Spartans to Appear in Raleigh

Per NC State's athletics website, UNCG will be making a stop at the PNC Arena in the 2012-2013 season.

Joining the Stanford Cardinal on NC State's list of non-conference opponents slated to come to Raleigh as part of the PNC Arena season-ticket package are 2012 NCAA Tournament participants Norfolk State, St. Bonaventure and UNC-Asheville. The Pack's other non-conference opponents include Miami (Ohio), UNC-Greensboro and Western Michigan.

I had originally heard that this game was going to be in Greensboro, but I guess we'll have to wait a year for the return trip by the Wolfpack.

Charleston to Explore Move Further

According to the Charleston Post and Courier, the College of Charleston Board of Trustees discussed a possible move from the Southern Conference to the CAA at their meeting today. However, there was no definite decision.

The athletics committee will study the issue and make a recommendation to the full board, which is next scheduled to meet on Aug. 3.

Cougars athletic director Joe Hull said there is no timeline or deadline from the CAA for College of Charleston to make a decision. He said the uncertain future of the Southern Conference and the potential for missed class time and increased travel costs in the CAA are two of many issues College of Charleston must consider.

I've been following all of this through my Twitter account. Check it out there if you want to read more.

Life 101

Coach Wes Miller has made quite a few three point shots. He gives some pointers in this UNCG Alumni Magazine article.

Good Call

From Spartanburg Herald-Journal sports writer Todd Shanesy ...

I don't know how the Southern Conference feels, but if I had a girlfriend who was flirting so much with another guy, she could hit the road.

— Todd Shanesy (@TerrierTracker) July 21, 2012

Spartan Club Giving Sets a Record

Per UNCG Athletics website ...

The UNCG Spartan Club, the official fundraising organization for UNCG Athletics, surpassed its annual scholarship fund goal of $300,000 for the 2012 fiscal year and set a new all-time record for the scholarship fund. The Spartan Club posted an annual scholarship fund total of $307,479, a 20.7% increase over last year’s total, increasing their efforts by over $50,000 and surpassing the previous high that was set in 1987.

Since UNCG is not part of a power 6 conference. They do not have huge streams of television and media rights revenue coming in from ESPN and other places. So, hopefully the giving from individual donors will continue.

Also, I'd like to remind everyone that UNCG came out with a new logo for it's NC license plate. There needs to be 300 applications at the NC DMV before they will go into production. Most of the proceeds go back to the university. So, that's another way to give back to UNCG. You can fill out the application here.

UNCG Guard on Sports Network's List

Rising junior guard Trevis Simpson was named honorable mention on the Sports Network's list of the top shooting guards in the country. The list also included names such as CJ McCollum (Lehigh), Jamaal Franklin (San Diego St), Michael Snaer (Florida St) and Seth Curry (Duke).

This post gives me a reason top link to this awesome Simpson highlight reel on YouTube.

Simpson Shows Off Moves at the Pro Am

Evidently, Trevis Simpson put on a show last night at NC Pro Am at NC Central. David Morrison of the Greensboro News & Record was there and posted this entry to his blog.

But, the real show is this YouTube video of Simpson showing off his high flying moves. Check out his compilation at the end.

Redundant SoCon/CAA Post

Nothing really new to read here in this Baltimore Sun article. Just figured I'd link to show the opinion of Towson AD Mike Waddell.

Waddell said that he doesn't expect anything to happen "until late summer or early fall", adding that if this was a stew, "it would be cooked in a Crock-Pot, not a microwave."

Miller Interview with WRAL

So, I'll openly admit that I've gotten way too wrapped up int his conference switching discussion lately. As a result, I completely whiffed on a great interview that Coach Miller did with WRAL in the triangle. There were a lot of great quotes in there, but I'll just pick out my favorite for this post.

"Everybody wants to say, 'You did a great job coaching,' and I just kind of laugh. I say, they did a great job playing.'," said Miller.

Ga Southern Committed to SoCon

In an article posted by the Statesboro (GA) Herald, Georgia Southern AD Sam Baker stated that while his school had talked to the Sun Belt Conference, they were commited to staying in Southern Conference.

"Oh, no. We’re in the Southern Conference," Baker said. "If we’re FCS, this is the conference we’re going to be in."

However, he did confirm that Davidson and College of Charleston had indeed been invited to join the CAA.

