I think this is going to be a hard fought game.

Looking at some preliminary statistics and gauging the competition level of both teams opponents the best GUESS I can make is that Murray COULD come out with a 4 point win even though they are at Eastern and Eastern is playing well.

The key for us will be to control the tempo and keep Eastern Kentucky below 60 points.

Easley will need to block many shots to help accomplish this goal.  Our 3s need to find the bottom of the net as well.

Eastern hasn't scored very high against good defensive teams so we need to play with great intensity on the defensive end.

This could be a breakout game for the Racers especially if steals and blocks lead to transition baskets.

The biggest factors for this game will be Rebounding and FT shooting, in that order.

I was feeling industrious and decided to do some research on computer and statistical rankings.
The results are a bit lackluster compared to what we're used to.

Sagarin 203
Massey 436 (-9)
Pomeroy 249
RPI 261

Average Computer Ranking 287.25

The following are statistical rankings as of 12/03/06 and what I think we should do about them in parentheses.

Free Throw Percentage 149 (Attack the basket more aggressively)
3-Point Field Goal Percentage 155 (screen for your good shooters )
Blocked Shots Per Game 175 (Help your teammate.  Leads to transition baskets and is a TO for opponent)
Steals Per Game 181 (All effort!  Leads to transition baskets and is a TO for opponent)
Field Goal Percentage 184 (Take good shots and don't rush them)
Rebound Margin 211 (Screen Out.  Get into rebounding position)
 Field Goal Percentage Defense 221 (Don't leave anyone open, anywhere)
Scoring Defense 224 (Defensive tenacity)
Turnovers Per Game 227 (Think.  Think.  Think)
3-Point Field Goals Per Game 245 (Screen for your good shooters)
Assists Per Game 246 (This will be higher when the turnovers are lower.  Take the open shot when passed to.)
Scoring Offense 274 (Turnovers, Charges, Illegal Screens, Poor Rebounding cause this.)
Scoring Margin 285 (Best indicator of your overall intensity)
Won / Lost Percentage 286 (Result of your overall intensity as well as strength of schedule.)
Personal Fouls Per Game 295 (Play in control.  Get in position quicker.  Try not to foul in the act of shooting)


Defensive Rank 217.833
Offensive Rank 237

Average Statistical Ranking 223.87
Average of the Averages 242.424

I would prefer to see us in the 150's range at this point but unless the W's start coming in a hurry, I'm afraid it will be a slow process.

I hope we watched some film of the UT debacle and compared it with what we did against SIU and SDSU.  

I also hope we play zone defense as I feel that is our best defense right now.

Tonight, I will be tickled to see a double-pick set for Tyler and get him a wide-open shot. I saw several!

Tonight, I hope to see ARD start as I believe he is playing harder than anyone else. didn't happen

Tonight, I hope to see JARAD KEY play.  This is the type of game where you need to reward his efforts in practices with a little PT. he did!

Tonight, I hope we break 100. we scored 78

Tonight, I hope we hold our opponent under 40% FG and under 25% 3P shooting. 24% & 14% !!!!!

Tonight, I hope we have 16 steals, 9 Blocks, 24 assists, 9 turnovers and 15 fouls.9, 0, 25, 15 & 9

Tonight, I hope we keep our home winning streak alive. we did!

Tonight, I hope someone other than me is praying for our troops overseas. did you?

I don't think we were prepared for UT.

First of all, you don't leave Lofton open.  Secondly, you don't leave Lofton open.  Most importantly, however, you don't leave Lofton open.

Lofton is the sparkplug that keeps the motor running for UT and if you allow him to light it up from 3 range, it's going to be a long night.  We did just that.


We took our eyes off of the ball many many times.  Chalk that up to UT's defensive prowess combined with young players and we can expect this problem to disappear by season's end.  Thank goodness.

The biggest reason we struggled?  No picks!  No screens!  No attempts to get anyone open.  Very, very few attempts to dribble-penetrate-dish-pass-shoot (find the open guy).  We did have some very good passes from Horton and Thomas but those were too few.

If we're not going to start to do some things offensively to get someone open against a team with a D like UT then put ARD & CARTER & SPOON in and let them take turns taking people to the hole with everyone else trailing for the rebound.  I liked the effort put forth by these 3 young men and I think they should be a permanent part of the starting lineup until everyone else catches up to their intensity level.

