I hope people are ready to feast on some Holiday hoops! UND starts the Wright State tournament taking on the Ospreys of North Florida from the Atlantic Sun conference. This is an NIT team from last year. Although 2 of their wins were against lesser competition like UNDs, they did have stiff tests against Auburn, Miami and LSU.
This team does have some talented players at the 4 and 5 position. Their center, Banks, is shooting an eye popping 74.7% from the field and grabbing 7.6 rebounds a game. The straw that stirs the drink is senior Dallas Moore, who is averaging 17 ppg, His FG% is a little lower than his career average, but his 3 point % is right around 40%. Should be a great battle between Hooker and Moore.
For UND to win this game, they are going to have win the battle of the boards and get some inside presence on offense against two talented big men in Banks and Aminu. Avants and Drick are going to need to play big and Shanks needs to be ready to contribute with some good minutes. Keeping Banks and Aminu from getting offensive rebounds is priority #1! Hooker needs to keep doing what he is doing, Geno, Corey and Cortez needs to step up today and take some of scoring load off of Quinton.
Its go time for this squad, time to see what they are made of early on. This will be a stiff test, but a not a game they cannot win. I'd say they pull out a 72-67 victory.
This game is on ESPN3