By: Aaron Robinson
Entering Thursday’s matchup, College of Charleston came in with the fastest tempo in the country, according to KenPom.com. The Cougars average 75.3 possessions per 40 minutes, which is a full point over the next closest team, which is the Arizona Wildcats, who average 74.3 possessions per 40 minutes. For Towson, they entered Thursday with a top-50 offense nationally, as they average 110.7 points per 100 possessions, which is good for 47th in the entire country.
With all that said, one might have thought that Thursday’s matchup would be a high-scoring affair, but oh was it far from that. Towson defeated College of Charleston 74-67, despite shooting just 39.7% from the floor. The Cougars shot 32.8% from the floor, and 27.3% from three, but still found themselves down 63-60 with 2:26 to play after Braden Tucker got a steal and a dunk on the other end. Towson’s Juwan Gray then came down and drilled a three-pointer on the next possession to give the Tigers a 66-60 lead, one that College of Charleston just could not overcome.
“We knew it was going to be a tough, physical game,” Towson head coach Pat Skerry said afterward. “They are just so deep, physical, they get to the foul line, and we knew it was going to be hard keeping them out of the lane and off the glass, so we’re fortunate to come out of it with a win.”
Gray had his best game of the season on Thursday as the sixth-year forward scored 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the floor (3-of-4 from three) and added eight rebounds, one assist, and one steal in 29 minutes. He finished the game with a +15 plus/minus, which was nearly double the next closest Towson player, who was Jason Gibson at +8. Gray has been one of Towson’s most versatile players this season, as his 6-foot-8 frame allows him to bother smaller guards with his length defensively, while still being able to match up with bigger guys in the post.
“I’m always going to play defense, I hang my hat on that, and that gives me a lot of energy,” Gray said. “But then tonight, I was just making the right plays offensively, taking the right shots and my teammates set me up in great areas where they know I can be effective.”
Senior guard Nicolas Timberlake also had a good night, as he led Towson in scoring with 17 points on 5-of-10 shooting (2-of-4 from three) to go with five rebounds, one block, and a huge dunk, which you can see here if you haven’t already.
“I just saw the hoop and no one there, and I knew he was going to be trailing me so I went up and closed my eyes I think, and tried to punch it on him,” Timberlake said of the dunk.
This marks Towson’s fifth straight win, their longest such streak since the 2019-2020 season when they won seven straight games, after starting conference play 0-3 that season. Towson is now 14-5 overall and 5-1 in the CAA. The 14-5 record is their best start to a season in the program's NCAA Division I history. The last time that Towson got off to this good a start through 19 games was the 1977-1978 season when they started 17-2 and finished the season 26-4 before transitioning to Division 1 two years later in 1979-1980.
The success of this season’s Towson squad comes as a surprise to many, as the Tigers were picked eighth out of 10 teams in the league’s preseason poll. But Gray says that they knew all along that they could be one of the best teams in the league.
“When they ranked us number eight, we knew we weren’t an eighth-place team,” Gray stated. “Now that we are actually winning games, people are going to say ‘watch out for Towson’ but we already had that mentality coming in that we were a really good team.”
Towson is currently ranked 76th in the NCAA NET rankings, and 91st in KenPom, both are the highest of any team in the CAA. Towson is also the only CAA team with a top-50 offense nationally, and the only team with a top 150 defense, according to KenPom. After Thursday’s performance, they also lead the league in fewest points allowed per game at 64.6 per game. And on top of all that, Towson also has the early favorite for conference Player of the Year, in Cameron Holden, who transferred in from UT Martin this season. Holden is currently sixth in the league in scoring at 14.2 points per game, fourth in rebounding at 8.8 per game, 12th in assists at 2.8 per game, and third in steals at 1.8 per game. Holden is the only player in the league with those splits, and he is playing for what could be the best team in the league.
