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

UNCG (5-21) @ Citadel (15-12)

When: Saturday, Februaary 20 1 pm
Where: McAlister Field House (6,000)
TV: SportSouth, ESPN.com 360, ESPN Full Court

Citadel Athletics
Citadel Forum

Spartan Notes:
- Last time out, UNCG couldn't overcome a slow start and fell to Elon 70-65. Ben Stywall led UNCG with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Mikko Koivisto added 19 points for the Spartans.
- Today's game marks a return to TV for UNCG. The Spartans have had 4 games televised so far this season. This is their first appearance on SportSouth.
- The Spartans have now dropped 5 straight games. With a 4-11 conference record, they now sit in 6th place in the North Division. However, UNCG is only one game back (in the win column) from being in third place.
- The is UNCG first and only meeting with the Citadel this year.
- Ben Stywall leads UNCG in scoring (14.3) and rebounding (10.5). Kyle Randall leads the team in assists (2.7).
- For the year, UNCG is shooting 38.2% from the field, 29.4% from behind the arc and 70.4% from the free throw line.

Bulldog Notes:
- Last game, the Citadel had a huge second half and blew out Western Carolina, 73-56. Cosmo Morabbi lead the Bulldogs with 16 points.
- With the win, the Citadel moved to 9-6 in the SoCon. They are in third place in the North Division by 1/2 game over Davidson.
- This is the Bulldogs second straight week playing on SportSouth's "SoCon Saturday" TV game. Last Saturday, they defeated Elon 77-72.
- The Bulldogs have now won 5 straight games.
- Cameron Wells leads the Citadel in points (17.5), rebounds (5.6) and assists (4.1). Zach Urbanus is averaging 11.2 points.
- For the year, the Bulldogs are shooting 41.7% from the field, 35.5% from behind the arc and 71% from the free throw line.

My Thoughts:
Every game is a must win at this time. If UNCG wants to have a decent seed in Charlotte, they need to get on a roll now. In two games last year, the Spartans played the Bulldogs close. I expect this one to be no different. If UNCG can find the rebounding touch it seems to have lost, then good things can happen.

Go Spartans !!!

Another UNCG Game on TV

Add another UNCG game to your TV listings. The Southern Conference announced it's TV lineup for the 2009-2010 men's basketball season today. In addition to UNCG's games with Duke, Clemson & NC State, the Feb 20th game at the Citadel will also be shown. Here's the full schedule.

SoCon Men's Basketball Telecast Schedule
Nov. 13 UNC Greensboro at Duke 7:00 p.m. FOX Sports South
Nov. 20 Clemson at UNC Greensboro 7:00 p.m. FOX Sports South
Dec. 14 Georgia Tech at Chattanooga 7:00 p.m. FOX Sports South
Dec. 31 NC State at UNC Greensboro 7:00 p.m. FOX Sports South
Jan. 9 Appalachian State at Davidson 2:00 p.m. SportSouth
Jan. 16 College of Charleston at Chattanooga 2:30 p.m. SportSouth
Jan. 23 Davidson at Georgia Southern 2:00 p.m. SportSouth
Jan. 30 Furman at Wofford 3:00 p.m. SportSouth
Feb. 6 Samford at College of Charleston 4:00 p.m. SportSouth
Feb. 13 The Citadel at Elon 6:00 p.m. SportSouth
Feb. 20 UNC Greensboro at The Citadel 1:00 p.m. SportSouth
Feb. 27 Chattanooga at Western Carolina 3:00 p.m. SportSouth
March 7 Conference Tournament Semifinal 6:00 p.m. SportSouth
March 7 Conference Tournament Semifinal 8:30 p.m. SportSouth

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.

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.