Eastern Kentucky Preview: Guard Heavy

A week later, the Mocs return to lick their wounds and try to get well against an unbeaten team.

The last time we saw this Mocs team, they were getting hammered by Davidson in the Mocs worst performance of the year to date. They could not make a shot to save their lives. They could not stop Davidson from making long range threes. The Mocs seemed a little deflated after the game.

But this week, they have been focusing on exams....and on getting better on the basketball court. Assuming everything you read is true, they have focused on their offense this week, something that desperately needed to happen.

Eastern Kentucky is playing just their second road game of the year. Their first road game was at North Carolina Central on Tuesday, a game the Colonels won 63-57. Before that they beat Western Carolina by two and Towson by two. They also beat Kennesaw State in Richmond by fourteen. Those are the interesting results of their early unbeaten run. They also beat Delaware State by 33, Norfolk State by 24, Radford by 8, and Cincinnati Christian by 33.

Eastern Kentucky gives up an extraordinary number of offensive rebounds to their opponents. Opponents rebound 42.9% of their misses, making the Colonels 343rd in the country (out of 347 teams) in this statistic.

Glenn Cosey is the Colonels best player.  He is a 6-0 junior guard. He is averaging 17.0 points per game on 51.7% shooting from the floor and 45.7% shooting from three point range. After watching the Wildcats fill up the basket last Saturday from long range, it is easy to imagine Cosey having a big game. Mike DiNunno is a 5-11 senior. He is shooting 46.7% from three point range, 48.8% from the floor, and averaging 14.4 points per game. He also made the game winning shot against Western Carolina.

Tarius Johnson is a 6-5 junior, and he leads the Colonels in rebounding at 5.4 per contest. He shoots just 40.4% from the floor and is averaging 6.9 points per game. Eric Stutz is a 6-8 sophomore. He is the biggest player the Colonels play regularly. He is shooting over 62% from the floor, averaging 8.6 points and 3.9 rebounds per contest.

The Colonels will rely heavily on Cosey and DiNunno to score for them, but with Stutz as a legitimate other option, this team does have a solid offense. They also are extraordinarily good at forcing turnovers. They have forced turnovers on 28.6% of possessions this year, that is good for fifth in the country. They do struggle to rebound. They also foul a lot. But this team is a good shooting team, and that is dangerous for a Mocs team that sometimes has struggled defending this year.

LEAD PIPE LOCK PREDICTIONS THAT ARE SURE TO GO WRONG

--The Mocs will outrebound the Colonels by a fairly significant margin.
--The Mocs will turn the ball over far too much.
--Farad Cobb, who will play despite the eye injury he suffered late in last Saturday's game, will struggle to be effective due to the eye injury.
--Z Mason and Drazen Zlovaric will have big games against the smaller Colonels.
--Gee McGhee will continue his development.
--Mocs 66, Eastern Kentucky 63. This is a very interesting match-up for the Mocs. They have a real chance to come up with a win against a pretty good Eastern Kentucky team. I expect to see a little bit better offensive efficiency after the week off. I expect to see the Mocs dominate the boards, and that will be the final difference.

GO MOCS!