Saturday, February 15, 2014

Chicago State: Three keys and a prediction

I'm going to miss the Chicago State announcers from the first game that thought Sim and Tanveer Bhullar were Aggie assistant coaches and their reaction to NMSU putting chairs on the court away from the bench was, "These Aggies think they own the place."

They were more entertaining than I think this game will be, NMSU wins 85-70

Fun fact, two of the following three keys are the same as the first time these teams played, but they happened to play into why the Aggies lost 86-81

Attack the interior: NMSU got caught up in small ball in the first game since Chicago State plays with four guards on the court. The Aggies shot 23 3s. Chili Nephawe had 12 points and Daniel Mullings was able to get into the paint for 26 points. The Aggies tried to play small with Matej Buovac or DK Eldridge playing the four. Since then, the Aggies have kind of gone back to rolling with the big guys they have win or lose, especially since they have added Sim Bhullar to the mix since he didn't play in the first meeting.

Limit turnovers: Chicago State scored 19 points off 19 NMSU turnovers in the first game. Chicago State didn't necessarily pressure the Aggies into them either. Mullings would lose the ball in traffic, or the post players would lose the ball in double teams.

Guard the 3: I still don't know what kind of offense it is that Chicago State runs. It's kind of like they roll the ball out. That can be hard to prepare for and the equalizer is the 3 point line for playground ball. Chicago State made 7-of-8 3s in the second half and shot 55 percent for the game from the field.

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