Homecoming ’16: Cougars to Grapple with Tigers, Dragons

Ah…Homecoming. Easily a Top-10 excuse for CofC students to get intoxicated at a school-sanctioned event. Right up there with A Charleston Affair, graduation, the season-opening Block Party, Cougarpalooza and the esteemed Bully Pulpit series. As much as I’d love to venture down to Chucktown to partake in the festivities, those Southwest Airlines dollars are reserved for ACA and the 2017 CAA Tournament.

While students and alums take advantage of the newly booze-filled TD Arena, the action on the court may very well lack some aesthetically-pleasing polish. Towson (16–7, 7–3) and Drexel (3–18, 1–9) are two of the beefiest, toughest, stingiest teams in the league — as CofC fans will remember from this year’s road games against both squads.

Towson and Charleston set basketball back several generations with the regionally-televised 40–37 (that’s FINAL score) victory for the Cougars. That game featured more personal fouls than made field goals and just one player in double figures (Big Game Cam). Drexel picked up their only conference victory and one third of their season total by grinding out a win over the offensively-challenged Cougars last month.

In order to seize another home-and-home opportunity and go 2–0 this week, the Cougars will need to bring their usual defensive intensity alongside the offense we have seen in spurts. During that epic 20-point comeback last week and the beginning of the UNCW game, the Cougars were converting stops and steals into points on the other end. Right now defense is fueling offense and CofC needs to milk every last drop of gas to keep the points-per-possession humming. They’ll have a rowdy crowd encouraging them the whole time.