How a career-ending injury brought Evan Bradds back to lead Belmont basketball--Main Street Nashville
Hinkle Showdown #2 features: Final Four matchup between Illinois State and Auburn.--Busting Brackets
4.1.26 Game Analysis--Basket Under Review
NIT SEMIFINAL NOTES:
- Illinois State is the only NIT semifinalist to have won a game on the road in this tournament, and should have a strong crowd contingent in Indy. I noted ahead of this tournament that ISUred desperately needed Johnny Kinziger to rediscover his jump shot if they wanted to make a run to Indy, and he's had his best shooting stretch of the year (11-23 from 3) in what has been a trying year for him. Auburn has struggled to defend at the rim and in particular the post all season (4th percentile efficiency rating in post defense), which isn't ideal against Chase Walker and an ISU offense that filters offense through the post at an 85th percentile rate and now has the options around Walker's paint gravity to exploit Auburn's 64th percentile unguarded catch and shoot rate allowed (and opponents have rarely missed their catch and shoots against the Tigers all season). Elijah Price just had a career game in the post against Auburn, scoring 1.6 PPP on post possessions in Nevada's near comeback against the Tigers. Auburn meanwhile has seen Filip Jovic take full advantage of KeShawn Murphy's opt out, scoring 30 points the last two games, which is more than his previous 9 games combined. The problem is that he's allowed 1.5 PPP in the post- that's a 1st percentile grade out per Synergy data. That said, Pettiford's ball screen and dribble creation could have devastating effects against a pretty devout ISUred drop coverage with the paint bound Walker, and they have no one for Keyshawn Hall's isolations. ISUred has been an elite defensive rebounding team (best in the Valley, top 15 DREB% nationally, per KenPom), which is important against Auburn's athleticism and glass crashing. But in ISU's one top 50 game this season they allowed 19 offensive rebounds on a massive 63% rate to Utah State. Probably simply not enough horses from an athleticism standpoint for the Redbirds, and too many matchup advantages on the ball for the Tigers. We've also seen Auburn try to hand back the game after building big leads against Seattle and Nevada the past two rounds.
Illinois State making most of NIT opportunity entering semifinal against Auburn--The Pantagraph
Redbirds face off with SEC’s Auburn in NIT Final Four Thursday--The Vidette
Men's Basketball to Battle Auburn for Spot in NIT Title Game--goredbirds.com
WNIT Fab 4 Showdown Between Illinois State and South Dakota Set For Wednesday--goredbirds.com
Pressure continues to rise for Murray State's women's basketball--WPSD Local 6
Halli Poock announces return to Murray State--WPSD Local 6
Keslyn Secrist announces return for her senior year--WPSD Local 6
Freshman guard Gabby Spink to enter Transfer Portal--WPSD Local 6
Kyle Green’s fourth stint at Northern Iowa comes with the top job and a 5-year contract--The Associated Press
Goodbye Ben Jacobson--Valley Hoops Insider
UNI basketball tabs Iowa State assistant Kyle Green as new head coach--Des Moines Register
Iowa State Basketball Assistant Kyle Green Hired by Northern Iowa--Sports Illustrated
College Men's Basketball: UNI selects Green to take over program--Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
Kyle Green named next UNI men’s basketball coach--Northern Iowan
New UNI Men’s Basketball coach announced--Northern Iowan
Kyle Green named University of Northern Iowa head men’s basketball coach--unipanthers.com
Add House to list of Salukis in transfer portal--Southern Illinoisan
