CSNbbs

Date: January 26th, 2019

Time: 7:00 PM

Opponent: Western Carolina (5-16, 4-13 SoCon)

Place: Ramsey Center

Television: none

Webcast: ESPN+

Radio online: 640WXSM.com

WCU 2018-2019 Schedule

WCU 2018-2019 Roster

WCU Message Board

Wish this was an afternoon game. Sure makes the drive back easier.

Western Carolina (5-16, 2-6 in the SoCon) is ranked #294 by KenPom. They took Furman to double overtime on the road, played UNCG better than we did, going down to the wire before losing by 9; beat Samford more handily than we did (or than Wofford did), 76-69; came within 3 of #113 Charleston, 74-77, within 5 of Southern Miss, 63-68; came within 7 at Wake Forest 64-71. They also lost at VMI (83-91), at Mercer (80-84), and at home to Chattanooga (62-73). Ask UNCG or Furman if these guys are a serious threat.

They play an 8 man rotation with only 1 senior (Marc Gosselin) and 3 freshmen (Gibson, Myers and Cottrell).

They play a deliberate tempo, scoring only 70.0 a game. They defend the 3 well, allowing a best in SoCon .316. But they are vulnerable inside, allowing 57.2% from 2, 343rd in D1. Blocks (1.6 to 4.1 for ETSU) and steals (4.5 to 7.5 for ETSU) are low. 6-7 265 JUCO Jr. Carlos Dotson is a nimble-footed bull inside, with 9.7 rebounds and 13.3 ppg, but not a good defender, and makes a lot of turnovers (3.4).

Turnover margin is a terrible -8.43, worst in SoCon by a mile (3rd worst is ETSU with -0.75). In fact, worst in D1! https://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketball-me...eam/519/p7

Assists are a weak 12.4 per game, 267th in D1.

Three point shooting is similar to ETSU: .358 to .356, 8.9 makes to 8.3 makes. Free throw percentage is even worse: worst in SoCon .629 to a second worst in SoCon .670 for the Bucs.

But they rebound well – 3rd best in SoCon +4.7 margin, 59th in D1. ETSU is now at +13.1.

Both teams had Thursday off. We’re hoping to see the Bucs take a step forward from their last couple outings and get rid of the sour taste from the UNCG game. A weak effort will leave us struggling to eke out a win like UNCG and Furman did against these guys. Kenpom favors the Bucs by 10, 74-64.

Front Court:
#4 6-7 265 Jr. Carlos Dotson; 27.8 minutes, 13.3 ppg, no 3’s, .486 FT%, 9.7 rebounds, 0.5 blocks, 3.4 t.o.’s
#33 6-5 205 Jr. Onno Steger; 28.8 minutes, 10.3 ppg on .358 from 3 (1.9 makes), 4.6 rebounds, 2.4 t.o.’s
#12 6-7 205 Sr. Marc Gosselin; 21.4 minutes, 5.7 ppg on .242 from 3 (0.4 makes), 4.0 rebounds, 2.0 t.o.’s
#5 6-6 200 Fr. D.J. Myers; 19.4 minutes, 3.2 ppg, no 3’s, 3.3 rebounds, 2.0 t.o.’s
#44 6-8 220 Jr. Adam Sledd; 8.9 minutes, 2.2 ppg, no 3’s, 1.9 rebounds

Guards:
#14 6-3 180 Fr. Kameron Gibson; 28.9 minutes, 12.8 ppg on .408 from 3 (2.3 makes), 2.3 rebounds, 1.9 ast, 2.4 t.o.’s
#2 6-1 170 So. Mark Halvorsen; 33.3 minutes, 12.6 ppg on .362 from 3 (2.6 makes), 3.3 rebounds, 2.6 ast, 2.8 t.o.’s
#21 6-3 180 So. Marcus Thomas; 17.1 minutes, 6.1 ppg on .219 from 3 (0.4 makes), 2.6 rebounds, 1.9 t.o.’s
#15 6-2 185 Fr. Josh Cottrell; 14.2 minutes, 4.1 ppg on .433 from 3 (1.2 makes), 0.6 rebounds, 0.8 t.o.’s

Coach Forbes was on the radio this morning :

-When asked to assess WCU coming off back to back losses and what that could mean for the Bucs Coach said, of course, that there were no givens in league play. WCU has 4 players in double figures. He especially noted Dotson, a transfer who he says plays similarly to Rodriguez averaging 13 and 10. (As an aside I saw a post on the WCU message board where a commentator was asking about the status of Dotson, who apparently has twisted his ankle; a second poster said that he had heard through the "grapevine" that Dotson would play Saturday.) Forbes said that the Bucs could not expect to just show up and win, but they needed a win to gain some momentum going into a tough stretch of games.

