ODU @ Northern Iowa

[∞∞∞]

Clenz, what should I know about UNI, from the players to the coaching style to the arena?

[DJH]

We play a slow defensive style similar to what it sounds like ODU plays. I think UNI and ODU are the #2 and #3 scoring defenses in the entire nation right now.

We are led by our posts players, 7'1" Jordan Egleseder, and 6'8" Adam Koch, and strong physical PG Kwadzo Ahelegbe, and sharp shooter Ali Farokmanesh. One of our main strengths is our depth. We go a legit 10-11 players deep, and try to wear the other teams down.

Looks like ODU is a pretty long team with some good size. Should be an interesting matchup, with not a lot of points scored.

UNI is ranked #24 and #22 in the polls this week. We play in the McLeod Center, which seats over 7K.

[ODUfanRazor]

Should be a great battle.

ODU's starting lineup goes 6"5, 6"5, 6"8, 6"8 and 6"10, so it sounds like it is a similiar matchup size wise. I wonder what the over/under will be? Will it even be triple digits?

Maybe 98......wouldn't that be something. Ha.

[clenz]

Ill post a long review tomorrow, but Im excited for it

[∞∞∞]

thanks for the info DJH! I'll try to do the same tomorrow too about the Monarchs Clenz.

[clenz]

Ok, my thoughts on the game. I’m excited for this match up. For teams like UNI and Butler the BracketBuster is a sticky thing this year. According to Real Time RPI as of 9:45 Feb 2 UNI has an RPI of 17 and Butler has an RPI of 19. Not too many other BB participants can match that RPI, so a loss for either team could cripple them, even though they are both currently top 25, if they don’t win the auto bid. However, it does give both a chance for another top 50 RPI win. UNI beat Siena by 17 back in December in the return game from last years bracket buster. This isn’t a knock by any means towards the other teams, as there are some quality teams in the BB this year, but when a couple teams get RPI’s like 17 and 19 things can get sticky for those teams.

As for the ODU/UNI game it should be a great game. UNI is currently 19-2 (10-1) with an RPI of 17 and a projected RPI of 19 and a projected finish of 26-2 (17-1) but that doesn’t include the BB game. ODU currently has an RPI of 45 with a record of 17-6 (9-2), a projected record of 24-6 (16-2), again not including BB game, and a RPI of about 40. If you are looking at KenPom rankings though UNI is 41 and ODU is 30. I don’t understand his system though; it is much too complex for my mind. These are two of the top three defensive teams in the nation, #2 and #3 respectively in team defense.

Going through UNI’s line up we look like this
Our starters are
C - Jordan Egleseder 7’1’’ SR (Egg-l-cedar)
PF -Adam Koch 6’9’’ SR – (Cook)
WG - Johnny Moran 6’1’’ SO – (More-an)
SG - Ali Farokmenesh 6’0 SR (All-e Fah-rok-men-esh)
PG - Kwadzo Aheleghbe 6’2’’ JR – (Kuh-Joe Ah-ha-leg-be)

Since those names are a bitch to everyone, including UNI fans I’ll added a pronunciation key.

Off of the bench we can go a legit 10 team. Typically we go like this

F - Lucas O’Rear 6’6’’ JR
F – Jake Koch 6’9’’ FR (Yes, Adam’s younger brother they look identical)
G/F – Kerwin Dunham 6’6’’ JR
G – Marc Sonnen 6’3’’ FR
G – Anthony James 6’ FR


Our guards don’t have a ton of height, so most teams think they have an advantage their but the way we play our man to man switching help defense our guards play against centers at times and do well.


Due to our style of play we average the least PPG game, but we give up the least PPG and we also have the second highest scoring margin in the conference, I think it’s something like 64.8-55.1…Only 7 times has UNI allowed 61+ points. That also means if you look at stats we are near the bottom of the conference in many categories. This is also true about our individual stats. They are underwhelming but we don’t have a player that we lean on. We have players who average 2-6 PPG but they have gone for 15+ or are capable of going off. Kerwin only scores about 4 per game, but scored over 2000 in high school. Sonnen was one of the top 5 players out of Minnesota last year. Sonnen and Kwadzo went to the same high school, along with about 3 former UNI players (and greats).

UNI plays a man to man defense, but we do switch screens with everybody. Jordan does switch too, but we are usually real quick to find another switch for him if needed. It’s a tight man to man with some full court thrown in. There isn’t a big drop off in talent when our subs come in either; in fact often we do a “line change” where will we change 3-5 at a time. No one really plays a lot of minutes; I think Adam leads the team at about 25 minutes per game. He is 6’9’’ but shoots the three at about a 40% rate. We don’t play a fast pace game, but we can if we need too, but I don’t expect that to be a problem for this game.

If you want PPG and what not, you know where to find those.

[OSBF]

O'Rear is a damned BEAST.

[clenz]

O'Rear is a damned BEAST.

He doesn't look like much at 6'6'' but beast is the best way to describe him. He is the kind of player you love to have but HATE to play against. He gets testy and seems to be involved in all of the heated action. As panther fans we love it, but other teams hate him with a passion. He isn't a big offensive threat but when it comes to hustle, defesnsive pressure, and finding the ball he is the man.


