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Scouting Charlotte!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
1/22/2013
The UNCC 49ers are off to their best start since the mid-1990's (15-3). Their final season in the A-10 (off to Conference USA because of their brand new FBS football team) has started well at 3-1 with home wins over LaSalle and Fordham, a road "W" at Rhode Island and a road flat tire last Saturday at Richmond (81-61 loss with Darian Brothers scoring 39 for the Spiders).They're 4th in the 16 team Atlantic 10 behind VCU (4-0) and XU (4-0) and Butler (3-0).
Charlotte's calling card has been stingy defense (allowing under 63PPG). They have hovered all season around the Top 10 nationally in FG% defense (37%) and 3PT FG% defense (30%). Depth is solid with 4 players earning heavy minutes off the bench. The non-starters have outscored the starters on occasion.
Offense has been a challenge. 3 point shooting has been poor (26% with only 15% of total points coming from outside the arc (342nd of 345 in D-1). FTs are an adventure (65%), but the 49ers are aggressive to the basket and shoot a lot more from the line than the opposition. Offensive rebounding is a strength. Coach Alan Major (3rd year-Thad Matta assistant at Xavier and Ohio State) has brought in some strong physical players who attack the glass and worry about fancy stuff later.
Why aren't the 49ers getting Top 25 votes? Why aren't Dicky V and Seth Davis waxing lyrical about them? A) They're overshadowed along Tobacco Road by the ACC and B) They haven't played a super schedule. UNCC won a watered down Alaska Shoot-out. Their best wins are LaSalle and at Davidson. They have no bad losses (at Miami-Florida, Florida State at the NBA Charlotte Bobcat's arena, at Richmond.) Charlotte is 9-0 at Halton Arena.
They beat the Muskies at Halton two years ago 66-62 for XU's only loss in conference (15-1). UNCC used plenty of zone defense and a ton of free throws to scuttle Xavier. Last season at Halton, X just survived 74-70. UNCC tried more zone. Forward Jarvis Barnett bombed in 27. Again, Charlotte beat XU in FT points but the Muskies owned points in the paint 46-14 and hung on to win.
On Senior day at Cintas, X clobbered UNCC 72-63 despite 28 points from 6-9 Chris Braswell. In short, Charlotte is dangerous. Soph guard Pierra Henry is a difficult match-up at 6-4 200. He's averaged 15PPG in A-10 play. He's a driver, not a jump shooter and really delivers great ball pressure defensively (3 steals/game). His turnovers are way up though. 6-4 Soph Terrence Williams is another rangy guard who's struggled shooting lately. Frosh Denzel Ingram (5-11) is technically a PG. Frosh Wllie Clayton (6-7 236) starts at a forward and just crashes the offensive board.
Braswell is the veteran. He was coming off the bench until 5 games ago. He and coach Major have had a few differences. Braswell can be devastating around the basket but he's been mediocre so far in A-10 games (8P-4R). 6-5 De Mario Mayfield shoots a ton of FTs and scores 14PPG in conference. Frosh Darin Clark (6-6 233) has played more lately (7.5PPG A-10). Soph Victor Nickerson (6-7) draws fouls and scores from the line. Va Tech transfer JT Thompson (6-6,234)SR is a quality player who left Blacksburg when Seth Greenberg was fired and is earning more and more time at Charlotte.
UNCC will come after the Muskie guards more aggressively than LaSalle or St Bonnies. They apply their heat with bigger more agile bodies and they'll be motivated at home after their road clunker (81 points allowed) at Richmond. X needs to get contributions from everybody as they did at St Bonnies and home against LaSalle. There were no passengers and little foul trouble.
During the 4-0 A-10 start Xavier has been dedicated to the game plan. Patience has prevailed on both ends of the floor. The Muskies have controlled tempo and found shooters on offense (Semaj Christon in transition and off the dribble-Brad Redford-outside the arc) and made it difficult for the opponents' top scorers on defense(Conger-SBU, Galloway-LaSalle). In addition, X has won in rebounding and hustle plays. It's been a very virtuous combination.
Road adversity is in the cards at Charlotte. They're bigger and deeper and more dedicated to defense. This would be a good night for the Muskies to make FTs (75%????) and have Justin Martin drain a few of those open wing three's he's been just missing. UNCC is going to bang Semaj, but they have better personnel to execute. They are going to face guard Redford but that's hard to do for 30 minutes plus. Who's going to blink here? Both teams have had success with very focused styles.
This game could be in the 40's or 50's if the teams remain stubborn and don't crack. X has 3 impact seniors (Redford, Taylor, Robinson) to UNCC's 1 (Braswell-who doesn't always buy into the coach's thinking) plus transfer Thompson who's starting to earn more trust from Alan Major.
Around the A-10: Butler's at LaSalle-Rotnei Clark may miss another game although the Dawgs are 3-0 without him including Dayton where he was injured. Fordham is at Dayton. The Flyers are 0-3 but have had a week to refocus.SLU plays at Duquesne after being stunned at home losing to URI. GW's at Rhode Island. St Bonnies at St Joe's. Bonnies won at Temple Saturday. Temple plays Penn in a Big 5 game. Thursday it's VCU at Richmond in their City Game. VCU's about ready to lose.
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