Charleston Cougars
Record: 6-13 (CAA: 1-5, t-9th)
RPI: 240
SOS: 140

Charleston knocked off a struggling George Mason squad back on Nov. 23rd, and to date this remains their best win of the season. Still, despite their record, their average scoring margin is only -5.8. They've been losing close ones. Losses to UCONN, Texas A&M, Charlotte, Hofstra, and Northeastern all were decided by single digits. Most recently, NU scraped by by just 2 points this past weekend. This is reason # 1 to expect a closer game than expected.

Reason # 2 is that there's history here. Our results vs. the Cougars since the 2000-01 season:

2001 (Trask): L, 60-58
2002 (@ CoC): W, 78-69
2003 (Trask): L, 65-61
2004 (@ CoC): L, 59-57
2005 (Trask): L. 81-77
2006 (@ CoC): L, 91-70
2007 (Trask): W, 98-91
2008 (@ CoC): L, 100-80
2014 (Trask): W, 57-55
2014 (@ CoC): L, 75-70

That's a 3-7 record against this program since the start of the 21st century, with 8 of those 10 games being decided by single digits. We always seem to get the absolute best out of the Cougars, regardless of what kind of season either team seems to be having.

Charleston is led by sophomore guards Barry Canyon (11.9 ppg, 5.3 rpg, .414 3-pt %) and Joe Chealey (12.1 ppg, 3.5 apg). Matchup-wise we measure up favorably. Charleston routinely gets out-rebounded, averages nearly 13 turnovers a game, isn't a great free throw shooting team (.655 % team average), though still slightly better than us (.652), and are susceptible to blocked shots (3.8 allowed per game). And of course, with such a young backcourt, Charleston can't match the experience level of Jackson, Spruill and Ponder.

But nothing in that last paragraph may matter, because when these 2 teams face off, the numbers can be thrown out.