McNeese home to face UMKC
Published 7:00 pm Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Tuesday night represents the McNeese men’s basketball team’s last real chance to make a non-conference statement during the 2019-20 season.
Yes, the Cowboys have one more non-conference game on Dec. 18 when they host Paul Quinn College. But Tuesday night, McNeese will play its last non-conference Division I game of the regular season when they host Kansas City at the H&HP Complex. Game time is 6:30 p.m.
So far this season, McNeese has had one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country according to the Sagarin ratings, which only count games against other Division I opponents. Out of 353 Division I teams, the Cowboys’ strength of schedule ranks eighth.
UMKC could be a good game for McNeese to gauge itself since the Roos are ranked a little closer to the Cowboys than the majority of opponents this season. While McNeese ranks 292nd and 295th in the Sagarin and KenPom ratings respectively, UMKC ranks 214th and 249th respectively in those same categories. And the Roos have gone up against the 96th-rated strength of schedule by Sagarin.
The Roos go into Tuesday night’s game with a 5-5 record and have lost two out of their last three games. In its last game, UMKC lost to Iowa State 79-61. They also have a game against another Big 12 opponent, Kansas in Kansas City looming on Dec. 14 looming, so there is a possibility that McNeese could catch them looking ahead.
McNeese will look to reverse last year’s matchup when the teams played up in Kansas City on Dec. 15, 2018 and the Roos won the game 80-67. The Cowboys only trailed 31-29 at halftime, but UMKC used an 11-0 second half run to pull away and get the win in the first ever game between the two teams.
Individually, senior forward Javan White leads the Roos in scoring and rebounding, averaging 12.2 and 7.8 rebounds per game. UMKC is not particularly prolific offensively, but they are balanced as six players, including White, average at least 7.1 points per game.
But whatever the Roos lack on offense, they make up for on the other end of the floor. UMKC brings in one of the better defensive units in the country, allowing 63.7 points per game (ranking 78th nationally) and collecting 9.3 steals per game (30th in the country). The Roos also have a turnover margin of 2.9, which ranks 63rd in all of Division I. So UMKC will provide a stiff challenge for McNeese’s offense, which ranks seventh in the country in field goal percentage (51 percent).
On Tuesday, something has to give: McNeese has yet to beat a Division I team in non-conference play, and UMKC has not won a true road game yet this season (0-4 in true road games and 2-1 in neutral site contests).
Cowboys head coach Heath Schroyer was very complimentary of UMKC during his weekly press conference on Monday, saying that they’d be in the upper echelon of the Southland Conference. He also said that the Roos are the type of team he’d like McNeese to play more at home.
The last time McNeese defeated a non-conference Division I opponent was Dec. 13, 2018 when the Cowboys comfortably beat visiting North Carolina Central 77-61. Since then, McNeese has a nine-game losing streak against those teams.
Cowboy’s A.J. Lawson (12) drives up for layup past Campbellsville’s Anthony Ward during their game at the McNeese H&HP Complex in Lake Charles, La., Tuesday, Dec.3, 2019. (Rick Hickman/Lake Charles American Press)
