City of Basketball Love

CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
--

Every day during the season on which there are games featuring the 10 Division I teams that CoBL features, we’ll have a Tipping Off running bright and early, letting you know everything you need to know about the match-ups.

As always, we’ll start with a wrap of the previous day’s action, followed by a look at the complete slate; as always, thanks to KenPom’s awesome site for his predictions--though keep in mind this early in the season, his predictions aren’t as reliable:

~~~

Yesterday’s results

Villanova 69, Georgia Tech 52
--Quick Report

Alaska-Anchorage 71, Drexel 65
--Quick Report

~~~~

Today’s games

Penn State (2-2) vs. Bucknell (3-2)
Where: Bryce Jordan Center; University Park, Pa.
When: 1:00 PM
Watch it: BTN+
KenPom Prediction: Penn State, 72-69 (60%)

The Skinny: The 103rd meeting between these longtime adversaries pits together two teams still trying to figure themselves out. The Nittany Lions haven’t quite adjusted yet to the graduation of D.J. Newbill, while the Bison are still learning from new head coach Nathan Davis. The Nittany Lions started off the year on the right foot with wins over VMI and DePaul, but after getting blown out by 26 at Duquesne they were upset at home by a Radford squad with a win over Georgetown already under its belt. Head coach Pat Chambers made a roster change last time out, inserting redshirt sophomore big man Julian Moore into the lineup; the Germantown Academy grad rewarded him with a career-high 16 points in the Radford loss. What they need now is production from a bench whose members are averaging a collective 10 ppg.

~~~

La Salle (3-1) @ Rowan (2-4)
Where: Esby Gymnasium; Glassboro, N.J.
When: 3:00 PM
Watch it: RowanAthletics.com
KenPom Prediction: N/A

The Skinny: John Giannini returns to the school he led to the Division III national championship, coaching against former assistant Joe Cassidy, with most of that 1996 team expected to be back to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the school’s most notable athletics success. It’ll be interesting to see for how long the Profs can hang with the Explorers, who looked good over their first three games before losing by 16 to an upstart Penn squad on Wednesday. Rowan's led by senior guard Kris O'Connor (16.3 ppg), with senior forward Chris Gross behind him (11.2 ppg); twin freshmen brothers Rob DePersia and Nick DePersia both start in the backcourt.

~~~

Lehigh (0-5) @ No. 16 Purdue (5-0)
Where: Mackey Arena; West Lafayette, Ind.
When: 7:00 PM
Watch it: ESPN3
KenPom Prediction: Purdue, 84-64 (4%)

The Skinny: Fresh off a tough road loss at Virginia, Lehigh has to travel to Indiana to take on another top-20 program in unbeaten Purdue. The Boilermakers have a balanced attack featuring five players in double figures, led by 7-2 sophomore Isaac Haas (13.2 ppg, 6.8 rpg), who will provide quite a challenge for Lehigh's Tim Kempton (16.6 ppg, 7.4 rpg); freshman forward Caleb Swanigan (10.2 ppg, 8.6 rpg) is another problem inside. If Purdue has a weakness, it's their lack of forcing turnovers, doing so on 15.5 percent of possessions, which puts them in the bottom 70 teams in the country. The Mountain Hawks will have to maximize possessions and hope that Purdue goes cold from 3-point range (they're at 41.8 percent this season) to have a chance of the upset.

~~~

Drexel (0-5) vs. San Diego (0-5)
Where: Alaska Airlines Center; Anchorage, Alk.
When: 4 PM
Watch it: N/A
KenPom Prediction: Drexel, 66-65 (55%)

The Skinny: A rough start to Drexel's season continued on Friday afternoon with a loss to the Great Alaska Shootout's hosts, D-II Alaska-Anchorage. Now the Dragons will face off in the Toreros in a game which will feature one program picking up its first win of the season. San Diego is led by senior guard Duda Sanadze (13.0 ppg), the only player on the team in double figures; 6-6 junior forward Brett Bailey, the team's number two scorer (9.2 ppg) also leads them in rebounding (5.0 rpg). The lone bright spot for Drexel's trip to Alaska has been the play of sophomore Sammy Mojica, who came on the trip averaging fewer than five points per game but has poured in 36 in the last two games.

~~~