Daily Cup of City 6 (12/21/13)

By Sean Kennedy

Today’s Action

3:00 PM: Saint Joseph’s (5-4, 0-0 A-10) @ Loyola (MD) (5-4, 0-0 Patriot)

Following their best win of the season in a 20-point victory over Drexel, the Hawks will try to build some momentum against the Loyola Greyhounds. Loyola has lost 4 of its past 5 games after a fortunate 4-0 start to the season where the margin of victory was no greater than 6 points, and 2 of those wins were in overtime. The Greyhounds are just about a one-man show on offense, with 6’3″ senior guard Dylon Cormier leading the team in points (23.8), rebounds (5.7), and spitting hot fire. His scoring average ranks Cormier 4th overall in the nation so the Hawks will undoubtedly make slowing him down their top priority.

The Hawks have the clear talent level advantage in this matchup but it will only be their third true road game of the season. Coming off the most dominant performance of his career, it will be interesting to see if Halil Kanacevic builds off his game against the Dragons, or whether that was a shooting star and he returns to his modest career norms. Either way, with Langston Galloway and Ronald Roberts, Jr. anchoring the scoring attack, and freshman DeAndre Bembry really emerging in recent weeks, the Hawks should run to the Greyhounds off the track.

4:00 PM: Villanova (10-0, 0-0 Big East) vs. Rider (5-4, 2-0 MAAC) – Fox Sports 1

For the first time in three weeks, the Wildcats will face a non-Philadelphia school when they take on the Broncs (not a typo, bronc is an alternate spelling of bronco that Rider has adopted). An effective Rider offensive attack is led by 6’5″ senior Anthony Myles (18.7 ppg) and 6’7″ senior Daniel Stewart (16.9 ppg).  The pair both get to the free throw line often and shoot the ball well when they get there, helping a Rider club that is 16th-best in the nation in free throw percentage and makes the 14th-most foul shots per game. Additionally, the team as whole is extremely effective from the perimeter, averaging 44.3% on three-pointers this season. Attacking in a variety of different ways, the Broncs will be among the toughest defensive tests Villanova has faced this season.

That being said, Rider is also a very poor defensive team and Villanova should have no trouble keeping pace in the scoring department. With different guys leading the charge every night, be it JayVaughn Pinkston, James Bell, Darrun Hilliard, etc., these Wildcats are playing as well as anyone in the country. As long as they focus on the game at hand, and don’t look ahead to next weekend’s huge matchup against Syracuse, the Wildcats should be able to buck these Broncs.

5:30 PM: Temple (4-5, 0-0 AAC) @ LIU Brooklyn (4-6, 0-0 NEC)

Now that Aaric Murray is finally done scoring against the Owls (I think, waiting upon final confirmation on that), Temple looks to pick up the pieces Saturday afternoon against LIU Brooklyn as part of the Brooklyn Hoops Holiday Invitational. The invitational is an annual triple-header founded last year to help showcase the house the Jay Z built, the Barclays Center. The other games this year feature Michigan vs. Stanford and Manhattan vs. Buffalo. As for this contest, the Blackbirds enter play on a two-game winning streak, but those wins came against some fairly weak opponents in NJIT and Lamar. Long Island has the fourth-worst defense in all of college basketball, and Temple should have no trouble scoring against a team that doesn’t start a player taller than 6’6″.

The Blackbirds have a balanced scoring attack, with 5 players averaging in double figures, although Gilbert Parga sat out their most recent game with a strained achilles and it’s unknown whether he’ll be suiting up for this one. However, the real focal point for the Owls defense will be senior guard Jason Brickman, who leads the nation by a wide margin with 10.1 assists per game. That being said, Temple has struggled of late containing big men on the interior and Long Island doesn’t have the personnel to take advantage of that fact. Although we’ve seen that the Owls are susceptible to an upset from a lower-tiered mid-major, I’d look for them to have a renewed focus after the Texas Southern loss and easily take care of business in Brooklyn.