Terps Crush Spartans

UNCG 56 - Maryland 99

News-Record
UNCG Athletics
Maryland Athletics

This broken record is getting old.

At least G held them under 100.

You've Gotta Be Kidding Me

UNCG 53 - ECU 81

Really? 28 points? You've gotta be shittin' me ?!?

There is no way the UNCG got ran out of Greenville by 28 points. Let me rephrase. There is no reason that UNCG got ran out of Greenville by 28 points. This team has got to get significantly better than what they showed tonight. They have to get better and do it in a hurry.

That's it. I refuse to even comment on the crap I watched any further. It sucked and even continuing to talk about it kind of makes me sick.

Blah ...

Woeful Spartans Whomped by Wofford

That's right ... I'm trying to be funny. I thought about going with "Terrible Spartans Trashed by Terriers" or "Lap dogs Do Laps Around UNCG".

We sucked tonight. Bad !!!

(If G gets thumped by Furman, get ready for the my headline language to get foul and unsuitable for work).

UPDATE: There will be no post game write up. I am/was so irritated by that crappy performance that I can't really put my thoughts into words. It would just be incoherent ramblings with a lot of expletives mixed in to keep it fresh.

Here's the News & Record article if you weren't there and want to read a game story.

Gold Home Uni's = Nasty Beatdown

UNCG 50 - Princeton 65

News & Record
Daily Princetonian
UNCG Athletics
Princeton Athletics

UNCG wore their gold uniforms on Sunday and the result was similar to the East Carolina game. The guys came out lifeless and played with no energy. The defense was poor and they couldn't hit shots. Also, they wore the same gold uniforms against ECU.

Positives
- Brandon Evans --- Brandon was basically the entire offense for the Spartans. When it appeared UNCG had never seen a zone before, Evans would drive to the basket and make something happen.
- Zooperstars --- Yes, that's right. The Spartans brought so little excitement to the court that the other highlight was the fake animals dancing to N' Sync.

Negatives
- Defense --- Princeton shot 50% and got any kind of shot they wanted, whenever they wanted.
- Shooting --- UNCG shot 38% from the field, but just 14.3% (2-14) from 3 point range. It really feels like UNCG has missed every big 3 point attempt they've tried at home this year.

That's all I've got. There is not another home game until after Christmas. That should be long enough for me to re-charge and get excited about going to coliseum all over again. Hopefully the Spartans can go and get a win (or two actually) on the road between now and then.

That's all Folks

UNCG 56 - College of Charleston 69

News & Record
Charleston Post & Courier
UNCG Athletics
Charleston Athletics

College of Charleston jumped on UNCG 33-15 and never really let up. UNCG fought back to make it a 10 point game with about 10 minutes left, but could get no closer. That was all for UNCG at the SoCon Tournament in Chattanooga.

The Good:
- Ben Stywall 21 pts & 11 rebs.
- Pete Brown had his second straight double figure game and set his career high with 12 points.
- UNCG only turned the ball over 11 times.

The Bad:
- 32.3% shooting. Offense has been a big part of the Spartan's problem all season and things were no different on Friday afternoon.
- It took 17:48 for a guard to score for UNCG. With good shooters like Toney and Mikko, that's a tough stat to read.

The Ugly:
- Rebounds: UNCG 34 - Charleston 45
- Offensive rebounds: UNCG 14 - Charleston 21

So, that's it for the season. It's been a rough one. As fans, we must remember that suffering through the bad times makes the good times that much better. Hopefully the good time aren't that far off.

I'll post a end of the year wrap up later this weekend (or maybe the first of next week).

There's No Place Like Home ???

UNCG 57 - Wofford 69

News & Record
Spartanburg Herald-Journal
UNCG Athletics
Wofford Athletics

From New & Record ...

"(This is getting) very old, very fast," said UNCG's Ben Stywall. "I
thought
we could get some momentum off that road win, but obviously we didn't
come
out like we were hoping to. I'm not sure what it is about the road; we've
gotten our wins there. I guess since we have a road trip coming up,
hopefully we can continue that."

I'm still so disgusted at how this game went, that I've decided against doing a full recap. I haven't seen UNCG win a game in person in over 2 months. It's sad to think of the idea that the last UNCG win in Fleming Gym may have already taken place.

On the Rise?

