Howard 11/28 7:00 ESPN+

[leo from jersey]

Sloopy handling of the ball

[leo from jersey]

let's get this going

[GoBearcats31]

Aziz starting, Ody off the bench

[swilsonsp4]

Howard has interesting seating arrangements at Burr Gym. While a bit over half of the seats are general admission, there are sections for home fans, visitors' fans (adjacent to the home fans near midcourt), alumni, current student-athletes, other students, band, and friends/family members.

Howard University | Athletics Ticketing - Section Selection (universitytickets.com)

[GoBearcats31]

Ken Pom:

#35 UC
#229 Howard

[London 'Cat]

The ‘Cats cannot assume they will win on Tuesday. Exhibit A - XU lost to Oakland University at home. The ‘Cats have to remain focused to play well to win on the road. Howard did make the NCAA tournament last year so they know how to play within their capabilities. Let’s hope the ‘Cats come out determined and leave with a W.

[Corporateballa]

Howard is an HBCU founded in 1867 just after the Civil War. Howard was the first University in Americas to give blacks the opportunity to become medical doctors. My great uncle Dr. Earnest A. Just (google him) is a Howard grad. My son who is a doctor chose Cincinnati medschool over Howard. In 1965 President LBJ delivered the commencement address at Howard’s graduation. Cudos to Coach Miller for taking the Bearcats to Howard!

[swilsonsp4]

This gym is similar to Tulane in size but the seats don’t come down to floor from the pic I saw. There’s a wall around the court. No diving out of bounds on the sidelines here.

Here's a photo:

BurrGymnasium2 - Burr Gymnasium - Wikipedia

For comparison, Burr seats 2,700, while Fairfield HS seats about 3,000.

[Lobot]

This gym is similar to Tulane in size but the seats don’t come down to floor from the pic I saw. There’s a wall around the court. No diving out of bounds on the sidelines here.

[GoBearcats31]

UC says this will be on ESPN+

[GoBearcats31]

Per Howard BB's Twitter/X, this will be "only the 3rd Power 5 school on campus since 2000"

[swilsonsp4]

The problem with a foul-prone team such as Howard isn't that the other team might or might not make the free throws, but that the Bison can't guard anyone. Through seven games, they're yielding 83.9 ppg against a schedule that includes #70 James Madison as the best foe, per KenPom.

[bearcatbret]

I watched a bit of the ESPN+ replay of Howard's game at Mt. St. Mary's. It was a sloppy affair. The Bison turned it over 21 times. Both teams played aggressive half-court man-to-man. I didn't see either team try to press.

The Bison owned the boards (46-30) but fouled 23 times. Towns and another player each had 4, while a third fouled out.

Howard 87-83 Mount St. Mary's (Nov 25, 2023) Box Score - ESPN

As for the fouls, I do not think it will affect the game because UC cannot shoot free throws. Well, one day they may shoot 80 percent and then the next day they will shoot 50 percent. If you miss the front end of a one and one, it is leaving points off the board.

[swilsonsp4]

I watched a bit of the ESPN+ replay of Howard's game at Mt. St. Mary's. It was a sloppy affair. The Bison turned it over 21 times. Both teams played aggressive half-court man-to-man. I didn't see either team try to press.

Howard are athletic and really want to run. Their opponents were not particularly athletic or gifted, so it was hard to gauge how they'd do against a major team. I suspect not very well.

Seth Towns is a load at 6'9", 240#, as a small forward. He shoots a lot, as evidenced by his 18 attempts Saturday. He was 3-for-8 from outside. The team as a whole did not hit well from the arc (6-for-22).

The Bison owned the boards (46-30) but fouled 23 times. Towns and another player each had 4, while a third fouled out.

I suspect that, once the Cats get used to the small, close surroundings, they'll easily put the Bison down, say 95-68.

Howard 87-83 Mount St. Mary's (Nov 25, 2023) Box Score - ESPN

[leeraymond]

This is part of the last minute home and home contract we signed in an emergency to fill this years schedule out, so this game is in DC. As such, they have the rights to the broadcast but their conference doesn't have a TV contract so this will not be broadcast nationally to my knowledge.

The Bison are out of the MEAC and are 2-4 to start the year. They have losses to common opponents GT (by 3) and Bryant (by 6) . They play one more game coming into our contest on Saturday vs. Mount Saint Mary's. That game will be on ESPN+ at 4:00.

The guy to focus on defensively for Howard is guard Bryce Harris. He leads the team in ppg and rpg.

Closet Buckeye fans might recognize Seth Towns from their roster. Towns is a wild transfer story in that he played at Harvard for 2 years starting in 2016-2017 and sat out 2 entire seasons with injuries. He's missed portions or all of 4 the last 5 seasons with injuries and is now a grad transfer at Howard after spending last year with tOSU. This is only his 4th season actually playing because of all that and medical redshirts. I believe he's on year 6 in college now and he still might have a COVID year left.

The Bison roster tops out with Towns at 6'9. I would expect lots of action for Bandaogo in this one.

This got scheduled because logistics fell through for a better opponent. Personally I think this game will benefit us since we won't be walking in to Cintas later in the season without a road game under our belt for a change.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba.../stats/_/id/47

I commend Coach Miller for taking this game. Howard University is a relatively small school (9809 undergraduates in 2022) that has a very small basketball venue that the team plays in (Burr Gymnasium). It has a seating capacity of only 2,700. I have been following college basketball a long time. I have never heard of a Power Conference school ever playing in a venue that small in a typical road game. It should be an interesting experience for UC and for the students and fans of Howard U. Basketball to see a Power 5 team up that close. This road game should give the new players a good experience with being on the road with the UC Basketball Program. Also, and no disrespect to Howard University Basketball, this should be a happy ride back from the game for UC. Hopefully, it is. It should be. Anyway, hats off to Coach Miller for taking this game, no matter how it came about. Many Power 5 coaches would not give a second thought to playing a road game at a small school like Howard University.