I finally got the info I was waiting on before writing this preview. Florida A&M transfer 6'7" Jr. Trey Kellum applied for a waiver to play this year. It was just denied by the NCAA. He would have just been icing on the cake. So he must sit out this year.
Last year, according to KenPom, the OVC was the top offensive conference in the country and SEMO was one of the top offenses in the conference with a national ranking 2nd in fg% and 6th in scoring offense. They didn't meet up with expectations as they were picked to finish first in the Western Division of the conference but finished 2nd in the West and 8-8 overall in conference play. The downfall for this team last year was their on the ball defense. They were bad. Their technique was terrible. That is something that is developed over the lifetime of a player and is very hard to correct DURING the season.
This year's team will be much like last year's team on the offensive end of the floor. They are loaded with scorers. Notice I didn't say shooters. They have a wealth of players that can just find ways to score. Take Jarekious Bradley for example. He just happens to be their one very good shooter on the team. Don't get me wrong they have other players that I would say are good three point shooters but that isn't their strength. Last year about half way through the conference race he was averaging around 20.3 ppg and shooting about 40% from the three point line. What a lot of people didn't know was he injured his little finger and wrist on his shooting hand. That bothered him the rest of the season. His three point shooting dropped off to around 14% the rest of the way but he still averaged over 19 ppg. He found other ways to score. He had off season surgery and is 100% going into this year. Over the summer and preseason the BIG emphasis has been on proper defensive technique. The goal every game is to hold the opponent under 40% from the floor. I expect a much better defensive team this year.
SEMO lost two players from last year, 6'8" Tyler Stone (19.3 ppg, 9.5 rpg) and 6'1" pg Lucas Nutt (7.3 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 6.0 apg). The Blue Ribbon Basketball Yearbook says those two will be hard to replace. EH........No not really. What Blue Ribbon didn't tell you. While Lucas was good at running the team and one of the top assist players in the nation, he was easily SEMO's worst on the ball defender. He just wasn't athletic enough to stop any D1 pg. When your pg is your worst defensive player it's hard to be a good defensive team. While Stone was a good scorer from the free throw line in and good rebounder he was a very bad post defender. He was also the cause of a lot of bad blood between himself and center Nino Johnson.
Nutt's replacement is a HUGE upgrade in 6'0" Houston transfer J.J. Thompson. Coming out of high school JJ was a Three-star recruit by Rivals.com at Irving High School...Played for Dallas Mustangs AAU team...Ranked No. 18 in Rivals.com Texas player rankings...Is left-handed...Initially chose Houston over UTEP, Colorado, Nebraska, UNLV, Wichita State, Texas Tech and Iowa. He played in all 30 games his freshman year and 29 in his sophomore year starting 21 of them. He is very quick and great at breaking down a defense.
Stone's replacement is 6'7" SR transfer Aaron Adeoye (from W. Kentucky). Aaron is a very good defender and rebounder. He's also a much better shooter than I first thought. Stone's points will be spread around by a couple of players. For defense and team chemistry Adeoye is an upgrade from Stone.
Blue Ribbon rates each team in four areas. Front Court, Back Court, Bench/Depth, Intangibles. They gave SEMO a C+ for the Front Court which I completely don't understand. SEMO has the best three man in the conference in first team All Conference J. Bradley. They have four players to man the C and PF positions. SR's Nino Johnson 6'9", Aaron Adeoye 6'7", and Josh Langford 6'7" and freshman T.J. Thomas 6'8". I could be that they were rated a C+ was they didn't know if Adeoye was going to be granted a wavier to play this year (he was) and Josh Langford is listed on the roster as a guard. He has never or will never play guard for SEMO. This Front Court can match up with any in the league and is much better than a C+.
Blue Ribbon rated the bench as a B-. WHAT!!!! This is the deepest team SEMO has had in recent memory. They can go 10 deep with hardly any drop off in talent.
One addition that SEMO has that hardly anyone knows about because it happened right as school was starting is 6'4" transfer guard Isiah (hoopy) Jones. Out of high school he was a Three-star recruit according to Rivals.com who can play both the point guard and shooting guard positions...Played two seasons at Christian Life Academy, a prep school near Houston, Texas...Helped lead his team to a 21-4 record and averaged 21 points, five assists and four rebounds in 2010-11...As a senior, his team went 32-1 and won the National Post Graduate Athletic Association (NPGAA) high school division national championship...Averaged 14 points, five assists and two steals per game that year...Rated as one of the top 15 seniors in the city of Houston by RCSSports.com...Was considered one of the top players in the state of Illinois when he attended Mounds Meridien High School near Carbondale, Ill
Was recruited and signed by Mike Davis at UAB. Saw action in 23 games as a reserve at UAB in 2012-13...Averaged 2.8 points and 1.2 rebounds, while dishing out 34 assists and posting 17 steals for the Blazers that year...Also made 13 three-pointers as UAB finished with an overall record of 16-17...Forced to sit out his rookie season at UAB in 2011-12 due to an NCAA ruling...Began practicing with the team following his first semester...Earned a spot on the Conference USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll.
Coach Davis was fired and Hoopy chose to transfer to Odessa College. From there he wanted to come to SEMO but they didn't have any scholarships left. He chose to pay his own way this year and will be put on scholarship next year.
I expect all of these transfers to put up better numbers in the OVC than they did at their previous schools. SEMO also adds three very solid freshmen. 6'8" T.J. Thomas, 6'5" Ladarius Coleman, and 6'1" Marcus Wallace.
Coach Nutt say's that of all the teams he has ever coached he believes this is the most athletic. You can expect an up tempo fast pace from this team. They will be able to score on anyone but how far they go this year will depend on how far they have come on the defensive end of the floor.