Game Day Essentials: Game #4 vs Stony Brook

Stony Brook

Head Coach: Geno Ford (5th year)
Location: Lawrenceville, NJ
Conference: Coastal Athletic Association
Nickname: Seawolves
Mascot:  Wolfie the Seawolf
Last time out: Lost to Duquesne 85-63
Clothes not to wear: Blue, Grey, your favorite silhouette of a wolf howling at the moon with another big wolf staring at you and a series of smaller wolves also looking at you

Opening Line: Nebraska by 16.5

Nota bene:  

• Nebraska looking to start 4-0 for the first time in the Hoiberg era
• The last two coaches at Stony Brook prior to Geno Ford were Jeff Boals and current Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell
• Nebraska has put together an on campus, non-bracketed Multi-Team Event (MTE) with Rider, Stony Brook, and Duquesne where each team will play each other.  The purpose of this is that in order to play 31 games, you need to play in a MTE else the most regular season games you can play is 29. It's silly but it's how college basketball works. In the past few years Nebraska has travelled around Thanksgiving but this year opted to host their own event, which is what other fine institutions do as well. (The "Blue Devil Challenge" is Duke, Bucknell, La Salle, and Southern Indiana). 
• This is the first ever meeting between Stony Brook and Nebraska. 
• Stony Brook is part of the State University of New York system (SUNY), one of the largest systems of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the US. Buffalo, Albany, and Binghamton are the other D-1 basketball SUNY schools.

Player to watch: Andre Snoddy

The 6'6" Central Connecticut transfer is a rebounding savant and last season had a top 300 rank in offensive and defensive rebounding rate. Given how poorly Stony Brook shoots Nebraska will need to track him at all times on defense to limit second chance points.

Player to watch: Aaron Clarke

Clarke is fully recovered from a back injury which limited the former All-NEC PG to just 3 games last season.  Clarke currently leads the team in assists and is shooting a sizzling 50% from 3.

Others to watch

• Chris Maidoh  - The 6'10" 223# transfer from Fairfield is a rim protector/rebounder. Splitting time at center with 7'0" 250# Keenan Fitzmorris who also falls under the rim protector/rebounder descriptor
• Tyler Stephenson-Moore - 6'3" Sr guard is arguably the best defender on the team and other main 3pt threat though he's more of a slasher.
• Dean Noll - 6'2" Combo guard capable of shouldering the scoring load on nights. Slashing to the rim for contact type of player.

Roster/infirmary report

OUT

5   Ahron Ulis     6-3    190 lbs    Junior - Likely out for the season
15  Blaise Keita     6-11    257 lbs    Junior - Ongoing ankle injury recovery

"Day to Day"

4   Juwan Gary     6-6    221 lbs    Junior - Violation of team rules

Possible starters for Nebraska

10    Jamarques Lawrence  6-3    183 lbs    Sophomore

30   Keisei Tominaga           6-2    179 lbs    Senior
3     Brice Williams               6-7    213 lbs    Junior
53   Josiah Allick                 6-8    231 lbs    Senior
51    Rienk Mast                 6-10    248 lbs    Junior

Bench

0    C.J. Wilcher                  6-5    214 lbs    Junior

9    Jarron Coleman            6-5    213 lbs    Senior
1    Sam Hoiberg                 6-0    183 lbs    Sophomore
11    Eli Rice                         6-8    213 lbs    Freshman

2    Ramel Lloyd Jr.             6-6    210 lbs    RS Freshman
21    Matar Diop                 6-10    213 lbs    Freshman
31    Cale Jacobsen            6-4    200 lbs    RS Freshman
35    Henry Burt                  6-7    216 lbs    RS Freshman
24    Jeffrey Grace III         6-3    197 lbs    Sophomore 

It appears that Ramel Lloyd has been cleared to play per his father on twitter.  Assuming that Juwan Gary will miss one more game and make his debut in South Dakota. We'll know for sure on these two things when the availability report comes out around 4:30.

The Skinny: 

Nebraska has what is essentially another tune-up game as they prepare to ramp up their season.  One new challenge the Huskers should face tonight is trying to score without benefit of the FT line.  Nebraska has been getting to the line in bunches this year, currently ranked in KenPom's top 25 in FTA/FGA% in Div 1.  However, Geno Ford's Stony Brook teams have consistently defended without fouling so we're about to find out how opponent driven Nebraska's ability to make it to the line might be. 

Otherwise look for Nebraska to continue to 'Shoot to Thrill'  from 3 as the Seawolves are a team that tends to value protecting inside the paint.  The value of Keisei Tominaga will likely be on display tonight as 2pt type defenses either need to extend beyond their comfort level or else need to just hope he's going to miss target practice. This is the type of game where you could see Nebraska with an entry into their top 10 3pt rate in the KenPom records page.

Lastly, but probably most importantly, the Nebraska defense seems to have picked up where it left off last year.  Part of the reason that a poor shooting Nebraska team wasn't sweating out a win over Rider was their ability to generate stops with their unrelenting commitment to force teams to hunt for open shots.  This dribble-drive Stony Brook team has been shooting from deep fairly well this season but will need to be red-hot to stay in this game.  Likely they won't.  

Nebraska goes for their 4th win and 4th chance to hold an opponent under 60

Prediction: Nebraska 74 - Rider 56