SMU Part II

[Queens_NYC]

Sunday, March 5th, 2023
2:00 PM
Fifth Third Arena
ESPN+

The Bearcats (18-11 [10-7 AAC], NET #81, KenPom #66) welcome SMU (10-20 [5-12 AAC], NET #206, KenPom #179) to Fifth Third tomorrow for their regular season finale and Senior Day celebration.

The Bearcats will be honoring 5th-year seniors Rob Phinisee, Kalu Ezikpe, and David DeJulius with a pregame ceremony.

A loss for SMU on Sunday would give the Mustangs their worst conference record out of their 10 seasons in the AAC. SMU's only road win of the season was a 79-76 victory at Tulsa over 6 weeks ago.

The Mustangs are a better defensive team than offensive team, which was evident during our 54-52 win at Moody in January. Only Memphis has forced more turnovers during conference play, and the Bearcats gave the ball away 17 times themselves in our first match-up.

The Mustangs also shoot the second-most free throws in the AAC after Memphis, but are the league's worst shooting team at the charity stripe, where they only hit 63.4%.

The Bearcats will play the loser of Temple vs Tulane (which is being played concurrently with UC/SMU) in the Quarterfinals of the AAC Tournament next Friday, March 10th.

 

[sedziobs]

In the first game no one could make a shot, which is normal for SMU since they're one of the worst shooting teams in the country. We got to the rim 23 times but only made 9 of them. We grabbed 19 offensive boards but wiped out that advantage with 17 turnovers.

Newman isn't being honored, so I guess he will be playing another year. Has there been any indication if it will be here or elsewhere?

 

[Queens_NYC]

In the first game no one could make a shot, which is normal for SMU since they're one of the worst shooting teams in the country. We got to the rim 23 times but only made 9 of them. We grabbed 19 offensive boards but wiped out that advantage with 17 turnovers.

Newman isn't being honored, so I guess he will be playing another year. Has there been any indication if it will be here or elsewhere?

No. Other than chat about Sage and Newman applying for medical redshirts, there's been no rumors/updates on any player's status for next season.

Wes has kept his cards close to his chest - as you'd hope/expect at this point.

 

[Queens_NYC]

-12

 

[sedziobs]

So that was a much different game than our first matchup with SMU. We nearly doubled our point total. We scored 1.36 points per possession, our second highest of the season after Miami. The seniors went out strong. DDJ put up 30 including a blistering 9 for 13 from midrange. Ezikpe was 2-2 from the field and filled the stat sheet with 4 rebounds, 2 assists, a block, and a steal in 17 minutes.

Now on to Temple in the AAC tournament.

 

[Queens_NYC]

Shot the ball well from beyond the arc in the first half (started out 9/13 - 69.2%) and took care of business inside the arc in the second half (15/22 - 68.2%).

Great to see DeJulius go out with a bang.