Austin Peay schedule

[OrangeChipper]

A breakdown....

They play in the Ohio Valley Conference. A very weak conference with only 2 other teams with a winning overall record. (Murray State & Tennessee-Martin)

However, they did play some stout competition out of conference.

They beat Belmont convincingly twice (yes THAT team that almost beat Duke). They also beat Texas Tech earlier in the year.

They have been handily beaten by the stiffer competition, though. They were beaten by Vanderbilt & Memphis the only top 25 teams they've played.

They also lost to some pretty poor competition. They lost to Evansville, a 9-21 team, & Southeastern Missouri State, a 12-19 team.

Overall though, they certainly were the cream of the crop in the OVC,

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[Bob in Houston]

Given that Texas rarely blows out opponents -- it's usually when they are shooting very well -- there's plenty here that would cause me to be concerned about today's game if UT brings its C game, as Duke did last night.

Like Duke, Texas lacks a consistent inside game. If they could be pounding the ball to Pittman or Chapman, for example, they would be doing it. They don't need Gary Johnson to win this game, but his ability and confidence around the basket would be a big deal. Like Belmont, AP doesn't have a lot of size, but they know that going in. I suspect that if Texas wants to keep AP off the boards, it'll have to work at it.

Like Belmont, AP doesn't mind shooting threes, and they can make them... about 39 percent, almost exactly the same as Texas. They don't shoot as many as Belmont, but Texas's defense should be much better than they normally face, which essentially will cause them to be firing.

If Texas only makes a half-dozen threes, like Duke, and can't make the inside game work, they're going to give away some of their clear advantages.

Now, AP normally is outrebounded by opponents (Belmont wasn't, on average), and its defense isn't so hot (37 percent allowed BTA, compared to Texas's 32.6). And, interestingly, Texas actually has shot and made more threes than AP, and AP's opponents also have made more. However, I've seen plenty of tournament games the last few years in which the team that brings it BTA is the one that wins.

I would expect to see Texas pressure the perimeter more and dare AP to get the ball inside, where UT will have a height advantage, and probably a bit more athletic ability. (Example: Texas players have fouled out only five times all season, where AP has 14.)

There are a lot of reasons why Texas should win this game, and very few why AP should... but the same can be said for Duke and Belmont.

 

[OrangeChipper]

If ANYONE shoots the three like KU did against us, we could be in trouble.

That was a ridiculous display and yet we only lost in the final minutes.

 

[Third Coast]

Combine that with the fact that we often allow some pretty good looks on threes.