Central Michigan University Athletics
CMU Men Gear Up for Defense-Minded Eastern
1/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Central Michigan Game Notes | Eastern Michigan Game Notes | Audio | | ESPN3
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Statistically speaking, they're on opposite ends of the spectrum.
Eastern Michigan, with its staunch zone defense, visits McGuirk Arena Saturday (4:30 p.m.) for a Mid-American Conference men's basketball game.
Central Michigan is 13-3, 3-2 MAC, while the Eagles are 12-6, 1-4. Of the Eagles' losses, two have come in overtime by one point, another by just six points. The Eagles started the season 13-2, with one of those wins, 45-42, coming at Michigan.
"We don't really look at the record that they have in the conference," CMU coach Keno Davis said. "We know that it doesn't tell the whole story of their team.
"We know how good they are and it wouldn't surprise me to see them compete for the (league) championship even though they got off to a tough start in a couple of those games. We know that Eastern Michigan's as good, if not better, than they've been in the past."
The Chippewas are second in the nation in scoring at 85.1 points per game, first in three-point field goals per game (11.4), second in three-point percentage (42.3) and rank in the top 10 in three other offensive categories: scoring margin, field goal percentage, and assist-to-turnover ratio.
EMU leads the MAC in five defensive categories and is second - and 30th nationally -- in scoring defense (59.3). Raven Lee, a 6-foot-3 guards, leads the Eagles at 14.3 points per game, while 6-7 Karrington Ward averages 13.2 points and 6.8 rebounds per.
Fourth-year EMU coach Rob Murphy was an assistant for seven years under Jim Boheim at Syracuse, which is legendary for its nearly impenetrable zone defense.
The Eagles employ that very philosophy to consistent results, and finding ways to score against it can be confounding.
Conventional wisdom dictates that the way to beat a zone defense is to shoot over it, which would seemingly play into the Chippewas' hands.
But it's not as simple as that, said CMU junior forward John Simons.
"It's a little different than your normal zone that you try to shoot your way out of," said Simons, who has made 42 of his 82 triple tries this season for a 51.2 percent rate, which ranks second nationally. "Its not like you just get a lot of open shots against them. They try to take away most of your corner passes and they're really long.
"I think a lot of it too is to get some easy looks in transition before they can even get their zone set up."
Simons and his teammates have seen plenty of the Eagles in their time at CMU. Eastern won all three meetings with the Chippewas a year ago - EMU eliminated CMU from the MAC Tournament - and the teams split their two meetings in 2012-13.
Simons along with the likes of Chris Fowler, Austin Stewart, Blake Hibbitts and Austin Keel have been there for each of those meetings, and, as has been well documented, this CMU team is much improved over those of the recent past.
"Confidence is key," Simons said. "And the majority of us have played together now for at least a year-and-a-half, and some of us it's two-and-a-half years and so I think were really confortable with each other and we know with our offense there's not a game you can count us out of."
The Chippewas trailed by 10 points late in the first half Wednesday before outscoring Buffalo, 46-28, in the final 20 minutes to claim an 84-73 victory.
Davis pointed to his team's character as a critical factor in that victory, and that's something that he has emphasized since his arrival at CMU before the 2012-13 season and began building with the likes of Simons, Fowler and Co.
While the Chippewas have just one senior, Keel, on the roster, the core of the team is a veteran one and has taken its lumps over the past two years. The lessons are now paying off, particularly since the Chippewas began MAC play.
They rallied from a 13-point deficit with under four minutes to play and nearly beat Akron on the road a week ago, and the poise they put on display in the second half against Buffalo is something that is clearly a sign of a team coming into its own.
"I think that everything we do sets up something else," Davis said, pointing to the comeback at Akron in particular. "It gave us confidence, and it also gives us experience so that in our next game when we're down double figures with 20 minutes to play we don't feel like its insurmountable.
"Every time we step on the court we are getting better, not just because of the playing experience, but also the in-game time and score situations you have to go through."