Horton's shooting problems are a result of him trying to hard IMHO.  Most of the shots he misses are because he "floats" to the left while jumping and then overcompensates to the right during his shot.  He has GREAT elevation already and doesn't need the extra effort he's putting into the shot.  Once he relaxes and squares up better he will hit those shots.

Kennedy has hit some tough shots this year and I like the confidence I'm seeing in him as of late.  He gets my vote for most improved player so far this year.

Tyler will have the same effect for us that Lofton has for UT.  He's every bit as prolific a shotter as is Lofton but you've got to get him a good look at the basket.  We MUST screen for him if we do nothing else on offense.

Every player MUST do their best to rebound the basketball and be sure to keep the opponent from sneaking in on them.  This is one area we are not making as much progress as I would like to see thus far in the season.  UT was smaller than we but they fought harder and had better rebounding fundamentals (not to mention athleticism).  We have to do a better job preventing the offensive rebounds.

Our man D is not good.  It is the single biggest reason we have so many fouls this season.  Our feet aren't as quick as they need to be to get in front of a player.  As a result, we are making frequent contact and getting called for the majority of that contact.  In our defense against UT, however, we had 3 really solid sets for charges that were called against us.

We need to stay in a ZONE D for the next 5 games or so.  We are very effective with the zone and less foul prone while in it.

Too many silly turnovers against very good opponents has been our downfall so far.  These mistakes will be corrected and you will find us in better positions as a result but this should be one of our top priorities right now, especially against great teams.

UT has a much improved post game than what they showed us last year.  Combined with our inexperience, it was too much for us to handle.  I do not believe for an instant, however, that we should have lost this game by 24 points.  12 free points for Lofton and another 15 or so gimme points at the line from silly fouls and that is the difference in the game.

The effort was good, but it could have been better and the intensity level should have been twice what we showed.

If these two teams meet at the end of the year, it will more likely be within 6 points either way (if we guard Lofton).

Overall I give us a C.

I didn't see the same amount of improvement this week as I've seen in past weeks, but you have to give some credit to Bruce Pearl's preparation for this game and to their defense.

We WILL be alright when it matters most...The latter part of this season.

Go Racers!

The game will be broadcast on the following channels

Mediacom channel 47 for Marshall & Calloway Counties & Princeton & Marion & Hopkinsville areas
NewWave channel 27 for zip code 42025
DirecTV channel 630
Dish Network 420

Anyone else go to http://msn.foxsports.com/tv/schedule and enter your zip code, select basketball and find your provider station for the Murray / UT game.

Best I could do on short notice.

Go Racers!

That depends on the following circumstances:

If you want point production these should be your starting 5 in order :
Carter ( 13.6 )
Holloway ( 11.6 )
Witherspoon ( 10.2 )
Horton ( 6.6 )
Paul ( 6.0 )

If you want good shot selection these should be your starting 5 in order :
Paul ( 60.0% )
Easley ( 60% )
Holloway ( 51.3% )
Witherspoon ( 50.0% )
Carter ( 48.3% )

If you want aggressive play to the basket with good free throw shooters this should be your starting 5 in order :
Kennedy ( 11-12 ft )
Paul ( 4-12 ft – needs someone to work with him on form )
Carter ( 7-8 ft )
Holloway ( 7-7 ft)
Witherspoon ( 6-6 ft )

If you need to get back into the game quickly, this should be your starting 5 in order :
Holloway ( 11-24 3p)
Carter ( 5-12 3p )
Witherspoon ( 10-30 3p)
Horton ( 3-11 3p)
Paul ( 2-5 3p)

If you need to take care of the basketball, these are the 5 you want playing in order :
Thomas ( 4 to )
Easley ( 6 to )
Holloway ( 7 to )
Kennedy ( 7 to )
Ard ( 7 to )

If you need rebounds here are your 5 in order :
Carter ( 5 rpg )
Witherspoon ( 4.6 rpg )
Parker ( 3.8 rpg )
Paul ( 3.2 rpg )
Horton ( 1.8 rpg )

If you want ball pressure, here are your 5 in order :
Carter ( 8 stl )
Witherspoon ( 8 stl )
Horton ( 7 stl )
Paul ( 6 stl )
Holloway ( 5 stl )

If you need to stop the inside scoring, here are your 5 in order :
Williams ( 5 bl )
Kennedy ( 4 bl )
Witherspoon ( 3 bl )
Easley ( 2 bl – limited pt )
Paul ( 1 bl )

