Getting Better All the Time

Truth is, Friday consistently seems to be the best day of the week to get a SHOUT out there for everybody, but last week was a sick Friday so your resident SHOUTer was down for the count--sorry to miss one like that, but I'm back!

The Big South has been going through some interesting growth and development in recent times...nearly every member plus the Conference itself has seen online renovations in the form of key website redesigns -- the most recent ones to the party are Gardner-Webb and PC. If you haven't done so already, check out the all-new www.GWUSports.com and www.GoBlueHose.com now! It's okay, I'll wait...

Nice, huh?

Factor in the other web face-lifts seen pretty much everywhere else this year and you've got a pretty sleek online profile for the Big South Conference!

On top of that, we're seeing a growing trend for more schools to try their hands at supplementing the sites with more video production. Keep your eyes out for the efforts at Charleston Southern, High Point, and Winthrop, among others. I'm telling you, the difference between what's happening out there now and what was going on just a few short years ago when there was resistance to the idea of streaming games and blank stares in reaction to the concept of additional video coverage...well, it's just staggering.

So much effort and initiative is out there now, and good work is being done. If you find yourself with a few minutes to kill sometime, do your own Big South "Web-O-Rama" like we do every so often here at SHOUT. Hit each member site and you'll see revised looks, fresh video, community stories, athlete profiles, new blogs and journals, and more every day. It really makes you proud to be part of the Conference.

Growth doesn't stop at clicks either--it extends to bricks, too. In athletic facilities, you have the remarkable upgrades performed at Liberty, the new baseball stadium at Gardner-Webb, construction proceeding at Asheville, and other projects on the books around the League. Turn from the athletic department for a moment and you see things like High Point University and its desired expansion from a growth campaign of $300 million to one of $2.1 BILLION over the next ten years.

Yeah, that's billion with a big "B" right on the front.
And yeah, that gets a "wow"...

The virtual homes are better, the physical facilities are better, the envisioned futures are better. The best part may be simply that it's all true and not just optimism on my part.

And while I'm feeling generous with the compliments, kudos to the NEW Online Store at BigSouthSports.com. If you haven't taken a peek, give it a look--I think you'll be impressed with the variety and quality of merchandise for any chosen school and for the Conference itself. I speak from first-hand experience: I've ordered stuff for myself, and I've been pleased with the goods--and with the turnaround time. So a SHOUT-out to the Big South's new partner, Advanced-Online, for making the store bigger and better in every way!

Okay, that's enough gushing...let's just go out there and get some victories against those out-of-conference foes, okay??? Volleyball and men's soccer are already getting deeper into Conference play, which is exciting, but football and women's soccer are still getting some outside tests, so let's beat up on everybody else before we start beating up ourselves...

Enjoy the games! SHOUT...out.

Web-O-Rama Lives!

You may find yourself--searching across sites online.
And you may find yourself--looking through Big South school pages.

You may ask yourself, "Why goof on a Talking Heads song?"

And you may say to yourself, "Good grief, move SHOUT along!"

Yes, Big South SHOUT took a little breather around Independence Day, but it's all business now--the 2009-10 calendar opened July 1st, so we're not looking back (well, not much, anyway--check out the important item for VMI): it's full speed ahead in preseason mode!

First item on our July agenda is getting everyone caught up around the horn with another installment of that SHOUT favorite: Web-O-Rama...so let's get those browsers going...

Charleston Southern...CSUSports.com tells us that we're within 60 days of the Bucs' football opener at The Swamp in Gainesville, but it also offers interesting baseball notes--particularly for those seeking instruction: a delay in camp dates (pushed back a month) and details for those who want more individual training assistance.

Coastal Carolina... the first thing you'll notice right now at GoCCUSports.com is the splash page that teases the release of the site redesign on July 22nd, but there's more activity in Conway than just on the website. Check out the Adkins Fieldhouse Construction slideshow, showing you the expansion in progress at the Chants' football home.

Gardner-Webb... GWUSports.com has baseball success stories for fans of Runnin' Bulldogs past and present: a Southern League All-Star starter, plus three All-Stars playing in college summer leagues...a good job by the "Diamond Dogs."

