Leaderboard

On the positive side, assuming victory might be beyond their grasp, here are some areas of improvement that would be great to see from the team, regardless of the score: • Better shot selection from Albert and Jevon in the post, and RJ & Emmanuel on the perimeter. I have no problem with any shot Chris Miller has taken this year, and poor Sam is just in a shooting slump (I hope) and needs to keep firing away when he has a good look. Ruder is great if he can get squared up for a 3; but sometimes he comes around a screen and shoots off-balance with predictable results. NEVER BE IN A HURRY TO TAKE A BAD SHOT! • Better perimeter defense - too many open looks for threes! The faces change, even the coaches change, but the results are the same. Until ORU gets better at closing out the three-point line, they will inevitably lose ground as the game progresses since they do not appear to be able to keep pace from "3" on the other end. • There is no reason in the world Albert can't get 10 rebounds in a game, other than simple lack of effort. I find myself mesmerized these days, watching him whenever shots go up. He just stands there many times, flat-footed, and watches as someone else gets a rebound he could have had. I want to see him rebound like his life depended on it! • Limit the turnovers. It's going to be a tough year for RJ, Sam and Austin when they face pressure from teams like OSU and Arkansas, but I'm guessing that Montana will not offer that kind of wilting, full-court defense. No reason why the turnovers should not be a reasonable number tonight, and the turnovers from setting lazy moving screens, shuffle-start traveling violations on drives to the hole, and unforced passing errors, simply have to be eliminated. This team can't afford to not make the most out of every possession. As for a prediction? For some reason, these tall, pale teams from the Mountain time zone have traditionally given ORU fits (Weber State, Utah State, BYU, etc.). Not sure why it is, but they always seem to score a bunch of points. But, this game is on a neutral floor at sea level, so let's say Grizzlies wire-to-wire, but not by as much as you might think: 87-73.