Cougars Attempt to Take Hot Shooting on the Road

UNC Wilmington (8-21, 2-12)

College of Charleston (14-14, 6-7)

Trask Coliseum, Wilmington, NC

Tipoff at 7pm on MyTV Charleston or $4.95 stream here

Few, scratch that - no one, predicted CofC's offensive explosion against William & Mary after the two stinkers they had put up in previous games. Now we get to see if a team capable of putting together both sides of the winning formula was merely a flash in the pan or a sign of good things to come. That test comes against UNCW, the last-place CAA team and potential coastal rival. It's Homecoming for the Seahawks so they won't go without a fight. In order to cement themselves as the 4th seed in Baltimore the Cougars need to take care of business on the road against the Dub.

What happened last time these teams met
Nori Johnson scored 23 points and the Cougars overcame turnovers, missed dunks and a sloppy first half of play to pull away from the Seahawks 75-70 inside TD Arena. The Seahawks remained winless in the conference after that loss while the Cougars improved to 3-2 in the CAA. Leading the way for Wilmington was guard Chris Dixon, who would drive the lane and get a tough basket every time the Cougars started to pull away. He finished with 21 points in defeat.

Since then
The Dub finally picked up their first league win (and a second) in consecutive games on February 10th and 13th against Towson (!) and Northeastern respectively. Coach Buzz Peterson has done it with strong bench production - more on that below - and a stretch of good play during a tough 4-games-in-8-days schedule period. Junior big man Ced Williams continues to be the teams best player, even if he didn't show it against Charleston, leading the 'Hawks in points and rebounds.

X-Factor
Wilmington's "line changes". Olympic fever has clearly struck a chord with Buzz Peterson because over the last four games or so he has installed a hockey-style substitution pattern. I would not have believed it unless I saw it live in the JMU-UNCW game a few days ago when Peterson chose to switch out all five starters for a fresh five man unit of subs in the first half. Unorthodox yes, but the strategy has helped Wilmington play their best stretch of basketball all season. As the Dub Hub mentioned in their preview of today's game, each "line" has their own strengths. The starters include the talented front court duo of Williams and Shane Reybold who can provide the offense opposite senior guards Dixon and Milson. The second unit does not have the same talent level obviously but they are an athletic bunch that can throw enough jabs at the opponent until a refreshed starting group enters back into the game.

The Cougars have yet to face a team displaying such a tendency and it doesn't help that they will be without 6th man Joe Chealey. It's unfair to expect the Cougars to shoot as well as they did against W&M but the shots need to fall for the starters because after Canyon Barry there are not many scoring options beyond the tightened rotation.