If you need people to create, here are your 5 in order :
Horton ( 14 a )
Holloway ( 11 a )
Carter ( 10 a )
Paul ( 6 a )
Witherspoon ( 5 a )

Witherspoon is listed 8 of 9 times
Paul is listed 8 of 9 times
Carter is listed 7 of 9 times
Holloway is listed 7 of 9 times
Horton is listed 5 of 9 times
Easley is listed 3 of 9 times
Kennedy is listed 3 of 9 times
Williams is listed 2 of 9 times
Thomas is listed 1 of 9 times
Ard is listed 1 of 9 times

The starting 5, then, should be as follows :
Witherspoon
Paul
Carter
Holloway
Horton

Coming off the bench should be :
Easley
Kennedy
Williams
Thomas
Ard


These numbers will change as the season progresses, but for Cowboy and Malta's sake, I thought I'd post these numbers so they could get a good idea about who's doing what.

****************************************************************************************************** Try not to read too much into these numbers as the season is still early and things will change.  This is for entertainment purposes only ******************************************************************************************************

Read this article and tell me that doesn't make you feel better about where we are so far this season.

Feel free to comment.

Go Racers!

http://siusalukis.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/112406aaa.html

I don't think anyone was surprised that we lost this game.

We are young, with tooooooo many new players, a new head coach, a new coaching staff and not nearly enough experience returning to help make a difference.

Having said that, there were some positives I saw out of this game.

The zone defense looked amazing at times and really caused alot of trouble for SIU as they struggled to find an answer for it.  This is a very good thing as SIU has some darn good post players and they didn't get nearly as many touches as they would have against us last year.

There were several blocks in this game and that is a good sign as well.  The timing on those blocks was very good and most turned into turnovers for SIU.

We did a much better job of defending the dribble penetration and kick outs (after the first 5 minutes).

It was very good for us to see the hustle and speed of this game as well as the relentless defensive pressure that has become the cornerstone for SIU's recent successes.  It seemed as if the guys learned that they had to play just as hard if they didn't want to get blown out.

I haven't seen the official stats for the game but there seemed to be a huge discrepancy in the number of fouls called on MSU and the number of fouls called against SIU (I lost count after 25 against us versus 14 against them, where most of theirs they were going to the charity stripe.)

Bottom line is - again, no surprise - SIU out-hustled in almost every aspect of the game.

Knowing just HOW good SIU is and knowing how inexperienced we were going into the game, I thought we did fairly well with the exception of our offensive sets, which are still pretty much non-existent (again, this will come.)

Had we continued to play the way we did the first 10 minutes of the game, this would have been a very ugly 30+ point blow-out but we didn't crumble under the pressure and that is a VERY good sign.

SIU did what most GREAT teams do.  They hit the shots when they needed to hit them.  Some were contested, some were not, but most were converted by SIU and that makes it extremely difficult to chip away at their lead.  When you couple that with some silly, travel calls, terrible telegraphed passes, no screens, picks, give & gos, etc., you have to agree that the score could have been much worse.

Overall, I saw yet more improvement in our team this week and that's all you can ask for with such a young team.  I can remember a much more experienced team, in Murray, being down by 19 points or so.  Therefore, if a seasoned team can fall so far behind to SIU, it is not a surprise that this team found themselves in the same situation.

Again, the best part of this game will be how valuable the game film will be to us to help us plug a few holes defensively and to learn how to attack a good team's defense.

Hold your heads up Racers.  Your time will come.  Remember that this is all a tune up for the 2nd half of the season, so continue to push yourselves to be your best.  Bottle the energy you showed in the middle 20 minutes of the SIU game and bring it with you every night from now on.  You have shown you have alot of heart and we all know you have talent.  Like a fine wine, you will get better with age.

Go Racers!

Quote from: Sycamorefan96 post_id=185361 time=1615419044 user_id=21850

Quote from: runningracer post_id=185360 time=1615418098 user_id=56MVC should get a second bid this year if there ia any fairness.

Drake should get one. In my opinion Belmont should get one too. When they announce the field I am doubtful either school's name will be called. I feel pretty good about Drake's chances of getting an NIT bid, but I have a bad feeling that Belmont might not even make that.

Doesn't Belmont automatically get an NIT bid for their regular season championship?  Or is that suspended this year due to a lower number of invitations?  My guess is that Belmont, with the most wins of any team, gets in the NIT.

