Keeping Tabs: Josh Jackson enrolls at South Carolina State University

As the CofC Sports Fan mentioned back on May 15th, Josh Jackson will not return to the College of Charleston. The Orangeburg Times and Democrat announced today that Josh has enrolled at South Carolina State University and should play his final year of eligibility the 2008-2009 season. (Photo credits: The T & D)

We at the CofC Sports Fan were quite disappointed in Josh. Jackson was an All-State center from South Aiken High School who showed us he could really add depth to the team, as a sophomore, averaging 12.5 points and 5.8 boards a game while shooting over 50% from the field. But then his junior year (2006-2007) Josh showed the Maroon Nation that he didn't have the work-ethic to become a dominant force in the Southern Conference. As we watched Jermaine Johnson develop (both physically and mentally) and mature on and off the court, becoming a leader for the Cougars, Josh continued to struggle. but we will keep things on a certain level of comity and wish Josh well for doing his part and hope that he uses this year off to get in shape and grow as a player and a person.

Josh Jackson will not return to the Cougar line-up next season

This will be the last time you see Mr. Josh Jackson wearing a Cougar uniform as he has decided to transfer to another school. We will miss Josh, but he needs to do what is best for him. Although Jackson started under Coach Herrion, he did not find many starts and was briefly off the team under Coach Cremins due to Josh's attitude (or perhaps lack thereof).

It would have been something to see Josh and Jermaine ruling the paint next year as they did this last season but unfortunately, Josh needs to move on with his career. The CofC Sports Fan wishes Josh luck in all of his future aspirations.

The College of Charleston advances to the Semi-Finals to face App. State tonight at 8:30 pm

For the past 6-years, Goldfinger, Mel and I have gone to the So Con Tourney only to be disappointed as our beloved Cougars fell short from attaining the ticket to the Big Dance, but this year was different. This year, the Cougars knew the stakes and they came to win! The College of Charleston's men's basketball team improved to 21-10 defeating Georgia Southern 77-66. The Eagles dropped to 15-16 for the season. The Cougars face Appalachian State tonight at 8:30 pm.

From the Den
The Cougars trailed by 7 at the half. Dontaye Draper scored 12-points in the first half, David Lawrence had 5-points, Jermaine put up 5-hard fought points and Javon Parris added three-points in the first half. Dismal to say the least. The Cougars gave up numerous easy baskets and it looked as the same dance, just a different year. (Photo from CofC Sports.com)

Keeping the Faith!
The 2nd half became a Cougar high-light reel as the College turned up the defense, the crowd became a formidable opponent as the 6th man and we all ran (7-2 @ the 16:26-mark and 10-0 at the 12-minute mark) with the Cougars. (Que Prince" "They say tomorrow '00, party on like its' 1999!) Dontaye Draper would lead the Cougars with 23-points (4-6 from behind the arc). Big Man Josh Jackson looked sluggish in the first half, but became a fierce opponent in the paint with 16-points. I almost felt bad for Salazar and his fellow wounded Eagles as Dontaye and Jermaine utilized the Lionel Richie-"All Night Long" play dishing under the basket for Jermaine's easy lay-up. Jermaine Johnson would finish with 15-points. David Lawrence looked like Reggie Miller on the floor feeding shots and putting up 12-points of his own.

The Cougars played an exciting game last night. They gave us all something to cheer about and kept our spirits alive throughout. I can only hope that more of the Maroon Nation will join us for tonight's game against App. State. Great job by the Cougars! Eagles thanks for playing!

