Today the news was broken by multiple sources, Brett McMurphy of CBS Sports and David Scott of The Charlotte Observer, that the Charlotte 49ers will be returning to Conference USA in 2013. This is exciting news for Niner Nation because our football program will be in an FBS conference and therefore eligible to earn bowl bids after a transitional period.

Conference USA has taken a hit in realignment, mainly with the loss of Memphis, but are also losing Houston, SMU and UCF. Reportedly joining Charlotte in this go round will be FIU, Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Old Dominion and UTSA. This will lead to Eastern and Western divisions, split as followed:

Coach Lambert has put together an FBS staff from the beginning.

WEST
Louisiana Tech
North Texas
Rice
Tulane
Tulsa
UTEP
UTSA
 

Charlotte would likely have 6 games against the East Division and two against the West Division every football season. With the exception of FIU and maybe Southern Miss the teams in the Eastern Division are all in very reasonable driving distance from Charlotte, especially if Niner Nation makes a weekend out of it.

This is a huge step in the right direction for our football program, and even more impressive when considering we haven’t played a down.

But how does this affect other sports? Namely basketball, Charlotte’s flagship sport since its inception.

Expect two games a year against the East Carolina Pirates in basketball.

Simply put, this incarnation of Conference USA is clearly a step back from the Atlantic 10, especially an Atlantic 10 on the verge of adding George Mason, VCU and Butler. Charlotte struggled mightily in its first seven years in the Atlantic 10, and it hasn’t been the Atlantic 10′s fault. The bright side being that Charlotte’s climb back to prominence will not be on as steep of a slope. Since the last round of conference realignment, Conference USA basketball revolved around Memphis. With the Tigers bound for the new Big East the role of top dog is up for grabs. UTEP, Old Dominion, Southern Miss and UTSA have been to NCAA tournaments in recent years, with Tulsa, Louisiana Tech, and Marshall all coming  remarkable close. On paper this looks like a league that can have at least one team earn an at-large bid every season, being a two-bid lead consistently, with an occasional third bid is an attainable goal for this ragtag group of misfits.

The Charlotte 49ers soccer team is on the rise as an elite program nationally, Conference USA will raise the level of competition. Last season, Conference USA placed UAB, South Carolina (the Gamecocks and Kentucky Wildcats play Conference USA soccer because it is not an SEC sponsored sport) and the departing UCF into the NCAA Tournament. In fact, the UAB Blazers were Charlotte’s second victim en route the the 2011 College Cup Final, defeating the Blazers in Birmingham 3-1 in the 2nd-round.

Conference USA and Charlotte will both have their profile's elevated in 2013

The competition facing our baseball team will rise immensely. Conference USA placed four teams in the 2011 NCAA tournament, with Rice hosting in the opening round. Also in the field were East Carolina, Southern Miss and again, the departing UCF. Considering this seasons’ struggles the baseball team will have to improve it’s level of play to be a contender in this league.

What an exciting day to be a Charlotte 49er. We’re back in a home that we helped build, something about all of this feels right. The only question remaining is how long will the duration of this stay in Conference USA be? In the college athletics landscape the only sure thing is change. Will Charlotte be ready for another step up when conferences realign themselves next time?

According to our very own 2k, Ivan Benkovic, a 6’5 SG from Evelyn Mack Academy has signed a Letter-of-Intent to play for the Niners next season. Benkovic was previously set to join the High Point University Panthers and had played for United Faith Christian Academy.

Footage of Benkovic from youtube: Clips from “Benny” on YouTube

Benkovic’s signing adds to a class that includes Darion Clark (PF/SF, Oak Hill), Willie Clayton (PF, Thomasville) and Shawn Lester (SG, Mooresville). Denzel Ingram (PG, Chapel Hill) is expected to sign as early as tomorrow and the Niners continue to be linked to JT Thompson, who was recently released from Virginia Tech after missing the last two seasons with successive ACL tears in both his knees. For Thompson to receive a final year of eligibility he will have to petition the NCAA.

