Thomas M. Ryan Center, Kingston, RI
Saturday, December 16, 2017
4:00PM
Media
TV: Cox YurView (in Rhode Island, Cox channel 4 or HD channel 1004)
Radio: B101, 101.5 FM
Previews: GoRhody.com
Vegas:
Opponent
Record:
5-2 in Div I, 0-0 in the Colonial Athletic Association
Road:1-1
Last season: 25-10, 14-4 in the Colonial Athletic Association
Rankings:
RPI: 172
BPI: 178
KenPom: 100
Leaders (returning from 2016-17):
Points - Joe Chealey, 17.7 ppg
Rebounds - Jarrell Brantley, 8.4 rpg
Assists - Joe Chealey, 3.2 apg
Leaders (after the first 7 Div I games of 2017-18):
Points - Joe Chealey, 19 ppg
Rebounds - Nick Harris, 6.4 rpg
Assists - Joe Chealey, 4.6 apg
Preview
The College of Charleston is a public sea-grant and space-grant university located in historic downtown Charleston, South Carolina,. Founded in 1770, it currently has an undergraduate enrollment of just over 10,000 students.
The sports teams at College of Charleston are called the Cougars; their team colors are maroon and white.
Charleston plays its collegiate athletics in the Colonial Athletic Association, as does Northeastern, Hofstra, Drexel, Delaware, Towson, and other schools.
The current head coach for CofC men's basketball is Earl Grant, a former Wichita State assistant.
Grant is a local product, a native of North Charleston who attended R.B. Stall High School. He played his college ball at Georgia College, a NCAA Division II school where Grant earned a bachelors in psychology. He began his coaching career as an assistant at The Citadel, two years later moved to Winthrop University as an assistant, and then three years later followed the Winthrop head coach to Wichita State. Three years after arriving at Wichita State, Grant jumped to an assistant position at Clemson.
College of Charleston, which had joined the Colonial Athletic League in 2013, named Earl Grant the men’s basketball head coach for the College of Charleston in September of 2014. Grant took over from Antonio Reynolds-Dean, who was serving as interim head coach at CofC, following the suspension of the then-current head coach Doug Wojcik who was facing allegations of physical confrontation and verbal abuse.
Coach Grant, to his credit, quickly smoothed the troubled waters at Charleston, and has since succeeded in getting the Cougars players to improve consistently year over year, during his three seasons as head man.
During Grant's first season, the Cougars went 3-15 in CAA play; the next year they were 8-10 in league play.
Last year, Grant's third year with the Cougars, Charleton took second place in the Colonial, with a 14-4 record. In post-season tournament play, the Cougars ended up in the NIT after making a run to the CAA championship game where they lost to top-seeded UNC Wilmington. In the first round of the NIT, CofC fell to Colorado State, finishing their season 25-10.
The 2016-2017 season ended on a high note, since the Cougars were returning all five starters from the team that had just won 25 games in the 2016-2017 season, and so the Charleston fans were looking for an even better season in 2017-2018. As any of the Charleston fans will tell you, the Cougars haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 1999 (the same year URI had last made it before Rhody's successful run late last season), and a March-2018 trip to the Big Dance was looking to be a strong possibility for the fourth season of head coach Earl Grant's reign. Expectations only increased with a strong in-coming class that got the chance to bond with the team's veterans over the summer during the Cougars’ 10-day trip to Ireland in August.
Come the fall, sports pundits also seemed to agree with the high-expectations of the Charleston fans. The Cougars were a near-unanimous pick to win its conference, receiving 38 of 40 first-place votes in the Colonial Athletic Association’s preseason poll.
So far this season, Charleston is 5-2 in Division I out-of-conference play:
opponent RPI DATE Opponent score ------------ ------ -------- ----- 258 Nov 10 Siena W 68-60 027 Nov 13 @Wichita State L 63-81 301 Nov 18 @Charlotte W 81-72 171 Nov 22 Cal Poly L 68-73 163 Nov 23 @Sam Houston State W 59-49 --- Nov 25 @Alaska-Anchorage W 55-46 Div II 165 Nov 30 Western Carolina W 69-60 287 Dec 4 High Point W 70-58 --- Dec 10 North Greenville - Div II
Over the seven Division I games that Charleston has played so far this season, Coach Grant has pretty much stayed within an eight player rotation (likely starters in bold):
- Marquise Pointer (6-0 220) Junior guard from Jonesboro, Arkansas. Has been part of the Charleston rotation and has played in every game since the start of his freshman year, where he earned CAA All-Rookie Team honors. Continues to be a solid contributor; kind of a "jack of all trades but master of none" guy.