The Cougars dropped their final regular season game to the Eagles, 65-74

The Cougars fell to Georgia Southern today at Hanner Fieldhouse in front of 2,703 fans for the Eagles' seniors last home game. The College is now 3-4 in their last 7-final season games. The Cougars dropped to 20-10, 13-5 (SoCon) as we get ready for the SoCon Tournament next week. The Cougars will play Thursday night, their opponent has yet to be announced. The Eagles finished their season 14-15, 7-11 (SoCon) and showed today that despite their record, they are a formidable opponent for their next opponent in the SoCon Tournament. (Photo compliments of CofC Sports)

For members of the Maroon Nation watching from home, we missed the first minutes of the game as the Marist vs. Sienna game went into OT. The Cougars had the lead off the fingers of Draper and Tony White Jr. hitting back to back 3-balls and a lay-up by Jermaine Johnson added to Draper's point from the charity-stripe to give the Cougars a 13-5 lead at the 14:48 mark. (due to time restraints I will post more on this later)

From the Den

Philip McCandies matched his career-high of 4 blocks in a game before the 10-minute mark in the 1st half; he would end the day with a new career-high of 7 blocks in the game, six of which he swatted in the 1st half. Dontaye Draper scored 9-points and dished out 9-assists, hitting 3-12 from the field and 2-7 from behind the arc in his 38-minutes of play. Jermaine Johnson finished with 4-boards and 14-points hitting 7-11 field goals. David Lawrence was 5-11 from the field and 3-8 from behind the arc, as he pulled down 8-boards and finished with 14-points in 37-minutes of play. Josh Jackson had 3-assists and rolled sixes with 6-points and 6-boards. The walk-on player brought in by Coach Cremins, Tony White Jr. went 3-5 from the field and hit both of his 3-balls for a total of 9-points. Returning from his knee-injury, Marcus Hammond was 3-5 in the field and 3 for 4 from behind the arc, putting 9-points on the board in his 16-minutes of play. Finally, Javon Parris was able to score 2-points in the 8-minutes he was on the court today.

Teams---1st Half---2nd Half---Total

CofC---39---26---65

Ga. Southern---36---38---74

The College of Charleston wins in double-over-time against Furman

The Cougars would keep the game close in the 2nd half as the patented Bobby Cremins' man-2-man defense began to close the Paladins' lead. Although Furman held a better percentage in field-goals shooting 43% to the Cougars 39%, the Cougars seemed to have more heart, especially in the paint. The "shake and bake" combo of Josh Jackson and Jermaine Johnson outscored the Paladins in the paint, 28 to 22 in the 2nd half. Furman kept themselves in the game with the 3-ball, but Charleston's Dontaye Draper, Tony White Jr. and recently off the injured-list, Renardo Dickerson answered with their own barrage of baskets from behind the arc. (Photo of Furman Paladin compliments of Furman Sports)

Josh Jackson had some trouble from the Charity Stripe as did his counter-part Jermaine Johnson, but as the final minutes of regular time passed, every Cougar to reach the line came up big. The Cougars would tie the game on six separate occasions and lead three times. Sidelined with 2 fouls in the 1st half, Dontaye Draper scored all of his 12-points and had 3-rebounds in the 2nd half. Alex Opacic and Moussa Diagne kept the Paladins in the game and forced over-time on the Cougars.

1st OT: The first OT was absolutely horrid as the Cougars put up paltry numbers. The College did stay alive with clutch baskets from Josh Jackson and Dontaye Draper. The first OT would end with a 68-68 tie game.

2nd OT: Tony White Jr. would open the 2nd OT with a basket as he drew the foul by Furman guard Eric Webb. (Webb would foul out of the game with 6-points after this infraction.) TW Jr would make the shot from the Charity-Stripe for his 10th point of the game, giving the Cougars a 3-point lead (71-68). Taking the ball down the court, George Brozos was fouled and made two-crucial baskets for the Paladins shortening the Cougs lead to 1. Moussa Diagne would rebound and bring the ball back for a jump-hook and the foul against Dontaye Draper-his 4th foul. The Paladins led 73-71. (The Cougars were unable to stop Diagne's jump-hook shot all night long.)

On the Cougars end, Josh Jackson scored with the foul, making both baskets, giving the Cougars a 2-point lead 75-73, with 2:27 left on the clock. Moussa would score once again with his jump-hook shot, tying the game at 75. Josh would pick up the foul again, making 1 of the 2 baskets. After a miss from the Paladins, Dontaye drove the lane and made a left-handed lay-up, putting the Cougs back up by 3, 78-75. Furman's Tony Anderson would miss a basket on the other end of the court, but pull the foul from David Lawrence-his 2nd, shortening the Cougars lead to 1 with 15.6 seconds left on the clock.

