SFA (2-0) vs. Niagara (0-2)

WHEN: NOV 13 (WED) 6:30 P.M.
WHERE: Johnson Coliseum (Nacogdoches, TX)
WATCH: ESPN+

The SFA Lumberjacks are coming off one of their most impressive home performances in two years after beating MEAC favorite NC Central by 30 points. They look to continue the good feelings at home with a third straight win versus Niagara University of the MAAC.

Niagara has started their season on a three game road trip with the final stop in Nacogdoches. Their first two games were to the two teams SFA plays next: Drexel and Rutgers. Niagara lost an 8 point decision to Drexel and then had a 47 point shellacking by Rutgers. Not much has gone right for the Purple Eagles this season, and the Jacks aren't going to try to make them feel better.

Niagara is a guard heavy team led by senior guard James Towns and junior forward Nicholas Kratholm. Their make up will be very similar to the Eagles that SFA just played on Saturday afternoon: small fast guard play. Again, it will be up to the SFA forwards to control the interior and keep Niagara limited to an outside game.

Keller has his team feeling like winners early in this season. Right now they have confidence in their offense and defense. Down early to NC Central, multiple tough defensive stops led to an explosion of points by Harris and Co. Comeaux, Solomon, Ware and others showed how active hands and positioning stymie other teams' sets. Kensmil again played a great inside presence without drawing fouls or committing turnovers. Expect this to be a defense first team.

However, not enough can be said about the offensive flow the Jacks were feeling on Saturday - especially from half court sets. The ability of any player on the court to score is something SFA hasn't seen in a while. Every player that got a touch for a few minutes put buckets in. It opened up Kevon to destroy the opposition. How can you stop everybody? You can't. The Jacks will try to keep up the inside of the net love Wednesday as they show the Purple Eagles the true Purple Haze.

Axe 'em!

A good showing against Niagara would set up a date against a solid Drexel squad. One step at a time. Let's dominate against Niagra!

Looking at their stats...

They are going to run about 10 guys on the court with minutes spread pretty evenly. Towns, Hammond, and Solomon lead the Eagles in minutes with about 24 a game.

Towns is leading the Eagles in scoring with 10.5 a game on 39.1% shooting. As a team the Eagles are shooting at about a .386 clip and have been abysmal defensively, giving up opponents .574 shooting from the field. Niagra is just as bad behind the arc, shooting .294 while giving up .459 defensively.

Niagra doesn't rebound well, and that is to be expected with a smaller team. On average they have been out-rebounded 36.5-24 this season.

Granted, we are looking at a season of two games, one of which being a blowout loss to Rutgers, I don't see this one being close.

Niagara fired their coach after last year's season when they were 13-19 and hired Patrick Beilein who then resigns for personal reasons a week before the season starts and never coaches a game for them. Now led by assistant Greg Paulus who is a first time head coach but has a good background as a Duke PG, spend time on staff at George Washington, Louisville and Ohio State. This was not his ideal way of getting a HC position.

I expect SFA to do what they did on Saturday assuming it was not a fluke and win easily, maybe not a 30pts win but a double digit win for sure. I expect Keller will use this game to continue to work on his rotation and figure out who plays well with each other.

BigJack85 said:

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A good showing against Niagara would set up a date against a solid Drexel squad. One step at a time. Let's dominate against Niagra!

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Agreed. 1 game at a time. While this significantly revised SFA team looks to have some real potential this year, I am still nervous. Against better competition the way they played from about the 10 min. mark to the end of the first half can't happen against good competition if you want to win. Keller made some good changes after the half that made the difference and allowed the team to easily pull away.

I hope McDaniel is out of the doghouse and will get some meaningful minutes against Niagara. I would like to know how he handles and distributes the ball at the college level. Likewise, is he a tenacious on-ball defender? Lastly, can he score? That's asking a lot from a freshmen, but wasn't he the Greater Houston Player of the Year?

Does anyone know how much longer Demiere Brown will be sidelined with the injury?

I'm not going to make a prediction on the Duke game, but I hope by the time we play Alabama that our rotation will be set and our defense will be fine-tuned.

Central Arkansas plays Duke tonight...guess we will get to see how the SLC stacks up against decent competition! (sarcasm intended)

CertifiedAxeman98 said:

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Niagara fired their coach after last year's season when they were 13-19 and hired Patrick Beilein who then resigns for personal reasons a week before the season starts and never coaches a game for them. Now led by assistant Greg Paulus who is a first time head coach but has a good background as a Duke PG, spend time on staff at George Washington, Louisville and Ohio State.

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I think Paulus has a good future ahead of him, probably not this year. Played for the best, coached with some of the best.

I forgot that after he was done with Duke basketball, he transferred to Syracuse and was their starting QB. Threw for 2,200+ yards.

Was the Gatorade High School National Player of the Year (All-Sports), that Football National Player of the Year in 2004 and was a McDonald's All-American in Basketball.

He certainly has the background to be successful.

That being said, I hope we beat their brains in.

Game day!!!

I'm stoked, Walkup's stoked. Who else?

Jacks favored by 8 with a 79.4% chance of winning.

jboy93 said:

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CA didnt fair too well against Duke!

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105-54. Hope they got paid well.

SFAJack_76 said:

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jboy93 said:

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CA didnt fair too well against Duke!

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105-54. Hope they got paid well.

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. I sure hope we fair better than that. We need to keep it respectable. That was brutal Keller needs to work on press break before game.