New Floor

Got Mine, Get Yours

SoCon OOC Schedules 2009-2010

Here's a list of out of conference opponents of the SoCon teams this coming year. I took my info from NCAA Palace.

App State
UNCW, @ETSU, Lees-McRae, @Arkansas, @Louisville, Morgan St, Winthrop, Milligan, @Dayton, @Robert Morris, @Campbell, King College

Chattanooga
Virginia Intermont, ETSU, @Richmond, @Missouri, @Jacksonville St, Miss Valley St, Ga Tech, @Murray St, Tennessee Temple

Elon (incomplete)
@Lipscomb, Charlotte (@Duke), UNCW, @NC State, @Ohio, @Navy

Samford
@Kent St, UW-Green Bay (@Kent St), UBA (@Kent St), @Texas A&M, McNeese St, @Texas Tech, Spring Hill, @Alabama, Shorter College, @Eastern Michigan, Chicago St, Tennessee Temple

Western Carolina (incomplete)
@Texas, @Gardner-Webb, Campbell, @Clemson, UNCA

College of Charleston
@Coastal Carolina, Winthrop, @ETSU, @Tennessee, Charleston Southern, @Clemson, @Hawaii, SC State, UNC

Davidson (incomplete)
@Butler, USF (Charleston Classic), Gonzaga (Seattle), Cornell (NYC), UMass

Furman (incomplete)
Presbyterian, @UNCA, @South Carolina, @Clemson, @Utah Valley

Ga Southern (incomplete)
@South Carolina, @Florida, @NC State, @Coastal Carolina

The Citadel (incomplete)
@Londwood, UMES (@Mo state), @Missouri St, @WVU, Michigan St, @Texas A&M, @Houston, @Eastern Michigan

Wofford
@Bradley, Lees-McRae, @Pittsburgh, @Georgia, @Illinios, Southern (Las Vegas), Seattle (Las Vegas), @Michigan St, Navy, South Carolina, @UNCA, Kent St (Santa Clara)

3 Games on TV (at least)

Yesterday, 3 UNCG games were picked up by FSN South. The season opener at Duke (11/13), the home opener against Clemson (11/20) and the New Year's Eve clash with NC State will all be shown on FSN. So, not only has the move to coliseum helped UNCG in recruiting and scheduling, but now in TV exposure.

SportSouth has yet to announce it's game lineup for "SoCon Saturday". I would expect at least 1-2 UNCG games to appear there. Last season, SS showed 2 games (College of Charleston & Elon). I also expect ESPN-U to look at picking up another Spartan game too. Last season UNCG's game at Princeton appeared on the network.

It's pretty nice to see that we're talking about 5-6 UNCG games appearing on TV. Now, we need to pack the coliseum.

Late August Check-in

There's not been much to post over the last few weeks. Also, I've spent the bulk of my free time either on vacation or working on my company's website. However, I thought I'd check in with a couple of things.

First off, condolences to the family of former UNCG chancellor Patricia Sullivan. She lost her fight to pancreatic cancer last Thursday. The News & Record ran a very nice story about her memorial service in today's edition.

Next, the UNCG men's basketball team helped students moving into campus this past week. The athletics department website has the story here with video.

I've added some links to the page recently without pointing all of them out. The latest is The Sports Arsenal. It's a sight that is mostly devoted to the Citadel. He does have some interesting thought on a wide range of topics though. Check it out when you get the chance.

Finally, UNCG now has 2 Twitter pages. One for the university itself and one posting UNCG campus news. I must admit that I've looked at Twitter in the past and really didn't want to get involved. I hardly ever "tweet" anything myself. However, it's proved to be entertaining reading "tweets" from people within the sports field. Now I can get all my UNCG information too without having to scan through the N&R or the Winston-Salem Journal.

Summer League Wrap-up

So, I've officially gotten back to east coast time. So here are the final thoughts on the summer league that I had promised to write.

- I was shocked to see how much stronger the whole team looked from last season. It's obvious that everyone has been in the weight room all summer. Sean Spooner doesn't even look like the same guy from last season.
- All four of the incoming freshmen are going to contribute this season.
- Kyle Randall and KVD are going to be a great guard tandem at UNCG for a long time.
- UNCG is back to having a legit center with Brian Cole and Pete Brown. Throw in Elhanan Bone and Taylor Hoffer, and the Spartans have plenty of size and depth up front.
- Ben Stywall is still the best rebounder in the SoCon.
- Spartan fans better learn the name Brandon Evans.

All-in-all I walked away from watching this event very excited about what UNCG could do this season and beyond. Sure, it was just a summer league. There wasn't a ton of defense being played. It was a lot more "running and gunning", 1-on-1 play. However, it was our guys showing their skills. And they showed enough skills to erase a lot of my memories of 5-25.

Oleksiak is Back

Former Spartan guard Kevin Oleksiak has been added to the UNCG coaching staff as Director of Basketball Operations. This confirms suspicions that many UNCG fans had after seeing KO on the Spartan bench last season.

Oleksiak played part of last season in France before returning to the United States. He sat in on some of the team’s practices and games as a volunteer in the latter part of the season.

Oleksiak fills an opening left by Ben Thompson, who took an assistant coaching position at D2 St. Leo University.