Preview: @UNCO_MBB Kick Off Conference Season Friday

Friday, December 29

Greeley, Colo.

7pm

University of Northern Colorado

Eastern Washington University

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

12/28/2017 7:31:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Bears prepare for Eastern Washington to open up the Big Sky schedule

By: Kurt Maddox, UNCBears.com

Greeley, Colo.—Northern Colorado comes into Big Sky play sitting at 9-4 and receiving votes in the CollegeInsider.com mid-major poll. UNC opens up the conference schedule by welcoming the Eastern Washington Eagles to Bank of Colorado Arena.

Tipoff is scheduled for 7 pm and will be broadcast on Pluto TV channel 241 as well as 1310 KFKA. You can also follow the stats live on UNCBears.com.

Opening Tip
This is the 22nd overall meeting between Eastern Washington and Northern Colorado with the Eagles having the slight advantage in the series 11-10. The two squads only played once last season because of rotation schedules with EWU winning 70-44 at Bank of Colorado Arena.

Big Sky Player of the Week
UNC goes into conference play with the defending Big Sky Player of the Week in Andre Spight. Spight continues to thrive in the Northern Colorado offense. The Arizona State transfer is scoring at will with 45 points total last week. He recorded his first double-double of his UNC career (24 points, 10 assists) in the big win versus Wyoming, 91-84. In their close loss (94-91) to Mountain West-leading UNLV, Spight went off for 21 and most of those were in the second half. Spight has upped his points per game by 2.2 since the beginning of December. In his two games for the week, the redshirt senior went 16-38 (42.1%) from the field and was very consistent as he shot 8-of-18 in both games.

Record-Book Watch
Jordan Davis now trails Dennis Colson (1965-68) by 56 points for 15th all-time points in UNC history. JD moved up to 9th overall for assists in his career with 261 dishes. He has passed Scott Watson (1986-90) and Jordan Wilson (2013-16) so far this season and only needs 13 more dimes to move into 8th.

Last Time Out
Northern Colorado fought until the bitter end against their second-straight Mountain West opponent but fell just short of victory versus UNLV, 94-91. UNC (9-4) led by as many as eight in the second half as Jordan Davis enjoyed the hometown feel, dropping 28 to lead the Bears in the loss.

Start of the Big Sky
UNC started off strong at home last season by winning their first two Big Sky games which were on the road. The Bears went on to lose six of their next seven and started gaining momentum for this season by winning their last two contests and finished the conference season 7-11.

Bear Tracks

UNC is tied with Idaho for the league lead in rebounding offense. Both teams average 39.2 in offensive rebounding.
The Bears are third in scoring offense in the Big Sky by putting 78.5 points on the board per game.
Northern Colorado is also third in scoring defense. They hold the team on the other bench to 69 points per contest.
No surprise here as UNC is third in margin of victory. The Bears score 9.5 more points per game on average than their opponents.
The boys in blue and gold are second in 3-pointers made and this is only because Portland State has played one more game than the Bears. UNC averages 9.1 treys made per game.
Portland State and Northern Colorado are tied for the league lead in blocks with 58 swats on the season.
Spight stands second in 3-pointers made with 40 and he trails Tyler Hall by two as Hall as 42.

Scouting Eastern Washington

Shantay Legans is in his inaugural season as the head coach of the Eagles. Legans spent the last eight years as an assistant coach for EWU. While at Eastern, Legans has helped developed a quartet of All-Big Sky Conference guards in Glen Dean, Cliff Colimon, Tyler Harvey, and Austin McBroom. Dean was the league's Freshman of the Year in 2010 and an All-BSC guard in 2011; Colimon earned first-team all-league and All-Big Sky Conference Tournament honors as a senior in 2012.
Eastern Washington only has one player who averages in double digits. Bogdan Bliznyuk is putting in 17.8 points per game and he is also the only one that has started every game for the Eagles. The Ukrainian senior is second on the team for rebounds with 5.9 only being beat by Jesse Hunt who pulls down 6.5 rebounds per game.
EWU plays a consistent game in both halves. They outscore their opponents by one in the first half and by 13 in the second 20 minutes.
The Bears and Eagles share three common non-conference opponents: UNLV, Wyoming and South Dakota. EWU went 0-3 while UNC finished 2-1 against those three teams. The Eagles took Wyoming to overtime but fell to the Cowboys 93-88
Eastern Washington prefers home cooking this year as they have a 1-7 record on the road. The one win was against a power five school when they handed Stanford a 67-61 loss on the Cardinal's home court.
The Eagles can send waves and waves of players to the floor. They have 11 players who have at least played in half of the Eastern Washington games. EWU also has an international flair to their roster as seven Eagles are from outside the United States.

What's Ahead
Northern Colorado will kick off the New Year on the road as they head up to Montana State on the 4th. The Bears will face the Bobcats in Bozeman with tipoff scheduled for 7 pm in the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. UNC will stay in Montana and take I-90 Northwest to face the Montana Grizzlies January 6th at 7 pm.

The Bears will be back home for a three-game stretch starting January 11th as the Weber State Wildcats come to town. Idaho State visits Bank of Colorado Arena the 13th at 2 pm and the homestand finishes up the 20^th with North Dakota starting at 7 pm. Tickets are available at UNCBears.com, at the UNC Box Office M-F from Noon-5 pm or at 970.351.1679 during business hours. January 2nd through the 5th the office is open from noon to 5 pm and the ticket office will be back to normal hours January 8^th which is 10-5 pm.