LSU vs Oral Roberts Basketball 1pm PMAC/SECN

I figured I'd throw together a little preview for today's game...it won't be nearly as in-depth as SOS's.

Oral Roberts projected starting 5:
F Brandon Conley 6'6 225 7.6ppg 7.0rpg
F Albert Owens 6'9 260 10.1ppg 5.7rpg 1.8 blks
G Jalen Bradley 6'0 184 10.3ppg 40% from 3
G Obi Emegano 6'3 215 23.3ppg 42% from 3
G Aaron Anderson 6'3 190 6.4ppg 4.4rpg 3.7apg

LSU projected starting 5
C Elbert Robinson
F Ben Simmons
G Keith Hornsby
G Antonio Blakeney
G Tim Quarterman

Many will disagree with the starting 5, and Craig Victor very well may start. I think Coach Jones likes to start a guy like Elbert because he cannot bring him off the bench. Elbert won't bring energy or toughness off the bench, so it's better to start him and eat some minutes at the beginning of the game. Especially when the opponent has a large center who is a banger. But we will see.

Oral Roberts

Oral Roberts comes into the contest 8-4 on the season. They have losses @USCe by 18, @New Mexico by 16, @Oklahoma by 23, @Missouri State by 19.

Offense
Oral Roberts averages 79.2ppg, good for 78th nationally. They shoot 44.7% overall, and 37.7% from 3 which is 70th in the nation and they average 19 attempts per contest. By comparison, LSU averages 21.8 3PA. ORU shoots 74% from FT's which is 33rd nationally, they are an aggressive team. They do not share the ball well, averaging 13 apg which ranks 202nd. Luckily for LSU, ORU is one of the worst offensive rebounding teams in the country averaging only 9.4oprg. They turn the ball over on average 11 times per game, so they take care of the ball.

Defense
Some of these numbers are skewed because of either extremely weak or extremely good teams. Nonetheless, ORU is ranked 278th in team scoring defense, giving up 76.4ppg. Defensively on the glass, they do a very good job ranking 24th averaging 29.7drpg. They are one of the worst teams in the country in terms of getting steals averaging only 5 steals per game, and they get 4 blocks per game. Defensively, they are a subpar team overall.

Overall
Oral Roberts relies on Emegano a ton. He is the key to their team. They will try to outscore their opponent, much like LSU. LSU will have to box out and be fundamentally sound on the boards. Although ORU does not crash the boards hard, we cannot let them get easy points they are not accustomed to getting. ORU likes to attack, so our guards really need to do a good job staying in front of their man so our bigs don't pick up a bunch of fouls. They are not a big team, 6'9 is as big as they will go, and that is their center. All other big men will be 6'6 unless they get into foul trouble, then they may bring in some reserves who have some height.

Do not be fooled by some of their losses by double digits, they have played teams tough. The oddsmakers think so, as well, since LSU is -11. They were losing by only 5 at halftime against Oklahoma. They outscored UNM by double digits in the 2nd half. Also, against USCe they were only losing by 3 at half. Their trend seems to be they don't play 2 complete halves. One half is great, the other half is putrid. Hopefully they don't play two great halves today.

Prediction:
LSU 86
ORU 74