In contrast to the past few years, this isn't a senior laden team and the cupboard isn't bare from poor recruiting like in the past. This is another turnaround year or at least, that's the hope in Rochester if Damien Flores is going to get a 4th year at the helm of this program.
There were some in the administration who felt he was probably in over his head taking this job, given he's never been a head coach before. But after losing coaches in successive years, the feeling in Old Main was that we needed someone close to the program.
When you play a mid-major league, you can often get beat by the bloodbath of talent being close to your level. With that, it'll be hard to say how this year goes but if we can get through the non-conference relatively unscathed then there is a chance at a post-season berth, which is what it'll take to keep Flores in the job.
Luckily for him, he did that and more. The team lost in the conference title game, earning a 8-seed in the NIT.
Once in the NIT, the team began to truly gel, making a run to the NIT Quarterfinals, knocking off 2-seed Indiana State on the road to punch a ticket to New York City and the NIT Final Four. While no one would confuse this with the real Final Four, the fact that after a bad season we're making a deep run into a tournament bodes well for the program especially as we're only losing one senior.
There is a natural fear that we'll lose our coach (again) since that's what happens here when the team does well, but...we'll have to take our chances.
After the season, Coach Flores left to take over the program at Creighton, his alma mater.
ROSTER
Code:
MINNESOTA STATE SCREAMING EAGLES General
Player # Pos Yr Ht Wt Sch Acd Status Hometown
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Ray Rizzo 3 PG Sr* 5-9 182 Yes C OK Austin, MN
Steve Miller 30 C Jr* 7-0 280 Yes D OK Bertha, MN
Kenny Russell 34 PF Jr* 6-7 244 Yes C+ OK St. Francis, MN
Billy Lopez 35 SG Jr* 6-2 179 No F- Unhappy Springfield, MN
Rion Turner Jr. 25 PG Jr 5-10 183 Yes B+ OK Taylor, TX
Brett Aviles 41 SG So 6-1 175 Yes C- OK Stewartville, MN
Ayo Olakunle 13 SF So 6-6 230 Yes C OK Bloedel, Canada
Adam Omowale 20 PF So 6-10 238 Yes C OK Lagos, Nigeria
Anthony Iversen 32 SF Fr* 6-7 224 Yes D+ OK Willmar, MN
Graciano Martin 33 PF Fr* 6-8 241 No C+ OK Simi Valley, CA
Dylan Clough 51 SG Fr 6-4 195 Yes B- Redshirt Galesburg, IL
Alejandro Gould 40 PF Fr 6-9 231 Yes C- Redshirt Viola, WI
Bret Freese 22 SG Fr 6-5 196 Yes D+ OK Afton, OK
Ilari Tverdovsky 50 PF Fr 6-6 230 Yes F- Redshirt Stavropol, Russia
Brain Bui 11 C Fr 6-9 229 Yes C Redshirt New Lisbon, WI
NIT CHAMPIONS
Code:
Minnesota State 79, Ohio State 69
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Minnesota State (28-12, 10-4):
Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts
Steve Miller C 30 4-5 4-4 6 13 1 1 12
Adam Omowale PF 28 7-15 2-3 2 3 1 3 16
Ayo Olakunle SF 27 1-7 4-4 2 3 5 1 6
Brett Aviles SG 25 2-5 6-6 0 1 1 3 11
Rion Turner Jr. PG 31 3-8 6-6 0 0 5 0 13
Ray Rizzo PG 16 2-5 1-1 1 1 1 2 5
