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."

Dominos of Conference Change Coming Soon

Well it was bound to happen eventually. Up until now, all of these shifts in conference alignment have happened with the big conferences only. But recently things are moving towards the mid-major conferences.

Before we get into the opinion portion of this post, let's first look at what has happened to cause us to get here ...

- In September of 2011, Pittsburgh and Syracuse announced they were leaving the Big East to join the ACC.

- In October, West Virginia left the Big East to join the Big XII Conference.

- In December of 2011, Houston, SMU and Central Florida departed Conference USA to join the Big East. Boise State and San Diego State also joined for football only. The Naval Academy was also added for football only.

- In February, Memphis left Conference USA for the Big East too.

- Earlier this month, Conference USA announced they were adding North Texas and Florida International from the Sun Belt Conference. They added A-10 member Charlotte as well. Louisiana Tech and Texas-San Antonio left the WAC to join too.

- Eventually, Old Dominion chose to leave the CAA to become the 14th member of the new Conference USA.

- Also this month Bulter (from Horizon) and VCU (from the CAA) have left their conferences to join the Atlantic-10.

- Georgia State has announced they are leaving the CAA to join the Sun Belt Conference.

So, those are all of the actual moves that have been made up to this point. Still trying to figure out how this effects the SoCon? Well currently it doesn't and it may never effect it. But it seems very likely that there are big changes coming.

First, there's the report that the CAA is definitely interested in Charleston and Davidson. Davidson fields sports such as lacrosse and field hockey which currently don't have a true conference home. The CAA would give them that. It's also alluring that the CAA has been a multiple bid NCAA conference quite a few times lately. The Wildcats seem to have found themselves on the "gotta win the conference tourney" side of things several times in recent years. I'm sure they would like to have a better chance at the at-large. Will this watered down CAA really give them that chance is a completely different story.

The CAA would also like to pair up at least one southern school with UNC-Wilmington. College of Charleston would fit perfectly in that role. Plus, they would be a destination city for the rest of the conference. With their solid Olympic sports programs, baseball and basketball it seems like Charleston would be a great fit in the CAA.

Then there's the whole FBS football moves that other conference teams are looking to make. App State's AD Charlie Cobb has been all over the radio trying to convince the new look Conference USA to look at his Mountaineers. It seems likely his only move will be the Sun Belt Conference. App State may even be interested in starting it's own new regional conference. However based on NCAA restrictions, that seems like a pipe dream.

Also, Georgia Southern appears ready to make a move to new conference to play FBS football. Their choices appear to be on par the App State and it's likely they will go to the Sun Belt with the Mountaineers.

These are two very dominant FCS (1-AA) football powers that seem to be extremely likely to leave the SoCon very soon. With a looming new NCAA moratorium in FCS-FBS that appears to be coming soon, all of these programs that have higher aspirations are going to move quickly.

So, I guess the easiest way to sum this all up is there will be a conference shake up this coming summer. I just don't know how big. I do not believe that UNCG is on the short list of schools that the CAA is considering. I haven't received any confirmation of that, though. I will take a pure guess and say App State, Davidson and Georgia Southern all leave at some point soon.

I'll post some thoughts on new conference member possibilities over the coming weeks. Until then, keep an eye on the league meetings over the next two weeks.

SoCon League Preview - Charleston

College of Charleston
Last year: 26-11 (14-4)
Finish: Tied 1st South Division
Postseason: NIT (Quarterfinals)
Last 10: 6-4
Coach: Bobby Cremins (6th yr)

OOC Games:
Holy Cross, Morehead State, @ Clemson, @ Central Florida, Tennessee, Charleston Southern, @ Louisville, @ Coastal Carolina, George Mason

Additions:
- 6'-9" C Adjehi Baru - ESPN Rated 95 (Abidjan, Ivory Coast)
- 6'-1" PG Anthony Stitt - ESPN Rated 83 (Charlotte, NC)
- 6'-4" SG Trevonte Dixon - ESPN Rated 82 (Florence, SC)
- 6'-1" SG Patrick Branin - ESPN Unrated (Richmond, VA)

Losses:
- Andrew Goudelock (Graduated) 23.7 pts, 3.9 rebs, 4.2 assists, 0.9 steals
- Jeremy Simmons (Graduated) 13.3 pts, 6.2 rebs
- Donovan Monroe (Graduated) 12.4 pts, 2.7 rebs, 2.6 assists
- Jordan Turok (Graduated) 04 pts, 0.3 rebs (8 games)
- Garrett Campbell (Graduated) Appeared in 10 games

Top Returners:
- Willis Hall 8.4 pts, 5.9 rebs
- Trent Wiedeman 8.4 pts, 6.6 rebs
- Antwaine Wiggins 7.9 pts, 5.6 rebs, 1.0 steals

*UPDATE: According to this article Willis Hall has torn his ACL and is out for the 2011-2012 season.