High Point... soccer superlatives are among the highlights at HighPointPanthers.com, where HPU salutes its impressive group of nine players on developmental league rosters right now in preparations for the season ahead.

Liberty... LibertyFlames.com turns to recent basketball stars for a couple good stories--Anthony Smith making the summer league roster for the Indiana Pacers and Megan Frazee adjusting to life in the WNBA (pictured here, Getty Images photo)--fun and fascinating stuff as they transition from college to the pros!

Presbyterian... GoBlueHose.com has a nod to the future of its softball program with a report on accolades given to the three members of its incoming freshman class.

Radford... RUHighlanders.com has a nice baseball item that RU fans will enjoy taking advantage of--a links page to connect you to college summer league teams that feature Highlanders on their rosters.

UNC Asheville... the big news this week at UNCABulldogs.com is the announcement of Asheville's new baseball coach, Tom Smith--complete with free video of Monday morning's press conference.

VMI... a huge salute, both from VMIKeydets.com and (of course) from BigSouthSports.com, on VMI winning the Big South Conference 2008-09 Institutional Sportsmanship Award. This year's honor actually marks the fourth straight time VMI has won--accounting for all four years the award has been in existence. Bravo, Keydets!

Winthrop... those already counting down to the next hoops season will like a recent item at WinthropEagles.com, where it has been announced that the Lady Eagles will participate in this year's Preseason WNIT. WU will open Preseason WNIT play with Georgia Tech in Atlanta on November 13th.

Okay, that's all for today--don't forget to follow us on Twitter and become a Facebook Fan, too!

If those reminders seem too familiar by now, you may be thinking it's the...

...same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it EVER WAS!

(that's back to the Talking Heads--look it up, kids--better yet, give it a listen...SHOUT--out)

Web-O-Rama Goes to Camp

We haven't taken SHOUT through a tour of the Big South sites in a little while, so it looks like time for another edition of WEB-O-RAMA--today we are going to narrow the focus to SUMMER SPORTS CAMPS!

You heard me kids...

WELCOME TO SUMMER CAMP!

Yes, camp: baseball, softball, football, soccer, you name it, a number of schools and coaches are working on making some happy campers this month (most are in mid-late June, some trickle into July). The variety of camp offerings available is amazing (if not staggering), from some open to campers as young as four years old, up to others restricted to high school seniors...from those hosted by the head coach to others led by former players or professional camp services...and from those working with individual athletes to others geared toward teams.

Look for the Big South member in your area and your sport of interest for dates--here are just SOME of the links to help you on your way to upcoming summer camp information:

Charleston Southern: Baseball, Football, Basketball--Men - Women, Volleyball

Coastal Carolina: Baseball, Football, Basketball--Men - Women, Softball, Soccer--Men - Women

Gardner-Webb: Baseball, Football, Basketball--Men - Women, Soccer--Men - Women

High Point: Baseball / Basketball / Soccer (main info on one page)

Liberty: Baseball, Football, Basketball--Men - Women, Soccer--Men - Women, Wrestling

Presbyterian: Baseball, Football, Basketball--Men - Women, Softball, Soccer

Radford: Baseball, Basketball--Men - Women, Soccer--Men - Women, Softball, Volleyball

UNC Asheville: Baseball*, Basketball--Men - Women, Soccer, Volleyball

VMI: Football / Basketball / Baseball / Soccer / Lacrosse*, (main info on one page)

Winthrop: Baseball, Basketball--Men - Women, Soccer--Men - Women, Softball, Volleyball

* = updated information pending as of June 4th.

Whew!

That's more than 50 links, so I'm all linked out now...hope you find the camp that fits you best!!!

More from SHOUT coming soon...

Revenge of Web-O-Rama!

Today's SHOUT has a lot going on, so let's actually start with a little preview of what follows:

1- BigSouthSports: now officially on You Tube!
2- The Web-O-Rama feature returns to SHOUT for a full tour around the Conference.
3- The EDGE has a basketball schedule full of important upcoming games for you--and we've got the preview right here (with yours truly leading the way)!

