Hoops on First

It must be confessed that the above title narrowly beat out other contenders like "Hoops Can It Be Now?" and "HOOPS, There It Is!" Sad yet true, but I digress...


Yesterday was Big South Conference Basketball Media Day, and yours truly had a front row seat for the fun. I would have offered posts-in-progress, but I was far too busy at the time trying to keep all the parts of our video streaming operation going (more on that at the end).


You probably know the drill: various media members gather, compile preseason materials, listen to what the coaches have to say, and learn the results of the preseason balloting for All-Conference teams and predicted order of finish (in men's and women's basketball). The Big South, of course, also streams and archives video interviews of the coaches in attendance and the selected Preseason Players of the Year.


I won't keep you too long today, but here are some of the key points from Tuesday:


For the men...

-the race is wide open, with seven of the ten teams receiving first-place votes...

-defending champ Winthrop topped the voting as preseason favorite, despite significant player losses--resulting in no Eagles on the preseason All-Conference Team...

-Winthrop Head Coach Randy Peele added that he only has about 18 points per game returning this season...

-and WU's not alone, as nearly every team reflected on the loss of great players and the importance of youth and development this season...

-most coaches seemed to admit when pressed that Radford's talent may be the best of the group...

-and Liberty's Anthony Smith (pictured) has extraordinary talent yet tremendous modesty about it.



For the women:

-the whole preseason All-Conference Team was composed of seniors...

-Liberty is expected to succeed again, thanks largely to the contributions of the Frazees...

-Megan Frazee (pictured), in particular, was considered good enough to be a topic of conversation for most of the coaches yesterday afternoon, which is natural given the level of her game and the amount of attention opponents must give her...

-Gardner-Webb's Rick Reeves returns to the Big South, having previously coached at Liberty, and seems happy with the GWU switch from the A-Sun to the Big South...

-as was the case with the men, youth and the quest for leadership remain big issues for lots of teams once you get beyond that list of senior All-Conference stars...

-and Radford's dissatisfaction with last year's second-place finish was evident in the way new coach Taj Ngongba referred to how her players "remember their last game."


A couple of my favorite off-the-cuff short answers from the afternoon:
VMI's Duggar Baucom on the wide-open MBB race this year: "It's crazy, really."
PC's Gregg Nibert on the three-point line moving back: "It's gonna be neat."


You can learn all the latest from BigSouthSports.com, where you can see the following stories:
- Winthrop picked as preseason favorite for the men,
- Liberty picked as preseason favorite for the women,
- Anthony Smith named Preseason Player of the Year for the men, and
- Megan Frazee named Preseason Player of the Year for the women.


Those articles also have links connecting you to the 2008-09 Basketball Preview video and the archived clip of the coach interviews. Look for the site to add a "Basketball Media Center" soon, similar to the ones that you've already seen there for Football and for the Big South's 25th Anniversary. It will collect all the early hoops info in one convenient place for you.

Hey, everybody--believe it or not, this is post #50 for the Big South SHOUT!!!
Thanks to everyone who's been reading us and passing the word on to your friends, we really appreciate the support.

I close with a grateful SHOUT-out to Liberty Men's Basketball Head Coach Ritchie McKay who, after standing behind me while watching the very talented Matt Hogue handle the interviews of Megan Frazee and Anthony Smith for The EDGE, commented, "This guy's doing the job of four men back here!" Thanks, Coach, I'm flattered...it's all just another day's work in doing the one-man-band video streaming technique (producer/director, 3 cameras, audio, graphics, floor manager, etc.)--you gotta love it!