The Citadel | The Sports Arsenal

Open letter to Chuck Driesell

Posted on April 27, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

Dear Coach Driesell (mind if I call you Chuck?) —

Congrats on being named head coach at The Citadel. I liked your choice of tie at the press conference. You and your family will enjoy Charleston. Whether or not you enjoy your new job will depend on how you approach it. Here are some tips:

— Know your history. I assume Larry Leckonby told you all about The Citadel’s hoops past. If not, here is a primer: Link

I hope you’re not having second thoughts…

Now, that post in the link covers everything up to Ed Conroy’s last two years at The Citadel, which were really good by Bulldog standards. Conroy won 20 games in 2009 and went 16-16 this past season; he parlayed that into a nice gig at Tulane. This is good news for you, Chuck, if you have designs on moving up the D-1 coaching ladder. Imagine if you actually won the Southern Conference. That might be worth an ACC job.

(Who am I kidding. That would be worth an NBA job.)

— If you want to make the NCAAs from The Citadel, you will have to win the Southern Conference tournament. The Southern Conference is a one-bid league; there hasn’t been an at-large bid out of the SoCon since 1950.

Winning the SoCon tourney while at The Citadel will be a tall order, however. The school’s postseason tournament history? Ugly.

Now, you remember your father’s struggles in the ACC tournament, so you can appreciate a tourney hex — maybe not one quite on the scale of The Citadel’s foibles at the SoCon tourney, but you probably understand the frustration. Of course, you also were on the team the year Lefty finally won the ACC tourney, so you know it’s possible to climb the mountain. Admittedly, you aren’t going to have the services of anyone as talented as Len Bias while at The Citadel.

— Speaking of the left-hander, feel free to invite your father to show up at McAlister Field House whenever he wants. We’re used to celebrities with connections to the program showing up at basketball games now, since Pat Conroy jumped on the bandwagon the last two seasons. All I ask is that whenever there is an article in The New York Times about the team’s success, or if Wright Thompson writes a long, thoughtful piece on ESPN.com about the basketball program, that maybe the stories might actually mention a current player. Just once?

It’s like the program got overshadowed by an ancillary figure. 5700 combined words, no mention of any player. Sigh.

(By the way, there has to be a great photo op involving General (the bulldog, not Rosa) and Lefty Driesell. Russ Pace, be ready.)

— Learn as much as you can about The Citadel, but don’t sweat it if you don’t understand everything about the school. I’m a graduate, and I do not understand everything about the place, and never will. If you really understand everything about The Citadel, you are certifiably insane.

One thing I will say is that you can’t quite lean on your time in the Navy, or at NAPS. There are some similarities but also some major differences.

You’re going to have to get a crash course in a new culture from somebody who was recently in your situation (Leckonby), and you should seriously consider having at least one guy on your staff with connections to the school. It’s kind of like having an interpreter.

— You have a reputation as a solid talent evaluator. I’m glad to hear that is the case, because I think that skill is critical to having success at The Citadel, much more so than just being a “getter” of players. You’re going to have to look for under-the-radar types.

I’ll give you an example, Chuck. Remember when Maryland was recruiting Jai Lucas? Of course you do, you were front and center on that recruitment. Maryland didn’t get him, though, which must have been very disappointing, especially with his father (the great John Lucas) having played for your father at Maryland.

Jai Lucas wound up going to Florida, and then later transferred to Texas. He was a big-time recruit. Big-time recruits don’t go to The Citadel.

When you were watching his high school games, though, did you happen to notice the other guard for Bellaire? Skinny kid, but a solid player. Wasn’t getting offers from any of the high-majors, or any of the mid-majors for that matter. I’m guessing you noticed him, at least enough to recognize him…even if you saw him now, in his cadet uniform.

His name was and is Cameron Wells, and he’s currently on pace to be the all-time leading scorer at The Citadel. I would argue that he has had a much better college career than Jai Lucas, and that’s even taking the level of competition into consideration. That’s the type of player you are seeking. Wells wasn’t a McDonald’s All-American, but it’s not inconceivable he could eventually become the first alum from The Citadel to play in the NBA.

— Besides finding “hidden” talent, Chuck, there is something else you need to keep in mind, something very important, and something quite a few coaches at The Citadel have found out the hard way. When you recruit, you have to recruit cadets and make them players. You can’t recruit players and make them cadets.

You have to bring in guys who are willing to embrace the challenge that is The Citadel. That’s what you’re selling, basically — a unique challenge, one that will stay with you all your life, along with a scholarship and the opportunity to play D-1 basketball.

It isn’t easy. No matter how good a salesman you are, The Citadel is never going to become the UCLA of the East.

The key to long-term success for any coach of any sport at The Citadel is to keep attrition low. I can’t emphasize that enough. You have to develop players over a four-year period. It doesn’t do you any good to recruit some on-court stud if he’s only around for a year or two because he can’t handle the military system.

Also, remember to work with the system, not against it. Don’t enable your players at the expense of the military side of things, as it will do you no good and will turn the corps of cadets (and a significant number of alumni) against you. You need to have the corps on your side.

That line you had at the presser about players “taking that experience [of The Citadel’s military system] to the court” — that was solid, Chuck. You at least talked a good game there.

— Speaking of the corps of cadets, you need to confer with Leckonby and General Rosa and some of the cadet leadership to figure out how to make McAlister Field House a decided homecourt advantage again. It wasn’t last season, and that’s a concern, because in the SoCon, you need to defend your homecourt.

The big problem is that league games are usually played on Thursdays and Saturdays. On Saturday, the corps is generally on leave, and a leave that is both much-anticipated and much-needed. On Thursday nights, you have a combination of things working against you, but I think you can work with the corps on that night.

See if you can arrange it so that a minimum of one-fourth (or at least one-fifth) of the corps is in attendance on Thursday nights, at least for SoCon games. Saturday is a tough nut to crack; at the very least, make sure cadets stuck on campus are at the games. Try to get cadets some rewards for supporting the team.

You have to understand, Chuck, that by and large cadets at The Citadel are not sports fans. At Maryland, you could count on a large student body with a healthy number of hoops nuts. You had a built-in student fan base. That isn’t the case at The Citadel, with just over 2000 members of the corps of cadets, only a very small percentage of whom grew up following college basketball on any level.

— That’s why, Chuck, you also need to reach out to the community. In terms of selling the program to outsiders, you’re going to have to be a little bit more like your father, I think. You’re competing with a lot of entertainment options, and Charleston is not really a sports town. However, it’s something you have to do. The Citadel has one of the oldest fan bases in the league, if not the country. You need to find some fresh blood.

— This is sort of an aside, Chuck, but I wanted to warn you in advance about Southern Conference officiating. It can be, uh, inconsistent. This is particularly true on Saturdays, when all the high-profile officials are working major-conference games.

Weekday games usually aren’t so bad, because there is sometimes a quality ref or two available for SoCon games. Saturdays, though, are often just short of an officiating debacle (actually, last season’s Davidson-Wofford game in Spartanburg was a debacle).

It’s just another reason why you need to have a good, boisterous crowd at McAlister for Saturday night games.

— Also, if you don’t mind, I would like for you to fix the uniforms. The next time we break out new duds, please be sure that the lettering on them reads “The Citadel” and not “Citadel”. It’s a pet peeve of mine, but still. Get the name of the school right. I bet General Grimsley would shake your hand if you made a point of correcting that, and it’s always good to be on the right side of the Grimmer.

— Your predecessor, Ed Conroy, made a point of scheduling quality non-conference opposition, with occasional home games against the likes of Michigan State and Southern California. I really liked this approach, and hope that you keep doing it. You probably are going to have to play two or three “guarantee” games at a minimum every year, anyway.

With that in mind, Chuck, see if you can schedule games against Big 10 and/or SEC opponents. Every Big 10 home game is televised on the Big Ten Network (BTN), and many of the SEC games are on one of the various ESPN platforms. Even a game on ESPN3.com is worth it for The Citadel.

Last season the Bulldogs were on television a grand total of three times, once on ESPNU and twice on SportSouth. To raise the profile of the program, and for recruiting purposes, I think it’s important to get on TV as much as possible. Besides, if we’re going to play elite teams to pay the bills, we might as well get something else out of it other than cash.

— You are going to be in an unusual situation at The Citadel for a new coach, in that you will be inheriting a team that has the potential to be good next season. I already mentioned Cameron Wells, but you have several other excellent players with whom to work.

At the press conference you mentioned that next season’s team could be “very special”. I was interested in the way you described the number of returning starters. Instead of saying that “all five starters will be back,” you noted that (I’m paraphrasing slightly) “at the end of the season all five starters were coming back.”

There have been some rumblings that at least a couple of players are considering leaving the school, including two regulars in the rotation, so your first recruiting job is going to be trying to keep them from bolting. It appears you are well aware of this, which is good. I hope they stay, as if everyone comes back next season really could be special.

Despite the expectations for next year, you won’t really be under any pressure to win immediately, and can think long-term. Ed Conroy left for a better job after four seasons. The three coaches before him had a combined winning percentage of 41.2%, but despite that coached for 11 (Les Robinson), 7 (Randy Nesbit), and 14 (Pat Dennis) seasons at The Citadel.

The job isn’t a career-killer like it’s occasionally been made out to be. Four of the last eight coaches, in fact, left to coach other Division I schools; one of them, Norm Sloan, would later win the national title. Sloan and Robinson would actually coach two other D-1 schools after leaving The Citadel (counting Sloan’s two stops at Florida just once).

—

Congrats again for getting your first shot as a D-1 head coach, Coach Driesell. Your opportunity comes at a place that is unusual and not for the faint of heart, but very special nonetheless. Cherish the experience.

