Regular Season Recap - December

Let's continue with the recaps.

December
Citadel (L) - A close game that, at the time, I was shocked to see the Spartans lose. I just couldn't fathom UNCG dropping a game to "lowly" Citadel in Fleming. It turns out that even Davidson would lose at home to the Bulldogs. The Citadel have battled their way to bye in the SoCon Tournament. As for the game, Damian Eargle was suspended, and it really hurt UNCG. He might have been the difference maker in a close game.

*** Let's note that in between the home games with the Charleston teams, Chancellor Linda Brady excited Spartan fans by announcing that UNCG would move all of its home games next season to the Greensboro Coliseum.

Charleston (L) - UNCG played a great first half, but couldn't keep it going in the second half and fell hard. Charleston even tried to help by missing a bunch of free throws.
ECU (L) - The Pirates absolutely throttled UNCG in the second half in Greenville. The ECU return game in the Greensboro Coliseum next season should be a lot of fun.
Kent State (L) - Another second half collapse for UNCG. The Spartans led this one at the half, but couldn't hold on. Kendall Toney hit a couple of big 3's.
Dayton (L) - The Spartans were crushed by a really good Dayton team on the road. I really won't be shocked if Dayton gets in the NCAA Tournament and makes plenty of noise. Their defense was way too much for an already poor shooting UNCG team.
Akron (L) - The first of a few "throw away" games that UNCG played this season. The Spartans didn't do much in this game and very few people actually showed up to watch it anyways.

Damn, this record is broken

UNCG 62- Kent State 73

News & Record
Kent State

UNCG

UNCG lead Kent State 32-29 at halftime, but was outscored 44-30 in the second half. I've had enough of this "let's kick ass for the first half and give you hope before we stink and crush your hope in the second half". I'm ready for a good first half effort to not be wasted. Maybe I'm hoping for too much. It was impressive how UNCG fought back from 20 down to make a game of it. At least they haven't thrown in the towel yet.

The Good:

- Elhanan Bone - 8 points and 10 rebounds. That's a stat line that I think every Spartan fan loves to see. Bone was a beast on the boards.

- Free throw shooting - 11-13 (84.6%) is a solid effort. If we'd have shot that well at Central Arkansas there might have been a different outcome.

- Kendall Toney - 14 points including a couple of big 3 pointers. It's good to see him play well against someone not named NC State.

The Bad:

- Turnovers (18) - Just when you think UNCG has a problem fixed, it re-appears. UNCG's first half turnovers didn't hurt them too bad. The miscues turned into fast break points in the second half, though.

- Shooting - 37.5% for the game (including 9-26 in the second half). UNCG ranks 327 in D1 (out of 343) in field goal percentage.

The Ugly:

- Second half performance.

The definition of "Beating a Dead Horse" from Wikipedia ...

"Beating a dead horse" is an idiom that means a particular
request or line of conversation is already foreclosed or otherwise resolved, and
any attempt to continue it is futile.

Yep, That's what I'm doing.

UNCG (1-6) @ Kent State (4-5)

When: Thursday, Dec 18 7 pm
Where: Memorial Athletic and Convocation (M.A.C.) Center (6,327)
TV: None

Kent State Athletics
NewsFlashes - Kent State Blog
Kent State Forum - NCAAbbs
Kent State Forum - Rivals

Spartan Notes:
- In their last game, UNCG was destroyed by East Carolina in Greenville (97-53). Montel Smith led the Spartans in scoring (11 pts) while Ben Stywall pulled down 10 boards. Sam Hinnant led seven Pirates in double figures with 18 points. UNCG was outscored 56-21 in the second half.
- Last season, Kent State held on late to defeat UNCG 71-64 in Fleming Gym. Mikko Koivisto led UNCG with 22 points. Mike Scott scored 15 for Kent State.
- The Spartans have now dropped 5 straight games.
- Mikko Koivisto is leading UNCG in scoring (13.7) and assists (2.6). Ben Stywall is the leading rebounder (8.9). The Spartans are averaging 17 turnovers per game. Nine players are averaging double figures in minutes played.
- For the season, UNCG is shooting 36.7% from the field, 27.1% from 3 point range and 62.9%from the free throw line.

Golden Flashes Notes:
- Kent State was the MAC tournament Champion and an NCAA tournament participant last season. They finished with a record of 28-6.
- Kent State defeated Youngstown State 82-74 in their last game. Al Fisher led three Kent State players in double figures with 20 points.
- My recap on of Kent State's wins/losses/RPI can be found here.
- Fisher (17.8 pts and 3.7 assists) and Chris Singletary (16.4 points and 3.1 assists) are the Golden Flashes best offensive weapons. Brandon Parks is leading Kent State in rebounds (6.4).
- For the year, Kent State is shooting 46% from the field, 30.3% from behind the arc and 62.6% from the free throw line.

My Thoughts:
When I sat down and put together a preview for the ECU game, the stats of that team just jumped off the page. Even though East Carolina had played several non-D1 teams, they just appeared to have a lot more firepower than the Spartans. I guess that I can say that it didn't come as much of a surprise that they whipped UNCG last Saturday night.

By that same token, there's not a whole lot from Kent State, statistics-wise, that jump out at me. They seem to be an average team that spreads a lot of their stats out. Their record indicates much of the same thing. They have a nice win over UNCW and took Illinios to overtime before eventually losing. Fisher appears to be the closest thing the Golden Flashes have to a star player. However, there seem to be a lot of solid role players.

To have a shot on Thursday, I could go down the same 'ol "laundry list" of things that UNCG must do well. Turnovers, free throw shooting, poor rebounding and foul trouble have all taken turns tripping up UNCG. But lately UNCG has just been awful after halftime. In all but the Charlotte game, the Spartans have been very competitive in the first half and then failed to make anything happen in the second half. That's got to change.

This road trip (@ Kent State 12/18 and @Dayton 12/20) through Ohio will be a homecoming for freshman Damian Eargle. Maybe he can elevate his game and help UNCG snap this 5 game skid.

The rest of the OOC schedule

Just figured I'd put up some info on the other 6 of UNCG's out-of-conference opponents. These are current as I write this post. I'll try to update it every few days. So, check back often. All of my RPI numbers come from RealtimeRPI.

*Red - Where they were when UNCG lost to them.
*Green - Where they were when UNCG defeated them.

NC State (3-0)
Current RPI: 227
Wins: @ New Orleans, High Point, Winthrop.
Losses: None.

East Carolina (7-1)
Current RPI: 126
Wins: Coker, St. Andrews, Campbell, VCU, @Winthrop, @UNCW, Limestone.
Losses: George Mason.

Kent St (4-5)
Current RPI: 216
Wins: NC Central, St. Louis, UNCW, Youngstown St.
Losses: Illinois, Texas A&M, @Kansas, St. Mary's, Western Carolina.

Dayton (9-1)
Current RPI: 36
Wins: Wofford, Deleware St, Bethune-Cookman, Mercer, Auburn, Marquette, Troy St., @Akron, Coppin State.
Losses: @Creighton.

Akron (7-4)
Current RPI: 102
Wins: Canisius, Winthrop, Urbana, @Niagra, @Fairleigh Dickinson, NC A&T St. Francis (NY).
Losses: @ Pitt, Eastern Kentucky, Dayton, @VCU.

Princeton (2-8)
Current RPI: 323
Wins: @ Army, @Fordham.
Losses: Maine, Central Michigan, South Carolina, @St. Bonnie, Rutgers, Manhattan, Central Conn State, Lafayette.

Last updated: 12/30/08