The 4-1 Eastern Michigan Eagles will be facing off November 29th at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York at 7 p.m. against the 6-0 Syracuse Orangemen. As Eastern Michigan’s Basketball Coach Rob Murphy will be facing off against his mentor, former national champion, Syracuse’s Coach Jim Boeheim.
Murphy, being a former assistant of Boeheim has a challenge on his hands when trying to beat his mentor Boeheim since Syracuse is ranked fifth in the NCAA rankings.
Coach Murphy will try to bring what he learned with his mentor as an assistant coach under Boeheim and use that coaching philosophy to defeat him.
Also recently Eastern got sophomore Da’Shonte Riley, a seven foot center and a transfer from Syracuse, who won’t be playing in this game however since he isn’t eligible for play this season.
For Eastern, the leading scorer is senior 5’10 Guard Darrell Lampley averaging 15 points per game and for Syracuse, their leading scorer is senior 6’7 forward Kris Joseph averaging 15.3 points per game.
Eastern’s leading rebounder is junior 6’9 forward Jamell Harris averaging 7.4 rebounds per game and for Syracuse, sophomore 6’8 forward C.J. Fair averaging 6.2 rebounds per game. The assist leader for Syracuse is senior 6’2 guard Scoop Jardine averaging 3.7 assists per game with an assist to turnover ratio of 2.2. As the assist leader is also the leading scorer for EMU, Lampley averaging 3.4 assists per game with an assist to turnover ratio of 1.5.
With junior 6’8 forward from Syracuse James Southerland shooting 53.3 percent from downtown tied for 64th in the nation, Eastern’s leading 3-point shooter is Lampley shooting 44 percent from long range.
Defensive stats leader for Syracuse is sophomore Fab Melo, a seven-foot center averaging 2.8 blocks per game and for Eastern’s leading rebounder, Harris averaging 1 block per game.
As teams, Syracuse is ranked 17th best in scoring, averaging 83 points per game and Eastern is ranked 292nd overall in the nation averaging 61.4 points per game.
Syracuse is tied for 52nd in the nation in rebounds averaging 39.8 rebounds per game as a team and Eastern Michigan is tied for 164th in the nation averaging 36 rebounds per game. In assists, Syracuse is tied for 17th best in the nation averaging 17.5 assists per game, with an assist to turnover ratio of 1.33.
Eastern is tied for 314th in the nation averaging 9.6 assists per game, with an assist to turnover ratio of 0.69. In blocking Eastern Michigan is tied for 223rd in the nation with 2.8 blocks per game the same number Syracuse’s center Fab Melo is averaging per game as he clearly contributes to Syracuse who is 12th in the nation averaging 6.83 blocks per game.
As a defense EMU has allowed 56.2 points per game therefore having a scoring margin of 5.2. With Syracuse the opponent is averaging 58.5 points per game however it has a scoring margin of 24.5.
