Differnet Revenue Sharing Model?

Article from today's Charlotte Observer. There's not much new here except for a very interesting Bob McKillop quote.

The Southern Conference shares revenue (it reportedly received $2.2 million from the NCAA’s basketball payout), and McKillop wonders if a change in policy might help the league.

“Now, everyone gets an equal share,” McKillop said. “Will it become more capitalistic by rewarding those who had more success? That would inspire campuses to dedicate more to basketball because more would be at stake.

Spartans Break Streak, Surge to Comeback Victories

UNCG 75 - App State 74

News-Record
Watauga Democrat
UNCG Athletics
App State Athletics

Aaron Bracket's 28 points and 15 rebounds helped UNCG overcome another bad first half. The Spartans found themselves down 13 at the break after ASU ran off a 13-0 run to finish the half. Even though UNCG's starting guards managed to score just a single point, Brandon Evans came off the bench to drop in 18 points. Leading 75-74, the Spartans missed free throws at the end to give the Mountaineers a final shot at the win. Donald Sims (25 pts) missed a 25 foot shot that would have won the game. Instead, UNCG got to break it's 16 game losing streak.


UNCG 77 - Davidson 69

News-Record
Charlotte Observer
UNCG Athletics
Davidson Athletics

Freshman Trevis Simpson had one of the most spectacular performances ever turned in by a Spartan with 33 points on Monday. His 12-15 shooting performance helped UNCG shake off a tough first half to defeat Davidson, 77-69. It was the first UNCG win at home this season. The Spartans shot 38% in the first half on their way to being down by 7 at the break. The second half saw Simpson's teammates heat up with him to shoot 60% and really put the clamps on Davidson defensively. David Williams led the way on that end of the floor with 3 block and 4 steals.

Terriers Ends UNCG's Run

UNCG 47 - Wofford 59

News & Record
Charlotte Observer
UNCG Athletics
Wofford Athletics

Curry Turning Pro

Davidson's Stephen Curry announced today that he is entering the NBA draft and plans on hiring an agent soon. I don't have a link right now, but I watched the press conference online.

- Davidson Athletics
- Greensboro News & Record
- Charlotte Observer

Coaching Searches (Part 1)

I thought I'd write a little post updating where some of neighbors are at in their coaching searches.

Appalachain State - The Winston-Salem Journal & Charlotte Observer are reporting that they have offered their position to former coach Buzz Peterson. Peterson led the Mountaineers to 3 straight North Division titles and to the NCAA tournament in 2000. He has since coached at Tulsa, Tennessee and Coastal Carolina. He is currently an executive with the Charlotte Bobcats.

High Point - The Panthers hired former North Carolina player Scott Cherry. Cherry had previously served as an assistant coach at South Carolina, Western Kentucky, George Mason and Tennessee Tech.

Elon - Elon hired longtime Davidson assistant Matt Matheny. Matheny had been an assistant at Davidson for 16 years.

Georgia Southern - Eagles coach Jeff Price resigned March 30. Two days later, the Savannah Morning News reported that the NCAA is investigating Georgia Southern's basketball program.

That's all for part one. I'll post another update with some of the national coaching searches and their ripple effects.

SoCon Tournament Possibly Moving

Over the past few weeks, it appears Charlotte business leaders and SoCon officials have been in talks to bring the 2010 Southern Conference Tournament to either Charlotte's Time Warner Cable Arena or Bojangles' Coliseum. Here are some links to articles and discussions.

Davidson Forum
Chattanooga Forum
College of Charleston Forum
UNCG Forum

Charlotte Observer (3/29/09)
Charleston Post & Courier (3/28/09)
Chalreston Post & Courier (3/30/09)
Chattanooga Times Free Press (3/29/09)
Chattanooga Times Free Press (3/31/09)

It appears that Chattanooga is willing to back their hosting date up one year and probably get some financial considerations for being so helpful. But, why the rush to get this in place for next year?

The CIAA Tournament is locked into TWC Arena for the next 3 years. In 2011 & 2012, that tournament and the SoCon Tournament fall on the same weekend. Next year is the only available year where that's not the case.

Don't believe that reason? Let's try this one. Stephen Curry will be a senior next season (provided he doesn't go pro). Imagine the fanfare of this tournament in a central location with a legitimate NBA lottery pick playing in it. Also, Davidson's campus is right down the road. Seems like the perfect storm to fill up the arena.

Want another option? If you believe massage board talk, Chattanooga barely broke even hosting this year's tournament and that's with the hometown team winning. It appears next season that UTC will be rebuilding. Why not wait a year to host again when the Mocs might be better and get more locals into the arena?

I think all of these reasons have some merit to them. I think Chattanooga is a fine place to host the tournament. Unfortunately, Chattanooga (and Charleston) are destination spots for the tournament. With economic times the way they are, the SoCon is going to have to take the tournament to where the fans are located.

I really hope this happens. Money is tight for me right now, just like everyone else. It would be nice to drive ~ 1 hour down the road to see the tournament. Plus, I really like TWC Arena. This seems like the right thing to do at the right time.

But, that's just my opinion.

