UNCG gets 2011 Commitment

According to ESPN.com, 6'-7" F Nick Paulos (Salt Lake City, UT) has committed to play for UNCG starting next season. Paulos is attending prep school this season at Noth Hampton in New Hampshire. UNCG assistant coach Wes Miller also attended this school. He was also looking at Northeastern, Boston College, Utah State, St. Mary's and Creighton.

- ESPN has Nick graded at an 83.

- Here are 2 articles from the New England Recruiting Report. The first article is discussing the talent at North Hampton.

Paulos, a 6’7” forward from Utah, has been one of the team’s most impressive players this fall. Not only does he have an effortless shooting stroke with deep range, but he handles and passes the ball with equal efficiency.

- The second atricle is discussing his recruitment and commitment to UNCG.

“On my visit I had a chance to meet with all of the coaches and I felt really comfortable with the way they’re running things down there,” Paulos told NERR on Thursday night. “They’re starting to allocate a lot of time and money into the basketball program and really making an effort to turn things around.”

- This Deseret News article discusses Paulos and his relationship with former UCLA coach Jim Harrick, who advised Nick to go to prep school to add some weight and mature his game.

- Here are some YouTube videos of Nick.

From Utah Sports



Shooting


Passing


It appears that Nick has a very good stroke from the outside and is very excited to join the UNCG basketball team.

Welcome to the Spartans, Nick !!!

UNCG's "Secret Scrimmages"

According to Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports, The Spartans will be holding "Secret Scrimmages" against UNC and Radford. Find his entire list is here ...

*I've listed other SoCon games and other teams of interest.

SECRET SCRIMMAGES

Fri., Oct. 29
Samford at Kennesaw State

Sat., Oct. 30
Clemson at Georgia
Virginia Tech vs. Georgetown
Wake Forest at College of Charleston
George Mason at Richmond
VCU at La Salle
High Point at East Carolina

Sun., Oct. 31
UNC at UNC Greensboro
UT Chattanooga at Ole Miss
Wofford vs. Belmont at Maryville College

Fri., Nov. 5
Radford at UNC Greensboro

Sat., Nov. 6
Charlotte at Virginia Tech
Liberty at Appalachian State

USA Today Preview

The USA Today has posted a preview of the Southern Conference. Here is a portion of the UNCG section that article. For a good overview of all of the conference, give it a read.

It's a scary thought for UNCG fans. No longer in uniform is All-Conference forward Ben Stywall. Yet even with the conference's leading rebounder and eighth-leading scorer, the Spartans still finished 8-23.

That's exactly the detriment coach Mike Dement is facing in his 10th year in Greensboro. And without a turnaround this season, 2011-2012 may include a new coach.

No coach in the league has a hotter seat than Dement, a coach whose teams have struggled for consecutive seasons despite having some very good pieces to work with.

It led Dement to take a slightly different approach this offseason.

"We have done a lot of defensive fundamental work in the early individual workouts," he said. "But we still may have to be a little simpler in terms of that we put in and how quickly we put it in during this preseason."

The simplistic approach may be a good idea. UNCG has just one senior, fifth-year player Brandon Evans. The junior class is a little beefier, but essentially it consists of Elhanan Bone and a couple of junior-college transfers.

So it appears Dement is building a bridge for the future. Exactly how long he's a part of it, though, remains to be seen.

Not sure I agree with the article's assessment that Dement had plenty of pieces to work with the past few seasons. I think there were certainly some good Spartan players over the past several seasons. However, one the best UNCG teams in recent memory was derailed due to being in a conference with "Elite 8" qualifier Davidson. Also, Dement was forced to deal with some APR issues that were partially not of his fault.

I think it's important to point out to people that it takes several years to get mid-major programs in a position to even make an NCAA Tournament run (with the exceptions of a few places like Winthrop, Gonzaga, etc). After those good teams move on, coaches have to almost completely rebuild. Hopefully this Spartan team has the talent in place for it to be one of those tournament run seasons at UNCG.

