Road Warriors Travel to WCU for Only Regular Season Matchup

Western Carolina

College of Charleston

Ramsey Center, Cullowhee NC

Tipoff at 7pm on Catamount Sports Network

With the SoCon Revenge Tour in the rearview mirror, it's time for the Cougars to turn their attention to building some momentum with positive play to finish out the season. Tomorrow night the Cougars take on Western Carolina for the first, only and last time as Southern Conference opponents. Actually I shouldn't say that. Last year Western Carolina shocked all of us SoCon followers when they took Davidson to double overtime in the Tournament Championship game in Asheville. That was when Harouna Mutombo, Trey Sumler and Tawaski King summoned the power of both the Dikembe and the local-fueled Asheville crowd to almost win the entire conference. 

This season the Catamounts are fighting Samford and App State for the #4 bye spot. WCU is a team that no one wants to face in the tournament because of their aforementioned magic in Asheville. Being the #4 team would also put them on the same side of the bracket as #1 seed Davidson, a team they surely want revenge on (much to the delight of everyone else in the SoCon). Then again Samford and App State would also be tough tournament draws for the Cougars. Stupid SoCon parity. 

Mutombo is gone but guard Trey Sumler, who is 2nd in the league with 18.1 points per game, and big man Tawaski King are still in the starting WCU lineup. When I look at this team I can't help but compare them a little bit to UNC Greensboro. They are led by a volume shooting guard who can light it up or force some bad shots. The team offense follows suit with lots of shot attempts and not much emphasis on defense. On the one hand they can blow teams out of the water, but on the other they can struggle against the top-tier SoCon defenses like Wofford, Davidson and CofC. The Catamounts have been in just about every SoCon game this season so the Cougars are going to have to be sure not to beat themselves again late in the game.

To keep the UNCG comparison going I think the Cougars can win this game, even on the road. I expect the combination of Stitt, AT and Theo to contain Sumler enough that other players are going to need to step up. Let's take the comparison even further. King might be the Kayel Locke of this game. He is skilled enough to get his points with attention directed more at Sumler on the perimeter. The Cougars probably won't double him outside 3 feet and he can take Willis or Trent one-on-one. But I don't think it will be enough for the Catamounts. 

I think the Cougar front line rotation with their rebounding and ball movement will be too much to overcome. After King, Sumler is the next best rebounder on the team. Also, the Catamounts have a tendency to over-foul when they are mismatched. Against Elon and Tennessee this year, Western Carolina allowed over 40 free throw attempts. If everything goes according to plan for CofC they should force some bad shots and hopefully turnovers out of the Catamounts. Offensive execution could be trickier. It's going to come down to the Cougars' ability to hit the shots that Western's defense will give up: inside and outside. No more napping on offense! Go Cougars!