Truman Men's Basketball Game Notes (January 8, 2015)
Game #14: Truman (9-4, 1-2 GLVC) at McKendree (6-3, 0-2 GLVC)
When: Thursday, January 8, 2015 | 7:30 p.m.
Where: Lebanon, Ill. | Melvin Price Convocation Center
Live Stream: Truman Athletics All-Access
Radio: 104.7 FM KRES | Listen | Announcers: Brad Boyer (PBP) and Hank Janssen (Analyst)
Live Stats: Regular/Mobile | Media (Non-Flash)
Printable Notes: Truman | McKendree | GLVC
Stats: Truman | McKendree | GLVC
Twitter: @TrumanAthletics || @TSUBulldogHoops || #TSUGameDay
Series Notes vs. McKendree
Series Record: Truman leads, 1-0.
Series Record in Lebanon: Never played.
Last Meeting: Jan. 11, 2014 || Truman won, 91-60, in Kirksville.
Series Streak: Truman, W-1
Probable Starters
Off the Bench
Staff
Head Coach: Chris Foster
Career Record: 9-4 || .692 || 1st season (all at Truman)
GLVC Record: 1-2 || .333 || 1st season
Assistant Coach: Joe Barrer (1st season)
Graduate Assistant Coach: Nik Koprivica (1st season)
Athletic Trainer: Morgan Locher (1st season)
Opening Tip:
The Truman men's basketball team hits the road for its first regular season road game in 41 days on Thursday (Jan. 8) night, when the Bulldogs travel to Lebanon, Ill., for a Great Lakes Valley Conference cross-division showdown with McKendree (Ill.). Tipoff from the Melvin Price Convocation Center is set for 7:30 p.m.
The Bulldogs enter Thursday night's contest at 9-4 overall (1-2 in the GLVC) after suffering back-to-back home losses to close out an eight-game home-stand that spanned the entire month of December and early January. Truman won the first six at home – including a 15-point GLVC-opening win against Quincy (Ill.) – before dropping a 77-69 decision to Wisconsin-Parkside and a 74-64 tilt with Lewis (Ill.) last Friday (Jan. 2) and Sunday (Jan. 4). The Bulldogs are 1.5 games back in the GLVC West division as part of a three-way tie with Missouri S&T and William Jewell.
McKendree, meanwhile, checks into Thursday night's affair off two straight losses to open its GLVC slate, as the Bearcats opened 2015 with a 79-64 loss at Maryville followed up with a 71-70 loss at Missouri-St. Louis. The Bearcats are 6-3 on the season and are currently 2.5 games back in the GLVC East division.
Thursday night will be just the second all-time meeting between the two squads, with the Bulldogs winning last season's first-ever showdown 91-60 in Kirksville. Seth Jackson posted an 18-point, 10-rebound double-double, while Reed Mells led all players with 21 points and six assists. Andrew Vander Zwaag added 15 points off the bench, as Truman shot 53% from the floor and hit 12 three-pointers in the victory.
K-9 Checkup:
The Bulldogs come into Thursday night's game as the GLVC's No. 4 offensive and defensive team, having averaged 83.5 points per game while giving up just 63.2 points per game on the defensive end. That has led to the conference's No. 2 scoring margin, with the Bulldogs also ranking second in the league in steals per game, turnover margin, and assist-to-turnover ratio.
Senior guard Seth Jackson leads the Bulldogs offensively and ranks second in the conference at 21.3 points per game, with the St. Louis-native also sitting 11th on Truman's all-time scoring chart with 1,266 career points. He is just 17 back of the top-10, where Justin Matthews (1988-92) holds down the No. 10 slot with 1,283 career points. Jackson has six 20-point performances this season – including a career-high 33 against Quincy on Dec. 6 – and is the GLVC's leading scorer in conference-only games at 25.7 points per game.
Backcourt and class-mate Reed Mells ranks second on the squad in scoring at 13.4 points per game and also sits in the GLVC's top-10 in steals (2.3/game; 2nd), assists (4.0/game; 5th), and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.85; 9th). He and Jackson – along with fellow senior Isaac Gardner – are creeping towards 100 career games played, with all three sitting in the 90s (Gardner: 96; Mells: 92; Jackson: 91). Mells' total includes his two seasons at Missouri Western.
