Gonzaga vs. Mississippi Valley State game preview: Time for a bloodbath

The Gonzaga Bulldogs have a tune up game against The Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils on Thursday, 6:00 pm, before heading off to Los Angeles to face the Arizona Wildcats.

We should rarely look past any opponent, but it is OK if you want to look past the winless Delta Devils. The Delta Devils are one of those teams, which travel around the nation taking a brutal beating at the hands of programs like Gonzaga. MVSU doesn’t have its first home game until Jan. 7, against Alabama A&M. Their first 14 games of the season, and all of their non-conference games, are on the road.

Meet the opponent

Mississippi State Delta Devils, 0-8, KenPom #346

You read the Ken Pomeroy ranking above correctly: the Delta Devils are ranked No. 346 out of 351 teams. This is literally one of the worst squads in all of college hoops the Zags are facing. This is going to be an absolute bloodbath.

The Delta Devils are led by senior guard Marcus Romain, the only player on the squad to average more than 10 points per game. Romain averages 12.7 points, but unfortunately, much of this offensive output is offset by his 5.3 turnovers per game. The fact of the matter is Romain is the only player you really have to keep track of, and because of that you can really hurry him into turnovers through double teams, anything.

You don’t have to worry about much in this game. The Delta Devils love to attempt shots, having taken 357 two-point attempts (No. 1 in the nation) and 477 field goal attempts (No. 10 in the nation). However, they only hit 38.1 percent of their twos, good for No. 350 in the nation, and hit just 37.1 percent from the floor (good for No. 342 in the nation). This is truly a bad team.

The Delta Devils last made the NCAA Tournament in 2012, so this squad has just fallen on some real hard times. Since their 2011-12 season in 2011-12, MVSU has gone on average 7-25 the past four seasons.