The Blue Hose--Preview

So tomorrow, the Falcon men's basketball team continues its participation in the Cancun Challenge, now actually in the big ballroom in Mexico.  They are playing Presbyterian College.  The game starts at 12:30.  With a win, BG would play the winner of the Georgia Southern-Orel Roberts game and with a loss they could play the loser.  All this to win the "Mayan" Division.

In case you didn't know--and I didn't--Presbyterian is in Clinton, SC.  They are in the Big South conference where they are picked to finish last in their pre-season poll.  The Big South was the 26th ranked conference in college basketball last season.  This is only their 2nd year as a D1 basketball program.  They were 8-24 last year and had an RPI of 340.

Their nickname is the Blue Hose.  Apparently, they used to wear blue socks and they went back and forth between Blue Stocking and Blue Hose and eventually landed on the wrong name of the two.

It has been a rough year.  They are 1-5, with their only win being against Toccoa Falls (by 10 at home), which is a non-NCAA team from Georgia.  They have played Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, and West Virginia--all real programs--and lost all 3, and then also lost to Old Dominion and the Citadel.  Their closest loss was 14 points to the Citadel.  Their average margin of defeat is 22 points per game.

So, BG has to look at these guys and think that this could be the first D1 win of the year.  Sobering thought is that they probably think the same thing when they look at BG.

There probably is not a lot of productive time to be spent going through their stats so far this year.  Last year, they were the worst defensive team in the nation and this year, so far, they are ranked 315th.  Now, some of that is their opposition...time will tell...and their are 330th in offensive efficiency, too.

They have one big scorer...Jordan Downing, a 6'5" JR transfer from Davidson.  Dude shot 50% from 3 last year, which rarely can be continued, but is shooting 38% this year and he is averaging 18 points a game.  Because of the outside shooting, he is just about average in efficiency but he will have points at the end of the night.

Their other guard is 6'4" Reggie Dillard.  He is a freshman shooting 44% to get to about 13 a game.

Their other leading player is William Truss, a 6'7" JR who is averaging a double-double at 10 and 10.  There is no reason to think he is related to Cam Truss.

Their coach has been there 24 years.  His name is Greg Nibert, and he is from Grove City, OH and apparently doesn't know the photographer can shoot the photo over.