First came the snow--hey, how nice, it's snowing...but then the ice, and more and more ice, all over the snow, and all freezing into a rink-like glaze over the world. That's how some stretches of Big South territory started this past work week...certainly that's how things got going (or not going) here at the home office in Charlotte, and in nearby Rock Hill (Winthrop) and Boiling Springs (GWU). Asheville of course got even more snow--and then another batch of snow. And so it went, as the early 2011 winter storm that paralyzed Atlanta for a week did its work across our region as well. The women's games scheduled for Monday wound up being played on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, as different schools addressed their area and travel needs in the most appropriate ways they could find.
So the weather stole its share of headlines, but there have certainly been stories from the sports side of the ledger as well. Let's run through some notes...
--Coastal Carolina narrowly beat Liberty last Saturday in the battle of men's basketball unbeatens, and since they each followed up by winning on Thursday, it remains a clear pair of teams at the top: the 6-0 Chanticleers and the 6-1 Flames. Again, watch for that rematch February 3rd in Conway.
--While those two duke it out for the important first seed and the right to host throughout the tournament, remember that the top four teams all host first round games, because that race (presumably for spots three and four, based on Coastal/Liberty so far) will also be a good one. After Thursday's games, SIX teams fit in the range from 4-2 (CSU) to 2-4 (PC/HPU), with marks of 3-3 (WU/ASHE) and 3-4 (VMI) for the teams in the middle. That's a pretty big pack of contenders for just two probable positions...should be fun.
--Those with attention to detail will note two teams didn't make the cut in the previous two items. Well, Radford and Gardner-Webb have both fallen to 1-5 records in the Big South, and it's going to take something big to turn these ships around now, because they have been running hard in the wrong direction. But here's the catch: since PC can't play in the postseason due to the NCAA terms of transition to DI, only one of these teams will be eliminated from the Conference Championship event. As one camper said to another, "I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you." In other words, if one of these teams can slow that descent, they'll get their shot...mind you, that's likely on the road at the top seed, but beggars cannot be choosers in this situation.
--On the women's side, we have a chance at an early treat on Monday, but that will still depend on how things turn out Saturday. Two teams survived to 3-0 starts: Liberty and Radford. They are slated to meet on Monday the 17th, but you have to play one game at a time...RU faces Winthrop before that collision, while Liberty does not have a Big South game in the way (instead playing at Longwood this evening).
--Meanwhile, Gardner-Webb is just one game back of that undefeated duo, and will certainly contend, just as the Runnin' Bulldogs have done so well the last two seasons. Behind those top three teams, the WBB standings are as bunched up as they are in MBB, with four teams at 1-1 or 1-2 (WU/PC 1-1, HPU/CSU 1-2). Two teams still seek Conference win number one: CCU at 0-2 and Asheville at 0-3.
I enjoyed taking part in the Big South's first basketball game to be available exclusively on ESPN3.com last night. Liberty won by six at High Point, and I had the good fortune to be on play-by-play (I'm Mark Bryant, for those who don't know the name behind SHOUT), along with Nate Ross as analyst. Nate has been a frequent broadcast partner in both football and basketball, and it's a pleasure working with him--particularly when we get good material to work with, as we did at the Millis Center. Sure, it was really low scoring for a while, and Liberty led most of the way, but the HPU comeback and the excitement of the late second half made for a good payback after the sluggish start. Fun stuff.
Gotta roll on to other things now, but I hope this post has helped update you on the early layout of the Conference races and put the upcoming games in context. Should be a great weekend--get out to a game if you can, or catch the live video streams on the Big South Network if you can't attend in person. Enjoy! SHOUT...out.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Ice, Ice, Baby...Musings on the Week
Friday, January 7, 2011
Here We Go!
Okay, people, it's 2011, so grab your hoverboards and head on over to catch some hoops.
What?
Sorry, my mistake...we get the hoverboards in 2015...use your jetpacks instead.
Hmm?
Never mind then, I thought this was the future...Happy New Year!
So instead, let's deal with the present, and it's a pretty good one for Big South basketball observers, with Conference play in full swing and plenty of good games out there. It's not perfect, at least not for most teams, but few things are, so let's give a look to life in men's basketball across the Big South right now (we have enough of a barometer to read tendencies on the men's side, but the women have only played one Conference game so far, so we'll save that talk for another day).
I mentioned the word "perfect", and that aptly describes the undefeated starts for Liberty (5-0) and Coastal Carolina (4-0). How timely, then, that these two teams collide Saturday evening! The overall Coastal win streak has climbed to an impressive eleven games and a total record of 12-2 this season. For the Chants, Desmond Holloway has scored at least 13 points in every game this season, the only player in the Big South to have double-digit points every time his team has taken the floor. There's a pretty good amount of talent and depth happening for Coach Cliff Ellis in Conway, and CCU has earned the attention increasingly pointed that way.
Meanwhile, Coach Dale Layer has Liberty exceeding expectations at this point, and anxious to keep his Flames red hot. Solid defense and teamwork have gone along with strong performances at home and on neutral floors (9-1), although the road record could use a little work (2-5). Clutch play from junior guard Jesse Sanders helped last week--now we'll see if he will have the right shot at the right time with the Chants in the building.
Those two teams are the unquestioned top two--and although general appearances make Coastal seem the stronger squad and likely to keep on rolling, it would not be surprising to see Liberty eke out a win in Lynchburg. Whether they do that or not, the Flames had better be prepared for a furious challenge when they meet again in Conway in February!
