Prediction: If MU wins their first game...

[MuMark]

IIRC, St. John's didn't do much trapping, it was more that they can switch multiple athletic guards with long wingspans onto Howard with little drop off. They swallowed him up when he tried to drive, I think he went 1/9 or 1/10 inside the arc last game. But he did go 4/8 from range.

There should be opportunities for the Hausers, Ed, Theo, and Sacar to get some buckets in the paint due to SJU's lack of size. If Ponds isn't guarding Howard than whoever he is defending will have between 4-8 inches on him. Find that matchup and take advantage. Keep Howard on the perimeter for catch and shoots.

The trouble I foresee is on the defensive end. Howard is solid defensively but he can't handle Ponds. This means that he has to guard Justin Simon who we know will just post Markus up and got an easy turnaround jumper. In addition, I'm not sure who Theo can defend out there. He could reasonably guard a catch and shooter like Clark but then who does Joey guard? Makes me wonder if we see more Bailey/Cain instead of Theo/Ed/Joey.

Battle of wills. Do we make them pay for going small by working the paint and drawing fouls? Or do we have to sit Theo/Ed and go with a smaller lineup that can keep up with them defensively? Whoever wins that battle has a big advantage.

Yeah the big issue defensively besides Markus is that Against SJ ......Theo and Ed are drawn away from the hoop by Clark......which eliminates them as a help defender.......as we all know that has been huge for us this season.

[muguru]

I think we win tonight and make it to Saturday to play Creighton in the final. No idea how that one will go, but the Jays have been the best team in the league of late and it's not even really that close.

Eliminated from the BET 

[brewcity77]

Eliminated from the BET 

Tough matchup that the two best teams of the past month opened against each other.