The Mocs were a dominant force in the paint against Western Carolina, and despite the close nature of the game for most of the night, the Mocs outplayed, outhustled, and outmuscled the Catamounts for nearly the entire night.
Now, they face another challenge. This one in the form of Appalachian State. This challenge will be completely different.
Isaac Butts did not make the trip for the Mountaineers and is suspended for conduct detrimental to the team. This is huge for the Mocs, because Butts is the Mountaineers tallest player (outside Brian Okam, who is 7 feet tall, but plays just six minutes per game and has not played in a SoCon game yet).
But this does not mean that the Mountaineers do not have some capable players on the inside. Reigning SoCon Player of the Week Andre Williamson plays inside, and Nathan Healy, who came up with 14 points and three blocks off the bench on Thursday against Samford, also can contribute. Both are only 6-7, but both can make an impact inside.
Williamson is one of the leading shot blockers in the SoCon, with 1.7 blocks per game. He is also averaging 9.8 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. He will be an important part of the Mountaineers game plan in this game. The Mocs will need to find a way to keep him from changing or blocking too many shots on the inside. The same is true of Healy, who had those three blocks against Samford, but has just four blocks on the season.
This makes things slightly more difficult for the Mocs to dictate the game inside. However, this does not put a full damper on the strategy since Butts did not make the trip. The Mountaineers are much less imposing without Butts and his 5.8 rebounds per game. They outrebounded Samford without Butts, however Samford is one of the worst rebounding teams in the SoCon. This is a whole different beast against the Mocs, who are one of the top rebounding teams in the SoCon.
Appalachian State's biggest problems this year come when they turn the ball over too much. They rank last in the conference in turnover margin and have one of the worst assists to turnover ratio in the league. They turned the ball over 29 times in their first match-up with ETSU, and 22 times against East Carolina. That really hurts their offensive efficiency. They turned the ball over 19 times against Samford on Thursday night, and nearly lost a game where they shot 54% from the floor.
Omar Carter was the preseason SoCon Player of the Year. He has not lived up to the hype so far. Not that he has been terrible- he still leads the team in points per game (13.2), and is second in rebounds per game (5.9), while being second in assists per game (2.2). But he shooting under 32% from three point range and just 58% from the free throw line. He's had some really bad nights (scoring four or less on three occassions) but has been mostly pretty good.
To my untrained eyes, it appears that Carter is putting too much pressure on himself. With Donald Sims now gone, Carter is no longer the second option, but the first option, and that pressure seems to be hurting him a bit.
Jamaal Trice is the player that should be voted most likely to make six out of seven three pointers as the Mocs double team the post. He is shooting 45% from three point range, while averaging 10.8 points per game. Trice is a good shooter, and a dangerous one. He went 0 for 3 from behind the arc against Samford, so he is probably due to make up for that in this one. He is a transfer from Connecticut.
Appalachian State ranks 194th in the country in points per game, while ranking 165th in field goal percentage. They are not a great shooting team and are playing against the Mocs, a solid defensive team most of the time, though they did not play great against Western Carolina on Thursday night early in the game.
KEYS TO THE GAME
--Rebounding. The Mocs absolutely wiped the glass clean against Western Carolina. Expecting another performance like that would be unrealistic. The Mocs need to continue to show that kind of rebounding intensity to win this one against a slightly smaller Catamounts team.
--The Z-Men. What happens now? How do Drazen Zlovaric and Z Mason follow up that great showing against Western Carolina? Do they play equally well against Appalachian State? Can they slow down Williamson, and also still be effective inside against his defensive presence.
--Shot selection. The Mocs shot just 16 threes against Western Carolina on Thursday night. That is a really good number for the Mocs offense. They will probably need to take more against Appalachian State. They just need to make sure they are good ones in the flow of the offense. This means you Omar Wattad and Keegan Bell. (Bell did shoot a couple of very quick threes in the second half against Western on Thursday- but once he made one and started feeling it, I had no problem with the other two, just for the record.)
--Carter. Omar Carter seems like he is waiting to go off for 30 on somebody. He has not scored more than 24 this year. With just two games over 20 points, Carter, the leading returning scorer from the SoCon, has not scored as well this year. He's been relatively consistent- when he gets more than four points, he scores around 15. It's just what he's done all year. The Mocs need to make sure they hold him to a nice, normal 15 points.
--Controlling Trice. This guy can shoot the three ball very well. If the Mocs keep him in check, then that puts more pressure on everyone else. If Trice goes off, that puts added pressure on the rest of the Mocs.
--Hustle points. The Mocs won the hustle points Thursday night. They will need to do that again.
LEAD PIPE LOCK PREDICTIONS THAT ARE SURE TO GO WRONG
--Ricky Taylor scores about 15 points. He just keeps on doing it.
--Rico White and Dontay Hampton both put together more good basketball off the bench.
--Trice makes six threes for the Mountaineers.
--Carter scores more than four.
--Z Mason and Zlovaric score plenty against Williamson, showing off the paint, while Williamson comes up with at least three blocks.
--Mocs 72, Appalachian State 61. The Mocs rebounding will lead the way here. This is a game where I'd like to see the Mocs put some full court pressure on Appalachian State so that maybe the Mocs can force them into a number of turnovers up around 20, like ETSU, East Carolina, Samford, and others before them. If they do that, then they may win by more than this margin. Without Butts, Appalachian State does not have the size to match up with the Mocs. This game could be very different in Boone. Trice will be the main offensive weapon for the Mountaineers in this one, with Williamson and Carter chipping in most of the rest of the points.
GO MOCS!
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