Turns out a Google search of "Citadel sucks" yields some nifty apparel for purchase. Let's talk about the game though, since it's been so long since my last post.
Two conference wins. That's all we need to lock up the #1S seed in the tournament, the regular season championship and the automatic NIT bid. The Cougars will get four chances: against Citadel, Samford, Western Carolina and App State.
No doubt the atmosphere inside the Field House is gonna be out of control tonight. It's senior night, the cadets will all be in attendance to spit on our players as they enter the arena and it's the last home game of the year for the Bulldogs. Wells and Urbanus will no doubt be fired up to face their crosstown rivals one last time and a gritty, hard-fought effort should be expected.
Top Performers: Wiggins, Wiedeman, Hall and Monroe
Finally got a chance to check out the highlights and read some stuff on the game yesterday. Here's what I took away from everything:
Drew struggled to find his shot. Rather than forcing the issue he displayed some of his passing skills and finished with 8 assists to go with just 12 points.
The real stars of the show were the other four starters. They all finished with double figure scoring performances. Let's take a look at what each one did.
Donovan Monroe- once again played the part of Robin to a tee. He also struggled to find the bottom of the net but finished with 13 points
Trent Wiedeman- another great performance by The Freak. 18 points, 9 rebounds (5 offensive) and some athletic moves under the basket. He was getting fouled HARD all night but took it like a champ and made UNCG pay by shooting 10-11 on free throws. Had Greensboro not hacked him so viciously he could have finished with over 20 points.
Willis Hall- The kid is gaining more and more confidence. Trent has been the focus of many people's attention since Jeremy went down, but Willis is quietly becoming a force now that he's helping out in the paint more. He stuffed the boxscore with 18 points, 3 rebounds, a steal, an assist and a block.
Antwaine Wiggins- 'Twaine recorded a double-double. 14 points and 11 rebounds. He keeps playing well and surprised many by shooting 4-5 from the charity stripe. He also had 2 blocks. It's so awesome that he's finally taking advantage of his size on offense and playing like a real small forward.
Carlton again looked good, having 6 rebounds and some hustle plays in his 19 minutes
Second half defensive adjustments once again were the story of the game. Drew hit a ridiculous three to put the Cougars up at the halftime buzzer, but we rallied to make it an easy victory in the final 20 minutes.
4 Turnovers by the Cougars...for the entire game. 16 by the Spartans
Around the Socon
I did get to watch the 2nd half of a very good Furman/Davidson matchup last night. Furman won, thus ensuring Davidson gets a 4 seed in the tournament.
Western Carolina beats Samford 85-63
Elon beats Citadel up the road- however, the Cougars will be facing a much more hostile crowd Thursday
Wofford beats GSU by 8
Appalachian State beats Chattanooga 78-68. The Mocs are in serious jeopardy of losing their number 1 seed in the North
Not much can be said about UNC Greensboro. They are young, athletic and had an absolutely brutal schedule to open the season. Since starting the season 0-15 they seemed to have learned a lot and post a reasonable 5-8 SoCon record. They don't necessarily have any one star player on their team as each person is still learning their role on the team. It seems that a new player leads them every game.
Based on how we've been playing recently, this should be an easy victory. Part of that scares me because we play to the level of competition. We'll be playing at home and the afternoon tipoff paired with lousy weather should bring in some fans. I will be down in Savannah this weekend and unfortunately will miss my first home game of the season. When I get back I'll take a look at the highlights, boxscore and summaries and try to put together a post. If any of y'all are at the game be sure to post some comments on what happens. Go Cougars!
Top Performers: Andrew Goudelock 34 pts, 8-12 from 3
Trent Wiedeman 11 pts, 9 rebs
I was able to find a free live stream of this game so I have a little more commentary than expected. It was another weird 1st half/2nd half disparity for the Cougars. Luckily it resembled the Wofford and Furman games; not the Davidson contest.
The game started predictably enough. We shot the ball well and Elon withstood an early offensive attack from Drew (who scored our first 8 points) and the rest of the Cougars. But Elon came in with a game plan. They played very stingy defense on the perimeter in an attempt to force the Cougs inside. Goudelock was able to shrug off this defense pretty easily and scored at will. The other Cougars struggled however. Hall was getting abused on defense the whole first half and Wiedeman was having trouble getting his shots to fall. Wiggins and Monroe also did not respond well to the pressure.
On offense, Elon used some very hot 3 point shooting to stay with Goudelock. I knew that Elon was the top 3% team in the conference, but what I didn't realize was who was shooting the threes. It was the Phoenix bigs. They shot something like 8-12 in the first half. Wiggins and Hall were slow to close out the space between the paint and the perimeter and couldn't get a hand in the face of the shooters. Wiedeman actually did an admirable job staying with his man when he went outside and Carlton too seemed vey capable in the role (but more on him later).
Toward the end of the first half Cremins decided to switch to a full-court press, which sort of worked. With about 30 seconds left in the half the Cougars found themselves down two points. Donovan took the inbounds, let some time pass, had the ball stolen and Elon got a good look (but a miss) to enter the break. Things looked bleak.
Tonight's game will be a measuring stick to see if the Cougars have in fact turned a corner. Will they display the same defensive mindset that shut down Wofford and Furman? Can Trent Wiedeman continue holding down Jeremy's spot in the starting lineup? Will James Carlton show off his true potential?
Like many opponents we face in the SoCon, Elon's matchup tonight is their equivalent of UNC coming to visit. Their fans are whiting out the game and the coaches are well aware of what defeating the Cougars can do for team morale. Once again, we'll be receiving the other team's best shot tonight.
As Cremins mentions here, this Elon game is eerily similar to the Cougars' last defeat in Davidson. Elon coach Matt Matheny studied under the tutelage of Davidson's Bob McKillop for 15 years. Elon has lost four straight games, just like Davidson had before beating us. We are playing the Phoenix in their house.
While the comparisons are certainly worth considering, every conference road game the Cougars face should be approached with caution. Hopefully the Davidson loss brought the team back down to Earth and taught them not to take any program lightly. The team usually responds well when they are exposed by a beatable team. Remember, we beat Tennessee handily after being trounced by a lousy Clemson team (yea I said it Tigers fans).
Here's the ideal scenario: Cougars take an early lead, the subs keep up the momentum and defensive pressure. When Cremins feels comfortable, he puts in the freshman for the last 5 minutes. Will it happen? Probably not. But we all know that's what this team has always been capable of and we displayed it twice last week. So let's keep the same mentality up and don't slip now! Go Cougars!
