BOSTON – The Northeastern men's basketball team will wrap up their weekend in the Carolinas with a Saturday night contest at UNCW at Trask Coliseum at 7 p.m.
Northeastern is coming off of a tough test at Charleston on Thursday night that saw the Cougars come away with an 82-66 victory. Four different Huskies tallied double-digit scoring and every player in the game got on the board, but it wasn't enough as preseason favorite Charleston earned the victory on their home court.
The Huskies are now looking to snap a four-game skid against the Seahawks dating back to the 2015-16 season and pick up their first win at Trask since the first game of the new year in 2016.
NOTABLES
• This is the 98th season of Northeastern men's basketball
• Northeastern has an all-time record of 1,194-1,098 (.521) in 2,292 games
• The Huskies are 379-255 (.598) all-time in conference play including a 121-85 (.587) record since joining the CAA in the 2005-06 season
• Northeastern amassed 12 regular season conference championships and eight tournament titles including a 2015 CAA title which sent NU to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 24 years
•
Bill Coen is in his 12th season as the leader of the Huskies and since Coen has taken the reins, Northeastern has accomplished the best win percentage amongst current CAA teams in conference and CAA tournament play with a 122-98 all-time mark
• The Huskies named a new director of athletics and recreation on Wednesday morning as Jeff Konya will take over for
Peter Roby on February 1
•
Shawn Occeus also currently leads the CAA in thefts this season with 1.8 steals per game, a mark that also ranks in the top of the NCAA
•
Anthony Green is shooting a remarkable 69.8 percent from the field in 2017-18 a mark that should rank first in the CAA and in a tie for fourth nationally
• The Huskies have recorded six 80-point efforts this season, on pace for the most during the
Bill Coen era
• Northeastern just finished up a three-game stretch at Matthews Arena where they are 7-1 on the season and have beaten their opponents by an average of 16.4 points, falling just once by a one-point margin
SCOUTING THE SEAHAWKS
• After losing the majority of their starting lineup from last year's CAA Tournament Championship team, UNCW is off to a 5-12 start to the year and are 2-3 in conference play
• The Seahawks saw a stretch of eight losses in the midst of their season
• Of the team's five wins, UNCW has defeated two DIII schools as well as Campbell, Drexel, and the last time out, Elon in overtime
• The Seahawks have fallen twice to Delaware and once to Towson in conference play
LEADING THE WAY
• Devontae Cacok is atop the Seahawks, the CAA and the country with his 17.6 points and 13.2 rebounds per game this season
• After finishing last season with an NCAA record .800 FG%, Cacok is shooting .631 from the field this year
• Aiding Cacok on the offensive front are Jordon Talley who has notched 16.1 ppg and added 96 assists this season
• Wichita State transfer Ty Taylor (13.2 ppg) and Jaylen Fornes (11.6) are also averaging double digits on a team that has averaged over 80 ppg through the first 17 games
ALL-TIME SERIES
• This will be the 23rd meeting between the two teams in a series that UNCW leads 12-10
• The Seahawks have won the last four games against the Huskies including a season sweep last year and a CAA Tournament game the previous season
• The Huskies are 3-6 all-time at Trask, earning their last victory on the road at UNCW a couple of seasons ago in which
Jeremy Miller tallied the go-ahead basket with less than three seconds on the clock to help the Huskies to the victory
• The Seahawks have won seven of the last nine games against the Huskies
LAST TIME VS. UNCW
• A hot second half was not enough for Northeastern to overcome a 23-point halftime deficit as the Huskies fell to UNCW 74-65 at Trask Coliseum the last time out against the Seahawks
•
T.J. Williams had a game-high 24 points for the Huskies in the loss, his 18th 20-point effort of the season, adding four rebounds and four assists on the day
•
Anthony Green was one rebound shy of his second-straight double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds while
Bolden Brace added 12 points, six boards and four assists following his heroic 40-point effort on Thursday
•
Maxime Boursiquot added three points, nine rebounds and a pair of steals on the day
• UNCW was led by C.J. Bryce who had 23 points on the day going 3-for-3 from deep while senior Chris Flemmings had 19 points and six rebounds on senior day
A NEW LEADER
• On Wednesday, NU announced that Jeff Konya will succeed
Peter Roby, who will retire after more than a decade as the university's athletic director, as director of athletics and recreation at Northeastern University
• Konya comes to Northeastern from Oakland University where he spent the last three and a half seasons
