Potential Purdue Preview: Texas Southern

Texas Southern

Overall Record: 14-20

Conference Record: 7-11

KenPom: 285

Head Coach: Johnny Jones (the former LSU coach, not the MMA fighter)

Significant Win: Arizona State - 67-66 OT

Offense

Texas Southern is not a good offensive team, in fact, it would be a compliment (and a lie) to call them a mediocre offensive team. They struggle to shoot the basketball, from pretty much anywhere on the court, and that’s when they manage to get an attempt at the basket.

This isn’t a team that can slow the game down and out execute you in the late shot clock, or beat you with dagger 3’s. It’s more of a shove the ball towards the general direction of the basket and hope offense.

Stats

All stats via Kenpom.com

*(national ranking)

Adjusted Efficiency: 96.5 (330)

Turnover %: 20.3% (312)

3 Point %: 28.7 (360)

2 Point %: 47.4 (293)

Key Players

Davon Barnes - SF - #2 - 6’5”, 215 - 13.6 PPG, 4.4 Reb, 2.4 Ast

P.J. Henry - PG - #3 - 5’10”, 175 - 12.7 PPG, 2.1 Ast

John Walker III - F - #24 - 6’9”, 200 - 12.6 PPG, 4.2 Reb

Joirdon Karl Nichols - F/C - #5 - 6’9”, 220 - 10.7 PPG, 8.9 Reb

Defense

This squad is much better at defending than they are scoring. They don’t do anything special, but Coach Jones has them dialed in with their man-to-man defense. They stay connected and give solid help on drives to the basket.

They have 3 players 6’9” or taller to throw into the paint, giving them more interior size and depth than a typical 16 seed. In their run to the SWAC Championship, they clamped down on defense, holding Alcorn St (R.I.P. Steve McNair) to 62, Alabama A&M to 61, and Grambling State (the best team in the SWAC) to 58.

Stats

Effective FG%: 49.3 (115)

Turnover %: 18.7 (131)

3 Point%: 33.6 (151)

2 Point%: 48.7 (105)

Key Players

John Walker III - F - #24 - 6’9”, 200 - 3.9 Block Percentage (239)

Joirdon Karl Nichols - F/C - #5 - 6’9”, 220 - 3.5 Block Percentage (286)

Zytarious Mortle - G - #12 - 6’2”, 199 - 3.7 Steal Percentage (53)

P.J. Henry - PG - #3 - 5’10”, 175 - 2.8 Steal Percentage (275)

Rebounding

This is a decent automatic qualifier rebounding team. They don’t dominate the boards, but they don’t get blown off them either because of their size. Against Grambling, their ability on the boards won the game. They pulled down 17 offensive rebounds and 29 defensive rebounds, giving them a 46 - 35 advantage on the boards.

Stats

Offensive Rebounding %: 29.3 (157)

Defensive Rebounding %: 27.7 (148)

KenPom Prediction

Texas Southern - 77

Fairleigh Dickinson - 75

Overall

This game is a match-up between a team that struggles on offense (Texas Southern) and one the struggles on defense (Fairleigh Dickinson). It’s also a match-up of small (average height of Fairleigh Dickinson is 73.4” (363) and vs decent sized (average height of Texas Southern (77.2).

Texas Southern wins if they make ugly up the game and dominate the glass. Fairleigh Dickinson wins if they take care of the ball, push the tempo, and hit a few outside shots. KenPom sees it as a toss-up. I have no idea who to take in this game, but we’ll blow up one of these mini-previews for a deeper look at winning team on Wednesday night,