An early chance at a trophy is at stake this Sunday with Utah State and Davidson set to battle it out for the title of champion in the Charleston Classic Lowcountry bracket. The two sides won their respective initial games of the multi-team event, with the Aggies taking down Tulane in a dominant 96-75 win and the Wildcats winning in a comparatively low-scoring 59-49 result against Boston College.
Here’s all of the necessary info ahead of this next game for Utah State.
How to watch
- Tip-off: 7 p.m. (Mountain Time)
- Location: TD Arena (Charleston, SC)
- TV Broadcast: ESPN2
- Radio Broadcast: KVNU (102.1 FM, 610 AM) / kvnutalk.com / KVNU mobile app
KVNU Aggie GameDay pregame show with Stockton Jewkes and J.D. Walker: 6 p.m.
KVNU Aggie Call: Immediately after Coach Calhoun’s post-game comments
- Text (435) 554-1175 or call (435) 753-5868 during the pregame or postgame show to give your thoughts and reactions for the game.
Availability Report
Utah State and Davidson currently have no players expected to miss the upcoming game due to injury.
Projected Starters
Utah State (5-0)
- G – Drake Allen (6-5, Sr.) – 5.3 points | 2.5 rebounds | 7.3 assists
- G – Mason Falslev (6-4, Jr.) – 14.2 points | 5.4 rebounds | 1.6 assists
- G – MJ Collins (6-4, Sr.) – 17.2 points | 2.8 rebounds | 2.2 assists
- F – Tucker Anderson (6-9, Jr.) – 5.2 points | 1.8 rebounds | 1.0 assists
- F – Karson Templin (6-8, Jr.) – 9.6 points | 3.6 rebounds | 1.2 assists
Davidson (5-0)
- G – Sam Brown (6-3, Jr.) – 8.6 points | 1.6 rebounds | 2.8 assists
- G – Parker Friedrichsen (6-3, Jr.) – 10.0 points | 2.0 rebounds | 1.4 assists
- G – Josh Scovens (6-4, Jr.) – 8.8 points | 3.0 rebounds | 1.0 assists
- F – Manie Joses (6-7, So.) – 3.0 points | 2.4 rebounds | 1.0 assists
- F – Sean Logan (6-10, Sr.) – 5.0 points | 2.5 rebounds | 1.5 assists
Side note, Davidson’s two leading scorers this season, Hunter Adam (12.2 PPG) and Nick Coval (10.6 PPG), have only one start between them in the Wildcats’ first five games.
Team Statistical Ranks
Pace and offense/defense efficiency ratings via Ken Pomeroy’s rankings. All rankings are out of 365 teams.
Utah State
- Pace — 178th
- Offensive Efficiency — 118.8 (28th)
- Defensive Efficiency — 100.9 (69th)
- 3-point Percentage — 32.9% (186th)
- 3-Point Attempt Rate — .360 (186th)
- Offensive Rebounding Percent — 37.7% (52nd)
- Total Rebounding Percent — 57.6% (40th)
- Turnover Percent — 15.1% (186th)
- Opp Turnover Percent — 19.1% (55th)
- KenPom Rank – 39th
Davidson
- Pace — 304th
- Offensive Efficiency — 109.5 (120th)
- Defensive Efficiency — 103.7 (100th)
- 3-point Percentage — 42.2% (13th)
- 3-Point Attempt Rate — .469 (58th)
- Offensive Rebounding Percent — 19.6 (362nd)
- Total Rebounding Percent — 48.9 (271st)
- Turnover Percent — 15.8% (226th)
- Opp Turnover Percent — 17.0% (134th)
- KenPom Rank – 110th
Game Preview
As things stand currently, this is the second-toughest game Utah State will have played to this point in the season. Davidson sit on the precipice of being in the top 100 of the KenPom rankings, making this a potential Quad 2 game if the Wildcats manage to push into that top 100 by the end of the season.
The Wildcats will be one of the deepest teams USU will play all year as their rotation goes 12 guys deep. For further reference, only one of Davidson’s starters played more than 20 minutes in the team’s win over Boston College on Friday. Five of the Wildcats’ bench players recorded 17+ minutes, including Nick Coval who played a team-leading 30 minutes despite coming off the bench.
That kind of depth brings with it balanced scoring, but arguably the biggest threat presented by the Wildcats’ host of contributors is 3-point shooting. They have seven players attempted at least 1.8 threes per game that are also shooting north of 36%. All put together, Davidson is shooting 42% from three as a team which is good for the 13th-best rate in the country. And it’s come on pretty decent volume too as Davidson ranks 58th in 3-point attempt rate.
One area that Davidson has seen a weakness in is rebounding, ranking close to last in offensive rebounding percentage and in the bottom half (271st) in total rebounding percentage. It could leave an opening for Garry Clark to have a big game. Clark currently ranks 13th nationally in individual offensive rebounding percentage and has enjoyed a great start to the season on the glass, averaging 9.8 boards per game with three double-doubles.
Computer Prediction Scores
- KenPom — Utah State win 79-71
- Haslametrics — Utah State win 78-72
- EvanMiya — Utah State win 77-71