Drake may get an at large in Big Dance, but it's probably 60-40. If some bids are stolen in big boys conference tourneys, they will be outside. Good team, though. Better before their 2 key injuries.

I am just now coming down off of my 1st Basketball Adrenaline Rush of the season!

I think this is going to be a very exciting year for the Racers.

First of all, it was great to be back in Racer Arena (a.k.a. Cutchin Fieldhouse) again!

The first thing I noticed is that it seemed smaller than what I remembered it being.

The second thing I noticed was how much louder it is than the R.S.E.C.  The band sounded great and even the cheerleaders were sounded ten times louder than at the R.S.E.C.

I was a little bummed about not getting to see the Racer Girls perform as they have some nice new outfits but they said the sound system wasn't working properly but the Racer Girls would perform at the Football game.  Unfortunately, I have to work the afternoon shift today.  Bummer.

The lady Racers look much quicker and more aggressive than I've seen them in the past.  Their defense seems to be very improved and they can get out on the fast break rather quickly.  The Guffys looked very good and Pam is going to rule the paint.

The men looked very talented to me.

The intensity level was pretty good and I could tell we will be seeing plenty of MISTER Easley on the highlight reels this season.  He is going to be a pleasure to watch this year.  This kid LOVES to dunk the basketball and he's not shy about doing it.

For those of you who didn't get to make it to Fan Jam, you missed 2 dunks by Tyler Holloway!!!! Bruce Carter looks like he might be one of our best defensive players and he has some good moves around the basket.  He also has pretty good court vision and is not selfish.

Ed Horton can run the offense very well and he has great quickness.

Forrest Smallwood has mad hops and runs the floor well and I think he will quickly become a crowd favorite.

Duane Paul was surprising quick.

Danero Thomas looks to have some great moves around the basket and will also be a great defensive asset.

Daniel Ard impressed me.  He move all over the floor and was very physical both offensively and defensively.  He has a quick first step and can take you from the outside.

The guys looked like they were having alot of fun out on the floor and it is evident that Spoon and Easley are going to be the floor leaders as they bring a fierce intensity to the floor.

After speaking will all of the players, they are all excited about being at Murray State and are looking forward to this season.  Most of the players from last year's team believe this team has the potential to be even better than last year and I have to agree with them at least initially.  Obviously there is a chemistry factor and learning Coach Kennedy's system so there will be a learning curve, but I predict being in the hunt for the championship this year.

It was great to see the energy and excitement that Coach Kennedy had when he first was introduced.

In summary, our post-game should be much improved over last year.  Our defensive intensity should be much better and it appears we have the talent to be 10 deep, so platooning in 5 new players could very well be a viable option if that is what Coach Kennedy wants to do.  The chemistry will come along quickly I think and we should know where we stand after the California trip.

Before any thunder-stealers and party-poopers cut me down...
yes, I know it was just a scrimmage and you can't tell how a season will turn out just watching a scrimmage, but I can spot talent when I see it and this year's team is blessed with it.

Last Item...
I would love to see 1 or 2 games a year played at old Racer Arena just for the atmosphere.  I loved being there again.  You could almost feel the history of the place in your bones.

Go Racers!

The CBI is still on with a 12 team field with all games being played in Daytona Beach..

Fadi Zamjaoui & Dmytro Hryhorash have been named as All-OVC 1st team members.

Zamjaoui was also named the Ohio Valley Conference Men's Tennis Player of the Year.

This is Zamjaoui's 2nd time on the all-conference squad and Hryhorash's first.

Zamjaoui played number 1 singles, Hryhorash played number 2 and together they played #1 doubles.

Congratulations to them both and good luck in the OVC Tournament.

Go Racers!

Now that Billy Kennedy is our new Men's Basketball Head Coach, we need the support of Burger King.

That way, we could have a great promotion night and call it 2BK night!

BK  + BK = 2BK

Just a silly thought.

Congratulations Coach Kennedy!

I hope you and your family enjoy Murray as much as the rest of us do.

Welcome aboard.  I'm looking forward to watching you kick some booty with your new team!

Thanks for a job well done Mr. Ward.

Go Racers!

If you had to pick a winner of a game between 2 good schools that had never played each other and they were both undefeated or had the same records against equal competition, what do you think is the most important team statistical category from the ones listed below?