UNC System Business as Usual?

I try to very rarely stray from talking about UNCG (and SoCon) basketball. However, with the crap-storm that's taking place with the UNC-Chapel Hill football program, I thought I'd make a little commentary.

This past April, I was shocked to hear that UNCG's plan to start a new school of Pharmacy had been completely shut down by UNC system president Erskine Bowles. He went against a wonderful proposal and gave the go ahead on a for his alma mater, UNC-Chapel Hill, to start a satellite program in Asheville. It was an obviously ridiculous decision.

The day this decision was made public, I sent Erskine Bowles an email. I wanted to let him know that I cared about my school and that I thought that he was doing favors for his alma mater.

My email ...

Mr. Bowles,

I just read about your decision to not allow UNCG to move forward on its plans to start a School of Pharmacy. I am a proud graduate of UNCG. I must say that I am very upset and disappointed with this decision. It's obvious with the partnership opportunities in the Greensboro and triad community that this would idea should have been given the "green light".

I am equally disappointed and upset that you are going to allow UNC-Chapel Hill to go forward with an obviously thrown together plan to start a satellite campus in Asheville. I think it is quite obvious that politics are being played in this decision.

While I'm very happy to have a wonderful leader UNCG has with Chancellor Brady, I am very sad that you are stifling a wonderful university from growing and progressing.

His reply ...

Thank you for caring. The decision is fully explained in the report on our website that was produced by our independent consultants. Erskine

Now his alma mater is in the middle of an academic scandal. But is the investigation being handled by independent consultants? No. At a press conference yesterday, Bowles proclaimed he was proud of how the UNC leadership was handling the situation. He made no mention of getting independent consultants to handle this investigation.

Let's be clear, the scandal that's happening at Chapel Hill is a damn fiasco. Every single day something new comes out about what has taken place. The reason that Mr. Bowles doesn't want independent consultants to get involved is because it might get in the way of him helping out his alma mater once again.

When is this clown retiring?

*** BTW, if you want to find out more about the Pharmacy School decision, you can start by doing a search on the News & Record website and checking into some of the discussion at UNCGFans.

New Schedule Released

UNCG has released it's 2010-2011 basketball schedule. There are 15 home games including restarting a rivalry with a crosstown rival. Times haven't been finalized and and I'm sure that TV can move dates if needed. Also, tomorrow is the last day to renew season tickets (which, sorry guys, the new baby is keeping me from doing this year). Single game tickets go on sale October 22 through Ticketmaster.

Nov. 12 @ VCU
Nov. 14 Florida State
Nov. 21 Va Tech
Nov. 27 @ ECU
Nov 29 NC A&T
Dec. 2 @ Wofford
Dec. 6 Furman
Dec. 8 @ Maryland
Dec. 15 @ Wake Forest
Dec. 18 @ Clemson
Dec. 22 Richmond
Dec. 29 Duke
Jan. 6 Samford
Jan. 8 Chattanooga
Jan. 10 Elon
Jan. 13 @ App State
Jan. 17 Davidson
Jan. 20 Ga Southern
Jan. 27 @ Chattanooga
Jan. 29 @ Samford
Feb. 2 App State
Feb. 5 @ Western Carolina
Feb. 7 Citadel
Feb. 12 @ College of Charleston
Feb. 15 Miami (FL)
Feb. 19 @ Elon
Feb. 21 Western Carolina
Feb. 24 @ Ga Southern
Feb. 26 @ Davidson
March 4-7 SoCon Tournament*

* Chattanooga, TN

Checking in

First off, a little housekeeping ... I've turned off comments on the blog for now. Apparently, some asian spammers have decided my posts are perfect to scatter with virus links. Since I've found myself too busy to clean these up immediately, I'll just not allow anyone to comment. Once the season gets closer and I'm updating the site more often, I'll turn the comments back on.

Second, I didn't have the chance to attend any of the summer league games at the Triad Pro-Am here in Winston. It doesn't seem to really matter, though, as most of the UNCG team went to the NC Pro-Am in Durham to play this summer. Here is the website for the NC Pro-Am. Here is a game-by-game recap blog. There was a ton of talent that played in this event. I'm not sure from reading these recaps exactly how much Spartan players contributed.

With the schedule to be released sometime in the near future, I just thought I'd point out the column to the right with known UNCG home and away games. I'll post the full schedule as soon as it becomes available.