After the top two, the standings and relative power rankings actually get kind of murky for a while...
Perennial contender Winthrop? Lurking, of course, and always a threat come the tournament, but the Eagles just lost badly on the home floor to Asheville on the heels of a weak offensive showing against PC (that nonetheless netted a victory thanks to Coach Randy Peele's "grind it out" approach to the game). Still, this is a team that knows when to peak, and the answer is not January.
And what about that aforementioned PC squad? Pulling down road wins against Auburn and Wake Forest in the same week remains quite the feat, but what have you done lately, Blue Hose? Up and down performances have brought PC to 2-2 in the Big South and 8-8 overall: they're treading water in another year of waiting for full Division I status. No, they won't be a problem for anyone in the tourney because they can't go, but with the mix of talent and experience they do have, the Blue Hose could be a heckuva spoiler for someone along the way.
So you like lots of points? Then it's time to look at VMI, because once again, the Keydets are scorching scoreboards...on both sides. Yes, a familiar problem--score 87, but give up 109. That's what happened when Coastal came to town. Some teams will go with the flow and others will be swept under, but the familiar pattern of "score a lot, give up more" continues in Lexington. The Keydets have a dangerous team when the shots are falling, and one that often makes for entertaining games, but it is uncertain when everything will come together for that elusive title run for Coach Duggar Baucom.
Speaking of living and dying by your shooting percentages, it's time to talk about Charleston Southern. When senior guard Jamarco Warren and company have the threes raining in from all over the floor, watch out; but when the shots aren't falling, life gets tough for the Buccaneers. So, like VMI, they're a tough out on any given night, but the right defense against them might just make all the difference, just by impacting shot selection and opportunity.
It's finally time to touch on High Point. The Panthers have not found any sort of rhythm this season, nor has Big South Preseason Player of the Year Nick Barbour. Losing the last two Conference games on the road and the last four overall have not helped matters for HPU. This is a team needing a win and needing it soon...surely the Panthers are anxious for Saturday's game at winless Radford.
Beaten Bulldogs? UNC Asheville and Gardner-Webb have had injury struggles dominate their storylines so far this season. For Asheville, it's been a roller coaster that could still see the team contend with enough healthy bodies...but for Gardner-Webb, once leading scorer Jon Moore (out indefinitely) went down, things went south. GWU has now lost seven straight.
Finally, let's touch on Radford...here's a team that finished 2008-09 as Big South Champion in the NCAA Tournament, opened 2009-10 as a Conference favorite by many, ended last season with a relatively disappointing finish, and has skidded this year to an 0-4 start in Big South games, holding last place in many team stat categories. It's just not pretty for the Highlanders right now.
So there you have it, the quick rundown of what's out there right now for Big South men's basketball. The beauty of it all, of course, is that things can change so fast in this Conference, so what holds this week may not resemble what we're looking at next week, or next month...fun, isn't it?
Lineup for Saturday, January 8th:
CSU at VMI, 1pm
CCU at Liberty, 6pm
GWU at Winthrop, 7pm
HPU at Radford, 7pm
Asheville at PC, 7:30pm.
CATCH THE GAMES ON THE BIG SOUTH NETWORK!
That's enough for me...have a great weekend--get out to one of the games if you can, or watch on the Big South Network, OR catch updates from BigSouthSports.com or our Twitter or Facebook pages! SHOUT--out.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Hoops Time...& a Fall-Out Review
Ah, yes, let's tip this thing off for real today.
But, you say, "The season started weeks ago."
True.
Yet it's so hard to gauge what should be learned from a combination of road games against superior opposition and home games against weaker opponents. Sure, it's not ALL that, but it's generally the case that Big South teams spend a lot of time in November going out to major conference foes and bringing in lower level squads. The results are predictable, but not absolute: on the men's side, Asheville started out by beating Auburn and Winthrop knocked off Wake Forest, while on the women's side, there were some disappointing losses to very small visiting schools...let's not bother with those details, too depressing.
So why get excited now?
Because tonight (Thursday) there are four Big South Conference games for the men, with another five coming on Saturday. If you're wondering about the math, that's two games for eight members this week, with two teams only getting one game (CCU & CSU).
Yes, Conference games.
The unquestionable peer-to-peer measuring stick, when we'll be able to get a clearer picture of what we might expect down the road. Obviously the league schedule does not begin in earnest until we're ready to bid farewell to 2010 and swing into 2011, but the games of early December will count just as much, so they'd better be ready for them!
Here's the schedule:
Dec. 2nd...
Gardner-Webb at High Point,
PC at Liberty,
UNC Asheville at Radford,
Winthrop at VMI...I do like this one in particular--the "grind it out" defense of Winthrop and the "run and gun" offense of VMI--you figure something's gotta give...
Dec. 4th...
PC at VMI,
CSU at Coastal,
GWU at Radford,
Asheville at HPU,
Winthrop at Liberty.
From there, it's a couple light weeks to get through the month and the holidays, but get fired up again for New Year's Eve and the roller coaster ride that follows, with the full regular slate of Big South Conference games--and that applies to the women in January as well.
For those who live for the hoops side of things, this is the start of--as the song says--"the most wonderful time of the year."
If you're looking for more on the early part of the men's season, you can find our check-in with "Rush the Court" here.
RECAP TIME
Yes, so SHOUT has been quiet recently, but let's fix that and get caught up with a quick review of what the fall sports brought us this season...
