at WKU
2/15/2025 | 7 p.m.
WGNS (101.9 FM | 1450 AM | 100.5 FM)
2/15/2025 | 7 p.m.
WGNS (101.9 FM | 1450 AM | 100.5 FM)
Last edited:
BASKETBALL Middle Tennessee (16-8, 7-4) @ wku (14-10, 5-6) (CBSSN), 7PM, Saturday, February 15, 2025
- Thread starter SpaceRaider
- Start date
NET: MT #109 wku #119
KenPom MT #123 wku #115
RPI MT #55 wku#102 SOS (MT 65, wku 83)
Massey Composite MT #101 wku #113
KenPom MT #123 wku #115
RPI MT #55 wku#102 SOS (MT 65, wku 83)
Massey Composite MT #101 wku #113
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2024-25 Conference USA Standings
| Team | CONF | GB | OVR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jacksonville State | 9-2 | - | 17-7 |
| Liberty | 7-4 | 2 | 19-5 |
| Middle Tennessee | 7-4 | 2 | 16-8 |
| UTEP | 6-4 | 2.5 | 16-7 |
| Louisiana Tech | 6-5 | 3 | 17-7 |
| Kennesaw State | 6-5 | 3 | 14-10 |
| New Mexico State | 5-5 | 3.5 | 12-11 |
| Western Kentucky | 5-6 | 4 | 14-10 |
| Florida International | 2-9 | 7 | 8-16 |
| Sam Houston | 1-10 | 8 | 8-16 |
This is another one that would be massive if we can get a win on the road.
WKU Men's Basketball prepares for MTSU - WKUHerald.com
WKU Men’s Basketball will return to Diddle Arena to play the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders Saturday after an unsuccessful two-game road trip. The Hilltoppers lost to Kennesaw State and Jacksonville State during their trip, dropping them to 5-6 in Conference USA play. The Blue Raiders come...
wkuherald.com
Tops Host 149th Meeting Against Rival Middle Tennessee - Western Kentucky University Athletics
WKU men's basketball enters a three-game homestand beginning this week and continues its Conference USA campaign with the 149 th all-time meeting facing hist...
MT to close out road stand at WKU - Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – The Middle Tennessee men's basketball program is set to close out its road stand this weekend, traveling north to play Western Kentucky Saturday.
goblueraiders.com
There hasn't been much basketball discussion the last couple of weeks for whatever reason. We have a big game tonight that is a must win if we plan to stay in the race fir the number one spot. Western has been playing fairly well considering they are down a few players. I think we have the favorable match up. The they have no size inside and aren't that great of shooters. They do play hard though, something our guys don't do consistently in my opinion.
We win if we shoot good from three point and they don't.
We win if we shoot good from three point and they don't.
MT at the half 44-39
Team Comparison
Team Comparison
| STATISTIC | MT | wku |
|---|---|---|
| FG% | 40% | 38% |
| FGs | 16-40 | 15-40 |
| 3FG% | 25% | 31% |
| 3FGs | 5-20 | 5-16 |
| FT% | 88% | 67% |
| FTs | 7-8 | 4-6 |
| TOs | 4 | 5 |
| PtsOffTO | 9 | 0 |
| TotReb | 27 | 25 |
| DefReb | 17 | 15 |
| Off Reb | 10 | 10 |
| 2ndChPts | 13 | 7 |
| BenchPts | 8 | 10 |
| PtsPaint | 18 | 18 |
| FstBkPt | 3 | 7 |
| Blocks | 5 | 1 |
| Steals | 2 | 2 |
| Assts | 8 | 9 |
| Times Tied: | 6 | |
| Time Tied: | 2:47 | |
| Lead Chg: | 12 | |
| LeadTime | 7:35 | 9:38 |
Middle Tennessee Stats
| # | Player | PTS | FG | 3FG | FT | REB | A | PF | TO | MIN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2* | COUNTER,J | 18 | 7-14 | 4-9 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 17 |
| 3* | PORTER,J | 2 | 0-2 | 0-2 | 2-2 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 17 |
| 10* | ALSTON,T | 6 | 2-6 | 0-0 | 2-3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 16 |
| 24 | WESTON,C | 8 | 3-10 | 1-6 | 1-1 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 16 |
| 44* | MOSTAFA,E | 10 | 4-5 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 16 |
| 4* | BUFFORD,J | 0 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9 |
| 11 | GREEN,T | 0 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 13 | LOOFE,C | 0 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| TM | TEAM, | - | - | - | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||
| TOTALS | 44 | 16-40 | 5-20 | 7-8 | 27 | 8 | 5 | 4 | ||
| GAME PCT | 40.0 | 25.0 | 87.5 |
This was a fun games - a great game - to watch. And beating wkcc is a good day any day. Well done men.
