Pregame Glance: Eastern Michigan

Tomorrow afternoon the other team from Ann Arbor will visit Columbus to take on the Buckeyes.

The Buckeyes as a team are clearly improving with time.  There are still kinks to work out: Buford’s shooting, bench depth, distributing the scoring, plus the obvious standards (rebounding, turnovers, free throw shooting).  For the most part, though, the Bucks are looking like they are in good shape so far.  With luck they’ll take another step forward tomorrow.

Eastern Michigan University literally sits across the street from another, more famous, university from that same state that happens to not be going to a bowl game…again (tee-hee).  They may claim they’re from Ypsilanti, but really they’re from Ann Arbor.  They just don’t want to have to share anything with the U of M.  Can we really blame* them?

Eastern Michigan has put together a competent 5-2 record so far this year against mediocre competition.  Their two losses are to the Citadel and to Missouri State.  Their wins are against no-one particularly special.  Ohio State is the first (and only) ranked team on their schedule, and it looks like that won’t change.

Once again the Buckeyes find themselves matched up against young competition.  Only 5 of EMU’s 14 players are upperclassmen.  The starters vary game by game, and sometimes they choose a younger lineup.**  All 5 of the upperclassmen do see the floor during a game so they do have more experience than most of the opponents the Bucks have seen all year.

Head Coach Charles Ramsey has been doing some very unusual flip-flopping with his starting lineup.  I haven’t quite figured out if it’s due to punishments, or Coach Ramsey is trying to experiment with different looks, or perhaps they’re just forgetting who started last time and selecting the 5 closest players.  What’s even more unusual is that when they suddenly switch to starting a new player, they don’t change the total quantity of minutes played by the original starter, or by the new guy.  The point of this is that I’m going to put a list of 5 players as their potential starting lineup and all it really will mean is the 5 guys who play the most amount of time on the court, not necessarily the 5 guys you’re going to see at the tip.

The only backcourt player who consistently starts is Senior Guard Carlos Medlock (6-0, 186).  Carlos is Eastern’s answer to Evan Turner – a do-everything style player who see’s a lot of time and makes things happen.  Of course, he’s also been making things happen for the other team too, averaging near 3 turnovers a game.  He makes up for it by averaging 5 assists, 4 rebounds and 12 points, so he can make good things happen too.  His shooting average isn’t sky-high, but it doesn’t really have to be.

Sophomore Guard Quintin Dailey (6-3, 175) has been the current “player of choice” in the backcourt.  He doesn’t produce much, but shoots pretty well from beyond the arc at 50% on 7-14 shooting.  He’s not going to take that shot often, but when he does don’t be surprised if it splashes.  Given the way he shoots, and how few shots he’s taken, I’m betting the coaches haven’t yet given him the green light.  Also in the backcourt is Sophomore Guard Antonio Green (6-3, 190).  Green is overall a better producer than Dailey with better stats across the board, but he’s not a better shooter, which may be why Dailey has been seeing the starting position recently.

Just like with the backcourt, the frontcourt only has one player that is consistently in the starting lineup; Junior Forward Jay Higgens (6-6, 195).  Higgens is an ok shooter hitting 37.1% from the field, but he averages near 11 points a game because he’s not afraid to take it with 70 attempts on the season (about 10 per game).  The vast majority of his shots are from 3-point land (50 of 70), so he doesn’t often try to get down in the lane.  Given his three-point shooting affinity, calling him a frontcourt player might be a misnomer, but I’ll run with it.

Four other players have seen starting positions this year at the forward and center spots.  The best of these is Junior Forward Brandon Bowdry (6-6, 220).  Bowdry likes to score inside, shooting 82 total with only 6 from three.  He also shoots a torrid 54.9% in total and averages 19 points per game.  More importantly, he is a rebounding machine, grabbing just over 10 a game, 6 more than any other player on the team.

Two players play a more power-forward style of game.  The first is Senior Forward Justin Dobbins (6-8, 245) who plays the majority of most games with 25.5 minutes averaged and manages some solid production for his time.  Second is Freshman Forward Jamell Harris (6-8, 200) who plays a meager 11 minutes and doesn’t have much to show for it.  Both have started games this season, however, and will definitely see playing time against the Buckeyes.

The last player to mention is Freshman Center Matt Balkema (6-10, 270).  Like Harris, he hasn’t seen the court much, and hasn’t produced much better either, but he is the tallest player to see minutes for the Eagles.  He will probably be used more in this game than in the past to try to challenge Lauderdale on the inside and prevent the Buckeyes from completely outrebounding EMU.

The Bucks shouldn’t have too much trouble with this one as it will provide a nice warmup between Florida State and the Butler match coming up next weekend.

The game will be played in Value City Arena tomorrow afternoon (Saturday, December 5th) at Noon.  You can catch the game on ESPNU.

*Two typing gaffes in as many posts?  I must be slipping…

**Corrected for clarity on a reader suggestion.  Thanks!