So first, the news of the day--the Big South Conference has stepped up to offer its fans and friends yet another outlet for finding what they want to see regarding the great schools and student-athletes of the Big South. Next time you're visiting YouTube, look for our official dedicated channel: BigSouthSports. Right now you'll see all 25 of the "Best of the Best" 25th Anniversary features and the overview piece highlighting all our "Best" honorees, plus the latest "On The EDGE" promo, and very shortly you'll see the preview pieces for recent seasons in basketball and football and additional Big South video segments. All these clips can also be found through The EDGE at BigSouthSports.com, but now you can just hop on while you're already surfing around YouTube--or even subscribe so you know when new videos are popping up on the BigSouthSports channel!

Speaking about doing a little surfing, it's been a while since SHOUT took you on the tour of Big South sites that we call Web-O-Rama...but it's back! Remember, we know that every site will tell you about the latest games and scores--but we're always looking for things you may not know about: the unusual, the special, or simply the different pages you may have missed along the way...so let's begin, shall we?

Charleston Southern wants to know if you played sports for CSU or its predecessor, Baptist College. The folks with the athletic department would like to stay in touch with all the student-athlete alumni, and in particular keep them informed about alumni events and Hall of Fame Weekend activities. Does this apply to you or someone you know? Go visit the Bucs' site and let them know!

Coastal Carolina has a recent story about a specific alumnus that you might not have caught...Jack Leasure, the Big South's all-time leader in three-pointers made, will be playing basketball for a team in Austria! You see, Austria sent us a big guy who kept saying "I'll be back" and eventually became a governor--and so we send Austria a big guy who keeps popping threes and eventually becomes...well, we don't know yet, but we wish him luck!

Gardner-Webb reminds us that our student-athletes do a great job of contributing to the community. The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) at GWU held a fundraiser in December to help needy families in the Boiling Springs area for the holidays. They were able to raise over $1,000 and turn that money into gifts so that Christmas could be a little merrier for those who could use a helping hand.

High Point knows it's never too early to make those big summer activity plans. The Panthers and men's coach Dustin Fonder have announced the schedule for their soccer camps in June and July. They've got just about everyone covered, with a wide range of age options along with camps designed for half-days, full-days, and overnights.

Liberty wants to take you inside the life and times of its women's basketball seniors, with six different student athetes contributing to the "Life with the Lady Flames" feature. It's a series of linked journal-style articles in which you will find first-hand accounts from the Lady Flames (including all three Frazee sisters) on how the season is progressing.

Presbyterian gives us a profile of a group that doesn't get much press from most athletic websites: the pep band! Check out the full story on the Blue Thunder Pep Band and at the bottom of the page, you'll even find bonus offerings in the form of fight song audio and sheet music as well!

Radford has been quite busy lately, unveiling a fantastic redesign of the RUHighlanders website in December (go look if you haven't seen it yet--they did a great job) and reopening the newly renovated Dedmon Center in January. As part of the major web changes, say goodbye to the "Lineburg's Line" blog...but don't worry, you can still read the perspective from the A.D. with online updates in the new "Lineburg's Notebook" blog: new name, new look, familiar point-of-view.

UNC Asheville often offers great stories in its ongoing "Bulldog Blog"--this week it tells the tale of teamwork between teams in different sports within the program. The Bulldog Blog is actually an article series rather than a traditional blog, but perhaps its time to revisit putting it on the SHOUT blog roll... In any case, give UNCA's Bulldog Blog a look (link right off the UNCA home page).

VMI is enjoying great basketball success these days, but there's a lot more going on in Lexington, and the Keydets will be showcasing plenty of it with the upcoming 2009 VMI Sports "Winter Blitz." On Saturday, February 7th, the VMI athletics facilities will be buzzing with a track & field meet, wrestling competition, and a basketball game all in the same day!

Winthrop has joined the Big South in the Vortex revolution! Who needs old-school widgets when you get grab the power of the Vortex? Much like the Big South Vortex, which you can see in the right-hand column of this page or access through the Conference site, the Winthrop Eagles Vortex can be copied into your social networking pages as an application or embedded in your blogs or websites (UNCA also has a Vortex, and other schools are in development). Capture one now!