News was broken today by The Charlotte Observer’s David Scott that Jamar ‘Deuce’ Briscoe would be leaving the Charlotte 49ers Men’s Basketball program after three seasons with the program. Briscoe was a redshirt junior during the 2011-12 campaign, having spent his freshman year at NC Central. He has 1-year of eligibility remaining. If Briscoe is on schedule to graduate this semester, he will be able to transfer to another D-I school if he enrolls in a graduate program not offered at UNC Charlotte. If Briscoe is not on track to graduate in May (it is common practice for redshirted athletes to spread their course load over five years) then he will have to transfer to a D-II or even D-III school to play next season.

Briscoe sat out the 2009-10 season after transferring to Charlotte. In his debut as a 49er, against sGardner Webb, he scored 30 points, his highest total with Charlotte. Briscoe never scored more than 20 points the rest of the season. This season, Briscoe came off the bench initially, becoming a starter as Derrio Green’s playing time decreased. His season high in 2011-12 of 19 came in the road game at East Carolina in which Charlotte won 76-64, the best road performance of the season.

This leaves Charlotte with a second scholarship to offer the 2012 recruiting class. Point guard Denzel Ingram is on an official visit this weekend and he named Charlotte as his favorite recently. Ingram’s addition to the 49ers would put a true point guard behind Pierria Henry in the depth chart. The only players that it’s confident to say will start are Henry, DeMario Mayfield and Chris Braswell. Braswell could start at either power forward or center, either Mike Thorne or Ilijia Ivankovic would be likely candidates to start at center. Should Braswell start at center, Coach Major would have his choice of KJ Sherrill and the freshman duo of Willie Clayton and Darion Clark to play power forward. The biggest question mark is at shooting guard, for now it will be between sophomore Terrence Williams, who showed a huge improvement over the course of last season, or incoming freshman Shawn Lester, who may have a bit more of an outside touch.  There is still the option that Major will hold onto the scholarship, leaving one open just like last season.

We at Green Tinted Glasses wish Deuce the best of luck in his future endeavors. Thanks for your effort as a Niner.

We’ve made it. Things got a little hairy near the end as all signs pointed to tornadic doom. Keep following the group on Twitter and @GTGBlog for updates from Cincinnati throughout the weekend. Game time at Xavier is 2pm tomorrow, if we wake up at one  it’s enough time for the ginger to get plastered on his one Busch Light.

#GTGCincy

As the season comes to a close, the Charlotte 49ers have one more regular season contest Saturday versus the Xavier Musketeers.  While the season has been a rough one for Niner fans, all of us at GTG.net ask you to hang around just a little bit longer.  The staff has compiled our small business tax claim to afford a trip to Cincinnati this weekend to cover the game, and likely our own adventures.  We are not quite sure of the how the content will be covered, but it will be a different look from our typical pre-game and post-game stories.  So do not give up hope yet fans, we may lose, but at least you will get some quality (notice I did not say “high quality”) content this last weekend of the season.

Not that Xavier... we would be really cool with him

As for Xavier, they can pretty much expect the worst of the worst from us (except for during game time as we have been warned to keep it clean so as to not get people fired). For Xavier, we will be like Dayton Flyer fans, minus the sub-80 IQ level; the roommate who drunkenly urinates all over the toilet seat every Saturday night only for you to find out Sunday morning when you sit in it; the Cris Collinsworth to your Sunday night football game.  The bad fans will be in attendance.  Go Niners!

Take a deep breath, we’re in the home stretch. The Charlotte 49ers (13-14, 5-9) host the Duquesne Dukes (15-13, 6-8) with a chance to leap frog the Dukes in the standings with the Atlantic 10 Tournament six days away. Duquesne comes in to the game having lost four of their last five contests with the win being a ten point win over Fordham.

