University of North Carolina Athletics
Know Your Opponent: Radford
December 4, 2016 | Men's Basketball
Location: Radford, Va.
Rankings: RU - No. 280 KenPom, NR AP; UNC - No. 5 KenPom, No. 3 AP
Records: RU - 3-4; UNC - 7-1
Carolina Series History (Last Meeting): Carolina leads 1-0 (UNC 101, RU 58, March 19, 2009, Greensboro Coliseum)
Radford basketball has been on quite a roller coaster over the last decade. Former coach Brad Greenberg inherited a perennial loser in 2007. But in just two seasons, the Highlanders were Big South champs and playing Carolina in the 2009 NCAA tournament. Fast forward two more years and Radford cratered to 5-24, Greenberg resigned (and was later given a five-year show cause), and the program was on NCAA probation.
Enter Mike Jones. The former assistant to high-profile coaches like John Beilein, Dennis Felton and Shaka Smart went 19-45 in his first two seasons at Radford but has engineered three straight winning seasons to restore some balance to the Highlander program. This season figures to be a rebuilding year, however, as RU lost seven seniors to graduation, returning just 28 percent of its possession minutes from 2015-16.
Sophomore Ed Polite Jr. is Radford's top returner after earning Big South All-Freshman team honors, and the 6-5 forward is averaging just shy of a double-double through six games. He had a career day in RU's overtime win over Stetson on Nov. 25, scoring a season-high 21 points while pulling down a career-best 16 rebounds. Fellow sophomore Caleb Tanner is the team's leading scorer (10.6 ppg) and is shooting a blistering 44 percent from deep so far. Polite and junior college transfer Randy Phillips anchor the Highlander rebounding efforts, which are particularly stout on the offensive glass (37th nationally in OR%).
The fine offensive rebounding work is pretty much the beginning and the end of the good news for Radford when it has the ball. The Highlanders rank outside the top 300 in effective field goal percentage, turnover rate and free throw percentage. They are also one of the slowest teams in the country, ranking 339th in adjusted tempo and 341st in average offensive possession length. Sophomore Devin Cooper, who started the first four games of the year at point guard, will miss the rest of 2016-17 after suffering a knee injury at Mercer on Nov. 22. Christian Bradford, another junior college addition, has stepped in at the point in Cooper's absence.
Defensively, Radford has had success keeping opponents off the foul line (42nd nationally in defensive FT rate). Polite and Phillips are both capable shot blockers, as is 6-8 reserve center Darius Bolstad, who figures to get more minutes moving forward after missing the first three games of the season.
The Highlanders are in the midst of their toughest stretch of the season. Games against Elon, UNCW and West Virginia round out the meat of the non-conference schedule before RU opens league play against Big South favorites UNC Asheville and Winthrop. Radford was picked to finish sixth in the conference, but a fourth consecutive winning season is not out of reach for this young team provided Polite continues to shine and Bradford can settle the point guard situation.
