First and most importantly, the official site announced that Lukic and Maric will be available tonight. One inside, one outside. That will help depth tremendously. We shall see how it affects chemistry.

The T-Trojans are 6-10 and 2-3 in conference. Last time out they beat Texas State by 8 in San Marcos, so this is no team to go to sleep on. Their best non-conference effort was probably a 4-point loss to TAMU at College Station.

Of course, Scott Cross (late of Arlington) is now their head coach, and in my opinion one of the very best coaches in the league.

They likely will start 6-7, 6-6, 6-4 on the front line, so with Maric back, we should have a big size advantage. They also have 6-9, 6-8, 6-8 on the roster.

As you might expect from a Cross team, they are fairly solid on defense, allowing 42% overall and 33% from the arc. They are minus-1 on the boards and have a positive team A/TO ratio. (Ours is considerably negative.)

They are average at best shooting. They have three players averaging double figures, led by 6-4 junior Darian Adams at 13.1 ppg. He and Ty Gordon will shoot the lion's share of the 3-pointers. Over 40% of their attempts are from the arc (shades of the Troy teams of the past). They rebound by committee.

Sagarin picks us by 4.
RealtimeRPI has us by a point.

This is a road game we ought to win, and those are always hard to come by. I don't think they will be able to handle us inside - IF we play our game and limit our turnovers.

I am certainly more worried about this game after they won at Texas State somewhat easily. Like any team that shoots a lot of 3's, they can beat anyone if they are hot. Still, I like our chances. Really excited to see Nikola and Marko play tonight.

It will be interesting to see who starts.

(01-09-2020 02:50 PM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  It will be interesting to see who starts.

My guess is that Darrell doesn't mess with the starting line-up. Coaches are superstitious. Interesting to see how quick Nikola gets into the game. I think we will see Marko get some minutes, although I expect Jaczec to be the first guard off the bench.

(01-09-2020 11:59 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  First and most importantly, the official site announced that Lukic and Maric will be available tonight. One inside, one outside. That will help depth tremendously. We shall see how it affects chemistry.

The T-Trojans are 6-10 and 2-3 in conference. Last time out they beat Texas State by 8 in San Marcos, so this is no team to go to sleep on. Their best non-conference effort was probably a 4-point loss to TAMU at College Station.

Of course, Scott Cross (late of Arlington) is now their head coach, and in my opinion one of the very best coaches in the league.

They likely will start 6-7, 6-6, 6-4 on the front line, so with Maric back, we should have a big size advantage. They also have 6-9, 6-8, 6-8 on the roster.

As you might expect from a Cross team, they are fairly solid on defense, allowing 42% overall and 33% from the arc. They are minus-1 on the boards and have a positive team A/TO ratio. (Ours is considerably negative.)

They are average at best shooting. They have three players averaging double figures, led by 6-4 junior Darian Adams at 13.1 ppg. He and Ty Gordon will shoot the lion's share of the 3-pointers. Over 40% of their attempts are from the arc (shades of the Troy teams of the past). They rebound by committee.

Sagarin picks us by 4.
RealtimeRPI has us by a point.

This is a road game we ought to win, and those are always hard to come by. I don't think they will be able to handle us inside - IF we play our game and limit our turnovers.

How about that, we are 11-5 and 5-0 and now we get to add 2 really good players to the bench.

One difference in the starting lineup. Lottie starts at point instead of Nowell.

I do not know if Nowell is available. If he is not starting, I assume he is not. Although DW might just hold him in reserve to be safe. Back in the old days you usually wouldn't take any chances with a hamstring pull until it was fully healed.

(01-09-2020 07:00 PM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  I do not know if Nowell is available. If he is not starting, I assume he is not. Although DW might just hold him in reserve to be safe. Back in the old days you usually wouldn't take any chances with a hamstring pull until it was fully healed.

I got the impression he is out. We'll see but I don't expect he will see the floor tonight. Actually hope is stayed in Little Rock to get treatment, whatever that would be.

So far Troy is living on the 3, and living pretty well. We better play a little D.

Nowell who? So far Lottie has been The Man.

We are 0 for 6 from the three, and they are 5 of 11.

We are not making our 2-pointers, either.

Monyyong is not scoring much, but is controlling the boards.

Stulic hasn't scored in the first half yet, but he has 3 boards, 2 assists, 0 turnovers. Little things that win games.

It is clear that all they are going to do is shoot 3-pointers. If we don't play some perimeter defense, we won't pull this one out.

At least no one in any sort of foul trouble. We need to really ramp up the defensive pressure, since we have the two players back.

Two minutes into the second half and Monyyong already has his double-double.

Their leading scorer picked up his 4th foul.

When you let the other team take over half their shots from the 3-point line, and you let them make over half of them, you don't deserve to win.

Still, with everything that has gone wrong, it is still a 2-possession game. Anything can happen.