BASKETBALL Middle Tennessee vs Villanova (ESPN2), 10:30AM, Thursday, 11/21/2019

[SpaceRaider]

Villanova
Location: Villanova, PA
Founded: Enrollment: Colors: Nickname:
Facility: Finneran Pavilion (6,500)
Series Record: VU leads 1-0
Head Coach: Jay Wright Viilanova Record: 448-175 (18 Seasons) Overall Record: 570-260 (25 Seasons)
2018-19 Record: 26-10,13-5 2019 Postseason: NCAA Round 2
Starters R/L: 3/2 Lettermen R/L: 7/6

Location: Conway, S.C. Arena: HTC Center (3,212)
TV: ESPN2 Talent: Doug Sherman (PxP), Cory Alexander (Analyst)
Radio: Blue Raider Network (Game2/WGNS 1450 AM/100.5 FM/101.9 FM; WDUC 93.9 FM; The Game 102.5 FM/97.5 FM/TuneIn)
Talent: Chip Walters (PxP), Kyle Turnham (Analyst)

GAME INFORMATION
[Game Notes]

Hashtag: #TrueBlue, #BlueRaiders
Twitter: @MT_MBB
Instagram: MT_MBB
Facebook: MTSUMBB

Date: Thursday, November 21, 2019
Time: 10:30AM (CT)


Live Stats

 

[SpaceRaider]

vuhoops.com:

Preview: # 17 Villanova Wildcats vs. Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders

 

[SpaceRaider]

vusports.com:

Villanova vs. Middle Tennessee preview

 

[SpaceRaider]

goblueraiders.com:

Myrtle Beach Invitational starts with No. 17 Villanova

 

[SpaceRaider]

17 point dog to #17 Villanova

https://www.vegasinsider.com/colleg...va-@-middle-tennessee-state.cfm/date/11-21-19

 

[MTsumner92]

This is a great tournament. Gauranteed 3 games.

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[dukewayne]

Embarrassing defensive effort thus far.

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[TrueBlue147]

Man we have suffer some really bad blow outs under the Mcdevitt era thus far. Villanova is not really that good this year despite their early season record.

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[crposton]

Really hard to watch Nova get open 3s all game. I wish we had a better showing, but I am not going to fully judge this team until we get Millner and Scurry back in lineup. Would not have made much difference this game, but will make a difference overall. Man wish Dishman had not gotten hurt also. Positive is Jackson and Millin getting a lot of valuable minutes.

 

[SpaceRaider]

When you are facing a quality team you can't start out slow or non existant on offense and flat footed on defense.

This team is not going to win these kind of games when Green scores only 4.

Agree with the freshmen getting experience. It will pay off down the road.

 

[MTFNBY5]

FWIW Villanova is young (only Sr. is a walk-on) as are we. According to Verbalcommits.com Tyson Jackson (3 Star) is the only non 2 star on our roster. Conversely, Villanova has 8 players rated higher than Jackson. Quite a discrepancy in talent (and size - some of their SGs are taller than our "bigs").

Regardless, I do wish we could either close out on shooters or keep them from driving. Unfortunately we can do neither. (do we even have a potential defensive stopper?)

Sims came out of his early season slump after a couple of mistakes early today - he is needed. Johnson had a good 2nd half. I like his improvement since last year.

Jackson is going to be a good one. He can be a really productive tandem with Fussell for the future. Can we dream of another "Big" in this class?

And a pet peeve with me - there are some people who at games [school administrators (h. s. and college), law enforcement officers, scorekeepers and clock operators at the scorers table, etc.] are there in an official capacity. I would include the Catholic Priest who accompanies the teams from Catholic schools as, I assume, spiritual advisor. Hate it when these people show partisanship by cheerleading during games.

And I do admire our fans who are able to multi-task and post in FB threads while watching and/or listening to a BkB game. That takes talent.

 

[dukewayne]

This horrendous defensive performance is starting to become a trend with 2 straight embarrassing performances.

Jayce Johnson is the only player I can identify that exhibits that hard nosed toughness and physicality that is necessary to grind out games on both end of the courts.

I don't think it is an effort problem. It looks to me to be a team that has not placed enough of an emphasis and time on strong defense as evidenced by players constantly being way out of position on defense.

Offensive spacing has been impressive with generally good movement and passing. It is clear that the coaches have placed an emphasis on offense.

The young team hopefully will work hard to improve on these weaknesses. With all the young talented and athletic players getting substantial playing time, there is tremendous cause for much optimism for the future of this team. The young players seem to have immense potential.

 

[MTsumner92]

All I want to hear you guys say is I think we improved a little today overall. Did we do that today?

 

[SpaceRaider]

Podcast: MT MBB vs Villanova 11-21-19

 

[MTOleBlue]

This game really illustrates the lack of strength and conditioning a lot of our guys have - due in large part to their youth but also their size. We just do not have guys with a lot of built up muscle to go up against "bigger" teams than us both in height and weight. It kind of shocked me that even against Coastal Carolina our team looked outmatched, in terms of build.

 

[sWiley]

Rough. Havn't seen blowouts like this in a long time. Seems to be becoming a consistent thing every time we face a Top 25 team. I didn't watch the game so I don't want to comment too much, but this a young Villanova team that shouldn't just be having it's way with us every time down the court (and the scoreline indicates that they sure did). Looks like defense was nowhere to be found, again.

I don't really know what to say. I guess we just won't be competitive in OOC again this year and have to wait until we get better available players. Sucks that it has come to this. We used to at least keep it competitive in games like this (if not outright win them) but now it seems we are barely hanging on to save face.

 

[dukewayne]

Rough. Havn't seen blowouts like this in a long time. Seems to be becoming a consistent thing every time we face a Top 25 team. I didn't watch the game so I don't want to comment too much, but this a young Villanova team that shouldn't just be having it's way with us every time down the court (and the scoreline indicates that they sure did)....

I don't really know what to say. I guess we just won't be competitive in OOC again this year and have to wait until we get better available players.

Frustrating, yes. We were getting spoiled for almost 10 years of competing and winning vs some of the best teams in the country.

Nova is young, but a few of those new young players are 5 star recruits that are being plugged into a program and system that is competing for national championships every year. That is an entirely different animal than MT's young team that is completely rebuilding with a new coach and system.

I may not be a basketball expert, but the abilities and athleticism of these young players brought in by CNM is apparent. Experience & weight room time will go a long way with these young men. All of the guys learning the system will be a tremendous help.

Don't get me wrong, watching the players run around lost on defense each time up the court had me ready to eat blood pressure medicine like it was candy. While I am advocating patience for this young and building team, I do expect to see improvement. Today's type of performance will not be cutting it come late Jan and early Feb. Likewise, next season should be yielding further improvements and development.

Most of us have complained for years about the lack of HS recruits and way too many juco recruits. Well now we are getting legit freshman, perhaps we shouldn't be so surprised that it is taking some time for them to grow into a mature team. I suspect in the long term the payoff will be be huge for investing in young talented freshman now.

 

[MTLynn]

goblueraiders link:

Raiders drop MBI opener to No. 17 Villanova