Pregame glance: North Carolina-Asheville

Tomorrow night the Buckeyes continue their string of home games leading up to the Big Ten regular season by welcoming another team from down South to chilly Columbus.  This time it will be the North Carolina-Asheville Bulldogs, who are coming off two straight wins.  UNCA is the only liberal arts college in the UNC system and has a relatively small enrollment.  Out of that small enrollment, a select few play basketball wearing official team jerseys.  Let’s meet them.

The Buckeyes faced UNC-Asheville in the not-too-distant past when the two teams were pitted against each other in the first round of the 2008 NIT Tournament.  Ohio State won that game 84-66 en route to winning the NIT Championship, which served as redemption for the Buckeyes after they narrowly missed the NCAA Tournament one year after finishing as the national runner-up.  In the 2008 game Jamar Butler led the way for a team that featured David Lighty in his sophomore season along with Jon Diebler, Dallas Lauderdale, and a guy named Evan Turner as baby-faced freshmen.  Some Ohio State fans may also remember the game because it featured UNC-Asheville’s 7’7 big man Kenny George, the tallest player ever in NCAA basketball history.

This year the Bulldogs come to Columbus with a 5-5 record that includes reasonably close losses against both big UNC (80-69) and Georgetown (87-72).  The team did defeat Auburn to start the season, but judging from Auburn’s subsequent performances this was not a significant victory for UNCA.  What is significant is that the Bulldogs currently stand at 20th in the country in points per game and also rank ahead of the Buckeyes in rebounds per game.

UNC-Asheville last made an NCAA tournament appearance in 2003, where they won their opening game against Texas Southern but then fell to #1 seed Texas.  Coach Eddie Biedenbach is the winningest coach in Big South history.  This year the team can look to build a strong foundation for next season, as only two players on the roster are seniors.  One member of the roster is 7’2 Sean Hobbs (they really like tall guys apparently!), who hails from none other than Columbus, OH, where he attended St. Francis DeSales high school.

A pair of 6’1 junior guards lead the way for the Bulldogs, as both J.P. Primm and Matt Dickey are averaging over 16 points per game on the season.  6’10 center D.J. Cunningham hovers around a double-double per game, contributing just over 11 points and just under 10 boards per contest.  Expect the Bulldogs to try to get open looks from three-point land for both Primm and Dickey, who have jacked up their fair share of treys thus far on the season (the only Buckeye with more is Diebler), while trying to use the size of Cunningham to slow down Sullinger on the inside.

Given the way Ohio State performed against South Carolina and the size advantage they’ll have against the Bulldogs, the Buckeyes should be able to power through Tuesday’s game heading into an intriguing matchup with Oakland on Thursday.  The UNC-Asheville game will be played at 8:30pm and will be televised on the Big Ten Network.