The Dukes are a running team. They average 72.2 PPG and shoot 44.7% from the field, but the scoring drops to 62 PPG in road games, including three games of 50 or less points (a feat we have yet to accomplish with our offense). Coach Ron Everhart depends on BJ Monteiro, a 6-5 205 lb. G-F, and his 14.8 PPG to set the offensive pace. Monteiro versus Javarris Barnett will be an interesting match-up. Barnett has a height and size advantage on Monteiro and can keep him from getting baskets inside the arc, where Monteiro shoots 52%. We want Monteiro taking his shots outside the arc, where he is only shooting 30.9%. If Barnett can get through Monteiro en route to the rim early he will find himself with space on the perimeter needed for him to heat up later in the game. Joining Monteiro in the frontcourt is Andre Marhold, a Charlotte native and North Meck Alum. Marhold, a 6-7 and 205 lb. F-C, plays 22 minutes a game averaging 5.3 PPG and 4.3 RPG. After getting abused by Andrew Nicholson this past Saturday, a match-up against Marhold should have Chris Braswell foaming at the mouth. This team can be had inside, getting an efficient and proficient night out of Braswell will be key to a Niner victory.

At the top of the key will be a match-up between two of the best pick-pockets in Division I, Pierria Henry’s 2.64 steals a game is fifth in the NCAA while TJ McConnell gets 2.82 steals a game and sits in third nationally. Henry has a slight advantage in turnovers, as McConnell coughs up the ball 2.7 times per game to Henry’s 2.5. It seems safe to assume both will be over the average in turnovers tomorrow, but if one can deny the other steals that team will have a distinct advantage. The rest of the backcourt consists of Sean Johnson (13.7 PPG) and Eric Evans (8.9 PPG). Duquesne depends on their backcourt heavily, keeping these guys from penetrating the defense and smothered on the perimeter will hinder the Dukes offense useless.

This team has at least three games left to play and the young players need to take in as much experience as they can. A big guard like Terrence Williams can do a lot of damage against a small backcourt such as Duquesne’s. Derrio Green will be leaned on for his Senior leadership down this stretch, if he has it in him to go on a tear of 30 point games like his Sophomore season, the Niners will make some shock waves this week and in the conference tournament.

Last home game of the year Niner Nation, let’s go out winners.

The Charlotte 49ers have two games remaining in their conference season, they host Duquesne on Wednesday to close out the home season and then  travel to Cincinnati for a match-up with Xavier on Saturday. Charlotte has secured a spot in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, which is welcome news after the disappointment of last season.

Sitting with a 5-9 record, the Niners are currently in 11th place and within two games of 8th through 14th in the league. Here is a snapshot of our portion of the standings as of Sunday night with each teams remaining games listed.

8th: La Salle Explorers 7-7

 -2/29: at George Washington
-3/3: vs. St. Bonaventure

9th: Duquesne 6-8

-2/29: at Charlotte
-3/3: vs. Saint Louis

10th: Richmond 6-9

-2/29: vs. Dayton

11th Charlotte: 5-9

-2/29: vs. Duquesne
-3/3: at Xavier

11th*: George Washington 5-9

-2/29: vs. La Salle
-3/3: at Dayton

13th: Fordham 3-11

 -2/29: at Rhode Island
-3/3: vs. Temple

13th*: Rhode Island 3-11

-2/29: vs. Fordham
-3/3: at Massachusetts

*No differentiation between tied teams as if A10 season ended today because it didn’t. We still have a week left and figuring out tiebreakers would have taken more time than it did to write this sidenote.

Now let’s take a look at some scenarios that could play out over the next seven days.  This is the last you’ll hear about Rhodey or Fordham as we claim tiebreakers over both teams head to head, and if tied with one AND George Washington at 5-11, Charlotte and George Washington would get in over the third.