"There’s been an invitation from the Colonial to Davidson and Charleston," Baker said. We’ve not heard, as conference members, where that may lead. It would be hard to tell. I think they both benefit by being in our conference."

Scheduling Post #3

This is the last post about this for the day. Here's a Twitter post from Brian Mull. He's a writer for the Wilmington Star-News that covers UNCW and the CAA.

#UNCW AD Jimmy Bass said he's awaiting a contract from UNC-Greensboro. So, pencil in Wes Miller's club for a visit to Trask. #caahoops

— Brian Mull (@BGMull) July 11, 2012

I'll post a date for that as soon as it becomes available.

In-State School Lees-McRae Coming to Coliseum

I figure I'll stick with schedule updates today. So according to their athletics website, Lees-McRae will be making a stop at the Greensboro Coliseum on January 9th. The Bobcats are a NCAA Division II school from Banner Elk, NC. Last season they finished 9-17 (including a 90-61 loss to neighbor App State). The Mountaneers appear on their schedule this season as well.

VA Tech Coming to Greensboro This Season

Just so I can take a break from all of this conference realignment mess for a bit, here's a UNCG basketball related blurb from the Washington Post. Virginia Tech will be making an appearance at the Greensboro Coliseum this coming season.

In addition, the Hokies announced portions of their nonconference schedule, although much of it had already been reported. Virginia Tech will play home games against Iowa, Oklahoma State, Rhode Island and VMI. It will play road games at West Virginia and UNC Greensboro, because the 2013 ACC tournament will be held at the Greensboro Coliseum.

I will post again when a date becomes available.

CAA Commissioner Expects Expansion Soon

According to the Chicago Tribune, Colonial Athletics Association commissioner Tom Yeagear is expecting this CAA expansion situation to be over with in the next few weeks.

"We're making progress," Yeager said. "But at this time of year, you're working around other people's schedules, with things like graduations and vacations. It slows some things down, but everyone still understands how important it is."

"We've told people all along that we're not trying to establish any artificial deadlines," Yeager said. "You want to have everybody ask and answer all the questions. We're all agreed that at the end of this thing, we want everyone to make a decision that they're comfortable with and put it behind them and move forward."

I'll admit that I'm over this conference movement crap and ready for it to be over.

SoCon Didn't Issue "Deadline"

On Tuesday, the SoCon released a statement saying it did not give a deadline to some of it's member school that are being courted by the CAA.

“Additionally, despite numerous published reports citing a July 4th deadline, the conference office has not issued any ultimatums to its member schools regarding conference affiliation.”

A Burlington Times-News article sums it up this way ...

While there certainly never was any sort of established deadline, the Southern Conference had hoped its member schools in play with the Colonial Athletic Association would reach their decisions by Wednesday.

I personally just love how the writer of this entry on the blog App State Nation (great site by the way) put it ...

How did the rumor get started? Well basically, the Burlington Times reported it citing unnamed sources. The Charleston Post & Courier cited the Burlington Times. The Virginia Gazette cited the Charleston Post & Courier. Then the Winston-Salem Journal cited the Virginia Gazette.

Where do I think this whole "deadline" idea got started? Message boards. I read a ton of message boards and have a ton of very quiet sources who let me know about stuff well in advance. However, I try to wait until an actual news group or journalist published something. I always try to link to the source and quote it as much as possible as well. That way you can go read the story for yourself. If I've misrepresented what was written, you guys can leave a comment telling me as much. In this case it seems like a tweet got changed by a message board and picked up by another paper and then ... BOOM ... it was on. I still love Twitter, though.

As for an actual SoCon-CAA timeline, it seems UNCW Chancellor Gary Miller (who is chairman of CAA's Council of Presidents) expects another 6 months before things begin to really take shape.

"Christmas is a realistic goal," he said of a time frame for announcing new members.

"It's a difficult question to answer, because the schools we want to talk to have time constraints, they're in conferences already, they have exit strategies. We would like to see some things happen quickly – and definitely by next year."

Apparently, this saga will go on for quite a while.

Players Head to NC Pro Am

Over the last two years, UNCG players have migrated from playing in the Triad Pro Am in Winston-Salem to the very well known NC Pro Am in Durham at NC Central. This year, 9 Spartan players will appear on the star studded rosters that feature players from teh Triangle's ACC squad as well as NBA stars. While reading the rosters, remember that they will be slightly different every night and that crowds for this event have just been huge. Get there early.

The rosters can be found here and schedule here.