Cross Country -- championship-wise, it was another sweep of the Men's & Women's Championships by the Liberty Flames. No one was surprised to see Liberty's Sam Chelanga run away with the individual title again for the Big South...just as you couldn't be too surprised to see Chelanga cross the line as the individual National Champion--a back-to-back winner of the NCAA title! Our congratulations and appreciation for Sam's accomplishments truly runneth over...he is simply the best. Factor in Josh McDougal's win in the event a few years ago and the Flames have produced three of the last four Men's Cross Country National Champions!
Women's Soccer -- would you believe a FIVE-way tie for the regular season title? Yeah, seriously. So tiebreakers sorted out the seeding among a pool of virtual equals, and when the dust settled, the High Point Panthers had made it as back-to-back Big South Champions (the highlight of which was the golden goal bicycle kick in the final by Jillie Johnston). HPU then fell to Maryland in the NCAA First Round.
Men's Soccer -- speaking of High Point, the men's squad for the Panthers roared through the year with a fast, high-scoring attack, going undefeated against Conference foes all the way to the Championship's final game...and that's when they got tripped up: Coastal Carolina took the title, downing HPU 3-1. Coastal then lost at Duke in the NCAA First Round.
Volleyball -- another tight battle through the season played its way into the Big South Championship, and the tournament had its own plot twists--this time favoring the Panthers in the final. High Point stunned top seed Liberty by rapidly sweeping the Flames in the final match. LU may have been exhausted from a five-setter over host Winthrop the night before, but whatever the reason, HPU is the survivor...and the final chapter there has not yet been written, as the Panthers play at Duke (them again?) on Friday to start NCAA play.
Football -- we've mentioned tiebreakers and twists from other sports, but football definitely had its share and then some. With the Big South's first-ever Automatic Qualification entry to the NCAA FCS Playoffs on the line, the whole year came down to the last two games on the last day of the regular season. Stony Brook and Liberty dominated Big South play out of the gate and lasted as undefeated most of the way...but Coastal Carolina found itself mid-season and started an amazing push. The Chants lost to SBU early, seemingly part of the tailor-made set-up for a clash between the Seawolves and the Flames in the end, but everything changed when Coastal Carolina upset Liberty later in the year.
Suddenly a very real possibility existed for a three-way tie at the top among those schools...all would share the regular season title, but who would get the AQ? If Liberty beat Stony Brook, the head-to-head match-ups would only lead in a circle (A beat B beat C beat A, etc.), so no winner...and comparing records against the remaining teams would also not matter, as they all beat everyone else...meaning that the tiebreaker would come down to fewest points allowed in Big South games, a test of relative defensive strength.
So to the final week we go, SBU seemingly holding all the cards--win and in, no ties to break...and even if they lost, they had a cushion of about 40 points in the tiebreaker. Get ready for the playoffs? The answer was a two-part resounding NO. First Coastal obliterated Charleston Southern 70-3 (interestingly enough, only the "3" matters, as it was irrelevant how many points Coastal scored on CSU...the whole point of the defensive tiebreaker was to attempt to avoid running up the score...tiny bit of irony there, as you'll see). In doing that, the Chants actually knocked Liberty out of the running for the AQ just as the Flames began their own game. How? Because LU entered the day four points behind CCU in the tiebreaker and CCU only surrendered three! Unless the Flames figured out how to put SBU in negative numbers, Liberty was already done. For Coastal, the issue became one of hoping for two more things: Liberty winning, and doing so with 42 or more points on the board. And again, all SBU needed was the win--making everything else immaterial. So what happened? Of course, the wild scenario played out--in a game breaking a number of offensive records (both for Liberty and the Big South), the Flames defeated Stony Brook 54-28 -- pandemonium!
Summing up: three teams shared the Big South Conference Football Championship, but when the tiebreakers sorted out the one team receiving the automatic bid, that went to Coastal Carolina. From there, the good news was that CCU got to host the opening game...the bad news was that the Chants fell 17-10 to Western Illinois (who will play next at App. State). Also unfortunate was that Liberty once again was denied an at-large bid to the playoffs. The Flames can claim all or part of four straight Big South titles now, but regrettably no trips to the postseason for all that success.
Okay, so those are the soap operas of the fall, wrapped up for you in one wordy package.
If you hadn't guessed by the mentions above, the fall Sasser Cup leader (standings for all sports) is High Point. HPU has never won the Sasser Cup, but the fall was certainly a good start. Liberty and Coastal (who have each won multiple Sasser Cups over the years) sit in second and third, so watch out, Panthers. That same 1-2-3 order held at the top of the rankings for the men's, women's, and overall standings.
OKAY, time now to ramp up your hoops attention, if you have not done so already.
Enjoy the games, and remember this thought: Thanksgiving should not be the only time for giving thanks, and Christmas should not be the only time for peace on earth and goodwill. Make the most of your holidays, everyone--may they be happy and safe for all. And Happy Hanukkah to those celebrating this week (it came early this year)!
That's all (that's plenty) for today...SHOUT--out!!!
Friday, September 24, 2010
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.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Of Shopping, Streaming, and Scoring
So much going on around here, I almost didn't get the chance to SHOUT about it!
First, let me get the shameless plugs out of the way, because we're all fired up about having a NEW Big South Online Store up and running. This site really does have the most apparel and merchandise for the Conference and its members that you can find in one location anywhere, which explains the excitement.
Anybody can do shirts and hats, but we start there and keep on going: backpacks, jackets, decals, jerseys, pens, umbrellas, etc. All with the logo of your favorite school from the Big South, or the logo of the Conference itself, of course. Many thanks go out to our merchandising partners at Advanced-Online.com for making the new Online Store possible.
