The Bizarro Game -- Evansville (12-7, 4-5) AT Drake (14-7, 5-4)

Tonight's game... TOMORROW? Well, that's the case due to a brutal ice storm that kept Evansville outside of DSM. Generally when a team doesn't show up to play they call that a "forfeit" where I'm from, but hey, I guess we feel the need to beat them down in person to make it official.

In all reality, this will be a tough test for Drake. This isn't your red-headed stepchild Evansville team from years past that you can slap around at will. Let's not forget this team handled us 76-65 @ Evansville back on 12/28.

What did they do so well last time?

• The Purple Aces (you still have to be kidding me with that nickname. Come on Evansville) outrebounded us 42-29. That kind of disparity is enough in a tough valley game to add more possessions which are critical. I think we've seen in recent games that Drake has to avoid rebounding games like this. We seem to start jacking up threes and getting waaayyy to one dimensional when we are (1) NOT getting fast break opportunities from good defensive rebounds, and (2) NOT getting second chance points from offensive rebounds. This is absolutely critical to us.
• The Magenta Unos outshot us 53.6% to 40.5% (I like to use effective fg%) . Unless we really get on a roll, we cannot sit back and just jack up threes. Evansville picked us apart and found high percentage shots. The one thing we can take a little bit of satisfaction in is that we forced 17 turnovers -- that will be critical. We need to pack the paint against Shy Ely. While Holzinger will be sitting there to snipe us, we need to keep the easy baskets to a minimum.

Simply put, we need to be the aggressor instead of just sleepwalking into the game. We sure did that in Creighton, and we beat a hell of a basketball team doing it. This is such a hard game to get a read on with how inconsistent we have been -- being that we have been SO bad and SO good in just a short amount of time.

Ken Pomeroy is calling a 67-61 win with Drake winning at a 77% clip. That seems about right to me. This is a game we have a great shot of winning -- and is one we need to win. A good goal is to finish in the top half of the Valley. It keeps us out of the play in games, and it assures we play a lower tier team first game in the tournament. If we're going to achieve that goal, these are MUST win games.

I'd like to see JY get it going tomorrow as well. One disturbing chart I saw on statsheet.com was the following: While I'm the first to say that we need to be a balanced team -- we do need our star to be just that. While he turned things in the right direction with 16 against Creighton, he was 5-11 from the line and still is just in an absolute funk. Despite more shots, his his PPG is plateaued from last year. Don't get me wrong, we're better when we're balanced. BUT, we do need a guy that can score tough points at a tough time. Right now, JY is just not in that position with the funk he's in.

Now that I've completely sidetracked, hopefully he can turn it on tomorrow. It's going to be an interesting atmosphere with a 4:00 game, but word on the street is that tickets are going to be $1. Sack up, block off your calendar and duck out of work early to enjoy a cheap game on the Bulldogs!

If you can make it to the game and still need a ticket, tickets are $1. They're GA tickets, but I'm guessing there will be lots of open lower bowl seats to sneak into.

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