BASKETBALL Middle Tennessee (4-7) vs. St. Bonaventure (7-4), 2PM, Saturday, December 21, 2019

[SpaceRaider]

St. Bonaventure
Location: St. Bonaventure, NY
Enrollment: 2,372
Arena: Reilly Center (5,480)
Starters R/L: 3/2 Letterwinners R/L: 5/8
Website: gobonnies.com Colors: Brown & White Nickname: Bonnies
Head Coach: Mark Schmidt Record at School: 210-168 (12 Seasons) Career Record: 292-258 (18 Seasons)
2018-19 Record: 18-16, 12-6
2018-19 Finish: 4th A-10 2018-19 Postseason: N/A
Twitter: @BonniesMBB

Date: December 21, 2019
Time: 2:00 PM CT
Location: Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Arena: Murphy Center (11,520)
Series Record: SBU leads 1-0
TV: C-USA TV Talent: N/A
Radio: Blue Raider Network (Game2/WGNS/TuneIn) Talent: Chip Walters (PxP), Kyle Turnham (Analyst)
Twitter: @MT_MBB, #BlueRaiders


GAME NOTES

LIVE VIDEO

LIVE STATS


bullet points pulled from game notes

• Saturday's contest is the 11th meeting of the season between the Atlantic 10 and Conference USA, with the A-10 currently holding a 7-3 record over C-USA

• Junior G C.J. Jones leads the Blue Raiders in 3-point field goal percentage (.424) and free throw percentage (.952), and his team-leading 10 blocks are 18th nationally and second in C-USA among guards

• Among active D-I players, senior G Antonio Green currently ranks second nationally in career 3-pointers made (304) and 26th nationally in career points (1,557)

• Jones and Green are the second best scoring duo (31.4) in Conference USA in 2019-20 and currently rank third and 10th in C-USA in scoring and fifth and third in C-USA in 3-point field goals made, respectively

• Coming off of a C-USA Freshman of the Week performance in which he posted 14 points on 7 of 7 shooting and pulled down eight rebounds, F Tyson Jackson is now converting on 61.5 percent of his field goal attempts, tops among C-USA freshmen and eighth nationally among D-I rookies

• Following a seven assist performance at Ole Miss last Saturday, junior PG Donovan Sims has moved into fifth in C-USA at 4.1 assists per game

• Junior F Jo'Vontae Millner collected 13 rebounds in his MT debut against Maryville, the most in a Blue Raider debut since all-time leading rebounder Warren Kidd pulled down 21 boards in his debut in 1990, but has missed the last nine contests due to injury

• The Blue Raiders have also begun the year without the services of senior F Reggie Scurry and junior F DeAndre Dishman, both projected starters before the season opened




goblueraiders.com:

Blue Raiders set to battle the Bonnies

 

[SpaceRaider]

gobonnies.sbu.edu

Bonnies Trek To Middle Tennessee For Saturday Battle

 

[SpaceRaider]

espn matchup predictor has SBU at 59.1%

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/game?gameId=401170190

 

[SpaceRaider]

MT a four point dog:

https://www.vegasinsider.com/colleg...re-@-middle-tennessee-state.cfm/date/12-21-19

 

[SpaceRaider]

SBU lost to Ohio by 12 points, 65-53

MT lost to Ohio by 12 points, 75-63

 

[sWiley]

Two pretty bad teams. Whoever plays defense and rebounds the ball will win

 

[SpaceRaider]

Glad to have Scurry back, hope he elevates the rest of the team. Will Millner return today?

 

[MTLynn]

Two pretty bad teams. Whoever plays defense and rebounds the ball will win

During Kermit's tenure I noticed:

- when MT only had one guy hitting a lot of shots they would typically lose.

- when two guys were scoring a lot of points the Raiders would win some of those games.

- when three guys were scoring a lot of points MT would always win. Maybe they lost a few of those games, I don't recall...

These past two seasons the Raiders seem to have one guy hitting a lot of shots.. gotta have two or three guys scoring a lot of points

 

[crposton]

During Kermit's tenure I noticed:

- when MT only had one guy hitting a lot of shots they would typically lose.

- when two guys were scoring a lot of points the Raiders would win some of those games.

- when three guys were scoring a lot of points MT would always win. Maybe they lost a few of those games, I don't recall...

These past two seasons the Raiders seem to have one guy hitting a lot of shots.. gotta have two or three guys scoring a lot of points

Yea I agree. We can't have 4 point performances from Green, Sims, or Jones as much as we have seen this year. One of them can be off, but if two of them are off we are unlikely to win. From Scurry, Jackson, Jayce, Millner, etc. we need good defense, rebounding, and obviously some scoring.

Do you all think Scurry will be in the starting lineup? Millner returning today? Getting Scurry back I think will be a big help, but getting Millner too would be even better. Get them both to get a couple of games in before conference play.

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[MTOleBlue]

Bonnies had a great year last year. Nearly won A10 tournament (and should've - went to the game in Brooklyn).

 

[BlueAlpha]

Glad to see Scurry getting some PT today. There was some “light” chatter in the stands at both the MB tourney & in Oxford last Saturday that he might not play when first eligible due to an unspecified injury. Also encouraging to see 10 guys getting on the court, instead of the usual 8.

 

[sWiley]

antonio green needs to be benched and maybe come in the game as a change of pace or something. this just isn't working with him

 

[dukewayne]

It's getting to be negligent coaching to continue to allow this with Green.

At half-time plus the two most recent games, Green is 0-16 from downtown. Unacceptable.