Give it a look, do a little browsing, you'll probably find something you like!
Okay, so probably enough about the Big South Store already...let's move right along to the Big South Network and what's shaking for the fall...
Naturally we have the full array of live streaming events you've come to expect from the Big South Network: nearly 200 for the fall sports, with plenty of football, volleyball, and soccer (men's and women's) for everybody.
Beyond that, we'll still bring you the Royal Purple Round-Ups with host Matt Hogue, the weekly football teleconferences, and our guides to what's happening with the BSN.
But new this year, we'll have more specialty programming, with fresh video from our member schools: Big South Coach Camp, with short coaching interviews and insights, including tips from each week's coach on his/her sport...the Big South Super Seven, featuring "the best 7 plays from the last 7 days"--our very own weekly highlight show...and one we're really excited about (and one that's already started)--Big South "Flipped": On Campus.
We armed each of our schools with a Flip Camera and the instructions to find fresh happenings and learn new stories about the events on campus and around the athletic departments of their institutions. We want "Flipped" to take us inside our schools to see what's going on outside the field of play for our student-athletes and coaches. This is one show that could go in a million different directions, and we want to see where it takes us!
Now let's get to the action...the fall season has begun, and although things seems to begin slowly, events will quickly accelerate to full speed.
Right now, women's soccer has most teams just a game or two into the young season, while at the same time, it's been exhibition play for men's soccer and volleyball. Those two sports join women's soccer and get into it for real within the next few days, and then football gets its turn in the spotlight, with PC in the first game for any Big South team this year (9/2 at WFU), and all the others kicking off with the first Saturday of play on 9/4.
If you look to the preseason polls for any guidance, here are the favorites going into the season:
Football -- Liberty
Volleyball -- Coastal Carolina
Men's Soccer -- High Point
Women's Soccer -- Liberty
Of course, those things have a way of changing, but that's where expectations are (according to coaches and media representatives, anyway).
Before I wrap up, a big SHOUT-out to former LU running back Samkon Gado for not only signing recently with the Titans, but then hitting the end zone twice on Monday Night Football for Tennessee in preseason play. Gado is one of about ten former Big South players in camps right now hoping to hang on through the cuts to make their respective NFL squads (familiar names like Thigpen, Teal, Simpson, Simpkins, and more). Good luck to you all!
It's "go" time now, so look for SHOUT to ramp back up for another big season ahead...and that's SHOUT--out.
Friday, May 28, 2010
A Study in Contrast and the Sun Delay
Sorry for not having time to fire off a SHOUT yesterday from the Baseball Championship, but I'm back today with more to share...
Gotta share quick stories on the two games I worked Thursday on the Big South Network, doing play-by-play for the video stream. Talk about two fascinating and different ballgames...whew...
The 3pm game was Coastal Carolina vs. Radford, and it was all about the bats.
I've seen a lot of baseball in my day, but the 2nd inning for the Coastal hitters was an amazing sight. CCU sent 14 batters to the plate, and ten men scored! Felt like we saw one of everything in that frame, and we may well have. The hitting display was impressive, and quite demonstrative of how talented and aggressive the Chanticleers can be. They built a big lead but kept the foot on the throttle, expanding it as wide as they could for as long as they could.
So 10-0 after two and RU facing elimination...game over early?
Hardly.
No quit in the Highlanders: grand slam in the fourth, another four runs in the fifth, and surprise: it's 10-8 and a whole new ballgame for the final few innings.
In the end, it was 11-9 Coastal...the Chants stay unbeaten (both in the tourney and in overall Conference play this season), while the Highlanders hit the high road back home. Radford showed a lot of heart after getting blitzed up front in that game, but the hole was just too deep. A three-hour ballgame, it had 20 runs and 26 hits combined (making the result not unlike Radford's first game, a 10-8 loss to High Point: 18 runs and 24 hits).
So clear the decks and prep the field, it's time for the nightcap with Liberty and High Point...
Total opposite of the last game--no runs at all in the first five innings. The pitching showdown would theoretically been a quick game as well, but with so many deep counts, walks, hit batters, and the like, the game was methodical but not efficient time-wise. That said, the hits were scattered and the pitchers were largely in control of the game...which made the first run that much more ironic: bases-loaded hit-by-pitch, HPU runner comes in to score. Oh my.... So the 1-0 score lasts from the 6th to the 9th, and then the game changes again. The Panthers got the sought-after insurance run in the top of the frame, taking a 2-0 lead in a game with runs at a dear premium (as opposed to the scoring-in-bunches approach seen just before).
You wouldn't believe it...but here we are, bottom of the 9th--strikeout, 0-2 count on the second batter--single, HBP, HBP, and the BASES ARE LOADED, one out, bottom of the ninth...and PASSED BALL, run scores--two runners in scoring position with a one-run game!
Every minute that passed seemed to ramp up the drama another notch.
But the next two batters would go down--game over, 2-1 final, High Point defeats Liberty.
So two games with fascinating scripts, but different stories from start to finish.
That's baseball, folks.
One sidebar before I head back to the ballpark for today's action...
I've often said with regards to baseball (after several years working in the minor leagues), "Every time I think I've seen one of everything, I see something else." Well, Thursday night was one of those times. Early in the game, I witnessed my first "sun delay."
Yeah, you read it...not a rain delay or anything like that, but a sun delay.
