Torin Dorn has been a bright spot for the 49ers this season. Photo by Chris Crews.
The Charlotte 49ers men’s basketball team hasn’t had a ton of success in the past decade. When Alan Major was hired in 2010, he was brought in to return the program back to relevance, but this hasn’t happened yet.
One thing Major and his staff have done is bring in talented recruits. Multiple highly-touted prospects like Braxton Ogbueze, Bernard Sullivan, Keyshawn Woods and Torin Dorn have been brought in to combine with the experienced leaders like Pierria Henry and Terrence Williams. This was meant to be the year that everything came together for the 49ers with all of their talent and experience, but this hasn’t happened yet.
A common complaint about the past few years has been the lack of competition in the non-conference schedule for Charlotte, so the staff went out this past season and booked games against the likes of George Washington, Georgetown, Miami, Georgia Tech and Davidson. This has been the toughest non-conference schedule that the 49ers have faced since Major has taken over, but Charlotte hasn’t been able to beat any of the aforementioned teams. ESPN has Charlotte at the 10th toughest strength of schedule in the nation, but this year’s team was built to challene that competition. These big wins haven’t happened yet either.
Niner Nation has waited long enough for their men’s basketball program to return to the national spotlight, but it just hasn’t happened in the past five seasons. This team has the talent, but doesn’t have the wherewithal to beat the teams that aren’t an automatic win. The 49ers have defeated the teams that they should defeat such as Appalachian State, UNC Asheville, College of Charleston and Elon, but have lost to most of the big name opponents.
One problem that seems to persist is the lackadaisical start of the game. The starting lineup of Henry, Ogbueze, Williams, Clayton and Thorne Jr. has remained for all 12 games of the season, but that may need to change with conference play coming up. Early in the game the 49ers typically fall behind by a couple of possessions due to their lethargic start to the game. Dorn and Woods come in and provide the spark that the team should have had from the beginning. The 49ers have trailed at halftime 10 games out of 12 this season and are always climbing back from an early deficit.
Pierria Henry, who needs 17 more steals to pass Eddie Basden for most steals on the all-time list, has had a stellar season so far. Despite his low field goal percentage (35 percent on the season) and his extremely low 3-point percentage (18 percent on the season), Henry still stuffs the stat sheet. He’s currently averaging 11 points, 5.9 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game, but he needs some help from his fellow starters.
Ogbueze, who leads the team in scoring, got off to a hot start in the beginning of the year, but has cooled off since his 27 point explosion at George Washington. Williams, Clayton, and Thorne Jr. have played very inconsistently, with Williams and Thorne Jr. each only scoring in double-digits once in the past five games.
The bright spot of non-conference play this year has been the freshmen. Dorn and Woods have provided much needed scoring, with Dorn having seven double-digit scoring performances off the bench and Woods having five.
Woods currently ranks first in Conference USA in 3-point percentage at 56.4 and is fifth in the nation. Dorn is the second highest scorer on the team with 11.3 points per game. These two players have come up big in games all year and should arguably start in the coming games.
The 49ers now look toward conference play and will open with the leagues best team, Old Dominion (11-1), tomorrow at 1 p.m. in Halton Arena. The Monarchs currently have the 11th best scoring defense in the NCAA, allowing only 55.2 points per game. Their best win of the season was against No. 14 Virginia Commonwealth. Some other quality wins have come against LSU and Richmond, as well as Georgia State.
Their game against Charlotte tomorrow will be only their second true road game of the season, with the first road game being a blowout win against George Mason back on Dec. 3. They’re led by Trey Freeman, a 6’2 junior that averages 16.6 points per game. Richard Ross leads the team in rebounding with 6.3 per game while scoring 8.9 points a game.
The C-USA opener will be televised on the American Sports Network, WCCB and WMYV.