Dave Malinsky
[COLOR=#000000 ! important]Incase anyone missed it
Top of the Ticket
CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE(-3) over Drexel Dragons
4* #528 C.S.-NORTHRIDGE over DREXEL
There is a cavernous gap in focus between these teams for this setting, and with Drexel having some tactical and logistical disadvantages what they are projecting as a close game in the marketplace has a chance to break wide open. Being at home means much more for Bobby Braswell and his Matadors than the oddsmakers appraisal for tonight. This will be their only game in the Matadome in a span of five weeks, and for a team that has already logged 11,521 air miles it creates a most favorable environment. That is accentuated by their pressing and trapping tactics, with Braswell once again having a deep rotation (11 players logging double-figure minute counts). That style is not conducive to early road success, of course, which helps to buy us their lower power rating, but now they get the home fans behind them, and some of those road challenges (particularly Purdue and Washington) will have accelerated their development process. Look for a fresh and hungry team to take the court tonight, one that will attack relentlessly for the full 40 minutes. That is not Drexel basketball, of course. The Dragons play a physical and methodical style that is the embodiment of coach Bruiser Flint, and they rarely go up against an opponent that forces this kind of tempo. The best way to attack the Matador presses is to go over the top and take the ball to the basket but that is not the Drexel way, and a sluggish offense that has connected at only a 39.8 percent clip so far, including a horrid 62.1 at the free throw line, faces an uphill battle vs. this defensive pressure. And that is even if they brought their ?A? game anyway. We do not expect to see a top level of efficiency from a team that has not played west of the Mississippi River since a game at Creighton in February of 2007, and they have not even traveled west of their own campus for a game this season. No one on the roster has ever played a game in the Pacific Time Zone, which makes the 10 PM tipoff on their body clocks an issue, and there is also the major distraction of a nationally televised game at Kentucky at Monday. For a team that harbors no at-large tourney considerations of any kind this result does not carry a lot of meaning, so do not be surprised if Flint experiments with some lineup combinations and treats it as more of an exhibition affair, something that Braswell will absolutely not do.[/COLOR]
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Originally Posted by joey