• Under Konya's leadership, Oakland's athletic teams achieved unprecedented success in both competition and the classroom
• The university has won the Horizon League's McCafferty Trophy, representative of the league's all-sport champion, each of the past three years, and has amassed 22 Horizon League championships since 2014, including a men's basketball title in 2017
• Prior to Oakland, Konya was director of athletics at California State University, Bakersfield, a member of the NCAA Division I Western Athletic Conference and before that director of athletics at Northeastern State University, an NCAA Division II member
THE LAST TIME OUT
• The Huskies started the week off with a tough test at the College of Charleston on Thursday night in a game that the Cougars won 82-66
• Both teams were neck and neck through the majority of the first half, but the Cougars snuck away for a 10-point halftime advantage
• In the second half, every time the Huskies got close, Charleston pulled a little further away
• The Huskies were led by 15 points from
Vasa Pusica and despite four Huskies tallying double-digit efforts and every player that got in the game getting on the board, Charleston was able to come away with the win
TAKING ADVANTAGE
• One of the most notable things about this Northeastern basketball team is their ability to create and-one opportunities
• This season, through 17 games, 10 different Huskies have created 24 such situations
• Northeastern has also connected on the free throw in 20 of the 24 opportunities
• The leader of the pack is
Shawn Occeus who has not only created six and-one opportunities, but has completed the three-point play on five of the six chances
•
Devon Begley and
Tomas Murphy have each headed to the charity stripe for the free throw four times, while
Anthony Green has done so thrice,
Vasa Pusica has twice, and
Bolden Brace, Donnell Gresham,
Derrick Cook, Max Boursiquot and, most recently,
Myles Franklin all have once
• The Huskies had four such plays against Kent State, adding the free throw in each of them, the most in a single game this season
FROM THE CHARITY STRIPE
• Through the first 17 games of the season, redshirt junior
Vasa Pusica has connected on 70 free throws (on 84 attempts)
• In three-straight games from Dec. 18 to Dec. 30, Pusica made at least nine free throws going 12-of-14 from the line against Kent State, 9-of-9 at St. Bonaventure and 10-of-14 at James Madison
• Last season, senior
T.J. Williams set the Northeastern single-season record making 202 free throws in 30 games
• Through 17 games, Williams made 113 free throws, including a three-game stretch that saw a 9-of-11 effort against BU, 12-of-14 against LIU and 10-of-12 shooting from the charity stripe against Maine
• As a team, the Huskies have accumulated a .745 free throw percentage which ranks third in the conference and 60th nationally
• Last season, the Huskies .681 free throw percentage ranked ninth in the conference besting just Drexel (.667)
• As a team the Huskies did not miss from the free throw line in two games (17-17) and made 21-straight free throws beginning against JMU (Dec. 30) and ending against the Dukes (Jan. 7)
•
Devon Begley has currently made 14-straight free throws dating back to Dec. 30
RACKING UP THE POINTS
• Through the first 17 games of the season, the Huskies have already recorded six 80-point games and are averaging 72.1 points a contest
• To put things into perspective, it took the first six seasons of
Bill Coen-led teams to achieve that feat
• While the scoring mark ranks in the bottom of the CAA, this season, that isn't out of the norm for the Huskies who have always ranked near the top of the conference in scoring defense
• The 72.1 ppg mark this season ties the highest mark of the
Bill Coen era (2016-17; 72.1)
• This year's scoring defense ranks third in the conference (68.9 ppg) while the team's 3FG defense ranks second in the CAA and 54th nationally holding their opponents to .317 shooting from behind the arc
• The past two seasons, the Huskies finished with eight such games, while adding three 90-point finishes and last season recorded the first 100-point effort of the Coen era... using two overtime periods
COEN ERA POINT TOTALS
| Year |
80-points |
90-points |
100-points |
| 2006-07 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
| 2007-08 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 2008-09 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 2009-10 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 2010-11 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
| 2011-12 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
| 2012-13 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 2013-14 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
| 2014-15 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
| 2015-16 |
8 |
3 |
0 |
| 2016-17 |
8 |
3 |
1 |
| 2017-18 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
| Total |
40 |
9 |
1 |