Holden is one of four transfers who migrated to Towson this offseason along with Terry Nolan Jr. (Bradley), Antonio Rizzuto (Albany), and Chase Paar (George Washington). This quartet makes up four of Towson’s top eight scorers this season, and they have brought not only their production, but experience, leadership, and a willingness to sacrifice that Towson has not had in past seasons. The Tigers also return Jason Gibson, Charles Thompson, Gray, and Timberlake, who make up the other four of Towson’s top eight scorers this season.
Rizzuto, Nolan, and Holden all averaged double figures at their previous stops, and Paar was a key piece to the rotation in an Atlantic-10 program, as he averaged 21.7 minutes per game for George Washington last season. Skerry has raved about the job that associate head coach Pat O’Connell did leading the charge to land all four of those guys out of the transfer portal this year, and specifically with finding Holden, who is a native of Georgia, and attended school in Tennessee last season.
Oftentimes it is extremely hard to mix in a few transfers with a good group of returners. It’s something that many programs around the country are struggling with, i.e Texas, Memphis, and Oregon. But this year’s Towson squad has connected seamlessly, and everyone from Skerry to Gray, Timberlake, and the new transfers have raved about the chemistry, and comradery that this group possesses.
“Off the floor, this is a great group of guys to be around, everybody enjoys being around each other,” Gray said when asked what differentiates this group from the teams he has been on in the past. “And with the veteran leadership on our team, with the players that we have had at Towson and the players that we added in, they have played a lot of games at previous schools, and we have played a lot of games here, so the veteran leadership has been excellent this year.”
“I just feel like the brotherhood that we have… off the court we are always with each other, always joking around, and it’s very exciting to come to practice every day, and we all like each other so that really helps,” Timberlake added.
After the team’s win over UNC Greensboro on December 14th, coach Skerry raved about the team’s character with a story about how this group prepares for games this season.
“Two weeks ago we were getting ready to play a game and usually the guys are watching movies where people are killing each other and slaughtering each other, but these guys are watching Harry Potter,” Skerry said. “I was like ‘what’s going on here' it’s just a different group of really good guys.”
This year’s Towson squad has the depth, the experience, the chemistry, and the talent to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1991. But more than all of that, they are producing on the basketball court in ways that have not been seen since Skerry took over the job in 2011.
This year’s team is shooting 36.8% from the three-point line this season, which would be the highest mark of any team that Skerry has had here at Towson. His offensive rating of 110.6 (KenPom) would tie the best mark that he has ever had, and it would be the best since the 2013-2014 season when Georgetown transfer Jerrelle Benimon donned a Tigers uniform. But though the offense has been a welcomed change of pace this season for Towson, the rugged defensive and rebounding identity that has always been a staple of the Tigers program, remains.
“He hasn’t changed at all,” Timberlake responded when asked if the sudden offensive burst was a result of Skerry changing up his philosophy. “I think it’s more of the personnel that we have because as you’ve seen a couple of times already if our offense isn’t flowing, our defense is always there.”
This year’s edition of the Towson Tigers can beat you a number of different ways, and Thursday’s slugfest of a victory over the College of Charleston was just one of these examples. They have also had two games this season where they made a school-record 16 three-pointers in wins over Coppin State and Hofstra. Could this be the year that Skerry finally breaks through and makes the NCAA Tournament for the first time as a head coach?
Saturday’s matchup against UNC Wilmington who currently sits atop the CAA standings at 4-0 will go a long way into determining the answer. The Tigers swept the Seahawks in a weekend series at Secu Arena last season, but Takayo Siddle’s squad will enter this Saturday on a seven-game win streak after they defeated James Madison on this buzzer-beater by Jaylen Sims.
“I thought Takayo Siddle did a really good job last year with his team,” Skerry said. “Their record didn’t reflect it, but they had a lot of pauses and injuries, and I thought he coached them hard and now you are seeing the benefits of that so I'm not surprised with how well they’re doing.”
Towson will host UNC Wilmington at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Secu Arena looking to build on what could be a dream season for Skerry and the Tigers.