Pregame Glance: St. Francis (PA)

The Buckeyes face off against the St. Francis Red Flash tomorrow night in Value City Arena.  Here’s what you want to know:

Head Coach Don Friday is into his second year with St. Francis and is busy building the program.  Last year the Flash went a gruesome 6-23 and haven’t done much better so far this year starting out with a 1-4 record that will likely not get much better.  The team is comprised of 14 players, 8 of which are underclassman and 7 of those are Freshman.  This team is young and it seems to have hurt their depth.

The thing that is really killing the Red Flash right now is their defense.  Their opponents have shot very well from the field: 0-6 American shot 42.3% in a loss, Notre Dame hit 55.7% (including 52.2% from three), Lafayette shot a ridiculous 66%, Bucknell hit 40% with 12.5% from three (and won), and Lehigh connected on 45% of their shots.  On the plus side, St. Francis is securing about 18 defensive rebounds a game preventing their opponents from getting too many second chances.

In the last game, Coach Friday decided to go with a younger starting line than in previous weeks by replacing Junior Guard Sorena Orandi (6-1, 180) with Freshman Guard Anthony Ervin (6-3, 175) as the Freshman was producing a little better than his Junior counterpart.  Also in the starting lineup is Freshman Guard Chris Johnson (5-10, 168) giving the Red Flash an incredibly young backcourt.  Expect the Buckeyes to take advantage of their youth, pressuring them into turnovers and pressuring them while on offense.

Playing the Small Forward/Guard position is Senior Devin Sweetney (6-6, 180).  He is clearly the best player on the team averaging near 20 points and 6 rebounds a game.  He shoots quite well, hitting 44.6% from the field and a torrid 58.8% from three.

The last two starters are Senior Forward Kurt Hoffman (6-6, 210) and Junior Forward Cedric Latimer (6-6, 220).  At this point it becomes obvious why the Red Flash are having such problems on defense.  This is an extremely small team (the tallest players are 6-8 and are both Freshman) and will struggle down low against taller competition.  Dallas Lauderdale has 4 inches on both these guys, and with the wingspan of a 7-footer, he will likely give them big matchup problems in the paint.

The Buckeyes shouldn’t have too many problems with St. Francis tomorrow.  In fact, it might not be too much to expect Turner to put up another Triple-Double against this team.  He matches up well with just about any starter the Flash will play and there’s almost no chance that he’ll feel the need to do everything himself.  When the team is not under pressure, he plays substantially better than when he feels like he has to personally save the team.

Here are your likely starters for the game.

The game will be played in Value City Arena tomorrow evening (Saturday, November 28th) at 5:30 pm.  You can see the game on the Big Ten Network.