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

Shots Just Miss the Mark

UNCG 64 - College of Charleston 67

News & Record
Charleston Post & Courier
UNCG Athletics
Charleston Athletics

Kendall Toney's attempt was a little short and Kyle Randall's was a little long. Thus ended the furious Spartan comeback. In a game that felt destined to be a 15 point Charleston win, UNCG fought back. They just couldn't quite get all the way back.

Positives
- Rebounds --- UNCG out rebounded Charleston 49-29. They led in offensive rebounds 25-8. The Spartans led in second chance points 29-8.
- Ben Sywall is a beast --- Coming off a game where he had had 11 points and 15 rebounds, Ben scored 21 points and had 14 rebounds. For the season Ben is averaging 12.9 points and 9.3 rebounds.
- Moxie --- UNCG has shown a lot of fight this season. There's not been a game where the guys mailed it in and gave up. They continue to go on impressive second half runs where they play with a sense of urgency. It's a shame they don't start out the games with that same sense of urgency.

Negatives
- Starting Woes --- Once again, UNCG found itself down 9-2 in the first 5 minutes. It would be nice if the Spartans didn't need to show that "moxie" mentioned above. I don't know what the deal is with playing at home, but hopefully the guys can find a good rhythm soon.
- Quick guards --- For the second straight home game, UNCG got hammered by a lightning guard breaking down the defense.
- Luck --- Andrew Goudelock hit a shot that bounced off the rim 15 times, twice on the top of the backboard and then a dozen more times on the rim before it finally went in. Okay this obviously an exaggeration, but not by much. I don't know what we can do to get some good luck, but I'm open to suggestions.

This blurb from the N&R article gives a little insight into what has been going on with Mikko.

UNCG's Mikko Koivisto is battling a hip strain that is limiting his minutes. Dement said the senior guard can play offense, but can't slide his feet on defense. Koivisto played 11 minutes Monday after he could go only two minutes Saturday.

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.

4 SoCon Teams Play On

Four SoCon teams received bids to continue playing in the postseason. Chattanooga (SoCon Tournament Champs) and Davidson (SoCon Regular Season Champs) were already guaranteed bids. College of Charleston and the Citadel got bids to play in 2 of the newer tournaments. Here are the match ups (with TV listed where available).

NCAA Tournament
#16 UT-Chattanooga
#1 UConn
Thursday, March 19 3 pm (CBS)
Philadelphia, PA

NIT
#6 Davidson
#3 South Carolina
Tuesday, March 17 7 pm (ESPN2)
Columbia, SC

College Basketball Invitational
College Of Charleston
Troy
Wednesday, March 18 8 pm
Troy, AL

CollegeInsider.com Tournament
The Citadel
Old Dominion
Thursday, March 19 7 pm
Norfolk, VA

UPDATE:
UConn 103 - Chattanooga 47
Davidson 70 - South Carolina 63
Davidson 68 - St. Mary's 80
College of Charleston 93 - Troy 91
College of Charleston 72 - Richmond 74
Citadel 59 - Old Dominion 67

UTC Wins SoCon Title

UTC defeated College of Charleston at McKenzie Arena to claim the SoCon Tournament and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. This year was similar to the last time the tournament was held in Chattanooga, in that College of Charleston beat Davidson in the semi-finals (like UNCG did in 2005), only to fall to the host school the next night. The wrap up of this season's tournament can be found over at SoCon fans.

Chattanooga's record all but assures them a #16 seed in the "Big Dance". If you looking for some interesting discussion, try the forums at Davidson, UTC and College of Charleston.

In other news ... Elon's Ernie Nestor and High Point's Bart Lundy will not be returning to coach the schools next season.

UPDATE: App State fired Houston Fancher as well.

Different Location, Same Result

UNCG 73 - College of Charleston 89

News & Record
Charleston Post & Courier
UNCG Athletics
CofC Athletics

UNCG played a bad 20 minutes of basketball against College of Charleston on Thursday night just like they had on December 5. The difference between the 2 games was that unlike the game in Fleming, this one was over with by halftime. The Cougars hit 12 3 pointers in the first half and led 55-37 at the break.

The Good:
-Ben Stywall had an amazing stat line 26 points, 9 rebounds, 5 steal & 0 fouls. Damian Eargle scored 22 points and had 6 rebounds.
- UNCG only turned the ball over 8 times outrebounded CofC 34-31 (13-8 offensive rebounds).

The Bad:
- 20% (2-10) from behind the arc and 41.8% (28-67) overall shooting from the field.
- UNCG point guards (Spooner, Smith & Oliver) combined stats - 10 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist & 5 turnovers. Even their minutes were limited (Spooner-14, Smith-4, Oliver-14).

