The Spartans host the Bulldogs on Tuesday night
On Tuesday evening, MSU will take on another low-major opponent, this one in the Samford Bulldogs. Here is some information to get you ready for this game. First of all, the basics. Samford plays in the Southern Conference. The school is in Homewood, Alabama. On the season, they are 4-1, including a 42 point win over Mississippi College and a 56 point victory over Rhodes. Their sole loss was an 88-86 defeat at Cornell. Last season, the Bulldogs won their conference tournament and then were defeated by Kansas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, though they played them close, falling 93-89.
Okay, now into the details. Everyone make sure to thank CrestedHelm for his research. I just copied this from his comment in another article. Helm, you are this week’s reader of the week. Congrats! Here is what he had to say:
Off topic but just a quick preview on Samford…based on Ken Pomeroy’s stats for what they’re worth this early. They’re decent to mid across the board on offensive four factors. They rank 80th in eFG%, which is pretty good, 155th in turnover%, 167th in Oreb% and 128th in FTR. Add it up and they’re 93rd in offensive efficiency. They play fast…they’re 29th in offensive possession length and 24th in defensive possession length.
Speaking of their D, it’s not great. They’re middling at opponent eFG% (158th) and opponent turnover rate (113th) but downright bad at defensive rebounding percentage (327th) and opponent free throw rate (330th). So we should get to the line a lot – we’re actually really good at that this year, currently ranked 87th in free throw rate on offense. We’re actually pretty good across the board on three of the four offensive four factors – 74th in turnover% and 45th in Oreb%. Our eFG% kind of sucks thanks to missing a lot of threes (we’re 226th on that metric). Overall we’re the 65th most efficient team offensively so marginally better than Samford.
On D we are pretty solid – currently ranked 14th in defensive efficiency ranking 39th in opponent eFG%, 167th in opponent turnover% (not spectacular but by historic standards of the program very good), 61st in defensive rebounding% and 91st in opponent free throw rate. We’re 65th in offensive possession length so between them playing fast and us playing fast on offense this game should be up and down. Our defensive possession length rank is 229th so we are not giving up quick easy points very often.
We should attack the rim in this one because they give up 54.8% on two point shots (245th) but are 50th in opponent 3 point shooting percentage. They don’t get a lot of blocks either and are, as already noted, prone to fouling so that’s more reason to attack the rim.
When: 8 PM
Where: Breslin Center; East Lansing, MI
TV: Peacock
Bet: MSU -17.5; over/under 160.5
This article serves as the game thread as well. Y’all know what to do.