El Cid Preview: Rivalry Renewed

El Cid (4-9, 0-0)

College of Charleston (5-7, 0-0)

McAllister Field House

Tipoff at 2pm on Citadel Portal ($6.95)

Conference affiliations may change and expectations dip when neither team has a winning record, but as long as the Citadel and CofC remain 2 miles apart from one another this will always be a rivalry. Both fan bases generally despise one another despite the cordial relationships between bff's Doug Wojcik and Chuck Driesell as well as Bulldogs and Cougars who play pick-up ball together every summer. Now that the teams will only meet once per year, the bragging rights for Berry Residence Hall, King Street and downtown Charleston rest on one game played at McAlister Field House. The last time the Cougars played an old SoCon foe they hung up 89 points. Will this be the game that the offense finally comes alive or are we in for another 51-44 stinker? Here's what you need to know:

Are the Bulldogs any good?

In a word, no. Yea the Cougars aren't one to talk but the Citadel Bulldogs have struggled against D1 competition. Three of their four victories have come against lower division teams and the other was over Presbyterian. I really admire the job Driesell does at one of the most difficult head coaching positions in the sport but his team is struggling with the graduation of Mike Groselle - one of the best players the Citadel has had in the past decade. It is possible that El Cid is turning a corner though, at Nebraska on December 21st the Bulldogs and Cornhuskers were tied at halftime before the home team pulled away late. 

What do they do well?

The 'Dogs rank 64th nationally in assists per game with 15.2 averaged each contest. They also do a great job of putting up points against schools you have never heard of.

What do they struggle with?

Right now it seems as if Chuck Driesell is trying to fit some square pegs into round holes. He's trying to run an up-tempo offensive system that doesn't really fit with the player personnel he has on hand. Because of this I feel like they're actually playing below their talent level right now. I really like Matt Van Scyoc as a player (CofC fans should remember him lighting us up as a freshman last year and you better believe he'll be gunning to do it again) but I think he's being misused. He's a better shooter than his numbers suggest and I think it's because he's not taking the right shots. 

Matchup to watch for:

Anthony Thomas versus Van Scyoc will be good for the above reasons but I want to see how the re-tooled CofC rotation does against a thin Citadel team. Barry will likely be coming off the bench again and he should be able to generate some easy points - IF he can knock them down. I wonder if JBC will still be a starter but whether he is or not I want to see if he can still bring aggressiveness on offense. Hell, why am I beating around the bush, I want to see if the Cougars can finally put some points on the board against a shitty Citadel team. There, I said it. 

X-Factor

It seems a bit strange to list your best player as an x-factor in a rivalry game but Adjehi Baru is the most important player on the court today. He is still getting way too few touches in the paint (3 shot attempts against Kent State....3?!) despite CDW's consistent bemoaning to the media each postgame about how the team needs to get him more involved. Baru faces no real defense with Groselle gone and should really dominate this afternoon. He scores at a 60% clip, which would be an automatic boost in points if he gets the opportunities but it also opens up room outside for Stitt and Thomas to drive or Barry and Chealey to pull the trigger from three.