We’ll be rooting for you.

Sincerely,

Filed under: Basketball, The Citadel | Tagged: ACC Tournament, Big Ten Network, Cameron Wells, Charleston, Chuck Driesell, Ed Conroy, ESPN.com, Florida, General, J.A. Grimsley, Jai Lucas, John Lucas, John Rosa, Larry Leckonby, Lefty Driesell, Len Bias, Les Robinson, Maryland, McAlister Field House, McDonald's All-American, NAPS, NBA, Norm Sloan, Pat Dennis, Randy Nesbit, Russ Pace, Southern Conference, Southern Conference Tournament, Texas, The Citadel, The New York Times, Tulane, Wright Thompson | 2 Comments »

Ruminating about off-field football troubles at The Citadel

Posted on April 4, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

It’s been a busy and occasionally difficult time for yours truly, which partly explains the lack of recent posts. With regards to the Rice/Starks situation, I also wanted to wait and see how things shook out. As it is, things haven’t become that much clearer as of late, but I figured I could make some comments about what we know right now.

They aren’t earthshaking observations, to be sure, but I wanted to weigh in on the matter in a little more detail. I’m going to concentrate on just a few points. There are two issues worth addressing that I’m not going to mention right now, because I simply don’t have enough information (not that I have any extra-special info on what I’m actually going to write about).

—

Before I delve into the recruitment of Reggie Rice and Miguel Starks, I wanted to briefly focus on an article in The Post and Courier from March 10 written by Schuyler Kropf. On the whole, I don’t have a big problem with the media coverage of the Rice/Starks arrests, but this particular piece gave me pause.

Kropf interviewed several alums, asking them about how the arrests might affect The Citadel’s image. All fine and good, and he got on-record quotes from three different graduates, one of whom I actually know. Kropf apparently could not get anyone to go on record with a “gloom and doom” quote, however, so he had to do what any intrepid reporter does when faced with such a dilemma.

He got quotes from anonymous message board posters.

Seriously, that’s what he did. I had to read the article a couple of times to make sure I wasn’t missing something.

I’m not completely sure Kropf understands the nature of message boards. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, I suppose, but it strikes me as poor reporting. For one thing, how sure is he that the posts he quotes are from actual graduates of The Citadel?

Now, maybe he did some checking, or asked permission from the posters in question before quoting their comments, but even then can he really be sure they are who they say they are? (He certainly didn’t indicate that he had confirmed anyone’s identity. Heck, he didn’t even mention the usernames associated with the quotes.)

Kropf was unable to get a negative quote from any current cadet (or alum) on the record, although he did write this, a time-honored crutch for a struggling scribe:

…several cadets declined to speak about the mood inside the ranks, quickly turning their heads around to see if anyone had seen them talking with a reporter.

With all due respect, Mr. Kropf, get over yourself.

Now, as it happens, the two message board quotes in the article are, I believe, from actual alumni of The Citadel. I can’t guarantee that, but I’m fairly sure — but then, I’m an occasional poster on that forum myself, and thus may be able to differentiate from regular posters and “trolls”. Whether Kropf can do so is another matter.

That particular message board doesn’t have nearly as much traffic as you would see from forums devoted to larger schools. Sites such as InsideMDSports or Phog.net may have several thousand members, with hundreds of posters online at one time, while thelordsofdiscipline.net has slightly over 500 registered members, with about a dozen of them online at extreme “peak” times.

What that means, among other things, is that when you have an event like the Rice/Starks arrests, the board is arguably more susceptible to being overwhelmed by people posting as fans of the school who aren’t really fans, just to stir things up. It’s been known to happen.

Kropf could easily have wound up quoting a 13-year-old posing as a graduate of The Citadel.

There is obviously a big difference between getting something on record from a living, breathing person and grabbing a comment from the internet. The first line of the article stated, “Whether The Citadel has an image problem depends on who’s doing the talking.” Well, not only does the article not adequately identify those behind part of “the talking”, it doesn’t identify them at all.

It appears to me that the reporter wanted to write the story from a certain angle, but could not get the confirming quotes he needed, so he took a cheap way out. In my view, that is not quality journalism.

—

Should Reggie Rice have been admitted to The Citadel? Based on what he has done since enrolling, the answer is no, but should have that been the answer all along?

For those not familiar with Rice’s history prior to receiving an athletic scholarship to the military college, this column gives the basic story:

During Rice’s senior season [in high school], he was spectacular. He had three 200-yard games, including one against perennial state power Lincoln County.

However, his final season was cut short when he was suspended after eight games following his arrest and subsequent guilty plea in juvenile court to a statutory rape charge. Rice [was] tried in juvenile court because the three girls involved were deemed to have been willing participants.

Rice was placed on 24 months of probation and ordered to perform 56 hours of community service. He was given something else after the 2006 incident: a second chance.

Several area leaders went to bat for Rice, and even assisted in him being admitted to The Citadel, where he had been offered a football scholarship.

Early on during his career as a cadet, it appeared Rice was redeeming himself…

There was a racial aspect to the statutory rape case. Rice (and one of the other males involved) were black, the girls white, and some in the community felt the charges were only brought due to race. It appears that some of those “area leaders” quoted in the piece thought he was being more or less railroaded, including a superior court judge (and graduate of The Citadel) who sent the case back to juvenile court.

Tangent: if you think you’ve heard a similar tale before, maybe you have. I was reminded of another, more notorious case in Georgia, one that involved Marcus Dixon (now of the Dallas Cowboys).

Besides being a fine football player, Rice was intelligent and personable. He impressed a lot of people, including the aforementioned judge and, later, a prominent businessman in the Charleston area (and alumnus). It has been interesting to read comments from people — experienced “men of the world” types, presumably naturals at spotting a fraud — who liked Rice, trusted him, and were shocked at his subsequent problems. Some people might call Rice a born con artist, or maybe even a sociopath. I don’t know what he is, and it doesn’t really matter now.

Given that background, should Rice have been admitted to The Citadel? No, he should not have. It should have been clear then, as it is now. I lay the blame for that on the admissions office more so than Kevin Higgins, as Rice was in Higgins’ first recruiting class, and the coach would not have been that familiar with the school. I think it is clear that General John Rosa believes Rice’s admission was in error. From his March 4 letter to alumni:

As did many colleges in the country, The Citadel revised its admission application process following the tragedy at Virginia Tech. We now require more information from candidates. Additionally, if the director of admissions has any concerns regarding an application, he presents them to me for consideration before final action is taken.

In other words, “that’s not happening again.”

It shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Most people understand that The Citadel is not a reformatory for wayward boys, but every now and then someone gets confused about the school’s mission and talks about its capacity to “redeem” a student. In the first column I linked, note that the author says that “it appeared Rice was redeeming himself.”

There are schools, many of them very good schools, where Rice would have been a reasonable candidate for admission. The Citadel is not one of them. You don’t go to The Citadel for redemption, because that’s not what the college is about. The Citadel “experience” tends to highlight your natural, innate personality traits, as opposed to developing others.

The Citadel, at its essence, is about testing yourself, and learning exactly who you are. This is a very good thing, because young men and women fresh out of high school usually have no idea who they really are. It’s also about learning how to deal with pressure, and about perseverance.

It’s not a second-chance type of place. Maybe Kevin Higgins didn’t realize that when he first arrived on campus, but there surely were officials in positions of authority who could have guided him.

—

I can’t give Higgins a pass for the recruitment (and subsequent “handling”) of Miguel Starks, however. Starks was a project in more ways than one. He was always the most impressive-looking player on the sidelines during a game, as he looked great in a football uniform. At The Citadel, though, that’s not the most important uniform.

Higgins saw in Starks the potential of a special player, and treated him accordingly. Higgins may have chosen to overlook some red flags that were raised during Starks’ high school career. Some of those apparently included being dismissed from the basketball team and being suspended for a playoff game (for an on-field fight).

There have been numerous complaints raised in various quarters that Higgins essentially “enabled” Starks at The Citadel, going to bat for him on multiple occasions when Starks got in trouble for not adapting to the military system. When you give preferential treatment to a star (or potential star) player, you run the risk of alienating the corps of cadets, not to mention his fellow football players. This may go a long way towards explaining some of the angst expressed by current cadets concerning corps squad issues.

Also, running interference for an athlete (or any cadet, for that matter) is ultimately a pointless exercise. You can’t make a person want to make it at The Citadel — he’s got to want it for himself. If he doesn’t, all the interceding and pleading in the world won’t make a difference.

Coaches at The Citadel have a learning curve when it comes to recruiting. One of the key things they have to learn is that keeping attrition low often correlates directly to on-field success. One of the important ways to prevent attrition is to recruit cadets who can become good players, as opposed to recruiting players and trying to make them cadets. Sometimes it takes a coach several years before he figures that out. There have been coaches at The Citadel who have never figured it out.

—

I’m not advocating firing anybody. I’m fairly confident that this episode is an isolated incident. However, I think coaches and administrators need to be put on notice. It’s one thing to have a losing record on the football field. At The Citadel, though, you better be undefeated off the field. One loss off the field is one loss too many.

Filed under: The Citadel | Tagged: John Rosa, Kevin Higgins, Marcus Dixon, Miguel Starks, Reggie Rice, Schuyler Kropf, The Citadel, The Post and Courier, TheLordsofDiscipline.net | Leave a comment »

Southern Conference tourney time

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

Last year, I wrote about The Citadel’s abysmal record in the Southern Conference tournament. The next few paragraphs are an updated version of that piece. Feel free to ignore them if you have a weak stomach. The preview for this year’s tournament (from The Citadel’s perspective) follows the history lesson.

