Evansville

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Queens_NYC

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Tuesday, November 9th, 2021
7:00 PM
Fifth Third Arena
ESPN+

The Purple Aces were picked to finish 8th in the 10-team Missouri Valley Conference after coming off a 9-16 season that saw them go 7-11 in conference play for 3rd-year head coach Todd Lickliter.

They finished #204 in the 20-21 KenPom rankings where they ranked #114 in AdjO, #315 in AdjD, and most notably, #355 in AdjT (tempo).

They return 4 starters who have combined to start 195 games for Evansville and who also shot a combined 38% from beyond the arc last season.

They've played two official exhibition games so far where they've defeated D3 Mt. St. Joe's 74-45 and D2 Kentucky Wesleyan 74-64.

Evansville shot an impressive 50% (12-24) from deep in the Kentucky Wesleyan win but were also outscored 36-22 in the paint.

They were one of the worst rebounding teams in the country last season so hopefully that is an area where we can dominate on both ends of the court.

Despite all the questions we have about our roster, I'm still optimistic that we win this game by double digits.
 
I expect against a lot of these small schools we will win by dominating the interior with our size. Think of how Vogt was able to dominate small schools because he was 5 inches taller and 50 lbs heavier than any of their players.

Now we have Ado, Lakhin and Koval who we hope are better players than Vogt was and should be able to do the same thing. Can they dominate the paint on both ends? It's something Wes puts big emphasis on, so we will see how well the message has gotten through. Will we use (and how often) the twin towers lineup of Ado/Koval/Lakhin in the game at the same time? My guess is we will in games against lower levels opponents, if we can't dominate them in the paint with twin towers, than not worth trying it against a Georgia or Illinois.

Evansville's probable starters at C/PF are Evan Kuhlman, listed at 6'8" 220 lb and either Trey Hall 6'9" 200 lb or Antoine Smith 6'7" 215 lb. All three of them can shoot it from three (all shot 36.6% or better last year from 3). So in addition to be our first chance to see if we can dominate the paint, it will also be a good test of mobility for our bigs. We do have Hensley/Ody to fall back on if needed, but hopefully Ado, Koval and/or Lakhin show the movement ability to guard the three. Based on some reports Lakhin moves quite well, but we will see soon.
 
Last edited:
skyblade said:
I expect against a lot of these small schools we will win by dominating the interior with our size. Think of how Vogt was able to dominate small schools because he was 5 inches taller and 50 lbs heavier than any of their players.

Now we have Ado, Lakhin and Koval who we hope are better players than Vogt was and should be able to do the same thing. Can they dominate the paint on both ends? It's something Wes puts big emphasis on, so we will see how well the message has gotten through. Will we use (and how often) the twin towers lineup of Ado/Koval/Lakhin in the game at the same time? My guess is we will in games against lower levels opponents, if we can't dominate them in the paint with twin towers, than not worth trying it against a Georgia or Illinois.

Evansville's probable starters at C/PF are Evan Kuhlman, listed at 6'8" 220 lb and either Trey Hall 6'9" 200 lb or Antoine Smith 6'7" 215 lb. All three of them can shoot it from three (all shot 36.6% or better last year from 3). So in addition to be our first chance to see if we can dominate the paint, it will also be a good test of mobility for our bigs. We do have Hensley/Ody to fall back on if needed, but hopefully Ado, Koval and/or Lakhin show the movement ability to guard the three. Based on some reports Lakhin moves quite well, but we will see soon.
Click to expand...

Iyen Enaruna (6'9 210 lb) was their other starting big against Kentucky Wesleyan but only played 15 minutes. Antoine Smith played 25 minutes off the bench and true freshman forward Preston Phillips (6'8) played 17 minutes as well.

Trey Hall didn't play and is supposedly suspended for a violation of team rules according to what I read on the Evansville message board.

