The last time the Spartans visited TD Arena it resulted in a drastic change in direction for both programs. UNCG, off to a 2-14 record and a bagel in conference victories, was left in the hands of world's-youngest interim head coach Wes Miller. The College of Charleston was still being led by one of the NCAA's living legends.
The game unfolded in depressing fashion for the Cougars. CofC blew leads late in the first and second half by being a step too slow for a G team that didn't even have their leading scorer. The Cougs were already reeling from the loss of Adjehi Baru (and subsequent insertion of Matt Sundberg into the starting lineup) before fellow freshman Anthony Stitt fell to the floor and returned to the bench with a cast on his arm. Stitt would miss the next 12 games with a broken hand. The Spartans would go on to win 9 more league games and Wes Miller won SoCon Coach of the Year. Bobby Cremins would take a leave of absence before the rematch of these teams a month later and the Mark Byington-led Cougars fell in their first game in Asheville.
Just like Chattanooga and App State, teams built like UNCG are the reason why the coaching search committee went in Wojcik's direction. Fast, athletic, three-point shooting teams usually gave fits to the Cougars in the Cremins days. In their two games against the Spartans last year the Cougars couldn't get defensive stops, couldn't keep up in transition and couldn't secure a rebound when they really needed it. Cut to one year later and those abilities are the calling card of the College's team.
The Cougars are currently holding opponents to a league low 28.6% shooting from beyond the arc. The Spartans have two of the leagues top 5 scorers (Simpson 1 and Armstrong 5), but only one player (Nicholas Paulos) who shoots better than 40% from downtown. They take a lot of threes and play very up-tempo in order to get that SoCon best 72.5 points per game. The rebounding should also favor the Cougars due to a substantial size differential.
Anthony Thomas will likely be tasked with slowing down the aerial exploits and volume shooting of Trevis Simpson. It's a role that AT has been looking forward to for some time and his length and blocking ability will definitely cause some discomfort for the SoCon's leading scorer (I also expect Theo Johnson coming off the bench to check Simpson). But don't forget the Spartans have the luxury of two premium scoring threats on their team. Anthony Stitt will probably be asked to hold down senior guard Derrell Armstrong. Armstrong is the less explosive of the two so Stitt's ability to stick to his man one-on-one could work in our favor.
In order to win the Cougars are going to have to play stellar defense (what I'm least worried about), make shots when they're open (they will be) and not turn the ball over (more worried about that one). However, signs point to this being a very winnable game. The Cougars have a 1.54 assits-turnover ratio over the last three games and that stat about defending against the three is huge. G's defense is bad enough that the Cougars should put up enough points to win; as long as the pressure stays on Simpson and Armstrong we can get a W.
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