BLOOMINGTON, Indiana – McNeese touched down in the land where basketball reigns on Friday afternoon as it gets ready to take on the Indiana Hoosiers here Saturday evening for the first meeting in school history.
Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 CT at the famed Assembly Hall on the IU campus. The game will be televised live on the Big Ten Network and also carried on the McNeese Radio Network (1470 and 1290 AM and CajunRadio.com).
The Cowboys (1-6) are looking to forget about their last outing, a 97-64 loss at Louisiana-Lafayette, and hope to see improvements from a team that has seen three true freshmen and a junior transfer playing a significant amount of playing time. In addition to the youngsters improving their game, veterans like seniors
Craig McFerrin and
Austin Lewis, and juniors
Jamaya Burr and
Lance Potier need to step up theirs.
Against ULL, Burr, McFerrin and Lewis combined to make just 4 of 19 shots from the floor and scored a total of 11 points.
Burr continues to lead the team in scoring, now with a 13.9 per game average. Freshman
Jarren Greenwood follows with a 9.1 average while Potier is averaging 8.1 per game.
The Hoosiers (7-3) has won two straight after dropping a 94-74 decision at Duke in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge on Dec. 2. Indiana is a perfect 6-0 at home this season and leads the Big Ten in scoring at 87.4 points per game.
IU is led by senior All-Big Ten and Preseason All-American guard Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell who is averaging 17.3 ppg and is coming off a career-high 38 point outing in the team's 90-65 win over IPFW on Wednesday. That's the most points scored in head coach Tom Crean's era and moved him into 14
th on the Hoosiers all-time list for career scoring.
This will be the first of two road games over the next three outings where McNeese will play in one of college basketball's legendary venues. After a home game against LSU-Alexandria next Wednesday, McNeese will visit UCLA on Dec. 22 at Pauley Pavilion.
