North Texas (9-7, 2-1) travels to Arkansas State (7-9, 1-1) for their second Sun Belt Conference game on the road in a row. North Texas comes in with 78-73 overtime win at conference member South Alabama. ASU enters the game after losing at home against Denver 40-53. The Red Wolves have a 5-3 home record this season.

The main man emerging for ASU is #5 Marcus Hooten, G, 6-4, 204, Jr., a transfer from Copiah-Lincoln Jr. College. He leads the team in scoring with 11.7 points a game. He grabs 2.4 rebounds a game. Vying for first place in scoring is Oklahoma State transfer #33 Malcoln Kirkland, F, 6-8, 265, So., with 11.6 points a game. He is second on the team with rebounds grabbing 6.9 per game. Third in scoring is #15 Brandon Peterson, F, 6-7, 215, Jr., with 10.3 points a game but he leads the team in rebounds with a total of 7.1. Sun Belt Preseason All-Conference player Trey Finn puts in 9.9 points a game and is third in rebounds with 5.4. Finn blew his knee out during last year’s SBC Tournament and ASU promptly lost. He is the guy that makes the team go. Ed Townsel adds 9.8 points a game and 3.8 rebounds.

Peterson and Kirkland account for about 40% of the teams rebounds.

ASU is outscored 1.6 points a game with an average score of 62.8 to 64.4. They shoot .431 from the floor, .366 from three point range putting in 4.7 three point shots per game and hit .625 from the free throw line.

They do a good job on the boards getting +2.6 rebounds a game. When it comes to turnovers they are on the negative side giving up 15.1 turnovers per game while getting back 13.7.

The thirteen man roster carries two players that top out at 6-8 and they are the tallest players on the team, two players are 6-7, one 6-6 the rest are 6-0 to 6-5. They are a team with experience and have one senior, six juniors, three sophomores and three freshmen. 

They have a coaching staff that is loaded. ASU is coached by John Brady who was hired in 2008. He was the head coach that turned the LSU program around taking them to the Final Four. Before being hired, LSU had four losing seasons.

On his staff is Richard Williams the former head coach at Mississippi State where he was the second winningest coach in Bulldog history. He coached them to a Final Four.  

Also on staff is a coach that has North Texas experience and some North Texas fans may remember Melvin Harralson. He was a coach for North Texas for five years and helped recruit the nation’s #21 recruiting class which was also rated the best in the Southwest in 1998.

ASU won against UT-Martin, SEMO, St. Bonaventure, Central Arkansas, Seattle, Lyon and Louisiana-Monroe.  They lost to Lamar 62-65, Missouri State 46-77, Ohio 54-69, Louisville 27-54, Austin Peay 82-86, St. Louis 46-70, Kent State 54-69 and Denver 50-53.

North Texas can’t really focus on stopping one player from shooting since it is a balanced offensive team that shoots the ball well by all the players.  So, North Texas’ defense has to be on its toes. USA is a good rebounding team therefore North Texas has to block out in order to control the boards. 

The ASU coach has admitted his team is susceptible to switching defenses and while they do have some playmakers on the team they don’t have the big playmakers.  Another area ASU has had problems with is being outscored in the paint because their defense is still working together.

North Texas can pull out a win here if their defense puts pressure on the offense.  They should be able to score in the paint and control the boards.