Gipson Promoted, Miller Hired

According to the UNCGSpartans.com website, assistant coach Corey Gipson was promoted by UNCG to associate head coach. Gipson replaces Rod Jensen who left to be the head coach at the College of Idaho. Gipson is a graduate of Austin Peay. He also has an associate's degree from Three Rivers Community College. This is the same school that incoming player Aloysius Henry has attended the last 2 seasons. Corey came to UNCG before the start of last season.

Also from the UNCGSpartans.com website, Wes Miller has been hired to fill the final UNCG coaching spot. Miller comes to the Spartans after serving as an assistant coaching stints at Elon and High Point in the past 2 seasons. After starting his playing career at James Madison, Miller played 3 seasons at UNC-Chapel Hill. He was a member of the 2005 UNC national championship team. He was a team captain on the 2006-2007 squad.

Congrats Corey and welcome to the Spartans, Wes !!!

Jensen Takes Head Coaching Job

First let me apologize for taking some time off from blogging. I've been quite busy with the birth of my first child a few weeks ago. Obviously, the newest Spartan fan has demanded a lot of my attention lately. But now that mommy and new baby are both doing well, I have a few minutes to make some posts updating things that have slipped by me since the end of basketball season.

Associate head coach Rod Jensen has left UNCG to take the head coaching position at the College of Idaho. Jensen had already spent many years in the state of Idaho as an assistant and head coach at Boise State. As you might remember, Jensen was the interim head coach for the Spartans win against Elon as coach Mike Dement was serving his one game suspension after being ejected from the UNCG-Samford game.

Good luck, coach Jensen in your new position and thanks for your time with the Spartans.

Spartans Pick Up 2 JUCO Big Men

The UNCG Athletics website has announced the signing of 2 more players to National Letters of Intent (NLI). Aloysius Henry (PF 6'-9" 235 lbs) is originally from St. Lucia, but has played the last 2 seasons at Three Rivers C.C. in Poplar Bluff, MO. Aaron Brackett (PF 6'-8" 245 lbs) is originally from Virginia Beach, VA and has spent his last 2 years at Allegany College of Maryland in Cumberland, MD.

Henry (Rivals, Scout) helped his team reach the NJCAA finals this season before falling to Howard College. Henry picked the Spartans over Colorado, Iowa State, Wright State, Tennessee Tech, and UT-San Antonio. He is a graduate of Bocage Secondary in St. Lucia and has spent the last 2 seasons playing for Gene Bess, the winningest coach in NJCAA. Assistant coach Corey Gipson also spent 2 seasons at Three Rivers. Henry's brother, Arnold, played basketball at Vermont and North Florida. This season he averaged 11.5 pts, 7.3 rebs, 1 assists & 1.2 blocks per game. This St. Lucia Sports Blog has kept up with Henry's progress.

Brackett (Rivals) is a NJCAA Honorable Mention All-American this past season that attended high school at Kempsville. In his freshman season at Allegany, he helped lead his team to the NJCAA tournament. This past season he averaged 12.1 pts, 10 rebs, 1.1 assists & 0.9 steals a game.

Here is a YouTube video of Aaron from high school.


Welcome to the Spartans, Aloysius and Aaron !!!

This should end this recruiting cycle for the Spartans. In addition to Henry and Brackett, UNCG signed David Williams (SG/SF 6'-6" 200 lbs Jacksonville, FL) to NLI's this spring. Drew Parker (PG 6'-3" 180 lbs Houston, TX), Trevis Simpson (SG/SF 6'-5" 180 lbs Douglas, GA) and Cody Henegar (PF/C 6'-9" 210 lbs Jasper, TN) signed NLI's this past fall. Another fall signee, Mike Liabo (SG 6'-6" 185 lbs Carbondale, IL), is heading to UT-Martin according to this OVCSports.com article.

Williams is Newest Spartan

According to this Indiana basketball blog, David Williams (6'-7" G/F, Jacksonville FL) has verbally committed to UNCG.

Taylor said that David Williams, who verbally committed to Indiana before opening up his recruitment, will play for North Carolina-Greensboro.

- ESPN has Williams rated at 83.

- Rivals & Scout both rate Williams as a 2-star player.

- Williams previously gave a verbal commitment to Indiana, before re-opening his recruitment. He was also receiving attention from Clemson, Florida State and several SEC schools.

Welcome to the Spartans, David !!!