Pregame Glance: Presbyterian

Tomorrow night the Buckeyes (7-2) face off with Presbyterian (2-8) in Value City Arena.  Presbyterian is coming off a 39 point loss to the #10 Tar Heels on Saturday night.  There’s an interesting story to that game, but we’ll get to it in a minute.  First things first.

Presbyterian got shellacked by North Carolina three nights ago under the lights at Chapel Hill.  That’s not the interesting part of the story.  The interesting part is that Roy Williams has proven himself to be a completely horrible person.  I’ll let you read that, take your time…

Yes, you read that right.  Roy Williams kicked a guy out of the Dean Center for shouting “Hey Deon, don’t miss it.”  That’s about as PG as a basketball fan has ever gotten in the last 10 years, from what I can tell.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that it’s just about right in terms of what the NCAA wants in sportsmanship.  Polite, kind words designed to help your team to victory – of course by distracting the guy so that he misses the all important free-throw.  Roy Williams loses even more “class points” for going after a fan saying these things after he’s already up a bajillion points.  You know, Roy, you only win by 38 if he misses it.  That’s a mortal sin in the basketball world.

Ok, enough about Williams (for now), lets get to Presbyterian.  The Blue Hose are on a 3 game losing streak against High Point (63-61), Radford (61-57) and North Carolina (103-64).  Their next 4 games are against #18 Ohio State, Dayton, Marquette and #13 Florida – all away games.  In fact, from December 12th to January 4th they play 7 straight away games including the North Carolina game.  It seems unlikely that the losing streak is going to continue any time soon against that murderer’s row.  Major kudos to Coach Gregg Nibert for being willing to write up a schedule that brutal.  The team has received press for their schedule writing (which was similar the last two years as well) and have been featured on ESPN.com, the New York Times and the Washington Post.

The go-to guy on this Presbyterian team is Sophomore Guard Chase Holmes (6-4, 205).  He’s a solid shooter from anywhere on the court, but prefers to get his points in the paint.  He’s averaging near 15 a game to go along with 5 rebounds.  His 3 turnovers per game aren’t benificial, but they’re also not the worst on the team, so he’s likely going to be the guy with the ball in his hands when it matters most.  He’s not afraid to take a shot if it’s even remotely open, so defending him at all times will be critical.

Also at Guard is Freshman Travis Smith (6-3, 180).  He hasn’t played as many games – only 6 of their 10 total – but he’s playing about as many minutes as the rest of the starters so he’s clearly making a mark.  For a freshman he’s getting good production for his minutes with about 8 points and 4 assists per game.  His turnover margin, however, is worst on the team at just over 4 an outing.  Pressuring him when he has the ball is a must, as good things will likely happen.

Presbyterian plays a 3 guard, 2 forward rotation, and the last guard is Freshman Khalid Mutakabbir (6-4, 190).  Khalid has started every game this year but the last one against North Carolina, where he was replaced by Freshman Guard Zach Faircloth (6-2, 175).  Faircloth plays off the bench, rotating out each of the guards in turn and giving decent production while the starters get a blow.  He averages just over 6 points and 3 rebounds a game in 25 minutes of play.  Khalid plays about as much as the other three guards – each average near 32 minutes a game – and makes his mark.  Unfortunately, he’s also a turnover threat with just shy of 4 an outing.  He’s another guy the Buckeyes are going to want to try to get to cough up the ball.  It’s hard to be certain if the UNC game rotation is permanent or not, but if it is the roles of Khalid and Fairchild on the team will be swapped completely.

Presbyterian’s forwards are Freshman Forward Jake Troyli (6-9, 185) and Fresman Forward Jay Reynolds (6-10, 245).  They get the starting spot by being far and away the tallest players on the team.  Their backups are Junior Walt Allen (6-4, 220) and Freshman Ryan Hargrave (6-6, 215), just to give you an idea of the terrifying height of the Blue Hose.  If you thought the Buckeyes had a hard time with UNC’s height, just imagine how Presbyterian did.

Troyli is just shy of being the scoring leader for the team with 14.7 points per game.  He’s a three-point shooter (though, honestly, who isn’t on this team?) and takes about 2 a game.  He’s also a solid shooter down low, not surprisingly, and will put it in if he gets a second chance.  Limiting his ability to get offensive rebounds will be important.

Yet again this is a very young team the Buckeyes will be facing.  Out of 12 players there are no seniors and only 4 Juniors, and exactly half the team is Freshman.  This probably comes as no surprise to those of you who have been following along all season, since I seem to say this in almost every preview.

The game will be played in Value City Arena on Wednesday Night (December 16th) at 7:00pm.  You can see the game on the Big Ten Network.