Mercer Preview: The Biggest Yet

Time: 7:00
TV: None (ASun TV)

In a lot of ways, this game is the biggest game of the year to date. The Mocs have struggled to a 2-6 start, but showed some life last Saturday afternoon against College of Charleston. Now, they get a chance to build on that momentum against a very good Mercer Bears team.

Mercer is 6-3 on the season, and 1-1 in Atlantic Sun play, while also being 2-0 against SoCon teams Furman and Samford. Both of those wins came on the road, by an average of 74.5-62, although the win over Samford came in overtime on Wednesday night. The losses came to Missouri, South Dakota State, and Belmont, while the other D-1 wins are over Sam Houston State, Niagra, and Lipscomb. The Bears currently have an RPI of 112 according to live-rpi.com. They have not played at home since November 23, when they lost to South Dakota State.

Against Samford on Wednesday, Travis Smith and Monty Brown both had good games off the bench. Smith scored ten points, with four rebounds, three assists and steals. Brown had eight points and six rebounds. Smith has only played two games so far this year. So he is one of the Bears more important players as the season progresses.

Langston Hall leads the team in scoring with 13.1 points per game. He is the teams second best three point shooter at 37.2%. He has 3.4 rebounds per game and is the team leader in assists (3.7) and steals (1.7). The 6-4 guard will be tough to guard for anyone on the Mocs. He will be the toughest challenge for the Mocs.

Justin Cecil is the team's best three point shooter. He is shooting 42% from three point range. He is shooting 90% from the free throw line. He is the second leading scorer with 11.3 points per game.

Jakob Gollon and Bud Thomas are the team's two leading rebounders with 5.7 and 4.8 rebounds per game. Daniel Coursey is third in rebounding, but is averaging 2 blocks per game. Gollon and Thomas are both 6-6, while Coursey is 6-10. Coursey is averaging 4.7 rebounds per game. Bryant is 6-11 and starting to develop a bit.

Coursey needs to stay on the court. He is averaging 18.2 minutes per game. He is an incredibly dangerous weapon when he stays on the court, with his rebounding and his blocks, to go along with his nearly 70% shooting from the floor. But 18 minutes per game really limits his ability to explode. It's not always foul trouble that causes problems either. It's also his stamina.

Mercer is a middle of the road offensive team (ranking in the 140s in both scoring and field goal percentage), but are a good rebounding team (in the top 100 in the country). They are a team that plays similar to the way the Mocs play- trying to be good on defense and in rebounding, and hoping that the offense takes care of itself. So far for the Mocs, more often than the not, the offense has not been taking care of itself.

The Mocs defense (outside of Georgia Southern last Thursday) has been very effective. They have allowed too many offensive rebounds late in games to opponents, but the rebounding has been OK outside of that. The shooting remains abysmal. Easy shots from inside have been missed, and open looks from outside aren't falling either. Omar Wattad needs to get going for the Mocs. Their most prolific scorer a year ago and the player picked to finish second in Player of the Year voting in the preseason is making under 37% of his shots and under 36% from three point range.

The intrigue may be in how much a guy like Lance Stokes plays. He was so valuable against Georgia Southern in those closing minutes as the game tightened, but then did not see action against College of Charleston. He has shown flashes, but it is a little unclear where he fits into the rotation at this point in time.

KEYS TO THE GAME

--Rebounding. That's the name of the game. Always.
--Controlling Coursey. The big man from Mercer can contribute in a big way when he can stay on the court. The Mocs need to contain him during the minutes he is on the court, because Drazen Zlovaric will have his hands full with him.
--Rico White and Dontay Hampton. The Mocs players that have been playing the best off the bench need to step up and have big performances.
--Travis Smith. Will he continue to shine for the Bears?

LEAD PIPE LOCK PREDICTIONS THAT ARE SURE TO GO WRONG

--Wattad will play his best game in weeks, thanks to the week off to rest and get closer to 100% healthy.
--Keegan Bell and Chris Early will both shoot well from three.
--Hall and Coursey will have the best games of any Bears.
--Coursey will dominate Zlovaric on the inside when he's in the game. When he is not, Zlovaric will play decently well.
--Mercer 68, Mocs 63. The Bears are playing good basketball and are inspired to be back home. The Mocs will show some aggression and fire, but the shots will continue to not fall. The Mocs will not come up with the win, but will give another good effort, giving the fans another glimmer of hope as the season progresses, though the moral victories will start to wear a little thin.

GO MOCS!