Battle 4 Atlantis Wrap Up

Like I mentioned at the end of yesterdays post, I didn't get to watch most of the UCF game or any of the UNCA game. I have however looked at the boxscores, read the game summaries and read the comments on cofcfans.com. Based on those sources, there are a few things we learned from each game.

Central Florida

• When Wiggins struggles, so does the team
•  The Cougars' leading scorer and lone senior had his worst game of the season as he was held to just six shots and ended with a grand total of two points. 'Twaine has come a long way from his knuckleball-shooting, wannabe point guard days as a freshamn to lead the Cougs this season. He's really put it together this year and continues to be a matchup nightmare for opposing players. The offense doesn't necessarily flow through Wiggins, but I think there was a bit of uneasiness amongst the team when he wasn't getting it going.
• This team would be in a rough spot if Baru had been ruled ineligible 
• I hate to return to such a dated topic, but when Baru sits early with foul trouble, like he did against UCF, you see how easy it is to dominate the Cougars inside. Trent played his best game of the weekend against the Knights but he was facing an uphill battle as the frontline of UCF (particularly Keith Clanton) had a field day against Sundberg and Carlton
• When the back of your jersey says "Jordan" you'll get some preferential treatment from the refs
• Gotta live with that one
• Rebounding was weak this game, but it will be just fine by Socon standards
• Before the season even started we knew that rebounding and defense would be our strengths this year. We were obliterated on the boards 25-44 (partly due to Baru's one rebound in 13 minutes) by the Knights and it resulted in many second chance scoring opportunities for them, particularly down the stretch. I don't believe there are many teams in the Socon who will be able to out-rebound us come March
• This loss looked a lot better the next day when UCF defeated UConn. Still wish it could've been us though.

UNC Asheville

• Not every game the Cougars play starts with a great first half and ends with us holding on to the lead
• Asheville was in this game from the beginning, at the half and in the end. The Cougar Cubs showed a lot of resilience and maturity by refusing to fold like they did against UCF and dropping to 0-2 in the Bahamas.
• Wiggins can bounce back
• After going for 2 points against the Knights, Antwaine scored 23 points to lead the Cougars on Friday. He also nailed eight straight points down the stretch. Like I said earlier, comparing his game now to that of his freshman year is unbelievable. 
• Adjehi Baru has an offensive game
• Beyond alley-oops and elbow jumpers! Baru's back-to-the-basket game is coming along slowly but surely as he still faces that huge jump in talent from 1A high school ball to D1 college ball. Against UNCA, Adjehi had his highest scoring output of the season with 14 points and still contributed seven rebounds.
• That Anthony Stitt sure is talented, one of these days he's gonna have a breakout game.
• Didn't know it would be the next day

UMass

• Remember when we kept having players cramping up in the exhibition games? 
• That is hopefully a problem of the past as the Cougars' seven man rotation was able to hang with the ten man rotation of UMass in the run-and-gun first half. In fact, Lawrence and Wiggins looked like they could've kept playing when they were sitting on the bench, despite playing 35 minutes each.
• This was a stat I found interesting but encouraging: This game was just the second time this season that the Cougars have outscored their opponent in the second half (the other was against Morehead when we scored 35 and allowed 32)
• Perhaps the comeback issues we had with Holy Cross and Clemson never come back to bite us in the butt

Overall I'd call the Battle 4 Atlantis a success for the Cougars. The loss to UCF was unfortunate but I would rather have that than have an overconfident CofC team lose the upcoming conference opening swing at TD Arena. The team and coaching staff learned a little more about who they are and we fans got to see the Cougs play some legit competition.