Scouting Hampton
Posted by TTHS on December 26th, 2006
This may be short, pretty busy during the holiday season!
Hampton is currently 3-8, their biggest win by 1 against New Orleans. They are 267 in the RPI(Mainly due to strong losses) and 263 in the Pomeroy rating. W&M has a 87% chance to win according to Ken Pomeroy.
The leading scorer is Matthew Pilgrim, a freshman foward out of Cincinnati. He has only played 2 games so far this year, but in limited minutes has averaged 15.5 per and 5 boards. Alex Smith may be key to stopping him, and a big man showing up Thursday will be huge.
Another key contributor is Junior guard Rashad West, who just dropped 28 on St. Bonnies. He is out of Raleigh, NC, and averages 13.9 points per game. The biggest issue for him looks to be his assist-turnover ratio, at 28-37. He can really shoot, and it over 41% from 3.
#3 on Hampton’s list of top players is Michael Freeman, a 6-8 freshman foward from VA. He is one of the teams top scorers, at 13.8 points per, and is the top rebounder at 5.5 a game. It is really going to be key for the Tribe to play well against HU’s young big men.
The 4th of Hampton’s “big four” is DeMario Mattox, a 6-3 sophomore guard from Franklin County. He averages 10.4 ppg, and seems to shoot fairly well. He also has more turnovers than assists, but handles the ball better than West.
All in all, I think there will be 2 keys to this game.
#1-They run a system called the “frantic 40″, a run-all-game, play no defense type of system. This could give us really good chance to get used to the press and fast style of game for when VCU and Anthony Grant’s “94 feet both ways” club comes to town next month.
#2-It will give us a good chance to see where we stand against a bunch of common opponents. Hampton has already lost to VCU(by 23 points), GMU(by 9), UMBC(by 7), and Holy Cross(by 15).
The outcome of this game really shouldn’t be in question, but it will be interesting anyway.
Go Tribe!