Summaries of last night's game can be found here and here. The post I put up last night pretty much says everything that needed to be said. The Cougars came out strong and jumped out to an early 10 point lead on the back of Trent's low post game. Once the lead was big enough, the team elected to conduct outside shooting practice and ease up on defense. UNCG was able to chip away at the lead the rest of the first half and took the lead going into the break after an and-1 with two seconds remaining. The Cougars continued to execute poor shot selection and gave up enough second-chance points to throw the game away in the 2nd half.
Only time will tell if the Cougars can recover from this one from a mental standpoint. The biggest setback to them competing for a Socon crown now is the loss of Anthony Stitt. It looks like he'll be done for the rest of the season and the team has no choice but to move on without him. With that medical conclusion, CofC is up to 4 season-ending injuries to starters in the last 3 years (Willis and Stitt this year, Jeremy last year and Wiggins the year prior).
Here are the biggest repercussions of our loss of Anthony:
1) The team has no other point guard when Lawrence is out of the game
- One of Cremin's strategies this year was to not burn out Andrew Lawrence during the regular season. The team captain played pro-level basketball every day over the summer as he practiced and competed with the British national team. The emergence of a freshman like Stitt was so valuable because he could run the offense with Lawrence getting some rest. When the two were on the court together, Lawrence could play off the ball more as well. The team has no other true point guards. Jordan Scott doesn't have the handles, Nori played forward until he came to the College and TD was brought in to compete at the shooting guard spot (not to mention he doesn't get any PT now). I shutter to think about what kind of pressure teams are going to put on our secondary ball handler this year.
2) The effect on roster substitutions goes beyond the guard spots
- With the loss of another star reserve (we'll call him that because he only started the last two games), we are down to a small forward playing in the post (Sundberg) and a sophomore who is just now earning his first playing time (Nori Johnson). I already mentioned how Nori cant be counted on to play the point so Coach might be forced to use Jordan more. Not only that, but Sundberg cannot be relied on to carry some of the scoring load from three AND play in the paint. My opinion is that we have to see more James Carlton and let Sundberg play on the perimeter where he belongs.
3) The team needs an emotional leader
- Willis Hall was supposed to fill that role this year. Even as an underclassmen, he could be seen pumping up his teammates after a play or jarring at them after a dumb execution. He still does an OK job from the bench but it has nowhere near the same impact. Trent talked earlier in the year about how he would need to be more vocal but I haven't seen it yet. Wiggins and Lawrence would seem to be the most rational picks. Lawrence the captain, Wiggins the lone senior. But Lawrence is more of the quiet type who leads by example and Antwaine mostly keeps to himself with his three best friends having graduated. Anthony might not be the one running drills in practice, but he always showed emotion and heart when he was on the floor; something that could rub off on his teammates. He would scream and punch the air after driving to the basket, clap and snarl on defense and slap the backs of his teammates heads going into a timeout. We saw how the team slumped and played with no effort last night. They need a shot of emotion if they're going to avoid folding on the year.
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