You see, The Winthrop Ballpark is a wonderful facility, really it is...but it's not facing the right way, not in any traditional baseball sense, anyway. The setting sun shoots right into the face of the place--right at the hitters, the fans, the press box, etc. To counteract that problem, a huge wall was built in center field years ago as a super-sized batter's eye. Okay, but yesterday the angle was just right, and the sun hit the press box windows just right, causing a reflective glare that was fully in the face of a pitcher standing on the mound. And so we waited...for several minutes...while the sun slowly set...changing the angle in question...and moving the reflective glare away from the mound...eventually disappearing altogether. Strange but true--the story of the sun delay.
Back to the ballpark for me--enjoy the games, and have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend everyone--get some family time and start your summer, catch the races, do what you do, but above all, remember what the holiday commemorates, okay? And with that in mind, a quick note for Saturday:
In honor of Memorial Day Weekend, all Military veterans and active members of the armed forces and national guard will be admitted free to Saturday's 1:00pm Big South Baseball Championship game at The Winthrop Ballpark. Immediate/accompanying family members will be admitted to the game for $5 each. Sound good, don't you think? Stay safe, everybody...SHOUT--out!!!
Monday, March 8, 2010
Making the Championship Turn
The Big South Conference awards 18 championships (17 of which involve tournaments or meets to determine a winner, with football being settled only on a regular season basis).
At this point in the year, half of those titles have been earned, with half to go.
The most recent of these, of course, is the 2010 Men's Basketball Championship won by Winthrop on Saturday. It was an intense, exciting game--not one with great shooting, but one won with dogged defense and determination by the Eagles. Doing so against Coastal on the Chanticleers' home court was nothing short of a sweet bonus for the WU faithful in this clash of longtime rivals.
So, at this midpoint, how has the title allotment gone so far?
By sport (and chronologically):
Men's Cross Country -- Liberty
Women's Cross Country -- Liberty
Women's Soccer -- High Point
Men's Soccer -- Winthrop
Volleyball -- Coastal Carolina
Football -- Liberty / Stony Brook (tie)
Men's Indoor Track -- Liberty
Women's Indoor Track -- Liberty
Men's Basketball -- Winthrop
By school:
Liberty -- 4.5
Winthrop -- 2
High Point -- 1
Coastal -- 1
(Stony Brook, associate member -- 0.5)
In short, half of the titles have been won--and half of those belong to the Flames, thanks mainly to the strength of the student-athletes in the running sports and related field events. Liberty has the men's/women's double in cross country and indoor track...and they'll be aiming for outdoor track next month.
Meanwhile, LU will also contend for the women's basketball crown, to be awarded this upcoming weekend...but the Flames know their dominance in this sport has a clear challenger in the form of Gardner-Webb. The Lady Bulldogs won the Big South Regular Season Championship for women's hoops, and they want to follow with a tourney title and NCAA berth.
There will be some interesting stories to follow in this week's Advance Auto Parts Big South Women's Basketball Championship from High Point. We encourage you to keep up with the events through all the Big South online outlets...but for now, this is SHOUT--out...
Monday, February 1, 2010
Hooptastic, the Motion Picture
Annnnnnnnnnnd ACTION!
You have to love the basketball season and its plots, subplots, red herrings, MacGuffins, and Easter eggs...sorry, got too far down the movie/pop culture track there--what I'm trying to say is this:
There's a main storyline, smaller tales woven through that, occasionally misleading displays, things that keep us moving along, and some hidden gems along the way.
In men's basketball, Coastal Carolina (9-2) still holds the lead over the pack by two games. The Chanticleers dropped a low-scoring one at Winthrop they'd surely like to have back, but they're still motoring right along. Right behind CCU is the 7-4 trio of Radford, UNC Asheville, and Winthrop...the same record, but different dynamics: RU started on fire and has cooled, Asheville began frozen in ice but now burns white hot, and Winthrop has been hot and cold, but now has a greater hold on consistency, which was elusive in the early goings this year. Of these teams, it's certainly notable that this weekend saw Asheville upset Radford and Winthrop down Coastal (both home games for the winners).
At the moment, those are the top four seeds, and for the men's side, the top four set represents the host group for the tournament's first round. That puts a lot at stake on being in that party--with the best seat obviously being at number one, where you have control over playing at home throughout the championship. Coastal and Radford have been playing inside that club for some time, although the Highlanders now find themselves in a battle to hold position. The other slots have been handed around among several teams now...they'll just have to work hard to be sure they've got a chair when the music stops.
Which leads us to the "outside-looking-in" squads: Liberty, right behind at 6-4, High Point at 6-5, who has gone from would-be leader into a painful skid, and Charleston Southern at 5-6, who has likewise fallen from a surge toward the top. Gardner-Webb, VMI, and PC round out the Conference standings, and are unlikely to contend for the coveted home slots at this point, much less the overall lead.
So, why the top-to-bottom review? My dear friends, it is January no longer. For men's basketball, February is the hero-maker and deal-breaker month. Sure, it's all about "March Madness"--that's become the measuring stick of every team's success. But if that is the test, this is the studying: in other words, if you're going to succeed then, you have to position yourself now.And the jockeying for position should be nothing short of amazing. Enjoy the show.
So...what about the ladies, you might ask?
