Thursday, November 15, 2007

Monmouth Preview

The Irish are picked 29th in Sports Illustrated's college hoops preview, the 6th Big East team listed. Nine teams total from our conference are selected to make the NCAA Tournament.

The preview for tomorrow's game will be shorter than usual due to all the action that is coming up this weekend. I will try to fit in previews for each game as well as the normal post-game analysis all during a home football weekend, but no promises.

Monmouth was 12-18 last year, with a 7-11 NEC record. Despite losing half their scoring and rebounding, the Hawks started off the year with a win over William Paterson University. That lack of depth and experience, however, has caught up with them in their last two games. November 9th was a 63-60 loss to Colgate and November 11th was an overtime defeat to Big East foe Seton Hall. Though they played the Pirates tough, that game should never have been as close as it was. Monmouth shot 33% from the floor and turned the ball over 23 times to 11 assists. Stop Jhamar Youngblood and you stop the Hawks' offense. Youngblood scored 27 points on 11-24 shooting, playing nearly the whole contest.

As long as the Irish play good fundamental basketball, we should see extended minutes for the subs as this looks to be a blowout.

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