Pilchard
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Deacs look to run their winning streak to 3 on Sunday at 6 pm on ESPNU (people will eschew the NFL for mediocre D-1 Basketball!) against the UNCC 49ers:
2019-20 Season: The 49ers started the season at #263 (they ended last year at #291), and have already moved up to #241 as they are improved in year #2 of the Ron Sanchez era in Charlotte. Sanchez is a Tony Bennett disciple who took over the Charlotte job after Mark Price ran the program into the ground (Charlotte was #146, the year before Price took over; the 49ers fell to #308, the year that he left). The 49ers are 1-1 with a close loss at JMU (79-74; Charlotte led for most of the game) and a decisive home win over well-respected Davidson (71-58; Charlotte led 39-22 at half). Incredibly, in the Davidson win, the 49ers limited Davidson to a total of 2 free throws, and Charlotte committed only 10 fouls over the entire game (Charlotte went to the line for 20 FTs). Charlotte has gotten off to quick starts in both games having led each opponent by 12 or more in the first half.
Lineup: Charlotte has benefitted from the addition of transfers as they start G 6-4 Jordan Shepherd (started out at Oklahoma) 6-4 G/F Drew Edwards (started out at Providence); 6-9 C Amidou Bamba (started out at Coastal Carolina). UNCC's other two starters are freshman G 6-1 Jahmir Young and 6-6 F Malik Martin. Off the bench, the 49ers use 6-9 Milos Supica, 6-7 frosh Brice Williams and 6-1 Cooper Robb. The 49ers have been balanced as Young, Shepherd, Williams and Supica scored in double figures against JMU while Edwards, Shepherd and Supica scored in double figures against Davidson. Young, Shephard and Edwards lead UNCC minutes. Charlotte has struggled from 3 to date, shooting only 29% from behind the arc, but they have been solid inside (54% from 2), and they don't turn it over much (TOs on 16% of their possessions; #69). On defense, Charlotte plays the UVA pack-line, and as a result, they don't force many TOs (17%), but they don't give up many offensive boards (#9 in preventing offensive rebounds). Charlotte's weakness on D has been defending the paint (got to get paint touches) as opponents are shooting 59% from 2 against the 49ers.
The bottom line: KP projects a 6 point WF win (73-67). Charlotte has been one program that WF has owned under Manning as his teams are 3-0 against Charlotte and none of the games have been close (WF has won by average of 20+ ppg; WF won by 24 last year -- Mucius led the Deacs in scoring with 16). That said, this is almost an entirely new team for Charlotte as they start 4 players who weren't on the roster a year ago. Wish I had a hot take on the game, but have no idea what to expect. Charlotte is improved; WF seems like a collection of disparate pieces that could be reasonably effective IF the team had a defined direction, but there is none. Guessing Andrien White will play well in his return to CLT, guessing Oliver Sarr will play more like he did against UNCA than he did against BC given UNCC's lack of height, and hoping to see more minutes from Massoud and Neath and less minutes from Johnson (amazing to me that Torry Johnson has 2.5 times the minutes as Massoud). Fully expect to be surprised on Sunday, but don't expect the surprise to be necessarily pleasant.
2019-20 Season: The 49ers started the season at #263 (they ended last year at #291), and have already moved up to #241 as they are improved in year #2 of the Ron Sanchez era in Charlotte. Sanchez is a Tony Bennett disciple who took over the Charlotte job after Mark Price ran the program into the ground (Charlotte was #146, the year before Price took over; the 49ers fell to #308, the year that he left). The 49ers are 1-1 with a close loss at JMU (79-74; Charlotte led for most of the game) and a decisive home win over well-respected Davidson (71-58; Charlotte led 39-22 at half). Incredibly, in the Davidson win, the 49ers limited Davidson to a total of 2 free throws, and Charlotte committed only 10 fouls over the entire game (Charlotte went to the line for 20 FTs). Charlotte has gotten off to quick starts in both games having led each opponent by 12 or more in the first half.
Lineup: Charlotte has benefitted from the addition of transfers as they start G 6-4 Jordan Shepherd (started out at Oklahoma) 6-4 G/F Drew Edwards (started out at Providence); 6-9 C Amidou Bamba (started out at Coastal Carolina). UNCC's other two starters are freshman G 6-1 Jahmir Young and 6-6 F Malik Martin. Off the bench, the 49ers use 6-9 Milos Supica, 6-7 frosh Brice Williams and 6-1 Cooper Robb. The 49ers have been balanced as Young, Shepherd, Williams and Supica scored in double figures against JMU while Edwards, Shepherd and Supica scored in double figures against Davidson. Young, Shephard and Edwards lead UNCC minutes. Charlotte has struggled from 3 to date, shooting only 29% from behind the arc, but they have been solid inside (54% from 2), and they don't turn it over much (TOs on 16% of their possessions; #69). On defense, Charlotte plays the UVA pack-line, and as a result, they don't force many TOs (17%), but they don't give up many offensive boards (#9 in preventing offensive rebounds). Charlotte's weakness on D has been defending the paint (got to get paint touches) as opponents are shooting 59% from 2 against the 49ers.
The bottom line: KP projects a 6 point WF win (73-67). Charlotte has been one program that WF has owned under Manning as his teams are 3-0 against Charlotte and none of the games have been close (WF has won by average of 20+ ppg; WF won by 24 last year -- Mucius led the Deacs in scoring with 16). That said, this is almost an entirely new team for Charlotte as they start 4 players who weren't on the roster a year ago. Wish I had a hot take on the game, but have no idea what to expect. Charlotte is improved; WF seems like a collection of disparate pieces that could be reasonably effective IF the team had a defined direction, but there is none. Guessing Andrien White will play well in his return to CLT, guessing Oliver Sarr will play more like he did against UNCA than he did against BC given UNCC's lack of height, and hoping to see more minutes from Massoud and Neath and less minutes from Johnson (amazing to me that Torry Johnson has 2.5 times the minutes as Massoud). Fully expect to be surprised on Sunday, but don't expect the surprise to be necessarily pleasant.
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