Tonight, we'll get to see our first Big Ten basketball of the season, albeit in exhibition form. The Florida Southern Mocassins travel to West Lafayette to take on the Purdue Boilermakers. The game begins at 8pm Central time and will be broadcast online by the Big Ten Network.
Florida Southern returns four starters from a team that went 24-9 and won the Sunshine State Conference. They've been picked for the Division II preseason top 10 in two seperate publications, so are probably one of the better opponents on the Big Ten's exhibition schedule.
As you'd expect from a Division II opponent, they have very little size, with one very big exception - 7'0'', 280 lb. Georgia transfer Rashaad Singleton. Singleton played two and a half seasons for the Bulldogs before deciding to transfer midyear in search of more playing time. While at Georgia, Singleton showed excellent shotblocking ability and solid rebounding, but was awful offensively. He'll at least give Florida Southern somebody to make the lane a bit less hospitable.
The Mocs' leading returning scorer is 6'2'' senior Rob Eldridge, who is also a D1 transfer (one season at Wright State). He and the next three returning scorers all shot over 37% from downtown last year - 6'1'' soph Rion Rayfield, 6'2'' soph Brandon Jenkins, and 6'4'' senior Braxton Williams. The starter at PF figures to be 6'5'', 210 lb. senior Zach Smith, who led the team with 7.2 rebounds per game.
Honestly, Florida Southern sounds a lot better than I thought they would, and Singleton might provide enough defense in the lane to keep a hot-shooting Mocs squad close. This is a team that's capable of pulling a Grand Valley State if Purdue and/or Illinois (who the Mocs face on Sunday) don't show up to play. I doubt either game will be close, but you never know.
Friday, October 31, 2008
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