Northeastern Preview

The Three Idiots on Sports already did their preview on Northeastern. They looked at some of their performances against their opponents and noted of some common opponents between Syracuse and the Huskies. I'm going to take a look at Northeastern with some of Ken Pomeroy's statistics.



What Northeastern does well: Not much frankly. They are in the top 75% percentile in the country in not turning the ball over. The Huskies give up on the ball on just under 20% of their offensive possessions. To put that into perspective, UCLA turns the ball over at the same rate and Syracuse is 190th in the nation at around 22%. For Northeastern to win this game, they are going to have be even better than their current rate of 19.7% and force Syracuse to up around 25%. That will create 8-10 extra possessions for Northeastern to score in.

Northeastern also hits the offensive boards pretty well. They are 83rd in the nation at getting to boards as they rebound 36% of their misses.

What Northeastern doesn't do well: A lot. Look for the Orange shot blockers to have a field day against this team. The Huskies are in the bottom fifth in the country at getting their shots blocked. They are 289th in the nation in block percentage at 11.8%. That means over a tenth of their possessions end in a blocked shot. Syracuse is 12th in country in defensive block percentage. It wouldn't be surprising to see double digit blocks for Syracuse, especially if this is a high tempo game. Let's see what else Northeastern does poorly. According to Ken Pomeroy's stats, they are 326th in the country in three point shooting, 212th in offensive efficiency (they are going to need a big edge in turnovers to make up for that), and 276th in allowing offensive rebounds.

General facts about how they play: They play really slow. Like snail paced slow. 64 possessions a game slow. Syracuse plays at 74 possessions a game. The Orange's game against East Tenn. State featured 90 possessions. Northeastern likes to grind out and get stops on the defensive end.

The Keys for Syracuse to come out with a win: Just clean up on the boards. Northeastern has a terrible offense, so don't give them second looks at the basket. Same thing on offense, Northeastern has a pretty solid defense, so get second looks. Syracuse might need them to put points up at times. The 'Cuse doesn't need to look to the outside shot in this game to win. Northeastern doesn't block shots very well and doesn't do a good job on the defensive glass. Give the ball down the low to the bigs and let them do their job.