The Leading Logic In Sports Handicapping |
|
|
|
|
|
|
msudogs
Moderator
Registered: Nov 2005
Posts: 65535
|
North Carolina A&T at Liberty
6 p.m. ET
You normally want to avoid teams in the CIT (and CBI) that lost in their conference tournament on a buzzer beater. Liberty fits that criterion. After losing at Radford in the Big South tournament final on a Carlick Jones buzzer beating three, it will now host NC A&T in a CIT game the day after not seeing its name on the bracket.
NC A&T meanwhile enjoyed the biggest single season turnaround in the country, jumping from a single D1 win last year to 20 this year. Head coach Jay Joyner’s club will certainly be ecstatic to take part in any postseason tournament. You can expect a motivated NC A&T team to take the two hour bus ride from Greensboro to Lynchburg for this one.
Schematically, however, the Aggies will have some issues. NC A&T is an attack heavy offense with a dire dearth of perimeter shooters. That’s problematic against Liberty, as head coach Ritchie McKay’s Flames are known for their pack line defense. McKay also mixed in a lot of 3-2 zone over the last few weeks to turn the Flames’ season around. The Aggies use a lot of zone defense themselves, but Liberty has a plethora of shooters on the perimeter. 6’7 forward Scottie James has turned into a monster inside for Liberty, but NC A&T does have an excellent post defender in Femi Olujobi.
Interestingly, despite their proximity, these two teams have met only once before, which came in the 2013 NCAA Tournament First Four. NC A&T won that game by a single point, but none of the current players for either team (or even Joyner and McKay) were involved in that game.
|
03-12-18 11:58 PM |
|
|
| |
|
|