The BEST Scenario (for Charlotte):

La Salle wins at George Washington and wins/loses vs. St. Bonaventure
Duquesne loses at Charlotte  and vs. Saint Louis
Richmond loses vs. Dayton
Charlotte wins vs. Duquesne and at Xavier
George Washington loses vs. La Salle and at Dayton

Standings
8th: La Salle or UMass 8-8 OR La Salle, UMass, Dayton, Saint Joseph’s, St. Bonaventure or Xavier  9-7
9th: Charlotte 7-9
10th: Duquesne 6-10
11th: Richmond: 6-10
12th: George Washington 5-11

Charlotte can not have win any tiebreaker involved La Salle, even if other teams are involved. The 8th seed can be many more teams than La Salle.

The WORST Scenario:

Charlotte loses vs. Duquesne and at Xavier

Standings
12th: Charlotte 5-11

This would suck, plain and simple.

The CLUSTERF*** Scenario:

La Salle loses at George Washington and loses vs. St. Bonaventure
Duquesne loses at Charlotte  and wins vs. Saint Louis
Richmond wins vs. Dayton
Charlotte wins vs. Duquesne and at Xavier
George Washington wins vs. La Salle and at Dayton

Standings
8th: George Washington 7-9
9th: La Salle 7-9
10th: Charlotte 7-9
11th: Richmond 7-9
12th: Duquesne 7-9

In this five-way tie for eighth place, the tie-breaker would be each teams record versus the teams involved, George Washington would sit at 5-2, La Salle 3-2, Charlotte 3-3, Richmond 2-4 and Duquesne 1-3.

The BEST LIKELY Scenario:

La Salle: Irrelevant
Duquesne loses at Charlotte  and vs. Saint Louis
Richmond loses vs. Dayton
Charlotte wins vs. Duquesne and loses at Xavier
George Washington loses vs. La Salle and at Dayton

Standings
9th: Charlotte 6-10
10th: Duquesne 6-10
11th: Richmond 6-10
12th: George Washington 5-11

This scenario isn’t that far-fetched, Duquesne is 2-5 on the road and also losers of three straight. Charlotte is 4-2 vs. teams under .500 in conference, 3-0 against those teams at home. Richmond has lost to worse teams at home than Dayton and GW has lost to worse teams at home than La Salle.

If Richmond and Duquesne can find a win this week it will relegate a a 6-10 Charlotte team to 11th. Charlotte’s home game versus Duquesne is immensely more important to win for tiebreakers than the road game at Xavier. Charlotte can finish anywhere from 9th to 12th and face up to six different teams in the Atlantic 10 Tournament’s 1st-Round. A lot is left to be determined, and the scenarios will be revisited after the Wednesday games.

With five games left in the regular season, the Charlotte 49ers arrive at a crossroads in their season. This evening the Niners play at Richmond (13-14, 4-8 A10), who trails Charlotte (12-12, 4-7 A10) by 1/2 a game in the Atlantic 10 Standings for 10th-place. With a three-game home stand against two of the three teams directly ahead of Charlotte in the standings, a road win against the Spiders could vault the Niners into contention for a Top-Eight finish and a home game in the opening round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament.

Charlotte and Richmond began their conference season against each other on January 4th, with Charlotte winning 75-70. Richmond found themselves in a deep hole late but took advantage of our poor free throw shooting to make it a close margin at the buzzer.

In the first game Richmond started hot and built a 32-21lead in the first half, but Charlotte got it going inside and clamped down defensively to tie it half-time. Charlotte dominated scoring in the paint 50-20 to secure the victory. Javarris Barnett scored 22 on 9-11 from the field working an inside job on Richmond. Braswell added 13.

Braswell didn’t have much resistance from Dayton on Wednesday and he has the potential to be that dominant again against Richmond. If Braswell can find it in himself to start scoring over 20 points a game his senior year will be one hell of a ride. Braswell was only 5-11 from the field in the first game and could sure use the efficiency he had on Wednesday in Dayton or like against UMass.

