Tournament Thread - Good Sam Empire Classic

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The Bobcats play in their only MTE (multi-team event) of the season this weekend and will only play 2 games during it (3 are allowed in these MTEs). Just a simple 4-team, single elimination tournament with a champion crowned and a consolation game for the teams that lose their first game. Participating teams are Texas State, Dixie State, Eastern Washington, and the hosts Cal-State Northridge. All games hosted at the Matadome on the campus of CSUN in Los Angeles. Bobcats play Dixie State at 1pm Friday in the first game of the tournament.

TXST News
  • TXST is 1-2 on the season and coming off back-to-back road losses at LSU and Vanderbilt. Both games were close at times in the 2nd half before being lopsided losses.
  • Injury report: F Nate Lacewell played 3 minutes combined vs. LSU and Vandy so maybe his lack of playing time is less injury related than I thought and maybe he doesn't factor into the plans as much as I expected. We'll see moving forward. PG Mason Harrell seems close to full strength having upped his minutes in all 3 games so far this year to what will probably be a pretty normal 33 minutes vs. Vandy. G Darien Jenkins hasn't played yet this year after missing all of last season with injury. He played plenty during the exhibition game so not sure what's going on there.
Scouting Dixie State
Dixie State is 1-1 on the season. They lost their opener 97-63 at #1 Gonzaga then beat Southern Utah 83-76 at home. They went 8-13 overall and 4-10 in WAC play last year in their first year of D1 ball. They were picked to finish 12th in the 13-team WAC this season. Their top 2 players so far this year have been 6'8" Sr. F Hunter Schofield and 5'11" Jr. G Cameron Gooden, who is from Frisco, TX. Schofield is averaging 17 PPG while Gooden is chipping in 12.5 PPG.

Last Meeting
This will be the first ever meeting between the programs.

Betting Odds
Bobcats are 8-point favorites on the neutral floor.

Media Coverage
Game will be streamed here:
gomatadors.com

Texas State vs. Dixie State

Video: Texas State vs. Dixie State . Men's Basketball
gomatadors.com gomatadors.com

We're sending Brant Freeman out there for the radio call as well.
 
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Bobcats up 47-29 at the half. Asberry with 20! Small also has 7 and Adams has 6.
Shooting 51.4% from the field, 42.9% from 3, and 8/8 from the FT line. Love it.

Not a ton of negative, I think I counted 3 and-1s for Dixie State, so need to clean that up a bit. Small, Ceaser, and Drinnon all have 2 fouls.

Would be nice if we can keep our foot on the gas and just run away with one here.
 
gatorcat

gatorcat

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stlwildcats said:
I’m watching it on their site with no audio. Saw Brant on Twitter say their stream wouldn’t have audio.
Click to expand...
Thanks, we looked quick, many good passes, shot selection was good , handled the full court press well, and many points in the paint.
 
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Bobcats win 85-65. Maybe the best game of the season so far. Thought we played with better energy than the last couple games though it led to too much fouling. Need to play with that energy while defending without fouling.

Asberry led all scorers with 24 and hit 3 of 5 from 3. Martin had 14 and had a really nice all-around game. I think he solidified his spot in the starting lineup (Ceaser finished with 4 points and 4 fouls). Adams also had 14, Small added 11.

As a team we shot 53% from the field and 45.5% from 3.

Improve to 2-2 on the season and will play in the championship game tomorrow against the winner of Eastern Washington and Cal State-Northridge at like 10:30pm or something crazy late.
 
gatorcat

gatorcat

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_x_ said:
Bobcats win 85-65. Maybe the best game of the season so far. Thought we played with better energy than the last couple games though it led to too much fouling. Need to play with that energy while defending without fouling.

Asberry led all scorers with 24 and hit 3 of 5 from 3. Martin had 14 and had a really nice all-around game. I think he solidified his spot in the starting lineup (Ceaser finished with 4 points and 4 fouls). Adams also had 14, Small added 11.

As a team we shot 53% from the field and 45.5% from 3.

Improve to 2-2 on the season and will play in the championship game tomorrow against the winner of Eastern Washington and Cal State-Northridge at like 10:30pm or something crazy late.
Click to expand...
Hope they have audio tomorrow
 
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_x_

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If its against Cal State-Northridge it'll be on ESPN+. If its against Eastern Washington it'll be the same setup. I put our radio call on while watching and it wasn't bad.
 
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Real quick look at Eastern Washington:
They're 2-2 on the season like us, though one of their wins is over non-D1 Walla Walla. Two losses at Nevada and at UC-Davis. They went 16-8 overall last year and 12-3 in the Big Sky, finishing in a 3-way tie for the regular season championship. They then won the tournament championship and lost in the first round of the NCAA tourney to Kansas, 94-83. So a pretty good team a year ago.

That said, they're expected to take a step back this year. Their head coach from a year ago got poached by Portland and they have a 1st year head coach now in David Riley, although he's been with the program for 11 years. They have 13 newcomers. So basically the entire team...

The two guys leading the way so far are 6'6" JUCO transfer F Linton Acliese and 6'7" Fr. Wing Steele Venters. Acliese is averaging 20.3 PPG and Venters is averaging 18.0 PPG. Acliese shooting 38.9% from 3 while Venters is shooting 41.2%.

Bobcats are 8-point favorites to take home the trophy (I'm assuming there's a trophy....).

They have a message board, but no game thread up yet:

Link to the game here:
gomatadors.com

Texas State vs. Eastern Washington

Video: Texas State vs. Eastern Washington. Men's Basketball
gomatadors.com gomatadors.com

Video has no audio, but Brant Freeman is out there and here's the audio link:
txstatebobcats.com

TXST vs. TBD @ GOOD SAM EMPIRE CLASSIC

Video: TXST vs. TBD @ GOOD SAM EMPIRE CLASSIC. Men's Basketball
txstatebobcats.com txstatebobcats.com
 
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stlwildcats

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Still in warmups. Dixie (who we beat) lost to CSUN by six after they came back from down nine with 16 minutes left in the second half. Hopefully we can have a repeat good performance.
 
franslasttwinkie

franslasttwinkie

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E Wash made the ncaa tourney last season and scored a ton of points on #3 seed KU in first round. They’ve made tourney twice is 6-7 seasons sprinkled in with some really bad/average seasons in between. Hard to get a read on how okay they are thus season but probably the best opponent we will seed until UH, GSU and CCU. Not sure how much that says about EWU but I’d say they will finish around #90-130 net ranking. Maybe a top 40 mid major team depending on who they lost on their team last year
 
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Video feed casting onto my TV. Radio audio on my phone. And just downed a cup of coffee with a beer chaser. Let's get it.
 
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stlwildcats

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Giving up wide open 3s and they are making them. These guys are taller than us at every position
 
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Down 33-25 at the half. EWU started the game hitting 4 straight 3s to go up 12-2, we clawed back to get it to 4, then faded the last 90 seconds or so of the half to go down by 8 again.

We're shooting horrendously after a good shooting day yesterday, just 32.1% from the field and 16.7% from 3. EWU, meanwhile is 7/15 from 3.

Harrell the leading scorer with 6. Nobody else has more than 4. Gonna need shots to fall in the 2nd half.
 
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stlwildcats

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Whew that was a slog. This ref crew aren’t shy of calling everything a charge, and that benefited us. Not making shots but not sure there was many open looks. When Small is taking step back 3s, not a good sign. End of half was a killer after getting it back within a bucket.
 
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