EMU Men's Hoops Continues Road Swing at South Florida

TAMPA, Fla. - The Eastern Michigan University men's basketball team wraps up play in the 2017 Hoosier Tipoff Classic Sunday, Nov. 26 as it travels to Tampa, Fla. to take on the University of South Florida at 4 p.m. in the USF Sun Dome.

The Eagles conclude their three-game, eight-day road trip by traveling to Jacksonville, Fla. to take on North Florida, Wednesday, Nov. 29 at 7 p.m.

Fans can catch Friday's game on ESPN3 with Ari Shanok providing play-by-play and Mike O'Donnell serving as the analyst. The game can also be heard on WEMU 89.1 with Chad Bush on the play-by-play and Kyler Ludlow as analyst.

LAST TIME OUT: Eastern Michigan suffered its first loss of the 2017-18 campaign Friday, Nov. 24 on the road against Indiana University, falling 87-67. Redshirt junior Elijah Minnie (Pittsburgh, Pa.-Lincoln Park (Robert Morris)) once again led the scoring for EMU, dropping in a game-high 20 points. It marked the fourth game this season that the Pittsburgh, Pa. native led the team in scoring with a 20+ point performance. Redshirt junior Paul Jackson (Stone Mountain, Ga.-Martin Luther King Jr. (Eastern Kentucky)) put together another solid all-around performance for the Eagles, scoring 12 points while dishing out five assists and adding three rebounds. Junior James Thompson IV (Baton Rouge, La.-Parkview Baptist) turned in a solid performance as well, scoring 10 points and adding eight boards.

AROUND THE TOURNAMENT: EMU's 87-67 loss at Indiana was the Eagles' third game of the 2017 Indiana Hoosier Tipoff Classic, as the Green and White opened the classic with a 76-59 win over Arkansas State and followed that with a 76-66 victory over Howard in the Convocation Center. Tournament-host Indiana (4-2) opened the classic with an 86-77 win over Howard (0-5), while Eastern's Sunday opponent, South Florida has gone 2-1, falling to Indiana (53-70) and defeating Howard (75-52) and Arkansas State (72-61). The tournament is comprised of five programs including, EMU (4-1), Arkansas State, Howard, South Florida, and Indiana.

REVERSING THE CURSE: The Green and White has struggled through in-season tournaments as of late. Over the last 10 years, EMU has notched a 16-22 record in such contests, most recently encountering problems in the 2016 2K Classic, going 1-3 against Pittsburgh, SMU, and IUPUI, with the team's lone win coming against Gardner-Webb.

ALL-TIME VS USF: Sunday is the first ever meeting between Eastern Michigan and South Florida. Playing against teams from the Sunshine State is abnormal for the Green and White, having played just four schools from the state of Florida in its history (Florida A&M, Miami (Fla.), North Florida, and Stetson.

WHO'S THE NEW GUY?: Elijah Minnie has put together a tremendous first five games as a member of the Green and White. The redshirt junior scored 22 points, grabbed four rebounds, dished out three assists, had three blocks, and swiped three steals in his debut against Spring Arbor, and has averaged 16.6 points per game since. The 22 points were the most scored in a debut-game since Willie Mangum IV score 18 in 2015, and the 49 combined points is the most by a new player in the modern statistical era (1998-present).
The Pittsburgh, Pa. native also put on a show at Indiana, Nov. 24, scoring 20 points and burying a career-high five triples in the EMU loss. Minnie is second on the team in rebounding and blocks, third on the team in assists, and leads the Eagles with a 95.8 free throw percentage.

1,000-POINT CLUB: With his 23-point performance against Arkansas State, Nov. 16, junior James Thompson IV eclipsed the career 1,000-point mark, becoming the 30th EMU student-athlete to reach the milestone in program history. Additionally, the 11 boards he pulled down in the same game moved him up to eighth all-time in career rebounds with 748, surpassing Kory Hallas (743, 1988-92) who played in 54 more games than Thompson . The junior is now just 18 rebounds behind Vince Giles (788, 1981-85) for seventh all-time, and is just the 13th player in EMU history to have both 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in their career.

I'LL TAKE THAT: After leading the Mid-American Conference in steals per game (9.6) last year, Eastern has continued that trend, currently averaging a conference-high 10.6 steals per game through its first four contests. Led by Tim Bond's 13 steals, the Eagles have three players ranked within the conference's top-seven in average steals per game, totaling 53 thefts thus far.

OFF TO THE RACES: The four straight wins was the best start to a season since the 2014-15 campain, which saw the Eagles win seven games before being handed their first loss. In both cases, EMU was stopped by an Archie Miller-led team (Dayton in 2014, Indiana in 2017).
Additionally, the Green and White have only been able to start out 3-0 two other times since the turn of the century (2013-14, 2014-15), both of which fell under the tutelage of Head Coach Rob Murphy.

#DEFENDTHENEST: Eastern Michigan's defense has been one of the keys to its success to start the 2017-18 season, with the Eagles swiping 53 steals and blocking 26 shots (both toatls lead the MAC) in the first five games. EMU is second the conference with a +4.0 turnover margin early in the season, and also ranks fourth in the league with a 1.3 assist-to-turnover ratio.

ON THE HORIZON: Eastern completes its three-game road trip with a game at the University of North Florida, Wednesday, Nov. 29. The Eagles and Osprey are scheduled to begin play at 7 p.m.
EMU returns to the friendly confines of the Convocation Center for a short two-game home stretch against Oakland, Dec. 6, and Central State, Dec. 9.

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Players Mentioned

Tim Bond

Paul Jackson

Elijah Minnie

James Thompson IV

Eastern Michigan Athletics