rbg
Postdoc
Posts: 3068
Reg: 10-20-14
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02-01-19 10:34 AM - Post#274368
In response to Streamers
The threes may be hard to find tonight, since Cornell plays much better three point defense than they did last year. Dev is 7-36 since the LaSalle game and Antonio is 7-25 since Villanova, so I would not count on great three points shooting from them. Michael had some success last weekend, but he might do better from three on Saturday against Columbia. Kuba can certainly get hot as he did against Temple (4-6), but he was cold in his two other most recent appearances (1-6 vs Monmouth & 1-5 vs St. Joe's). He may also find better results on Saturday. If Penn is going to have success from three, it will be primarily be based on Bryce and Jake.
If the threes don't fall, then they will need to focus more on the inside. Since Cornell's inside defense is not as strong as it was with Gettings, I would expect Penn (mostly AJ, Dev and Antonio) to do well in this area. Columbia certainly did well in the 2nd halves of both games.
Defensively, Morgan will always get his points. Even if he is bottled up in the first half, he seems to finish in the low 20s by the end of the game. He tends to fill the stat sheet with 2s, 3s and FTs. If Penn can disrupt one aspect from the field or limit his FT attempts, they will have had a good night.
Boeheim is certainly doing much better this year, since he has moved away from the front court. He has 4 double digit games in his last 5 and really took it to Columbia in the 2nd half. I would hope that Penn's better inside defense will prevent him from having a huge night (he has had games of 20 vs Binghamton, 22 vs Columbia and 23 vs Delaware, but his other high games are 15 vs NJIT and 14 vs Towson).
Warren is playing better this year, but he is certainly not playing like Gettings. Since Cornell doesn't get a lot of points from McBride, Davis, Whiteside, and Julian, I think he and Boeheim will have to have really big nights on offense, if Cornell is to win.
If there are wild cards in this, it is Jack Gordon and Penn's FTs. Gordon came off the DL last Saturday and has the ability to get hot from outside. Penn's FT, of course, need no further explanations.
In the end, I feel Penn comes away with a much needed win and then gets ready to shoot some more threes at Columbia on Saturday.
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