Also of note, starting 6'3 guard Jawaun Newton (13.5 ppg, 4.4 rpg) left the KW exhibition game after only playing 12 minutes with a lower leg injury.
 
Queens_NYC said:
Iyen Enaruna (6'9 210 lb) was their other starting big against Kentucky Wesleyan but only played 15 minutes. Antoine Smith played 25 minutes off the bench and true freshman forward Preston Phillips (6'8) played 17 minutes as well.

Trey Hall didn't play and is supposedly suspended for a violation of team rules according to what I read on the Evansville message board.

Also of note, starting 6'3 guard Jawaun Newton (13.5 ppg, 4.4 rpg) left the KW exhibition game after only playing 12 minutes with a lower leg injury.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the better info. I didn't look at the KW Box score to see who actually played, was just guessing off the roster. Not sure how I missed Enaruna.

Enaruna shot 25% from three (4-16 on the year) last year, 0-2 in their two exhibition games this year, so he may be less of a threat to us. But he started both exhibition games and averaged 13.4 minutes for them last year, so he should be a significant contributor for them.

It looks like vs Mount St. Joseph they started Smith, Enaruna and Kuhlman, so they can go big. Smith was a combined 5-13 from three in their two exhibition games, while Kuhlman was 3-7. So they aren't afraid to put it up.
 
skyblade said:
Thanks for the better info. I didn't look at the KW Box score to see who actually played, was just guessing off the roster. Not sure how I missed Enaruna.

Enaruna shot 25% from three (4-16 on the year) last year, 0-2 in their two exhibition games this year, so he may be less of a threat to us. But he started both exhibition games and averaged 13.4 minutes for them last year, so he should be a significant contributor for them.

It looks like vs Mount St. Joseph they started Smith, Enaruna and Kuhlman, so they can go big. Smith was a combined 5-13 from three in their two exhibition games, while Kuhlman was 3-7. So they aren't afraid to put it up.
Click to expand...

Their roster/rotation reminds of a poor-man's version of the Furman team we beat last year.
 
Queens_NYC said:
Tuesday, November 9th, 2021
7:00 PM
Fifth Third Arena
ESPN+

The Purple Aces were picked to finish 8th in the 10-team Missouri Valley Conference after coming off a 9-16 season that saw them go 7-11 in conference play for 3rd-year head coach Todd Lickliter.

They finished #204 in the 20-21 KenPom rankings where they ranked #114 in AdjO, #315 in AdjD, and most notably, #355 in AdjT (tempo).

They return 4 starters who have combined to start 195 games for Evansville and who also shot a combined 38% from beyond the arc last season.

They've played two official exhibition games so far where they've defeated D3 Mt. St. Joe's 74-45 and D2 Kentucky Wesleyan 74-64.

Evansville shot an impressive 50% (12-24) from deep in the Kentucky Wesleyan win but were also outscored 36-22 in the paint.

They were one of the worst rebounding teams in the country last season so hopefully that is an area where we can dominate on both ends of the court.

Despite all the questions we have about our roster, I'm still optimistic that we win this game by double digits.
Click to expand...

With all of the question marks out there it still seems we should have enough to get off to a decent start. The only players I would expect it tough to find the court would be Banks and McGinnis. That leaves at least 11 players to try on the court and see who can impact the game(s). That's 6 "bigs" and 5 guards.

Play D and rebound so we don't have to score too much out of the gate until we can get into a lineup/rotation rythm.
 
waterhead said:
With all of the question marks out there it still seems we should have enough to get off to a decent start. The only players I would expect it tough to find the court would be Banks and McGinnis. That leaves at least 11 players to try on the court and see who can impact the game(s). That's 6 "bigs" and 5 guards.

Play D and rebound so we don't have to score too much out of the gate until we can get into a lineup/rotation rythm.
Click to expand...

Hopefully it doesn't take Wes as long as it took Brannen to figure out we can't hide more than 1 player on D (for too long) in this conference. Especially 2 flat footed bigs. And I am guessing also two 6'0" guards. It might work early against smaller teams...but that could be fools gold.

