Depaul -10 -110
Think Depaul will just out talent the Sycamores today. Mairco Stinson leaving the team right before the season started was a devastating blow, both physically, and mentally. Stinson was easily the best player, and leader of this team. This was a team expected to contend, but without him they are just another lower level team in the valley. I think his loss is hurting the Sycamores just as much mentally as him physcially not being out there. Even with him they have been atrocious away from the Hulman Center. Their road struggles will come to a head today when they have to travel to a middle of the pack Big East school. Jerry Wainright has been assembling some talented pieces. They have a dominant front court player in Mac Koshwal, who is averaging 13.3ppg and has had rebounding games of 10,15, and 9 respectively. His massive size alone is enough to give Indiana St all sorts of problems. Throw in Dar Tukcer (19ppg), and Wil Walker (13ppg), and the Deamon Deacs have 3 legitiment scorers who Ind St will have no answer for. Indiana St was -2, -8, and -11 on the glass respectively against N. Ill, N Texas, and Murray St. That is not a good sign going up against the mammoth front line of Koshwal (6'10), and Matia Posic (6'10). I expect Indian St to get handled on the glass to boot. Indiana St was 2-13 away from home last season and things shouldn't change this afternoon while they get handled by a more talented, bigger team.
Think Depaul will just out talent the Sycamores today. Mairco Stinson leaving the team right before the season started was a devastating blow, both physically, and mentally. Stinson was easily the best player, and leader of this team. This was a team expected to contend, but without him they are just another lower level team in the valley. I think his loss is hurting the Sycamores just as much mentally as him physcially not being out there. Even with him they have been atrocious away from the Hulman Center. Their road struggles will come to a head today when they have to travel to a middle of the pack Big East school. Jerry Wainright has been assembling some talented pieces. They have a dominant front court player in Mac Koshwal, who is averaging 13.3ppg and has had rebounding games of 10,15, and 9 respectively. His massive size alone is enough to give Indiana St all sorts of problems. Throw in Dar Tukcer (19ppg), and Wil Walker (13ppg), and the Deamon Deacs have 3 legitiment scorers who Ind St will have no answer for. Indiana St was -2, -8, and -11 on the glass respectively against N. Ill, N Texas, and Murray St. That is not a good sign going up against the mammoth front line of Koshwal (6'10), and Matia Posic (6'10). I expect Indian St to get handled on the glass to boot. Indiana St was 2-13 away from home last season and things shouldn't change this afternoon while they get handled by a more talented, bigger team.
I feel 8 is a lot of points to be catching for a game that will be played in the upper 50's - lower 60's. Miami Oh is road tested, playing 2 games in LA, 1 against a solid Weber St team, and then against UCLA who was playing on their home court. They also played at the Zoo in Pittsburgh, and at the ever tough depression dome at Wright St. They have won 2 of those games, and played UCLA tooth and nail. They got hammered by Pitt, but I was kind of expecting that. Pitt is loaded with talented, athletic, scorers who presented a tough challenge, for the SKins. I think Xavier is more like UCLA than Pitt, they will grind it out a little more on offense, and don't have those huge scorers that Pitt has. In fact their leading scorer averages 10.6ppg. They have a very balanced attack, but not those go to guys that you can give them the ball and count the basket before they even dribble. I think that benefits Miami's team defense slightly more. When they are not out manned at each position they obviously fair better. Plus as he did against UCLA, Coles has a tendency to really pull the air out of the ball when visiting against these top teams. I expect nothing but that today against Xavier. Coles is going to try and keep this game in the lower 50's if he can. Kenny Hayes is a solid point guard, and should be able to control the tempo of the game. With that 8 points should be enough to get the cover
