Rewatched their 107-74 win in opener against Howard Payne (D3). The most impressive stats is ACU scored 107, shot just 3/13 from deep, and gave up 33 turnovers. It was ugly basketball.
Those numbers are telling of the style ACU plays with. It was a blur constantly running the floor, overly aggressive passing to move the ball up the floor quickly. The 3/4 trap created some problems for ACU early, they eventually settled in but I cant emphasis enough about slowing their transition offense will be key in winning on the road.
ACU is smaller than MTSU which should give them the edge down low guarding Leonardo Bettiol (#3, 6’8”). He scored 22 points (9/11 shooting) with 8 rebounds. At the guards they have Oklahoma State transfer Quion Williams (#5, 6’5”) scored another 20 points (9/11 shooting) and their 3rd best scorer from ‘23-‘24, Hunter Jack Madden (#21, 6’2”) averaged over 11 ppg. They both will be tasked with taking better care of the ball today as they combined for 7 assists and 11 turnovers in the opener.
After both openers against D3 opponents it’s always tough to see how the game will transfer against better competition. I think the game plan has to be: win the turnover and rebounding battles, and force ACU to run a half court offense. I personally think the -3.5 spread for ACU is wild, but Vegas has seen the road struggles for MTSU. In a vacuum, MT was far more impressive through one game.