No Surprise

UNCG 49 - Davidson 70

News & Record
Charlotte Observer
UNCG Athletics
Davidson Athletics
View From Press Row (DC Athletics Blog)

I've spent the better part of this entire week in bed sick. I don't really know how you get vertigo from a sinus infection, but it happened to me. While the Spartans were playing the Wildcats, I was trying to be as still as possible to make the room stop spinning.

Somehow, though, I still believe I had more fun than UNCG Wednesday night.

Stephen Curry scored 20 points, had 10 rebounds and 5 assists. I join fans from around the SoCon in hoping that Mr. Curry has a wonderful NBA career ... that starts very, very soon.

As for UNCG, Kendall Toney scored 15 points and Ben Stywall pulled in 7 rebounds. Coach Mike Dement went with the Eargle/Jackson/Spooner/Hardiman/Bone starting lineup for this game. Meaning that UNCG has basically started almost every possible combination this season. However, G found itself down 36-18 and it was lights out at that point.

New Home, Same Results

UNCG 54 - Davidson 75

News & Record
Charlotte Observer
UNCG Athletics
Davidson Athletics

11,687 people came out to watch UNCG play on it new soon-to-be homecourt at the Greensboro Coliseum. Unfortunately, the Davidson Wildcats decided to come too. Stephen Curry scored 29 as Davidson turned back a fiery UNCG team that was down only by 10 with a little less than 7 minutes remaining.

This title is a little misleading. There were a lot of great things associated with the coliseum last night. I'll get to those in another post, I promise. But for now, let's focus on the game.

The Good:
- UNCG gave tremendous effort. I've said before that this team still fights to the end. They proved it again on Thursday.
- Kendall Toney. He had a great stat line (12 points, 5 assists & o turnovers) and seemed to feed off of Stephen Curry's energy. I really hope that he continues to shoot the ball with confidence because he can be a really good player when the ball is going in the basket.

The Bad:
- Offense - 37.3% from the field.
- Rebounds - UNCG 27 & Davidson 46.

The Ugly:
- Davidson had 21 offensive rebounds.
- UNCG had 20 turnovers.

Let's face it, these are the 2 stats that have killed UNCG all year. The Spartans got a Davidson team that wasn't sharp at all. If they could have put something together, it was a night when Davidson could have been beat. Things didn't work out that way. Nothing you can do but move forward.

If at first you don't succeed ... try, try, try, try, try, try again

Charlotte 77- UNCG 59

- News & Record
- Charlotte Observer
- UNCG
- Charlotte

Early in the second half, a Charlotte player missed a point blank shot. However, in what was a microcosm for the entire game, 49ers players proceeded to rebound and shoot the ball 6 more times before finally converting. The Spartans got Charlotte to play the kind of ugly game that it needed to have a chance. They just couldn't grab the ball, figuratively and literally.


It was a disappointing, yet not unexpected result. UNCG had lost too much to simply go down to Charlotte and knock off a good team. But it wasn't all bad. Landon had 13 points and Mikko had 12. The guys did quite a few nice things. And let's not forget, this is a Charlotte team that should go to the NCAA tournament. Lamont Mack (18 pts, 10 rebs) is a big time player. However, some of this game was them not playing well either, but I'll get to that ...<>


The Good
- Landon Clement - The Blue-White game was not an aberration. He stepped up and took his shots with confidence and made quite a few of them (3-6 from deep). After a bad shot that resulted in an air ball, he was harassed by the student section badly for the rest of the game. But still made a few more shots. It was obvious the crowd was getting to him, though.
- Montel Smith - He looked the part of the starting PG that UNCG desperately needs. His stat line wasn't all that special (2 pts, 2 rebs, 1 ast) but it was the fact that he got the ball down the court and got the team in an offense. No one else that ran the point looked nearly as good.
- Defense - UNCG held Charlotte to 41% shooting and 4-18 from 3 point range. The match up zone (not sure if it was 2-3 or 1-3-1) that the Spartans used for much of the game was pretty effective. All-in-all it was a good defensive effort. However, Charlotte missed a ton of wide-open shots. I've not seen a team miss that many shots with no one around them. So, I don't think you can attribute all of Charlotte's offensive problems to UNCG defense.
- Rebounding - I know, UNCG got beat on the boards 37-28. Let me point out again that Charlotte got 6 of those on one trip down the floor. Other than that, I thought Ben Stywall did a respectable job. As the first post-Hines game, it wasn't too bad.

The Bad
- Post play - Except for a few nice second half plays from Bone, the UNCG big men looked massively overwhelmed. And it seemed like anyone that checked into the game in the 4 or 5 spots got whistled for a foul immediately. That's got to get better quick.
- PG play - 7 assists/23 turnovers.
- The Score - UNCG lost by 18. It felt like 30 watching from home. Other than a 5 minute run in the second half, this game wasn't really competitive.

The Ugly
- Intentional foul - That was a bad and dangerous play made by Eargle. He's got to let that play go and not compound one mistake with another one. I agreed with his frustration. Something should have been called on that play. But UNCG needed him on the court.
- Shot selection - Landon and Mikko are going to score 9-15 points every game. They let their shots come within the offense. Everyone else forced too many shots. UNCG shot themselves out of their run by taking two bad 3 pointers.

All-in-all I think that this game will provide some film that the guys will use to get better on Monday.

Go Spartans !!!