Kenny Russell PF 17 2-6 1-2 1 2 0 1 5
Anthony Iversen SF 12 3-4 0-0 0 0 1 2 8
Bret Freese SF 6 1-3 0-0 2 4 0 0 3
Billy Lopez SG 2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
Graciano Martin C 5 0-0 0-0 1 1 0 0 0
Turnovers: 9 (S.Miller 1, A.Omowale 1, A.Olakunle 2,
R.Rizzo 3, A.Iversen 1, G.Martin 1)
Blocked Shots: 6 (S.Miller 4, A.Omowale 1, K****ssell 1)
Steals: 9 (S.Miller 1, A.Olakunle 1, R.Turner Jr. 4,
K****ssell 1, A.Iversen 1, G.Martin 1)
3P FGs: 5-18 (A.Olakunle 0-2, B.Aviles 1-4, R.Turner
Jr. 1-4, R.Rizzo 0-2, A.Iversen 2-3, B.Freese 1-3)
Ohio State (23-14, 10-8):
Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts
Mel Pegues C 31 2-4 1-2 1 8 1 2 5
Zachary Dominguez PF 17 3-7 0-0 6 9 0 5 6
Andres Geary SF 31 7-10 0-1 3 6 0 4 15
Sherman Griffith SG 32 7-14 1-2 2 4 4 3 19
Deshawn Williams PG 29 2-3 0-0 0 0 12 3 4
Adolph Archuleta PG 18 1-3 0-0 0 3 2 1 2
Willie Brewer SG 10 2-3 0-0 1 1 0 1 5
Dennis Alger PF 25 4-11 5-6 3 5 0 2 13
Kurt Fey C 5 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0
Preston Arciniega C 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
Turnovers: 20 (M.Pegues 1, Z.Dominguez 1, A.Geary 3,
S.Griffith 4, D.Williams 6, W.Brewer 2, D.Alger 2,
K.Fey 1)
Blocked Shots: 8 (M.Pegues 2, Z.Dominguez 1, S.Griffith
2, D.Williams 1, D.Alger 2)
Steals: 5 (A.Geary 2, D.Williams 1, A.Archuleta 1,
K.Fey 1)
3P FGs: 6-15 (A.Geary 1-2, S.Griffith 4-8, D.Williams
0-1, A.Archuleta 0-2, W.Brewer 1-2)
Player of Game: C Steve Miller (MNST)
TEAM INFO
Worth noting that this MNST team was 13th in the nation in scoring.
Code:
MINNESOTA STATE SCREAMING EAGLES TEAM INFO
Current Performance
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Team Prestige: 56 Record Vs 1-50: 6-3 Poll Rank: NR
Season Record: 28-12 Record Vs 51-100: 3-5 RPI Rank: #63
Conference Record: 10-4 Record Vs 101-200: 3-2
Home Record: 12-3 Record Vs 200+: 16-2
Team Stats CR NR Opp. Stats CR NR Margin CR NR
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Points 76.9 1 13 Points 72.9 8 338 Points 4.0 1 89
O.Reb 10.3 8 242 O.Reb 11.5 6 262 O.Reb -1.2 10 278
D.Reb 20.3 5 140 D.Reb 21.4 8 307 D.Reb -1.2 7 263
Rebounds 30.6 6 184 Rebounds 32.9 8 299 Rebounds -2.4 8 287
Assists 17.0 2 73 Assists 15.7 8 307 Assists 1.3 2 106
Steals 8.9 1 30 Steals 7.1 8 251 Steals 1.9 2 51
Blocks 3.8 1 141 Blocks 3.8 7 224 Blocks 0.1 1 154
Turnovers 15.3 7 165 Turnovers 18.4 1 22 Turnovers -3.1 2 36
Fouls 22.1 6 281 Fouls 23.5 2 20 Fouls -1.4 2 86
FG% .500 1 52 FG% .494 9 321 FG% .006 5 144
FT% .685 6 239 FT% .669 1 32 FT% .016 3 118
3P% .359 2 84 3P% .375 10 345 3P% -.016 7 223
PPS 1.47 1 13 PPS 1.41 6 263 PPS .061 1 94
Adj. FG% .548 2 50 Adj. FG% .542 9 318 Adj. FG% .006 4 147
Code:
MINNESOTA STATE SCREAMING EAGLES Averages
Player Pos GP GS Min Pts Orb Reb Ast Stl Blk To Fls +/-
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Adam Omowale PF 40 40 26.2 15.5 1.9 5.2 1.0 0.4 0.4 1.2 3.1 4.2
Brett Aviles SG 40 40 30.6 12.1 0.5 3.0 2.4 2.4 0.1 2.4 3.4 4.5
Ayo Olakunle SF 40 40 24.1 11.3 1.1 2.6 2.6 0.8 0.3 2.9 3.1 4.0
