College of Charleston - My First Car was a Cougar

My first car was a sweet '91 Mercury Cougar, gave my friends quite a few white knuckles with that bad boy.  It's been a nostalgic evening here in downtown Philly as the Twitter-talk after the Syracuse/Pitt buzzerbeater has reminded me of some pretty good times, times like this:

That guy losing his shit in the yellow, behind the Drexel bench?  He writes a Drexel basketball blog now.  He's also thankful that schools have better cameras now.

Or this:

Jerry, I apologize

And this wasn't so bad either:

And so I'm feeling good after looking back on these things, I'm enjoying the snow out the window while downing a Williamsburg AleWorks Coffeehouse Stout (a definite perk of dating a girl living in Virginia Beach), all while coming up with a plausible explanation for why the weather will keep me out of the office despite living in the city.  I finally have some time to get caught up on an email backlog that I never thought I would see the end of, and even have a chance to get a blog post ready early for the first time in a month.  Heck, I even spoke well of Bruiser's in game coaching today.  Life my friends, is good.

And then it all came crashing down.  I had to write this preview, and its not good.  The Dragons have a lot working against them going into this one:

1)  As noted on Tuesday, this game is very likely to be Foulpalooza 2014.  Coach Wojcik is going to have 10 players he's willing to throw out there in this one for the Cougars, Coach Flint would prefer to keep it to 7 men on his side of the ball...  good luck with that.

2)  Charleston's marketing department has had this game circled on the calendar for a while, and they're calling it a blackout game, black shirts to everyone in attendance.  The Dragons may catch a break there with the weather, but DU isn't a team that's ever played well in front of empty seats either.

3)  Someone (who surely had good intentions, but...) had the Drexel hoops team bus 13 hours to this game, even though between PHL and either Charleston, Charlotte, or Wilmington, NC, 11 of the 14 scheduled flights flew today.  While this gave me a great opportunity to have some fun at Bru's expense on twitter (see below for an example) generally cramming anyone on a bus for 13 hours isn't particularly healthy, especially when those people are 6'8".  Dartaye should be able to take a shot at a dunk tank that whoever decided on the bus is sitting in.

Bruiser Flint would throw his jacket under the bus to help get it off of ice, but his jacket is worth more than the bus.
— Dragons Speak (@DragonsSpeak) February 12, 2014

4)  The Dragons don't particularly matchup well with this Charleston team.  Charleston's interior defense and rebounding is very good with three upperclass forwards alongside a 7'2" sophomore in David Wishon.  This will really cause problems for Fouch and Massenat when they penetrate and force more outside shots then we've seen from this team in a while, along with more Tavon Allen crazy looking 15 footers.  Shot selection hasn't been a strength of the Dragons this year, but they will need to be disciplined in this game if the offense is going to keep on humming.  Only two Dragons even attempted a three last game, so the drive and dish  game from Massenat needs to be featured more than ever.

5)  The Cougars have been playing good basketball lately.  Don't believe me?  This was Coach Doug Wojcik talking about their two losses:  "My team played really well.  I couldn't ask for more effort and execution from them."  Since freshman Canyon Barry has returned to the lineup, College of Charleston has beaten Hofstra by 18 in a game that wasn't as close as the score indicates, lost at Delaware in a one score game and took Towson to overtime on the road at TU.  They're finding a groove and have had four days off to prep for the Dragons.

The Dragons haven't been playing badly themselves.  If they can restrain the fouls a bit, a well rested Dragons team certainly has the talent to play with these guys.  They're going to have to shoot well from three to feel comfortable in this game, and Fouch is in that zone right now where he could just go off.  Settle in, reminisce a bit, get comfortable, get in front of the TV and cheer on your Dragons.  If you get a minute, throw your favorite Dragon memory into the comments below, it'd make for a fun read on a snow day.  Also, for an opposing view, the King Kresse Blog has done a really good job of covering things for C of C this year, and is worth a read.  

Stay safe, stay warm, and enjoy.

Prediction:  Charleston 69, Drexel 62

Vegas Line:  Charleston -3.5