Brendon Mulvihill is an RTC contributor. You can find him @themulv on Twitter.  See bottom of the post for the Official RTC Star System.

Gonzaga and Oral Roberts should be the most competitive game on a short Thursday slate.  Let’s check out the action.

Robert Sacre should have a big game against Oral Roberts

Oral Roberts at Gonzaga – 9:00PM EST on Root Sports (**)

• Oral Roberts has proven to be a very solid offensive rebounding team to this point in the season. They rank 14th in the nation in offensive rebounding percentage (40.5%). Their ability to grab boards will be a key factor as they will be outsized down low against Gonzaga’s Robert Sacre. Keep an eye on Oral Roberts’ offensive rebounding numbers. Since Oral Roberts is not a great shooting team (49.2% eFG) and they have a tendency to turn the ball over, these empty possession can only be mitigated by solid offensive rebounding. If Sacre and Elias Harris are grabbing boards, Oral Roberts will have a tough night.
• Gonzaga comes into the game with back-to-back losses against Illinois and Michigan State.  Luckily, Mark Few’s team has had five days to prep at home for Oral Roberts. With strong three-point shooting and strong rebounding, the Zags should be able to win the game. Oral Roberts has a solid perimeter defense however. Their losses have come to teams with strong two-point shooting, which Gonzaga does not have. Again, keep an eye on Sacre’s and Harris’ ability to convert in the paint.
• While both teams struggle with turnovers, the key really comes down to field goal defense. Both teams allow over 50% eFG. Sacre and Harris should create room on the outside for the Gonzaga shooters. If they are able to bury three-pointers at their season average of 40%, the Bulldogs will win. Oral Roberts needs to continue to limit threes, limit empty possessions, and hit those twos. It will be tough however since Gonzaga has had five days rest and is playing at the Kennel.

***** – quit your job and divorce your wife if that’s what it takes to watch this game live
**** – best watched live, but if you must, tivo and watch it tonight as soon as you get home
*** – set your tivo but make sure you watch it later
** – set your tivo but we’ll forgive you if it stays in the queue until 2014
* – don’t waste bandwidth (yours or the tivo’s) of any kind on this game

bmulvihill (74 Posts)

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 15th, 2011 at 8:15 am by bmulvihill and is filed under Regular Features, set your dvr. Tagged: elias harris, gonzaga, mark few, oral roberts, robert sacre. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.