Okay, as promised, here's the video preview/promo for the upcoming game schedule on The EDGE. This week includes a few doozies, as we begin the "crunch time" stretch for men's and women's basketball (I won't go into details here, I'll let...well...ME do it in the clip below):

All right, this has gone on long enough.
No, really, it has...I'm done.

Enjoy the weekend everybody--we'll have another SHOUT soon!

Good Morning, Web-O-Rama! (Part Two)

So you were reading yesterday's Big South Web-O-Rama and said, "Hey, that's only half the Conference!" That's why we're back to finish the job today--plus a bonus item from one of yesterday's schools...

In His Own Words...
Presbyterian College Football Head Coach Bobby Bentley has his own blog on PC's website. You'll discover it's not a fully-functional blog with applications and shortcuts, more like a running article/text page, but it is frequently updated and filled with insights on what Coach Bentley is thinking. Following a crushing defeat against Elon, he offers plenty of striking candor: "After having some success in our first year I think some were thinking we have arrived. This past week humbled us all....As a leader we must rally the team this week. The mark of a man is not when he is on top of the mountain but when he is in the valley."

Hockey, Hold the Ice...
Web-O-Rama likes to occasionally shine a little spotlight on sports not typical of the Big South, like lacrosse and ice hockey, but now let's try some hockey without skates: Radford field hockey! The Highlanders got out to a rough start this season, but have now recorded two straight shutouts. Their next games will be against Stanford this Friday the 19th and North Carolina Sunday the 21st.

Reigning Cat(amount)s and (Bull)dogs...
The old joke asks us, "Why do you park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?" Don't worry about that nonsense, just focus on the Parkway Series instead. This longtime out-of-conference rivalry between UNC Asheville and Western Carolina has begun its annual showdown with a volleyball victory by the Bulldogs. The teams meet again in many sports this year, and believe me, they're keeping score. The programs also track volunteer involvement and give a point in the standings for that as well. Good luck, UNC Asheville, get that win for regional pride and for the Big South!

This is Our House (and Our Park and Our Field, etc.)...
VMI, a school unquestionably rich in history and tradition, offers a nice photo gallery of all its athletic facilities, with links to additional information about each one. The group naturally includes all the usual suspects, like the home of VMI Keydets football, but also offers a glimpse at off-campus sites, like the Virginia Horse Center, used for cross country.

That's a Wrap...
You may not spend much time thinking about taping ankles, but trainers have to practice to refine their craft, too. Here's a peek into some of that practice inside the training rooms at the Winthrop Coliseum...and look for the vintage Big South logo on the wall in those photos!

The promised BONUS item: High Point on Good Morning America!
That's right, tune in to ABC's Good Morning America this Saturday between 8-9 am (or set your DVR, sleepy-head) for a special look at what's going on at HPU: a feature touching on the school's "amazing transformation" and "astounding growth." Things are looking good at the High Point campus, as this national exposure comes on the heels of topping a list of "Up and Coming" colleges. If you miss it Saturday, here's hoping that ABC makes footage available on the GMA page.

Don't forget to check out Stony Brook University, associate member in football, as well.

That's it for Web-O-Rama this time...IN OTHER NEWS:
--Coastal Carolina alumnus Tyler Thigpen will get the start at QB Sunday for the Kansas City Chiefs! Coach Herm Edwards' move puts the Chanticleers and the Big South in a fairly exclusive club: only 32 men will have the honor of taking the field as a starting quarterback in the NFL this week. KC's had a tough start, so Thigpen's next steps will be keeping the job and leading his team to victories, neither of which is a given in the turmoil of pro ball.

--UNC Asheville's Kenny George is likely out for the season following foot surgery. This is a story you've probably seen repeated by a number of national news sources by now and echoed by college basketball blogs like Rivals.com. Because of his height, the Bulldogs' "KG" has gotten lots of notoriety, cheers & jeers, labels & insults, and so on his whole career...from us he will get well wishes for a swift recovery. Good player, good kid--we enjoy watching Kenny play the game...after all, he did lead the nation in field goal percentage last year!

