Last year Miami was 12-20 (6-12). while Evansville was 5-27 ( 1-19). Both teams were starting rebuilding programs under first year coaches. The Purple Aces won 78-74 in Oxford. A Miami connection is that Evansville Head Coach Dave Ragland was an assistant coach at Indiana State when Miami assistant Christian Smith played for the Sycamores.
In last year’s game 6-6 Jr Kenny Strawberry had 23 points and 6-10 SR Yacine Toumy had 15. Strawberry was a second team preseason all MVC pick. Last week the Aces won an exhibition game vs Division III Wabash 76-66. 6-6 Freshman Chuck Bailey had 16 points and 6-7 Jr Tanner Cuff contributed 14.
I have seen different starting lineups listed, but I think the correct lineup for us is our 3 transfer portal guys and our two sophomores who started some last year. So Dean, Hunter, Bultman, Mabrey, and Morris. We have lost our top returning player in Safford and our second team all conference preseason center Anderson Mirambeaux is likely out for awhile. I would expect all 11 remaining scholarship players to get in some reguiar action. One nice thing about this group is that all these guys are good players and should be quite competitive. One bad thing is that not all may be healthy enough to play right now . I am expecting a lot more out of both Morris and Mabrey this season.
Basketball season! Excited for the game tomorrow night. I like the direction the program is going and look forward to seeing the development of returning players, as well as a plethora of new faces.
My unreasonably high expectation-level for the season was dampened a bit by losing Safford, but still super-excited to see what we look like tomorrow night. Even though we’re young, we’ve got some guys who have played a lot.
Can’t believe it’s time for college hoops. Can’t wait!
This is awesome. One night, over the summer, I sat in a bar about a foot away from Freddy Mercury when I was in England. I call him that because I thought his performance was spot on in the movie. Just well, well done.
Looks like we’re listed at -2.5. Evansville is 332 in the preseason Kenpom rankings. It might take some time to get the new pieces fully integrated, but this is still a game we should be winning.
For sure. Last season we lost by 4 at Millett. Miami went on to really improve game by game while Evansville didn’t. I’m expecting some ugly play while the freshmen adjust to the speed and the new faces work to gel, but we should win. I’m also expecting a similar season where the team we’re watching in November isn’t what we’re seeing later in the season. That said, we should be good enough to beat Evansville in spite of that.
Other expectation, we’re going to see a lot more tempo and high pressure defense with the deeper bench.
From the MAC board, " Reece Potter questionable with back issues". When you combine that with Mirambeaux being out, it leaves us with only Morris and Kotecki taller than 6-6.
Agreed, hopefully, Potter can be ready for game time, especially if there’s limited risk of re-injury. Granted, at 7’1", I don’t know a lot of back issues that can’t be exacerbated.