For Richmond, the points come from the back court as they are led in scoring by three guards; Darien Brothers scores 13.7 PPG, Kendall Anthony, a freshman, scores 13.3 PPG and Cedric Lindsay brings 11.5 PPG. Those three players combined for 51 of Richmond’s 70 points in the first meeting of the season. None of them shoot the ball better then 42% from the field but all shoot better then 35% from behind the arc, led by Anthony’s 43.2%. Anthony and Deuce Briscoe match-up like a dream, it’s only a matter of which one (or both) gets hot.

Richmond’s fourth leading scorer is forward Derrick Williams, at 11.1 points a game. If Williams gets 11 today he will be averaging 5.5 PPG against Charlotte as the Niners held him scoreless in the first meeting.

DeMario Mayfield is expected to return to the line-up following his run-in with the Five-Oh on Tuesday, for our sake let’s hope he turns around the life off the court and keeps getting better on the court. He scored 13.4 PPG in his last five games and 9.4 RPG with three double-doubles along the way. If he returns in that form the Niners have to be feeling good, he was held scoreless in the first game.

A fifth win should put Charlotte completely out of the danger zone of finishing worse than 12th as Fordham (2-9) nor Rhode Island (2-10) have a shot at more than one victory (when they play each other), let alone three. If Charlotte can get the interior game working for them on offense and defense they will find themselves in a position to win this game. If Charlotte can also generate some scoring from the perimeter, the Niners shot 1/6 from three-point range in the first game, they will more than likely walk away with their third road win of the Atlantic 10 season.

Predictions:

J Felt: Spurred on by the GTG crew’s attendance, the Niners get another road win. Charlotte 73, Richmond 67.
2k: Niners do not disappoint for my birthday present. Charlotte 67, Richmond 63.
McFly: Charlotte stays undefeated when I am present. Charlotte 72, Richmond 69
Geep: Niners lose 77-67 because C-Pip is attending Hooner’s plate party at The Flying Saucer and can’t make it to the game.
NLP: Niners give Alpha Duster a birthday present, win 69-63.
C-Pip: Charlotte avenges all those sweeps by Richmond with a 75-65 win.

Listen, reader. We haven’t had content since the LaSalle game. Get over it. You should be thankful that one of us bothered to write a preview for that game. Seriously, who cares about LaSalle? As NLP often points out, fans have no excuse for forgetting there’s a game. But there has to be an exception for LaSalle. In this paragraph, LaSalle has been mentioned more times than it has by basketball fans for the past six years.

But why did you forget previews for the other games after that? You didn’t even post something for Homecoming against Rhode Island!

You’re right. That’s inexcuseable. But we did decide to enjoy tailgating with the Normbulance on Saturday morning rather than sit in front of a computer screen.

Now that we’re riding a two game winning streak, however, GreenTintedGlasses.net is interested. We promise to bring back the the coverage you have missed so dearly. Of course we’re still lazy, so this presents us with a problem. Lucky for the us, The Blackburn Review exists. To take away the burden of doing actual research and coming up with our own jokes, we reached out to Tom Blackburn to get some insight on our game on the road against the Dayton Flyers. You can find their equally lazy preview here.

GreenTintedGlasses.net: First off, how’ve you been? It’s a new season with a new coach. Are you glad Mooney didn’t take the Georgia Tech job, opening the door for Gregory to skip town? Have you noticed any major changes with the new regime?

Blackburn: Chris Mooney holds a deserved place in the heart of every Flyer fan. In an alternate universe, Mooney is coaching the Yellow Jackets and Brian Gregory is in Dayton, in the middle of a 9-15 season, coming off a ten point loss at Fordham.

Instead, BG is pacing the Georgia Tech sideline, turning that program back to the stone age. The silver lining of this season, beside the pleasant beginning to the Flyer’s A10 schedule, has been the fact that Gregory can’t hurt us anymore. UD and BG were in an circular abusive relationship and Archie Miller came in and swept us off our collective feet. He looks like he’s 16 but he fucks like a 40 year-old trucker on dust and always has a wad of cash in his pocket. The best part is that Archie fits into all of Gregory’s old suits, win-win.

