UNC Greensboro (11-15, 9-5)
College of Charleston (16-10, 8-7)
Greensboro Coliseum
Tipoff at 7pm on ESPN 910 and via live free stream at
Since the last time these two teams met on January 12th, both have taken very different paths to where they now stand. The Spartans, who had lost 11 straight, went on to defeat the Cougars at TD Arena and then string off eight victories in their next nine games. During that 73-66 loss, the Cougars also lost point guard Anthony Stitt and were forced to give major minutes to little-used swingman Nori Johnson.
Now Nori is a major component of the Cougars offense, the team no longer utilizes the two point guard lineup of Stitt and Lawrence, James Carlton and Jordan Scott see spot minutes and there is a new head coach. Other than that the Cougars look about the same as they did back then. The Spartans on the other hand have become the cream of the Socon North crop and are in place for a tournament bye despite going 1-13 against out-of-conference Division 1 teams. Trevis Simpson is delivering game-winning dunks and playing at a Player of the Year type of level.
In order for the Cougars to get their desired revenge on the Spartan's home floor they're going to have to limit Simpson and play like they have the last few games. Simpson is probably going to be matched up against Nori for most of the game and both are going to be chasing one another all over the court tomorrow night. Watching Nori play against Davidson, I finally got to appreciate how much he moves without the ball. He fights through screens and cuts under the basket until he can get an open look on the perimeter (if he can move through the defense with the ball he could be even better, but I digress). Simpson on the other hand has freakish athleticism that has been documented before on this blog. He will be looking to attack the rim on offense and in transition. Nori has to do a good job of chasing him on D and not turning the ball over on the perimeter. Same goes for Lawrence and Wiggins because the whole UNCG team is deadly in transition.
The second key to winning tomorrow's game is for the Cougars to keep up the attitude they have been playing with the last five games. That means more defense, more ball-sharing and more rebounding. Byington has been a big reason for this culture change and the results speak for themselves. This little diagram is courtesy of CofCSports.com. It shows the team's performance over the past five games (Samford, Elon, App, WCU, Davidson) versus our previous 2-6 skid (Wofford, Furman, UNCG, Elon, Davidson, GSU, Furman, Wofford).
STATISTICS THEN (2-6) NOW (4-1)
Points Per Game: 62.8 77.6
FG%: 39.0 40.0
FG% Defense: 41.4 40.3
3PT FG%: 27.2 38.6
3PT FG% Defense: 31.6 28.2
FT%: 59.9 68.5
Rebounding Margin: -6.5 +0.8
The above disparity, plus momentum, plus Byington's longer bench to keep the guys fresh should give the Cougars some hope in this one. But the Spartans are also on a roll. After defeating the 1S team, the Cougars need to avoid the letdown game against the 1N team. Go Cougars!
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