CONWAY The argument can be made that the two best college basketball teams in the state of South Carolina are meeting Thursday night at Kimbel Arena as College of Charleston visits Coastal Carolina.
Both teams come in with 9-2 records and impressive early-season resumes. Both boast a win over Clemson, both also have a victory over an SEC team and each has its sights set on making an NCAA tournament appearance come March.
CCU coach Cliff Ellis has heard that sort of talk leading up to in-state showdown, and well, he didn’t necessarily dismiss it.
“That’s what the media say, it’s what the media say, so you know, it’s been a lot of media hype,” Ellis said of the matchup. “But as far as Bobby [Cremins] and I are concerned, for us it’s our last game before we play conference basketball and it’s a great test for us.”
Like Ellis has done in building Coastal into a formidable mid-major, his long-time friend Cremins has College of Charleston garnering some national buzz as well.
The Cougars, who have one more non-conference game remaining next week after this, pushed No. 4-ranked Louisville to the end Tuesday night before losing on the road 69-62. That performance came six days after they toppled Tennessee, and Ellis didn’t hesitate to say this looks to be the toughest challenge his team has faced all season.
“This should be a classic game, it really should. Both teams have resume wins,” Ellis said. “... This is the best team that we’ve played, and it’s a fun game.”
Well, that last part is yet to be determined for the Chants, who are coming off their worst performance of the season -- a 76-51 loss on the road at East Carolina on Monday night.
The Pirates caused the Chants fits with a zone defense -- similar to what Ellis expects College of Charleston to employ Thursday night.
“We’ll have to answer it,” he said.
Coastal committed 19 turnovers in that loss Monday night while shooting just 3-of-21 from 3-point range.
“East Carolina played 2-3 zone pretty much the whole game, and we’re probably going to see that tomorrow night,” junior guard Anthony Raffa said after practice Wednesday. “We’ve played two teams this year that played zone -- Florida International and we lost, and East Carolina and we lost -- so I feel like teams are going to now look at those tapes and say, ‘Oh, they’re struggling [against] the 2-3.’
“But I feel like the last two days of practice we’ve got a better understanding how to attack that 2-3 zone and what ways we need to score.”
As Ellis said, the Chants are a better shooting team than what they showed in the defeat Monday night. Before that loss, Coastal was actually leading all Division I teams in field goal percentage (53.3).
College of Charleston, meanwhile, is a proficient offensive team in its own right.
Senior forward Antwaine Wiggins leads the Southern Conference in scoring at 18.5 points per game and is coming off a 23-point effort at Louisville. In all, four Cougars average in double-figures offensively.
With both programs trending upward the last few years, this game has also become something of a rivalry, players say.
“It’s kind of got that conference rivalry feel to it because we’re so close to each other and we’ve played each other every year since I’ve been here,” Coastal junior guard Danny Nieman said.
“Coach Cremins, he’s done such a great job. He’s rebuilt that mid-major program, much like coach Ellis has done here. So it’s kind of the battle of the mid-majors, I would say. And we consider ourselves one of the best mid-major teams, and I think they do too.”
College of Charleston and Coastal each reached the National Invitation Tournament last season while winning 26 and 28 games, respectively. As they meet Thursday night, each will be looking to add another marquee win to their 2011-12 resume while, perhaps, securing some sort of in-state bragging rights.
“To me, it’s just going to be a classic,” Ellis said. “It’s a game that if you’re a basketball fan, this is something you want to see.”
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