The Ugly:
Mikko Koivisto - 0 points (0-8 from the field, 0-6 from 3 point range and 0-1 from the free throw line).
- College of Charleston shot 55.6% (35-63) from the field and 59.1% (13-22) from behind the arc. That's pretty awful defense. I don't think it's possible to beat a team when they shoot that well.

SoCon Update

Just figured with a few days of down time until Georgia Southern comes to town, that I'd do a little recap of what the rest of the Southern Conference teams have done up until now. I'll even include UNCG so that you can see where the Spartans stand in terms of RPI and Pomeroy rankings.

Appalachain State (6-7)
RPI - 254
KenPom - 270
Wins: Charlotte, Campbell, Furman, Wofford, Miligan, Elon
Losses: UNCW, Niagara, ETSU, Kentucky, Texas, UNCG, Davidson

Chattanooga (6-10)
RPI - 200
KenPom - 198
Wins: Tennessee Temple, Tennessee Wesleyan, Mississippi Valley St, Niagara, Furman, Citadel
Losses: Tennessee, Missouri, Memphis, So Cal, Fairfield, Davidson, ETSU, Alabama, Ga Southern, Wofford

College of Charleston (12-3)
RPI - 104
KenPom - 150
Wins: So. Illinois-E, TCU, Charleston Southern, SC State, South Carolina, Elon, UNCG, Coastal Carolina, UNCW, Winthrop, Ga Southern, Samford
Losses: Temple, Davidson, UNC

Davidson (12-3)
RPI - 29
KenPom - 36
Wins: Guilford, James Madison, Winthrop, Florida Atlantic, Loyola-Md, NC State, West Virginia, Chattanooga, College of Charleston, Samford, Citadel, App State
Losses: Oklahoma, Purdue, Duke

Elon (4-8)
RPI - 260
KenPom - 308
Wins: Southern Virginia, Citadel, Lees McRae, Lipscomb
Losses: West Virginia, UT-Martin, Va Tech, College of Charleston, Maryland, Navy, App State, Western Carolina

Furman (2-11)
RPI - 341
KenPom - 337
Wins: Emory, Berry
Losses: Charleston Southern, Duquesne, Dartmouth, Notre Dame, App State, North Florida, Vanderbilt, Western Carolina, Samford, Chattanooga

Georgia Southern (4-8)
RPI - 172
KenPom - 217
Wins: Houston, Reinhardt, Samford, Chattanooga
Losses: Duke, UTEP, Austin Peay, Drake, North Dakota State, Florida, Citadel, College of Charleston

Samford (6-8)
RPI - 246
KenPom - 288
Wins: Spring Hill, Campbellsville, Lipscomb, Louisiana Tech, McNeese State, Furman
Losses: Belmont, Ohio State, Georgia Southern, St Louis, Chicago State, Davidson, Wofford, College of Charleston

The Citadel (7-9)
RPI - 280
KenPom - 279
Wins: Grace Bible, Cincinnati Christian, Charleston Southern, Grambling State, UNCG, Bethune-Cookman, Georgia Southern
Losses: VCU, Iowa, C. Arkansas, Elon, UC-Davis, Michigan State, South Carolina, Davidson, Chattanooga

UNCG (2-11)
RPI - 324
KenPom - 329
Wins: Webber International, App State
Losses: Charlotte, Central Arkansas, NC State, Citadel, College of Charleston, ECU, Kent St, Dayton, Akron, Princeton, Western Carolina

Western Carolina (8-5)
RPI - 189
KenPom - 193
Wins: Toccoa Falls, Louisiana Tech, Northern Illinios, Kent State, Tennessee Wesleyan, Furman, UNCG, Elon
Losses: UConn, San Diego State, Gardner-Webb, Marquette, UNCA

Wofford (6-6)
RPI - 96
KenPom - 195
Wins: UT-Pan American, Air Force, UNCA, Union College, Chattanooga, Samford
Losses: Dayton, Clemson, App State, Georgia, Navy, South Carolina

The Charleston Sweep of UNCG

UNCG 62 - College of Charleston 77

News & Record
Charleston Post & Courier
UNCG
College of Charleston

The Spartans played their best half of basketball on Saturday. They followed it up with one of their worst. The Spartans took a 40-36 lead into the locker room. However, CofC owned the second half (41-22).

Since I didn't really do much of a recap after the Citadel game, this is going to just be more of some of my major thoughts of both games. I'm not going to bother discussing major negatives b/c I think we're moving towards "moral victory" territory.