Big South SHOUT-outs to both those guys--Tyler for luck in the games ahead and Kenny for recovery and better luck avoiding injuries in the future...I'm outta here...catch you later.

Web-O-Rama Returns, Part One

Time for another trip around the wide world of the Big South Conference to see what you may have missed from the web homes of its members...

Buccaneer Cheer...

Big fan of Charleston Southern? How about being a Cheerleader for a Day? Okay, it's not for regular fans, it's an actual instructional clinic for cheerleaders, but if you (or someone among your friends and family) cheers--or wants to--this could be a great opportunity to learn some tips and have some fun at the same time, done in conjunction with the October 4th football game against Gardner-Webb. The CSU unit should be a good cheer group to learn from--it won a national competition back in March.

Chants Encounters...

Coastal Carolina baseball has been a strong program for years, but the Chanticleers have succeeded off the field as well. Look through the photo gallery of their recent visit to the young players of the Grand Strand Miracle League of Myrtle Beach. Bravo, guys--thanks for your community contributions!

Dawg Days at GWU...

Looking beyond the athletic page for a moment, we see that Gardner-Webb University has something special coming up for prospective students in the form of "Dawg Days". The first is September 27th, with four more coming up this academic calendar. Registered students get the full tour and review of life at Gardner-Webb, plus a southern BBQ lunch and a t-shirt as part of the day. So book a date and put Boiling Springs on your high school student's "college tour" loop!

Lacrosse Purposes...

High Point University will soon have a new sport on the scene: women's lacrosse. The Panthers will begin competition in the 2010-11 season, with next year spent in recruiting and building the program. The Big South Conference does not have lacrosse as one of its sports at this time, but interest is growing out there: PC already has WLAX and Liberty is also adding it soon.

It IS an Election Year, After All...

The folks at Liberty University are trying to drum up support for write-in votes in the annual Capital One Mascot Challenge. You have to go through the voting process for the main mascots in the competition, but then you get an opportunity to enter in your support for anyone not in the poll. LU is pushing for Sparky--and claims the Flames' favorite Eagle was tops among the write-in candidates as of last week's numbers.

More to come in Friday's Web-O-Rama!

Life on The EDGE & Web-O-Rama

Greetings from the Big South here on the echoing date of 08-08-08.

Things are moving steadily into the fall season--for an example, let's talk video streaming for a moment. The EDGE (presented by State Farm) is already bursting at the seams with games on the calendar. Last year, the fall sports combined for 156 events streamed live through http://www.bigsouthsports.com/. This year the schedule already holds 215 events and is still growing as schools continue to add more games in volleyball, soccer, and football (plus a cross country meet, too). There's great potential for a huge year in video stream offerings--with the addition of two new schools and the experience of the original eight "stream-team" members, it should be possible to eclipse the 500+ live events of 2007-08 and surpass the 600+ mark (maybe by quite a lot).

With that set-up, I have to offer a shameless plug for The EDGE before moving on to anything else. If you haven't tried it, or have only limited experience with video streaming sports, consider this: you can have access to hundreds of live events, plus several hundred more recorded offerings On Demand(including archived games from past seasons) for a full year with an Annual Subscription of $79.95. Would you think twice about pay-per-view at merely 13-cents a game? That's just about what we're looking at with the full year deal. Of course, there are plenty of other packages out there...by the season, by the sport, or by the game--and single game prices are the same as they were last year! We hope you enjoy catching all your favorites on The EDGE!

Time for Web-O-Rama!
Haven't done this in a while, let's take a tour around the Big South and see some website highlights...

*** Got eligibility left? Charleston Southern will be holding open tryouts for the volleyball team August 22nd! Read all about it at CSUsports.com.

*** Do you know what day it is? They do in Myrtle Beach: it's "Amber Campbell Day." The folks at Coastal Carolina share the celebration on behalf of their Olympian alum today (Friday, August 8th).

