Meet the Mocs! The team Seth Davis referred to as "major conference long and experienced"
Their starting 5 is made up of 3 seniros, a junior and a sophomore (so, the Illini are actually a more experienced team), with 2 seniors and a junior and sophomore getting decent playing time off the bench.
Their bigs are 6-10 255 lb Senior bench player Avery Diggs and 6-9 250 lb starting senior Silvio De Sousa. They aren't in the Kofi range, so expect a lot of doubles (or Kofi dunks, whichever they prefer I guess).
Their major player is Malachi Smith, a 6-4 sophomore who plays 90% of their minutes and takes 28% of their shots while on the floor. Efficient scorer, passing rate similar to Grandison (lower than Curbelo and Frazier), doesn't turn it over a ton.
Smith and De Souza are the focal points of the offense, effectively accounting for over half the team's shots in the game.
Limit Smith and De Souza offensively, draw fouls on their bigs, make open shots, and beat them. They're effectively a slow tempo team that isn't great defensively, they just limit points by slowing the tempo. Offensively they're pretty good, but you have to shut down their primary options.
Their best win this season was beating VCU away. The only tournament team they played this season was Murray State, and they lost by 11 on the road. They're about as efficient as Rutgers. Don't take em lightly, take advantage of the height difference down low, and try to push forward when possible.
