UNCG (4-4) @ UNC (5-2)

When: Saturday, December 7 7:00 pm
Where: Dean E. Smith Center (21,750)
TV: ESPNU

UNC Athletics

Preseason Preview

UNCG Stats
Last Game: Presbyterian (L 99-87) Recap
PPG: 78.6
RPG: 38.4
APG: 14.9
Leader Points: Kyle Cain (16.9)
Leader Rebounds: Kyle Cain (8.0)
Leader Assist: Tevon Saddler (3.8)
FG %:47.6
3 Pt %: 39.4
FT %: 67.1

UNC Stats
Last Game: @ #1 Michigan State (W 79-65) Recap
PPG: 77.0
RPG: 40.9
APG: 15.1
Leader Points: Marcus Paige (19.7)
Leader Rebounds: Brice Johnson (7.0)
Leader Assists: Marcus Paige (4.0)
FG %: 47.7
3 Pt %: 31.0
FT %: 61.8

Thoughts
Well this game has certainly taken on a different feel over the past few days. UNC went out and totally dominated the #1 ranked team on their home floor. Meanwhile UNCG went out and got totally crushed by what was the worst offensive team in D1. This game was always going to be a stretch to see the Spartans really being able to compete in for long periods of time. I still feel like that is the case due to UNCG's inability to defend and the fact that UNC is a very, very talented offensive team.

But if I was looking for things to feel positive about, the fact that UNC is not a good 3 point shooting team (something that has really hurt UNCG this season). The Tar Heels have played very well against major competition, but have struggled against the mid majors on their schedule. Hopefully the trend of playing to their competition will continue.

UNCG will need to shoot the ball well (which it has done most of the year) and do a much better job of taking care the ball. They will always need a lot of luck. In the end, this will be a game that I probably won't be as concerned about the score as what I'm seeing out of the Spartans. I hope UNCG comes out focused and prepared.

Go Spartans !!!

SoCon Games - Week #3

Monday
Drexel vs. Elon in Piscataway, NJ (Preseason NIT)
The Citadel at Tennessee (Battle 4 Atlantis) (Fox SportSouth)
Samford at UL-Monroe (Roundball Classic)

Tuesday
TBA vs. Elon in Piscataway, NJ (Preseason NIT)(ESPN3*)
Kennesaw State at Chattanooga
Lee-McRae at Appalachian State

* If the opponent is Rutgers.

Wednesday
Greensboro at UNCG (Spartan All-Access)

Thursday
Georgia vs. Davidson in Charleston, SC (Charleston Classic) (ESPNU)
The Citadel at Wake Forest (Battle 4 Atlantis) (ESPN3)
Georgia Southern at West Virginia (Cancun Challenge) (ESPN3)
Western Carolina at Kent State (Coaches vs. Cancer)
Samford at ETSU (Roundball Classic)
Wofford at Minnesota (B1G Ten Network)

Friday
TBA vs. Davidson in Charleston, SC (Charleston Classic) (ESPN Family)
Chattanooga at Nevada (Las Vegas Invitational)
Niagra at Western Carolina (Coaches vs. Cancer)
Appalachian State at North Carolina Central (Global Sports Shootout)

Saturday
Georgia Southern at Old Dominion (Cancun Challenge)
Furman at College of Charleston
USC Upstate vs. Western Carolina in Kent Ohio (Coaches vs. Cancer)
Samford at Western Kentucky (Roundball Classic)

Sunday
TBA vs. Davidson in Charleston, SC (Charleston Classic) (ESPN Family)
Wofford at High Point
Chattanooga at UCLA (Las Vegas Invitational)(Pac-12 Network)

NC Sharpshooter Picks Spartans

According to ESPN recruiting, 2013 SG Clay Byrd (6'-1" - Connelly Springs, NC/East Burke HS) has committed to play basketball at UNCG next season. He picked UNCG over App State, Mercer and Yale.