- Grant Riller (6-3 195) Third-year sophomore guard from Ocoee, Florida. Did not play in his first year (2015-16) due to a season-ending ACL injury in the preseason. Last year, he played in 35 games with 29 starts, earning him a selection on the 2017 CAA All-Rookie Team. At the start of this season, he was Preseason All-CAA Second Team. Currently averaging 14 points per game. In the loss to Wichita State, he had a game high 20 points. Most recently, he had 15 points against High Point.
- Joe Chealey (6-4 190) Fifth-year senior guard frpm Orlando, Florida. Played 27 games as a freshman before going down with a knee injury. Started for almost all of his sophomore season. In what would have been his junior year (2015-16) did not play due to a season-ending Achilles tendon injury in the preseason. Last season, he led his team in scoring, assists, and three-pointers made, and earned All-CAA First Team honors. At the start of the 2017-18 season, he was the pre-season favorite for CAA Player of the Year and was also a pre-season candidate for the top Mid-Major Player of the Year and for the top NCAA Division I Player of the Year. Chealey had 26 points and 10 assists in the loss to Cal Poly. He was team high scorer against High Point wth 17 points.
- Cameron Johnson (6-4 200) Senior guard from Athens, Georgia. Has been a starter since half way through his freshman year. Two-time CAA All-Defensive Team selection. Last season averaged 7 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal per game. This season, he is averaging 11 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 steal. Strong defender and strong perimeter scorer. By the way, he comes from an athletically accomplished family: his father (Mario Johnson) played football for the University of Missouri and for the New England Patriots; his mother played basketball at the University of Missouri, which is where his parents met.
- Evan Bailey (6-6 210) Senior forward from Canton, Ohio. Has been part of Coach Grant's rotation since freshman year. A chemistry major and a College of Charleston Presidential and Academic Merit Scholar, he has been a member of the CAA All-Academic Team for the past two years.
- Jaylen McManus (6-8 230) Sophomore power forward from Charlotte, NC. Last year as a freshman, he saw action in 28 games of the season, averaging 1.4 points and 1.2 rebounds per game off the bench. This year, he has been thrown into the mix as a starter. He is averaging 5.6 ppg and 3.8 rpg. Perhaps most notably, since arriving in Charleston from his high school in North Cackalacky, McManus has grown an inch and put on 25 pounds of mostly muscle. Now the size of a power forward and having retained his shooting touch, McManus would appear to be poised to have a breakout season. However, in his performances to date, McManus has appeared to be still acclimatizing himself to the college game. Given that the most improvement a college player typically makes is from his freshman to sophomore season, and given Rhody's weakness at the 4-position, McManus's breakout could well come against Rhody. In the recent game against High Point, McManus had a career high 12 points on 3-for-3 shooting from the floor, 2-for-2 from beyond the arc, and 4-for-4 from the charity stripe; a foreshadowing perhaps of what could be his performance in the Ryan Center.
- Osinachi Smart (6-8 235) Second year freshman from Nigeria. The big man is athletic but a bit raw, as he has only been playing basketball since coming to the U.S. in August of 2013 to attend New Garden Friends School in North Carolina. As an in-coming freshman at CofC in the 2016-2017 season, he took a red-shirt year. So far this season, he has seen court time in all of Charleston's games, and is averaging 4 rpg.
- Nick Harris (6-10 260) Fourth-year junior forward from Dacula, Georgia. Redshirted the 2014-15 season, his first year at College of Charleston. Played in 30 games during the 2015-16 season with 24 starts. Last season, he saw action in 34 games of the season with 31 starts, averaging 6.0 rebounds, 5.9 points, and 1.1 blocks per game. So far this season, he is the Cougars' top rebounder, averaging 6.4 rpg. He is also averaging 6.4 points per game, shooting 50% from the field and 73% from the charity stripe. Perhaps most importantly, his protective physical presence in the paint permits his teammates to play aggressive defense.
- Trent Robinson (5-11 180) Junior guard from Columbia, SC. Walk-on and transfer from Charleston Southern.
