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I'm a little behind so let's just combine the preview and the GameThread.
After their week off, the Orange are picking up the pace with their second game in three days (and they've got one more on Wednesday). This time it's the Morgan State Bears, who should probably scare you more than their 4-4 record.
The Bears are the defending MEAC conference regular-season and tournament champions and they're coached by Todd Bozeman, who did some pretty nifty things with Cal in what seems like a lifetime ago. He also did some pretty shady things there as well (paying $30,000 to the parents of a Golden Bears recruit), hence why he's currently at Morgan State after an eight-year pariah existence. He's doing better now and even has his own blog, which could use some updating.
DeWayne Jackson is the Bears' leading scorer, averaging 15.4 PPG, while Kevin Thompson is right behind at 14.0 per game. Thompson also grabs 9.4 per game, so he and Rick Jackson can battle it out for double-double-dum all evening. Thompson was named MEAC Player of the Week last week.
I know what you're wondering...who are their courtesy guys who'll chuck threes all night? That would be Dewayne Jackson and Aric Brooks. Between them they average about nine three-pointers a game, but expect that number to rise exponentially.
The Bears lost by twenty to Providence earlier this season, so keep that in mind if you start to get worried before tip. And really keep that in mind if we turn this into one of our patented struggles in the 2nd half.
For the Orange, it's pretty likely that C.J. Fair will sit this one out, which means James Southerland's rotational audition continues. Don't expect Fab Melo to play a lot of minutes, but then again you already knew that.
Mike Waters has his Scouting Report, the D.O. previews the contest, CuseOrange previews "Meh'gan" State, Orange44 adds their own two cents, The Juice squeezes out some pregame thoughts and Cuse Connection preps for the contest.
Leave your pre-, in- and post-game comments below. G'ORANGE!