UNCG (1-5) @ East Carolina (7-1)

When: Saturday, Dec 13 7 pm
Where: Minges Coliseum (8,000)
TV: MASN (tape delayed)/ ChannelSurfing.net

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Spartan Notes:
- Last time out, the Spartans lost a televised game to College of Charleston (77-62) at Fleming Gym. Mikko Koivisto led UNCG with 17 points and Ben Stywall had 10 rebounds.
- UNCG has now used a different starting lineup in every one of its games. There are nine Spartans averaging double figures in minutes played.
- Koivisto is leading UNCG in scoring (14.5 pts) and assists (2.8). Ben Stywall is the leading rebounder (8.7)
- UNCG is shooting 37.9% from the field, 28.5% from 3 point range and 63.2% from the free throw line.

Pirate Notes:
- See my quick review of ECU's season here.
- ECU defeated Limestone 69-43 last Saturday at Minges Coliseum. James Leagan scored 14 points and Darrius Morrow had a double-double (12 pts & 10 rebs).
- There are 3 Pirates scoring in double figures. Sam Hinnant (17.4) is leading scorer. Morrow is the leading rebounding (8.4). Brock Young (8.1) is the leading in assists.
- ECU is shooting 47.3% from the field, 35.5% from 3 point range and 70.7% from the free throw line.

My Thoughts:
Before the season, I thought this game was one of the road games that UNCG might could steal. I don't know if that's the case anymore. Even though they have played 3 non-D1 teams, those stats are still quite impressive. The Pirates have beaten a couple of solid CAA teams.

I think that there was some obvious improvement from the Citadel game to the CofC game last week. UNCG did a lot of things in the first half against the Cougars that it will need to repeat to have any shot in Greenville on Saturday.

The Spartans will need to continue to improve on their free throw shooting and rebounding. Also, the guards have got to start making some shots.

With the students gone and NC State (who ECU beat last year) coming up this week, ECU may be looking past UNCG. Let's hope so.

Go Spartans !!!

EDIT: UNCGSpartans.com is reporting that the game is no longer going to be shown in MASN. It is still listed on ChannelSurfing.net.

G on TV

UNCG just got 2 more of its games scheduled as TV games. The Dec. 13th game at East Carolina will now be shown on MASN. For people like me with Time Warner Cable, this won't matter much. Even though several lower courts have found that Time Warner must start providing MASN, TWC still refuses and is appealing the decisions. If you've got DirecTV, let me know how the game goes.

UNCG's January 3rd meeting at Princeton is going to be carried on ESPNU. This makes me really happy that TWC at least put this channel on the digital package last year. I've always wondered with all of the mid and low major basketball being played all over the counrty, why ESPNU doesn't have wall-to-wall programing going on during basketball season. Hopefully, this is something that network plans on doing a lot of in the future. Maybe they'll do it for college baseball too.

I'm also happy just b/c this gets the Spartan basketball program in the living rooms of many possible recruits. Even though MASN isn't available in the triad, it is on DirecTV nationwide. I think this has something to do with the "ripple down" effect of Davidson's elite 8 run last year. Hopefully, more mid-major programs can make big runs in March to show the people who put together sports programming that there is plenty of good basketball available for TV.

*** By the way, there were already two UNCG games that were scheduled to be on TV - College of Charleston @ Fleming Gym (Dec. 6) and Elon @ Fleming Gym (Feb. 28) - on SportSouth.