I haven't forgotten them--Gardner-Webb has been the team with the longest hold on the top spot this season, but the Lady Bulldogs are not alone in the quest to be the best. While GWU is 7-1, Liberty is right there at 6-1, with HPU making its presence felt at 6-2. Those three should be in a fight to the finish, making for some potentially epic match-ups in the Big South Championship in March. In last year's event, these teams were three of the Conference's final four (along with Winthrop). GWU upset HPU by two and nearly did the same to LU in the final game--a one-point win for the Flames. At the moment, you have to feel as if history is repeating itself, at least in terms of setting these teams up for collisions in big games ahead...and that's a sequel I think most of us would be happy to watch.
Speaking of watching, if you haven't peeked in on our YouTube channel lately, drop on by to screen our great image spots featuring our theme of Developing Leaders Through Athletics!
And finally, on to some old business...two things I wanted to post last week before I got distracted (ooh, something shiny!)...first, the most recent report on the Big South at Rush the Court...http://rushthecourt.net/2010/01/23/checking-in-on-the-big-south-9/
...plus, the most recent Big South Network Guide...
And there you go--welcome to February, folks...the month that asks us to be as productive in 28 days as we would have been in 31! SHOUT--out...
Friday, January 22, 2010
Of Basketball & Bare Feet
Where does the time go? Been a week since the last SHOUT...yikes (!), sorry for the delay.
We'll keep this one relatively brief, but there are indeed two main and interrelated topics as alluded to in the title of today's post.
First, the basketball itself--the men's side has gotten very interesting, with the competition both expanding (in number of teams) and contracting (in separation of games). Coastal Carolina dropped a game to Radford, but still holds the lead at 7-1 and has matched the Big South's best overall mark through 20 games at 17-3. Radford is indeed right behind, still a game back at 6-2 thanks to a loss at CSU. Behind those two is the other pair from last weekend's battle royale: Charleston Southern and High Point, each at 5-3. Now we warned you about the Buccaneers being in a position to charge, and CSU closed the deal, beating both RU and HPU. The flip side of that is High Point, dropping two games and falling back of the leaders.
The next group is a trio of 4-4 teams: UNC Asheville, Winthrop, and Liberty. Of those squads, we say now watch out for Asheville, as the Bulldogs have been on the rise. Their losses were close ones and their wins have come recently and in bunches. With Coach Eddie Biedenbach now the all-time leader in regular season Big South victories, it looks like this edition of UNCA has indeed learned about winning. Winthrop and Liberty haven't proven reliable this year, but they can hang with anyone when they're "on"...
The remaining teams need help if they are to climb up from the bottom. GWU holds onto a glimmer of hope at 3-5, but PC and VMI are each 1-7...and while PC is sitting out its last year of transition-based ineligibility, the Keydets are at risk of dropping from the 2-seed to OUT of the Conference Tournament in the span of a year.
For the women, the leader club has grown by one again, with Gardner-Webb, High Point, and Radford all 4-1 going into the weekend. GWU seemed to be the team-to-watch first, then HPU pulled alongside, and now RU is in the pack...and don't be surprised that 3-1 Liberty wants to climb right into the mix too! As for the rest...well, the top four squads have 15 wins in Conference play, while the bottom five teams total six Big South wins...nuff said.
For more hoops, check out the Conference site, but okay, it's now time for the "bare feet" part of the program...seriously.
Avid hoops-watchers may have caught on to this already, but some college coaches have been appearing on sidelines without their shoes, or socks, or anything, on their feet. It seems unusual at first, but the key is that it is getting noticed. The whole effort is a campaign on behalf of Samaritan's Feet, a humanitarian relief organization dedicated to acquiring shoes for children around the world who have no shoes to wear. A five-dollar donation is the equivalent of a pair of shoes--which might be all it takes to stave off some diseases and infections, might be what is needed to get involved in sports otherwise difficult or impossible to play, or might be the difference in taking both literal and figurative steps forward in life. We take it for granted--they do not have that luxury.
In the Big South Conference, the initiative is "Barefoot for Bare Feet," and runs selectively through men's and women's games from January 23rd to March 1st, starting with both Charleston Southern coaches (Barclay Radebaugh and Julie Goodenough) in their home games tomorrow (1/23). At the Barefoot games, members of the Big South Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) will collect new shoes (athletic shoes only) and monetary donations. In addition, school-specific donation-by-text numbers are available.
We encourage everyone to help Samaritan's Feet with their initiatives. And yes, as you might expect, Haiti is a target for this aid (they were part of the SF programs even before the devastating earthquakes that deepened the troubles there).
And so with that, we return to the games themselves by offering this week's Big South Network Guide:
That's all I've got today--make it a great weekend, folks....and that's SHOUT--out!!!
Friday, January 15, 2010
Game On!
Just throwing in a quick word as we move through the basketball schedule from Thursday's men's match-ups to Saturday's men's and women's showdowns...
Radford 5-1
High Pt. 4-2
Liberty 4-2
CSU 4-3
GWU at VMI, 1pm
HPU at CCU, 2pm
UNCA at LU, 7pm
WU at PC, 7pm
RU at CSU, 7:30pm
UNCA at RU, 3pm
WU at HPU, 4pm
PC at LU, 4pm
GWU at CSU, 5pm
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Chants Encounters
Those who have followed Big South basketball for years know that while Coastal Carolina has had competitive seasons, 
the Chanticleers haven't won any regular-season or tournament championships in Conference since Tony Dunkin (pictured) was collecting an unmatched FOUR Player of the Year Awards (and if you are unfamiliar with his work, check out his "Best of the Best" salute).
