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Ashland is not the same team they were last year!! Lets see last year they were 24-5 (only two losses in the region) this year . . .18-9 (already 4 losses in the region). So if we are talking about last year compared to this year seems to me that Ashland is not as good! Amd Rowan's defense isnt any better than last year?? Really!? Well lets see they played a tougher schedule this year and have a better record as well. . . something must be better and I dont think its their offense. One player (Conner) will not beat Rowan!! Like I said shut Wilcox, Strait, etc. down and Rowan will win easily! They had the right game plan the first time they played and unless Ashland can pull out some sort of magic trick I dont see the outcome being any different! (IMO)

IMO its not Rowan's defense that has made them a better team than last year, it IS there offense and especially their offensive rebounding. Losing Spurlock did take away from both their press and half-court defense. Rowan is not able to push offensive guards into the midcourt line this year (and thus stop teams from starting their offensive sets) as they could when BOTH Spurlock and Brockman were in the lineup.

I DO think that Rowan's half-court offense is much better than last year, and no team goes to the offensive boards like Rowan where they get a lot of second chance points. Again JMO.

And you are right that if Rowan shuts down both Wilcox and Strait that they do have a very good shot at beating the Kittens. But for that matter, if Ashland shuts down both Brockman and Martin then they also have a very good shot at beating Rowan.