- Zep Jasper (6-1 175) Freshman from Augusta, Georgia. Played a post-grad year at Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass. Not sure what's up with this guy, as some roster sites list him as a member of the Cougars and others don't.
- Brevin Galloway (6-2 215) Second-year freshman guard from Anderson, SC. The attributes he showed during a stellar high school career have not yet manifested themselves in Division 1 play. He took a redshirt season during the 2016-2017 campaign. So far this season, the jovial underclassman with tossled yellow hair has been used sparingly in a mere handful of games, with a total contribution of one failed three-point attempt.
- Jermaine Blackmon (6-2 230) Junior forward from Charlotte, NC. During his first two years at Charleston, he was the student manager for the CofC basketball program. This year, as a walk-on, he gets to wear a uniform while he sits on the bench.
- John Eck (6-4 170) Senior guard from Hilton Head Island, SC. Third year walk-on. Did not play last year due to injury.
- Jarrell Brantley (6-7 250) Junior power forward from Columbia, SC. Prepped at Notre Dame (Fitchburg, Mass). His first two years at Charleston were outstanding. He started in all 31 games of his freshman season, averaging 11.7 points and a team-leading 7.3 rebounds per game, and was at season's end selected to the CAA All-Rookie Team and to the All-CAA Third Team. Last year, in his sophomore season, he once again was a starter, leading his team in rebounds (8.4 rpg) and steals (39), while averaging 14.2 ppg, and being selected for the All-CAA Second Team and CAA All-Defensive Team. Coming into his junior year, he was a 2017-18 Preseason All-CAA First Team selection. However, the Cougar's preeminent inside performer has not played so far this season due to a injured left knee. Although a full recovery is expected, Brantley is not likely to be ready to return in time for the Rhody game.
- Samba Ndiaye (6-10 230) Freshman center from Senegal. Graduated in 2017 from Sunrise Christian Academy in Wichita, Kan. Also attended SEK El Castillo International School in Madrid, Spain. Since appearing in Charleston, he has played in but two games so far this season for a total of 6 minutes.
In short, the Cougars’ post presence is a bit different without Brantley's strength and bulk in the paint. With Brantley out of the lineup, Jaylen McManus has become a starter, and red-shirt freshman Osinachi Smart also is seeing more time than might have otherwise been expected. However, neither underclassman is capable of fully filling the star role played by Brantley.
Given the reality of Brantley's injured status, Coach Grant has taken to playing four guards against some of the teams that Charleston has faced. In a lot of games this season, it seemed that the Cougars went to a four guard lineup when they got into a tough situation.
On offense, the Cougars are a low scoring team, averaging 67 points per game, the lowest scoring offense in the CAA so far this 2017-2018 season. They are not an efficient scoring team, shooting just 39% from the field and 33% from the three-point-arc. They are 72% from the charity strip.
On defense, Charleston appears strong, allowing only 64.6 points per game. However, it is worth noting that the Cougars' schedule so far has been heavy with teams rated "over-150", and worth noting that Wichita State put up 80+ points against the Cougars.
On the rebounding side of the game, while the Cougars are not an exceptional rebounding team (averaging as a team 36 rpg, last among teams in the CAA), neither are the Rhody Rams (34 rebounds on average per game, third to last in the A-10). In terms of the up-coming mid-December meeting of the two teams, Charleston's Nick Harris (who is leading the Cougars in rebounds and in blocks) is a load underneath and will represent a challenge for guard-heavy and frontcourt-challenged Rhode Island. Do not be surprised should Harris record 30 or more minutes of playing time in Saturday's game.
All in all, Charleston is a good team, probably better than UNC-Asheville, and roughly equivalent to a mid-to-low tier A-10 team (think "George Mason"). The Cougars have a good coach, and they are going to be well-rested when they arrive in Kingston. They will be "up" for Rhode Island, with the hope of stealing a win against a more accomplished oppponent.
Look -- this should be a fun game of match-ups and mismatches, and a great game for E.C. to make his return to action. While Charleston could well finish the season at the top of the Colonial, the Cougars are at best a Top-100 team and they will be playing on the road, while gritty Rhode Island is a Top-50 team playing at home. Give yourself an early holiday treat, and get to the game. Why should Fatts be the one having all the fun?
GO RHODY!