MBB vs JU and UNF

Wingman

These will be the last 2 home games of the regular season and most likely the last 2 home games as members of the ASUN. While it’s possible to finish in the top 4 and host an ASUN tournament game, we have a ways to climb and only a few games left to get there.

The games are on Wednesday and Friday evenings.

bb_fan

Hard to believe that a game against 10th place Jax is a "must win", but right now it's a 9 vs 10 matchup and KSU is hanging on to a tournament game by a thread.

bb_fan

KSU has lost 6 games in a row; the last team they beat was JU so maybe this is the matchup the Owls need to get back on track. JU has lost all 6 road conference games.

Massy and Pomeroy both have KSU as a 5 point favorite.

The lines have KSU as a 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 point favorite.

bb_fan

The Athletic has Eastern Kentucky penciled in as a 16 seed in a play-in game in the NCAA tourney. For some strange reason the Colonels play Chicago State tonight. (Wasn't too long ago when KSU and Chicago State were battling it out to be the worst ranked team in the nation.) Even stranger is that Stetson played a home and home series this year against Chicgo State. And somehow managed to lose both games.

Wingman

bb_fan Chicago State is the only independent (not in a conference) team in D1. I am sure the schedule games when they can, especially in January and February.

Wingman

This is from the AJC:

So how's Kennesaw State doing?

Not great. The Owls have lost six straight. They're in a three-way tie for ninth in the ASUN. They've had some wild losses – to Bellarmine on a 3-pointer at the buzzer; at Lipscomb despite scoring 95 points – and they need to resume winning. Only 10 of the league's 12 teams qualify for the conference tournament.

Of note: KSU ranks 344th among Division I teams in points allowed. There are 350 D-I teams.

Wingman

The 66 points we scored against Jacksonville was the fewest points we have score in a game under Coach Pettway.

Glad to have a win no matter how it happens.

Kmase14

That game was unlike any other game we’ve played this year. Not a ton of tempo, defensive looked pretty good, rebounded well. A win is a win. Hopefully we build.

Kmase14

Kmase14 Other note, 3's still sucked. Jusuan Holt is shooting 42% from 3. Should he be the one shooting more? He's been really good at shot selection from 3. Doesn't take bad quick shots/ contested shots.

HootyHooKSU

We played good defense and we won. I noticed communication on the defensive end improved a lot.

If we can build on that, it wouldn't surprise me if we make a conference tourney run. We're as talented as any team.

It was a rough losing streak, but I'm seeing growth in Pettway with making adjustments. KSU basketball is going to be fine.

Kmase14

HootyHooKSU I've said it all year and you can see it in spurts, even during our losing streak, we have the highest ceiling in the ASUN, we just have struggled meshing and using our guys properly and in the right system. Just get in the tourney, play good D, and anything can happen.

bb_fan

I'm not going to get excited about barely beating a bad team at home. If JU hadn't had their worst free throw shooting night of the year (7/18 for a team that shoots 70%) the outcome would have been different.

HootyHooKSU

bb_fan I think there were still a lot of positives. KSU shot well from the charity stripe and we played solid defense. Yes Jacksonville free throw shooting was bad, but KSU returned the favor shooting 19 percent from 3. Even for us, that's quite bad.

Wingman

UNF beat us in January at their place. We need to return the favor.

bb_fan

UNF shoots the most 3's in the country and is 67/351 in 3 point percentage.

KSU shoots the 6th most 3's in the country and is 233/351 in 3 point percentage.

Comment from Pettway about KSU defense in todays MDJ:

For the first time in more than a month, Kennesaw State played a complete game on the defensive end. The Owls had given up more than 85 points in each game of the losing skid.

Coach Antoine Pettway said in looking at the statistics, his team was one of the best teams in the conference in first-half defense and last in the second. He said it was nice to see the work his players put in show in the game.

“We knew we had to put a complete 40-minute game together on the defensive end, and we did tonight,” he said. “We’ve been talking defensive intensity, defensive effort, communication. That’s all our focus has been all week, and it paid off.”

Wingman

bb_fan I have seen the Owls defenders scrambling at times with late close outs of 3 pointers. The defender can run into the shooter. Sometimes this is called as a foul and at times I have seen it clearly as a foul but the refs missed it. I will be watching how the Owls defend the 3’s as plenty will be launched.

Wingman

What a heartbreaking loss on senior night.

A couple of thinks stand out:

A really bad foul of Lanier on UNF’s last score. It turned a tie game to a one point lead, which ias all INF neede to win.

It may have been with 6-7 minutes left, UNF went on a 7 point run with Burden on the bench. The team looked lost with bad turnovers and bad D. KSU should have called timeout sooner and put Burden back in before the bleeding got really bad.