UT RIO GRANDE VALLEY (1-2)Last Game: North Dakota State 76, UT Rio Grande Valley 70 on 11/15/19
Last Game with SBU: First meeting
Checkmate Unofficial Line: UT Rio Grande Valley -3
Net Ranking: TBD
KenPom RPI: Stony Brook 224, UT Rio Grande Valley 235
KenPom Prediction: Stony Brook 68, UT Rio Grande Valley 67
Listen/Watch:TV:
http://bit.ly/BBallGm5VidNotables:6-3/180 gr G Jordan Jackson 16.0 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 1.0 spg, .375 3-pt FG%, .778 FT%
5-11/175 jr G Javon Levi 12.3 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 7.3 apg, 4.0 spg, .500 3-pt FG%
6-7/190 sr F Lesley Varner III 9.3 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 3.3 apg, 1.0 spg
6-6/190 jr G Chris Freeman 8.7 ppg, 3.3 rpg, .455 3-pt FG%
6-4/195 rfr G Quinton Johnson II 8.0 ppg, 3.3 rpg, .357 3-pt FG%
First off, an all-time great nickname: the Vaqueros – "a cowboy; a cattle driver."
I'm not going to belabor this one. After all, it's a quick turnaround for the team and for yours truly. Will anybody be tuning in?
This team is plenty dangerous, having been selected to finish fourth in the WAC. We'll have our work cut out for us as we can't expect a veteran group to throw the ball around like TAMUCC did. Many of these guys were part of last year's 20-win campaign and have just come up short against the Dakota States – North and South. They just gave NDSU, the Summit League's preseason #1, everything it could handle.
I keep referring to our stamina here. UTRGV had TEN guys play at least 10 minutes in tonight's win, and nobody had more than 33 minutes (Jackson en route to a career-high 29; Levi en route to a near triple double). It's like, I dunno, the coach knew he had three games to get through – not a wild concept. By contrast, we had just six 10+ minute guys, with Foreman (37), Olaniyi (34) and Garcia (34) all leaving it all out there. Are they prepared to hit free throws in the second of three games in three days? We hit just 9 of 17 tonight. I just have a hunch that energy is going to play a factor in the last 10 minutes – they're shuffling players in and out, we're exhausting our core guys. We'll soon see.
Quick check on Vegas: we're a 2.5 point favorite at the moment.