From there, it's been a "next man up" philosophy for the Bulldogs on the offensive end this season, as five other players are averaging between 7-8 points per game, including Gardner (7.9), sophomore Kyle Kanaskie (7.8), redshirt-sophomore Cory Myers (7.5), junior Andrew Vander Zwaag (7.3), and junior Cole Myers (7.0). As a team, the Bulldogs are shooting 50.7% from the floor, including 39.7% from three-point range and 72.5% from the foul line. Opponents check in at 41.4% overall, 34.6% from three-point, and 67.9% from the charity stripe.
Chris Foster is in his first season along the Bulldog sideline as the program's head coach, having moved over one seat this season after serving as the team's associate head coach a year ago. This is Foster's first season as a collegiate head coach, and he is the 13th head coach in program history. The former Northern Iowa standout ranked among the program's top-10 in games played, assists, and three-pointers while helping lead the Panthers to the 2003 and 2004 NCAA Div. I tournament.
Bulldog Tweetables (sub-140 characters):- Thursday marks the 2,189th game in program history, with the team holding a 1,119-1,069 all-time record in 95 seasons.
- Last weekend marked the first times this season that Truman has trailed at the half –the Bulldogs are 9-2 when leading at the break.
- Getting to the foul line has been a staple for Truman this year, finishing 9-0 when it makes more from the stripe than its opponents.
- The Bulldogs have been out-rebounded in nine games, with a 4-0 record coming when Truman ended on the positive side.
- Truman has forced more turnovers than it has committed in every game this year, leading to 21.2 ppg off opponent miscues.
- Seven different Bulldogs have hit at least 10 three-pointers this season, led by 25 from senior guard Isaac Gardner.
- Truman ranks in the GLVC's top-half in 13 of 19 statistical categories and in top-25% in 10 of 19.
To Be the Best…You've Gotta Beat the Best:
The Bulldogs' NCAA Div. II schedule has been the toughest of any of the GLVC's 16 schools, with the team holding the sixth-best strength-of-schedule of all Div. II programs through Jan. 4. Truman's countable opponents had an overall record of 51-25 (.671), which gives only the Bulldogs, Quincy (.647), and UMSL (.604) with +.600 opponent winning percentages at this point.
As a result, the Bulldogs have the easiest strength-of-schedule of all GLVC teams the rest of the way, with Truman's future opponents holding a .544 cumulative winning percentage. At this pace, however, Truman will still have the GLVC's best SOS come the end of the regular season.
Scouting the Bearcats:
Four players average double-figures offensively for Truman's Thursday night opponent, as McKendree checks in at 6-3 overall (0-2 GLVC) but will be going for its fifth home win in six tries this season.
Brandon Book, a 6-foot-6 junior, is the team-leader at 14.1 points per game, having started the team's first six games before sitting two and coming off the bench on Sunday at UMSL. He is joined offensively by 6-foot-5 senior Logan Carson (13.3 ppg), 6-foot-5 senior Matt Holmes (12.4 ppg; 6.9 rpg), and 6-foot-5 sophomore Michael Jackson (11.4 ppg), with two others – 6-foot-6 junior John Murphy (9.0 ppg) and 6-foot-7 senior Arthur Williams (8.6 ppg; 6.0 rpg) – rounding out a very thin rotation. Only eight different players saw the floor during the team's St. Louis weekend last Friday and Sunday.
The Bearcats rank highly on the defensive side, sitting fifth in the GLVC in overall field goal defense (41.0%) and three-point field goal defense (32.7%), while also holding a fifth-best +6.9 rebounding margin. One glaring area of weakness for the 'Cats is at the foul line, where the team shoots just 57.4% - a predictably GLVC-worst rate from the stripe.
Harry Statham – the all-time wins leader in men's college basketball history – is now in his 49th season as the McKendree head coach, having amassed 1,083 career victories. He is the only men's coach in college basketball history at the four-year level of any division to reach the 1,000-win mark.
Just Like Last Year:
This season's GLVC slate has started eerily similar to last season for the Bulldogs, with the purple and white sitting at 1-2 after opening with a win against Quincy and losses to Wisconsin-Parkside and Lewis.
Last year's McKendree/Illinois Springfield weekend kick-started a seven-game winning streak that eventually culminated with 12 wins in the team's final 15 regular season games. Truman defeated UIS at home 76-70 before downing McK 91-60 on this weekend last year.