—

One of the more curious things about The Citadel’s wretched history in the SoCon tourney is that there is no firm answer to just how many times the school has lost in the event. That’s because the league has mutated so many times there is a dispute as to what year the first “official” conference tournament was held.

Before 1920, The Citadel was one of many schools in a rather loose confederation known as the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association. (The Citadel initially joined in 1909.) There were about 30 colleges in the SIAA by 1920, including almost every member of the current SEC and about half of the current ACC, along with schools such as Centre, Sewanee (later a member of the SEC — seriously!), Chattanooga, Wofford, Howard (now called Samford, of course), and Millsaps, just to name a few. As you might imagine, the large and disparate membership had some disagreements, and was just plain hard to manage, so a number of the schools left to form the Southern Conference in late 1920.

In the spring of 1921, the SIAA sponsored a basketball tournament, which would be the forerunner to all the conference hoops tourneys to follow. Any southern college or university could travel to Atlanta to play, and fifteen schools did just that. Kentucky beat Georgia in the final. The Citadel did not enter the event, but several other small colleges did, including Newberry (for those unfamiliar with Newberry, it’s a tiny school located in central South Carolina). The tournament featured teams from the new Southern Conference, the old SIAA, and squads like Newberry, which wasn’t in either league (it would join the SIAA in 1923).

In 1922 the SIAA held another tournament in Atlanta, this one won by North Carolina, which beat Mercer in the final. The Citadel entered this time, losing in the first round to Vanderbilt. The SIAA tournament remained all-comers until 1924, when it was restricted to Southern Conference members.

Some sources suggest that the 1921 tournament is the first “official” Southern Conference tournament, some go with the 1922 event, and others argue for 1924. From what I can tell, the league itself is a bit wishy-washy on the issue. On the conference website, it states:

The first Southern Conference Championship was the league basketball tournament held in Atlanta in 1922. The North Carolina Tar Heels won the tournament to become the first recognized league champion in any sport. The Southern Conference Tournament remains the oldest of its kind in college basketball.

That’s great, but the conference’s own record book lists Kentucky as having won the first tournament title in 1921 (on page 113; oddly, that year is excluded from the game-by-game tournament results that begin on page 114). Of course, the edition of the record book on the conference website is several years old and lists The Citadel as having once lost 37 straight games, which is incorrect, so take it for what you will.

Personally, I think that the idea of having a conference tournament is to determine a league champion, and it stands to reason that such a tournament would only include league members. So the first “real” Southern Conference tournament, in my opinion, was held in 1924.

There is a point to this, trust me. The difference between counting the Vanderbilt loss as a SoCon tourney loss and not counting it is the difference between The Citadel’s alltime record in the event being 10-56 or 10-57. Not that they both aren’t hideous totals, but as of now The Citadel shares the NCAA record for “most consecutive conference tournament appearances without a title” with Clemson, which is 0-for-56 in trying to win the ACC tournament. Counting the Vanderbilt game would mean The Citadel is alone in its conference tourney infamy. No offense to the Tigers, but I don’t believe the 1922 game should count, because it wasn’t really a Southern Conference tournament game.

By the way, you read that right. The Citadel is 10-56 alltime in the SoCon tournament. That’s just unbelievably bad. It comes out to a 15% winning percentage, which is more than twice as bad as even The Citadel’s lousy alltime conference regular season winning percentage (35%). The Citadel lost 17 straight tourney games from 1961-78, and then from 1985-97 lost 13 more in a row.

Tangent: The single-game scoring record in the tournament is held by Marshall’s Skip Henderson, who put up 55 on The Citadel in 1988 in a game Marshall won by 43 points. The next night the Thundering Herd, which had won the regular season title that year, lost to UT-Chattanooga by one point. Karma.

Those long losing streaks didn’t occur in consecutive years, as The Citadel didn’t always qualify for the tournament, particularly in the years before 1953, when there were up to 17 teams in the league at any given time, and only the top squads played in the tourney. The Citadel’s first “real” appearance, in 1938, resulted in a 42-38 loss to Maryland.

The Citadel would lose two more tourney openers before winning its first game in 1943, against South Carolina. That would be the only time the Bulldogs and Gamecocks faced each other in the tournament, and so South Carolina is one of two teams The Citadel has a winning record against in SoCon tourney play (the Bulldogs are 2-0 against VMI).

The next time The Citadel would win a game in the tournament? 1959, when the Bulldogs actually won two games, against Furman and George Washington, and found themselves in the tourney final. Unfortunately, the opponent in the title game was West Virginia, led by Jerry West. West scored 27 points and the Mountaineers pulled away late for an 85-66 victory. This would be the only time The Citadel ever made the championship game; it’s also the only time the Bulldogs won two games in the tournament.

After a 1961 quarterfinal victory over Richmond, The Citadel would not win another tournament game until 1979, when the Bulldogs defeated Davidson before losing to Furman. The game against Davidson was played at McAlister Field House and was the final victory of a 20-win campaign, the school’s first.

The Citadel would win single games in 1982 and 1985 before going winless until 1998, when it finally broke a 13-game tourney losing streak by beating VMI. The Keydets would be the next victim as well, in 2002, and were apparently so embarrassed they left the league. The Citadel’s latest win in conference tournament action came in 2006 against Furman.

Twenty-one different schools have defeated The Citadel in tournament play, with Davidson’s eight victories leading the way (against one loss to the Bulldogs). East Tennessee State went 6-0 against The Citadel while in the league.

Ed Conroy is 0-3 in the SoCon tourney as head coach of The Citadel (he was also 0-4 as a player). If The Citadel were to win its conference tournament opener against Samford, and then lose the next day to Appalachian State, Conroy’s record would improve to 1-4. That would be the second-highest winning percentage in the tournament for a Bulldog coach since the days of Norm Sloan.

Sloan was 2-4 in the tourney; his successor, Mel Thompson, won his first tournament game as head coach. He would never win another, finishing with a record of 1-6. Dick Campbell was 0-4. George Hill was 0-3. Les Robinson was 3-10 (a record which by winning percentage leads all of the post-Sloan coaches). Randy Nesbit was 0-7. Pat Dennis was 3-14.

(By the way, the best record for a Bulldog coach in SoCon tourney play is that of Bo Sherman, who went 1-1 in 1943, his lone season in charge. Sherman’s Bulldogs defeated South Carolina before losing to Duke.)

The Citadel’s record against current SoCon teams in the tournament: Furman 2-5, UT-Chattanooga 0-1, Elon 0-1, Samford 0-1, College of Charleston 0-1, Georgia Southern 0-2, Western Carolina 1-1, Appalachian State 1-6, Davidson 1-8. (The Citadel has never played Wofford or UNC-Greensboro in the tournament.)

—

Last season The Citadel was flying high, having won 20 games for only the second time ever, and had high hopes entering the tournament. Those hopes came crashing down against Samford, a team The Citadel had defeated by 25 points during the regular season. Samford’s patient, Princeton-style offense scored 76 points on only 55 possessions, as the Birmingham Bulldogs got off to a great start and never really let The Citadel into the game. It was a very disappointing finish to an otherwise outstanding season.

This season The Citadel appeared on the verge of making a nice run into the SoCon tourney, having reeled off five straight victories, and needing just one more to clinch a winning season, both overall and in league play. It didn’t happen, though, as the Bulldogs lost their last three games. The loss at Furman, in particular, was very poor. The Citadel is now 15-15 for this year’s campaign, and would have to win at least two games in the tourney to garner its first back-to-back winning campaigns since 1980.

Instead of a bye into the quarterfinals, The Citadel finds itself playing in the first round on Friday, finishing as the 4th seed in the South division. Friday’s opponent, Samford, struggled to an 11-19 record (5-13 SoCon) and is the 5th seed from the North division. The winner will play Appalachian State, which finished first in the North, on Saturday night.

The two teams met twice during the regular season, with The Citadel winning both games. The first game, played in Birmingham on January 16, was the definition of slow tempo, with The Citadel’s patient motion offense (61.4 possessions per game, 8th slowest nationally) outlasting Samford’s Princeton-style attack (58.1 possessions per game, slowest in the country).

The cadets had but 51 possessions in the contest, and made just enough of them count to prevail 51-50. Cameron Wells had 19 points, while Austin Dahn had 17 (making 4 three-pointers). For Samford, Bryan Friday and Andy King combined for 28 points. The Citadel’s edge on the boards (26-20) proved critical.

In the rematch in Charleston, Samford led by 10 points with less than 10 minutes to play but was unable to hold on, thanks to a fine outside shooting performance in the second half by The Citadel. Freshman Ben Cherry had his best game of the season with 3 three-pointers, including two big shots late in the game.

Austin Dahn, who had made 4 three-pointers in the first meeting, hit four more in the second game to finish with 15 points and offset a poor shooting night for Wells (2-10 FG). Harrison DuPont added 13 points and 7 rebounds, good enough to survive an excellent game by Samford’s Josh Davis (24 points on only 11 FG attempts). The Citadel had 54 possessions in that game.

For The Citadel, the key to beating Samford for a third time this season is confidence. Last year in the tournament game, Samford ran out to an early lead. I think The Citadel’s players got a little nervous, especially because trying to play from behind against a team as patient as Samford can be very frustrating (just like it can be for teams playing The Citadel). The fact that the game was an elimination game in tournament play just exacerbated the tension.

It cannot help that The Citadel has no history of success in the SoCon tourney on which to build. That is why I think it is important for the Bulldogs to win this game. Even if The Citadel does not go on to win the tournament (winning four games in four days is extremely unlikely), enjoying just a taste of victory in the tourney may go a long way next season, when The Citadel figures to field a squad capable of contending for the SoCon title. This current crop of players needs to know it can win games in the tournament.