All of which makes the CCU run more jaw-dropping by the game. Coastal has now surged to 16-2 with 12 consecutive wins and a Big South mark of 6-0. Coach Cliff Ellis has gotten his team in a winning rhythm, and all parties involved have to be satisfied with Joseph Harris (pictured) making the decision to return to Conway for his final year of eligibility.
So regardless of what happens this weekend, the performance is spectacular and the records set will be tough to match. Nonetheless, with excitement over the Thursday-Saturday double feature at Kimbel Arena at a fever pitch, the pressure may be on to win as a statement: an assertion as to which team belongs in the first place position.THURSDAY: Radford at Coastal Carolina, 7pm (available on the Big South Network).
The Radford Highlanders were the preseason favorites (as recounted in our last post)
and the easy plug-in choice by national publications for early "bracketology" as defending champions with returning talent. Like CCU, RU opened this season 4-0 in the Big South, setting up a potential clash of titans for this week's game. Since that start, the Chants have notched two more wins, while Radford took a punch at High Point to hit 4-1. If any luster is off of the match-up with that loss, don't tell the campus by the shore--everyone there is pumped for this game, and rightfully so. SATURDAY: High Point at Coastal Carolina, 2pm (also Big South Network).
Right on the heels of that showdown comes one just as challenging, if not more so because it requires avoiding any letdown coming off of the first game: High Point visits Coastal. Due to Radford's extra attention (for example, this recent write-up on "Big Art" Parakhouski for SI.com), HPU may be slipping under the radar for the casual fan outside of High Point, NC. Don't be fooled--the Panthers are not going away. They are also 4-1 in Conference and dealt the Highlanders their only loss.
Meanwhile, hoops fans, I offer this suggestion: keep an eye on Charleston Southern, just in case. CSU is a seemingly average 3-3 at the moment, but the Bucs are the other team in this travel partner set-up: they will also play High Point and Radford in the next few days (HPU 7:30pm Thurs., RU 7:30pm Sat.), so how they fare could play a big role in which teams hold the upper spots--and in what order--going into next week.
That's enough of a SHOUT for today--enjoy the many games out there for ALL our Big South teams (try to get out and support your favorites in person if you can)!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Ballers, No Bawlers
Okay, so Monday I wrote a little bit about the teams on top in men's and women's basketball...the men's teams cited won't have a beef with me from that, because they won their games, but on the women's side, things took quite a turn. Now I'm offering some thoughts on Thursday afternoon and the men are at it again tonight--no jinxes here, and I'll explain in a minute, but let's get going...
As I write this, Coastal Carolina and UNC Asheville are playing an afternoon game at the Justice Center. Yes, that was originally slated to be an evening game, just like the other tip-offs coming up at 7pm tonight, but weather concerns for the Asheville region bumped the game up in advance of the winter precipitation threat. That being said, the weather isn't the only thing cold out there, since the two teams kept scores in the single digits for a good while into the game--we'll just have to hope the results warm up well past the temperatures.
Here's the deal at the moment for Big South men's basketball--the top three teams all notched wins again back on Monday, putting Coastal Carolina and Radford each at 4-0, with High Point just back at 3-1. Interestingly enough, as the Chants put their ten-game winning streak and unblemished Conference mark on the line in today's pre-snow matinee, RU and HPU are both sitting out this date--eight of ten teams in action, but not those two, so there may be some subtle shifts in the leader board depending on the CCU outcome. Next, ALL ten teams play Saturday, including a match-up that has Radford AT High Point, which could be a doozie.
So if you like streaks (and who doesn't?), not only do you have Coastal's ten-game overall and four-game Big South runs at stake (do you know the final yet? still the first half for me)--you also have HPU's 6-0 home mark this season flying headlong into RU's 11-game Conference road game winning streak. The painful flipside to those positive rolls: GWU and PC, losers of ten and nine games overall, respectively.
And I promised women's hoops--with a whoops! At the start of the week, I lavished praise on GWU's Lady Bulldogs for their tremendous start and forecast a bright future for them...so naturally, they laid an egg that same night. Radford came to Boiling Springs with a record of 1-10 on the year, but left with a surprising upset win over the formerly 12-2 Gardner-Webb squad, thanks in part to a start that saw GWU miss its first 11 shots from the field...ouch.
Sports being such a fragile creature at times, I feared for cries of a jinx about our humble blog's remarks...but GWU Coach Rick Reeves settled the matter with some perfectly blunt coach-speak via Twitter:
@CoachRickReeves
We got the big head and thought we just had to show up to win and we got taught a hard lesson. I believe we will respond well next game!
Sounds like the final word on that to me.
In any case, HPU's women have now won five straight and own the only 2-0 mark in the Big South...but then again, not all teams have even logged a pair of Conference games yet, so too early to start drawing any serious conclusions.
I also promised I'd go over the Big South Conference Fall Sportsmanship Awards in this entry, so without further ado, here are the honors announced over the holidays, as voted on by their peers within the Conference in each listed sport:
Football:........................VMI, Charleston Southern
Volleyball:......................Liberty
Men's Soccer:...................UNC Asheville
Women's Soccer:..............Presbyterian College
Women's Cross Country:......VMI
Men's Cross Country:...........Liberty
A huge SHOUT-out to all the student-athletes on these teams, representing the ideals of sportsmanship and leading by example! The Big South will again award an Institutional Sportsmanship Award at the conclusion of the 2009-10 competitions. VMI has won the overall award all four years of its existence.
