The 2012-13 season rolls on Sunday in the KFC Yum Center as the Miami (OH) RedHawks come to town to take on our Cards. The RedHawks come into this game 1-1 after beating Grambling St 80-54. The Cards come into this game 2-0 after a dominating win over Samford 80-54. Yes, those scores are right and make me wonder how many times teams have played each other coming off an identical score in their previous wins.
Miami (OH) begins a new era with the hiring of Tennessee State’s John Cooper after 70-year-old Charlie Coles announced his retirement in his 16th and final season serving as his alma mater’s coach. Cooper arrived in Oxford after engineering a remarkable turnaround at TSU. One of his games that some of you might remember is when Cooper’s team was the only one to beat Murray State in the regular season last year. During a three-year period in Nashville, Cooper’s teams improved each year. Miami (OH) is winningest program in the MAC and have had 17 NCAA appearances. But Cooper will have another tall task ahead of him as they were not very good last season and their best player Julian Mavunga was a senior. Despite the loss of Mavunga Miami does return a few decent offensive players.
In-conference offense: 1.02 points per possession (8th)
In-conference defense: 1.06 points allowed per possession (10th)
Coach John Cooper: “Obviously I was very familiar with the university for the basketball program,” They’ve had some unbelievable tradition. Look at the staffs there. Charlie Coles. (Before him) Herb Sendek was the coach with Thad Matta and Sean Miller as his assistants. Now it’s about how to bring that back to fruition.”
The RedHawk Players:
Geovonie McKnight FR (4.5 ppg, 3.0 rpg), 6-3 hails from Middletown High School, averaged 20 points and six rebounds during his senior year and chose Miami after Cooper’s arrival. Has played 44 min this season and has 9 points 6 rebounds.
Reggie Johnson FR (13.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg), 6-1 played at St. Joseph’s High School, He signed with Tennessee State last November, but joined Cooper and his staff at Miami. Has played 42 min this season and has 27 points 7 rebounds.
Josh Sewell JR (6.3 ppg, 2.2 rpg), He’s the team’s top returning 3-point shooter. Has played 17 min this season with no points and 3 rebounds.
Quinten Rollins JR (7.7 ppg, 3.2 apg), might be Miami’s most indispensable player as the only true point guard on the roster, He led the RedHawks and ranked sixth in the MAC with 1.6 steals per game. Has played 47 min this season 7 points no rebounds.
Allen Roberts JR (14.0 ppg, 1.5 rpg), a projected starter last season who didn’t play a minute as he underwent microfracture surgery on his right knee in December. Roberts averaged 7.9 points in 24.0 minutes per game as a sophomore. Has played 59 min this season with 28 points 3 rebounds.
Bill Edwards JR (9.5 ppg, 4.0 rpg), a 6-6, 245-pound junior who spent his freshman year at Penn State. Has played 40 min this season with 19 points 8 rebounds.
Will Felder JR (8.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg), 6-7 power forward averaged 11.1 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks for St. Francis (PA) in 2010-11 before sitting out his transfer season last year. Has played 40 min this season with 17 points 9 rebounds.
Jon Harris JR (7.5 ppg, 6.0 rpg), Classic stretch four who’s more comfortable on the perimeter than in the post. Drilled 37 percent of his 3-point attempts (58 of 155) while taking just 60 shots inside the arc all year. Has played 49 min this season with 15 points 12 rebounds.
Drew McGhee JR (5.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg), made 20 starts last year and his 59.2 percent field-goal shooting made him the only RedHawk to hit better than 46 percent from the floor. Has played 25 min this season with 11 points 7 rebounds.
Joe Mezher SOPH Has only played a total of 3 min this season no points no rebounds.
Jared Tadlock SOPH 6-9, played just 10 minutes last season, but three of his four shots during that stretch came from 3-point range. Has only played 3 min this season with 2 points 2 rebounds.
Will Sullivan SOPH (2.1 ppg) is Miami’s other backcourt option with experience, walked on last fall with the promise of a scholarship this year, wound up making 10 starts and playing 13.7 minutes per game. Has only played 14 min this season no points 4 rebounds.
John Hawkins SOPH Has not played this season
Vince Legarza SR (1.2 ppg, 1.2 rpg), made three starts last year and averaged 9.7 minutes per game. While he shot just 37 percent on his limited attempts, he handed out 21 assists versus 12 turnovers to enjoy the best assist-to-turnover ratio on the squad. Has played 19 min this season with 4 points 4 rebounds.
Three questions going into this game:
Russ Smith spent last year as a sparkplug off the bench for the Cardinals, and while he had a penchant for the big play, his usage rate was incredibly high and he was prone to big mistakes as well. Going into this year, Rick Pitino tasked Russ with improving his consistency and becoming a more reliable basketball player. Well so far he has answered that call and has lead this team in scoring. Will he continue to do that and will he start to get his teammates more involved?
Chane Behanan started this season in Coach Pitino’s doghouse. However, it looks like the message has been received and the guy who played a major role in the Final Four run seems to be starting his comeback. He had 18 rebounds against Samford Thursday night as his rebounding instincts and nose for the ball were very apparent. He is more than capable of dominating games with his brute force. Will he continue to be this effective on the boards and will he continue to climb out of the early season hole he dug for himself?
Coach Pitino usually plays a different defense than most, going with a match-up zone that can change to man-to-man within a possession, but so far we have only seen a lot of man-to-man. Just wondering with the stiff competition looming in the “Battle for Atlantis” if we will see him start using the match up zone a little more or will he stick to the man-to-man?
Charlie Coles’ influence will remain at Miami (OH) in several ways. The most obvious at this point? The schedule. Coles loved to play a rigorous schedule to prepare his guys for the MAC. The first part of this tough out of conference schedule starts with the game against our Cards on Sunday. Again, our Cards will be dominate in every position. It will be another cakewalk in this one as it is the final primer for much tougher competition ahead. Cards will roll.
The Beak Prediction:
Louisville 80 Miami 51