- ESPN recruiting rated Clay as the #19 player in the state of NC.

- BasketballElite.com ranked him the 16th best guard in NC. During one scouting session this summer they wrote this evaluation ...

Impressed with his defense in one on one drills- hustles. Good lefty shooter. Boxes out and rebounds

- According to this article, Byrd averaged an astounding 25.0 points per game as a junior in high school and was named Burke County player of the year by the Morganton News & Herald.

- Clay played in ESPN recruiting analyst Dave Telep's Carolina Challenge this past spring.

Now let's move on to the videos ...

From Dave Telep's Carolina Challenge



From East Burke HS



An older video



Two videos from The Wolfpacker

Clay plays AAU basketball with Team United. You can see some of their highlights from this year's Peach Jam here.

Welcome to the Spartans, Clay !!!

#1 Duke (11-0) @ UNCG (0-11)

When: Wednesday, December 29 7 pm
Where: Greensboro Coliseum (7,617/23,500)
TV: ESPNU

Duke Athletics
Duke Basketball Report
Duke Forum - Scout
Duke Forum - Rivals

Spartan Notes:
- Last time out, Justin Harper's 17 points helped Richmond outlast several pushes by UNCG, 63-53. Aloysius Henry put up 12 points and 10 rebounds. Trevis Simpson led UNCG with 14 points.
- Tonight's game is the 2nd game of a 5 game home stand for UNCG. After the Blue Devils, UNCG will host Samford, Chattanooga and Elon.
- Duke marks the 6th ACC opponent UNCG will face this season. So far the Spartans have lost to Florida State, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Wake Forest and Clemson. The last 3 of those games were played on the road. Miami (Fla) will visit the Greensboro Coliseum on Feb 15.
- UNCG has found itself with chances late in its last 2 ACC contests. It took a good defensive stand for Wake Forest to turn back UNCG, 69-67. The Spartans then turned around and mounted a furious comeback against Clemson. UNCG trimmed a 21 point halftime deficit down to 2 before before the Tigers were able to hang on to win 71-61.
- Henry leads UNCG in scoring (11.6) and rebounding (6.1). Kyle Randall is averaging 11.4 points and a team best 3.7assists.
- For the year, UNCG is shooting 40.7 from the field, 35.5 from behind the arc and 66.8% from the free throw line.

Blue Devil Notes:
- Last game, Kyle Singler's 24 points help Duke to cruise past Elon 98-72 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. With the win, Duke head coach Mike Krzyewski tied Dean Smith for second on the all-time coaching victories list.
- The Blue Devils come into this season as the defending national champions. Duke defeated Bulter last spring in Indianapolis to capture their 4th NCAA title.
- Duke defeated UNCG 96-62 at Cameron Indoor Stadium to open the 2009-2010 season for both teams. Ben Stywall led UNCG with 19 points and 8 rebounds.
- Tonight's contest could mark a major milestone for Duke's Coach K. A win would give him sole possession of second place on the All-time wins list with 880. That is only 22 wins behind Krzyewski's mentor, Bobby Knight.
- Duke will be playing it's only true road non-conference game tonight. The Blue Devils have played Marquette, Bulter, Oregon, and #4 Kansas State all at neutral sites.
- Duke's super freshman Kyrie Irving is out indefinitely with an injury. Irving is averaging a team best 17.4 points and 5.1 assists per game.
- Nolan Smith is averaging 17.1 points and a team best 5.4 assists. Mason Plumlee leads Duke in rebounding (7.7). Singler is averaging 17.0 points and 5.5 rebounds.
- For the year, Duke is shooting 50.0% from the field, 44.0% from behind the arc and 74.3%from the free throw line.

My Thoughts
Let me start by saying that on paper there is no way that this game should be less than a 40 point Blue Devil win. Duke is the #1 team in the country and in the few years that I've been doing this blog, I've never seen a team shooting this well. They have 3 different players averaging over 17 points per game. Every number I read is just unbelievable. Plus, Duke will want to win this game for their coach.