Oh, and he throws a 95 MPH fast ball so if you get in a fight with him, chances are you are getting knocked the fuck out.


Oh, and if he grows his bear out...Grizzley Adams would be jealous.

[OSBF]

O'Rear is a damned BEAST.

He doesn't look like much at 6'6'' but beast is the best way to describe him. He is the kind of player you love to have but HATE to play against. He gets testy and seems to be involved in all of the heated action. As panther fans we love it, but other teams hate him with a passion. He isn't a big offensive threat but when it comes to hustle, defesnsive pressure, and finding the ball he is the man.


Oh, and he throws a 95 MPH fast ball so if you get in a fight with him, chances are you are getting knocked the fuck out.


Oh, and if he grows his bear out...Grizzley Adams would be jealous.

I wouldn't say I hate him, but certainly have a healthy dose of respect for his game. All good teams have that one guy that just isn't afraid to get nasty, the equal of a goon in hockey. He's damned good at that role.

[clenz]

He doesn't look like much at 6'6'' but beast is the best way to describe him. He is the kind of player you love to have but HATE to play against. He gets testy and seems to be involved in all of the heated action. As panther fans we love it, but other teams hate him with a passion. He isn't a big offensive threat but when it comes to hustle, defesnsive pressure, and finding the ball he is the man.


Oh, and he throws a 95 MPH fast ball so if you get in a fight with him, chances are you are getting knocked the fuck out.


Oh, and if he grows his bear out...Grizzley Adams would be jealous.

I wouldn't say I hate him, but certainly have a healthy dose of respect for his game. All good teams have that one guy that just isn't afraid to get nasty, the equal of a goon in hockey. He's damned good at that role.

You may be in the minority for those opposing fans that respect but don't hate...

[OSBF]

I wouldn't say I hate him, but certainly have a healthy dose of respect for his game. All good teams have that one guy that just isn't afraid to get nasty, the equal of a goon in hockey. He's damned good at that role.

You may be in the minority for those opposing fans that respect but don't hate...

now, if you wanna open discussion on that little peckerwood Piss'allen Stinnett, then we can start talking about HATE

[clenz]

You may be in the minority for those opposing fans that respect but don't hate...

now, if you wanna open discussion on that little peckerwood Piss'allen Stinnett, then we can start talking about HATE

P'unkass Stinnett? I'd rather not talk about that stupid ass mother fucker

[JayJ79]

Oh, and if he grows his bear out...Grizzley Adams would be jealous.

Lucas has a bear?

[∞∞∞]

Okay, here's my quickly written review of ODU if ya wanna share with the UNI community. Like Razor said, our starting line-up is huge, and our size is often compared to high major teams. It consists of:

6'5" G/F Kent Bazemore
6'5" G/F Ben Finney
6'8" F Keyon Carter
6'8" C Frank Hassell
6'10" F Gerald Lee

ODU is currently 17-6 overall and 9-2 in the CAA.The Monarchs are 3rd in the nation in PPG allowed but were first until our last game, where Northeastern basically went off on us at the three point line. It was one of those where our defense wasn't bad, but NU just couldn't miss. You'll mostly see a mix of a 3-2 or 2-3 zone, depending on what UNI is doing, but ODU has an extremely effective man-to-man defense too. However, the only other team we've faced that was as large as us so far has been Georgetown, and from my limited basketball knowledge, man-to-man isn't effective against similarly sized teams...and we never saw it against GU.

As for ODU's speed, don't let our size fool you. This is a VERY quick team. Speed is a must in the CAA and ODU is no different, even though our slow defensive strategy doesn't allow the use of our agility to it's potential on offense.

ODU's weak point is our point guard play. Neely is arguably our best PG, but you won't see him much (if at all) against UNI because his defense is suspect. Otherwise, none of our point guards shoot well and are wildly inconsistent. Unfortunately, when we do hit a 3, our guards sometimes get overconfident and end up straying away from "pounding the boards," and end up taking way too many 3s for a team who's so weak at the point.

Last year, our star was Gerald Lee. He's certainly still our go-to guy this year, but there are so many people who can score on this team that he's scoring less. There have some games this year where our starters have all scored in double figures, and many others where the whole team has scored at least one point. As for Lee, he's got a very soft touch and is very finesse (European) when he plays. Kent Bazemore is our rising star. He's extremely athletic and can hit from anywhere on the court, be it catch and shoot, run and shoot, or stop and shoot. Also, Bazemore's personal thing is dunking. He's done it in every game this year except one, so watch out for it, because when/if he does it, it's a spectacle. He put on a clinic at Liberty. Unfortunately, Bazemore is very prone to turning the ball over, and basically sucks at the the FT line.

ODU's bench is VERY deep. In early season play, we'd often see 5 man substitutions. This hasn't happened for a while because Coach Blaine Taylor usually uses the early part of the year to find that perfect combination of players, but one thing I can assure you of is that you'll see A LOT of substitutions. It frustrates us fans because he'll take out players when they're on a hot streak, but I guess the results have been fairly good so far so I can't complain too much.

I guess that's ODU for ya. Should be a fun one and hopefully we can walk away with another win against a ranked opponent.