One thing working in The Citadel’s favor is that while it has lost three straight games, so has Samford. Also, while Cameron Wells did not shoot well in the latter part of the season, he was 10-16 from the field in the season finale against Wofford. That bodes well for the Bulldogs, which will need point production from Wells in the tournament.

The Citadel needs to start well, maintain its confidence, and not spend the whole night in “here we go again” mode.

If the Bulldogs advance, the next opponent would be Appalachian State, a team The Citadel defeated 62-58 in Boone early in the season. Appy star Donald Sims scored 22 points, but got no help from his teammates, none of whom scored more than 7 points, while Wells had 21 and Dahn 14 for the Bulldogs. Since then, the Mountaineers have fashioned an excellent season, and if not for the draw would be my pick to win the league tournament.

Wofford won the regular season and has the best draw, and I suppose should be the favorite, but for some reason I’m not quite convinced the Terriers have what it takes to win three straight games in three days.

It should be an interesting four days in Charlotte. It would be nice if The Citadel added to the interest.

Filed under: Basketball, The Citadel | Tagged: ACC, Andy King, Appalachian State, Austin Dahn, Ben Cherry, Bryan Friday, Cameron Wells, Clemson, Davidson, Dick Campbell, Donald Sims, Ed Conroy, Furman, George Hill, George Washington, Kentucky, Les Robinson, Maryland, Mel Thompson, Newberry, Norm Sloan, North Carolina, Pat Dennis, Randy Nesbit, Samford, SEC, SIAA, South Carolina, Southern Conference, Southern Conference Tournament, The Citadel, UNC-Greensboro, UT-Chattanooga, VMI, West Virginia, Wofford | Leave a comment »

Bad? Yes. How bad? We don’t know yet.

Posted on March 1, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

This is a post mainly to acknowledge that, yes, something is going on at The Citadel, and it’s not good. It’s very bad, in fact. Just how bad? Well, that’s what I don’t know. Not yet. I don’t think anyone — at least, not anyone outside of a very small group of people — knows for sure.

Because I don’t know, I’m not going to say much about it here right now. There will be plenty of time (and space) for me to comment once most, if not all, of the information concerning the arrest of Miguel Starks is made available, including any and all ancillary issues. You can believe I will have something to say at that time, and I’m not going to be holding back, either.

For the time being, however, I’ll leave most of the commentary to those common plagues of the internet, the message board troll and the online newspaper commenter. One of the things that happens in the immediate aftermath of an event like this is that various insects of an allegedly human origin begin to crawl out of the woodwork. This is particularly true when it involves an institution like The Citadel. The college has many more admirers than detractors, but the detractors tend to be both loud and remarkably angry.

Of course, comments on newspaper articles are easily ignored (and The Post and Courier has currently disabled comments for stories concerning Starks). It can be harder sometimes to avoid the message board trolls.

For example, at http://www.thelordsofdiscipline.net/ there have been several debut posters over the last 24 hours. Some of these new posters appear to be current cadets or recent graduates who have pertinent information to disclose, but I suspect a couple of them are trolling frauds. It’s almost impossible to say for certain who is “real”, though, at least for a short while.

That’s why it’s best not to draw conclusions from unverifiable sources, of course. Rumors are just that — rumors.

I’m going to wait and see how this situation plays out, and I would suggest others do the same. I’ll close by saying this, though — there are recruiting mistakes, and then there are recruiting mistakes.

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | 2 Comments »

The Citadel needs to win at least one more regular season game

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

The loss to UNC-Greensboro on Saturday was very disappointing, but oddly Ed Conroy wasn’t too worried about it. At least, that’s what he told Jeff Hartsell of The Post and Courier:

“I thought we did some really good things,” said Conroy. “We shared the ball well, only had six turnovers, shot the ball well from 3-point range. We just didn’t convert a lot of shots on the interior. We got some good looks there, but they didn’t go.”

There was also a reference earlier in the article to “a touch of fatigue and illness,” so perhaps the team’s energy level wasn’t as high as it normally was. Also less than energetic was a largely absent corps of cadets. The corps’ apathy and/or lack of presence this season during games at McAlister Field House (not to mention the homecoming game in football) has been noticeable. It’s an issue General Rosa and company must address.

Back to the court, The Citadel was outrebounded 41-24 by UNCG, which was basically the difference in the game, as it’s hard to overcome such a discrepancy without a huge edge in turnovers or shooting percentage, and the Bulldogs did not shoot particularly well (36%). The loss means that to clinch an overall winning season, as well as a winning season in Southern Conference play, The Citadel needs to win one of its two final regular season games.

That won’t be easy, as they are both road contests. Thursday the Bulldogs travel to Greenville to play an improving Furman club, followed by a Saturday game in Spartanburg against Wofford.

—

The Citadel beat Furman 70-60 in Charleston on January 23. In that game, Cameron Wells had 22 points and 12 rebounds. He was only 6-17 from the field, but went to the foul line repeatedly and converted (8-8). Bryan Streeter also had a double-double in the contest. The Bulldogs were a solid 8-20 from 3-point land and also won the turnover battle against the Paladins (11-8).

Furman’s Amu Saaka scored 19 points (on only 12 shots) and figures to be a problem again for the Bulldogs this time around. The Paladins will also have Jordan Miller available for this game after he missed the first meeting. Miller scored 31 points against UT-Chattanooga, but has followed up that great performance with two games in which he shot a combined 4-14 from the field.

Getting a win against Furman at Timmons Arena would be nice for several reasons. Assuming the two teams don’t meet in the Southern Conference tournament, it would be the first time The Citadel had swept the Paladins in consecutive seasons since the 2000-2001 campaigns. Of course, there were only three games played in those years, as Furman screwed up in 2000 and scheduled too many games, leading to a penalty that resulted in only one game on the hardwood between the two schools that year.

The Citadel also won the second game played in the 1999 season, so it did win four straight against Furman from 1999-2001. That was the last time the Bulldogs won four straight in the series. The last time the Bulldogs won both home-and-away in consecutive seasons against the Paladins? 1939-1940 (part of a six-game win streak against Furman, the longest for The Citadel in the series’ history). The Citadel hasn’t won consecutive games in Greenville since 1992-1993.

—

The Citadel had a late lead against Wofford in the game played on January 21, but couldn’t hold on and lost 44-42. As the score indicates, it wasn’t an offensive masterpiece. The Bulldogs shot 32% from the field. Wofford shot no better (30%), but outrebounded The Citadel 38-33 and committed one fewer turnover. The Terriers’ stated strategy of stopping Cameron Wells worked, as the rest of the Bulldog squad (save Zach Urbanus) combined for more turnovers (10) than made field goals (6).

You can bet Wofford will try to hold down Wells’ production again to win its sixth straight game over the cadets, but it may not be so easy this time, as the other Bulldogs have done a better job in recent games of shouldering the offensive load. Of course, the Terriers are likely to be better at putting the ball in the hoop on Saturday as well.

Noah Dahlman was his usual solid self in the first meeting (15 points, 6-12 FG, five rebounds). Odds are at least one of his teammates will provide offensive support. I anticipate a higher-scoring game this time (but not much higher — we’re not talking about a pair of run-and-gun teams here).

—

Just a few stats to finish off this post…

— With one more regular season victory, The Citadel will clinch its second consecutive winning season. The last time the Bulldogs had two straight winning campaigns? 1979-1980. Before that, you have to go back to 1964-1965. The Citadel had four straight winning seasons from 1958-1961. Speaking of the 1958-61 era…

— If The Citadel beats Furman and/or Wofford, it will enjoy a second consecutive winning season in Southern Conference play. The last time the Bulldogs had two straight winning SoCon campaigns? 1960-1961.

You read that correctly. Actually, from 1958-1961 The Citadel had four straight winning seasons in conference play. The first three came under the direction of Norm Sloan, who then became the head coach at Florida. His successor at The Citadel, Mel Thompson (best known as Pat Conroy’s head coach at The Citadel, I suppose) would go 10-3 in SoCon action in his first season in charge.

Sloan took over a program that had not had a winning SoCon season since 1945. Actually, that doesn’t really tell the story. Let’s put it this way: from 1946 to 1956, The Citadel was 12-102 in league play. The five years preceding Sloan’s arrival in Charleston featured a combined conference record of 2-49.

Sloan was 5-9 in the SoCon in his first season, and then had league records of 9-6, 7-4, and 8-4.

Sloan won the national championship in 1974 while coaching North Carolina State. He had proved his worth as a coach many years earlier, though, at a small military college.

Incidentally, the only other time The Citadel had back-to-back winning years in the Southern Conference came in the 1938-1939-1940 seasons, when the Bulldogs had three straight winning SoCon campaigns, mostly under head coach Rock Norman (who coached the team in 1938 and 1939, and for the first eight games in 1940 before being replaced by Ben Parker).

There is definitely potential for The Citadel to make a little history with a win in either of its two games this week. I wouldn’t mind if instead of winning one of them, it won both.

Filed under: Basketball, The Citadel | Tagged: Amu Saaka, Ben Parker, Cameron Wells, Ed Conroy, Furman, Jeff Hartsell, John Rosa, Jordan Miller, McAlister Field House, Mel Thompson, Noah Dahlman, Norm Sloan, North Carolina State, Pat Conroy, Rock Norman, Southern Conference, The Citadel, The Post and Courier, Timmons Arena, UNC-Greensboro, UT-Chattanooga, Wofford, Zach Urbanus | Leave a comment »

Make it five in a row; The Citadel’s basketball team rolls along

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

This is going to be one of my shorter posts. Apologies to anyone who actually follows the blog on a semi-regular basis, but it’s hard to write when under the effects of anesthesia. I was barely able to follow Thursday night’s game against Western Carolina, in which the Bulldogs played as good a half (the second) as they have all season. I wish I had been at full speed for that one, but I’ll take a 17-point win while groggy any day.