But every once in a while there are some unbelievable upsets. Little bitty Chaminade beat Virginia and Ralph Sampson. Can tonight be the night where little 'ol winless UNCG steps up and beats the mighty undefeated Blue Devils? Well, they are coming off a break and Christmas holiday. Maybe they will come out flat and UNCG can find some confidence to build on. Anything is possible. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Gop Spartans !!!

UNCG (0-8) @ Wake Forest (5-4)

When: Wednesday, December 15 7 pm
Where: Lawrence Joel Veterens Memorial Coliseum (14,655)
TV: ESPNU

Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forum (Scout)
Wake Forum (Rivals)
Blogger So Dear

Spartan Notes:
- Last time out, UNCG travelled up to College Park and got destroyed by the University of Maryland, 99-56. Kyle Randall led UNCG with 18 points and 7 assists. The Spartans were crushed on the boards and managed to just shoot 32%.
- Maryland was the 3rd ACC team that UNCG has played this season. The Spartans will play 7 ACC school in total before the season concludes.
- The 0-8 start by UNCG is the worst in school history. Unfortunately, things don't appear to get any easier until after the new year. After playing in Winston, UNCG will play @ Clemson, and then Richmond and #1 Duke at home.
- Randall leads UNCG in scoring (12.3) and assists (3.6). Aloysius Henry leads UNCG in rebounding (5.9).
- For the year,UNCG is shooting 41.1% from the field, 34.6% from behind the arc and 67.5% from the free throw line.

Demon Deacon Notes:
- On Sunday, Wake Forest was buried beneath14 UNCW 3 pointers. The Deacs fell to the Seahawks 81-69 at a game played in the Greensboro Coliseum. Gary Clark led Wake with 20 points and 5 rebounds.
- It's been a rough start to the season for Jeff Bzdelik. Bzdelik came over from Colorado and took over for Dino Gaudio, who was let go at the end of last season. Wake has dropped games to VCU, Winthrop, Stetson and UNCW.
- The Demon Deacons were picked to finish last in the ACC by both the coaches and media.
- Travis McKie leads Wake Forest in scoring (13.3) and rebounds (7.6). Ari Stewart is averaging 13.2 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. C.J. Harris leads Wake in assists (4.7).
- For the year, Wake is shooting 46.2% from the field, 44.7% from behind the arc and 77.1% from the free throw line.

My Thoughts
What an amazing pillow fight we've got here. I bet there will be dozens of people in the LJVM to witness this contest.

If we use transitive properties here, UNCW beat Wake by 12 and lost to NC A&T by 5. UNCG lost to A&T by 12. So, UNCG should beat Wake by 5. Now that I have the whole game broken down, no one even needs to watch. Glad I could help.

Go Spartans !!!

UNCG on TV Seven times

Spartan basketball will have 7 games shown on various television networks. This is the most ever for UNCG men's basketball. Below, I have listed the game and network ...

11/14 FSU @ UNCG FSN-South & FSN-Florida
11/21 Va Tech @ UNCG Comcast SportsNet & NESN
12/8 UNCG @ Maryland Comcast SportsNet
12/15 UNCG @ Wake Forest ESPNU
12/19 UNCG @ Clemson FSN-South
12/29 Duke @ UNCG ESPNU
2/19 UNCG @ Elon SportsSouth

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.

Close only counts in ...

UNCG 55 - Princeton 65

News & Record
UNCG Athletics
Princeton Athletics

UNCG spotted Princeton a 15 point first half lead and then spent the rest of the game trying to erase it. The Spartan got to within 3 with a little over a minute to play. But Mike Dement's dumbass foul strategy backfired when Princeton hit 11 of 12 free throws to pull away.

