Team has a distinct Southern Indiana flavor as you might expect from a team based in Louisville. About half their roster played high school ball in Indiana. I'm more familiar with players from Indy and north of Indy so if you follow high school ball south of Indy some of these may mean more to you. Only name that stands out to me is Curt Hopf who played at Barr-Reeve last year. I saw him and Furst square off in the HOF Classic at New Castle last year and Hopf did an ok job on him. Not sure where in the rotation he is for them as a true freshman though or if he's in it at all. I suspect he'll see minutes against Purdue regardless as size will be at a premium for them (and most of our opponents this year) and he's their 3rd tallest player behind a couple of 6-10 guys.
They return 4 of 5 starters from a 14-8 team last year that finished 2nd in the A-Sun conference. The starter they lost was their leader in points (16.0), rebounds (6.9), and steals (1.6) though. As a team they were 3rd in the country in field goal percentage last year at 50.9%.
Returning starters (all averaged 30 minutes per game or more last year):
Dylan Penn, 6-3 senior guard, 12.9 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 3.6 assists . Only 8 of 30 from 3 last season.
CJ Fleming, 6-0 senior guard, 12.2 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 1.8 assists. He's their shooter. 46/104 for 44% from deep.
Ethan Claycomb, 6-7 senior forward, 10.3 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 3.0 assists. Also a decent shooter. 34/92 for 37%.
Nick Thelen, 6-7 junior forward, 5.0 ppg, 1.8 rpg. Missed the only 3-pointer he took last year.
Other players averaging 15+ minutes. Both shot over 40% from deep last year but averaged fewer than 1 attempt per game.
Juston Betz, 6-3 senior guard, 26 mpg off the bench. averaged 4 ppg, 3.0 rpg and 2.4 apg. Only attempted 18 3's last season but made 8 of them.
Alec Pfriem, 6-5 junior guard, 19 mpg off the bench, 6.4 ppg, 3.5 rpg, and 1.0 apg. 8 of 19 from deep last year.
Games against significant opponents last year. Note we beat the latter two last year.
Lost 76-54 at Duke
Lost 81-70 at Notre Dame
Lost 94-78 to Liberty
What stands out is their field goal percentage. I can only assume that their guards are good at finding and taking good shots so maybe that will be a test for our defense. They also took care of the ball and averaged only 11 turnovers per game.
We should have a strong advantage inside. They have a big man (6-10 Sam DeVault) who averaged about 10 mpg last year off the bench that shot a respectable 14-38 from deep last year. Would not be surprised if he starts against us to try to matchup with our size and maybe attempt to use him to pull our big men out of the middle.
This is not a walk-over game. I think their NET ranking was in the 100's last year. We should certainly have an advantage, particularly inside, and win the game but they could give us some issues if we don't play well. I think it will be a good, early test to see if our defense has improved at all from the exhibition and scrimmage. Bellarmine is used to taking care of the ball and finding/taking good shots. They have a couple of really good shooters but also some guys that we can lay off of. Hopefully we know our assignments and can force them into bad shots. If we constantly get beat off the dribble and rely on help, I think these guys will find the open guys for good shots.
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