Anyway, Ed Conroy and company have won 5 straight games. Ed has figured out this February basketball thing, as the Bulldogs are 11-1 in the shortest month over the last two seasons. Last year, they lost their final game in February after winning six straight in the month (the final six games of last season’s 11-game winning streak). This year, the Bulldogs are 5-0 in the month with three games to go — UNC-Greensboro on Saturday in the home finale at McAlister Field House, followed by road games against Furman and Wofford.

Quick hits on the Western Carolina game:

It’s great to see Cosmo Morabbi getting his shot back. He made three-pointers from all over the court, setting a career high for makes (5). Zach Urbanus has been consistent most of the year, but if Morabbi and Austin Dahn (who had a tough night, but made a three near the game’s end) are also shooting well from outside, the Bulldogs can present some serious problems for opposing defenses along the perimeter.
Morabbi wasn’t just shooting from outside; he had three steals in the game as well.
The stat line doesn’t really show it, but Bryan Streeter had a very solid game last night, particularly defensively. He outplayed WCU’s post players all night, in my opinion. Some of his rebounds came in heavy traffic. He just needs to watch those elbows, especially on SoCon Saturdays when the officiating is, uh, interesting.
Harrison DuPont had another good game after a slow start. I kind of like combining his numbers with those of Bo Holston. If you do that, you get this line: 40 minutes, 17 points (5-11 FG, 6-8 FT; DuPont also made a 3), 14 rebounds (6 offensive), 2 assists, 3 turnovers. [Also 6 fouls, so pretend the combo player is in the NBA.] That’s very good production over the course of a game, obviously. DuPont should be a serious candidate for the All-SoCon freshman team.
It wasn’t Cameron Wells’ best night, as it took him 14 FG attempts to score 13 points. He also had four turnovers (he did have 5 assists, though). Despite that, The Citadel won by 17. That’s a very good sign going forward, especially after being down 11 points at one point in the first half. Wells isn’t going to be “off” too often.
The Bulldogs trailed 25-14 with 5:34 remaining in the half. For the rest of the game, The Citadel outscored WCU 59-31. Remember, WCU has a win this season over Louisville at Freedom Hall. It’s a team that has some talent.
The Bulldogs were 7-10 from beyond the arc in the second half. You can win a lot of games shooting 70% from three-land in the second half.
Western Carolina’s leading scorer this season, Brandon Giles, was 0-6 from the field, committed four turnovers, and did not score against The Citadel.

—

Last season, UNC-Greensboro won only five games all season, four in Southern Conference play. So far this season, UNCG has won five games, four in Southern Conference play. The Spartans actually started their conference campaign with a 33-point win at Samford, but that was definitely an outlier. UNCG is now 4-11 in the league and has lost five straight SoCon outings, although they’ve only been blown out in one of those five, so it’s not like the Spartans haven’t been competitive lately. They just haven’t been winning.

UNC has a fine player in 6’5″ senior Ben Stywall, who averages 14.4 points per game and 10.3 rebounds per contest. That’s right, he averages a double-double. Stywall scored 22 points and grabbed 11 boards in UNCG’s most recent game, a 70-65 loss to Elon. He has had some monster games this year, most of them in losses, including 26/19 against Samford, 21/14 against the College of Charleston, and 24/14 against Western Carolina. In that CofC game, 11 of Stywall’s rebounds came on the offensive end.

One reason Stywall gets a lot of offensive boards is because he gets a lot of chances. UNCG is the poorest shooting team in the conference in league play, shooting just 38.9% from the field. Stywall is the only Spartan getting significant minutes who is shooting better than 41%. Kyle Randall is a 6’2″ freshman who has taken only one fewer shot than Stywall, but he’s only shooting 33%. The Spartans have two three-point gunners (Mikko Koivisto and Kendall Toney); neither is shooting better than 37% from the field (or better than 34% from beyond the arc).

The Citadel should win this game. Not because it’s the last home game of the season (which the Bulldogs actually lost last year), but because it’s a much better team that is playing its best basketball of the season. The Bulldogs need to maintain their excellent perimeter defense and control Stywall on the glass (they aren’t going to completely stop him). UNCG likes to play at a higher tempo (averaging over 70 possessions per game in league play), so as usual The Citadel must control the pace.

The game is on SportSouth, the second Saturday in a row the Bulldogs will be featured on television. The start time is 1 pm ET; if you can’t be at the game (like me, unfortunately), you should be watching on TV. This team has now set the all-time school record for most victories over a two-year span with 35 (breaking a record set in 1979-80). I’m hoping they add at least seven more games to that mark…

Filed under: Basketball, The Citadel | Tagged: Austin Dahn, Ben Stywall, Bo Holston, Brandon Giles, Bryan Streeter, Cameron Wells, College of Charleston, Cosmo Morabbi, Ed Conroy, Elon, Furman, Harrison Dupont, Kendall Toney, Kyle Randall, Louisville, McAlister Field House, Mikko Koivisto, Samford, Southern Conference, SportSouth, The Citadel, UNC-Greensboro, Western Carolina, Wofford, Zach Urbanus | 1 Comment »

Lose two, win three: the pattern changes for The Citadel’s hoops squad

Posted on February 10, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

I was starting to think the season was going to take a serious turn for the worse after the Bulldogs went 0-2 on the Georgia Southern/Davidson road swing, blowing sizable leads in both games. The loss in Statesboro was the nadir of the 2009-10 campaign, with the number 21 figuring prominently — a 21-point lead blown, thanks mostly to 21 turnovers (on only 66 possessions — yikes) and 21 fouls. GSU took advantage of all the fouling, hitting a staggering 27 of its 28 free throw attempts.

(The Bulldogs also had 21 rebounds in that game. Really, after the game somebody from The Citadel should have caught a plane to Vegas and started playing blackjack.)

If that loss didn’t all but eliminate any chance of The Citadel garnering a first-round bye in the Southern Conference tournament, the tough OT setback to the Wildcats almost surely did. Despite blowing another early lead, this wasn’t as bad an effort by the Bulldogs. Ultimately, The Citadel didn’t shoot well enough to win the game (39% from the field, including 27% from beyond the arc). The Bulldogs did a much better job protecting the basketball (nine turnovers) but could not overcome Davidson’s rebounding advantage (including 11 offensive boards). To beat a good team on the road, The Citadel needed a few more good things to happen.

The team could have folded at that point. It didn’t, though. The day after the Davidson game, Ed Conroy made a series of Tweets. Tying them together, they read like this:

Tough trip home. Our guys really take losses hard which is why they always bounce back. Love this group. We really competed – great game.

Our job as coaches is to get prepared for practice because these guys will be focused on getting better tomorrow. They are determined and resilient. I can’t wait to get back and clip this film so we can show our guys what we need to improve on. Wells and Urbanus will have everyone ready to focus tomorrow. That’s all you can ask! Really thankful I don’t have to worry about that. Go Dogs!

Well, they were as good as his word when it came to being resilient. In the next game, against Samford, The Citadel trailed by 11 points with a little over 10 minutes remaining. 11 points is a lot to make up for a team like The Citadel, especially when playing Samford, a team that likes to operate at an even slower pace than the cadets.

Samford, like all SoCon teams, was determined to stop Cameron Wells, and it succeeded in holding him to 8 points. However, for the first time in a while, Wells’ teammates picked up the scoring slack. Austin Dahn and Harrison DuPont combined for 28 points, and freshman Ben Cherry hit three big three-pointers. The Citadel came back and won.

For the first time all season the Bulldogs claimed victory in a game despite committing more turnovers than the opposition. I think that can be at least partly attributed to the more balanced scoring (and better shooting). With more than one player able to contribute offensively, it could be argued that the team’s margin of error is not quite so small.

The Citadel followed that up with another home victory, a deserved triumph over UT-Chattanooga, the first time the Bulldogs had beaten the Mocs on the hardwood since 2002. Of course, The Citadel would have won the earlier matchup in Chattanooga if not for a miracle shot by Keegan Bell. Bell had no magic on demand in this game, however, putting up a goose egg in the scoring column despite playing 31 minutes.

On the other hand, Mocs forward Ridge McKeither, who had missed the first game against the Bulldogs, finished with 13 points and 18 rebounds, and probably should have been the focus of the UTC offense more often. Instead the Mocs hoisted up 35 three-pointers, making just 8 of them. UTC also struggled from the charity stripe (10-20) and committed five more turnovers than the Bulldogs.

UTC did outrebound The Citadel 41-31, but the poor outside shooting (for which The Citadel’s perimeter defense should take a great deal of credit) doomed the Mocs. Meanwhile, Zach Urbanus, who has historically enjoyed shooting three-pointers against UTC — he had 7 threes in a game against the Mocs as a freshman — scored 24 points, thanks mostly to, yes, 7 made three-pointers.

Austin Dahn also had a good game, making three shots from beyond the arc, dishing out four assists, and not committing a turnover in 32 minutes of action. Then there was the emergence of a new force for the Bulldogs…The Bo Holston Experience.

Holston, a 6’4″ sophomore from Olney, Maryland, had his career game (so far) against UT-Chattanooga, grabbing nine rebounds, including five critical offensive boards, to go along with 7 points and one memorable steal. Late in the game, with The Citadel unaccountably struggling to hold onto the ball, Holston turned the ball over on a bad pass in the paint. UTC raced up the court with the basketball, looking to break for an easy hoop — only to have Holston run down the ballhandler and take it right back. That was basically the game-ending play.