 

[crposton]

antonio green needs to be benched and maybe come in the game as a change of pace or something. this just isn't working with him

Agreed. Right now I would start Jackson, Scurry, Jayce, Jones, and Sims. Think that might be our best defensive and rebounding lineup.

 

[dukewayne]

At the half, Green is among the highest in possession usage for the team, yet he is the least efficient by a large margin.

 

[crposton]

It's getting to be negligent coaching to continue to allow this with Green.

At half-time plus the two most recent games, Green is 0-16 from downtown. Unacceptable.

I get trying to have him shoot himself out of the slump, but it is killing us.

 

[dukewayne]

Yep, and usually poor shot selection

 

[MTLynn]

If Green was hitting shots, the Raiders would have a nice lead...

 

[crposton]

Why would the last play go to Green?

 

[dukewayne]

Of course, Green takes the final shot, and MT loses.

Again, CNM is directly responsible for that loss in my opinion.

Of course St Bonn would be willing to leave Green open for a last second 3pt shot.

Green 2-11 from downtown

 

[dukewayne]

2-22 in last 3 games from downtown for Green, and he is the player taking the last shot?

 

[MTsumner92]

looks like we are improving.

 

[subkyle]

We are getting better but damn! We are going to have pathetic records two years in a row now. I’m always on board the MT basketball train but that hurt.

 

[dukewayne]

It was clear that having two experienced Forwards back really helped to make MT a better team. It was good that MT fought and was actually in the game at the end of the game. It was also good that MT did not lose in the 1st half by giving up almost 50 points in the 1st half. All positive signs; signs of improvement.

While those signs of improvement are nice, CNM let one get away here. Losing on a missed last second shot by your player who is in something beyond a horrible slump is asking for the loss.

 

[dukewayne]

Jayce Johnson deserves props for his game. It looks like he may be benefiting the most having the two Forwards finally return today. Jayce Johnson finally getting to play his more natural position of SF instead of PF really helps make a difference for him.

While his 9 pts may not be eye-popping, 6 Assts to go with his 6 Rebounds and only 1 turnover is a really nice output from him today.

 

[sWiley]

Remember when we used to complain about our CUSA brethren getting spanked in all their OOC games and hurting our conference RPI?

We are now that team. In spades.

 

[sWiley]

Why didn't C.J Jones take the final shot??? He is clearly our best player on the team and he was on fire tonight.

Of every player on the team right now, why would we have Green take the last shot? He's probably our worst shooting player on the roster if you look at our last 5 games......

Always something missing with this bunch

 

[MTTim]

Why give Green the last shot. Stupid coaching. Jones was the hottest shooter on the court for us. Just stupid.

 

[RaiderDawg78]

I was listening and didn’t see - was the play designed for Green? Did they just deny Jones? Did Green get the ball and just take it on his own?

I guess there could be a lot of reasons why Green ended up with the ball at the end. Just wondering for those who watched it if they could tell how/why?

 

[crposton]

Only thing I can think of is the assume Jones will be covered up and surely Green hits a wide open 3. Still terrible call. Rather Sims or Jones take a contested 3 than Green an open one right now.

 

[RandallThomason]

I was listening and didn’t see - was the play designed for Green? Did they just deny Jones? Did Green get the ball and just take it on his own?

I guess there could be a lot of reasons why Green ended up with the ball at the end. Just wondering for those who watched it if they could tell how/why?

I would need to see it again to speak definitively on all of your questions but Green’s look could not have been any cleaner.

 

[dukewayne]

Of course it was clean, why wouldn't you bait him to take the final shot given the horrible shooting streak.

If I were on Defense, I would slack off of Green and double team CJ Jones.

Plus, it was a 1 point game. MT did not even need a 3.

What do they call that in baseball, a forced error?

 

[RaiderDawg78]

I would need to see it again to speak definitively on all of your questions but Green’s look could not have been any cleaner.

That’s the thing. If I am the Bonnies, zero chance Jones touches the ball on the last possession & I do exactly what Duke said- bait Green to shoot.

There is so much to bash CNM, but sometimes players have to make plays when the first option isn’t there. Then again, not seeing the play, hard to judge.

 

[RandallThomason]

Of course it was clean, why wouldn't you bait him to take the final shot given the horrible shooting streak.

If I were on Defense, I would slack off of Green and double team CJ Jones.

Plus, it was a 1 point game. MT did not even need a 3.

What do they call that in baseball, a forced error?

My answer was more in response to RaiderDawg asking if Green just took the ball and went with it, or something close to that. Answer to that is no. Sims brought it up the court, moved it toward the paint, kicked it out to Green who was camped at the arc with nobody remotely near him.

 

[RandallThomason]

The late game possession that was the real killer was when Green got tied up on the inbounds pass when we were ahead by 1 with less than 30 seconds to go. We were down to our last timeout. As soon as it appeared Green was in trouble I wish we had used the final timeout there. Instead we got tied up. Arrow to the Bonnies and everything played out from there.

 

[kingaling42]

Admittedly I didn’t see the game or the final offensive possession but going 14 of 21 from the FT line is how you really lose 1 point games..

 

[MT01]

I find this discussion amusing. Y'all debating where the chairs on the deck should be as the ship is sinking.

 

[MT01]

I had hoped we could pull this one out given it was our last real chance to win a non-conf game.

 

[sWiley]

Better team won.

They shot 90% from FT line, we 66%

We turned the ball over 5 more times than they did, and got beat on the glass.

Only reason the game was even close was C.J. Jones being on fire. We were thoroughly outplayed beyond that.

This is just a bad team playing bad basketball. Simple as that.