Quickie score: MacRadford dominated the freshly nicknamed Keydet Cops 101-77 Thursday. The wheels are flying off of VMI’s metaphorical vehicle at this point: Reggie Williams finished with 7 points and 2 (!) rebounds. Matt Murrer shot only 4 times and only hit 2. The one thing VMI does do well--rebound--they didn’t do: the Highlanders had a 35-24 edge. After starting 2-1, VMI has lost five straight.
As for Radford, well, this game didn’t prove much for them except that their whole offense will click like hell (62 percent FG, 139.2 offensive efficiency, 8 assists for Whit) if you don’t defend.
Now, for Saturday slate linkage:
Mike Perrin shows his questionable grasp of tempo-free statistics by calling Radford "the league's second-best offense" while implying that BSC is getting by on toughness and rebounding. Check the efficiency numbers, Mike: BSC leads the conference (107.3) while Radford is a not-so-shabby-but-still third (102.9). MacRadford has yet to win in Bill Battle (0-4 all-time) and the Saturday afternoon tip-off means more fans than usual. Both teams are playing top-shelf basketball (the two longest winning streaks in conference) but it's a long way from Radford to Birmingham in only two days and the adjustment from VMI's Go! Team pace to BSC's Tortoise pace won't be easy.
Predix: BSC 63, Radford 59
Remember when "old school" was some pretty dope slang? Yeah, if it wasn't dead already, for some reason I think it coming out of Gregg Marshall's mouth officially kills it. Still, "old school" Marshall = angry Marshall = angry Winthrop = poor Othern Southern. Charleston clearly didn't spend their time in Scheduling Gods confessional during the offseason.
Predix: Winthrop 77, Charleston 50
UNC-Asheville hosts High Point at the best-named arena in the league, the Justice Center. (No word on whether superheroes Flash, Green Lantern, or Robert Shapiro stop by.) Ye olde "teams going in opposite directions" cliche applies here--UNCA has gotten healthy (in Chad Mohn's case, literally) against Liberty and VMI while High Point has lost three in a row to the top three teams in the Big South standings. Expect their respective escalators to keep headed in the same direction: they wouldn't be Asheville without a late-season charge, would they?
Predix: UNCA 73, High Point 67
The Myrtle Beach Sun asks "Was the Winthrop win a fluke?"--a legitimate question. They then suggest that a home win over Liberty would be an response in the negative--in this case, not a legitimate answer. How bad is it in Lynchburg? Even the Liberty women lost this week. Coastal's Winthrop win loses "fluke" status when the Fakecocks beat BSC or Radford, or UNCA or High Point on the road. Not before. The Liberty game will give Leasure a chance to sharpen his shooting and bump the number under "W" up by one. But that's it.
Predix: Coastal 81, Liberty 65
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