Before that game Holston had appeared in 13 games for the Bulldogs, scoring a total of 18 points. Against UTC, though, he suddenly morphed into The Bo Holston Experience, an unexpected natural phenomenon not easily explained. His hustle and spirited play helped offset (along with the efforts of Dahn and Urbanus) another tough shooting night for Wells, who was 1-10 from the floor. For a second consecutive game, the Bulldogs survived a less-than-stellar offensive outing from their best player.

(They also survived some sketchy officiating, as it was another Saturday night in the SoCon. For a while, Cosmo Morabbi looked more like Vito Anterfuermo than a basketball player, but no autopsy, no foul.)

The Citadel hadn’t won three straight games all season until Monday night’s satisfying win over the College of Charleston. With that win, the Bulldogs remain undefeated at Carolina First Arena. The Citadel is 2-0 in the building, as opposed to, say, UNC, which is winless in the facility (after losing in OT to the CofC earlier this season).

Incidentally, next year The Citadel is scheduled to play four games at Carolina First Arena, one against the Cougars and three others as part of the Charleston Classic. It’s nice to know the Bulldogs are comfortable playing there.

As for the game on Monday night, The Citadel against took advantage of a team having a cold shooting night from three-point land, as the Cougars were 6-23 from beyond the arc. The Bulldogs’ excellent perimeter D harassed CofC star Andrew Goudelock into a 1-8 shooting night from outside. The Cougars, like UTC, seemed unwilling to pound the ball inside as often as might have been expected, although Bryan Streeter probably deserves credit for solid post defense (notably his positioning).

Wells scored 15 points in this game, not quite at his scoring average, but he did have five assists. Urbanus’ two huge three-pointers in crunch time provided the Bulldogs with a little breathing room, and DuPont and Holston had a combined line of 39 minutes, 23 points (on 10-18 shooting), 10 rebounds and only 2 turnovers. That works.

One thing about Cameron Wells: maybe he hasn’t been putting as many points on the board as usual, but he’s still a major offensive force, as other teams focus on him at the risk of letting other Bulldogs get good looks. In the last three games, the other players for The Citadel have taken advantage of those opportunities, many of them directly provided by Wells, who in those three outings has 19 assists (against only 5 turnovers).

—

As I noted earlier, I think the losses to GSU and Davidson probably mean that The Citadel has little to no chance of a first-round SoCon tourney bye. However, the last three games have given hope that perhaps the team could arrive in Charlotte with a good deal of momentum. Besides, the bye last year didn’t exactly help the Bulldogs much. (I would still want it, of course. It’s easier to win three games in three nights than four games in four nights.)

The Citadel has a chance of having a winning season, both overall and in SoCon play, both of which would be fine accomplishments, given the history of the program. Only twice in the last 45 years has The Citadel enjoyed consecutive winning seasons.

Also, over the last two years the Bulldogs have won 33 games (with a number of games remaining this season, obviously). Only once in school history has The Citadel won more games over a two year-span — 1979-80, when the Bulldogs won 34 games.

—

After playing three games in five days, The Citadel has some time off, playing just one game in the next ten days. That will come Saturday at Elon. The Phoenix are only 6-17 but are improving as the season goes along, and have two straight league wins as proof, having won on the road at Furman and at home against Western Carolina. Elon also has a win over UT-Chattanooga. Last season The Citadel lost a tough game at Elon, 56-54, before gaining a season split at McAlister Field House (60-58).

As for this season’s Phoenix squad, it’s not a good shooting team (10th in the league in FG%, next-to-last in 3FG% and FT%). Elon plays a slightly more uptempo game than does The Citadel, although that’s true of every team in the SoCon except Samford. The Phoenix do a reasonable job of protecting the basketball, but are not a particularly strong defensive outfit (and like the Bulldogs, do not have good rebounding stats).

In the win over Furman, 6’2″ guard T.J. Douglas had 21 points and 13 (!) rebounds. Douglas likes to shoot from outside, as he has 123 three-point attempts this season, but only 10 trips to the free throw line. Another guy not afraid to shoot from beyond the arc is Drew Spradlin, who had 14 points against the Paladins, and led the Phoenix with 16 against WCU. In that game, five Elon players scored in double figures.

—

The Citadel should have the confidence to go on the road and get a win, but it won’t be easy. Then again, it never is.

Filed under: Basketball, The Citadel | Tagged: Andrew Goudelock, Austin Dahn, Ben Cherry, Bo Holston, Bryan Streeter, Cameron Wells, Carolina First Arena, Charleston Classic, College of Charleston, Cosmo Morabbi, Davidson, Drew Spradlin, Ed Conroy, Elon, Furman, Georgia Southern, Harrison Dupont, Keegan Bell, McAlister Field House, North Carolina, Ridge McKeither, Samford, Southern Conference, T.J. Douglas, The Citadel, UT-Chattanooga, Vito Anterfuermo, Western Carolina, Zach Urbanus | Leave a comment »

Win one, lose one: The Citadel’s hoops team marches on

Posted on January 27, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

The Citadel is now 10-10 overall, 4-4 in the Southern Conference. It’s been a .500 kind of year from the start; the Bulldogs have been 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 6-6, 7-7, 8-8, 9-9, and the current 10-10 mark — and in league play the cadets have been 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, and now 4-4. The Citadel hasn’t won more than two games in a row, and has lost more than two in a row just once (the three-game stretch against Michigan State, Texas A&M, and Houston).

Last week was more of the same, as the Bulldogs lost at home to Wofford on a last-second tip-in on Thursday before recovering to beat Furman on Saturday at McAlister Field House, a game in which Regan Truesdale’s jersey was honored at halftime. The win over the Paladins (final score: 70-60) broke a six-game streak of Bulldog games decided by seven or fewer points, with three of those matchups decided by two points or less.

Brief thoughts on the two games:

– When the final score is 44-42, as it was in the game against Wofford, it’s an indication that neither team’s offense had a good day, and that was certainly the case, tempo-related adjustments aside. Wofford won despite shooting 30% from the field (just 2-12 from 3-land). The Citadel did not shoot much better and was outrebounded by the Terriers (including allowing 14 offensive boards).

The Bulldogs also lost the turnover battle 12-11; they are now 0-6 in games in which they commit more turnovers than the opposition. Joe Wolfinger, in particular, struggled holding on to the ball, committing four turnovers in only twelve minutes of action. Wasted was a fine defensive effort by The Citadel that included a surprising six blocked shots, four of them courtesy of Harrison DuPont, who is beginning to assert himself in league play.

– The win over the Paladins was a nice bounce-back game, although it took a while for the offense to get into gear. With the Bulldogs trailing 40-32 in the second half, Ed Conroy called time. The Citadel would proceed to score on eleven of its next twelve possessions, resulting in a 15-0 run that completely turned the game around.

That is what is known by basketball experts as a “good timeout”.

One interesting aspect of the game against Furman was Conroy’s reliance on his starting lineup (Harrison DuPont, Bryan Streeter, Cameron Wells, Zach Urbanus, and Austin Dahn). Those five players each played over 30 minutes in the contest, which struck me as a bit unusual. The Bulldogs committed just eight turnovers, won the rebound battle and actually shot well from beyond the arc (8-20). It was The Citadel’s third consecutive win over Furman.

—

Next up is a road trip within the division, with The Citadel playing Georgia Southern in Statesboro on Thursday and traveling to Davidson on Saturday. Like Furman, Georgia Southern has lost three games in a row against The Citadel, including earlier this season at McAlister (68-43). The two games before that streak were Eagle victories until last week, when the wins were vacated. GSU is now on NCAA-imposed probation for two years, thanks to serious academic irregularities.

In the game in Charleston, The Citadel shot 14-22 from 3-land, outrebounded the Eagles, and won the turnover battle 20-8. I don’t expect all of that to happen again; Georgia Southern has been playing a little better since that December 5 matchup, and can claim home victories over Appalachian State and Western Carolina, along with a close loss to Davidson.

GSU still isn’t a good offensive team, ranking last in the conference in shooting percentage and assist/turnover ratio, and also struggles defending the three (allowing a league-worst 43.4% to its opponents). The Eagles play a higher-tempo game than any team in the league (75.5 possessions per game in SoCon action), and it will be important for The Citadel to keep the game at its preferred slower pace. Patience, and good work on the offensive glass, will carry the day.

Davidson beat The Citadel at McAlister in the conference opener on December 3, 74-63. In that game, the Wildcats were an absurd 15-27 from beyond the arc. William Archambault had a career night from outside, making 6 of 9 three-pointers. J.P. Kuhlman was 3-4, and Jake Cohen was 4-8. Ben Allison made his first three-pointer of the season in that game (he now has four).

The Wildcats are certainly a capable outside shooting club, but it’s hard to imagine them shooting as well as they did that night. The Citadel needs to contain that part of Davidson’s game, and take advantage of what the Wildcats don’t do well. So far this SoCon season, that would be playing defense, as Davidson current ranks last in league play in points allowed per possession and FG% defense. The Wildcats are also next-to-last in 3FG% defense and tend to commit a lot of fouls (10th in that category out of 12 SoCon teams).

I would imagine that last statistic might particularly trouble a Davidson fan when considering the game against The Citadel will be played on a Saturday night, and all SoCon fans are aware of the vast disparity in officiating quality between weekday and weekend games in the conference. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily bode well for The Citadel, either, as it has seen its own fair share of SoCon ref “issues” (including a rare technical for Ed Conroy in a Saturday matchup against Samford two weeks ago).

