Exhibit A: Exhibition Game Vs USC-Aiken

Despite beating the NCAA World Champions later that season, the 2009 Cougars had trouble putting away DII USC-Aiken in the first exhibition game of the year

College of Charleston (0-0, 0-0)
USC-Aiken (0-0, 0-0)
TD Arena
Tipoff Saturday at 7pm on CofCSports.com

We made it! We finally get (sort of) real basketball again at the College of Charleston! Five-on-five! With scoreboards, and referees! Sure it doesn't count toward our win-loss record and of course it's not against a Division 1 opponent...but it is something to hold us over until the Towson game.

USC-Aiken may be of a lower division but they're not the typical sort of scrub team a home squad brings in to kick around and put up 100 points against. The Aiken Pacers are a regular contender in the NCAA Division II Tournament and return most of their core of players who led them to a 21-8 regular season record. The last time the Pacers played the Cougars was in an exhibition game in 2009. They came into the Carolina First Arena unfazed and unintimidated and played blow-for-blow with Drew Goudelock and company before losing by two points in overtime. That's right, a DII team almost took down the best Cougars team of the last five years. They're certainly not a program to take lightly. Especially when Doug Wojcik and the Cougars are implementing a whole new system.

A player to watch on USC-Aiken is Re'Mon Nelson. He nearly had a triple double the last time these two met and was the Pacer's leading scorer last season. He's a senior now and will be trying to lead his team to an early season upset over the Cougs.

On the other side of the ball I'll be looking at every CofC player but specifically Trent Wiedeman and Andrew Lawrence. I mentioned in my season preview how both these guys are going to be critical to the team's success this year. They're both playing in a system they are not accustomed to, for a coach that didn't recruit them and being asked to be the best players on the floor. I think Trent is going to have the ball in his hands a lot more under Wojcik's coaching. More plays are going to be run through the post and Trent will have a lot more decision making to do. Lawrence might be playing off the ball a bit more with Anthony Stitt assisting him in the backcourt this year. He's got the scoring ability to still thrive in that role and we saw last season how unpredictable this team can be for opponents when there are two point guards on the floor.

We should also get a good look at this depth we're all so excited about. Not saying this game won't be close, but exhibitions are a time for fiddling around with different lineups and trying out different sets. We could see guys like Willis and Nori playing major minutes and giving the Cougs some more options offensively.

This game is just the next step in preparing our guys for regular season play. They've practiced, scrimmaged and this exhibition contest should give them a chance to figure out what to work on during the week before Towson comes to TD Arena. I'm just happy college basketball has returned to my life. Go Cougars!