Cole's Beats Buzzer for Overtime Win

Gold 56 - Blue 53 OT

UNCG Athletics

Brian Cole hit a 3 pointer as time expired in overtime to lead the Gold squad to a 56-53 win over the Blue team in this year's Blue-Gold scrimmage. The teams teams finished regulation tied at 49.

Walk on Brandon Davis lead the gold team with 17 points. Newcomer Aaron Brackett scored 13 points and had 10 rebounds. Freshman Drew Parker had a team best 7 assists.

Senior Brandon Evans led all scorers with 19 points and 6 rebounds. Aloysius Henry added 16 points for the Blue team. Korey Van Dussen had a game high 8 assists.

Kyle Randall and Trevis Simpson did not participate in the scrimmage.

Blue-Gold Scrimmage

When: Saturday, October 23 1 pm
Where: Fleming Gym (2,320)

UNCG Athletics

Spartan Storylines:

- UNCG finished last season with a record of 8-23 (6-12 SoCon). However, the Spartans won 3 of their last 5 contests.
- The Spartans lost several key contributors from last season's squad, including 1st team All-SoCon selection Ben Stywall. Stywall finished last season averaging 14.3 points and 10.4 rebounds. Stywall graduated after setting the single season record for double-doubles (15).
- Also missing from the 2009-2010 Spartan basketball team due to graduation are Pete Brown, Mikko Koivisto, Kendall Toney and Montel Smith. Walk-on Mike Hardiman also graduated and moved on.
- DeAngelo Jackson has transfered to College of Idaho.
- The Spartans lost associate head coach Rod Jensen in the spring. Jensen is now the head coach at College of Idaho. However, former UNC-Chapel Hill guard Wes Miller was added to the staff.
- Brandon Evans is looking to have a big senior season. Brandon transferred from East Carolina before the 2008-2009 season. Last year he averaged 8.5 points and 4.3 rebounds in about 20 minutes per game. Evans scored 13 points in the Spartans win against Furman at the SoCon Tournament.
- Also returning this season are a talented bunch of seasoned sophomores. This group is lead by All-Freshmen SoCon selection Kyle Randall. Randall will be the Spartans leading returning scorer (9.5) and assist leader (2.6).
- Also back are Korey VanDussen (4.4 pts & 1.3 assist) and Brian Cole (5.1 pts & 2.3 rebs).
- UNCG will regain the services of Taylor Hoffer who redshirted last season after a knee injury.
- The Spartans new faces include 2 JuCo transfers (Aloysius Henry & Aaron Brackett), freshman David Williams, Cody Henegar, Drew Parker and Trevis Simpson.
- There will be 3 walk-ons with solid backgrounds. PF Tyler McNeely (6'-6" Princeton, NJ), F Isaac Swindle (6'-7" High Point, NC) and G Kendall Bethea (6'-3 Richmond, VA) will all be playing as freshmen.
- Brandon Davis and Robby Dilmore also return as walk-ons.

Single Game Tickets On Sale Now

Men's basketball single game tickets went on sale this morning at 10 AM. They are available over at Ticketmaster.

UNCG is again doing the 4 for $44 promotion (4 tickets, 4 hot dogs and 4 drinks) for all games this season. Also, there is the "Gimme 5" ticket package that I posted about earlier.

Single game ticket pricing for each game is available UNCG Athletics website. You can go there to see the other ticket packages too.

Rush the Court Preview

Rush the Court has posted a preview of the SoCon. Not a mention of the Spartans (their writer appears to be more familiar with the SoCon south division). Here is the predicted order of finish.

Predicted Order of Finish

North Division:
Appalachian State: 21-11 (13-5)
Chattanooga: 17-14 (11-7)
Western Carolina: 16-15 (9-9)
Samford: 14-18 (9-9)
UNC Greensboro: 9-23 (7-11)
Elon: 8-23
(5-13)

South Division:
Wofford: 25-10 (14-4)
College of Charleston: 21-13
(13-5)
Furman: 17-15 (10-8)
Davidson: 16-17 (8-10)
Georgia Southern:
13-19 (6-12)
Citadel: 10-21 (3-15)