Central Michigan University Athletics
Game Notes: CMU Heads to Philly to Face the Owls
12/1/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Game Notes in PDF Format | Live Stats |
Central Michigan (4-2, 0-0 Mid-American)
at
Temple (3-2, 0-0 Atlantic 10)
Saturday, December 2 | 4 p.m. | Philadelphia, Pa. | Liacouras Center (10,206)
BROADCAST INFORMATION
Radio: WCFX-FM 95.3 & WUPS-FM 98.5 — Don Chiodo and Don Helinski
Television: None
Live Audio: CMU Sports Zone (free) — wcfx.com
Webcast: OwlAccess (subscription) — owlsports.com
PREVIEW
After Temple opened CMU's home season last year, the Chippewas return the favor this year as the Owls welcome the Maroon and Gold for TU's first home game of the 2011-12 season. Saturday's tipoff in the Liacouras Center is set for 4 p.m.
The Chippewas have won two straight and win over Temple would give CMU its best start to the season since the 2003 MAC championship team started 7-2.
Temple is coming off a road loss at MAC foe Bowling Green on Sunday. The Owls won last year's meeting with CMU, 65-53.
| PROBABLE STARTERS | ||||||||||
| Name | Ht. | Wt. | Yr. | GP-GS | PPG | RPG | Other | Notes | ||
| (1) G | 2 | Austin McBroom | 6-0 | 162 | Fr. | 6-6 | 10.8 | 2.5 | 3.8 APG | Has at least three assists in every game |
| (2) G | 23 | Derek Jackson | 6-0 | 171 | So. | 6-6 | 11.5 | 2.5 | 2.3 SPG | Scored 300th career point in the last game against Dartmouth |
| (3) G | 0 | Trey Zeigler | 6-5 | 203 | So. | 6-5 | 17.2 | 9.3 | 2.5 APG | Named MAC West Division Player of the Week on Monday |
| (4) F | 25 | Olivier Mbaigoto | 6-7 | 225 | Jr. | 6-6 | 8.8 | 7.2 | 1.5 BPG | Averaging 16.5 ppg over last two contests |
| (5) F | 10 | Andre Coimbra | 6-9 | 235 | Sr. | 6-6 | 6.3 | 6.3 | 1.8 BPG | Ranks fourth in the MAC in blocked shots (1.8) |
NEWS AND NOTES
Series History
Temple leads the all-time series, 1-0. The two teams met last season in the inaugural game in the new McGuirk Arena and the Owls posted a 65-53 victory.
Last Meeting
The Chippewas held a one-point lead with 10:29 to go, but CMU scored just two field goals the rest of the game as the Owls closed the contest on a 19-4 run to claim a 65-53 victory. Temple outrebounded CMU, 40-24, and the Owls shot 49 percent from the floor. Jalin Thomas led Central with 26 points and Amir Rashid tallied 11. Juan Fernandez led Temple with 18 points, Ramone Moore 16 and Lavoy Allen a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Against the Atlantic 10
Temple is the second Atlantic 10 team that CMU has faced this season. The Chippewas dropped a 77-75 double-OT contest to Charlotte earlier this season. CMU’s Ernie Zeigler is 0-2 all-time against Atlantic 10 teams.
Dartmouth Recap
The Chippewas captured fourth place at the Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout with a 65-48 win over Dartmouth last Saturday. CMU jumped out to an 8-0 lead and then held a 15-point advantage at the break before the Big Green managed to cut the Chippewa cushion down to six midway through the second half. That’s when Trey Zeigler went on a personal 6-1 run to vault CMU’s lead back up to double figures where it would remain the rest of the game. Zeigler finished with a double-double of 21 points and 10 rebounds while Derek Jackson added 11 and Austin McBroom and Olivier Mbaigoto 10 each. David Rufful tallied 15 points to lead Dartmouth.
Minnesota Game Moved to “The Mothership”
Because of the NBA lockout, the broadcast of CMU’s game at Minnesota on Tuesday, Dec. 13 has been moved from ESPNU to ESPN. Tipoff is set for 9 p.m. (8 p.m. CST).
Defensive Leaders
Defense has been key in CMU’s 4-2 start this season. The Chippewas lead the MAC in defensive field goal percentage (.329) and blocked shots (6.3) and rank second in defensive rebounds (28.8) and third in steals (8.5).
No Fly Zone
The Chippewas have blocked 38 shots this season to the opponent’s 13. CMU’s Andre Coimbra (11 blocks) almost has as many blocks individually as the opponents do as a team against CMU.
.400 is the Magic Mark
The Chippewas have held the opposition below .400 shooting from the floor in every game this season.
• The string of six straight sub-.400 games is the most in the Ernie Zeigler era, breaking the old mark of three.
• CMU is 30-10 (.750) under Ernie Zeigler when holding the opponent under 40 percent shooting.
Moving the Ball
The Chippewas are sharing the ball more this year than any season under head coach Ernie Zeigler. CMU has an assist on 57 percent of its field goals this season. Below is a year-by-year look at the Chippewa assist percentage.
| Year | Assists/FGs | Assist Percentage |
| 2006-07 | 305 assists/653 FGs | 48 percent |
| 2007-08 | 317 assists/769 FGs | 41 percent |
| 2008-09 | 306 assists/680 FGs | 45 percent |
| 2009-10 | 321 assists/651 FGs | 49 percent |
| 2010-11 | 271 assists/661 FGs | 41 percent |
| 2011-12 | 79 assists/139 FGs | 57 percent |
80-Point Plateau
The Chippewas scored a season-high 82 points against UC Irvine. During the Ernie Zeigler era, the Chippewas are 12-2 when scoring 80 or more points.