*** Gardner-Webb reminds us that football is not the only sport opening practice: women's soccer opened workouts this morning and GWU already has a photo album of the first day's practice!

*** High Point wants you to know all about the touch-ups and enhancements going into the Panthers' athletic facilities, like the facelift at the Millis Center (pictured).

*** You know, here's something we don't get to talk about much in the Big South: ice hockey. Liberty has club hockey teams (men and women) representing the Flames again this fall.

*** Here's a time-sensitive one from PC football: tickets still available for Presbyterian at Appalachian State, as the transitioning Blue Hose face off against the seemingly perennial FCS champs in Boone.

*** Add another Olympian for the Big South Conference and for Radford University: former Highlanders track standout Goran Nava will compete for Serbia in the 1500m.

*** Speaking of the Olympic Games, UNC Asheville has a first-hand account of trying to qualify for England's track team from UNCA sprinter Natalie Pearson.

*** Eight of the country's top military institutions will gather in competition at VMI for February's All-Academy Wrestling Championships. It will be only the second time in 15 years that VMI has hosted the prestigious event.

*** Winthrop continues to push itself against high-level hoops opponents--the Eagles recently announced they will be back in the Orange Bowl Classic near the end of December. Last year, WU downed Miami in the OB Classic; this season they will face the Florida Gators.

*** Finally, pay a visit to Stony Brook University, the Big South's Associate Member in football. I'm not picking an individual story here, I'm just suggesting you go and learn more about this new squad before they start bringing the pain against your favorite Big South team--they look pretty good, so don't overlook the "new guys"...with that in mind, we're also adding a blog to watch for the Seawolves: WUSB Sports.

Oh, and a SHOUT-out to Nic Bowman in the Big South Office, having a birthday this weekend!

Happy 40th, Nic! Whoa, just kidding...he's 27.

That's all for now--look for upcoming editions of SHOUT reflecting on the 25th Anniversary and offering more details on the launch of the fall sports season!

Conference News & Web-o-Rama

I'll open with the "breaking news"...I was just about to click PUBLISH when the release hit about the Conference announcing the 2008 Class for the Big South Hall of Fame. Get the names and their claims to fame with the release on BigSouthSports.com!

We've been collecting a few gems to share with the SHOUT crowd, plus we've got the SHOUT debut of the Big South Web-o-Rama...read on...

First, the Sasser Cup Standings have been updated through the winter sports results.
"What's the Sasser Cup?" Glad you asked!
Named for former Big South Commissioner Buddy Sasser, the award is given to the Conference member with the best overall athletic year. That's calculated with a points system based on a school's finish in the regular season and in the tournament for each sport that the institution participates in for the Big South (news release with standings and full explanation at this link).

Although the spring sports will have much to say about the final results, so far it's a clean sweep for the Liberty Flames through the fall and winter. After winning seven of the ten Conference Championships awarded this academic/athletic year, LU leads in the respective All-Sports Award standings for Men and for Women, and therefore naturally holds first place in the race for the Sasser Cup Trophy. So far, so good for the folks at Liberty--congratulations on a spectacular season to date across all sports!

Not to be denied, Coastal Carolina sits at second in the Women's All-Sports Award standings and in the overall Sasser Cup list, while Winthrop holds second in the Men's All-Sports Award and third in the overall rankings. Plenty of opportunities remain for movement in the standings with eight titles still to come this year: golf (M/W), tennis (M/W), outdoor track (M/W), baseball, and softball.

New topic...the selection of the next host for the Big South Conference Women's Basketball Championship has been announced. High Point University will be the home for the tourney in 2009 and 2010. The Millis Center on the HPU campus welcomes the event after two successful years at the Justice Center in Asheville, with host school UNCA. It could be a good sign for the Lady Panthers--after all, UNCA won a title in one of the two years the event was contested on the Bulldogs' home floor. Aside from that Asheville victory, the tournament championship has been firmly in the grip of Liberty (11 titles) and Radford (9) throughout the Conference's history. TRIVIA--of the 22 tournaments staged to date, we have accounted for all but one of the winners in this paragraph--who else captured a Big South crown at the women's tourney? (answer at the end of the post)

Time for Web-o-Rama...our trip across the web sites of the Big South Conference to find news and notes for your amusement (a couple of these surfaced when we did Big South Sportstalk, but very few folks saw that, so I'm bringing them back)!