With the clock running out, Evans would foul Dontaye on the in-bounds. Draper would get a "shooter's bounce" from his first shot and then "nada but net" his second from the Charity-Stripe, giving the Cougars a 80-77 lead. Cremins called a time-out with 14.5 seconds left on the clock to talk things over. Furman would get three different looks at the basket, but as the clock ran out, Anderson couldn't get the basket to fall.

The Cougars made it out of G-Vegas with a win, 80-77. Great job by the players and the coaching staff tonight! Furman, thanks for playing!

Cougars Win on the road!

The College of Charleston basketball team kicked off their first game of a two-game road-trip with a win in the “Sparkle City” defeating the Wofford Terriers 71 to 58. The Cougars are closing in on Coach Cremins’ (beginning of the season) goals: a 20-win season, SoCon Championship and possible trip to the Big Dance or NIT Tourney. The Cougars (18-9, 11-4 SoCon) will stay in the Upstate traveling to Greenville for their game against Furman on Monday night. (Photo compliments of CofC Sports.com)

Tonight’s game was nothing similar to the previous (and very close) match-up this season in Charleston. Alright, it is true, the game was somewhat similar as the Cougs trailed at the half and only shot 39% in the 1st half against the 42% field-goal shooting Terriers. And just like the first game against Wofford this season, the BMOCs really stepped it up and battled in the paint. Having our big men get mean and hungry is something we’ve pushed for here at the CofC Sports Fan and our wish finally came true.

Josh Jackson led the team with 19-points (8-12 FG, 3-5 FT) and 6 rebounds. Jermaine Johnson would tie the game (at 33) for the first time of the night in the 2nd-half with 17:05 left on the clock. Johnson put 16-points (7-11 FG, 0-2 FT) on the board and grabbed 6 rebounds as well. Forward, David Lawrence was a rock-star as he stacked up another double-double of 13-points and 11 boards that helped complete the circle for the BMOCs.

Obviously, all of us here at the CofC Sports Fan were happy to see Renardo Dickerson back for the Cougs after a tender-ankle has side-lined him for the past month. After being out all of January, Dickerson did finally see playing time against UNCG, but he missed the Davidson game this week because his ankle was still day-to-day. Dickerson did get in the game against Wofford, scoring his average of 6-points during the 7-minutes he was in the game.

After a steal-off of Terrier Drew Gibson’s drive, Dontaye Draper would put the Cougars in the driver-seat (39-35) with a “nada but net” shot from behind the arc, giving Draper 11-points, 7-rebounds and 5 assists. Following Draper’s 3-bucket, Tony White Jr. scored his 2-points with a lay-up from a Terrier pass that Jermaine swatted down with 13:22 left on the clock for a 41-35 Cougar lead. The Terrier’s got a little help from the Charity-Stripe, but Josh Jackson responded with another lay-up, as the Cougs pulled away 43-36. Wofford would force 6-fouls at the end of the game as they tried to keep it honest, but the College of Charleston was the better team tonight! Cougs win again! Great job guys! Terriers, thanks for playing!

Teams………1……2…..Total
CofC (18-9)---29----42---71
Woff (9-17)---33---25---58

The College of Charleston wins on the road

UNC-G Coach Mike Dement could only look in awe as the College of Charleston added another notch to the victory belt as they defeated UNC-Greensboro (81-59) on the road. The College increases their record to 17-8, 10-3 (SoCon). Photo compliments of UNC-G Spartans.

