Bulldogs hope four-game road trip becomes a bonding experience

Last season, a November holiday in Cancun, Mexico, helped The Citadel basketball team bond, learn to win on the road and meld a big man into the offense.

Bulldogs coach Ed Conroy is hoping a four-game road trip, starting with three games this weekend at the Hispanic College Fund Classic in Springfield, Mo., will pay similar dividends for this year's team.

"This is going to tell us a lot," Conroy said after his team's 61-60 loss to Charleston Southern on Tuesday. "We actually have four games in five days, and it's going to tell us an awful lot about our team and what we need to work on.

"Whenever you go on the road together like that and play every day, you tend to get closer. And I know when we get back, we will have found out an awful lot about our basketball team."

The Citadel will play Eastern Michigan tonight, host Missouri State on Saturday and Maryland-Eastern Shore on Monday before traveling to Charleston, W.Va., to take on No. 8 West Virginia on Tuesday.

Last season, the Bulldogs went 1-1 in Cancun as senior center Demetrius Nelson was returning to the lineup after missing most of the previous year with a stress fracture. That was part of a 4-1 stretch in which The Citadel beat CSU, Grambling and UNC Greensboro, foreshadowing a 20-win season and postseason bid.

This season, the Bulldogs are working 7-0 center Joe Wolfinger into the lineup and are off to a 1-1 start. Wolfinger had 20 points and 12 rebounds in the season-opening win over Division III Kenyon College, but struggled to hit 4 of 16 shots for 10 points and nine rebounds against CSU.

"Wolf is going to have a fine year for us, and he's working really hard," Conroy said. "(Against CSU), it was a matter of timing. The timing was a little different, and he was just a little off. There were some balls he got up off the backboard that were just a little off. And because we expected him to make those, we weren't in great position to rebound, either."

The field at Missouri State will be fairly tough. Tonight's foe, Eastern Michigan, is 1-0 with an 81-77 win over Oakland, and was picked to finish third in the Mid-American Conference West Division.

Missouri State opened its season with a 73-62 win over Auburn last Monday, despite being picked to finish ninth in the Missouri Valley Conference. Sunday's foe, Maryland-Eastern Shore, is 0-2 with losses to Stony Brook and Marquette and was picked to finish 11th in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

Today's Game

What: Hispanic College Fund Classic

Where: Springfield, Mo.

Citadel games: vs. Eastern Michigan, 5:30 p.m. today; vs. Missouri State, 8:05 p.m. Saturday; vs Maryland-Eastern Shore, 5:30 p.m. Sunday

Radio: 1450-AM