The Florida A&M Basketball team will play against the University of Cincinnati Bearcats tonight in Cincinnati. The Rattlers (2-1) will look to carry the momentum from their 64-53 victory against Savannah State Thursday.
“Overall we played a good defensive game,” assistant coach Kevin Hogan said.
The Rattlers have won two consecutive games after losing to the Alabama Crimson Tide in their season opener.
Scoring – inside the paint and from the perimeter – is the team’s focus against the Bearcats.
“We need to be more consistent on offense,” Hogan said. “We need to get more balance on the outside.”
Senior guard Christopher Walker said distributing the ball to everyone on the court will also help. He said the team wants to spread the floor to spark the offense early.
“We want to make their post players come out and play (on the perimeter),” Walker said.
Hogan said the Rattlers have been focusing on the defensive end of the floor since the Savannah State game.
“In a sense, our defensive game was enough to carry us for when we had dry spells on offense,” Hogan said. “We shut them down enough to where we didn’t lose the lead or fall far behind, which could have possibly happened considering we started the game’s first five minutes and didn’t score.”
Senior guard Rasheem Jenkins said the Rattlers will try to use their speed on the perimeter against theBearcats.
“We are trying to get the big men away from the basket because they have a couple of seven footers down there,” Jenkins said.
He also said the Rattlers will try to get the post players more active. “We are going to look to get the big men in more screen and pick and roll and pop going away from the basket,” Jenkins said.
The Bearcats are lead by fifth-year head coach, Mike Cronin. He coached Murray State to a 69-24 record in three years before joining the Bearcats in March 2006.
The tipoff is at 7 p.m. at the Fifth Third Arena.