The centennial season of LMU Lions basketball isn't over yet. After posting wins against Cal State Fullerton and Weber State at home in the first and second rounds respectively of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament the Lions find themselves in the quarterfinals. They are the last team playing on the men's side of WCC basketball.
Utah State is 19-15 on the year, 8-6 in the WAC. They hosted Brigham Young in both teams first game of the season and won. That is the only good win they have on the season and considering it was so long ago and also before Matt Carlino was eligible for the Cougars it's not as impressive as it seems on paper. Aside from that the Aggies have played Nevada and New Mexico State (who stole the WAC's bid from the better Wolfpack) and lost all four. They do have a 15-4 record at home in the Spectrum, but as a decent mid-major that's easy to do against a bunch of lesser mid-majors.
Loyola Marymount, 21-12, hasn't played a true road game since their Feburary 15th 75-60 beat down of then #16 Saint Mary's. I hope they haven't lost the swagger that led them to a 9-3 road record in that month plus.
This game features an interesting match-up of sophomore guards who are already their team's leaders. Utah State's Preston Medlin leads the Aggies in points with 16.3 per game. Anthony Ireland for the Lions puts up 15.5 a team high, but also dishes out 4.8 assists, more than anyone in this match-up.
Senior Brady Jardine leads the team in assists per game despite having not played since their 3rd game of the year. 6' 8'' senior forward Morgan Grim has the most rebounds of their remaining players at 5.9 per game. The Aggies as a team pull down only 26 rebounds a game without Jardine's stats factored in. That's a solid ten less than the 36 the Lions grab.
Everything favors the Lions in this match-up except the crowd, but if they haven't forgotten how to play on the road that could well be in their favor too.
Loyola Marymount @ Utah State
Logan, Utah
Wed, March 21, 2012, 6pm PDT
Radio: KXLU 88.9 FM and streaming free online at KXLU.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment