Game 20: vs. Ball St. (10-9, 5-2)
The Cardinals come to Oxford after obtaining their biggest win of the year, a 7 point home win over OU. They have ascended to the top of the West despite the loss of leading scorer and rebounder Anthony Newell. Newell broke his leg during Ball St.'s win at Eastern and is out for the year. But as we've done without Kenny, Ball St. has moved on and has continued to improve, going 4-2 without Newell. Coach Billy Taylor has a team that reflects his personality: tough, hard-nosed, and defensive-minded. It may not always be pretty basketball, but Ball State will play hard and compete until the final buzzer.
Probable Starters
Laron Frazier, 6' 165 Sr. 9 pts, 2 ass. 37% FG, 33% 3PFG, 74% FT. Does a good job of running the team and finding open people. Has a 2:1 assist/turnover ratio. Can stop and pull up from 15 feet. Sometimes gets caught playing too fast, will try to make tough passes while hanging in the air.
Brandon Lampley, 6' 170 Sr. 9 pts, 3 ass. 42% FG, 39% 3PFG, 79% FT. Very good shooter, always has his feet set ready to shoot. Does a good job of using screens, doesn't need much time to get his shot off. Can also catch, shot fake, one dribble and pull up in the lane.
Rob Giles, 6'4" 205 Sr. 6 pts, 3 reb. 37% FG, 26% 3PFG, 60% FT. Very long player, good at guarding the perimeter. Offensively, wants to drive, and he wants to go to his right and/or go baseline. The only time he goes left is if he can go baseline. Not much of a shooter, you're ok letting him shoot from the outside.
Malik Perry, 6'4" 240 So. 4 pts, 5 reb. 50% FG, 38% FT. Ball St.'s Round Mound of Rebound. No real offensive game to speak of, he primarily scores off of putbacks. He will catch the ball up high and try to go the basket, but he often turns the ball over in this situation.
Jarrod Jones, 6'9" 225 Fr. 11 pts, 7 reb. 48% FG, 57% FT. Really good looking young player. Not awkward at all, does a great job of running the floor and scoring in the secondary break. He can score with his back to the basket and make the tough putbacks. He also has the ability to put it on the floor and drive under control to the basket. Is prone to getting into foul trouble because he's the one true big on the team.
Off the Bench
Randy Davis, 5'11" 170 Fr. 4 pts, 2 ass. 28% FG, 24% 3PFG, 66% FT. Don't let the numbers fool you, he can shoot the ball. But he's mainly a catch and shoot guy. I think he'll be able to shoot off the dribble in a year or two, but that part of his game isn't there yet.
Maurice Hubbard, 6'6" 216 Fr. 3 pts, 4 reb. 39% FG, 25% FT. Strong player, but mostly a garbage player. Not much of an offensive game, can't hit the spot up jumper, tries to bulldoze you in the post. Really ugly foul shot.
Pierre Sneed, 6'4" 195 Fr. 2 pts, 2 reb. 17% FG, 25% 3PFG, 87% FT. Not much of an offensive threat, can guard multiple positions.
Offensively, Ball St. wants the floor spread so it's hard to help on Jones and they want to make you guard them for 35 seconds. The Cardinals like to run a lot of pick and roll, strong and weak side, which will pose a challenge for us because their guards do a good job of using screens and getting shots for themselves or the bigs rolling to the basket. They'll run a Pop It set, with the weak side wing popping out from a big's downscreen. The next time down, they'll run pick and roll with Frazier on the strong side, looking for Lampley coming off a screen on the other side, with Jones rolling to the basket. They also look to go high low, sending a wing to the corner while bringing a big to the foul line to feed Jones on the block. They'll also throw some flex in as well. And they'll run continuous double screens for their guards, which isn't hard to defend, but wears on a defense as the game goes along. A lot of responsibility is put on the guards to create, and they do pretty well.
Defensively, Ball St. wants to stay in front of you. They don't put a great deal of pressure on the ball, which is a change for us, and they don't get out in the passing lanes. They only force 12 turnovers a game, so they won't turn you over, but they will make you work offensively. Teams are only shooting 42% against the Cardinals, 31% from 3. And they do a good job on the boards, ranking in the top 30 in opponents' offensive rebounding percentage. When you hold OU to 44 points, you must've played defense pretty well.
Ball St.'s scoring ability is limited to pick and roll basketball. They take tough shots because often they have to heave one up to beat the shot clock, and they have trouble creating shots for themselves. So for us to contain them, it comes down to defending the pick and roll. If it were me, I'd hedge their guards hard, force them to pick up their dribble or make them dribble wide. In watching them, Ball St. either scored, got to the foul line, or turned the ball over, there isn't much in between. If we defend the pick and roll well, they'll have a hard time scoring. Offensively, if we can get Jones in foul trouble, we should have our way insde. They're not very deep, especially up front, so we should be able to get some 2nd chance opportunities. But we can't fall in love with the deep ball like we have the last couple of games because possessions will be limited tonight.
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