FSU vs. Cal State Whaaa? Monterey Bay?

Yes Greg, we played and beat the mighty Otters!

FSU vs. CSU Monterey Bay Preview

The Fresno State Bulldogs will host the California State University Monterey Bay Otters Wednesday night at the Save Mart Center at 7pm. The Bulldogs come in not having played a game since November 27^th, a 74-64 victory at Winston-Salem State, led by Eddie Miller’s 25 points in front of friends and family that bussed down from Maryland. That was the second part of a two game road trip, the Dogs fell to Sam Houston State in the first game 68-57.

The Bulldogs will play at home Wednesday night and then travel to Las Vegas to play UNLV at the Orleans Arena Saturday at 7pm.

CSUMB enters the game off of a road loss at Cal-Poly Pomona 77-66. The Bulldogs and Otters do have a common opponent this season in Western Washington. The Bulldogs defeated WW on Nov. 4^th at the Save Mart Center 97-67 on a 61 point second half effort. CSUMB played Western Washington twice, losing at home 82-77 and in Bellingham 87-75.

Scouting CSUMB:

The Otters will come in very undersized, their tallest player being Jacob Kernodle at 6’7, the next players down in size are 6’4. Its looks as though Ryan McBride, who was scoring 12.7 ppg is no longer with the Otters. The others scoring in double figures are Augie Johnston (16.3 ppg) and D’Shon Cannon (15.7 ppg) and Joe Mitchell (13.7 ppg, 9.7 rpg). An interesting note is that 6’4 junior guard Jose Sanchez who is averaging 8.1 ppg listed his last school attended as Fresno State.

Some team stats of note for the Otters:
-Averaging 70.4 ppg while yielding 76.4
-Shooting 46% Fgs, 34% from three, and 79% from the line on 112 attempts
-Getting outrebounded by around 1 per game=
-12 assists per game, but 15 turnovers per

For the Bulldogs:

The Bulldogs continue to be led by senior Point Guard Kevin Bell with his 17.4 ppg and his just over 6 assists per game. There are 4 players posting double figure scoring that are available, though Dwight O’ Neil was averaging 13.5 ppg before his wrist injury.

Hector Hernandez has had difficulty in the early season shooting the Basketball but still is at 10.3 ppg and a team leading 7.9 rpg. Hernandez is the player that needs to make strides and improve his play over the next few weeks. He is critical to the Bulldogs success.

This game should not be a contest that is ever in doubt. What this matchup does is allows the Bulldogs to work on sets offensively, get some confidence shooting the basketball, and utilize this as an opportunity to go into the UNLV game with a clear idea of that they want to do. It wont be a physically demanding game so they will be fresh for Saturday, a game that will be extremely difficult.

MBs Take:

Yes this game has everything-a D2 opponent, a fellow CSU school, a rare opponent mascot (Otter, would a Bulldog beat an otter in a fight? Furthermore, can otters come on land and compete physically?), and a team with no player over 6'7.

This is quite the matchup (not so much) but what really matters is no getting decimated and embarrased in Vegas Saturday.

Through extrapolation, I say the Dogs win this by 23 points.