The ASun as we head into conference
MERCER 9-4
Mercer fans could not have hoped for more – their team comes into conference 9-4 with quality wins over Seton Hall, at Ole Miss and at Valparaiso, and a bare 3 point loss at Texas. The four losses – at Texas, at Oklahoma, at Ohio and at Evansville, are nothing to be ashamed of. With the same cast, except for graduated shooting guard Travis Smith, they are playing tougher – rebounding, where they were actually outrebounded last year (32.2 to 32.4) has turned around 180 degrees – they are now grabbing 40.8 to only 32.7 for opponents. Easily the best in the conference. Big guys Coursey, Brown and Hallice have increased their share from 8.8 rpg to 13.0 rpg, but the improvement has been a team effort. They have replaced Smith with minutes from 6’5” transfer Ike Nwamu and 6’2” JUCO Phillip Leonard. They are not the 3 point shooters that Smith was, but overall team 3 point percentage remains almost identical (.355 to .356)as others have picked up the slack. Seniors Langston Hall (15.2 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 5.3 assists)and Daniel Coursey (6.5 rebounds and 10.5 points) have really upped their games. Together with seniors Jake Gollon and Bud Thomas, they are the core of the most balanced and experienced team in the league. Bob Hoffman has finally departed a little from his usual tight rotation to give 12 guys 9.7 minutes or more per game. This is not the most athletic team in the league, particularly in the front court, but they are clearly the guys to beat. Their scoring margin is +12.7. Second in the ASun is FGCU at +0.5. Nobody else has a positive scoring margin.
FGCU 6-7
The bloom is off the rose for the 6-7 “Dunk City” crew. Their best win is at home over 5-8 Hartford. But their best game was probably the neutral site double overtime loss to USF. The neutral site loss to Radford looks a little ugly. And they were not competitive at home versus 5-5 Iona (90-72). 6’9” post Eric McKnight was suspended for the entire preconference schedule, save for the Radford loss. Filip Cvjeticanin was not a strong replacement inside – he is more at home on the perimeter. 6’10” Nate Hicks (5.7 rpg, 5.2 pts, 2 blocks in 18.9 min.) is an upgrade over Eddie Murray (3.1 rpg,, 3.8 ppg, 0.7 blocks in 17.6 min.). But 6’6” Jamail Jones (5.6 rpg, 7.8 pts. In 29.8 min) could not replace 6’4” Sherwood Brown (6.5 rpg, 15.5 pts., in 33.1 min). He is less athletic and energetic than the fiery Brown. Brett Comer has upped his scoring by 6.5 ppg, Chase Fieler has added a rebound to 6.8. Bernard Thompson is much the same – except his steals have dropped by 2 per game. In fact the team’s steals have dropped from 8.9 to 4.8 per game – perhaps emblematic of the drop in energy from the magic last year. They are clearly second in the ASun – but much closer to USCU than to Mercer – and perhaps behind USCU on any given day.
USCU 6-6
You never know what you’re going to get with USCU – they can beat Virginia Tech in Blacksburg one game, and drop a home game to Winthrop the next (and Winthrop later lost to Tech by 18). They can lose at home by 10 points to 4-7 UNC Asheville, then go out the next game and beat South Carolina in Columbia. They also came within one point of 14th ranked Midmajor Kent State on the road, and within 9 of UT in Knoxville. They are thinner on the perimeter without Aaron Rogers. Inside they have added bulk and perhaps a little scoring with 6’10” FR Michael Buchanan – something more for smaller teams like ETSU to worry about. Otherwise, they are what they were last year – athletic, with fair size and muscle, and several guys who could explode on any given night, but who are prone to inconsistent play. Their rotation is even a little tighter – 6 guys get 20 minutes or more (Torrey Craig, Ty Green, Ricardo Glenn, Jodd Maxey, Fred Miller and Mario Blessing) while 4 other guys get 10 to 13 minutes (Buchanan, Olumuyiwa, Mawuenyega and Shunquez Stephens).
ETSU 6-6
No matter how the Valpo game goes, the Bucs are doing better than their fans thought they would, especially after the late defection of John Walton, heart surgery to Ron Giplaye, nagging injury to Lukas Poderis, and failure to qualify of Maurice O’field. Their schedule is short on power conference teams, but includes a variety of solid Midmajors. A win over ranked Midmajor Stephen F. Austin (currently 20th in the College Insider Poll) is probably the best. 6’2” rebounding fiend A.J. Merriweather has been the most surprising newcomer in the ASun, and the performance of KGG and Jalen Riley has exceeded expectations. ETSU still has a lot to prove – including demonstrating whether it can handle the size of the better ASun teams. But fans can be cautiously optimistic based on the early season.
