Last year around this time, The Citadel lost a game at Appalachian State, 75-71 in overtime. With the loss the Bulldogs dropped to 0-13 in the Southern Conference (5-17 overall, with just one of those victories coming against a Division I team). It was the 17th consecutive loss to Appalachian State, a school that The Citadel had not defeated in basketball since 1996 (and had not beaten in Boone since 1993).
What a difference a year makes.
On Thursday night, The Citadel defeated the Mountaineers in Boone 74-72, ending that long losing skid to Appy, and moved to 9-4 in the SoCon. With the College of Charleston losing to Western Carolina, The Citadel currently sits in second place in the South Division. If the season ended today (my understanding is it won’t), the Bulldogs would have a bye for the first round of the conference tournament.
There is also the small matter of last night’s win being the sixth straight conference victory for The Citadel, notable because, almost unbelievably (unless you follow Bulldog basketball), it’s the first time that the school has ever won six consecutive games in league play. Ever. In case you were wondering, The Citadel has been playing basketball in the Southern Conference since the 1936-37 season.
It almost didn’t happen this year, either. The Bulldogs led 61-59 when Ed Conroy called a 30-second timeout with 5:49 left in the game. The Citadel scored at least one point on each of its next seven possessions (including a big three-pointer by Zach Urbanus), yet with 43 seconds left the Bulldogs found themselves leading by only that same two-point margin. With 14 seconds left, The Citadel turned it over (on what looked like a bad call, but Mountaineer fans could make a good argument that a similar call had gone The Citadel’s way three minutes earlier). Appalachian State had a chance to tie or win the game, but good defense led to an off-balance three that never had a chance.
It was a fairly well-played game, particularly offensively. The difference was Appalachian State’s three-point shooting, not as much the poor percentage, but the fact the Mountaineers attempted 17 shots beyond the arc when they were converting two-point attempts at a 60% clip, and also getting it done from the foul line (16-18). I know the three-point shooting is part of their game, but when you’re having success inside and not shooting well from distance, jacking up threes just strikes me as not the way to go (although Appy did get its fair share of offensive rebounds from the missed three-pointers).
The Citadel only attempted ten three-pointers, making four of them. I think all ten came within the “natural” flow of the offense — in other words, none of them were forced. The Citadel did a good job of keeping things relatively simple offensively, feeding the ball to Demetrius Nelson on a regular basis. In the second half, Cameron Wells began creating shots for himself and taking advantage of driving opportunities. Cosmo Morabbi added a three and also had the distinction of being identified twice by the App State radio announcer as Jonathan Brick, which I thought was amusing, although not as funny as when the announcer got Brick confused with Bryan Streeter. (In all fairness, the announcer wasn’t bad at all; he just had a tough time with Brick for some reason.)
On Saturday, The Citadel travels to Cullowhee to take on Western Carolina, the team it beat to start this six-game streak, in what was arguably the Bulldogs’ best performance of the season (other than the free throw shooting). It will take another good effort to complete a sweep, particularly since the Catamounts are undefeated at home. WCU is currently tied atop the SoCon North with UT-Chattanooga, both at 7-5 in the league.
Speaking of conference standings, I’m glad that The Citadel (at least for the moment) has pushed ahead of the CofC into the #2 spot in the SoCon South. On Saturday night the College plays at Davidson in a game televised by ESPN2, with none other than Dick Vitale as the analyst. My guess is that he will talk about Stephen Curry for 60% of the game, Bobby Cremins for 30% of the time, and Duke when not talking about Curry or Cremins, but I am hoping that since the game features not the current first- and second-place teams in the division, but the first- and third-place teams, that he might briefly mention the team actually sitting in second place at the moment. I’m fairly confident he has never mentioned The Citadel during a broadcast, unless it was calling us a cupcake on somebody’s schedule.
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Brief non-basketball note: The Citadel and VMI are going to resume their series in football, beginning in 2011. I’m still annoyed the teams will go three seasons between meetings in the first place. At least The Coveted Silver Shako remains in Charleston, where it belongs.
Speaking of non-basketball notes and VMI, congrats to the Bulldog wrestlers for beating their counterparts from Lexington. I don’t claim to follow wrestling too much (despite having once announced a wrestling match — Jim Ross would have been impressed), but 21-9 is a good solid whuppin’.
Filed under: Basketball, The Citadel | Tagged: Appalachian State, Bobby Cremins, Bryan Streeter, Cameron Wells, College of Charleston, Cosmo Morabbi, Davidson, Demetrius Nelson, Dick Vitale, Jonathan Brick, Silver Shako, Southern Conference, Stephen Curry, The Citadel, UT-Chattanooga, VMI, Western Carolina, Zach Urbanus |
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