Game Preview: Pre-Season Opener vs. Hillsdale

 

All of our questions regarding the 2011-2012 VU Men's basketball team will be answered come Saturday night....wouldn't that be nice!  The more likely senario is that some questions will be answered and others will arise.  Regardless, this Saturday the fun begins in the ARC as a new era of Crusader basketball begins under the leadership of Coach Bryce Drew.

Get to know your opponent: The Hillsdale Chargers bring forth a team returning some good offensive players.  Two guys I'm going to recommend watching closely for them are Brent Eaton (#21) and Brad Guinane (#24).  Eaton averaged over 16 ppg last season and shot the 3 pointer at over 40%.  Guinane averaged just over 13 ppg last season and was even more proficient behind the arc shooting with success 43% of the time.  Guinane was also the teams top rebounder, averaging over 6 per game. As a team, the Chargers finished last year at a respectable 20-6.

What to expect: Last season Hillsdale only had 6 players averaging in double figures for minutes played.  I know this game doesn't mean anything in the win/loss column, but any team that comes up against the Crusaders are going to have to be deep on the bench.  As far as VU goes I suspect we will get a glimpse at what Coach Drew hopes will be his starting five, how much the new guys have been able to mesh with the returners, and what each new guy is going to bring to the table.  Some things I will be watching for: how effective is Vucic, has Buggs bettered himself offensively, and what role will newcomers Bogan/Fernandez/Edwards find themselves in?  A little side note on this game: it appears that Tommy Kurth will be playing against a former Penn High School teammate in Charger Ryan Choiniere.

Prediction: In part 1 of our season preview I picked Valpo to win this one 98-52 (Brent went with a Valpo victory of 88-60) and having not seen them play yet I have no reason to change that.  Everyone will get plenty of game action and Coach Drew and his staff will be provided with plenty of coachable moments for the week of practice that will follow leading up to the Thursday night tilt against Augstana.

See you at the game!

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