UNCA is 6-7, having lost 6 in a row early in the season.
However, they hung with NCSU, hung with Tenn, played well vs Ohio State (who runs a similar style to us), they won @ Northeastern by the same margin we beat Northeastern by when we won the Great Alaska shootout, and they straight up beat St Joes @ Philly.
Kyle Hornsby (Bruceās son), is their potential go-off guy . He had 26 @ Ohio State, and shoots 48% from 3 on about 6 attempts per game, which is very impressive.
I think we neeed to cut down on TOs and get back to playing the kind of defense that has carried us to many of our Wās this season. Definitely want to end non-conference play on a high note.
Niners by 16. Matchups. We are bigger and stronger and will push them around inside leaving them to try to win from 3 point land. Not their strength. Double-doubles by Braswell, Clayton, and Mayfield.
This is a game that we should win. However, I guarantee you it wonāt be a āCruiseā. It wonāt be easy. Unca is extremely well coached and will play with supreme effort. They are 6-7, but have played a much more difficult schedule. Beat St. Johnās at St. Johnās and the win at Northeastern is no slouch. If we donāt show up, this could destroy our resume. Better show up to play or the Bulldogs will crash our season. Do not take them lightly!!
I think this game, assuming UNCA brings the same intensity that they have for other games this year, will be a good measuring stick for our potential play against average A10 foes.
Iāve been worried about this game for a while now. I hope we are ready to play after the little Christmas break in the schedule. The Bulldogs have been pretty good this year.
I wonder if HP will drive down for this one in hopes that Bulldog Diva will be there.
[quote=ā49r9r, post:9, topic:27322ā]Iāve been worried about this game for a while now. I hope we are ready to play after the little Christmas break in the schedule. The Bulldogs have been pretty good this year.
I wonder if HP will drive down for this one in hopes that Bulldog Diva will be there. :)[/quote]
I was thinking the exact same thing. If there is/has been a trap game on our schedule this year, this would be it.
If we win this game Iāll feel a lot more comfortable assuming weāll beat all the teams that āweāre supposed to beatā in conference.[/quote]
Canāt be a trap game after a loss imo. I do wonder when the team started practicing again. Monday?
A win tomorrow and I can say our ooc results absolutely exceeded my expectations and Iām happy with the first half of the season.
We are playing much better now than we did at the beginning of the year (inexplicable losses to UNC Wilmington and USC Upstate), but we are still nowhere close to being as good as we were last season. We had to break in a brand new backcourt and do not have a true pg on the roster. Any chance we had of winning a 3rd straight Big South title was lost when Jaron Lane (senior wing, wouldāve averaged 15-16ppg) went down with a preseason injury and is now redshirting.
DJ Cunningham tore his ACL prior to the 2011-2012 season and still doesnāt appear to be 100%. But heās 6ā10" 240lb and is usually good for 10 and 6. Heās the only big man we have that can probably compete with your post players, our other options are too small and/or donāt have the needed athleticism. I imagine DJ, true to form, will get in early foul trouble and the 49ers will dominate the interior.
Hornsby has heard āThatās Just The Way It Isā in every single road arena. Yall need to switch it up.
Iād say right now we are maybe slightly better than Radford and Charleston Southern. You guys should win easily, unless we get uncharacteristically hot from downtown. Atkinson is a player though and will be a very touch matchup for whoever draws that assignment.
Not many teams in the A10 weāre supposed to beat this year. Maybe the expected bottom four (URI, Fordham, Duquesne, and GW) are around the level of UNC-A, though Duquesne is probably better. But they arenāt āaverageā A10 teams this year.
Iāll be happy with a win, but I wouldnāt take this game as a good measure of how conference play will go. Florida St. is probably more similar to the average A10 team, which means we need to step it up to do well in conference.
Well I am a little biased!! I guess weāll find out in a few weeks if we are really better than the Bucs. They certainly have a much stronger backcourt.
You guys should win by around 15 or so. And who is Asheville Diva?
Hornsby has a very unorthodox jumpshot, but damn if it doesnāt go in. Heās also probably the most athletic player on our team, he has ridiculous hops for a white guy.
I was thinking the exact same thing. If there is/has been a trap game on our schedule this year, this would be it.
If we win this game Iāll feel a lot more comfortable assuming weāll beat all the teams that āweāre supposed to beatā in conference.[/quote] Canāt be a trap game after a loss imo. I do wonder when the team started practicing again. Monday?
A win tomorrow and I can say our ooc results absolutely exceeded my expectations and Iām happy with the first half of the season.
Tomorrow is a must win on our home court.[/quote]
I knew there was a reason I felt weird calling it a trap game.
[quote=ā9erken, post:14, topic:27322ā]Not many teams in the A10 weāre supposed to beat this year. Maybe the expected bottom four (URI, Fordham, Duquesne, and GW) are around the level of UNC-A, though Duquesne is probably better. But they arenāt āaverageā A10 teams this year.
Iāll be happy with a win, but I wouldnāt take this game as a good measure of how conference play will go. Florida St. is probably more similar to the average A10 team, which means we need to step it up to do well in conference.[/quote]
Not sure if you were referring to my post, but those four teams are the teams I was referring to when I said teams that āweāre supposed to beat.ā I guess I could take it a step further by saying as long as we win those four games we should go at least .500 in conference. (and then another step further by saying an 8-8 A-10 conference record gets us in the NIT, anything better will put us in bubble team conversations ;D).