Team Comparison
| STATISTIC | MT | wku |
|---|---|---|
| FG% | 44% | 38% |
| FGs | 31-70 | 30-79 |
| 3FG% | 31% | 29% |
| 3FGs | 9-29 | 8-28 |
| FT% | 73% | 53% |
| FTs | 16-22 | 9-17 |
| TOs | 6 | 9 |
| PtsOffTO | 19 | 0 |
| TotReb | 50 | 49 |
| DefReb | 35 | 28 |
| Off Reb | 15 | 21 |
| 2ndChPts | 13 | 19 |
| BenchPts | 20 | 18 |
| PtsPaint | 32 | 42 |
| FstBkPt | 12 | 10 |
| Blocks | 6 | 3 |
| Steals | 3 | 3 |
| Assts | 14 | 12 |
| Times Tied: | 6 | |
| Time Tied: | 2:47 | |
| Lead Chg: | 12 | |
| LeadTime | 27:35 | 9:38 |
It’s never a bad year when we sweep WKU!!
Is that the most complete game we’ve played? I was extremely nervous, but we kept finding points when we needed them.
This was now our 3rd quad 2 win as of today’s rankings. Biggest conference win of the year in that category.
Standings now:
2024-25 CUSA Standings
| Team | CONF | GB | OVR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jacksonville State | 10-3 | - | 18-8 |
| Liberty | 9-4 | 1 | 21-5 |
| Middle Tennessee | 8-4 | 1.5 | 17-8 |
| UTEP | 7-5 | 2.5 | 17-8 |
| Kennesaw State | 7-6 | 3 | 15-11 |
| Louisiana Tech | 6-7 | 4 | 17-9 |
| New Mexico State | 5-6 | 4 | 12-12 |
| Western Kentucky | 5-7 | 4.5 | 14-11 |
| Sam Houston | 3-10 | 7 | 10-16 |
| Florida International | 2-10 | 7.5 | 8-17 |
McDevitt secures 100th win at MTSU with 87-77 victory at WKU - Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – "Go ahead and break out those brooms," said redshirt freshman Torey Alston at the final buzzer Saturday night, putting an exclamation
goblueraiders.com
Breakdown/analysis by a wku fan:
PACE 73. We got what we wanted here. MT beat us at our own game. I could pretty much stop typing now, really.
EFFICIENCY
WKU 105
MT 119
This was a great college basketball game and environment. Lots of respect to MTSU. Every time we landed a punch, they had an answer. Every single time.
This is the second game in a row where we got really good offense and lost. For context, 105 EFF every game this season would have us sitting at 18-7 and tied for second in CUSA with 4 losses. Getting 105 up offensively is really good for this team and for most of the season it would be enough to have us all ecstatic given our well-known injury issues. We had some offensive struggles, for sure, but nothing that would historically stop this team from winning games. EG, we didn't shoot well from anywhere: 43% 2s, 29% 3s, and 53% from the line (9-17). Isn't that bad offense, you say? No, it's bad shooting. With those numbers how did we post 105?! This is one of those "look closer" games. Fans near me were apoplectic about rebounding. Uh, we won the boards grabbing 38%-34%. MTSU got a lot, we got more. This is a great way to measure your fan bias. If you thought MTSU was killing us on the glass you were less than half right. To the degree that was true, we killed them more. Also, we took great care of ball at only 12% turnover rate. Don't turn it over, get back your misses...that's good offense even when you don't shoot well. It is unfortunate we simply struggled with Ball In Hoop, but we didn't make mistakes and we clawed out rebounds.
Hat tip: HOLY DENNIS RODMAN, Blaise Keita! He played 19 mins, 10 rebs, and SIX were O-Rebs! By himself, Keita gave us SIX second chances! Lander continued his oily forays to the rim and was a real standout for us making 7-10 2s and chalking up 30 mins, 18 pts, 9 rebs (!), 3 ast, vs 1 TO. Lander is simply one of the best guards in CUSA now. Don: 20 and 5, 2 ast, 2 TO. Very solid. It's never one guy's fault but Woo had a ROUGH night shooting 1-10. All Tops not named Woo shot 49% from 2 (not 43%). That's more a testament to how we need all our offensive guys playing well to win right now.
Defensively, as I mentioned, we won the glass. I don't believe MTSU got tons of easy looks (a few, but not an egregious number). What they got was Counter being Steph Curry early, and then Mostafa got them critical buckets late in the Blue Pegasi's game-clinching run. They also got timely jumpers from Porter and Westin when needed. Not easy ones, either. That said it's important to understand that MT made 53% of their 2s, but take out Mostafa and it plummets to 46%. He's the problem for us.
