Troy University Athletics
Troy Faces Tough Road Weekend
12/10/2009 9:00:00 PM | Basketball (M)
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The end of a long eight-game road stretch is in sight for the Troy men's basketball team.
The Trojans (5-3) face Marshall on Saturday evening in Huntington, West Virginia and in doing so will be just one game away from returning to Trojan Arena. Troy completes the lengthy stretch away from home on Monday night at Houston.
The team is 3-3 thus far with two games to go before meeting New Orleans at home on December 17.
Troy coach Don Maestri and his staff have done quite a bit of studying on the Thundering Herd (6-1) and the team they see reminds them quite a bit of another Conference USA opponent from earlier in the season.
“They (Marshall) are very similar to UAB,” Maestri said. “Defensively, they are very aggressive. As a matter of fact, they probably have the best shot blocker in the game. From the film I have watched, he's blocking six or seven shots a game. He's just an excellent shot blocker.
“They are also similar to UAB in that the guys on the perimeter do most of the scoring, but the better defensive players are on the inside.”
The defender mentioned is freshman big man Hassan Whiteside, a 7-foot, 235 pound post player that is second nationally in blocked shots with 31. He is also one of three players scoring in double-figures with 11.6 points per game.
Coach Donnie Jones' Marshall team features 10 players scoring at least five points per contest.
After the game on Saturday night, Troy will travel west-ward to face the Houston Cougars led by legendary coach Tom Penders.
The key for Houston (4-2) is its guard play. The Cougars are led by the nation's leading scorer – guard Aubrey Coleman. The Houston native is averaging 27 ppg through six games.
“Their guard play is just tremendous,” Maestri said. “They have a young man, Coleman, that is probably the best 1-on-1 basketball player in the country. That is not even mentioning another player, Kelvin Lewis, that is probably a top 10 3-point shooter in the country.
“They are very experienced group. Their perimeter players will be as good as anyone we face this season.”
Lewis is shooting 47.8 percent (22-of-46) from beyond the 3-point arc this year. Adam Brown also scores in double-figures at 13.5 ppg.
Maestri hopes that two specific lessons learned from Troy's game against UAB earlier in the season will lead to some success over the next two games.
“First, we have to be more patient on offense than we were against UAB,” he said. “We did a good job of that against Auburn. We have to work it around until we get an open shot.
“If we are more patient on offense and we work more man-to-man in with the zone on defense it should help us and allow us to better regulate the tempo of the game.”
Troy is led by senior guards Brandon Hazzard (18.1 ppg, 22 3-pointers), Richard Delk (14.6 ppg, 5.0 rpg) and Michael Vogler (11.8 ppg, 49 assists). One or multiple out of that trio have led the Trojans in scoring in each game this season.
Fellow senior starters Antywan Jones (8.5 ppg, 6.6 rpg) and Yamene Coleman (10.4 ppg, 6.9 rpg) are also providing critical minutes.
Maestri is excited about the high-level of basketball his team will face over the next four days.
“The whole weekend is just a great weekend of basketball,” he said. “We get to play two more Conference USA teams. If we are able to split these two games, we would be absolutely thrilled.
“Out of the three CUSA teams we play, all three will be in the mix in the top five of that league along with Memphis and Tulsa. They will be up in the upper echelon of that league. Conference USA is a really strong league this year.”
Tip-off for Saturday's game is set for 6 pm CST in Huntington, while Monday's game will begin at 7 pm CST. Barry McKnight will describe all the action on the Troy ISP Network.
