Defensively, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team knows it is preparing to face one of the most up-tempo teams in the country tonight.
But the Mocs know they'll have their chances offensively against The Citadel, too.
The Mocs host the Bulldogs in a Southern Conference matchup tonight at 7 at McKenzie Arena. It ends a three-game homestand for the Mocs (12-4, 3-1), who play Saturday at Mercer and host Samford a week later.
Under coach Duggar Baucom, the Bulldogs (9-9, 2-3) lead NCAA Division I in scoring at 97.2 points per game and are second in the country in average possession length (13.3 seconds), and nearly half (48 percent) of their shots are 3-pointers. But The Citadel is shooting only 42 percent from the field and 34 percent from 3-point range.
That means the Bulldogs don't always shoot well, but they will shoot a lot.
"They're very challenging," UTC guard Tre' McLean said Tuesday. "It's a different than usual game. They're really good at what they do. They do a good job of pushing the pace, making the game chaotic and unusual for their opponents, but we've been doing a good job of preparing for tomorrow.
"We're going to be ready."
Four Bulldogs average at least 11 points per game, led by center Zane Najdawi, who has raised his averages from 7.2 points and 4.4 rebounds as a freshman to 16.2 points and 7.4 rebounds as a sophomore.
Former Hamilton Heights standout Ezekiel Balogun, a freshman on the team, has played in 17 games and averages 2.9 points and 2.2 rebounds.
The Bulldogs shot 44 3-pointers in one game last season against UTC and have hoisted at least 50 in two games this season. They've made double-digit 3s in 15 of their games this season.
"With the amount of 3s they take, it's a difficult prep but we have to be locked in," UTC coach Matt McCall said. "It starts on the defensive end of the floor for us. We have to get stops, make sure we guard the 3 and hopefully get out on the break some where they can't get their defense set.
"Any time you shoot that many 3s, you're making 12-13 in a game, so we have to make sure they're taking difficult ones."
The more crucial matchup may be when UTC has the ball. Since the Bulldogs like to run, they can be exposed on defense at times, evidenced by ranking 343rd in defensive efficiency out of 351 Division I teams. They give up an average of 99.7 points per game, with only Savannah State's 101.3 points allowed being worse.
The Mocs could find themselves in a number of favorable situations offensively, which is good considering their attacking style of play.
"We just have to lock in on defense, get stops and let our defense create offense and not focus on outscoring them," senior guard Greg Pryor said. "We know they're going to get up a lot of shots, so we have to stop them and then get good shots and rebound the ball.
"Our style won't change - we're going play our game regardless. We play Chattanooga basketball every night, so we've got to come out and take good shots. We can't force shots and try to outshoot them."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.