—

One final note: for The Citadel to have a realistic chance of garnering a first-round bye in the Southern Conference tournament, it probably needs to win both games this week, in part because both are divisional games. Davidson, of course, is also competing for a top-2 finish in the South division, which makes that game even more important. Winning two league road games, while an achievable goal, will be a tall order.

Filed under: Basketball, The Citadel | Tagged: Appalachian State, Austin Dahn, Ben Allison, Bryan Streeter, Cameron Wells, Davidson, Ed Conroy, Furman, Georgia Southern, Harrison Dupont, Houston, J.P. Kuhlman, Jake Cohen, Joe Wolfinger, McAlister Field House, Michigan State, NCAA, Regan Truesdale, Samford, Southern Conference, Southern Conference Tournament, Texas A&M, The Citadel, Western Carolina, William Archambault, Wofford, Zach Urbanus | Leave a comment »

Evaluating The Citadel’s basketball team after six SoCon games

Posted on January 18, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

The Citadel split its most recent four games, all in league play, which wasn’t so bad when you consider three of them were on the road, but it could have been much better — and it could have been much worse. All four games were close, with two coming down to the final possession. The Bulldogs were burned on a last-ditch three-pointer by UT-Chattanooga on Thursday, but recovered to outlast Samford on Saturday by one solitary point.

That Samford game, by the way, was not exactly a track meet. The final score (51-50) reflected a game in which The Citadel had 51 possessions, while Samford had 52. This was not a surprise, as the two teams are among the four slowest-paced outfits in Division I, both preferring an ultra-patient approach. It’s particularly the case with Samford, which for the season is averaging just 57 possessions per game, easily the lowest number in the country. The Citadel, at barely 60 possessions per contest, is fourth-lowest.

The slower pace definitely helps The Citadel, which is much more competitive in games in which it can control the tempo. The importance of each possession in these types of games is something to which the Bulldogs have become accustomed, and is something not all opponents have grasped. This has sometimes given The Citadel an advantage when playing teams that are perhaps more athletic but not as disciplined.

I know what some people are wondering about, though. Right now The Citadel is 9-9 overall, 3-3 in the league. This is after last season’s 20-win campaign (which included 15 SoCon victories). What is not going right this year that went right last year?

Well, first it should be noted that the Bulldogs are almost exactly where they were last year at this time in terms of record. Last season after 18 games The Citadel was 8-10, 3-4 in the league, coming off a loss at Wofford. The Bulldogs then proceeded to win 11 games in a row.

I’m going to make a not-so-bold prediction now, which is that The Citadel is not about to embark on a 11-game winning streak. Not this year, anyway. That isn’t to say the team can’t put together a good midseason run, but there are issues that may not be easily solvable.

When looking at the team statistics, the first thing that jumps out at you is the three-point shooting, both offensively and defensively. At first I was concerned with the defensive stats, but upon further review (stealing an NFL term) they aren’t all that bad. Offensive output from beyond the arc, though, is another story. The Citadel is struggling shooting the three-pointer, and I think a lot of that has to do with…interior play.

Last season in conference play, the Bulldogs only allowed opponents to shoot 28.9% from three-point land, which led the league. This season that number has risen significantly, to 36.8%. However, almost all of that increase is attributable to one game, Davidson’s flukish (well, I think it was flukish) 15-27 night from beyond the arc. If you take that game out of the equation, in five other SoCon matchups The Citadel’s defensive 3FG% is 31.1%, still a little higher than last season but acceptable.

Then there are the offensive numbers from behind the three-point line. Last season The Citadel shot 36.7% from three-land in SoCon play; this year after six games that number is 28.5%, which is next-to-last in the league. That includes a 10-22 shooting performance against Georgia Southern, which is the poorest team in the conference at defending the three. The Bulldogs were solid from beyond the arc against Appalachian State (9-22) but otherwise have been mostly dreadful from deep, including 3-18 against the College of Charleston and 5-34 against UTC.

Almost as disturbing as the number of misses against the Mocs were the number of attempts, which points up another curious statistic. The Citadel is actually averaging more points scored per game via three-pointers this season (38.7% of total points scored) than it did last year (31.1%) despite not shooting as well from outside.

Last year the Bulldogs only had four conference games (out of 20) in which they shot worse than 31% from three-point land. This year they’ve been below that mark three times in six games. Despite the lack of success, the Bulldogs are averaging 3 more three-point attempts per game this season than last. So why is the three-point scoring more prominent?

The answer, I would suggest, lies in the Bulldogs’ lack of productivity inside. The easiest way to illustrate this is The Citadel’s below-average 47.5% shooting from inside the arc (last year in league play that number was over 50%). However, I think the real issue is the lack of made free throws. This is where the Bulldogs really miss Demetrius Nelson.

Last season 21.2% of The Citadel’s points came at the charity stripe, which was excellent (the national average is 18%). This year, though, the Bulldogs are only getting 13.94% of their points from the line. That’s a big difference, especially for a team that has a limited number of possessions per game.

The Citadel averages 60.4 points per game. 13.94% of 60.4 is 8.4, so the Bulldogs are picking up a little over 8 points per game from the foul line. Now, let’s say they were getting 21.2% of their points from free throw shooting. That would be about 13 points per game. Those extra 5 points make a big difference. Last season The Citadel was 6-3 in games decided by 5 points or less. Three of those games came during the 11-game win streak.

This year the Bulldogs are 1-2 in such games, and that doesn’t count the six-point loss to the CofC. In that game, The Citadel shot only 8 total free throws. In the Bulldogs’ two victories over the Cougars last season, the Citadel shot a combined 40 free throws.

The problem is that I don’t know if The Citadel can increase its free throw productivity. Nelson averaged over 5 made free throws per game last season, which was more than every other player on the roster combined, save Cameron Wells. This season Wells is averaging almost exactly the same number of made FTs per game as he did last year (3.3), but no one else is drawing fouls and shooting free throws.

The two primary inside players for The Citadel, Joe Wolfinger and Bryan Streeter, each are averaging one made free throw per game. When compared to Nelson, that’s a big differential to overcome. The essential dilemma for The Citadel is that unlike Nelson, neither is a true post threat.

Wolfinger has the size but not the strength or intuitiveness for the role. Streeter has strength and verve, but lacks size and is not the most offensively skilled of players; he is also a poor free throw shooter. He has made some strides this season in FT%, though, and has also improved his turnover rate by over 50%.

I’ve mentioned before that I have been impressed with Mike Groselle in his brief appearances for The Citadel, and he may be the future in the paint. However, his development has been affected by an ankle injury, and at any rate it is probably a bit much to ask a true freshman to play major minutes in the post.

My guess is that as the season goes along Ed Conroy and his coaching staff will try to devise more ways to get players to the foul line. Whether that means Cameron Wells (or another guard/swingman type) posting up more, I have no idea.

Without the “free” points, The Citadel is going to have to just be that much better at everything else it does offensively. So far the Bulldogs have done a good job avoiding turnovers (the turnover rate is actually better right now than it was last season), and the rebounding, while not great, hasn’t been a major problem. The Citadel has to continue to improve on the offensive boards, especially if it continues to struggle from outside.

There will be more missed shots, and thus more chances to grab offensive boards. Those chances need to be taken; as I noted earlier, every possession is important. Someone who is providing value in that respect is Harrison DuPont, who has 11 offensive rebounds in his last three games, which is outstanding.

The lack of offensive game on the interior is probably a factor in the less-than-stellar outside shooting. Without the threat on the inside, opponents can concentrate on stopping the Bulldogs’ marksmen.

Zach Urbanus is currently in a bit of a slump from outside, shooting only 9-39 in his last seven games, including 3-19 in a two-game stretch against the CofC and UTC. He was 1-2 against Samford, though, so perhaps becoming more selective (which is his general mode anyway) will get him back in the groove.

I’m hoping that both Urbanus and Cosmo Morabbi start shooting better from beyond the arc. Morabbi went four straight games without a made three-pointer before hitting one against Samford. The Bulldogs really need him to start making that 3-ball from the corner. Conversely, Austin Dahn appears to be back on track from outside. Dahn needs to improve his decision-making on offense just a bit, though, as of late he has been a touch turnover-prone.

Also getting time in the rotation is Daniel Eykyn, who seems to be a “glue guy” of sorts for Conroy; passes the ball, plays defense, hustles, lets other players rest, etc. He averages one turnover every 35 minutes of play, best on the team for players with over 100 total minutes played (also taking care of the ball in limited time: Groselle and Ben Cherry, who has no turnovers in 66 minutes of action).

As for Wells, he continues his impressive campaign, which looks a lot like last year’s impressive campaign. He’s currently averaging almost 18 points per game, to go along with about 5 rebounds and 4 assists per contest. He’s on the floor for 34+ minutes per game (just behind Urbanus for the team lead; both are among the national leaders in minutes played) and has close to a 2-1 assist/turnover ratio.

Wells has pilfered almost two steals per game and even leads the team in blocked shots (albeit with only five; The Citadel is tied for last in the country in blocked shots per game, sharing that less-than-ideal distinction with Nicholls State).

—

Next up for the Bulldogs are two home games, one on Thursday against Wofford and the second on Saturday against Furman. After those two contests, The Citadel will have played every one of its divisional opponents at home, so the stretch run will include a lot of tough road games. Holding serve at home is important, particularly in what I believe to be an improved Southern Conference. The Citadel has already lost two home SoCon games and can’t afford to drop many more at McAlister Field House.

It’s not going to be easy. First up on Thursday, as mentioned, is Wofford. I believe Wofford may be the best team in the league, although the Terriers started 0-2 in conference play. The loss at Western Carolina was understandable, but Wofford followed that up by losing at home to Appalachian State. Since then, though, the Terriers have reeled off four straight SoCon victories, the most impressive of which probably being a 68-62 home win over Davidson.