The Good:
- DeAngelo Jackson - 4 points and 9 rebounds (6 offensive) in 24 minutes. Not great stats, but solid enough. Elhanan Bone didn't play. So, Jackson needed to step up to try to replace some of his stats and he did an adequate job. His offensive skills are still raw and not that great, but he helped provide a spark.
- Attitude - UNCG has kept fighting back in almost all of their games, regardless of deficit or talent differences. It almost paid off this time. Hopefully, UNCG will be able to come all the way back next time.

The Bad:
-Shooting - 29.6%. In a game with a team that limits the number of possessions, you have to make a higher percentage of your shots.
- Rebounds - UNCG was outrebounded by a poor rebounding team. Not only that, they couldn't get one in the last couple of minutes when they absolutely needed one. Some of that can be attributed to the lack of Bone's presence. However, you've got to find a way to hold on to the ball when the game's on the line.

The Ugly:
- Mike Dement's ridiculous strategy. He elected to start fouling in a 3 point game with over a minute remaining. Not only that, UNCG fouled a 86% free throw shooter. I don't get it. Yes, Princeton would've ran 30+ seconds off the shot clock. But if they miss (and UNCG was playing very good defense at the time) the Spartans get the ball back with a chance to tie. It made absolutely no sense to me.

A few other things:
- At least twice, I heard the public address announcer call UNCG "North Carolina-Charlotte". I guess we're all the same. Maybe next year when Princeton comes to Greensboro we can call them "Harvard". Heck, all you Ivy league schools are basically the same, right?
- The ESPN-U announcers were gushing over Princeton's Jadwin Gym, going as far as calling it, "One of the five best arena's on the east coast". I don't get it. On TV, that place looked odd, empty and unattractive. Guess you had to be there.

Anyways, let's move on to SoCon play and hope things get better.

UNCG (1-9) @ Princeton (2-8)

When: Saturday, Jan 3 12 pm
Where: Jadwin Gym (6,854)
TV: ESPN-U

Princeton Athletics
Princeton Basketball Blog

Spartan Notes:
- Last time out, UNCG fell to Akron 75-53 at Fleming Gym. Ben Stwall lead the Spartans with 11 points adn 11 rebounds.
-Mikko Koivisto still leads UNCG in scoring (11.7) and assists (2.6). Stywall is the leading rebounder (8.4).
- 9 of the 10 Spartan scholarship players active for this season are averaging double figures in minutes played.
- UNCG, as a team, is sporting an awful 1/1.9 assist-to-turnover ratio.
- For the season, UNCG is shooting 36.4% from the field, 28.6% from behind the arc and 65% from the free throw line.

Tiger Notes:
- Princeton lost at Lafayette Tuesday night, 54-53. The Tigers missed a last second shot that would have been the game winner.
- You can see a season recap of Princeton's wins/losses/RPI here.
- Doug Davis is the Tigers' leading scorer, averaging 13.6 points. Pawel Buczak is the leading rebounder (4.6) and Kareem Maddox leads in assists (2.0).
- For the season, Princeton is shooting 41.1% from the field, 35.1% from behind the arc and 71.9% from the free throw line.
- Princeton has 5 players shooting over 39% from 3 point range.

My Thoughts:
From the positive side, Princeton is not very good. They don't rebound the ball nearly as well as UNCG. For the first time in a while, UNCG has a size advantage. This is a very winnable road game. I think it's very hard to criticize the effort that the Spartans have shown in all of their games this year. The execution, however, is where things have went wrong.

From the negative side, Princeton's stats show just what you'd expect. The shoot the 3 pointer really well, and keep the score low. The spread the ball around well and shoot a very good percentage from the free throw line.

Honestly, I'd like our chances if the point guard play was even near an average level. But Princeton's system limits the number of possessions that you get and UNCG just hasn't been effective at scoring points at all. I just don't think this is a good match up at all for UNCG. Hopefully, I'm wrong.

Go Spartans !!!

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.