Rion Turner Jr. PG 40 40 28.3 9.9 0.5 1.7 6.0 2.3 0.1 2.6 3.0 6.9
Steve Miller C 40 40 27.9 9.1 2.6 6.4 1.0 0.5 1.9 1.2 2.1 4.0
Ray Rizzo PG 40 0 16.1 6.3 1.0 2.2 1.7 0.4 0.1 2.2 1.8 -1.9
Anthony Iversen SF 40 0 12.0 4.8 0.4 1.3 0.8 1.0 0.1 0.9 1.6 -0.5
Bret Freese SF 40 0 8.3 3.3 0.7 1.6 0.7 0.5 0.1 0.7 1.0 -1.4
Kenny Russell PF 40 0 18.7 3.1 1.3 4.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.7 2.2 0.9
Graciano Martin C 40 0 7.5 1.2 0.5 1.9 0.3 0.1 0.5 0.6 0.7 -1.4
Billy Lopez SG 28 0 2.0 0.6 0.1 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.3 0.0
Dylan Clough SG 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Alejandro Gould PF 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Ilari Tverdovsky PF 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Brain Bui C 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Code:
MINNESOTA STATE SCREAMING EAGLES Schedule
Date Opponent Record RPI Result Score Record
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11/11/12 vs. Tulane 21-11 44 W 82-74 1-0
11/12/12 vs. Iona 16-14 183 W 67-58 2-0
11/13/12 vs. Bradley 23-11 62 L 102-94 2-1
11/27/12 Wisconsin 21-11 55 W 77-62 3-1
12/05/12 at DePaul 20-15 33 L 73-58 3-2
12/08/12 at Bradley 23-11 62 L 115-89 3-3
12/10/12 at Illinois-Chicago 9-21 304 W 74-72 4-3
12/13/12 Southeast Missouri State 13-18 224 W 69-42 5-3
12/16/12 Milwaukee 21-12 83 L 72-63 5-4
12/23/12 at Kansas State 17-17 100 L 78-73 5-5
12/25/12 Portland 11-18 252 W 85-56 6-5
12/29/12 at Illinois State 22-14 48 W 82-75 7-5
12/31/12 at Indiana State 22-14 29 L 87-81 7-6
01/02/13 Florida International 15-16 185 W 76-65 8-6
01/08/13 at Wichita State 11-21 243 W 83-78 9-6
01/17/13 at North Dakota State 10-20 310 W 76-65 10-6 (1-0)
01/19/13 South Dakota State 14-17 261 L 95-81 10-7 (1-1)
01/24/13 at South Dakota 10-21 269 W 76-71 11-7 (2-1)
01/26/13 IPFW 22-11 72 W 76-68 12-7 (3-1)
01/31/13 Oral Roberts 17-14 307 W 93-89 13-7 (4-1)
02/02/13 at Western Illinois 9-23 303 W 75-74 14-7 (5-1)
02/07/13 at South Dakota State 14-17 261 L 87-76 14-8 (5-2)
02/09/13 at UMKC 14-17 288 W 74-61 15-8 (6-2)
02/14/13 South Dakota 10-21 269 W 82-63 16-8 (7-2)
02/16/13 Nebraska-Omaha 19-15 101 L 87-76 16-9 (7-3)
02/21/13 at IUPUI 11-21 328 W 76-73 17-9 (8-3)
02/23/13 at IPFW 22-11 72 L 77-74 17-10 (8-4)
02/28/13 Western Illinois 9-23 303 W 87-78 18-10 (9-4)
03/02/13 North Dakota State 10-20 310 W 84-74 19-10 (10-4)
03/04/13 at Drake 2-30 361 W 70-47 20-10
03/06/13 at #14 Colorado State 26-8 20 L 76-54 20-11
03/10/13 vs. Western Illinois 9-23 303 W 80-50 21-11
03/11/13 vs. UMKC 14-17 288 W 70-51 22-11
03/12/13 vs. Nebraska-Omaha 19-15 101 L 77-62 22-12
03/19/13 Holy Cross 20-12 127 W 86-76 23-12
03/20/13 at Bradley 23-11 62 W 94-92 24-12
03/25/13 Purdue 19-14 49 W 68-64 25-12
03/30/13 Indiana State 22-14 29 W 84-77 26-12
04/02/13 vs. Baylor 22-14 45 W 70-67 27-12
Date Opponent Record RPI Result Score Record
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04/04/13 vs. Ohio State 23-14 32 W 79-69 28-12