Georgia Southern University (7-10, 1-3)
College of Charleston (12-5, 4-1)
Hanner Fieldhouse
Tipoff at 7 pm on gseagles.com
A week ago I wouldn't have thought this game to be anything special. More or less the precursor to Saturday's big matchup with Davidson. Maybe it's a good thing then that Georgia Southern just upset Davidson for their first SoCon victory and the Wildcats' first conference defeat. Now the Cougars need to stay sharp on the road in beautiful Statesboro and get a solid road win against the Eagles.
Coming into the season, expectations for Charlton Young and the Eagles were understandably pretty high. Eric Ferguson was a projected NBA draft pick, the Eagles had finished a strong 2011-2012 campaign and things seemed to be on the up-and-up. This season "inconsistency" is the theme. The Eagles are capable of defeating teams like Virginia Tech but had lost conference games to Elon, Samford and Wofford before beating Davidson.
Like their star player, the Eagles as a team are extremely athletic. Last year in Statesboro the poor, defenseless (no Stitt and no Baru) Cougars were blown out of the water against this high-flying squad. Not only in terms of verticality (#kresseisms) but also lateral speed. The biggest detriment to Davidson against GSU was the quickness of the Eagles guards at getting to the basket. For $200, what has been CofC's biggest weakness this year? Oh no I'm sorry the answer is actually turnovers...turnovers. But a close second has been defending speedy little guards on the dribble drive. The Cougars are going to need to check CJ Reed and Tre Bussey.
This is a game where we may be very thankful to have Anthony Thomas and Theo Johnson. I loved their perimeter defense on the minuscule Charleston Southern guards. They may be the ones tasked with containing the previously mentioned Eagles. On the other hand, AT is probably the best foil to Eric Ferguson in terms of athleticism and length. Will be interesting to see which strategy Wojcik goes with.
Should be a good one tonight. Remember that with the Davidson loss the Cougars absolutely control their own destiny. Should we win tonight and then defeat Davidson we'll be in really great shape for 1st place in the South division. The season is still young but potential victories in games against other South contenders could be huge down the stretch.
Oh yea and here's to hoping Nori Johnson can do this again down in Statesboro. Go Cougars!
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