Basketball: Northern Arizona @ Wichita State (Pre-game)

Wichita State will play there 2nd game in a 3-game home stretch Saturday night at Koch Arena. The Shox (4-5) are coming off an impressive 12 point win over Gardner-Webb in which the team had solid contributions from many players. Northern Arizona will come to town as a part of a return game from the bracketbuster last year. The Lumberjacks (2-5) have posted wins this season over Haskell College and Utah Valley State. Though there 5 losses include, Utah Valley State (they've played twice), UNLV, California Riverside, North Dakota State, and Arizona. This should be a win for the Shockers and look for them to get some revenge on NAU.

THE HISTORY

• WSU is 2-1 all-time against Northern Arizona. The Shockers lost last years meeting 85-75 in Flagstaff.
• WSU is 5-2 all-time against Big Sky opponents.
• WSU has only play 3 of the 9 teams in the Big Sky Conference.
• Coach Marshall is 0-1 against the Big Sky and Northern Arizona so far at Wichita State

Northern Arizona University is a public university located in Flagstaff, Arizona. They have an enrollment just short of 21,400. The institution was formed on September 11th, 1899. It was really a struggle to find a good history about NAU. Notable alumni; Lopez Lomong ('08 olympic usa flag bearer).

SCOUTING NORTHERN ARIZONA

NAU is 1-6 on the season against Division-1 opponents, with there one win against Utah Valley State. The Lumberjacks are coming off a 9 point loss at Stanford, a pretty competitive game. Serbia native Zarko Comagic is their leading scorer with 11.7 points per game. Senior Matt Johnson is next with 11.2 per game. NAU is very spread out scoring wise so far this season. No Lumberjack is averaging more than 5 and a half boards per game. So far though they have out rebounded their opponents by 3 boards per game. Senior Josh Wilson leads them in assists, with 37 on the season. Sophomore center Shane Johannsen leads the team with 10 blocks so far on the season. As a team NAU has 83 steals compared to there opponents 59, a very impressive number. From behind the arc though they are shooting 30.9% compared to there opponents 39%. The Lumberjacks like to spread out there minutes more than 10 players average 10 minutes or more. As a team NAU is shooting a weak 57.3% from the line. The Lumberjacks have yet to win a game on the road this season.

MATCH-UPS

Point Guard: Clevin Hannah (5'11, 155) will match-up against senior Josh Wilson (6'2, 205). Wilson is an average scorer but can kill you with assists.
Shooting Guard: Toure' Murry (6'3, 185) will match-up against Matt Johnson (6'2, 175). Johnson is a good scorer and a decent threat from behind the arc.
Small Forward: AJ Hawkins (6'5, 202) will match-up against Cameron Jones (6'4, 180). AJ will need to play him tough behind the arc, Cameron is 10-21 on the year from 3 point land.
Power Forward: Ramon Clemente (6'6, 220) will match-up against Zarko Comagic (6'7, 225). Ramon needs to grab at least 10 boards in this game.
Center: Garrett Stutz (7'0, 235) will match-up against Shane Johannsen (6'7, 225). Shane is a quality shot blocker.

BREAK OUT PLAYER - GRAHAM HATCH

In the last few games Graham hasn't played as big of a role as he was playing when the season started. Graham only a sophomore is a leader on this team because of his maturity. NAU isn't good at perimeter defense and will give up a good amount of open threes, this will give Graham just the game he needs. Look for him to hit 2 or 3 open threes and finish with anywhere from 8 to 15 points.

SUMMARY

Northern Arizona is a team that likes to spread out it's minutes and basically just play who is hot at the moment. The pose scoring threats in Matt Johnson and Zarko Comajic. They don't posses any real height so Garrett might be able to get some easy buckets inside. From the results I've seen I'm not impressed with NAU. There one win (D-1) was a 1 point home win against Utah Valley State. They are 0-5 on the road and haven't finished closer than within 6 on the road which was their season opener. The Shox are going to want some revenge, they remember last year and how we got our ass handed to us from a no-name team from a mountain in Arizona. If the wood cutters stay within 10 I will be suprised but they Shox really aren't the team to win by more than 20 (our offense isn't that good). Look for a low scoring game and the Shox to shoot a good amount of threes.

Quick note: Northern Arizona was the first team to ever play in Koch Arena.

PREDICTION: WSU 70, Northern Arizona 55.