It’s out of conference where Wofford has made its best impression. The Terriers have wins over Georgia and South Carolina, not to mention a 3-point loss at Pittsburgh which looks better ever day.

The Terriers are a deep team (10 players get 10+ minutes per game; 7 of them get 17+ mpg) led by 6’6″ junior Noah Dahlman, one of the league’s best players. Dahlman is averaging 17.7 points per game (the only Terrier averaging double figures in scoring), and shoots better than 60% from the field. He had 20 against Pitt and 19 against South Carolina.

He’s not the only guy to watch, though, as evidenced by the win over Georgia. Dahlman had 11 points (in only 21 minutes) in that game, but three other Terriers chipped in 10+ points to enable the Terriers to win, led by 6’8″ senior Corey Godzinski, who had 13.

Godzinski scored 12 points in last year’s game at McAlister, one of two games Wofford won over The Citadel last season (Dahlman had 17 in both contests). The Terriers proved to be a tough matchup for the Bulldogs in 2008-09. I suspect the same will be true this year.

Wofford isn’t a big three-point shooting team, although it is an efficient squad from closer range. Wofford is a good passing team, leading the conference in assists per game. The Terriers do a good job defending the outside shot, and also force more than their fair share of turnovers. Wofford does turn the ball over itself a bit more than the norm. The Terriers average 71.3 possessions per game in league play.

Furman looks to be much more competitive this season; after only winning 4 of 20 league games last year, the Paladins are 3-3 in the conference play entering this week’s play. Like The Citadel, Furman has a road win against Appalachian State and a home victory over Georgia Southern. The Paladins also have a win at Elon.

Furman is a junior-dominated team with two double-figure scorers, Amu Saaka (16.7 ppg) and Jordan Miller (15.2 ppg). The 6’6″ Saaka, who started his career at South Florida, scored 34 points in a loss to Davidson and is also averaging 6.8 rebounds per contest. Miller is a 6’2″ guard who had 15 points and 6 assists in the Paladins’ recent win over Georgia Southern.

Furman has been good defending the three-point shot in league play, which might trouble The Citadel. On the other hand, the Paladins are both turnover-prone and not particularly adept at creating turnovers. Furman averages 72+ possessions per game, so the battle to control tempo will be key.

—

One more thing: at halftime of the Furman game on Saturday, The Citadel will honor the jersey of Regan Truesdale, two-time Southern Conference player of the year and the school’s all-time leading scorer. The Citadel honored Art Musselman in similar fashion last year. This is part of Ed Conroy’s long-range plan for developing a hoops tradition at The Citadel, and I think it’s a really good idea. Congratulations to Regan Truesdale, who absolutely deserves the honor.

Filed under: Basketball, The Citadel | Tagged: Amu Saaka, Appalachian State, Art Musselman, Austin Dahn, Ben Cherry, Bryan Streeter, Cameron Wells, College of Charleston, Corey Godzinski, Cosmo Morabbi, Daniel Eykyn, Davidson, Demetrius Nelson, Ed Conroy, Elon, Furman, Georgia, Georgia Southern, Harrison Dupont, Joe Wolfinger, Jordan Miller, McAlister Field House, Mike Groselle, Noah Dahlman, Pittsburgh, Regan Truesdale, Samford, South Carolina, South Florida, Southern Conference, The Citadel, UT-Chattanooga, Wofford, Zach Urbanus | Leave a comment »

New year, new hoops post

Posted on January 5, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

Conference play goes into high gear starting on Wednesday with the Bulldogs’ trip to Boone to face Appalachian State, followed by a matchup at McAlister with the College of Charleston on Saturday. The next week will feature more road action as the Bulldogs make the western swing through the league, taking on UT-Chattanooga on the 14th and Samford on the 16th.

The Citadel is .500 right now no matter how you look at it, at 7-7 overall, 1-1 in the SoCon. Last year at this time The Citadel was 6-7 overall, 1-1 in the league.

Facts, observations, etc.:

– The Citadel’s starting lineup against Savannah State included no players hailing from east of the Mississippi River, which is decidedly unusual (if not unprecedented).

– Zach Urbanus is averaging 35. 7 minutes per game, which is in the top 25 nationally. I worry a little about him and Cameron Wells (34.1 mpg) wearing down over the course of the season, but they logged major minutes last season too, and it didn’t seem to bother them.

– Bulldog opponents have shot better from 40% from three-point land on four occasions. The Citadel has lost all four of those games.

– The Citadel’s game notes for the Appalachian State game include the statistic that the Bulldogs are 14th nationally in fouls committed per game, at 15.0 per contest. However, the flip side to that is The Citadel’s opponents have only committed two more fouls than the Bulldogs (212-210).

– The fouling statistics are really just a function of The Citadel’s pace of play. At 62.3 possessions per game, the Bulldogs are among the ten slowest-playing teams in Division I.

– So while The Citadel is 22nd nationally in fewest turnovers per game, it is actually 103rd in D-1 in terms of turnover rate (which is still not bad; it’s about where the Bulldogs were last season).

– Let’s talk about offensive rebounding for a moment. The Citadel has struggled at times on the boards this season, and it’s mainly attributable to the Bulldogs not getting their fair share of offensive rebounds.

Joe Wolfinger has 25 offensive boards this season. Now, that leads the team, but on the other hand, Wolfinger has played 339 minutes so far; he’s averaging one offensive board every 13.5 minutes on the floor. Bryan Streeter has 18 offensive rebounds in 255 minutes (one every 14.2 minutes).

Those are the guys you would expect to get the majority of the offensive caroms, and they have — but on a per-minute basis, they haven’t been as effective as Ed Conroy might like. Nobody on the team is actually bringing in an exceptional percentage of offensive rebounds (the best per-minute performer in the category is Mike Groselle, who in limited time has grabbed one every 9.1 minutes).

This is where the Bulldogs really miss John Brown. Last season Brown had an excellent offensive rebounding campaign, averaging one such board every 9.9 minutes (and he played 537 minutes). At least one member of the current edition of the Bulldogs needs to repeat (or at least approach repeating) that effort — either that or The Citadel has to significantly increase its shooting percentage, which is unlikely.

– Wolfinger is shooting 44.2% from the floor, but he’s under 40% against Division I competition. He has only had four games this season in which he has shot better than 50% from the field — against Kenyon, UVA-Wise, Missouri State, and Maryland-Eastern Shore.

Wolfinger has struggled in the two SoCon games. Here is hoping that he gets better as the second half of the season begins, both offensively and defensively. He could still be a key cog in the rotation, but perhaps not as an offensive focal point.

– Although Wolfinger is a 7-footer, the Bulldog who appears most comfortable as an offensive post player is Groselle, who suffered an ankle injury that limited his time on the court the last few weeks. If healthy, I would not be surprised if Groselle’s minutes increase markedly as the season progresses.

– Another freshman, Harrison DuPont, got his first career start against Savannah State (as part of the all-Western starting lineup) and shows potential to be an impact player. He has played 30+ minutes in each of the last two games, scoring 14 points against Houston and 11 against Savannah State. He had six turnovers against Houston, but other than that did well in both games, shooting better than 50% from the field and picking up a few rebounds along the way.

– In nine games as a starter, Austin Dahn shot 15.6% from three-point land. In five games coming off the bench, he is shooting 47.8% from beyond the arc. Advantage, Ed Conroy.

– Bryan Streeter also has some improved statistics after being switched from the starting lineup. His rebounding rates have almost doubled. His free throw shooting has even improved (albeit that’s a very small sample size).

Streeter is shooting 58.8% from the line so far this season (and was 5-6 against Savannah State). That may not seem impressive, but it’s a big change for the better when compared to last season, when Streeter only made 16 free throws in 44 attempts (36.4%).

—

The upcoming league games will be tough, considering three are on the road and the one home game is against the College of Charleston, which beat North Carolina on Monday night. Last season The Citadel was a combined 5-2 against the four teams.

The Bulldogs swept Appalachian State in two tight games (one in OT, the other by two points). The Citadel also swept the College of Charleston in two contests, neither of which was particularly close, something the Cougars will surely remember.

The Citadel lost at home to UT-Chattanooga, and had a disappointing split with Samford — disappointing in the sense that while Charleston’s Bulldogs dominated the Birmingham Bulldogs in the regular-season matchup at Samford, in the conference tourney quarterfinals Samford put a quick end to The Citadel’s championship hopes.

The SoCon looks to be very competitive this season, with a lot of evenly-matched teams. The Citadel’s 7-7 overall record is in line with the records of its next four opponents, which have current records of 7-6 (Appy), 8-6 (UTC), 8-6 (CofC), and 6-8 (Samford). Other conference teams with similar records: Davidson (7-8), Furman (7-6), and Wofford (8-7). On the other hand, Western Carolina is 11-2 (with a win at Louisville) while Elon, Georgia Southern, and UNC-Greensboro are a combined 8-33.

I’m hoping for an entertaining conference race. My definition of entertaining is one in which The Citadel is in or near the lead…

Filed under: Basketball, The Citadel | Tagged: Appalachian State, Austin Dahn, Bryan Streeter, Cameron Wells, College of Charleston, Davidson, Ed Conroy, Elon, Furman, Georgia Southern, Harrison Dupont, Houston, Joe Wolfinger, John Brown, Kenyon, Louisville, Maryland-Eastern Shore, McAlister Field House, Mike Groselle, Missouri State, North Carolina, Samford, Southern Conference, The Citadel, UNC-Greensboro, UVA-Wise, Western Carolina, Wofford, Zach Urbanus | Leave a comment »

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