Wednesday, December 09, 2009

IUPUI Preview

What do you get when you cross an institution that currently has a basketball team ranked #5 in the nation with a school that boasts five national championships? Apparently a mediocre Summit League squad in Indianapolis. That doesn't seem quite right...

The full power of IU and Purdue have combined and will be propelled towards South Bend tonight. Duck and cover, everyone. The Jaguars are 7-2, their best win coming in overtime against Georgia State. This is a team with an even shorter bench than the Irish, so no need to memorize a wide range of players. There are three guys you want to know:

#23 Robert Glenn is a skinny 6'7" forward. Good luck living up to your 18.3 points per game with a 195 pound body against a Big East team. He leads the team at 6.3 rebounds per contest as well and is pretty unreliable with the ball in his hands (averaging 3.7 turnovers). Gameplan: use Luke Harangody to hold down the post and make Glenn beat you by taking the ball to the hoop. Force him to take contested drives to the post, take away easy buckets, and let him make his inevitable mistakes.

#5 Alex Young is a pretty decent shooting guard. He's hitting 38% of his three-point attempts this season, which is significantly better than last year. If he gets hot, that 6'5" frame will be a bit tough to defend. Ben Hansbrough and Tim Abromaitis will have their defensive skills tested.

#1 Leroy Nobles is similar to Young, but a better shooter with a bit of a more conservative trigger finger. Again, either Ben or Tim will have the first crack at this guy, but look at Carleton Scott to get some good minutes.

Jonathan Peoples could be the starting point guard tonight with Tory Jackson's injury, leaving open the possibility of a Mike Broghammer or Joey Brooks getting serious time in the rotation. I'd like to see the freshmen get a little more experience and we could have some of that tonight.

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