After thrillingly beating Wright State, RMU Basketball is in the thick of the middle of the Horizon League standings. So if they want to fight for a potential top-5 spot and a bye in the future conference tournament, they must win the games they’re supposed to.
That includes their upcoming opponent, Green Bay (2-16, 0-7). The Phoenix have struggled in Coach Doug Gottlieb’s first year, having lost 12 straight, including the last three on the road. But they’re at home, and the Colonials have been prone to upsets before on the road.
Here are the keys to RMU winning this Friday evening.
1. Defending Marcus Hall
At one point, Green Bay had the top scorer in the country in Anthony Roy (25.7 ppg). However, an ankle injury has him out indefinitely, and he’ll miss this game. The other double-digit scorer on the team is Hall, a 6’6 combo forward who is averaging 13.1 ppg and 4.2 rpg while shooting around 40% from deep on five attempts. He’s coming off a 15-point game at Milwaukee and 19 versus Northern Kentucky and is the clear No. 1 option to deal with if you’re RMU.
2. Yonatan Levy is the x-factor in the game
Green Bay is the worst offense in the Horizon League, especially without Roy around. To try to help with that, they landed a 23-year-old freshman forward from Israel. Levy is a 6’9 big who is coming off a 15-point and 8-rebound game against Milwaukee, who was without its own star big man. RMU’s frontcourt of Alvaro Folguerias and Amarion Dickerson will have their hands full and will need to prevent a big outing to keep the Phoenix down.
3. Take advantage of poor Phoenix defense
Green Bay may be an even worse defensive team than on offense, ranking last in many categories. That includes preventing threes, allowing 38% from deep, good for 354th in the country. RMU isn’t a good shooting team, but they will have plenty of opportunities to score points.
What the Colonials can’t do is get off to a slow start and keep the Phoenix in the game. If that happens, this could be a true upset alert to watch.