NORTH CAROLINA A&T (13-18, 8-10 CAA)Last Game: North Carolina A&T 73, Hampton 72 (OT) on 2/25/23
Last 10: 4-6
Last Game vs SBU: Stony Brook 69, UNC A&T 59; SBU 24-8 run to close first half; four players with 12+ points
Checkmate Guess the Line: UNC A&T -3
NET Ranking: UNC A&T 313, Stony Brook 333
KenPom Rating: UNC A&T 315, Stony Brook 333
KenPom Prediction: UNC A&T 71, Stony Brook 69
Watch: https://www.flohoops.com/events/8148815-2023-caa-championship-mensListen: TBD
Notables:6-2/185 so G Kam Woods 17.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 3.3 apg, 1.6 spg, .340 3-pt FG%
6-6/235 rjr F Marcus Watson 14.4 ppg, 4.7 rpg, .770 FT%
6-5/200 sr G Demetric Horton 11.0 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 1.7 spg, .464 FG%, .449 3-pt FG%
6-8/225 rfr F Duncan Powell 7.9 ppg, 5.7 rpg
6-9/235 sr F Austin Johnson 5.5 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 1.0 bpg
If you had to choose somebody not named Monmouth or Hampton to face, you might just have chosen A&T, which really labored to the finish line. They were losers of six of seven before Saturday's one-point home win over hapless Hampton. That stretch included two double-digit losses to Monmouth, and one of only two double-digit wins over a D-I opponent for the mighty Seawolves (the other coming at Monmouth). In their last eight, they shot under 40 percent in six of those games, and they were -55 on the glass. That included a 49-35 rebounding deficit against us, which helped us clinch a split of the season series, one we could very well have swept.
Nothing new on the scouting front. We'll want to slow it down to a snail's pace – see the 189-88 gap in fast break points this season in 24 D-I games on Statbroadcast. Meanwhile, A&T wants to get up and down and disrupt us with their guards. One thing to keep an eye on this week is the status of Woods, who missed the final 19 minutes and all of overtime against Hampton with what looked like a thigh injury. I suspect he'll play with the week off and the season on the line. He's ceded some of the scoring duties to Powell and Watson of late anyway. The tandem went for 36 against Hampton, and 40 against Delaware previously. Powell's averaged 17.5 a game over the last four.
It's an interesting game on the coaching front both sides, with Ford's seat seemingly hot, and A&T's coach, Philip Shumpert, still on the interim tag. I wonder whether it's a test drive for A&T or for Shumpert, whose coaching resume was pretty limited coming into the season. But I actually think A&T has to be reasonably pleased with its first season in CAA play. Furthermore, they have a commitment from three/four star Qua Brown, although he'll be coming back from an Achilles tear suffered in a postgame celebration back in December. He goes with Woods and Powell, another former four-star, to make a pretty formidable nucleus over the next few years. Of all the HBCUs, they and Hampton are playing in inarguably the best conference, which is a really good combo.
Here at SBU, we have a million guards on the books for next year and our lone commit is a 5-10 point guard ... who I'm actually excited about, but it's just such a weird fit. I expect upheaval. So many COVID guys have graduated all over the country, the transfer portal is so welcoming, it's been a bad year and we may or may not keep our coach (not sure which is worse).
The winner is lamb to the slaughter against Charleston. If we have the opportunity to see them again, I have a feeling it'd be closer in a neutral arena without the C of C home crowd. But that's a big big if.