It’s early, so what. This game has been put on a tee for Miami if they are serious about making noise in the MAC. There’s no more yo-yoing between NAIA and top 20 teams. No more 90 point games.
Even Miami students can appreciate beating a team that beat Michigan.
The win over Michigan is the only thing which jumps out at you that Central is different that recent seasons. They are 5 - 8, 1-5 on the road. Their best player, sophomore point guard Boopsie Miller ( 18ppg) has played only 4 games and did not play last week at Michigan. Freshman Reggie Bass is averaging 14 ppg and hit the 3 to win the Michigan game.
Central has a lot of size on their roster, with 7 guys listed from 6’11 to 6’8. Freshman Guard Max Majerle is the son of Dan Majerle, their best player ever. He was a two star recruit who averages 13 ppg in high school.
Defensively, Central is really good at forcing turnovers, and above average at defending the 3 and blocking shots. Central will play a matchup zone with their wings up by the foul line that look to shrink passing lanes. Central’s length makes the zone hard to penetrate against. Late in the shot clock, they’ll play man.
If we move the ball like we’re capable of, it should give them fits. If we stand around and don’t move off of dribble penetration, we’ll have a hard time scoring. Even if they play zone, I would run our base offense, get the ball on the block and look to back cut baseline as that’s the weak spot of their defense.
The best thing Central does offensively is get offensive rebounds. Central is a poor shooting team, so going under screens shouldn’t hurt us. But their guards are big, solid ballhandlers, and not afraid to take contact. Brian Taylor’s shooting numbers are down, but he has a nice stroke and is dangerous coming off the curls they’ll run. He’s a tough guard in the paint area with his length and elevation on his jumper. Reggie Bass is a lefty who’s shooting better from 3 than 2 and he’s shooting 32% from 3. Jesse Zarzuela is their best shooter statistically this year and can score in the lane with either hand.
These guys beat Michigan because Michigan didn’t show up and Central made the effort plays. I can’t imagine we won’t be ready to play and get off to a 1-0 start in league play.
Another thing in our favor is that the trip up shouldn’t have been too complicated. If there was a time to go all the way to Mt. Pleasant, this was it as the weather has been unseasonably mild.
Excellent information. Not only is this a weather break, it is great for the team to play this game during J-term. Normally a midweek night game at Central means missing classes on Wednesday, an all night bus ride back to Oxford, and then going to class Thursday morning.
As a student I loved it. Being able to take Econ and a few other classes during J-term gave me the flexibility to take 3 semesters of ice skating and have time for Viticulture and Enology (wine tasting) my senior year. Several friends used it to study abroad. It just leaves a massive gap where there are no students for hockey and basketball. IIRC, one J term I ended up with double digit free shirts just from attending basketball games because there were so few people around for the t-shirt tosses.
Decent start. Gave up a couple awkward offensive rebounds. One was a long rebound, the other only caught backboard. Lairy starting off strong and the press hasn’t given us much issue.