Eastern Washington

[Queens_NYC]

Sunday, November 12th, 2023
12:00 PM
Fifth Third Arena
ESPN+

The Bearcats wrap up their two-game MTE with a visit from Eastern Washington (0-2, KenPom #195) on Sunday.

The Eagles bounced back from a 101-66 trouncing at Utah on Monday with a more competitive 75-64 defeat at Ole Miss on Friday night in a game where they held a brief lead with just under 11 minutes to go in the 2nd half.

Eastern Washington is looking to build on a 23-11 22/23 season with 3rd-year head coach David Riley whose team won the Big Sky regular season championship and made it to the second round of the NIT last year before they lost at Oklahoma State.

They return two starters from last year's team in 3rd-year 6'10 center Ethan Price (9.6 ppg & 4.2 rpg in 22/23) and 3rd-year 6'6 forward Casey Jones (7.6 ppg & 5.7 rpg in 22/23).

The Eagles were picked to finish 2nd by the media and 3rd by the coaches out of 10 teams in the 23/24 Big Sky preseason poll.

Tomorrow's game will mark the first ever meeting between these two teams.

 

[Queens_NYC]

-12.5

 

[Queens_NYC]

Defensive intensity has been excellent early on.

 

[Queens_NYC]

Solid half. Eastern Washington is a well-coached team. We got some big buckets from Jizzle down the stretch. Gotta do a better job of finishing at the rim in the 2nd half.

 

[sedziobs]

After struggling at the stripe, we went 6 for 6 on single bonus free throws in the second half.

 

[sedziobs]

We saw a lot of 4 guard lineups in this game, which is something I think we'll have get used to this season. Vik, Ody, and Reed combined for only 54 minutes, which means we played 26 minutes with a guard at the 4. It led to way too many rim looks for Eastern Washington, where they converted 17 times. The offense was fine, but we're going to have to work on defending with small lineups.

 

[Queens_NYC]

We saw a lot of 4 guard lineups in this game, which is something I think we'll have get used to this season. Vik, Ody, and Reed combined for only 54 minutes, which means we played 26 minutes with a guard at the 4. It led to way too many rim looks for Eastern Washington, where they converted 17 times. The offense was fine, but we're going to have to work on defending with small lineups.

Reed only played 10 minutes and I'll imagine he'll see even less time in tighter games. Skillings seems to be the first choice back-up 4 with Reed and Simas getting spot minutes whenever 2 of Skillings/Ody/Vik are out.

3-point FG defense has been stellar so far (25.8%), but we definitely have room to improve inside the arch (allowing 50.9% 2FG).

 

[Queens_NYC]

Free throw shooting appears to be an early worry.

Vik and Jizzle are shooting a combined 82.6% (19/23). The rest of the team is shooting a combined 47.2% (17/36).

 

[sedziobs]

Reed only played 10 minutes and I'll imagine he'll see even less time in tighter games. Skillings seems to be the first choice back-up 4 with Reed and Simas getting spot minutes whenever 2 of Skillings/Ody/Vik are out.

3-point FG defense has been stellar so far (25.8%), but we definitely have room to improve inside the arch (allowing 50.9% 2FG).

Skillings is long, but he's going to be physically overmatched against a lot of Big12 4s. Hopefully we can get Aziz or Reynolds on the court with legal action.

 

[sirthought]

Maybe they can turn to the football team again, just to get a bigger guy in there to give others rest.

It's just nuts that the two guys he brings in BOTH have issues.

 

[Queens_NYC]

Maybe they can turn to the football team again, just to get a bigger guy in there to give others rest.

It's just nuts that the two guys he brings in BOTH have issues.

I remember Jon Rothstein tweeted in early September that only 18% of multi-time transfers across all NCAA sports had been granted waivers.

Lots of teams are hurting.

West Virginia lost to Monmouth by 8 the other night because they are shot for depth between having one player suspended 9 games, another player recovering from collapsing on the floor during an exhibition game, and two other players who are waiting on waivers.