RE: Official Game Thread: Mars Hill(exhibition)
In 16 years we have played DII South Atlantic Conference (SAC) teams once or twice a year (Tusculum, Carson-Newman, Wingate, Mars Hill). We generally win by 25-40 points, although Carson-Newman once came within 8 at 71-63. Last year was fairly typical, beating Tusculum 109-77. Our most overwhelming win in that 16 year period was 2003 over Mars Hill by 100-57. That was with Wadood and Fields as Seniors and Tim Smith at point. That ETSU team was not only very talented, but very experienced playing together, unlike this year's squad.
This year we face a weak, inexperienced Mars Hill team: 5-17 last year in the SAC (the Tusculum team we played last year was 4 games better at 9-13). Mars Hill was 6-16 the year before and 5-17 the year before that. You get the picture. Rick Scruggs has not exactly built a powerhouse there. It might actually be an advantage for them that they lost the eight (8) highest scoring players on their team and have 11 new players on the roster! No returning player averaged over 3.8 points or 2.3 rebounds. They don’t have much size (one freshman 6’8” 210; one junior 6’7” 185, one junior 6’6” 220, one freshman 6’6” 195 – those are their bigs).
If we stay focused and play hard, it might look like that 2003 game. The tendency though may be to blow out to a big lead in the first half and lose intensity and trade baskets in the second. Hopefully we’ll get to try a lot of different guys and combinations.
All five (5) of their returning players are listed:
Valentine Bauer 6-0 175 PG Sr, 28 games, 15.2 minutes, 3.8 points, 1.9 rebounds, 2.1 asst
Brandon Watkins 6-6 220 F Jr, 26 games, 10.0 minutes, 2.6 points, 2.3 rebounds
Cody Hylton 6-3 190 G Jr, 9 games, 4.8 minutes, 2.0 points, 0.6 rebounds
Luke Van-Rijn 6-5 200 G Jr, 11 games, 6.3 minutes 2.0 points, 0.9 rebounds
Vernon Jackson 6-4 180 G So, 22 games 8,0 minutes, 2.0 points, 1.5 rebounds
I don't know anything about their incoming class. But unless they're bringing in some real players, it could be pretty bad.
(This post was last modified: 10-30-2016 08:47 AM by swvabucsfan.)
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