UNCG 44- Dayton 75

News & Record
UNCG recap
Dayton Daily News
Dayton recap

I'm going to skip my normal recap style for this game. I'll just make random points because there was no good or bad, only ugly. Lots and lots of ugly.

- I've never been more happy for a video feed to mess up as I was 4 minutes into the second half last night.
- UNCG didn't have a second half breakdown. This one was long over by by that point. The Spartans scored 15 points in the first half. UNCG made 4 field goals and had 12 turnovers.
- The guys who do the radio play-by-play for UNCG have got to be insane. At halftime, they tried to make the point that the Spartans were going to make some noise in the second half. I'm all for staying positive, but that was ridiculous.
- I've never seen one team destroy another team one on the boards as bad as Dayton beat UNCG last night. I honestly started thinking that every time UNCG got a defensive rebound that the entire Dayton team had taken pity on them.
- While I was watching Michigan State and Texas play yesterday, I couldn't help to think that either of those teams could beat UNCG by 80 points. It's sad how bad this team really is right now. What team on the schedule can UNCG beat?

Here's the final thought ... Will Dement be coaching UNCG next year?

Aaaarrrrgggg ?!?

UNCG 53 - East Carolina 97

UNCG Athletics
ECU Athletics
News & Observer

Halftime score ... ECU 41-UNCG 32. Second half score ... ECU 56-UNCG 21. We've seen this before. The telling stat is second half shooting percentage. UNCG 18.8% (6-32) and ECU 67.7% (21-31).

The Good:
- I'm honestly struggling to find anything good here. It was another solid first half effort. If they gave 1/2 wins for good first half performances, UNCG would have a good record. I don't know what Coach Dement is saying in locker room at the break but he needs to change it (hint: Watch Bull Durham).

The Bad:
- "Splash" page on UNCGSpartans.com. Can we just go ahead and take that down now. It was great to infuse a few days of excitement back into the basketball program. The slogan "On the rise" seems a little hollow right now.

The Ugly:
- Offense - 30.2% from the field, 19% from 3 point range and 61.1% from the free throw line. Mikko (9 pts), Stywall (4 pts) and Landon (0 pts) had a bad night.
- Defense - 59.7% from the field and 51.7% from 3 point range. Seven, SEVEN Pirates scored in double figures.

That's it. Wish I could come up with some great analysis as to what happened, but I've got nuthin'. Hopefully, the Spartans can just put it behind them and start to pull things together.

Well, that certainly wasn't pleasant

UNCG 60 - Central Arkansas 73

News & Record
UNCG
Central Arkansas


I've given myself a couple of days to think about this game and it's still really bad. UNCG was thoroughly beaten (don't let the score fool you) by a program that was transitioning to D1. Even "Baghdad Bob" couldn't spin this train wreck.

The Good:
- No comment - I'm sure I could find some moral victory things to put here. Things like: UNCG outrebounded UCA (34 to 30), or Mikko Koivisto scored in double figures (24 pts) for the third straight game. But I choose to highlight nothing.

The Bad:
- I had to listen to this game on the Central Arkansas radio network via WUAG's live stream over the internet. The play-by-play guy was flat out terrible. He referred to UNCG as "North Carolina" a half dozen or so times and then shortened it to just "Carolina" for the rest of the game. Also it was quite difficult to keep up with game action over the constant recaps of how UCA won a football game and the Sugar Bears won a women's basketball game. Just stick to telling me what's going on directly in front of your face, please. I basically had to follow the game by the sounds made by the crowd in the background. Also, WUAG's announcements during game breaks were pretty lame. Someone needs to get a memo out to the activists on UNCG's campus that we're not Cal-Berkeley.
- Landon Clement - UNCG's leading scorer was 0-3 from the field with 3 turnovers.

The Ugly:
- Turnovers - 22. Third straight game where the Spartans turned the ball over like it was their job (20+ times). This team will struggle to win more than 5 games this year unless they start taking care of the basketball. Maybe the guys should consider walking it up the court a couple of times each half.
- Free throw shooting - I haven't been impressed with this aspect of the Spartans so far this year, and against UCA it really hurt (12-24). Hit those other 12 and it's a 1 point game. Ben Stywall's 2 misses with UCA's lead down to 9 were killers.

There's not much to say about this game. The guys must start to show some improvement soon or this season will really get away from them.