NORTHERN KENTUCKY 4-8
On the plus side, the 4-8 Norse beat Tulane (7-6) in New Orleans and came within 1 point of Purdue in West Lafayette in the very first game of the season. They also uglied up the game and stayed relatively close to UNC. On the downside, they got whipped soundly on the road by UT-Martin, the same place that Lipscomb won handily. They are very tough to beat at home, where they have a 3 game winning streak (UTC, Hampton and Navy). They are not big. They get outrebounded 30.8 to 35.3; outshot .422 to .477 and outscored 67.9-75.9. And yet they play you tough (and often ugly) and win games that they shouldn’t, especially at home.
LIPSCOMB 5-6
Casey Alexander has certainly been having a jolly holiday season. In the month of December the undersized Bison have beaten Tennessee Tech at home (take note ETSU fans - the Bucs lost on the road to Tech), knocked off Austin Peay on the road, come within 4 points of Murray State at Murray, and within 9 of Georgia in Athens. They are 5-6 and playing better ball than most anyone expected, despite having one guard at 6’6” 200 and no one else over 6’5 in the rotation. They hold their own on the boards at 35.2 to 37.5. So far, they have managed to defend the post reasonably, and play most everybody tough. They do not look like an easy out in the ASun. They will finish ahead of Jacksonville if current trends continue. So is Alexander a good coach or a bad coach – see Stetson below???
JACKSONVILLE 4-7
Jacksonville started off the season with high hopes, seemingly having made some recruiting coups, esp. with 5th year seniors to fill gaps at point and post. But things have not gone well for the 4-7 Dolphins, who, despite being bigger, are getting beaten badly on the boards (34.5 to 41.9), whereas they generally won the boards last year (36.1 to 35.5). Ugly losses on the road to 3-10 FAU and at home by 17 points to Samford (5-8) were not much assuaged by a recent home win over 3-8 South Carolina State. Senior Keith McDougald was suspended for several games and last year’s solid freshman Kordario Fleming, has been missing from the box score for the last several games. On the plus side, 5th yr point guard Vince Martin has been everything that they could have wished for with 5 assists, 2 t.o.’s and 10 points on .400 from 3. Sophomore Jarvis Haywood has boosted his scoring from 11.5 to 16.3. And Javon Dawson has finally started posting big rebound totals. But Cliff Warren has got to get the ship righted, or face a rough conference season.
UNF 6-7
A brutal schedule for a young squad with 5 power conference teams (4 of them nationally ranked), balanced by some very weak teams (Savannah State twice, Edward Waters, Webber International, UALR 4-7, Bethune Cookman 2-13) and not much in the middle. So it’s hard to gauge how the 6-7 Ospreys will perform against the very much “in the middle” ASun. However, barely scraping by 2-13 Bethune-Cookman at home does not augur well. Five of the squad are freshmen, two are sophomores, 3 are Junior transfers new to the team. Only seniors Travis Wallace and Charles McRoy are upper classmen with any experience. So we should expect some improvement as the year goes on – particularly since 6’8” soph Beau Beech and 3 freshmen (6’1 Dallas Moore 11.2 ppg, 2.2 rpg; 6’8” Chris Davenport 6.3 ppg and 6.2 rpg; and 6’11” Romelo Banks 6.1 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 1 block), show a lot of promise.
KENNESAW STATE 3-10
Early returns on the great Kennesaw transfer experiment are not good. They are 3-10 and their only wins are over the hapless UTC Mocs (UTC is 4-8 with the wins coming over Covenant, Montreat, Hiwassee and IUPIU), tiny Warren Wilson and something called Truett-McConnell. But Kennesaw has played perhaps the toughest schedule in the ASun, full of power conference teams and ranked Midmajors like Kent State, Eastern Kentucky and IPFW. Although loaded with powerful, athletic players, Kennesaw gets outrebounded 33.8 to 38.0 and outshot .402 to .451. 6’10 Willy Kouassi averages 4.3 rebounds and 4.0 points in 18.5 minutes. Even the long awaited arrival of Nate Rucker hasn’t yet turned the tide. They look terrific in the layup line, though. In their favor, these guys are new to each other, and it takes a while to gel as a team. So far though, the low preseason rankings given by ASun coach and media polls look prescient.
STETSON 2-10
Stetson is 2-10. Their only victories come at home over 3-10 FAU by 2 points 64-62; and 2-13 Bethune Cookman by 4 points, 56-52. Casey Alexander’s name must be a curse word in Deland: I think that their 5 best players are 2 holdovers from the Derek Waugh years (Willie Green and Aaron Graham), the brother of a Derek Waugh guy (Brian Pegg), and 2 guys that the new coach, Corey Williams, brought in (Raymone Andrews and Kentwan Smith). Where are the Casey Alexander recruits??? Again, is Casey, starting off so well back home in Nashville with Lipscomb, a good coach or not? Any conference games they win will be upsets.
(This post was last modified: 01-05-2014 10:43 AM by swvabucsfan.)
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The ASun as we head into conference
