Central Michigan Chippewas at Miami (OH) RedHawks Preview

Middletown Journal

OXFORD — The 23,337 fans who were at Rupp Arena on Nov. 16 might not believe this, but the Miami University basketball team is not very good at shooting the 3-pointer.

Not this week. Not this month. Not in the Mid-American Conference.

That should concern the RedHawks, because tonight, Jan. 28, they will face the MAC’s best 3-point shooting team in the Central Michigan Chippewas.

“They have two good ones, Robbie Harman and Jordan Bitzer, a great one-two punch,” Miami coach Charlie Coles said.

Harman is making a strong case for himself as one of the top contenders for MAC Player of the Year.

The 6-foot-1 guard leads the conference in 3-pointers made (3.29 per game) and ranks second in 3-point shooting percentage (43.1) and steals (2.35), fifth in scoring (14.5) and 10th in assists (3.29).

Bitzer, a 6-3 guard, isn’t far behind. He ranks second in the MAC in 3-pointers made (2.29), is second in free-throw shooting (87.5 percent), fifth in 3-point percentage (42.9), eighth in steals (1.65) and 10th in scoring (13.2).

They are two good reasons why the Chippewas are tied with Northern Illinois for first place in the MAC West Division.

“If you align both divisions, they’re a top-five team,” Coles said of the team he coached from 1986-91. “You’d have to put them up there with Akron, Northern Illinois, Buffalo and Kent State.”

You might notice that Coles did not include his own squad among the top five. The RedHawks, no doubt, knocked themselves out of consideration for that list, and also knocked themselves out of a first-place tie in the MAC East, with their 65-59 double-overtime loss at Ball State on Tuesday.

Miami connected on just 5-of-24 shots behind from the 3-point arc against the Cardinals.

“In the league, we’re not shooting the ball very good at all from the 3,” said Coles, whose RedHawks rank 11th out of the 12 MAC teams with a 3-point percentage of 24.8 in conference-only games.

This is the same Miami team that drilled 15-of-26 from behind the arc against the Kentucky Wildcats.

“It’s very surprising,” Coles said. “I would have thought we’d be much better at shooting than that. But when your inside game is not great, that presents a lot of problems.”

“(At Ball State) we had good, open looks,” he added. “We couldn’t convert.”