GTG: You’ve lost four of your last five (and let’s face it, using overtime to beat Fordham is practically a loss as well) since beating Xavier. Is this the classic Dayton Flyers Tailspin, or is there a logical explanation?

B: It’s just a case of a team playing above its heads for a short period of time before reality set in. Dayton came into this season with a lack of depth, yet managed to string together a fairly decent OOC record. The Flyers won the Old Spice Classic and, outside of a pink-socking against Buffalo, took care of business.

Then Josh Benson, in the midst of a solid season, went down with a season-ending ACL injury during UD’s win against Ole Miss to close out 2011. At that point, it looked like the season was all but over. Instead, the Flyers rolled off victories against Saint Louis, Temple and Xavier — good enough for first place in the league at the time. Then, like the ceiling of an Ethiopian church, it collapsed quickly and almost without warning.  And here we stand, 5-5 in the conference with nary a glimmer of hope.

GTG: Overall Dayton seems to be scoring by committee; there are currently six players averaging between eight and thirteen points. What is Archie’s offensive strategy and, be honest, do you enjoy watching it?

B: Archie likes to play at a much different pace than his predecessor. Kevin Dillard has the abilitiy to penetrate and find open looks. No one has parlayed Dillard’s play into success as much as Boof Kavanaugh.Although Dayton still bombs away from the three-point line with audacity, there are enough wrinkles to keep everyone involved on the offensive end. That’s in stark contrast to last season.

Defensively, the Flyers struggle to keep anyone from scoring. That’s not fun. However, the positive indicators far outweigh the negative. I get a rod just thinking about next season’s team.

GTG: Who should Charlotte fans watch out for tomorrow (other than the Redheaded Cheerleader)?

B: The other redheaded cheerleader? Seriously, UD doubled-down on redheaded cheerleaders. Two gingers this season. Outside of Kevin Dillard, this has been the highlight of the season. I really, really, wish I was kidding.

GTG: Prediction?

B: I think UD wins a tight one, something like 74-70. Dayton’s indifference to defense means convincing wins are hard to come by. Charlotte is good enough to hang with the Flyers, but I have a feeling Chris Johnson is about to get back on track as the season draws to an end. CJ scores 22, grabs 11 boards to lead UD to victory.

GTG: Finally, as a token of our appreciation, we present to you GingerDuster. How does she stack up to your own red celebrity?

B: She’s seem a lot more edgy and possibly dirtier than our redhead celeb. This pains me to say, more than you’ll ever know, but I think the Niners have the ginger edge. I never thought I’d say that. Cherish her, Charlotte. Cherish her.

The GingerDuster photo was blatantly grabbed from the Observer’s kind of creepy (how did they get past Judy with all those pictures of cheerleaders and dusters?) slideshow linked here. Photo taken by Todd Sumlin.

That was definitely easier, and arguably more entertaining, than the usual GTG preview. Predictions from the crew are below. Add yours in the comments.

J Felt: Charlotte 76, Dayton 69. This is bizarro world, Niners win in Dayton to avenge losing in Halton last year
Geep: Dayton takes flight over Charlotte. Flyers 75, Niners 71
McFly: They want our ginger (not Cpip, the other one), they can’t have her, but they’ll win. Dayton 74, Charlotte 64
NLP: Much like the Spruce Goose, the Flyers never really take flight. Niners 75 – Flyers 70
2k: Dayton Flyers, nah, Dayton Failers. Niners keep it going with a 72-67 W on the road.  Archie Miller for COY.

