Right Back At it....A Towson preview

So Monday night it all starts right up again, as the Towson Tigers come calling to Anderson Arena.

Towson is 5-5 this season, and plays in the Colonial Athletic Association (with George Mason, VCU, etc). Their wins include Navy (8-3), Hampton (5-4), @Maryland-Baltimore County (5-5), @High Point (4-7) and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (0-10). They have two road wins, which is two better than we have, and the Navy and Hampton wins seems pretty good.

Their losses are to Niagara (8-2), #18 Villanova (10-1), Penn State (9-2), St. Joe's (4-5), and Hofstra (8-2).

And, they've lost two out of their last three and have to be looking to get well.

This team will not be a push-over, and will present nice test for our team. According to this write-up on Yahoo, they seem to watch up well with us in that:

• They rebound poorly (and we rebound well)
• They have been shooting free throws poorly, keeping them from maximizing our biggest disadvantage.

Offensively, they are scoring in the high 60's and would appear to be a pretty-high paced team. They are a 3-dominated team, with 40% of the their FGs coming from beyond the arc. (For BG it is 30%). Their 34.5% is almost exactly what BG's is.

At 13 TO's per game, they are about where BG is. They allow 41% against in field goals, which is also pretty solid.

Their coach, Pat Kennedy is a "wily" veteran you may remember from previous stints at Florida State and DePaul.

They have three scorers in double figures. Their leading scorer and rebounder is Junior Hairston (14/5), and freshman Troy Franklin is adding 11 points and 5.5 assists from the point.

Anyway, that's about what we will see tonight. I'm not trying to make these guys out to be North Carolina, but after playing Wayne State and Detroit at home, this is clearly the best challenge we have faced on our floor.

Fun Fact: At 37.8%, our FG defense is 34th in the country, which is about in the Top Ten%.