#53 R.P.I. College of Charleston vs. #181 R.P.I. Virginia Tech: 

Virginia Tech men’s basketball “found a way to win (twice), when they did not play their best.” —Jerry West to us at traveling all-stars hoops camp way way way back when. (When he was describing the two surefire signatures of great teams ¦ the other F.Y.I. being: “the beat the teams they are supposed to beat badly”.

The Hokies are not bad, tho’ they have only managed to play two halves of two games at a complete or compete -if you will- level so far. Thus far they have played just enuff of the quarters and the semis to make the Charleston Classic finals. Where they coincidentally (or incidentally) will now draw Charleston itself. The Cougars are a very respectable four-hyphen-National-Runner-Up, U.n.c. on the season. 4 W’s against 1 L. And they were only down a couple of shots early on into the 2nd-half vs. bigger/deeper #1 ranked North Carolina. Nonetheless, what you wanna quickie preview know is… who is gonna win and by how much, rights? So, read on… to finds, out!

College of Charleston Head Coach: Patrick Kelsey: Age=47, 205–111 (.649) overall, and 19–16 (.543) @Charleston. Has a rep’ for program-building, serial/impassioned Public-Speaking, and backcourts.
$550,000.oo (base) 227,150 (possible bonus)

Baller Kelsey played high school basketball at Roger Bacon High School in Cincinnati, OH. He transferred to Elder High School for his senior year and in 1993 helped lead the team to a Division I state title. Kelsey began his collegiate career as a freshman guard at the University of Wyoming. He transferred to Xavier in 1994 where he played three seasons.

Lowercase Coach-K began his career as an assistant coach at Wake Forest University and later Xavier University. During his time as an assistant coach, his teams earned an ACC regular season championship, five NCAA Tournament berths, an NIT berth, and a No. 1 national ranking in two different seasons. In 2010, College Bound Hoops ranked Kelsey eighth in the nation among college basketball assistants. He was sought after by some of America’s top programs and has been a candidate for multiple head coaching positions. Chris Mack, former A-10, and Big East Championship head coach, considered him to be one of the best assistant coaches in America.

As head coach at Winthrop University, Kelsey resurrected a winning tradition and became one of the winningest coaches in the history of the Big South Conference (ranked 2nd all-time with 110 conference wins). During his nine seasons, no other Big South program had more conference wins or wins overall. The program made four straight Big South Conference tournament title games (2014–17) and the Eagles claimed 2017, 2020, and 2021 Big South Conference Championships. The 2017 team claimed a share of the Big South regular season championship and then defeated Campbell University to earn Winthrop’s 10th trip to the NCAA Tournament. In 2020, the team secured the Big South regular season championship and defeated Hampton University in the conference championship game to earn what would have been Winthrop’s 11th trip to the NCAA tournament. However, the 2020 NCAA tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, the Eagles started the season 16–o and had a cumulative 21-game winning streak dating back to the prior season, which was both program records. They defeated Campbell in the conference tournament to earn their 11th NCAA Tournament bid. Following the season, Kelsey was named a finalist for the Jim Phelan Award (national coach of the year) and the Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award.

On March 25, 2021, Kelsey announced that he was leaving Winthrop to become head coach at the College of Charleston.

Coach-k only hit for seven, that’s (7) Big South titles for Winthrop.
Or, .77777777 of the championship time. w0w!

Kelsey, born May 15, 1975, is the son of Mike (former Xavier guard) and Linda Kelsey and is a native of Cincinnati. He graduated cum laude in 1998 from Xavier University with a degree in business administration and marketing.

Kelsey and his wife, Lisa, have three children: daughters Ruthie and Caroline and son Johnny.

Charlies at a glance:

• 17th most bench ppg!!!
• 18th most 3-point attempts/game!!!
• 20th best on the O-glass!!
• 36th in Scoring O!
• 48th in FT percentage!
• 33oth FG percentage D (allowed)!!!
• (Despite being): 343rd most in personal fouls ‘whistled’ against!

Returning Starters=1.

College of Charleston Strengths:

• One #3 is your alpha baller here. Dalton Bolon G is his name and sucking it up is his game. Dalton paces CofC with: 15.3 ppg and gets you 3.5 rpg and 0.5 apg. With 91% from the charity stripe, 47% from the floor, and a reasonable 34% when dialing long-distance. Bolon goes 6′4″ (seemed taller on Friday afternoon FWIW), on 2o6 graduate r-Sr. year lbs. Dalton is by way of really come-up-ins: Div. II West Liberty. Where he only managed to get named: NCAA D2 All-American for the third year in a row! That’s all. 22 ppg, over 8 rpg on a sharpshooting 45% from deep is Dub.Lib’ all as well. Ditto only being: NCAA D2 Academic All-American selected and his three other .edu awards. Which does not include making: MEC All-Academic Team; as a rookie or nugget year r-shirt! wow.edu. Earned his bachelor’s degree in Biology at West Liberty in just three years; tri-bra-vo. Said to be a quality guitar picker on the side… and then Eye found this… Dalton suffered an eye injury that forced vision loss for a year! Yet he kept playing college hoops with an eye patch for an extended time prior to his surgeries; plural. UNREAL. I was left-eye-blind for about a week (training accident) once. May St.Helen beg beg beg here. As you gotta wonder how many would still be out there as you need both eyes to best play the Game of Life.
• Reyne Smith G is Dalton’s double-deuce 3-shoot sidekick. A 6′2″, 188 lb., Soph., who gets you: 14.5 ppg on 92% FTA’s and 42% beyond the arc. Kinda an early-season silver medalist surprise in scoring terms. Tho’… Smitty comes to CofC from Australia’s Centre of Excellence at the Australian Institute of Sport. The tag reads: pure sharpshooter, who Coach Kelsey describes as one of the better young shooters in the world. That’s all… globally people. LOL… and wowzo if true? From Tasmania, been on the Aussie national team, been in FIBA, and was in the U19 World Cup. So, experience is international and that typically is a legit matriculation callsign. 50% 3-point maker career-wise Down Under (with: the larger ball and the oddball trapezoid lane and shorter 3-line (22′1″) mind yah).