Teams---1st half---2nd half---final
CofC ---25---56---81
UNCG---28---31---59


From the Den
Dontaye Draper's eight from behind the arc tied the school record for most 3-pointers in a game (Troy Wheless hit 8-3-pointers against Davidson, February 23, 2003) and a career high of 28-points helped the Cougars overcome a 3-point deficit at the half to beat UNCG in front of 1, 572 Spartan faithful. The Cougars shot 47.6% in the 1st half, and then shot a lights out season high of 59%, hitting 11 of 16 three point attempts, in the 2nd half. David Lawrence had a big game with 13-points and 9-boards. Big man, Josh Jackson put 10-points on the board and the youngster Tony White Jr added 11.

They say they don't need an introduction, but I'll give the Wildcats one anyway
The Cougars welcome the Davidson Wildcats to Kresse Arena Monday night at 7 pm. The Wildcats had this week off, but they will enter a hostile environment at Kresse Arena as this year means so much more than the past. I will have to ask Coach at the next Bobby Cremins Show to ease up on these Saturday-Monday games for next season. The team did a great job to win on the road! Spartans thanks for playing!

And now, since we are no longer looking forward to the next game instead of concentrating at the game at hand-let the blogging begin against Davidson! WB started a week ago, but I just couldn't (with good conscience) get involved yet! But tomorrow and Monday are wide-open. Leave any suggestions you might have, but I am not doing the serious trash talking I did last year (to my embarrassment).

Cougars face the Paladins

The College of Charleston (10-7, 3-2 SoCon) welcomes the Furman ‘Purple’ Paladins (7-8, 1-3 SoCon) Saturday night (6 pm) to Kresse Arena for the 67th game between the two schools. Furman leads the series (All-time) 39-27 but since both schools entered the SoCon, the College leads 16-2, with a current streak of 4-straight wins over Furman. The game will broadcast on CSS (Comcast Sports Southeast) with Matt Stewart doing the play-by-play and the legendary CofC Coach John Kresse painting the court as the color commentator. Also, the game will broadcast as usual on ESPN Radio-910-AM-with Tony-C and Easy-E calling the game for us.

From the Den:
Coach Cremins is 8-6 (All-time) over Furman. The last time the two schools met, the Cougars won by a basket 67-65 @ Timmons Arena, Feb.11, 2006. Josh Jackson scored 14-points; D-Lawrence scored 12-points and led the field with 9-boards. Dontaye Draper had a game high of 8-assists and had a career-high of 6 steals against Furman at the previous meeting between the two schools (1/7/06).

Furman Head Coach Jeff Jackson has a clean slate against the Cougars as this is his first year at the helm for the Paladins and Saturday will be his first trip to Kresse Arena. Coach Jackson is 28-68 in his 4 seasons as a head-coach, with a .292 (All-time) and .467 (at Furman) win percentage.

Recon
Despite having a losing record (of 7-8) and having but one win to keep the Terriers in dead-last for the South Division of the Southern Conference, the 5th-ranked Furman Paladins (1-3, SoCon) have a decent ball-club who can put points on the board. The Paladins lead the League in 3-pointers shooting 40.1%, with an average of 8.1 shots made from behind the arc per game and Furman has three starters averaging at least 12-points a game and 3 rebounds: Moussa Diagne (12.5 ppg, 5.1 rpg), Robby Ballstain (12.2 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 3.5 assists) and Eric Webb (12.9 ppg. 3.3 rpg and 5.3 apg). The Paladins lost to Georgia Southern by 2-points last Saturday and they lost to Davidson by 8-points on Wednesday. (Both Diagne and Webb scored 13-points in their loss against Davidson Wednesday night.) Side note: Furman lost to the currently undefeated Clemson Tigers on November 15th by 9-points.

Where the Paladins are weak-under the basket-Furman was out rebounded by Ga. Southern (33-19) and Davidson (39-24). Hopefully it is time for Josh Jackson to get angry! And Jackson and Johnson can do a little “shake and bake” on the boards-yes, I just said that; I can’t believe that just happened.

Victory is mine! Defeating a complex basketball hoop and the Cougs win over Western Carolina 82-75!