-When asked to enlarge on his comments after the UNCG that the Bucs had been "exposed," Coach Forbes said that he didn't specifically remember saying that, but if he had to identify areas where the team had been "exposed" he would say that it was in the open 3's that UNCG got from our defense, especially from their front court players. He said that UNCG had been averaging 8 3's a game and had 11 against ETSU. Additionally, he said that the poor free throw shooting on that night was a concern, but that was something that the individual players had to address on their own. They need to get in the gym on their own and practice shooting free throws. He felt that the Bucs handled the press fairly well. He thought that the team still had too many turnovers, but those occurred during half court play.

-When asked if the team was feeling any lingering effects from the loss to UNCG, Coach said that he didn't believe so. He said that during the season you have to have a short memory or one loss can avalanche on you. The team had Sunday off, Monday was for film and a no contact practice; Tuesday off and practice Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

-Hodges has not practiced lately because of sickness.

-When asked if he was planning any changes to the starting line up, he said that, other than Hodges who was a wait and see, he wasn't planning any changes, though if he did it would be a game time decision.

-When asked if he had seen the Wofford/Samford game, Forbes said he had not, but he wasn't surprised by the closeness of the game or the fact that Wofford eventually pulled it out. He said that was what you have to do to win championships. The closeness of the game he attributed to the toughness and depth of the conference this year.

-When asked (apparently in relation to something that happened in the UTK/Vanderbilt game last night) about the hook and hold rule, Coach Forbes opined that the rule came about because of an injury to the Purdue center last year. He said that he understood the intent of the rule, but felt that the resulting penalty extending to the next game was too severe. He said that that was actually a SOCON rule, not a national rule, that with a #2 penalty for a hook and hold that you had to sit out the next game. He said that he planned to talk to the conference about the rule after the season.

Pretty good first half in what has to be the largest crowd I've ever seen in the 'whee. Like 3 times as many as I've ever seen.

(01-26-2019 07:54 PM)ETSUfan1 Wrote: [ -> ]Pretty good first half in what has to be the largest crowd I've ever seen in the 'whee. Like 3 times as many as I've ever seen.

I'm surprised the fire marshall let that many in. Wouldn't happen here.

Good is on fire.

(01-26-2019 07:57 PM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-26-2019 07:54 PM)ETSUfan1 Wrote: [ -> ]Pretty good first half in what has to be the largest crowd I've ever seen in the 'whee. Like 3 times as many as I've ever seen.

I'm surprised the fire marshall let that many in. Wouldn't happen here.

Suprised the fire marshall let Patrick Good in the building.

(01-26-2019 08:19 PM)etsuandpurdue3 Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-26-2019 07:57 PM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-26-2019 07:54 PM)ETSUfan1 Wrote: [ -> ]Pretty good first half in what has to be the largest crowd I've ever seen in the 'whee. Like 3 times as many as I've ever seen.

I'm surprised the fire marshall let that many in. Wouldn't happen here.

Suprised the fire marshall let Patrick Good in the building.

Nice one!

As of right now, if the stats are right, we're being outrebounded by 2.

[Edit: and all of a sudden, we're up 2.]

We killed them on their turnovers (12 of which were steals), and turned a bunch of those into conversions. But only won the rebound battle by 3.

Can't say enough about Armus and Good. And Gibson for that matter.

Bernard had a here-have-a-taste-of-leather block, but bookended that with two quick and unwise fouls.

(01-26-2019 08:21 PM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-26-2019 08:19 PM)etsuandpurdue3 Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-26-2019 07:57 PM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-26-2019 07:54 PM)ETSUfan1 Wrote: [ -> ]Pretty good first half in what has to be the largest crowd I've ever seen in the 'whee. Like 3 times as many as I've ever seen.

I'm surprised the fire marshall let that many in. Wouldn't happen here.

