Just over half way through the season and UNCW sits at #4 with a 7-3 record. Six of our seven wins are against the bottom five in the conference with four wins over Monmouth and Elon who have yet to win a conference game. Our best win is against 6-4 A&T who is our next opponent in a battle for fourth place. Our three losses have been against 4-6 William and Mary, 9-0 CofC and 7-2 Hofstra.

Most concerning is how much we've struggled against teams at the bottom of the conference. Our schedule finishes with A&T, W&M, CofC, Northeastern, Drexel, Delaware, Stony Brook and Towson. We don't have any games left against the bottom three in the conference.

Much discussion has centered around the loss of Noah Ross and what he meant to the team. Ross was a solid player who defended and rebounded well, could handle the ball and had few turnovers. He was also a leader on the court who moved well and made smart passes. But almost as importantly Ross was 6'7" and weighed 200 lbs., which meant he could switch to defend almost every position. He also allowed us to bring MHH off the bench who was likely the best sixth man in the CAA.

Since the departure of Ross we have struggled to score and turned the ball over a lot. And one of our biggest strengths, our scoring punch from the bench, has disappeared.

Bench production during conference play

Ross starting and MHH off the bench - 26.5ppg

Monmouth 33 of 68 points(Newby 13, Farrar 11, MHH 9)
Hampton 32 of 82 points (Newby 9, MHH 8, Farrar 8, Harvey 5)
Elon 18 of 81 points (MHH 12, Phillips 2)
A&T 31 of 66 points (MHH 25, Newby 2)
CofC 18 of 69 points (MHH 12, Farrar 4)
W&M 27 of 69 points (MHH 14, Farrar 10)

Ross out and MHH starting - 10.75 ppg

Elon - 13 of 62 points (EVDH 9, Farrar 2)
Hofstra - 10 of 46 points (Phillips 6, Enoh 2)
Stony Brook - 6 of 62 points (Newby 4, EVDH 2)
Monmouth - 14 of 52 points (Newby 7, Farrar 7)

That is a huge dropoff from the bench of almost 16 ppg. MHH averaged 13.3 ppg off the bench in conference games and is averaging 16.75 ppg as a starter, so the increase is only about 3 ppg while the bench drop off is 16 ppg. That's huge and we haven't found anyone even close.

My suggestion. We were playing just fine with Ross starting and not contributing much on offense. During our winning streak he averaged 3.8 ppg and 3 rebounds with one outburst of 15 points against High Point and two games with 8 points. Otherwise, he was usually just 2-3 points per game. He averaged 16.3 minutes per game. So we didn't need his offense as a starter.

So, who do we have that could bring what Ross brought as a starter that would allow us to bring the instant offense of MHH off the bench? My first thought is Nolan Hodge. At 6'7" he gives us the size to switch on defense that Ross brought. He's also a smart player and has turned the ball over only 4 times all year. If we gave him 16 minutes per game, like Ross had, i'm pretty sure his numbers could be about the same. That allows us to bring MHH, EVDH, Newby and Farrar off the bench.

So, my big shakeup going forward is to start Hodge and bring MHH off the bench.