Towson Tigers
Record vs. D-I: 8-11 (CAA: 2-5)
RPI: 281
SOS: 328

Towson enters Trask coming off a 53-51 victory over Elon to finish off a season sweep of the Phoenix (their only 2 conference victories). Though they won 25 games under Pat Skerry last year, they've struggled this season after losing star player Jerrelle Benimon (2nd in the nation in rebounding in 2013-14).

Towson is 0-7 against teams in the RPI top 200, and thus the Tigers have no quality wins to speak of. Meanwhile, they had a pair of bad losses in non-conference play, having fallen to Navy and Fairleigh Dickinson.

Nevertheless, the Tigers have a few things going for them. Despite Benimon's departure, they're still an excellent rebounding team, out-rebounding opponents 39.5-31.1. Also, much like Charleston, they've been close in many of their games (-3.7 scoring margin). They fell to Northeastern by just 3 points on January 10th. Turnovers have been Towson's biggest problem, averaging 13.5 per game.

The Tigers are led by Sophomore forward John Davis, who leads the team in scoring (11.7 ppg) and rebounding (8.3) as well as shooting percentage (.458) despite only earning 4 starts in 20 games this season. They also have a pair of three-point shooting threats in French Grad student Alex Gavrilovic (19-48, .396) and Junior guard Four McGlynn (34-94, .362). Yes, that's right, his name is Four.

There's no easy wins to be had in the CAA this year, but assuming the fans (both students and otherwise) show up in full force, there's little reason to enter this contest lacking confidence. The culture has shifted rather rapidly in the Keatts era, and this team EXPECTS to win.

the game will be on wect 6.2 directv 642.1 665.1 and 696.

Is it fair to say this is the most anticipated home game in some time? We are midway through the season and we are in the running for the conference title. This is the first home game of the year where the students will be in session. Attendance has been up despite the games being during break. People are getting excited again to follow the hawks. The tide is finally beginning to turn.

Are any of the students on this forum? What's the buzz on campus? That's what we need to get going.

(01-23-2015 03:54 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  Are any of the students on this forum? What's the buzz on campus? That's what we need to get going.

The marketing department does a great job letting the students know what's going on. I'm sure the students will be there in full force.

As for the rest of the seats, I'm hearing that the free tickets available to "friends of the athletic department", so to speak, have pretty much all gotten snatched up.

I'm fairly confident we'll get a rocking Trask Coliseum tomorrow night.

(01-23-2015 03:54 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  Are any of the students on this forum? What's the buzz on campus? That's what we need to get going.

There seems to be a fair amount of buzz for the game tomorrow night, far more than there has in the two years prior to this. Will be interesting to see what the turn out is but I know a decent amount of students going. It will be interesting to see how the bleacher situation works out as it seems the community members, which we're glad are showing up often force the students to scatter throughout them instead of grouping us together.

Freddie is in one of my classes this year and when we congratulated him on the season so far he simple said, "it's about time we started winning".

So now they let the community members sit in the student bleacher section?

We start out as 7.5 point favorites.

Here is a nice article on a very interesting Towson player: http://www.onebidwonders.com/2015/01/23/...ad-towson/

(01-23-2015 06:37 PM)Osprey#1 Wrote:  Here is a nice article on a very interesting Towson player: http://www.onebidwonders.com/2015/01/23/...ad-towson/

Nice find

That is a great article, but I wouldn't be sad if he had the worst game of his career tomorrow.

(01-23-2015 04:40 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  So now they let the community members sit in the student bleacher section?

yeah, here is the seating chart http://www.uncwsports.com/documents/2014...df?id=1954

student section is now about half the bleachers and bleachers behind one of the baskets, but the demand has been low so there has been no need to save the entire section for the students. Will be interesting to see it tomorrow and if its close to when we are there.

(01-23-2015 08:57 PM)solohawks Wrote:  

(01-23-2015 04:40 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  So now they let the community members sit in the student bleacher section?

yeah student section is now about half the bleachers and bleachers behind one of the baskets

That's freaking terrible. Yet, after what the program has become over the last several years it's not surprising at all. It's only a logical business decision that if the students aren't going to show up, to give the better seats to paying customers.

here are the tv stations showing tomorrow's game for the out of town folk
http://caasports.com/documents/2015/1/20..._0124.pdf.
locally it will be on Bounce TV (WECT 6.2, Time Warner 1245)

(01-23-2015 09:00 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  

(01-23-2015 08:57 PM)solohawks Wrote:  

(01-23-2015 04:40 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  So now they let the community members sit in the student bleacher section?

yeah student section is now about half the bleachers and bleachers behind one of the baskets

That's freaking terrible. Yet, after what the program has become over the last several years it's not surprising at all. It's only a logical business decision that if the students aren't going to show up, to give the better seats to paying customers.

yeah demand has not been there so why not sell them. the games over Christmas have had packed bleachers which is nice. It will be interesting to see if the students are allowed to spread out if the demand is there or if they are funneled upstairs.

Funneling students upstairs would be a horrendous mistake in terms of increasing the momentum of them showing up to games and supporting the new and improved Hawks. Students need to be rowdy, and the bleachers are the best spot to do so and have a positive impact on the game for UNCW. There's no sense in putting them upstairs and weakening our home advantage. Hopefully the AD and whoever makes that decision understands that.

(01-23-2015 06:37 PM)Osprey#1 Wrote:  Here is a nice article on a very interesting Towson player: http://www.onebidwonders.com/2015/01/23/...ad-towson/

Taking a look at the Towson boards, Alex Gavrilovics suffered a concussion a couple games back. I haven't checked to see if he played against Elon last night or not, but they were "hoping" he'd be available for our game tomorrow. Checking now...

Looking at their box score against Elon, Gavrilovics didn't appear as a starter or coming from the bench. We should keep an eye on his availability for Towson tomorrow.

Speaking from past experiences students are told once the tickets run for the bleachers run out we must buy a ticket or not be allowed in. Student tickets are available at the desk in fisher and residence halls one week prior to the game but removed 24 hours ahead of the game. Only once in my time here have the students been allowed upstairs which was the homecoming game last year with the dreadful double overtime where no one scored. I opted to go to the baseball game that night to see a team that had a better chance of winning.

Also the students were only allowed on the bleachers behind the basket because the pep band was not there! Do not think that is going to be a normal thing.

Thanks fan716. Crazy how times change. Back in the days of success they packed us in those student bleachers nice and tight. You never even needed to have a ticket prior to the game. Just show up at the doors with your student ID.