It was the second time a KWC coach has been able to scout the Marauders live, as assistant coach Josh Davis did so as well earlier. Now, the Panthers feel confident heading into Saturday's 3:15 p.m. tipoff in Wilberforce, Ohio.
"They're a good man-to-man team," he said. "They can pound the glass. They're just an athletic, strong, physical team."
Osborne said Central State trailed Trevecca Nazarene for about the first 25 minutes of the game before using its size and strength to gut out the win.
One of the benefits of being able to see them play live twice as opposed to just on film is seeing all the intricacies of the offense and defense, including how they call out their plays.
All five starters for the Marauders (8-5, 1-0 Great Midwest Athletic Conference) average in double figures with forward Anthony Rule averaging 12.2 points and 7.0 rebounds per game.
"I think they're real athletic," Osborne said. "I think they're physical. They like to press."
Following a 78-66 win over Cedarville Thursday night, KWC (8-6, 3-0 G-MAC) is riding a wave of confidence. A big reason for that was finally getting a huge night from sophomore forward Devin Langford, a transfer from the University of Illinois.
Langford scored a career-high 25 points to go with eight rebounds and just simply found his groove in his first career start. Osborne is looking for more of that from his promising forward on Saturday.
"That was one of the things where it was time to take the
training wheels off and let's see," Osborne said of Langford's performance on Thursday night. He played well. (Assistant coach) Jimmy (Drew) did a nice job of hanging in there with him. He started out the game in the wrong places some and he's still not all the way comfortable."
He and others will have to pick up the slack with junior forward Patrick Neel sidelined with a shoulder injury and senior guard Rico battling the flu.
