This might be a little early, but who's kidding themselves.... It's never too early for basketball stuff. It's year two of the Mac regime and I couldn't be more excited to watch some hoops. I'm telling myself "Don't overreact to game 1" but good/bad that is inevitably a futile practice. But Tech kicks off the year against a middling SWAC team in Bethune-Cookman. BC is not a "horrible" SWAC team but the SWAC in general is a weak league and usually struggles against higher level competition. BC will play uber fast and apply pressure like most SWAC teams, but this should be a game that Tech controls pretty easily.
Bethune-Cookman by the numbers:
Bethune-Cookman by the numbers:
- 304th overall per Kenpom
- 286th on offense
- 304th on defense
- 267th per TRank
- 243rd on offense
- 285th on defense
- 323rd per Haslametrics
- 324th on offense
- 309th on defense
- 77th in tempo per Kenpom
- Gianni Hunt – Guard, 6’4, 190 - Hunt is a well-traveled guard in his 6th season after stops at Oregon State, Sac State, and CSUN. I would look for him to be BC’s first option on offense – at least on paper - and PBH. Decent size and athleticism for a guard, Hunt is a twitchy lefty with a crafty handle. Works in ball screens reasonably well and can get to his spots. But very inefficient and is a poor shooter. Has never shot over 40% from the field in his career. Averaged 10.2 ppg, 4.4 rpg, and 4 apg
- Antwann Jones - Wing/Big, 6’6, 220 – 7th year transfer from UCF and a long and twitchy wing type. And a high-efficiency, low usage player last year. Not a very polished offensive player and mostly gets buckets in transition or CnS situations. Solid defender. Averaged 4.3 ppg, 1.7 rpg and 1.1 APG.
- Daniel Rouzan – Big, 6’8, 235 – Junior transfer from Manhanntan College. Good size for a low major big and sturdily built. Very polished in the post and offensively in general. Has great footwork for a big and will hit defenders with multiple moves and counter moves. Pretty ground-bound but uses his size well and generally can get where he wants. Will even see him faceup and attack out of a reverse pivot at times. But is a poor defender and rebounder. Averaged 11.4 ppg, 4.6 rpg and 1.8 apg.
- Reggie Ward Jr. – Wing, 6’6, 230 – Senior and one of the few returners for BC. A former JUCO standout from Riverside CC, Ward plays as a undersize 4/wing for BC. Ward looks like a damn bowling ball out there and is a very explosive athlete when he gets some runway. Outside of that he moves well without the ball, finishes strong at the rack and is very good in transition. But he is limited with his ball skills and isn’t going to be able to play bully ball as much against power conference opponents. Ward is not a “non-shooter” but takes a low volume of 3’s and is an average rebounder at best. Averaged 9.6 ppg and 4.5 rpg.
- Brayon Freeman – Guard, 6’2, 180 – Another player with quite the winding path to BC, Freeman was an All-Rookie team guy for George Washington as a Freshman, a 14 ppg scorer for Rhode Island and then had a rough year at Coastal Carolina before heading to the SWAC. Watching Freeman is an adventure on offense. He has a creative handle and a solid skillset but is wild and wildly inefficient and is the definition of a boom or bust scorer. He is quick but thin and struggles to finish around length and has been up and down from deep over his career - he has a funky shot – so he could be BC’s leading scorer or shoot 30% from the field. Averaged 7 ppg and 1.8 rpg.
- Stay composed - BC will try to make the game chaotic. Tech needs to stay composed and fight off those first game jitters. Last year's team tried to do way too much in game 1 and it showed in the box score with a rash of turnovers.
- Clean the glass - BC is a poor rebounding team and not particularly dominant inside. Tech should have a huge advantage here and this squad needs to be good on the glass and should be. Tech should dominate inside.
- Shooters shoot- If the game is up tempo at all that will provide opportunities for Tech shooters to take advantage of a disorganized defense. Just gotta knock them down.
- Erratic Guards - BC's guards are volatile but are volume shooters who sometimes get hot. Cannot let Tre Thomas, Gianni Hunt and Brayon Freeman dictate the game.