Charleston Southern--try the fan poll on the lower right of the home page: "As a CSU fan, would lights on outdoor playing fields increase home attendance? (Yes/Maybe/No)" This type of question can carry a little more weight than the typical web opinion poll, because this actually provides valuable information to the athletic department. The results are split so far, meaning you may want to enter your vote now if this issue matters to you!

Coastal Carolina--look for the blog "Out of the Pen" from members of the baseball team. That's right, more bloggin' in the Big South! Keep up with the Chanticleers by visiting "Out of the Pen," linked from this post today or from the blog list in the right column every day.

Gardner-Webb--I know, the Runnin' Bulldogs are not full members yet, but they will be soon. This week they released the GWU 2008 volleyball schedule, their first as part of the Big South and "arguably the toughest schedule the Bulldogs have faced since moving to Division I."

High Point--the Big South Conference Choice Hotels Baseball Player of the Week is also the McDonald's HPU Athlete of the Week: outfielder Pablo Rosario. Read more about his exploits on High Point's home page or see his player bio. Oh, and did we mention the thing about High Point hosting the women's basketball tournament? Just making sure you're paying attention.

Liberty--ah, you may recall how we mentioned Ritchie McKay (Men's Basketball Coach) in the last post and his status in the "Fashionable Four." Well, he advanced to the second round, and you can read Liberty's take on that from the Flames' site or check out the bracket on CollegeInsider, where analyst Seth Greenberg expressed "amazement" at McKay upsetting Washington's Lorenzo Romar.

[Sidebar: you already knew Radford's Brad Greenberg was eliminated in the "Style-In" match...now count out Winthrop's Randy Peele (from coach/analyst Seth Greenberg: "Why is Randy in the field?") and High Point's Bart Lundy (from Lundy himself: "I have no chance."), making McKay the only Conference survivor.]

Presbyterian--do you think PC's transition up to D-I means they're small? Ask the football teams left in their wake last season about that, then check out the NFL scouts visiting the campus in Clinton for PC Football's Annual Pro Day. As Yoda once asked, "Judge me by my size, do you?" No, say the Blue Hose, "and well you should not..."

Radford--it's worth one more SHOUT-out: the RU Director of Athletics keeps his own blog! Visit Lineburg's Line linked from this page or from the lower right of the Radford home page.

UNC Asheville--if it seems I'm plugging some of the blogs out there...I am--and here's another one: the "Bulldog Blog" from UNCA. There's a box linking right off of the UNCA home page (bottom center area).

VMI--check out the video salute to Big South Conference and VMI all-time leading scorer Reggie Williams, as the Keydets acknowledge the senior's remarkable contributions to the team over the last few years.

Winthrop--the box in the upper right of the Winthrop home page says it all: "Is football in Winthrop's future?" That's been a popular question for years, but the WU administration is taking the question seriously and looking at what it would take to make such a thing happen. Eagles fans will find it interesting, as will many followers of big-time college sports.

Okay, YES, I thought about coming up with a gem of an April Fool's column, but I just couldn't do it. After all, this is the internet--putting out stories like "Notre Dame thumbs nose at other offers, joins Big South" or "All Big South schools to add football by 2010, League expands to 12", etc. would probably not have seemed like a good idea by the time they traveled around the web and back. We'll try to stick with fun minus the practical jokes. Meanwhile, ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption" guys had fun of their own Tuesday with the notion of the NCAA invalidating the end of the Kansas-Davidson game and making them play the final 16 seconds over again, an amusing concept (as long as you're not Kansas).

And finally...you wanted the TRIVIA answer (can you still remember the question)?

Former Big South member Campbell won the women's tournament title back in 1989. Only that win by the Camels and the UNCA Bulldogs' victory in 2007 have kept Radford and Liberty from collectively sweeping all the Big South Women's Basketball Championships over the last 22 years.