The Cardinals will play their first real home game of the 2014-15 College Basketball season on Monday night against the Jacksonville State Gamecocks. JSU is out of the Ohio Valley conference and this will be the very first meeting between these teams on the hardwood. JSU lost their season opener to the Marshall Thundering Herd, 74-55 and are 0-1 heading into the Yum Center. Gametime is at 7 and can be seen on ESPN3.

JSU coach James Green‘s teams have been known more for their hard-nosed defense than their offensive prowess. They finished dead last in scoring offense last season in the OVC but finished 1st in scoring defense. They aren’t a very big team so their smaller speedy guys try to put pressure on the ball to create turnovers. They had 8 steals and forced 10 turnovers against Marshall. They shot just 37% in the loss.

They do return some veteran players in seniors G Darion Rackley, G Avery Moore, F/C Jamal Hunter, and F D.J. Felder. Rackley and Moore are each chasing the 1,000-point scoring mark in their Division I careers. Rackley has scored 893 in his four-year JSU career, while Moore has scored 842 in his career. He had 6 made three point shots against Marshall. Hunter blocked 45 shots in his junior season. His 45 blocks were the sixth-most in a season by a Gamecock in the program’s Division I history and ranks him ninth on the school’s Division I career blocks list. And Felder had the only double-double on the team last year against Auburn.
In total there are eight returning JSU players that have started a combined 159 games at the Division I level.

JSU’s 2014-15 OVERALL RANKINGS
Offense | Defense
-POINTS PER GAME
55.0
272nd
OVERALL
-REBOUNDS PER GAME
35.0
180th
OVERALL
-ASSISTS PER GAME
11.0
201st
OVERALL
-FIELD GOAL PCT
.370
246th
OVERALL

JSU’s 2014-15 Kenpom Rankings
Overall- #291
Defense Adjustment Efficiency
-107.6 ranks 306th
Offense Adjustment Efficiency
– 98.6 ranks #267th
-Per Kenpom game prediction he has the Cardinals winning the game 87-59 based on his indexes.

This is just one of those early out of conference games that won’t be very competitive. It’s good that there are some of these easier games on the schedule to give the Cardinals the chance to work on some stuff and get prepared for the much tougher games down the road. Our Cardinals showed in their win on Friday night that they are again going to be a highly efficient team offensively that draws a lot of fouls and a defensive team that puts a ton of pressure on the ball. As long as everybody stays healthy this will be a recipe for a very successful season. The Cards will cruise in their College Basketball season home opener.

The Beak Prediction
Louisville 89 Jacksonville State 50