Monmouth (1-19 SU, 5-15 ATS, 0-7 CAA) is back on the road to face UNCW (16-6 SU, 12-7-1 ATS, 6-3 CAA) from Trask Coliseum in Wilmington on Thursday night at 7pmET.
These teams met on Dec. 28, 2022, with the Seahawks beating the Hawks on the road, 68-55 as a 12-point favorite.
Monmouth moved from the MAAC to the CAA last summer and they knew there would be growing pains. The CAA is listed as the No. 18 ranked conference while the MAAC is No. 22 according to Team Rankings.com so the jump wasn't that high. The Hawks (358 KenPom out of 363 teams) have lost 11 straight games after beating Manhattan on Dec. 4. They have covered just two of those 11 games so staying competitive has been a tough task for King Rice's team.
In their last game on Saturday, they fell to Hampton at home as a 2.5-point favorite. It was one of their best chances of winning and they were a no-show against a team that had never won a CAA game as they fell 83-66. Myles Foster led the Hawks with 22 points, three steals and eight rebounds. Monmouth shot just 39.1% from the field and 2-of-19 from the three-point line.
This is a team that has trouble putting the ball in the basket. They rank 13th and last in the CAA in free throw shooting (61.5%), scoring margin (-21.10), points per game (57.40), field goal percentage (38.3%) and three-point percentage (26.1%). They also rank last in three-point defense (39.2%), field goal defense (48.3%), scoring defense (78.5ppg) and rebounding margin (-5.40).
Foster is the only player averaging in double figures with 12.7 points and 6.6 rebounds on 46.5% shooting, but he's averaging just 53.5% from the free throw line.