After 6 games on the road the Bengals finally make their home debut tonight against a 4-1 Lamar team that has a 63-60 upset at Oregon State on its resume. The game begins at 7 pm in Holt Arena, and it's the 0-6 Bengals' only D-1 nonconference home game this year.
In doing my research for tonight's broadcast three key factors presented themselves: turnovers, turnovers and turnovers. Oh, and one more factor -- turnovers. ISU is turning the ball over 24 percent of the time, which ranks 333rd out of 351 D-1 teams in the country. Think about that for a moment -- on one of every 4 possessions ISU doesn't even get a shot. And we all know that TOs frequently lead to easy points on the other end.
Lamar, by contrast, has a plus-7 turnover margin so far this season. Their opponents have committed 35 more TOs than the Cardinals in five games. In their upset win at Corvallis, Lamar scored 30 points on 27 Oregon State turnovers. So there's your obvious narrative for tonight.
As noted earlier on this board, the Bengals have a ton of statistical weaknesses befitting an 0-6 team: lousy assist to TO ratio, minus 9 rebounding margin, opponents have a 56 percent effective shooting percentage, etc. I think most of those things are correctible over time. But what will be most interesting tonight is seeing if the Bengals begin working together as a team. Will Ethan Telfair be back after a 3-game hiatus and how will he integrate back into the team? Will the ball flow freely on offense or will it "stick" with certain players? And will ISU develop a team defense concept that forces opponents to work harder for their points?
Lamar is a below average shooting team, not particularly big or explosive. But they play tough defense (their opponents only make 32 percent of their threes), take great care of the basketball (19th best TO percentage in the nation) and they have an absolute warrior in 6-5 F Colton Weisbrod, who played all 40 minutes in the win over OSU and put up 16 points and 12 rebounds.
ISU lost at Lamar last season 82-70. The Bengals' two leading scorers in that game -- Ali Faruq-bey and Kyle Ingram, who combined for 31 points -- won't be playing tonight. The Cardinals held ET to just 7 points in 31 minutes with 4 TOs and two assists. Guard Nick Garth had 18 for Lamar, including 4 threes, and Lincoln Davis, who comes off the bench, had 16 points and 7 rebounds.
So there's the scene for tonight. Will ISU begin the rebuilding process with a win over a good but beatable Cardinal team? Well, it all comes down to....turnovers, turnovers, turnovers.
In doing my research for tonight's broadcast three key factors presented themselves: turnovers, turnovers and turnovers. Oh, and one more factor -- turnovers. ISU is turning the ball over 24 percent of the time, which ranks 333rd out of 351 D-1 teams in the country. Think about that for a moment -- on one of every 4 possessions ISU doesn't even get a shot. And we all know that TOs frequently lead to easy points on the other end.
Lamar, by contrast, has a plus-7 turnover margin so far this season. Their opponents have committed 35 more TOs than the Cardinals in five games. In their upset win at Corvallis, Lamar scored 30 points on 27 Oregon State turnovers. So there's your obvious narrative for tonight.
As noted earlier on this board, the Bengals have a ton of statistical weaknesses befitting an 0-6 team: lousy assist to TO ratio, minus 9 rebounding margin, opponents have a 56 percent effective shooting percentage, etc. I think most of those things are correctible over time. But what will be most interesting tonight is seeing if the Bengals begin working together as a team. Will Ethan Telfair be back after a 3-game hiatus and how will he integrate back into the team? Will the ball flow freely on offense or will it "stick" with certain players? And will ISU develop a team defense concept that forces opponents to work harder for their points?
Lamar is a below average shooting team, not particularly big or explosive. But they play tough defense (their opponents only make 32 percent of their threes), take great care of the basketball (19th best TO percentage in the nation) and they have an absolute warrior in 6-5 F Colton Weisbrod, who played all 40 minutes in the win over OSU and put up 16 points and 12 rebounds.
ISU lost at Lamar last season 82-70. The Bengals' two leading scorers in that game -- Ali Faruq-bey and Kyle Ingram, who combined for 31 points -- won't be playing tonight. The Cardinals held ET to just 7 points in 31 minutes with 4 TOs and two assists. Guard Nick Garth had 18 for Lamar, including 4 threes, and Lincoln Davis, who comes off the bench, had 16 points and 7 rebounds.
So there's the scene for tonight. Will ISU begin the rebuilding process with a win over a good but beatable Cardinal team? Well, it all comes down to....turnovers, turnovers, turnovers.