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Scouting St Bonnies!!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
1/14/2013
The Muskies will have their hands full Wednesday nite in their first Atlantic 10 road game of the new season vs SBU at Olean. The Bonnies are 0-2 in the league after a one-sided loss at GW (78-59) and a strong effort at home Saturday against VCU (72-66 loss against a 14-2 team with an 11th ranked RPI and an 11 game win streak).
Bonnies' coach Mark Schmidt plays at Temple, at St Joe's and home against St Louis after Xavier comes into the Reilly Center. He's already on a 5 game losing streak. Salvaging his season may turn on beating XU and stopping the bleeding now.
The Bonnies are hard to beat at home (5-2 this season). Unless a blizzard hits, there will be 5,000 plus crazies screaming at Bob Lanier Court. SBU is 7-8 overall after beating XU 67-56 in last season's A-10 title game-making the NCAA and losing a tight second round game to Florida State. 6-10 star Andrew Nicholson is now playing big minutes for the NBA Orlando Magic. 6-8 power forward Da'Quan Cook graduated.
This year's Bonnies aren't as big or agile inside. They have been struggling defensively (84ppg against in their 5 game skid). They are not shooting as many FTs and they are fouling more. The 5 game loss streak isn't a disaster though considering defeats have come at NC State (ACC leader), to Iona, at Colorado State (33RPI) and to VCU (11 RPI). The only outlier is the 19 point loss at GW and wacky results can easily happen on the road in this league.
Coach Schmidt has a veteran nucleus. 6-6 SR Demetrious Conger is an ALL League caliber all court player who blossomed in the Bonnies' NCAA run. He's a 3 year starter and 1,000 point scorer who popped for 19 against VCU. He's shooting the 3 ball better this season but he's run into foul trouble in both A-10 games so far. Conger is a 40 minute man who's vital to SBU. Who guards him? Justin Martin has been working into early foul trouble against similar players. Does Jeff Robinson have the focus? JRob has played his best against Bonnies over the years. Is Conger too mobile for Travis Taylor?
Schmidt starts 3 guards. The power forward is Marquise Simmons(6-8, 230 JR). He missed all of last season with an Achilles tear. He's strong and strictly an inside player. They have a Soph 7 footer (Youssou Ndoye) who rebounds and blocks shots but is challenged offensively. Moeller High product Michael Davenport is a 5th year Sr forward but he hasn't been the same since shoulder surgery early last season.
There are 4 good guards. 5-10 Sr Eric Mosely is a 3 point sniper especially on his home rims at the Reilly Center (36-80) 45%. He's turned it over 9 times though in 2 conference games. 6-5 SR Chris Johnson shoots the 3 at 45%. 6-4 Junior Matthew Wright takes it to the basket and 6-3 Junior Charlon Kloof is a solid point guard type.
If Dee Davis can't play, I'd guess SBU would try to trap the depleted XU guard group with their bigger bodies and speed up the tempo. They played pretty well against VCU's Havoc defense. Xavier wants to control pace and make SBU run offense against the stingy pacline.
The Muskies should be able to do damage inside with Travis Taylor. Bonnies probably will rotate 3 bigger guards on Semaj Christon and hope to wear him out. Brad Redford is in line for large minutes. He's made 10 of 12 3 pointers in 2 A-10 wins so far. Landon Amos should do well against SBU's larger guards. Ideally Davis is available to help beat the pressure and Semaj thrives in scrambling open court situations created by a successful press break. Redford gets open looks also in the open court.
Olean is a hard place to get to. No snow dumps are forecast but you never know around the Southern Tier on the lee shore of Lake Erie. XU flies charter into Bradford, Pa just South of the NY border. The idea is to get in and out before the snow flies and grab a precious road win. It's possible but SBU will be stubborn and the Muskies have to play smartly as they did against Temple: winning the rebounding numbers, limiting the knowns (Demetrious Conger), feeding the post and taking care of the ball. Uptempo is where SBU wants things to go. The Muskies need to play under control and if a little Brad Redford magic happens,it just makes things easier. Game time Wednesday nite is 8PM-CBS Sports Network.
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