A Look Back and A Look Ahead
6/4/2008 4:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Dean Schuyler
The 2008 NCAA Basketball Tournament is history. College Baseball is nearing its climax, and the hockey Stingrays are in the midst of a successful playoff run. The time seemed right to ask Cougar Head Basketball Coach Bobby Cremins to reflect on the season past and on the upcoming year.
“My first season here,” he said, “I met with my staff and we discussed who we'd lose from our squad. We only had three players back who had had playing time: Jermaine, Marcus and Tony White. I told them we needed a really good recruiting year. We got knocked around in the early signing period, but we worked hard in the late signing period, and things went our way.
“The schedule presented problems we couldn't avoid, and we got nervous. We were the last team in the country to play a game on our home court. Early on, we played well. The Temple game was one for the ages. We played our butts off at Florida State and USC. We were optimistic.
“Then, we hit a wall in conference play when Greensboro and Davidson beat us up. We lost close games at Wofford and Elon down the stretch. Those games took a lot out of us, but we finished well against Georgia Southern and Furman. We played well in the tournament. One of our finest games all year was against Georgia Southern.
“We won 16 games, playing a tough schedule in a tough conference, with five new guys. I hope the experience from last season will benefit us. The program is moving in the right direction. This is just my second real recruiting class.”
Davidson's success in the NCAA Tournament will make them the team to beat in the Southern Conference this season. “I think Davidson's run was amazing,” Cremins said. “Our conference is underrated. We had some great wins, but we still don't get respect. We're a one bid conference.
“The conference should do something special for (Coach) Bobby McKillop. The conference has gone through Davidson since before I came here. His team last season was one shot away from the Final Four.”
With last year's large recruiting class, the team's needs this year are fewer and more specific. The College signed two recruits early: Quasim Pugh, a 5'11” point guard from Oakdale, Connecticut; and Matt Sundberg, a 6'6” forward from Kennesaw, Georgia. Charleston also accepted a transfer from Florida State in January: Caseem Breeden, a 6'9” forward, who will be available for his final year of eligibility in 2009-10.
“We're still missing a few pieces,” Cremins said, “and we'll tinker with our system for this season. The new arena has been a long time coming, and it will affect our scheduling.”
The addition of Samford University to the SoCon will re-establish a 12-team league, playing twenty conference games. Charleston will meet each team twice, except Samford (one game at home) and Chattanooga (one game away).
Scheduling combines with recruiting and academic eligibility to provide off-season concerns for the basketball coaching staff. A preliminary slate finds the Cougars playing at Clemson, with South Carolina visiting Charleston. The usual opponents (Charleston Southern and UNC-Wilmington) will be augmented in 2008-09 by games at South Carolina State and Winthrop, as well as a visit from Coastal Carolina.
At long last, the Cougars will match up against the local and state schools that are their logical opponents. A second potential exciting development involves an early season exempt tournament. The past two seasons have found The College travelling to major competitions in St. Thomas and San Juan. The upcoming slate might include a major tournament a lot closer to home!
“Dan Shumacher of ESPN wants to put together an early tournament in Charleston,” Cremins said. “He's considering six teams, including Clemson and The College, and is working on lining up a field of eight. The tournament would occur each year, and we could play in it only every four years. The field would be similar to the teams we played with in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.”
NCAA rules allow a total of 29 games, or 27 with an exempt 3-day tournament. Whatever the outcome, Charleston will have more home games this season than they did last year. “Someday, I'd like to have
18 home games and 11 on the road,” the coach said wistfully. “I had that luxury at times at Georgia Tech. It's not easy to have that here. It's tough to have fun in this business, but this is like a mulligan for me. Now that I'm back in the business of coaching, I want to stay in and grow the program.
“We'll re-start a series next season with Coastal Carolina, continue playing home and home with Wilmington, and start meeting Winthrop. Kyle Perry (now an Assistant Coach at South Carolina State) got me to agree to visit there, and I guess Josh Jackson will play that game against us!”
So, enjoy the basketball off-season. I hope I've whetted your appetite for the prospects of what is to come.
