The first thing that jumps out at me is that SAC is 0-10 on the road. Hopefully that trend continues. Their two wins were by a combined 8 points, while their three losses were by a combined 16 (10 against PSU). Every conference game has been a close game that they were in.
Jason Harris is the guy to watch out for on this team. Against EWU, he scored 24 of their 41 points. He just about leads the team in every category. He averages 16 points, 5 boards, 1.5 assists, 2 steals. Doesn't shoot a lot of 3's, but he's not a bad shooter. This guy knows how to get to the line (almost 9 attempts/game). At 6'4" 210lbs, he's got some size as well. He may be a little turnover prone though and doesn't look to pass all that much (0.4 assist/turnover ratio).
Jameel Pugh and DeShawn Freeman are two of the best athletes in the league. Martin is going to see speed and quickness tonight against Freeman that he hasn't seen all year. Matt really needs to step up tonight. Freeman is the only guy on this team with a positive assist/turnover ratio. He's not a big scoring threat and he doesn't shoot all that well. Pugh isn't a very efficient scorer, but he likes to take his fair share of shots. He's shooting 32% from the field and 20% from 3, but that hasn't stopped him from taking shots.
Along with Pugh, EJ Harris averages less than 1 point/shot. Harris also doesn't shoot a very good percentage, but casts his fair share of shots. Both of these guys look to be susceptable to turnovers.
This takes care of most of the backcourt we'll see tonight. Alex Bausley, Aaron Perry and Chris Lange are all 6'8" or under, but will be the frontline for Sac State. Now just because they are the forwards doesn't mean they play strictly inside. Bausley is SAC's best 3 point shooter. He's shot twice as many 3's than anybody else and has made 3 times as many than anybody else on the team. Bausley is the teams leading rebounder, but scores more from outside than inside. Perry really doesn't do much for the team besides rebound and give them a little more size. He doesn't even pass very well. He could be a weak point for SAC.
Chris Lange is the wild card for this team. Here's a guy who has 2 years experience on the team but has been ineligible up until the MSU game. It's hard to get a read on him, but he appears to play very similar to Bausley. Has good size, but scores more from outside than inside, but still capable of rebounding.
I'm thinking that SAC will start Zane Beekman since he's their biggest player. They did this against MSU to try and match up and I would guess they do the same against us. He might play 5 minutes for the whole game.
We need to shut down Jason Harris early. If he gets on a tear, he'll score 30 points. Our big guys have got to get out on their big guys. They are SAC's best shooters and aren't afraid to shoot from outside. At the same time, our guards have to keep their guards in front of them. They aren't great shooters and play better the closer they get to the basket. This is a team we can shoot of the floor. If we can shoot over 40% tonight, we'll win by 20.
They really took MSU out of the style the Cats like to play. Fortunately for us, we've been playing that style most of the year. Maybe we'll have a little transition game left over from Thursday. SAC doesn't score a whole lot of points, I think we should get the shot counts up this game. I think 60 shots tonight would be a good goal against such a poor shooting team.
