open looks and they dominated UALR on the glass. These guys are good defensively, but they're not going to keep up the 2009 Memphis defensive stats.
In the end, I expect this one to look like the Indiana State game. Slow-paced, low-scoring. We should give Wright a chance to establish his 30-pound advantage inside and let Harrison drive and draw fouls or kick to the open shooter. This is a game we should win, but it also looks much more dangerous than it did at the beginning of the season. Hopefully the guys come out with some energy defensively and we can avoid a 4th straight game of giving up 20+ in the first 10 minutes.
Led by 5-11 juco transfer Marcus Johnson and 4-year senior guard Josh Hagins. Hagins had 20 points, 7 assists in their 78-73 loss to Tulsa last year. They've also got grad transfer Jermaine Ruttley, who averaged 17.4 ppg last year for 2-27 Florida A&M. He was headed to LaTech before Mike White took the Florida job.
Their big guys aren't complete stiffs either. Lis Shosi is a rail thin 6-11 euro center who's a good shot blocker and rebounder that can also shoot a little and 6-9 Mareik Isom was a 45% 3-point shooter who hit a couple against us last year.
What's fascinating about their first 2 games (one of which was arguably the biggest upset of the season so far), is that they haven't hit the broad side of a barn from the field in either game. Per KenPom's effective FG%, they're dead last of 351 teams in D1. But they've hit free throws (87%) and they haven't turned the ball over (0 turnovers in the first half against SDSU; 0 turnovers in the second half against ECU) and that's enough when you only give up 44.5 points per game. For San Diego State, the problem was cold shooting (32% inside the arc, 25% outside the arc, 61% at the line). For East Carolina, it was 22 turnovers on 64 possessions.
I watched the 2nd half of their first game and while the defense was good, SDSU also missed a ton of open looks and they dominated UALR on the glass. These guys are good defensively, but they're not going to keep up the 2009 Memphis defensive stats.
In the end, I expect this one to look like the Indiana State game. Slow-paced, low-scoring. We should give Wright a chance to establish his 30-pound advantage inside and let Harrison drive and draw fouls or kick to the open shooter. This is a game we should win, but it also looks much more dangerous than it did at the beginning of the season. Hopefully the guys come out with some energy defensively and we can avoid a 4th straight game of giving up 20+ in the first 10 minutes.
