2018-19 Concord Stats -
2018-19 Pitt-Johnstown Stats -
2018-19 IUP Stats -
Live Stats
ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University men's basketball team starts the 2019-20 season at the IRMC/Hilton Garden Inn Classic hosted by Indiana (Pa.) with games against Pitt-Johnstown 9:00 p.m. Friday and 6:00 p.m. Saturday against the host at the Kovalchick Complex.
LIVE COVERAGE
Stats: The Indiana (Pa.) Sports Information Department will provide live in-game statistics of both contests involving CU.
RECORDS
Concord is coming off a 20-10 season and a second straight appearance in the Mountain East Conference Tournament Semifinals.
UPJ sported a mark of 17-13 last season.
The Crimson Hawks are coming off an appearance in the NCAA Tournament as they went 30-3 in 2018-19.
MAGIC NUMBER
Last season, the Mountain Lions had their third 20-win season in the last five years, but it was just the fourth 20-win campaign since the start of the millennium. Head coach
Todd May has been part of all three recent 20-win seasons, but it was his first as the head coach at CU. Heading into this weekend, May needs two wins to eclipse 50 in three-plus seasons at Concord. The only active MEC head coaches with 50 career wins at their current schools are West Liberty's Ben Howlett, Charleston's Dwain Osborne and West Virginia State's Bryan Poore.
ON THE BOARDS
In all three seasons under May, Concord has finished the season with a positive rebounding margin and last season was no different as CU outrebounded opponents by an average of 2.5 per game. The Mountain Lions have two of the top five returning rebounders from last season in the MEC in senior forward
Simun Kovac and senior guard
Trey Brisco. Kovac is second among returning players with 9.3 rebounds per game from 2018-19. Brisco is fifth among returning players in the MEC at 5.5 boards per contest. One of the few times the Maroon and Gray was outrebounded last season was a 36-33 edge for Indiana (Pa.) in the season opener. However, Concord held a 46-36 advantage on the boards against Pitt-Johnstown as Kovac hauled in 12 rebounds and Brisco added 10 to go with his nine points.
WHERE'S THE POINTS?
The Mountain Lions will have to replace approximately 50 points per game with the departure of
Tommy Bolte and
Jair Rodgers. However, a couple Concord players finished last season on a hot stretch. From January 12 to the end of the season, junior guard/forward
Malik Johnson averaged 11.9 points per game which was nearly two points higher than his season average. Over that same time, junior forward
David Bea Mulumba threw in 8.0 points per game despite missing three games in the middle of February. Mulumba also recorded six of his eight double-digit scoring games in 2018-19 over the season's final six weeks.
LOCKED UP
While Brisco averaged 8.7 points per game last season, perhaps his greatest asset to Concord was his stifling defense. The Stephens City, Virginia native was CU's best on-ball defender in 2018-19 and it wasn't more evident than that in the MEC Tournament. Against Charleston's Drew Rackley who averaged 20 points per game, Brisco held Rackley to 3-for-16 shooting and seven points in the MEC Quarterfinals. The next night against West Liberty's Dalton Bolon, a preseason All-American, Brisco held him to 11 points on 2-for-12 shooting.
NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS
In the last three seasons, Concord is 13-5 in non-MEC games including a 5-1 mark last season. The lone loss was to nationally-ranked IUP to start the season. In the five non-conference wins last season, the Mountain Lions won by an average of 12.4 points including margins of 16 and twice 17. CU shot 44 percent (170-for-386) in five non-conference games last season.
AMONG THE BEST
The 2018-19 Mountain Lions finished fourth nationally in free-throw percentage (80.7). At IUP last season, Concord missed just three foul shots over the two games and finished the tournament shooting 90.3 percent (28-for-31). Johnson finished the two-game stretch going 12-for-13 even though he was a 61 percent foul shooter throughout the duration of the season. Brisco was a perfect 4-for-4 in an 81-72 win over Pitt-Johnstown. Last season, CU shot 85 percent or better from the charity stripe in 11 games and was at least 80 percent in 16 contests.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
6- Combined overtimes CU played last season across four games including two double overtime periods.
13- Concord won 13 games away from home from last season including a perfect 3-0 record in neutral site games.
31- The Mountain Lions held UPJ to 31 percent shooting in the first half of last year's game to jump out to a 46-27 halftime lead.
PITT-JOHNSTOWN AT A GLANCE
UPJ head coach Bob Rukavina enters his 31
st season as head coach of the Mountain Cats. A former conference member for Concord during the WVIAC years, Pitt-Johnstown has had a .500 or better record in five of six years in the PSAC. Josh Wise returns for his senior season for UPJ after averaging 17.9 points last season. The Mountain Cats also bring back two other double figure scorers from last year's 17-win team in John Paul Kromka (14.9) and Fred Mulbah (10.6). In the PSAC West where scoring can sometimes be at a premium, UPJ led the division at 81.2 points per game last season.
INDIANA (PA.) AT A GLANCE
Despite losing two all-region caliber players in Jacobo Diaz and Dante Lombardi, IUP starts the season ranked 11
th in the national poll. Malik Miller who is a preseason All-American Honorable Mention selection averaged 16.4 points per game last season. The Crimson Hawks were the top overall seed in last year's NCAA Atlantic Regional Tournament, but lost in the second round to eventual regional champion, Mercyhurst. Indiana (Pa.) shot 54.5 percent (18-for-33) in the first half of last year's game against Concord on its way to an 83-72 victory.
