As a blogger associated with one of the biggest sports blogging networks there are a lot of times when I can rely on the network around me to interview an upcoming Purdue opponent. That’s especially helpful come March. But, as you probably expected, there is no Queens Royals affiliate on the SB Nation team. So, I had to look elsewhere. And I found one. As part of the Sidelines Sports Network. I found them on Twitter and you can do the same. I reached out via DM and tagging them in a post and they followed me back and agreed to answer some of my questions. So let’s get into it!
Most important thing I have for you, tell me about Buddy the Street Dog. Go into as much detail as possible.
Buddy is functionally a garden gnome anywhere else in America but here at Queens he’s our unofficial mascot that we give out at the end of the game to the guy who doesn’t necessarily score the most points but has the biggest impact on the floor (The Street Dawg of the Game). He’s actually the 2nd buddy, the first buddy had two of his legs broken off by one of our guys. He’s an icon.
Next, when looking at the Queens schedule it’s apparent they weren’t afraid of playing good teams as we know a lot of smaller schools have to do to fund their program with these buy games. Queens played the likes of Villanova, Virginia, Wake Forest, Arkansas, and Auburn. Queens was 0-5 in those games, but it should get them prepared for facing tough opponents in March. What did those games do for this team?
Those 5 games prepared us for conference play like no one else in the asun. We finished the NonCon with Wake Forest, Arkansas, and Auburn, all of which we lost and then went on a 7-0 run to start conference play in January. Those games taught us the level that we need to be playing at to win the conference tournament.
Nasir Mann appears to be statistical leader of this team as he’s the leading scorer and rebounder for the Royals. What are his strengths and weaknesses?
I like to call Nasir Mann our Josh Hart. He is most effective driving to the rim but he is also a good 3 point shooter and a damn good defender. His brother is obviously Tre Mann of the Charlotte Hornets.
Queens offense ranks in the 70s in Kenpom. What is the bread and butter of this offense?
Bread and Butter: we have 6 guys who can shoot 3s and 2 of them are incredible at it (Chris Ashby and Carson Schweiger) and one of them is a 7 footer (Maban Jabriel). But we also have 2 guards who are even better at cutting to the basket in Jordan and Nasir. And Yoav is just a big body beast who can do everything. And Avantae is our rim protector, best rebounder, and he’s also phenomenal in the paint. We have 7 guys averaging 10+ a game.
Conversely, Queens defense ranks in the 300s on Kenpom. What are the challenges they face on the defensive end?
I couldn’t tell you why our defense was so weak most of the year, but at the end of the day effort may have been the issue because come conference tournament time against APSU and Central Arkansas (the best two teams in our conference all year outside of us) the defense looked MUCH improved. I expect us to play slightly better with pressure at our backs vs without.
I know that Queens is set to merge with Elon in the future. What does this mean for Queens athletics? Will the schools operate separate departments or be combined?
The schools are merging, the athletic departments intend to stay seperate. Obviously we are going to be at the mercy of Elon on that decision but making the ncaa tournament is going to push them to keep us around. Part of the reason they wanted to merge with us was to give their students a better place to get an Elon degree (Burlington sucks) and still get the college experience which includes athletics. We also have an extremely storied history in D2 including over a dozen championships. I could see us folding some of our teams that perform poorly (Field hockey has won like 1 game since the move up to d1) but I definitely see some kind of future for us athletically, whether that be a Dallas Baptist type situation where some of our programs like basketball are D1 and others are D2, but this tournament appearance is going to be the first of many.
Who would you rate as Queens best defender and who do you expect him to be assigned to on Friday?
Avantae Parker is our best defender. He’ll be on Kaufman-Renn most of the game ideally.
Finally, any predictions for Friday and do you expect a large Queens contingent?
I don’t expect us to bring a large group to St. Louis but we will have a family section of maybe 100 AND we will have Mizzou fans/band backing us because the game is in St Louis, they play Miami the game after, and they will be wanting to play us over yall.
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