MANHATTAN
Record: 2-5 (0-0 MAAC)
Last Game: Fordham 57, Manhattan 56 on 12/1/18
Last Game with SBU: Stony Brook 50, Manhattan 44 on 1/1/13; Warney 8 pts, 6 rebs
Checkmate Unofficial Line: Stony Brook -5.5
RealTime RPI: Stony Brook 95, Manhattan 324
KenPom RPI: Stony Brook 172, Manhattan 302
KenPom Prediction: Stony Brook 64, Manhattan 61
Listen/Watch:TV:
https://gojaspers.com/showcase?Live=116Stony Brook radio:
http://bit.ly/WUSBSportsNotables:6-8/220 jr F Pauly Paulicap 7.5 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 1.0 spg (only 2 games; average 10 ppg, 7 rpg, 2.5 bpg on .558 shooting last year)
6-9/240 fr F Warren Williams 7.4 ppg, 3.7 rpg, .500 FG%,
.414 FT%6-0/180 sr G Thomas Capuano 6.1 ppg, 1.1 spg, .476 3-pt FG%
6-7/220 so F Ebube Ebube 6.1 ppg, 7.0 rpg, .353 3-pt FG%, team-high 27.3 minutes
6-1/190 so G Nehemiah “Bud” Mack 5.3 ppg, 1.4 spg, .867 FT%
I’m just so wary of every game. We’re sitting at 7-1 and it just seems too good to be true, doesn’t it?
Well, we have a couple solid road tests coming up in Manhattan and Brown, which is off to a 6-3 start. First things first though, we face a Jasper team that we need to be careful with, never mind their record.
Manhattan’s fallen on hard times of late, having finished below .500 in each of the past three seasons and likely on their way to a fourth. They were picked to finish eighth in the MAAC in the preseason. Yet the style of basketball that we can expect from a Steve Masiello team puts an emphasis on taking care of the basketball, which is an element of the game that we’ve struggled with to this point. A disciple of Rick Pitino, Masiello’s group will try to speed us up by pressuring the ball, often for 94 feet, and make every possession a challenge. Masiello uses his entire roster to do it. Only Ebube averages more than 25 minutes a game, and they have nine guys who average more than 15. They've had seven different leading scorers in seven games.
Sure, the Jaspers have had their struggles this year – see a 23-point loss to Hartford and a 27-point loss at GW. They’re averaging less than 53 points a game (topping out at just 56) and have shot just 37 percent as a team. And (eek) 52 percent from the charity stripe – imagine enduring that? However, they got a jolt over the weekend when, after missing five games – and only playing five minutes in a sixth – due to injury, Pauly Paulicap returned to the starting lineup against one-loss Fordham for the Battle of the Bronx. They went up to Rose Hill Gym and were right there at the end, with Mack misfiring on a potential game-winning three at the buzzer. Paulicap led the way with 15 and 6 in just 22 minutes. He’s a big-time presence underneath, coming off a year in which he led the MAAC in blocks at about 2.5 a night.
This is a team that shot 40 percent from three last year but lost their top four guys in terms of makes. Capuano's the main weapon now, having shot almost 51 percent from three last year and is up near that again. He's really the glue to the group, having played in over 100 games for his career, most of them starts.
Manhattan’s the kind of team that will make us beat ourselves by being careless with the ball. With such a young team, I’m a little worried about our ability to handle the pressure, but hopefully the guys are coached up and ready to handle the heat. I wonder if we see more Garcia as a small-ball five just to have another ballhandler on the floor.
If we get to 60, will that do?
As great as our record is, really, what game was a no-doubter aside from Molloy? We were neck and neck with South Carolina and GW. We finished strong in our first Norfolk State win and held on in our second. The same goes for Quinnipiac – up big, held on. So really, we're looking at the URI game as the only D-I opponent against which we kinda coasted (coasted against an A-10 team – did I just say that?). So we're 7-1, but couldn't we easily be .500? Let's not lose sight of that. We're going to have to earn this one too.