Finally, you won't want to hear this, but this game was "MT won it" more than "WKU lost it" and here's why: we forced them into our pace in our gym and they 1) made shots (read: Mostafa did) and 2) did it playing just 16% bench minutes. We threw our best game at them from a pace standpoint. We won the glass. We didn't turn it over. Their horses played fiery pace without much rest and still had the legs and focus to beat us the last 10 minutes when a lot of teams wilt from fatigue.
MT played our game but still did what they do: make shots. 53% on 2's and a decent night at the line vs our bad night was enough.
IDENTITY STATS
1. PACE. Win. MT wants molasses they got hot salsa and still won.
2. THREES. Loss, but the Raiders weren't good either: 31%. Pregame, this would have been a take for us, for sure.
3. FREE THROWS. Loss. A big one. MTSU came into Diddle and rolled up +5 takes and +7 makes.
Add all that up and we were in Diddle and we got up +10 FGAs vs -5 FTAs. That's basically +7 shots to outscore MT. However, they simply outshot us from everywhere. We did good "dirty work." MT made up for that and more with timely 2s and better shooting mainly because Mostafa made 8-11 twos. We don't have an answer for him.
REALLY need the two home wins this coming week.
Beat SAM.
PACE 73. We got what we wanted here. MT beat us at our own game. I could pretty much stop typing now, really.
EFFICIENCY
WKU 105
MT 119
This was a great college basketball game and environment. Lots of respect to MTSU. Every time we landed a punch, they had an answer. Every single time.
This is the second game in a row where we got really good offense and lost. For context, 105 EFF every game this season would have us sitting at 18-7 and tied for second in CUSA with 4 losses. Getting 105 up offensively is really good for this team and for most of the season it would be enough to have us all ecstatic given our well-known injury issues. We had some offensive struggles, for sure, but nothing that would historically stop this team from winning games. EG, we didn't shoot well from anywhere: 43% 2s, 29% 3s, and 53% from the line (9-17). Isn't that bad offense, you say? No, it's bad shooting. With those numbers how did we post 105?! This is one of those "look closer" games. Fans near me were apoplectic about rebounding. Uh, we won the boards grabbing 38%-34%. MTSU got a lot, we got more. This is a great way to measure your fan bias. If you thought MTSU was killing us on the glass you were less than half right. To the degree that was true, we killed them more. Also, we took great care of ball at only 12% turnover rate. Don't turn it over, get back your misses...that's good offense even when you don't shoot well. It is unfortunate we simply struggled with Ball In Hoop, but we didn't make mistakes and we clawed out rebounds.
Hat tip: HOLY DENNIS RODMAN, Blaise Keita! He played 19 mins, 10 rebs, and SIX were O-Rebs! By himself, Keita gave us SIX second chances! Lander continued his oily forays to the rim and was a real standout for us making 7-10 2s and chalking up 30 mins, 18 pts, 9 rebs (!), 3 ast, vs 1 TO. Lander is simply one of the best guards in CUSA now. Don: 20 and 5, 2 ast, 2 TO. Very solid. It's never one guy's fault but Woo had a ROUGH night shooting 1-10. All Tops not named Woo shot 49% from 2 (not 43%). That's more a testament to how we need all our offensive guys playing well to win right now.
Defensively, as I mentioned, we won the glass. I don't believe MTSU got tons of easy looks (a few, but not an egregious number). What they got was Counter being Steph Curry early, and then Mostafa got them critical buckets late in the Blue Pegasi's game-clinching run. They also got timely jumpers from Porter and Westin when needed. Not easy ones, either. That said it's important to understand that MT made 53% of their 2s, but take out Mostafa and it plummets to 46%. He's the problem for us.
Finally, you won't want to hear this, but this game was "MT won it" more than "WKU lost it" and here's why: we forced them into our pace in our gym and they 1) made shots (read: Mostafa did) and 2) did it playing just 16% bench minutes. We threw our best game at them from a pace standpoint. We won the glass. We didn't turn it over. Their horses played fiery pace without much rest and still had the legs and focus to beat us the last 10 minutes when a lot of teams wilt from fatigue.
MT played our game but still did what they do: make shots. 53% on 2's and a decent night at the line vs our bad night was enough.
IDENTITY STATS
1. PACE. Win. MT wants molasses they got hot salsa and still won.
2. THREES. Loss, but the Raiders weren't good either: 31%. Pregame, this would have been a take for us, for sure.
3. FREE THROWS. Loss. A big one. MTSU came into Diddle and rolled up +5 takes and +7 makes.
Add all that up and we were in Diddle and we got up +10 FGAs vs -5 FTAs. That's basically +7 shots to outscore MT. However, they simply outshot us from everywhere. We did good "dirty work." MT made up for that and more with timely 2s and better shooting mainly because Mostafa made 8-11 twos. We don't have an answer for him.
REALLY need the two home wins this coming week.
Beat SAM.
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