Hines Back to Italy

According to his Twitter page, Kyle Hines has signed on to play another season in Italy.

It is official new contract signed this morning headed back to Italy Great situation great money I'm happy.

Too much Youtube for Me

Ok, I'll freely admit that I spend way too much time playing on the internet. But yesterday, as I was looking for the Korey VanDussen videos in the post below, I found some other fun stuff. I figured I'd add a couple of older Kyle Hines videos. Enjoy.

Pre-Tournament Post

With a little down time between end of the regular season and the start of the tournament, I figured I post a few links to some interesting and useful information.

- The UNCG women's basketball team will open SoCon tournament play on Thursday as the #7 seed (the women don't use the 2 division format like the men). The Lady Spartans will take on the #10 seed Wofford around 5:30. The Spartans finished the year 12-17 overall (9-11 conference). Wofford brings in a record of 5-23 (3-17 conference). UNCG defeated Wofford twice during the regular season. The bracket for the Women's tournament can be found here.

- Monique Floyd was named SoCon Defensive Player of the Year.

-UNCG alum Kyle Hines was named MVP of his Italian league (Lega Due) team's mid season tournament, called the Vanoli Cup. Hines is averaging 17.4 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.9 blocks and 2.5 steals in 22 games.

- The teleconference for all SoCon men's basketball coaches can be found here. Let me help by summing things up. Every coach answers at least 1 Stephen Curry question. Coach Dement's is relatively short. He opens by talking about the game against Elon. He then answers his token Curry question. He complements Stephen's basketball IQ and talks about him listening to conversations with Dement and his players trying to pick up on called plays. He finishes by talking about the 2 previous match ups with College of Charleston.

- Here are the match ups for the men's basketball tournament. UNCG will play on Friday around 4:30. I'll have a better preview tomorrow.

Homecoming

That's how I plan on referring to the UNCG-Davidson game this coming Thursday at the Greensboro Coliseum. I'm going to use this post to link to some game related articles. Plus, I'll throw in a few links to some other Davidson blogs, and there are quite a few of them.

I'll be back later this evening or tomorrow with my actual game preview.

- News & Record story discussing the fact that there will be beer sales for the game. It points out that the coliseum basically sells beer at all of their events. So, this will be a non-issue.

- UNCG student ticket allotment's have almost sold out. 2,250 tickets have already been distributed and as of the article, there were only 250 left.

- Speaking of tickets, you can buy them here. I know in the past games at the coliseum that there have been plenty of really good seats left right before game time. I don't think that's going to be the case for this game. If you're wanting lower-level seats, buy them now, as opposed to getting them at the window. They're running a 4 for $44 special (with 4 drinks and 4 hot dogs).

- There are a lot of events planned prior to the game. Here's an article on Spartanfest.

- Thursday will be another "Blue & Gold Day". You may remember that the first Blue & Gold Day was on Friday December 5th. This was the day that the permanent move to the Greensboro Coliseum was announced.

- Kyle Hines' latest blog entry from Italy.

- UNCG athletics is now writing a blog too. The first installment can be found here.

Davidson websites:
- Davidson Forum
- Wildcats Pride
- Lefty Legacy
- 16.8
- View from Press Row
- Above the Rim (not exclusively DC)

UNCG (1-1) @ Central Arkansas (1-1)

When: Saturday, Nov. 22 7:30 pm cst (8:30 pm est)
Where: Farris Center (5,500)
TV: None


Central Arkansas Athletics


Spartan Notes:
- The Spartans won their last game, against NAIA member Webber International, in a very unconvincing fashion. The bright spots were Landon Clement's 26 points and Mikko Koivisto's 18 points. Ben Stywall had a double-double (12 pts and 10 rebs).
- 11 of the 12 eligible players on UNCG's roster have played in the first 2 games. Mike Hardiman played in the season opener against Charlotte, but didn't appear against Webber International. All 10 scholarship players are averaging over 10 minutes per game.
- UNCG leaders ... Landon Clement 19.5 points, Ben Stywall 8.5 rebounds & Mikko Koivisto 3 assists.
- Only one player has a positive assist/turnover ratio ... Mikko Koivisto 3/1.
- UNCG is shooting 42% (36% from 3 point range) from the field and 66% from the free throw line.
- UNCG defeated Central Arkansas 80-62 in Fleming Gym last year. The Spartans were led by Kevin Oleksiak (28 pts) and Kyle Hines (18 pts and 12 rebs). Mikko Koivisto sat the game out with a sore ankle, but Kendall Toney scored 10 points in his place. Nate Bowie scored 20 for the Bears.


Bear Notes:
- Central Arkansas (Conway, Arkansas) is from the Southland Conference and is in year 3 of transition to D1. They are not yet eligible to win their conference.
- The Bears are 1-1 on the season after losing on the road to Northwestern and winning at against home Bacone College. Marcus Pillow scored 19 points for UCA against Bacone and 13 points against Northwestern. Brian Marks pulled down 12 boards in the Bacone game.
- Marcus Pillow leads Central Arkansas in scoring (16 pts) and assists (2). Mitch Rueter is also scoring in double digits (11.5 pts). Marks is averaging 9 rebounds per game, including 6 offensive.
- On the season, the Bears are shooting 36% from the field and 23% from 3 point range.

My Thoughts:
If the Spartans are going to finish at .500 or better, this is a game they need to win. Yes, it's a road game. But it's at a transitioning school that UNCG beat soundly a year ago in Greensboro. With more road games than home games, UNCG has got to get some wins on the road. Might as well start Saturday night in Conway.

Northwestern held UCA to 25% shooting in the first game. If, UNCG can play solid, 40-minute defense, they'll have a good chance. The Spartans have shown that they can play good defense at times in both of their first 2 games. Hopefully they put it together for a full game.

Pillow appears to be a very capable scorer, and Marks looks like a good rebounder. UNCG big men are going to have to do a better job on the glass or they are going to give up lots of offensive rebounds. The guys are going to have to be strong and decisive with the ball.

For the second straight game, I'm going to make this point. UNCG needs to get some kind of substitution pattern started in this game. There's not much I can add at this point that I haven't already stated.

Hopefully, all of these things can come together and UNCG can return with road victory #1.

Spartan Salvation

I decided I'd compile a list of preseason articles. Here are a few articles previewing the new look Spartans basketball team and a few other just interesting articles.

- Greensboro News & Record preview.

- Winston-Salem Journal preview.

- SoCon Preview from the USA Today.

- And the there's this awesome line from the blog The Grand National Championships ...

"UNC-Greensboro: It's a new era in Greensboro. Your threats
from the inside have disappeared from the graduation of Kyle Hines. It's time
for some long distance action. You know who it's time for? Mikko Koivisto.
He is your Spartan Salvation."

- The recap of the Blue-White game.

- This is a Q&A with new UNCG chancellor Linda Brady.

- There was this random opinion piece talking about UNCG's possibility of starting up a college football program.

- Kyle Hines' Italian blog 1, Italian blog 2 & Italian blog 3.

-Then there's NCAA and the penalties they handed UNCG.