- Damian Eargle was ineligible for the Citadel game, and UNCG was outrebounded 37-30. He was back for the CofC game and UNCG outrebounded the Cougars 35-31. These two thing could be completely unrelated. I doubt it, though.
- Elhanan Bone is really starting to look more comfortable and his stats are showing it (8 pts & 6 rebs - Citadel, 12 pts & 5 rebs - CofC). If Bone can average 10 & 7 guy the rest of this year, the Spartans will be competitive in a lot of games.
- Even with the disappointing early season play, the crowds at Fleming Gym have been nice. Not "sell-out" nice, but enough to generate a fun atmosphere. The crowds will have to get larger an more vocal next year, though.
- Daniel Oliver has been a good spark off of the bench. In both games, he's brought a sense of urgency on the court with him. He's also looked to take a few more shots and made some of them.
- UNCG shot free throws well in these two games. 12-14 against CofC and 7-9 against the Citadel.
- UNCG played very good free throw defense. The Citadel made just 7-13 and CofC missed all of their 11 attempts.
*** I am not going negative here. While this was might come off as an underhanded shot at UNCG, it's not. I'm actually cracking on CofC. That's an unbelievable stat (0-11). If the Cougars plan on really competing with Davidson, they better get the problem corrected in a hurry.

College of Charleston (6-1) @ UNCG (1-4)

When: Saturday, Dec 6 3 pm
Where: Fleming Gym (2,320)
TV: SportSouth

College of Charleston Athletics
College of Charleston Forum

Spartan Notes:
- UNCG fell to the Citadel Thursday night, 57-50. Landon Clement scored 15 and Ben Stywall pulled down 10 boards. UNCG managed to shoot an unbelievable 17.2% from 3 point range (5-29). The Bulldogs also out rebounded UNCG by 7 (37-30). UNCG turned the ball over just 8 times.
- Mikko Koivisto (14.0) and Landon Clement (10.8) are scoring in double figures. Koivisto is leading UNCG in assists (3.0), and Ben Stywall is averaging 8.4 rebounds.
- UNCG has used 5 different starting lineups in 5 games.
- Last year, UNCG won 88-71 in Charleston. The Spartans prevailed 75-67 in the return game at Fleming Gym.

Cougar Notes:
- CofC won at Elon on Thursday night, 77-69. Andrew Goudelock scored 19 points for the Cougars.
- CofC already has wins against South Carolina and TCU. Their lone loss came to Temple in the semi-finals of the Charleston Classic. The Cougars are 3-1 at home, 3-0 on the road and they've won five 5 straight games.
- Goudelock (18.0 pts) leads 5 players scoring in double figures. He also is their assist leader (3.4). Jermaine Johnson is the Cougars leading rebounder (8.6).
- On the season, CofC is shooting 49.3% from the field, 41% from 3 points range and 66.2% from the free throw line. 6 CofC players have positive assist-to-turnover ratios.

My Thoughts:
With everything going on yesterday, I haven't had much time to research the Cougars. However, when you look at their stats you can see that this is one of the best teams in the SoCon. UNCG will need to take care of the ball again today. As bad as the Spartans were on Thursday night, they were a couple of 3's away from stealing a win. UNCG will need to shoot a higher percentage. Damian Eargle will have to get out of Coach Dement's doghouse and back to being productive on the court.

Hopefully, the Spartans can have a good showing on TV and gain some confidence moving forward.

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.

Oh, the horror

It has been a pretty brutal start to the year for the SoCon. Let's review what has happened after the first week or so of the season. Right now Real Time RPI has the SoCon at 21st and Ken Pomroy has it at 23rd.

North Division:

Chattanooga (0-2) - The Mocs have a very tough early season schedule and it has showed so far. They have been blown out by Tennessee and Missouri and have to play national runner-up Memphis next.

Western Carolina (0-1) - Beaten by 26 @ #2 UConn.

Samford (1-1) - Lost by 18 to Belmont, beat Spring Hill by 20.

Elon (1-1) - Destroyed by West Virginia and destroyed Southern Virginia.

App State (1-1) - This may be a tough team to gauge. They lost on the road to a UNCW team that was supposed to be down, and won at home against a good Charlotte team in double overtime.

UNCG (1-1) - We've gone over this.

South Division:

Davidson (2-1) - Blew out Guilford and James Madison and then lost a close game at Oklahoma. Stephen Curry is averaging a meager 35.3 points per game.

College of Charleston (2-1) - The Cougars finished 3rd in their own tournament beating SIU-E and TCU and losing to Temple.

Wofford (0-2) - Lost by 3 @ Dayton and 53 @ Clemson.

Ga Southern (2-2) - They went 1-1 in Durham and 1-1 since then.

Furman (1-1) - They beat Emory and lost @ Charleston Southern.

The Citadel (1-1) - Beat Grace Bible and were hammered by VCU.

Totals (12-15) with a lot of wins against non-D1 teams. A quick glance says that the best wins were Houston (GSU), Charlotte (ASU), James Madison (DC) and TCU (CofC).