Cal State Northridge (#15, West, Kansas City pod)

vs. Memphis (#2)
Mar. 19 @ 12:25pm

Vegas Line: Cal St. Northridge +19.5

General Profile

Location: Northridge, CA
Conference: Big West, automatic
Coach: Bobby Braswell, 205-180
08-09 Record: 17-13, 11-5
Last 12 Games: 9-3
Best Win: 71-66, Pacific, 3/15
Worst Loss: 67-65, Cal State Bakersfield, 11/21
Off. Efficiency Rating: 102.2; #162
Def. Efficiency Rating: 97.1; #83

Nuts n Bolts

Star Player(s): Rodrigue Mels, 25.5 ppg in Big West Tournament
Unsung Hero: Tremaine Townsend – 10.2 ppg, 8.3 rebs
Potential NBA Draft Pick(s): None
Key Injuries: Josh Jenkins, G – car accident; Deon Tresvant, G – pending legal case
Depth: 41.4%, #9
Achilles Heel: Just 67.3% from the FT line
Will Make a Deep Run if…: Memphis falls asleep on the court
Will Make an Early Exit if…: They turn the ball over too much (17.7 pg)

Other

Distance to First Round Site: 1,637 miles
School’s Claim to Fame: One of the state’s largest schools (33,000+ students), Northridge finished rebuilding in 2007 after the campus was heavily damaged in the 1994 earthquake that struck the Los Angeles area
School Wishes It Could Forget: Three players (including leading scorer and coach’s son) accused of stealing thousands of dollars in merchandise from a local Best Buy on New Year’s Day this year, and have not played since.
Prediction: Northridge does all of the things that Memphis does… only Memphis does them much, much better. The Matadors won the Big West despite missing some key players, but that grit won’t get them far against the Tigers.

Major RTC stories: None

Preview written by… (Ryan ZumMallen, LBPOSTSports.com)

Ryan ZumMallen of LBPostSports is the RTC correspondent for the Big West Conference.

For the casual Big West fan – but really, who’s “only” a casual Big West fan – the conference standings may seem a bit perplexing as we near the end of the preseason schedule.  For starters, the current standings look nothing like the predicted order of finish, with UCR all the way at the top and CSUN second from the bottom.  A couple of embarrassing losses during the conference’s few televised games certainly did not help its image – but remember, friends, the pre-conference standings can be deceiving.  A closer look reveals contenders, pretenders, and a few hidden gems to watch.

Let’s run down the Big West conference, beginning with the top of the standings, shall we? Read the rest of this entry »