Atlantic 10 Thursday Games: 11/21/19

glabedz

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Saint Joseph's (+13.5) vs. Florida, 2PM ET
Duquesne (-6) vs. Indiana St., 6:30 PM ET

Two good games to kick off preseason tournaments in college basketball. Saint Joseph's has its toughest test of the year on a neutral site against a ranked Florida team. The Hawks have already taken down Connecticut on the road (a team that beat Florida at home), but the Hawks have also suffered losses to Old Dominion and Loyola Chicago. This team has been very hit-or-miss, and I think it's because of how often they take 3s. SJU has the 2nd highest 3 point attempts per field goal attempt at over 52%, which means the Hawks are taking more 3s than 2s. If the shots are falling, this team can be dangerous. If the Hawks go cold, it can get ugly. That's why this game is such a toss-up. I doubt SJU loses by 10. I think they come out scorching and have a chance to win or go cold and lose by 20 or more.

Duquesne looks to keep things going when it takes on Indiana St. in Bimini. The Dukes get 3 straight games here, all of which will be good tests. The Sycamores are 0-3 this season, though we saw them hold their ground against Dayton in a 4 point loss. They've been shooting the three ball pretty well (38.9%), but they've been terrible on defense and have been allowing their opponents to go to work on the inside. That's good news for forward Michael Hughes who is off to a very strong start to the season. As long as Duquesne doesn't become overly-reliant on the three, it should be fine. The Dukes will have the advantage in the size and physicality department, so as long as they don't make this a shootout from long range against Indiana St., I don't see a reason Keith Dambrot doesn't move to 4-0 tonight.

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Close loss for Saint Joseph's today, but that was a heck of a lot better than I expected. Ryan Daly and co. got the Hawks within 2 with under a minute to play. This whole season has kind of been a tale of two halves for SJU, but this is one of the only games where the Hawks played significantly better in the 2nd period. I think it's promising that this team can hang with a group like Florida even when the three ball is falling. If SJU just has a normal night from behind the three point line, this game could have gone its way. Obviously Blackshear's ejection was a helpful 2nd half catalyst as well. I know there's no such thing as a "good loss," but that was as good of a close loss as I could imagine for this team. Excited to see them play Missouri St.
 
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