Postgame Thoughts: Chattanooga

Although we lost tonight it should be said that we competed from the tip-off to the final horn against at least one of the SoCon's top two teams, and arguably the best from top to bottom. Wofford doesn't have the offense the Mocs have and is prone to blowing leads. Chattanooga, on the other hand, with Tuoyo down low and Jones running the point, is practically unstoppable. They minimized every run we had and battled a small but loud crowd to escape with a win.

Tonight we shot 25% from behind the arc and took "only" 24 three's. That's largely a testament to Chattanooga's suffocating perimeter defense. They crowded the three-point line on every possession and it forced Tim and Julian to struggle from distance, shooting a combined 2 of 12. We were outrebounded 46-39 which isn't bad considering the circumstances. The turnovers were much better: only 7 of them tonight, compared to 22 in the last game at the Roundhouse. But the biggest one came in the last minute of the second overtime, where the refs called Tim Marshall out of bounds on a catch-and-shoot three pointer. His foot was hovering the line and Duggar said he didn't like with the call in the postgame, but I think they got it right. Just an unfortunate play from a group of players that doesn't always have the best court awareness.

Individually Phil led the way with a career-high 26 points, and went 14 of 20 (!!) from the free throw line. He missed a couple late but you really can't ask for much more. Phil also had a couple chip shots that went awry in the first half as well and it ultimately cost us. But he does haul in 5 rebounds, two steals, and 6 blocks. A monster effort from a monster of a man.

Eleby followed suit with 25 points, but on 8-18 shooting and 1-5 from three. Not much you can do about it with Chattanooga's defense. He also has 7 assists (season high vs. DI) and 9 boards. Brian didn't shoot much and finishes with 10. Marshall, as mentioned earlier, struggled mightily from the floor and had 5. Weethee, the only other starter, was a no-show with 2 points despite playing most of regulation and overtime.

Only two players (Jarid and Trey) scored off the bench. Jarid was 2 of 3 from the floor and finished with 4 points, doing some nice work on the boards but it wasn't enough. He simply doesn't have the athleticism to hang with established big men a la Tuoyo, Duke Ethridge, etc. Trey scored 10 points and hit a pair of three-pointers but I thought he did a poor rebounding job, getting beat to the ball several times which lead to several Chattanooga points. He did finish up with 6 rebounds.

We were bailed out from losing in regulation or one OT by Chattanooga's 50% FT shooting. But other than that Chattanooga showed no weaknesses. They shot 47% overall, 38% from behind the arc and got 19 points from their guard Eric Robertson who came off the bench. Casey Jones also scored 17, and both players shot 50% from the field with smart shot selection from every part of the court. We forced them into 13 turnovers but could only convert those into 14 points. Not a single fast-break point was registered, hinting at our lack of a quality rim finisher.

Samford, once red-hot midway in the season, comes in riding a four-game losings streak and was drubbed by UNCG tonight on the road, eliminating any possibility of the 'Dogs getting a first-round bye. In an incredible twist of luck, Furman upset Western Carolina at home tonight 53-49, and Ashton Moore hit another buzzer beater to lift El Cid over ETSU 74-73. This of course means that both ETSU and WCU are tied at 8-9, the Keydets being one game behind each.

Having worked out the seeding scenarios last week, if VMI ends up tied with Western Carolina or ETSU (i.e. they tie only one), they will not get the tiebreaker over either one of them (this of course necessitating that VMI win Saturday). If, however, WCU and ETSU both lose, combined with a VMI win, the Keydets will leapfrog the Catamounts into fifth place by way of going 2-2 against those two squads (ETSU, at 3-1 with a sweep of the 'Cats, gets fourth, and WCU gets sixth). The Bucs play at Mercer, and the Catamounts play at The Citadel. Do I like our chances? Maybe. Maybe not. We'll see how it all plays out.

If however we lose to Samford, we can kiss fifth place goodbye. The Citadel cannot tie us even with a win (we swept them), but UNCG (now 6-11) absolutely can. If all three of these teams are tied, UNCG gets the sixth seed, VMI the seventh, and Citadel the eighth. So we'd be ousted from the bye. UNCG's game doesn't get tipped off til 5pm, so we will know how the Keydets have fared well before then. But if we lose, Keydet Nation must root loud and proud for Chattanooga on Saturday evening.