  

• 6′8″, (weight unlisted), Saly, Senegal stud native Babacar Faye is as close as CofC gets to anything big upfront as starters go. Hard to say not knowing his full metrics… tho’ I can say that Babacar finds his way to: 6.8 ppg with 6.3 rpg a swat, a swipe, and 50% from the floor. His bio’ looks like a high-flyer and a pretty slick Point-F passer to boot. As this Senegalese did average 18 ppg in African play.
• DEPTH and R&R!
  As in… this 9-ball rotation only sees one guy play mo’ than 22 mpg! So, they are restive to the max’. (He is Scott below…)
• Coaching the verb… as not much was returning to Charleston here. +several at PeeKay.
• +1 to any Internationally laced squadron… as 4-guys field non-USofA passports here.

College of Charleston Weaknesses:

• Lindy’s says that the only true frontcourters (Meeks & a different Smith) S/F and C were all Charly had upfront and they are Exit Stage Left gonzo.

Cougars den: (depth=4)

Ryan Larson G, is Lindy’s 2nd-string pre-season for the Colonial Athletic Association team’s backcourt. 6′1″, 18o lb., One. Who nets you: 10.0 ppg with 2.5 rpg and the team-leading 3.8 apg. Good hands guy, as the 1.5 spg says. Kinda has the look of a pure S/G trapped in a pint-sized or Pt.Guard’s body. Really pure stroke (45% long last year) while getting his Wofford undergrad finished up. Did pocket two 4A State Championships out in St.Paul, ‘Sota. So that keeps counts alike.

Jaylon Scott G 6′5″, 195 lb., is a Bethel College grad’-transfer off-G. And the one Cougar north of 22 mpg with 32 mpg his ownself. 6.5 ppg on an impressive 5.5 rpg and a tight 4.3 apg are the makings of a glue guy from the bullpen. 65% from 3-point-land is the makings of a guy you might wanna encourage to shoot a bit, mo’.

Illation, conclusion(s) and OPT digits:

Number of Cougars who could claw @Tech=4'ish.

the takeaway:
The takeaway here is…

…best/fast as I could take myself home… and sneak a peek at the final 15 or so of Col.State vs. CofC?

The College of Charleston club is fun to watch.

They bomb from wherever, they slash a bit, they pick-n-pop or elbow a mite as well.

---

---

Kinda like a whacky buncha Baltic Avenue Mark Price’s with no shooting cares at all.

 ***

Our handy-dandy friend the so-called Forum Guide of Graham Houston fame is calling for a December Audubon savvy roundball round-robin ask back.

The annualized year-to-date vitals say that… VeeTee is up a near whopping +15% in shooting percentage margin (per being Hokie high on O and CofC being pretty suspect on D); with VeeTee also up +7% in 3-point percentage margin (same as from the floor, Gobbler O is legit and the Cougars D is not), and yet CofC is up a reasonable +5 caroms in rebounding margin year-to-date. (Thanks to VeeTee getting Windex Wipes wiped out off the backboard down in the Tourney of late).

The most recent 5-game metrics say that… in shooting percentage margin, in 3-point percentage margin, and in rebounding margin… they say we should wait and ask game#6, what for.

Armchair Pt.Guard’s:

VeeTee is up +2 in R&R. (And that could back-to-back-to-back threepeat helpful).
Nobody is up any% at the charity stripe for the year. (Virtually tied).
Both are 1.oo as a Swiss or neutral.

Vitals:

On the one bench… Coach m.Young has built the Hokies into an efficient offensive force. They entered Saturday ranked No. 13 in points per possession (1.2o ppp).

On the other bench… Coach p.Kelsey’s Cougars have been battle tested. All of their opponents so far, including the Hokies, made the NC2A Tournament last season. Their lone L came at No. 1 North Carolina, 1o2-86; after they led by seven at the break.

1, 2, 📋, 4, 5.

The Call…

No.144 Net Ranking College of Charleston vs. no.58 Net Ranking Virginia Tech:

---

–oOo–

So, the best I can CofC vs. V.P.I. A.S.A.P….

…kinda same drill as Penn.State… we gotta go inside and wear the little man down here with our clearly superior posts and not just drift/fall in love with outside 3-balls that may or may not (lack of fresh legs) wanna fall for this late-autumn contest.

We play hard, smart, tough inside-out hoops and I like our chances here according to the user-friendly defensive availability of Charleston.

We play soft, long, fluff outside-in hoops and this one will devolve into a pure offensive gunfight. Or made for telly fun-fight and he who makes last might just laugh the same.

Fight tall, Punch downhill, and force the underdog Cougars to rise, up.

 

(58% confidence interval)
Virginia Tech=76, College of Charleston=7o

please support the VT F.C.A.!

“LETS GO!”

“Hokies!”

 bourbonstreet**