Bulldogs Scoring the Free Ones:
Just one year removed from setting the program's new standard for single-season free throw shooting at 74.1%, the 2014-15 Bulldogs are looking to challenge the newly-established number this season. Through the first 13 games, the Bulldogs have connected on 72.5% of their team free throws, making 195 of the 269 total taken from the charity stripe.
Helping fuel that high number from the line is redshirt sophomore Cory Myers, who currently is riding the longest free throws made streak in program history at 35 consecutive from the line. He is a perfect 24-for-24 this season, which combines with a 10-for-10 mark prior to a season-ending injury last year and the final free throw of his freshman campaign in 2012-13. His final free throw against Iowa Wesleyan on Dec. 19 broke the previous program record of 31, set in the 2009-2010 season by Tom Norton.
Bombs Away:
In addition to the high free throw totals, the Bulldogs are also on pace to set a new program record in three-pointers made in a single-season with 123 through the first 13 games this year. The all-time record of 246 (in 26 games) was set in 2001-02, with last year's squad coming up 13 triples short.
The Bulldogs have topped 200 each of the last three seasons, beginning with 205 in 2011-12 and 201 in 2012-13.
Truman has seen sustained success from distance throughout program history, with the Bulldogs having made at least one three-pointer in every game since Feb. 12, 2003 – a stretch of 318 consecutive games.
Scratching Records:
The Bulldogs used the month of December to re-write a handful of single-game team record columns – most notably on Dec. 15 when the team drained a program-high 18 three-pointers in a win against Faith Baptist. Truman broke a nearly 13-year old record that had been previously set on Feb. 7, 2002 at Central Missouri, when the Bulldogs hit 16 three-pointers in a loss at then-CMSU.
This year's squad also now holds the Nos. 2 and 4 spots on the field goal percentage charts, with the squad's 63.6% night against Lincoln Christian and 61.1% night against Faith Baptist knocking a February 1992 night against Washburn (63.0%) down one spot to No. 3. The program's all-time record of 64.1% against Northwest Missouri (March 1975) still stands despite the team's 66.7% night against Central Christian this year since the minimum 60 field goal attempts required was not reached against the CCCB Saints (36-for-54).
Truman also currently holds the GLVC's top scoring margin by any team this season, with the team's 65-point win against Lincoln Christian holding the No. 1 slot. The Bulldogs also have two wins ranked No. 6 in that category, with 56-point wins against both Central Christian and Faith Baptist.
#UniWatch:
The Bulldogs added a third jersey to their uniform arsenal this season, picking up an anthracite-gray to go along with the team's traditional purple and white choices. The full game notes will be tracking the team's record in each color this year, with only the white kit (7-2) and gray kit (2-2) seeing action so far.
Found: 20 Wins!:
Last year's Bulldog team became the first to win 20 games since the 2005-06 team capped its season with a 20-9 record. Only five previous Bulldog teams – 1946-47 (30-2), 1947-48 (29-2), 1978-79 (20-9), 1998-99 (26-7), 2005-06 (20-9) – reached the 20-win mark in a season.
In addition, the Bulldogs' 13 conference wins last season set a new program record, as only two other Bulldog teams reached the dozen win mark during their respective conference slates.
A Whole New Venue:
The Great Lakes Valley Conference's 20 league championships sites have been determined for the 2014-15 season, with the most notable change to the GLVC Championship schedule coming in basketball.
The 2015 GLVC Men's and Women's Basketball Championship Tournament will enter into its first of a two-year agreement with the Family Arena in St. Charles, Mo., just minutes outside St. Louis. The league's premiere event had been held the past two years at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana, but a two-year schedule conflict with the venue required the GLVC to relocate. The 2015 event will begin with first-round competition on campus sites on March 1, with eight quarterfinalists on both the men's and women's side advancing to Family Arena for tournament action, March 5-8. Tickets for the 2015 GLVC Men's and Women's Basketball Championship Tournament are expected to go on sale in late November.
Up Next:
The Bulldogs head north on Interstate 55 to the capital city of Illinois for a Saturday afternoon game against Illinois Springfield. Truman will be meeting the Prairie Stars (6-4, 0-2 GLVC) for the first time since UIS knocked the Bulldogs out of the 2014 GLVC tournament with a 78-72 first-round upset win in Kirksville last March.
