VIDEO: Chuck Benson Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (1-2) will open up its road slate for 2015 with a 255-mile trek to Aiken, S.C. for a meeting with the USC Aiken (1-2) Pacers Saturday morning at 11 in the Convocation Center.
The Eagles are coming off a 95-92 loss to the Johnson C. Smith Golden Bulls while the Pacers picked up their first win of the season 97-84 over Paine.
"I don't think it really matters where we play right now," head coach Chuck Benson said. "Our problems go back to our lack of ability at this point to control the controllables. It makes no consequence to us where we play, I just want out guys, whoever's available to play with all our crazy injuries, to play and execute."
The Pacers are breaking in a new head coach in Mark Vanderslice. While he's new to USC Aiken, he's a familiar face for the Eagles.
Vanderslice comes to USC Aiken after spending the last five years as the head coach at Louisburg Junior College in Louisburg, NC. He guided his team to a 152-20 record, including a 94-11 mark during conference play. Vanderslice led his program to a top-eight finish in the final national polls each season.
During the 2012-13 season his team posted a 35-2 record, the most wins in school history and finished No. 1 in the final national poll. While with Louisburg, Vanderslice coached former Eagles Antoine Davis and Marcellous Perez.
"Mark did an outstanding job at Louisburg and won a ton of games," Benson said. "Vince Alexander had Aiken running as well as anyone in the country. We're not quite as certain what we'll do schematically. But we expect them to be extra motivated because of our 22-point win last year; but ultimately it comes down to us. We need to improve ourselves first."
Carson-Newman senior forward Carson Brooks (Knoxville, Tenn.) needs 20 points to become the 22nd Eagle men's basketball player, and the third coaches by Benson, to score 1,000 points in his Carson-Newman career.
C-N is looking to avoid its first three-game losing streak since the 2011-12 season when it lost three straight to Lenoir-Rhyne and Mars Hill on the road and Newberry at home.
The Eagles have lost three straight home games once under head coach Chuck Benson. That occured in his first season with the program in 2010 when the Eagles lost to Wingate, Bluefield College and Tusculum on three straight home dates.
Charles Clark (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) leads C-N this season with 24 points per game. He has scored 20 points in seven straight games. The sophomore has 11 career 20-point efforts. Clark is the reigning TSWA state player of the week.
The biggest area that Benson wants the Eagles to address this weekend is the turnover bug. Carson-Newman's coughing it up an average of 17.3 times per game. Teams have averaged 19.3 points of Eagle TOs this year.
"We've had a problem with ball control this year," Benson said. "We struggled with it to start last year and then I thought we had gotten past it. Guys don't mean to turn it over. But we're trying to make plays when we don't have to make plays. There are just some things that are going on where we just need to relax a bit more."
Tipoff from the Convocation Center is set for 11 a.m. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at 10:45 a.m. with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff at cneagles.com/live.
