College of Charleston (20-8, 12-4)
Gardner Webb University (17-11, 9-5)
TD Arena
Tipoff at 4pm on CofCSports.com
In it's swan song year, it's times like these we can all reflect on ESPN's 11-year run of the BracketBusters. With all the best of intentions the worldwide leader in sports gave mid-major teams a weekend to play on national television and test their NCAA Tournament resumes against other like-qualified institutions fighting for an at-large appearance. It was a platform that has been good to the Cougars in the past- giving us both Evan Fjeld's mustache and Nori Johnson's career high 27 points in front of Antonio Gates. Unfortunately the event has diluted itself by including way more than the necessary number of relevant teams in non-televised games. A tough pill to swallow this year, but both CofC and Gardner Webb's Tournament resumes aren't going to change after tomorrow evening. It's win the conference tournament or be locked out of the Big Dance auditorium for both squads.
Still, it shouldn't prevent the Cougars from keeping the momentum going and taking care of business at home against a pretty solid opponent. In the past few weeks GWU has jumped from the Big South's mediocrity to being an actual contender after beating Charleston Southern, UNC Asheville and Coastal Carolina in the second half of conference play. They're a hot team right now and no-doubt jazzed to be playing a big game in the Holy City, but it's hard to get a good read on them.
The Cougars and "Runnin' Bulldogs..." have shared four opponents this season: Charleston Southern, Coastal Carolina (x2 for the Bulldogs), Wofford and the Citadel (x2 for the Cougs). In those games CofC is 5-0 and GWU is 4-1 with a loss at Wofford in early December.
One thing that will jump out right away about GWU's team is there height, or rather their lack thereof. Kevin Hartley, at 6'6 is the tallest player in the starting lineup and the team's leading rebounder (6.4 rpg). He is however an outstanding outside shooter and is averaging almost 50% from behind the arc since Big South play began. Sounds like a smaller version of Jake Cohen. Although Cohen has been a nightmare to defend for the Cougars, maybe the shorter Hartley can be contained by Hall instead of drawing Baru or Wiedeman away from the basket.
Rocking the three guard unit with such little rebounding and shot-blocking abilities, the backcourt tandem of 5th-year senior Tashan Newsome and Donta Harper lead the team in scoring. A lot like fellow Big South rival Charleston Southern, I expect this team to be fast and feisty. The Cougars have always had trouble with smaller guards so the perimeter defense will be something to monitor.
However the Cougars should dominate the boards. There's no one on the GWU roster to match up with Adjehi Baru or Anthony Thomas and the way Trent Wiedeman has been playing when healthy should have the Bulldogs preparing for 3-4 different big men.
Really this game is not much more than any other out-of-conference matchup to start the year; despite being labeled a BracketBuster. It's a very winnable, albeit possibly difficult matchup, for CofC but may give us an opportunity to work out any more kinks before Asheville. I'd like to see Andrew Lawrence step out of this little shooting slump and some more time for the bench rotation if the Cougs find themselves up double digits.
Lastly, let's please for once build on a late game lead rather than surrender one. We've escaped several times since giving away the Samford and GSU games pre-SoCon Revenge Tour but a dismissal in such a fashion in the postseason would be supremely heartbreaking. Wojcik has been able to fix a lot of things before and during the season: I hope this is next on the list. Go Cougars!
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