Talk about frustration

Craig and I put together a goal for a big fan and chef of the CofC Sports Fan, Brett-don't tell his daughters; it is a surprise. I digress; if you purchased a filled-base, hydraulic lifting/adjustable Reebok goal for your kids this Christmas and it is not preassembled, you need to get to work now! That thing was frustrating. Granted the first pill always costs a million bucks to make, so I imagine that we would be able to assemble another goal pretty fast.

From the Den

The Cougars improved their record to 6-6, (2-1 SoCon) defeating Western Carolina this evening, 82-75! The big men, Josh Jackson and Jermaine Johnson combined for 30 points (Josh with 13 and Jermaine with 17). David Lawrence went 3 for 7 from behind the arc, scoring 17 points. Dontaye Draper hit 2 for 5 from behind the arc, putting 16 points on the board.

Strategy

At this weeks Bobby Cremins Show, Coach mentioned Western Carolina's Princeton offense as something we needed to address. Princeton offense is the back-door cuts and accurate 3-point shots taken by patient players with out much support in the paint. Despite the Cougs having 13 turnovers, all I have to say is, when you live by the 3, you die by the 3. It didn't work for Princeton against USC and it didn't work for W.C. tonight.

Great job by the Cougs tonight! Catamounts thanks for playing!

Cougs face Chattanooga

The College (3-6, 0-1) takes on UT-Chattanooga (5-4, 0-0) tonight at 7 pm. The series between the two teams is tied at 9; the Cougs lost to Chattanooga in their last meeting during the SoCon Tournament last March by 2-points. (Yes, I was the guy in the stands yelling at the refs that they robbed Dontaye of his last second 3-point basket to win the game. Come on refs!) Sure, I was shocked the game was so close because the Cougs defeated the Mocs by 14-points at Kresse Arena last January during the regular season, and I doubt tonight’s game will be any different. The teams are matched up quite brilliantly for size and speed. Also, both teams are coming off of an eight-game break for finals and a loss from an SEC opponent.

Home Court Coaching
With home court advantage, the Cougs will break their ‘slide’ tonight as we are 6-1 @ Kresse against UT-C and Coach Cremins is 8-2 (lifetime) against the Moccasins. Although, UT-C Coach John Shulman is 2-1 against the Cougs his Mocs have yet to beat the Cougars @ Kresse. But let’s not stuff the ‘W’ in our pocket before the buzzer; Coach Shulman put a couple of tough opponents on the Mocs schedule (namely Florida (L: 44-93) and Kentucky (L: 63-79) so his team is just as battle-tested as we Maroons are.

Recon
Although, we are struggling on offense, the Cougars are very strong on defense (Bobby Cremins trademark) and if they can keep the pressure (especially) on the Mocs’ perimeter, then the College will win tonight. Despite not having Josh Jackson throwing his weight around in the paint, the Cougs should be able to control the boards tonight-as the College has the edge in size and experience.

Never turn your back on a Moccasin!
Chattanooga is explosive with their offense. They will try to work their “big” men down under the basket more this evening in order to free up their highly talented perimeter man, especially Keddric Mays. Mays made his 100th trey this year in his 34th career game against ETSU last month. He’s averaging 25-points a game and he is dangerous. UK Coach Tubby Smith made the mistake of matching the Mocs with smaller guys and Mays went on a shooting spree from behind the arc hitting 7-treys as the Mocs closed a 33-point deficit with 15-minutes on the clock to a 9-point deficit with 4-minutes left in the ball game. Lesson learned: Cougs, even if you think the Mocs are down for the count, keep chopping until the buzzer sounds, and then put the ‘W’ in your pocket.

Hit those books hard Josh!

As exam week gets started, all of us here at CofC Sports Fan would like to say good luck to all of the students down on George Street, especially Josh Jackson. Coach Cremins did the right thing by benching Josh because of his grades and attitude. But Jermaine Johnson was benched for attitude reasons as well, and he came back. So there is no reason that Josh can't do the same, if he buckles down this week and hits the books. We're pulling for you big guy, not just because we miss those 12-points and 5-boards a game, but because we truly want to see you become a champion on and off the court.