Men’s Basketball weekend preview
The #2 Judges hit the road this weekend to take on a pair of ranked conference foes with # 24 Carnegie Mellon Friday at 8:00pm and #1 Rochester Sunday at 12:00pm. Sunday’s game marks the second time Brandeis has gone toe-to-toe with a top-ranked team this season. The Judges defeated then-#1 Amherst 72-62 at home December 8th.
Plenty is at stake for the team this weekend. It’s fair to assume that with wins in both games Brandeis (for the first time in school history) will be the top-ranked team in Division III basketball. Perhaps more importantly, with wins in both games, Brandeis jumps out to a 3-0 conference start, with all 3 wins coming on the road. The team has already defeated NYU 66-56 in the UAA opener last Saturday. (Shameless plug alert: read more about the NYU victory in this week’s Justice.) A 3-0 start in the UAA would give the Judges an early advantage at capturing the conference title.
Last season the Judges lost to both teams on the road; 83-65 at Rochester and 75-68 at Carnegie Mellon.
Carnegie Mellon/Friday 1-18 8:00pm
While Rochester will present the toughest test of the weekend, at 10-2, Carnegie certainly isn’t a pushover. The team is 0-1 in the UAA, but is 5-0 at home. Like the Judges, Carnegie features a balanced-scoring offense with 4 players with double-digit per-game averages. Ryan Einwag leads the Tartans with an average of 16.1 points per game. Something to keep in mind: second-leading scorer Jack Anderson (12.1 ppg) has missed the last three games with an ankle injury. Statistically the teams match-up fairly evenly. However, Brandeis has a decisive edge in field goal percentage (49.3% to 43.3%) and three-point field goal percentage (41.5% to 31.0%) .
Rochester/ Sunday 1-20 12:00pm
If one regular season game could trump the importance of the victory vs. Amherst, this is it: Sunday’s matchup features a showdown of the top two teams in Division III basketball. Rochester has three players averaging at least 13.8 points per game. Senior guard Robert Dominiak leads the way with 15.9 ppg, while senior center Jonathan Onyiriuka and senior forward Gordian Uche Ndubizu score 13.9 and 13.8 ppg respectively. Rochester has dominated opponents this season with an average margin of victory of 17.5 ppg.
LINKS
For your pre-game enjoyment:
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Here is a press release about the success of the Carnegie basketball team from the Carnegie Mellon athletic department.
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Here is a short video documentary on the Rochester athletic website about the school’s basketball program.
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Here is this week’s top 25 poll on d3hoops.com
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Click here to follow the games on your computer this weekend .
