AU Looks to Maintain Unbeaten Streak in Bender Against Army

Just a quick preview of tonight. We will have a liveblog from the game, FYI.

A couple of feel-good notes before we get into it. Tonight is Yellow Ribbon Appreciation night, honoring AU's participation in the Yellow Ribbon Scholarship program which provides free tuition to veterans after their service to our country. Additionally, Jeff Jones will also be coaching barefoot against the Black Knights in support of Samaritan's Feet, a non-profit organization which has given out over 3,000,000 new pairs of shoes to those in need in 42 countries. On Monday the team went around the city and distributed shoes to those in need in the District to support Samaritan's Feet and to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Kudos to the team and Jeff Jones for their continuing involvement in this great cause.

Now then. Army is 0-11 all-time in Bender Arena, and just 3-19 all-time against AU. Hopefully that streak continues tonight. Army has a great road record this year (7-4), but it's against a more or less cupcake out-of-conference schedule. However, they are fresh off a 75-72 win at Lehigh on Saturday and are tied for second place (with the Eagles and Holy Cross).

The past few seasons, Army has had offensive woes and relied on defense to keep them in games. This year the offense is much improved, although Army is heavily reliant on the 3. As a team, they shoot just under 40% from deep. They've taken 442 attempts from long range this year, for an average of about 24.5 three-point shots a game.

Army is led by a talented trio in Julian Simmons, Jeremy Hence, and Ellla Ellis (go ahead, say it three times fast). Simmons is putting together a great season, shooting over 43% from 3 (55-126) and is averaging 17 points per game.

Army is an athletic team and also has some depth on the bench (9 players averaging over 15 minutes played per game), which means they're generally able to keep pretty fresh legs on the floor. They don't get a ton of production outside of the three Knights I mentioned, but the next 3 producers are roleplayers averaging 4-5 points a game.

Some keys to the game:
1. Be mindful of the isolated wing man putting up the 3. If AU gives the Black Knights too many open looks, they have the ability to burn us on it.
2. Force turnovers. AU has an abysmal number of steals this year, but Army is making almost 15 turnovers a game. Put some pressure on their backcourt and see if we can't force some loose balls.
3. Rebounding. Lump shouldn't have much competition down low tonight, so it's important that he crash the boards and limit the number of offensive rebounds Army can bring down. If they pull them down, it's likely they could have someone on the outside ready and waiting for the kick-out and 3 attempt (see #1).

This should be a competitive game, but I'm thinking AU can pull this out as long as we don't come out and lay the egg we did in our last home game (last week vs. Bucknell in case you managed to shut it out of your mind).

See you all tonight. BE THERE! BE BLUE! BE AU!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!