Hofstra (4-11, 0-1)
College of Charleston (9-7, 1-0)
Mack Sports Complex, Heampstead, NY
Tipoff at 4pm here (free live stream)
It's been four days since the Cougars dispatched JMU in their CAA opener. Shortly thereafter they took off via plane on the furthest in-conference road trip in program history with a stop in New York to play Hofstra today and Northeastern (outside Boston) on Monday. It's a sharp disparity from SoCon bus trips but it's the type of travel schedule the school gladly welcomes in an upgraded conference. In fact, the guys should be excited about this trip. Wojcik's CofC teams have an outstanding 14-3 road record and last year on a similar road swing to Marist and Vermont, the Cougars played some of their best ball of the year.
It's the first full slate of CAA men's basketball today and, like the Cougars, the Hofstra Pride have played one conference game - an 86-79 loss at Delaware. I haven't kept up with the Pride since 2011 when Andrew Goudelock and Charles Jenkins were battling it out to be the NCAA's leading scorer. Hofstra is struggling this season, but then again so had the Dukes and they gave the Cougars some problems. CofC needs a bounce back game from Hall and Baru because shooting doesn't always carry over on the road.
Are they any good?
Not really, but a poor CAA team is still better than half the teams CofC is used to playing in league play over the past three years. The Hofstra Pride will likely finish in the bottom tier of the Colonial with new coach Joe Mihalich but they do have some pieces. Chief among them is senior swing man Zeke Upshaw (what a sweet name) who is averaging 19 points a game; 2nd in the CAA. However, all of their wins have come at home this season.
What do they do well?
Hoftsra is actually the best offensive rebounding team in the conference. That's a stat that ranks up there with turnovers and Adjehi Baru missed double-doubles as the most frustrating for CofC fans. The Cougars can shut a team down for the duration of the shot clock but just one missed box out erases that entire defensive possession. I know what you're thinking, "poor offense and missed shots usually leads to inflated offensive rebounding numbers." Well you're right but you don't write this blog. The Cougars are one of the best defensive rebounding teams in the country so which way the rebounding needle points will be something to keep an eye on.
What do they struggle with?
As one Hofstra message board contributor put it, the Pride's zone defense is more akin to "swiss cheese." That was their downfall against high-scoring Delaware this week and could be an issue the way the Cougars finally started to solve the 3-2 against JMU on Tuesday.
Matchup to watch for
Let's give Theo Johnson some love. In Canyon Barry's absence, Theo contributed a season-high 19 minutes against JMU and "did some of the defensive dirty work" against the Dukes as Wojcik would later put it. Upshaw is the guy the Cougars have to key in on and when Anthony Thomas is out of the game that duty will fall on Theo. Aside from a block or the occasional three-pointer from TJ, he's hard to notice on the court. It will be his job to do the little things like holding Hofstra off the offensive glass and limiting their ability to penetrate.
X-Factor
Here is the difference in the Cougars' numbers over the last 3 games. Most of that production can be attributed to Nori Johnson's return to the lineup in 2014. It's impossible to ask Nori to keep up his sharp shooting (sitting at a cool 50% from three), but as long as he is hitting, he is the X-factor.
No comments:
Post a Comment