Game Day Essentials: Game #6 vs Tennessee St.

Tennessee St.

Head Coach: Penny Collins
Location: Nashville, TN
Conference: Ohio Valley
Nickname: Tigers

Mascot: Aristocat the Tiger

Last time out: Lost to South Dakota 
Shirt not to wear: Tiger, Blue

Opening Line: Nebraska by 18.5

Other:  

• This is the first time Nebraska has ever played Tennessee St
• Oprah went to college here
• Freshman Guard Hercy Miller is the son of rapper Master P
• Southern, Tennessee St, and South Dakota all play each other this year
• The Tigers have used 4 starting lineups in four games.

Player to watch: Carlos Marshall

Two years ago Marshall was the Tiger's leading scorer but sat out all of last year with a hip injury.  Once again he's leading the team in scoring and has been hot from 3 to start the season.  Like most everyone on this team, has been turning the ball over at an alarming rate.

Player to watch: Dedric Boyd

Illinois St transfer Boyd is an aggressive scorer who's shot well and one the few Tigers not aggressively turning the ball over. Not sure if his lack of playing time is due to Collins rotating players a lot or if he's a defensive liability

Possible Tiger Starters

21    Kenny Cooper    G    6-1    Gr.    Nashville, Tenn. / WKU

1    Marcus Fitzgerald Jr.    G    6-2    Fr.    Nashville, Tenn. / Pearl-Cohn

11    Kassim Nicholson    F    6-7    Gr.    Jackson, Miss. / UAB

4    Christian Brown    F    6-6    So.    Hopkins, S.C. / Georgia

24    Jalen Dupree    F    6-8    Gr.    Cordova, Tenn. / Samford

Probable Rotation

2    Carlos Marshall Jr.    G    6-6    R-Jr.    Memphis, Tenn. / Southwest Tennessee Community College

15    Hercy Miller    G    6-3    Fr.    Los Angeles, Calif. / Minnehaha Academy

20    Dedric Boyd    G    6-4    R-Jr.    Brownsville, Tenn. / Illinois State

23    Emmanuel Dowuona    F    6-10    R-So.    Miami, Fla. / Purdue

44    David Acosta    F    6-11    So.    Santiago, Dominican Republic / Cloud County CC

Bench

3    Tajik Bartholomew    G    6-3    So.    Austin, Texas / Lanier HS
5    Ethan Riggs Abner    G    6-6    Fr.    Mt. Juliet, Tenn. / Green Hill HS
10    Monty Johal    G    6-3    R-So.    Springfield, Mo. / Glendale HS
12    Evan Joyner    F    6-8    Fr.    Greensboro, NC / Piedmont Classical HS
14    Shakem Johnson    F    6-7    Sr.    Youngstown, Ohio / Warren Harding
55    Drew Williams    F    6-7    Fr.    Chattanooga, Tenn. / Scotland Campus

The Rest of the Roster

Quickly

• Lipscomb/W. Kentucky PG transfer Kenny Cooper has been pretty shaky to start the season. Have him make a few before really guarding him
• Marcus Fitzgerald servers as a combo guard in this offense; hot from 3 to start the season
• Jalen Dupree is a Derrick Walker clone at center for the Tigers
• Kassim Nicholson is a load on the board and is capable of shooting from outside
• Georgia transfer Christian Brown draws a lot of contact offensively and defensively 
• Hercy Miller has been guard depth
• David Acosta and Emmanuel Dowuona are your typical large unskilled guys who rebound and shot block well but foul a ton and don't score

Probable starters for Nebraska
1  Alonzo  Verge    G    6-3
5  Bryce  McGowens    G    6-7

23   Keon Edwards    G    6-7

11  Lat Mayen    F    6-9

13  Derrick Walker    F    6-9

Bench

32  Wilhelm Breidenbach    F    6-10

30  Keisei Tominaga    G    6-2

0    C.J.  Wilcher    G    6-5

35    Eduardo Andre    F    6-11

10  Kobe Webster    G    6-0

14  Trevor Lakes    F    6-8
3   Quaran McPherson    G    6-3

33    Oleg Kojenets    F    7-0
4    Jackson Cronin    G    6-1

12    Sam Hoiberg    G    6-0
15    Chris McGraw    G    6-0
21    Jace Piatkowski    G    6-3
 

The Skinny: 

This might sound familiar but somewhere in this mess of a Tennessee St roster full of transfers is probably a decent basketball team. To this point, ,the Tigers haven't really found it yet though they've probably played better than their record and KenPom rating would indicate.  

The Tigers have been shooting the ball well.  Defensively they'll try and run Nebraska off the 3pt line and aggressively defend. They're a decent rebounding team but what might make this a very unfortunate night for Tennessee St is that they've been quite bad at two things that have been absolutely fueling Nebraska this season: turning the ball over and putting people on the line.  If the Tigers can change their stripes a bit, their outside shooting gives them a chance.  If Nebraska zips in a couple of 3s early this could get ugly.

Feels like Nebraska is putting the pieces together in what should be a disjointed game.

Prediction: Nebraska 91 - Tennessee St 68