Tonight, the Charlotte Forty-Niners (10-10 overall, 2-5 A-10) try to get on the right track by traveling to Philadelphia for a game versus the La Salle Explorers (16-6 overall, 5-2 A-10).  Some Niner fans may remember the Explorers from two years ago, when the now departed An’Juan Wilderness hit a crazy runner to win the game.  Then some of the fans may remember La Salle from when Shamari Spears attempted to go all “Incredible Hulk” against their coaching staff, players, and fans (good thing there were only 37 in attendance) during the same game.  Then the Niner fans who are historical buffs will likely be confused by the fact that the university is named for a Catholic Saint dedicated to education, where as their nickname comes from a French explorer who never did anything for the city of Philadelphia.  However, that French explorer, during an expedition had a small fort built called Fort Prudhomme (waits for the readers to Google, I’ll wait).  Niner fans should loathe this French fort as it is now known as present day Memphis, Tennessee.  With such little rivalry in the Atlantic Ten for Charlotte fans this is what we are left to in order to extrapolate hate towards a program we have no qualms with.  Therefore, La Salle created the Memphis Tigers.

Back to basketball…

The Explorers have been an enigma the past few seasons.  When they are picked to fair well, they seem to hit just low of expectations, and when picked to not be much of a contender, they fair much better.  This season the Explorers were picked to finish in the middle of the pack in the Atlantic Ten, and of course in atypical La Salle fashion, they are tied for first in the conference.  How do they do it?  They shoot lights out.  Six players have shot three pointers for La Salle, with the worst one of the bunch shooting 33% from the three-point line.  To put that in to the context of Norm (one “M”), that would make La Salle’s Earl Pettis the fourth best shooter on Charlotte, and considering two of those players (Pierria’ Henry and Chris Braswell) have combined for 61 attempts, that would make Pettis the second greatest threat for Charlotte.  Four explorers shoot higher then 40%, with Ramon Galloway stroking an absurd 48% of his deep balls, all while averaging a team high 15.5 PPG.  So if you have not caught on, La Salle is going to spread out the perimeter and look for open shots.  In turn, good shooters open up multiple driving lanes, which could lead to easy buckets for the Explorers.

As for Charlotte, they will need a stellar defensive plan, and it would not hurt to get Pierria’ Henry back into the fold for this game.  The perimeter players will need to hound La Salle’s shooters off the three-point line, force them into contested jumpers, or into help situations to create turnovers.  If the Niners just expect to chase La Salle’s shooters around screens it is going to be a long night.

Offensively, Charlotte needs more balance (I know, we specialize in rocket science here at GTG).  La Salle is not known for their big men this season, so Chris Braswell should touch the ball on the block nearly every time down the court.  If and when help comes, other players need to step up and hit jump shots.  Javarris Barnett is not going off for 20+ points every night, so others need to help create balance so defenses cannot key in on these two.

Keys To The Game:

• Pressure La Salle’s shooters.  Percentages do not lie, and these guys will make you pay for leaving them open.  A tight man-to-man is likely the best medicine defensively against this team, because a zone would be like Dr. Kevorkian, or Dr. Conrad Murray, whichever pop-culture reference works for you.
• Rebound the ball.  If the Niners can pressure their shooters, there will be rebounds to get, and La Salle is not an overly good rebounding team (Charlotte 36.4 RPG, La Salle 34.0 RPG).  Charlotte needs to win this battle.
• Take the ball to the hole strong and convert lay-ups.  La Salle does not have an intimidating post presence like St. Joseph’s.  Chris Braswell will have the highest blocks per game average on the court tonight and he might have a 7” vertical.

Predictions:

McFly:  Niners continue their slide, despite a competitive performance.  La Salle 73, Charlotte 68.

J-Felt: JB breaks the thirty point barrier and the Explorers get lost. Niners 73, LaSalle 67.

C-Pip: Charlotte explores how it feels to win, Niners 66-La Salle 64

The Geep:  We’ll probably lose.

2k: Niners falter in a close game on the road. Explorers 74, Niners 69

NLP: Niners sneak the Easy Button on the plane and win comfortably. Charlotte 83 – La Salle 52