Putting Ody in (with Ado) and sliding JD/Hensley to 3, Newman/MAW at 2, and DD down to 1 would seem to help on D and rebounding and still keep in some scoring. Ody has a big motor and we are going to need that. Newman should see a lot of minutes due to being good on both sides of the ball. DD can rebound for a guard and score. We need JD out there for shooting scoring so he becomes the guy you try to hide a bit on D. But he's not bad.

We have to be great on one side of the ball and we have to rebound. It doesn't sound like we are going to be great on offense so the obvious choice is to maximize D and rebounding here with our size and length.
 
A bit of a starting line-up surprise. Chad has been predicting for quite a while now that it would be Saunders, DDJ, Newman, Davenport and Ado. MAW got the start over Saunders and DDJ is listed as the PG.
 
Surprise number two, Ody the first off the bench subbing in for Ado at Center.

Thus far there seems to be very valid reason for concern about our offense. Lots of threes, no offensive rebounds. The defense looks good though and we already took our first charge of the season.
 
Ody looks as good as advertised.

Vik has been a pleasant surprise.

Defensive rotations have went out the door over the past few possessions after a very strong opening 6-7 minutes.
 
Caught a break with that extended scoring draught by Evansville but our interior defense played a big role in that.

Outside of Davenport and Madsen nobody seems able to make a shot more than 3 feet away from the rim.

Everyone who has seen the court so far has brought some strong attributes which has allowed us to maintain a healthy lead despite some wacky and unfamiliar lineups.
 
The rotations thus far, though it may not mean much.

PG/SG: MAW/DDJ/Mikey, with DDJ getting the most minutes and the other two sharing time.

SF: Newman/Mason (and 2 minutes of Hensley)

PF: Davenport/Lakhin

C: Ado/Ody/Koval (Ado starting, and Ody/Koval close to equal time as backups)

The Davenport/Lakhin rotation is a weird one, we have an undersized PF and a gigantic PF. Guess it leaves a lot of room for mismatches. Lakhin shown pretty good movement thus far.
 
Aside from the starting lineup, just about everything has been as advertised. Our rim protection is much improved, but the offense isn't great. Too many poor shot choices. It looks like we will be a very deep team, partly because our bench guys are pretty good, and partly because none of our starters are dependable go-to guys. I like what I see from Lakhin especially. We're pretty athletic across the board.

I think our success will largely depend on shot selection. Newman and DDJ taking stepback jumpers is going to result in poor efficiency.
 
First half thoughts:

We made Evansville look TERRIBLE. That is always a good thing regardless of competition. The score doesn't indicate how dominant Cincy was, as Cats missed some easy ones early.

- Free throw shooting is going to lose us a few games again.

- Lakhin. Already like him more than Vogt. Active, athletic for his size...
^ Speaking of the bigs. Oh my goodness are we long. That could be a big big time plus for this team. They all are active, haven't seen much offensively. But it's one half with tons of rotations.

- DeJulius looks noticeably better. Seems like it starts with him on O.

- Saunders looked great defensively. MAW didn't do anything bad or good, just kinda took up space. Not a bad thing.

- Madsen is our shooter

OVERALL

Seems like we have good depth. Not going to be a thing of beauty on offense, but without looking at the stat sheet it seemed like way took care of the ball.

DEFENSE WAS FANTASTIC. Great Energy. Wes may as well be defending with them considering how hard he coaches. Fun half.
 
Wes definitely has a lot more fire on the sideline than Brannen did.

Lakhin is way more athletic than Vogt was, not even close. Lakhin may struggle at times at the 4, but he has looked good so far guarding smaller guys.

Only two of our starters have scored. Newman may not remain a starter long is he can't score and Mason drains everything.
 
Wes Miller gives off Mick Cronin vibes with his courtside demeanor. Loud, energetic, engaged in the game.
 

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