Suprised the fire marshall let Patrick Good in the building.

Nice one!

PG had a phenomenal game.

Good quote.

First time I've watched Dotson play. He's a handful. Reminds me a LOT of Popeye Jones, although without as long of arms, and without the outside shooting capability. (Nor his face.) His body even moves like Jones's did. That said.......I don't like the way he purposely tries to create foul calls. On the one hand, one could say that's 'smart', but it's the way he does it: hard to verbalize, but it's almost like a wrestler using his arms for leverage. And he seemed to have quite the surly attitude; he was jawing a lot, especially with Tisdale. Might be a nice guy, I don't know..........just seemed like he wanted to be the big dog on the court.

Good tied Pigram for most 3s in a game with 11.

(01-26-2019 09:07 PM)Bucster Wrote: [ -> ]Good tied Pigram for most 3s in a game with 11.

Actually looks like I'm wrong. Just read Twitter that he broke the school record. The record was 10.

(01-26-2019 09:11 PM)Bucster Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-26-2019 09:07 PM)Bucster Wrote: [ -> ]Good tied Pigram for most 3s in a game with 11.

Actually looks like I'm wrong. Just read Twitter that he broke the school record. The record was 10.

Courtney Pigram 10 Mercer 2/28/09
T.J. Cromer 9 Samford 3/5/17
Rashawn Rembert 9 Eastern Kentucky 12/16/14

Finally got to catch a game, Patrick Good just knocking down 3 after 3 was crazy to see. Especially once he started firing from 30 feet deep. Armus played with a fire in him and that was good to see as well. Go BUCS!

(01-26-2019 09:06 PM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote: [ -> ]First time I've watched Dotson play. He's a handful. Reminds me a LOT of Popeye Jones, although without as long of arms, and without the outside shooting capability. (Nor his face.) His body even moves like Jones's did. That said.......I don't like the way he purposely tries to create foul calls. On the one hand, one could say that's 'smart', but it's the way he does it: hard to verbalize, but it's almost like a wrestler using his arms for leverage. And he seemed to have quite the surly attitude; he was jawing a lot, especially with Tisdale. Might be a nice guy, I don't know..........just seemed like he wanted to be the big dog on the court.

Always enjoyed watching Popeye Jones play !

Good reference from the past.

(01-26-2019 09:06 PM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote: [ -> ]First time I've watched Dotson play. He's a handful. Reminds me a LOT of Popeye Jones, although without as long of arms, and without the outside shooting capability. (Nor his face.) His body even moves like Jones's did. That said.......I don't like the way he purposely tries to create foul calls. On the one hand, one could say that's 'smart', but it's the way he does it: hard to verbalize, but it's almost like a wrestler using his arms for leverage. And he seemed to have quite the surly attitude; he was jawing a lot, especially with Tisdale. Might be a nice guy, I don't know..........just seemed like he wanted to be the big dog on the court.

His arms may not be Popeye long, but they are long and he uses them effectively. On video he doesn't look quite as tall as Jeromy, but he's a bull, muscling his way down low. Then when you think you're properly positioned to defend him he leans in, reaches out a long, strong arm and gets a shot up off the backboard just beyond what you're ready to defend. He's a load. But Armus did a heck of a job making him work for everything he got, and then outdoing him on the other end of the court with 21 points. Dotson's does have a nasty attitude, but a frustrating evening for Western may have contributed to that.

Guard Kameron Gibson can score inside and out with 28 points on 5-6 from 3 - another strong SoCon freshman. But 7 turnovers! As advertised, this is the worst turnover team in the SoCon.

Kingsport Sophomore Mark Halvorsen has upped his game nicely. But senior Marc Gosselin seems to have faded from the picture.

Really great to see Patrick Good catch fire. He was easily our steadiest shooter in Out of Conference play with only 3 nights below .363 from 3, and only 1 night below .333 (a 2-7 .285 night in the first game against Georgia State was his "bad" outing). But in the SoCon he had only 2 really strong nights before Western and went a combined 3-21 against UNCG, VMI and Mercer - all games where we struggled. When the 3 point shot is falling, the Bucs are tough to handle. Hope this gets him back on track.

GO BUCS!! For what it’s worth, these ESPN3 games will replay without being subscribed.