Now in her second year, Coach Robin Harmony attempts to claw a young Cougars team back into the top half of the CAA for the first time since 2013-14.
It was an up-and-down season for Charleston last year, in Coach Robin Harmony’s first year. While garnering a 6-12 CAA record and finishing the season tied for 8th place, the Cougars scored a couple impressive upsets — beating Drexel and Delaware right out of the gate in conference play.
All things considered, it was a step forward for the Cougars, who scored more conference wins last season than they did in the previous two years combined. It’s been a while since Charleston was relevant in the CAA. But this core that Harmony is putting together might be the one to put them back into the conversation.
Six of their top seven scorers from a young team last season return — junior guards Latrice Perkins and Tyler Collins, both preseason All-CAA Second Team honorees, lead the way. Perkins, who put up 13.5 points last season, can do it on both ends of the floor; she averaged just under two steals per game and was also the Cougars’ second-leading rebounder from an off-ball guard spot.
Meanwhile, Collins played as more of a point guard. She scored 12.2 points per game and added 2.9 assists. One area in which she could stand to improve is three-point shooting — Collins put up 146 shots from downtown, but made them at only a 28.1% clip. Harmony has hinted that the junior will have some of the ballhandling load taken off of her this season and maybe play more of a shooting guard-type role.
Helping out Perkins and Collins from the forward spot will be junior Arynn Eady. Eady’s not going to stretch the defense in any way (she didn’t take a single three last season) but more than made up for it on the inside — she was the leading rebounder in the CAA last season with 9.7 per game while chipping in with 8.0 points.
While Charleston’s top-line talent is heavily in the junior class, they will certainly have contributions from even more youthful sources. The Cougars feature a six-player freshman class, and a number of those players will play right away. According to Harmony, there may be a couple of freshmen starting right out of the gate, including Tyler Gray, expected to take over point guard duties from Collins.
The CAA is always crowded up at the top. The JMUs and Drexels of the world will not be easily moved. Charleston knows this, and with a young team, this season will be more about learning and gaining experience than anything else, especially given the conditions in which this season is being played.
The door is open for the Cougars to outperform expectations. If a couple freshmen mature quickly and some of the lineup moves allow players like Collins to slot in more naturally, this could be another step forward. An underperforming season is not the end of the world for Charleston, given what this season represents to the Cougars. But a middle-of-the-pack finish would portend good things, especially as this team grows older and improves.