Alphabet Soup
With three different Austin/Austons on the team and one difficult name to pronounce, the Chippewa coaching staff commonly refers to four players by nicknames. They include:
AB - Auston Barnes AK - Austin Keel A-MAC - Austin McBroom OV - Olivier Mbaigoto
Rare Win
The Chippewas defeated Pepperdine despite the fact that they were outrebounded by 14, 43-29. It marked just the fifth time in the Zeigler era that CMU won a game despite being outrebounded by a double-digit margin.
Overtime Unkind
The Chippewas have now dropped six straight overtime games and stand 3-8 in extra sessions under head coach Ernie Zeigler. The Chippewas are 2-1 in multiple-overtime games under the current Chippewa mentor.
Double Dipping
Trey Zeigler recorded back-to-back double-doubles in CMU’s first two games. He had 11 points and 12 rebounds in the opener and then 22 points and 15 boards against Charlotte. He became the first Chippewa to record a double-double in back-to-back games since Marcus Van accomplished the feat toward the end of the 2009 season. Before that, you’d have to go back to Chris Kaman in 2003 to find a Chippewa with a back-to-back double-double. That year, Kaman led the nation with 25 double-dips, including a string of nine straight.
Packed for the Long Haul
The Chippewas are in the middle of a stretch of games that has CMU playing 10 of 11 games on the road.
• Last week, the Chippewas completed a nine-day, eight-night road trip to play four games in California and Alaska. Over the course of the trip, CMU traveled a total of 9,000 miles (8,700 by air and 300 by bus).
• CMU will add 1,210 miles to its season total with this trip to Philadelphia.
Paramore’s Career Over
CMU men’s basketball student-athlete Paris Paramore will no longer be able to participate in the sport of basketball at CMU due to a medical condition. The JUCO transfer from Triton College saw action in 19 games last season and averaged 0.4 points per game in his only year with the Chippewas.
Voss Injured
Colin Voss is out indefinitely with a hand injury suffered in practice on Thursday, Nov. 10. The sophomore averaged 6.5 points and 6.5 rebounds in the two exhibition games this season.
Rookie Leads in Debut
Austin Keel scored a team-high 12 points in his collegiate debut for CMU. The last time a Chippewa newcomer led CMU in scoring in their first game was 2007-08 when Jeremy Allen scored 17 at Missouri, edging out fellow freshman Chase Simon who had 14 against the Tigers.
High Scoring Freshman
CMU’s Trey Zeigler was the nation’s third-leading freshman scorer among Division I schools last season. He also ranked third overall among all Mid-American Conference scorers with 16.3 points per game. The only two freshmen to average more were Kentucky’s Brandon Knight (17.3 ppg) and Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger (17.2 ppg).
New MAC Tournament Format
The Mid-American Conference Tournament had some drastic changes made to the format for this season. Most notably is the fact that the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds receive byes to the semifinals while the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds receive byes to the quarterfinals. Also, seeding will be based on conference winning percentage, regardless of division. So this year, the top two seeds could come from the same division. Seeds No. 5 through No. 12 will play first round games on campus sites with those four winners advancing to the second round in Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena.
Traveling Across the Land
With a visit to four new states this season, the Chippewas will have traveled to almost half (24) of the 50 states in the USA during Ernie Zeigler’s six seasons as head coach at CMU. The Chippewas will add Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska and Tennessee to the itinerary this year. The states the Chippewas have visited the past five years under Zeigler include: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Packing Their Bags Early
The Chippewas will be road-tested by the time they enter MAC play. CMU’s nonconference schedule includes just three home games to 10 road contests. Central will take only four trips to play those games as the junket includes a four-game trip (Pepperdine and three games at the Great Alaska Shootout), a three-game trip (Iowa State, Nebraska and Wright State) and a two-game trip (Tennessee State and Minnesota). The only nonconference game that will be played on a single trip is Temple.
MAC Poll
After finishing third in the MAC West Division last season, CMU was picked to finish third again this season by a MAC news media panel. Western Michigan (West) and Kent State (East) were both predicted to defend their respective division titles.
Another BracketBusters Appearance
The Chippewas will play in the ESPN/Sears BracketBusters event for the ninth straight year. CMU will host a wildcard opponent the weekend of Feb. 17-19. The Chippewas are 5-3 all-time in the series. All five wins have come in home matchups while all three losses were when CMU was a road team. Past opponents have included Evansville, Cleveland State, Morehead State, Illinois-Chicago, Missouri State, Fairleigh Dickinson, Tennessee State and Niagara.
Fastbreak Buckets
• Two Chippewas were high school teammates of National Player of the Year honorees. Austin McBroom played his freshman season at Campbell Hall High School with 2008 Gatorade Player of the Year Jrue Holiday (UCLA/Philadelphia 76ers). Austin Keel played his senior season at Winter Park High School with 2011 Naismith Prep Player of the Year Austin Rivers (Duke).
• CMU signed 6-8, 210-pound forward John Simons (Cadillac, Mich./Cadillac HS) to a National Letter of Intent during the early signing period. As a junior at Cadillac High School, Simons averaged 23 points and eight rebounds while leading the Vikings to a 20-5 record and a Class B regional championship. He was named second team all-state by the Detroit Free Press.
