Morgan State Travels to sunny California for the Shamrock Classic

Weekly Gamenotes (PDF)

The Matchup
Morgan State will travel to California to compete in the 6th Annual Shamrock Office Solutions Classic on Saturday and Sunday, December 27-28 hosted by St. Mary's at McKeon Pavilion. The tournament field includes William Jessup, San Jose State, Morgan State and host St, Mary's. Tournament action will begin at 5 p.m. on Friday evening with Morgan State and William Jessup taking the court. SMC will then host San Jose State at 7:30 p.m. The tournament will conclude on Sunday evening with the losers playing each at 5 p.m., followed by the championship game at 7:30 p.m.

The Bears last game was on December 10th when they pulled out a stunning 79-75 victory at DePaul. The win marked the school's first against a member of the BIG EAST conference. Junior guard Reggie Holmes paced the Bears with a career-high 29 points, including 23 points in the second half.

Assists-To-Baskets Scored; Assists-To-Turnovers
Assist-to-Turnover ratio has been a common term in basketball for years, but one of the tenants Coach Bozeman has stressed is the Assist-to-Baskets Made principle. Last season, MSU had 355 assists and 804 made basketballs, a breakdown of 44.1 percent of made baskets having an assist to set them up … In addition, MSU had 428 turnovers and ranked No. 2 in the MEAC in assist/turnover ratio (.83). The Bears currently rank 4th in the MEAC in assist/turnover ratio (0.8).

Postseason Conversations
While the MEAC is usually relegated to play-in purgatory (four of the last five years), the Morgan State Bears could reverse the 16-seed blues this season. In several mid-major polls last season, the Bears were ranked in the Top 25 as a result of strong showings against the Big East (4-pt loss at UConn) and ACC (4-pt loss at Miami). Todd Bozeman is the reigning MEAC Coach of the Year, and returns two key starters in All-MEAC forward Marquise Kately and sharpshooting guard Reggie Holmes.

Road Warriors vs. Road Kill
Morgan State is looking to improve its road fortunes under 3rd year head coach Todd Bozeman. The Bears finished the 2007-08 season with a 7-8 overall road record, and went 1-6 against non-conference opponents. The Bears dropped their first three road contests, losing at LaSalle (64-61), Manhattan (61-60) and Ole Miss (78-70), but posted their first road win of the season with a big victory at DePaul (79-75).

3 Minute Warning
Morgan State finished the 2007-08 season with a 21-2 record when leading with 3 minutes left, and following their season-finale loss at Virginia Tech in the NIT (3/19) the Bears were 0-9 when trailing with 3 minutes remaining. The Bears have started the 2008-09 season 1-0 when leading with 3 minutes left and 1-4 when trailing.

Print Friendly Version