South Florida continues its five game home stand when it takes on Northern Arizona tonight in the Sun Dome at 7 p.m. USF will be looking to for its second consecutive win following Thursday’s 83-63 defeat of Bethune-Cookman.
In the game against BCU, the Bulls set season highs in points (83), field goal percentage (55.6), three point field goal percentage (50.0) and matched their season high in assists (19).
NAU, statistically one of the worst teams in college basketball, is ranked No. 336 out of 351 Division I programs by Kenpom.com. The Lumberjacks have two wins this season but only one over a Division I program.
RunningTheBulls.com has your quick facts and what to watch for against Northern Arizona.
Quick Facts
Matchup: Northern Arizona (2-9) at USF (5-6)
Date: Monday, Dec. 18
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Tampa, Fla. | USF Sun Dome
Watch: BullsVision (Jim Louk)
Radio: AM 820 | USF Bulls Unlimited (Jim Lighthall, Neil Solondz)
History: This is the first ever meeting between South Florida and Northern Arizona.
The Opponent: NAU lost their top five scorers and their top three rebounders from last season. The Lumberjacks brought in eight new players, including three transfers, this season to help improve on last season’s 9-23 record.
OFFENSE: Because they train and play their home games at a high altitude, NAU likes to get out and run. Unfortunately for them they are prone to turnovers. Entering Monday’s game NAU is ranked No. 350 out of 351 teams in turnover percentage – 26.4 percent of all Lumberjack possessions end in turnovers. While watching their game against South Dakota we noticed that many of the Lumberjack turnovers were unforced errors, usually just poor passes.
A pair of sophomores are the Lumberjacks scoring leaders. JoJo Anderson leads the team with 12.2 points per game while Chris Bowling averages ten points per contest. Anderson had a career high 30 points against South Dakota. He has scored in double figures in seven of the last nine games. Brooks Debisschop leads the Lumberjacks in rebounding at 5.9 per game but he has missed their three most recent games with a foot injury.
DEFENSE: In a season preview interview with NAU athletics, head coach Jack Murphy said that he wants “to get up and pressure people. Whether that is a full-court press, or in the half court in man-to-man, we want to create turnovers and create easy baskets in transition.”
We did not see much actual evidence of that in game video we watched.
NAU will occasionally use a full-court man press but it is more of a nuisance press, to make opponents use up clock, rather than to create turnovers. They’ve only used their press 18.5 percent of the time in games and it’s typically once they’ve fallen far behind on the scoreboard. In the half court their ball pressure is not very strong, players leave their feet when they don’t need to but make up for it by not getting a hand up when they do need to. The Lumberjacks typically do not switch on ball screens and on baseline out of bounds (BLOB) plays they are in man five times as much as they go to a zone.
Murphy is in his sixth season as Northern Arizona’s head coach and has a 65-110 overall record at the school. This season NAU was slotted No. 11 in the Big Sky Coaches' Preseason Poll.
Outlook: NAU is a team the Bulls can and should dominate in the paint. The Lumberjacks post defense is yielding a 51.8 percent field goal percentage to opponents. Anytime Isaiah Thomas is in the game, whoever is defended by the 6-foot-9, 220 pounder needs to post up and demand an entry pass. Opponents are making 63 percent of their post-up field goals against Thomas. NAU is not a particularly strong offensive rebounding team, the Bulls should be able to limit the Lumberjack’s offensive rebounds to between six and nine as well as limit their second chance points.
Prediction: If the Bulls limit turnovers like they did against Bethune-Cookman, rebound and move the ball, they should get their second consecutive win and improve to .500 on the season.
USF 75 NAU 62