We interrupt this blog to bring you our weekly peek at the upcoming events on the Big South Network:
One more SHOUT-out before we're through...to colleague and friend Everett Hutto, who has made the switch from UNC Asheville to Winthrop (his alma mater). The jobs at either end are both media-related, but he will have a role concentrated more on the video and new media aspects of the athletic department and less on the traditional sports information side. The WU fans will benefit from his work, to be sure, just as the Asheville fans will miss his efforts on their behalf. Good luck, Everett!
Monday, January 4, 2010
2010: The Future Arrives
HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you Big South fans, friends, family, and followers!
It's 2010, people. I betray my age for a moment by saying that the date sounds like we've really landed in the ever-mythical "future" now. For those a generation ahead of me, the millennium always sounded like the horizon--changing to 2000 was unthinkable (heck, all the checks, forms, and even the computers themselves stopped at 19__). The centerpiece of that philosophy was the novel and film "2001: A Space Odyssey." Years later, that date didn't seem quite as far off, and the horizon was stretched to 2010--as the book "2010: Odyssey Two" and its movie counterpart "2010: The Year We Make Contact" took us to this new date...although author Arthur C. Clarke was not able to make that next milestone, having passed in 2008. Turns out we're not booking moon passages, making interplanetary ventures, or establishing the validity of extraterrestrial intelligence...but I digress...
The valid point buried in that tangent is that the calendar has flipped and, like it or not, it's time for rushing headlong into the events of a new year and decade (don't start debating on that one--I know the math says it's 2001-2010, but popular culture says it's 2000-2009, so be it, we're going with the masses).
Painting with a very broad brush here, the last decade of Big South hoops belonged largely to Winthrop's men (7 of 10 Tournaments) and Liberty's women (9 of 10). While both schools will still bring highly competitive teams to the court, it just doesn't feel likely that either one will have another decade of similar dominance in them for the 10's (pronounce it 'teens' and get used to it, especially since no one ever agreed on what to call the last decade). I actually don't expect to see that level of dominance from ANY member institution for that matter, and that's a GOOD thing. Although it's easily argued that a powerhouse squad makes a name for itself and its conference in a way that reverberates nationally, there's not a clear candidate for that role out there right now. So rather than bemoan the lack of a standard-bearer at the moment, let's sit back and enjoy the battle to earn that status going forward...it should be fun.
Okay, so with that said, what teams have been asserting themselves and where are the battle lines being drawn?
For the men, the early race appears to be between Radford and Coastal Carolina. No one can really be surprised by the Highlanders, since they were preseason favorites, but the Chanticleers have announced themselves in an unprecedented way. At 13-2 going into tonight's home game against PC, Coastal has established its best-ever season start, including an active nine-game winning streak--and no team approaches that win-loss record right now (all others with 7 or fewer victories as I write these words). RU hasn't been on quite the same roll, playing along an uneven path overall (including some tough high-caliber opposition), but in Conference play, Radford and CCU have matching 3-0 marks...not too shabby. Lurking right behind, you'll find Liberty and High Point at 2-1 in the Big South.
For the women, we're talking first and foremost about Gardner-Webb. The Lady Bulldogs have run their way to 12-2 overall, including a win in the first shot at a Big South opponent this season (Liberty). Since the women's teams are only one game into Big South play, it's a little early to draw any conclusions (even premature ones), but we'll briefly point out that the next best overall record belongs to Coastal, at 9-4...could they be brewing a double-challenge in Conway? Again, High Point and Liberty will certainly be among those challenging that notion.
Gotta run, sorry about the past-future rambles (just one more--isn't next year supposed to be the year of SkyNet from Terminator?)...more coming this week on other topics (including the Big South Sportsmanship Awards)....I'll be back...SHOUT--out!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Running Out of 2009 (but not done yet)
Well, it is that time of year when we start reflecting a bit on the calendar pages gone by and roping things in for lists and comparisons. Don't worry, we won't overdo things in this space, but there are a few items to touch upon in that light... (oh, and this week's Big South Network Guide is toward the bottom of the post).
First off, the world of "New Media"...when does the "new" wear off, anyway? It's starting to feel a little like "alternative music"--you know, it actually was an alternative to mainstream once upon a time, and then it joined the mainstream and just became a music genre. Seems to me that new media is just media now, but we need some sort of label, so there you go. After all, tape recorders and fax machines were once new media--but have now gone through regular media and out the other side into old media, yes? But I digress...
Anyway, this blog will turn two years old at the end of February 2010, making it a hoary old veteran (hey, that's nearly a triple redundancy--I'll call it poetic license) of the new media landscape, where most things are measured in months, not years. In 2009, we saw the Big South add its YouTube channel to the mix, soon to be followed in rapid succession by the Conference Twitter feed and Facebook Fan page.
Those entities will all reach the anniversary of their respective beginnings in the next three months, and in the meantime they've become just as much a part of the Big South as anything else we do here.The tale of the tape for our outlets (as of 11am 12/17/09):
YouTube.com/BigSouthSports ... 2,137 channel views, 14,896 total video upload views, 24 subscribers (69 videos available)
Twitter.com/BigSouthSports ... 454 followers (1,190 tweets/updates)
Big South Facebook Fan Page ... 220 fans
And that's all from nothing, folks--one year ago I could've written an entry in this blog, but none of that other stuff existed for us yet (cue the Dylan song*). No, we're not exactly sailing up the "trending topics" list, but we are increasing our level of contact with fans and friends, and that is a very good thing going forward.
Speaking of which, we've been asking questions via those lines of communication befitting the year-end theme of this post...time to share some of the answers with you.
Our social network family was asked to help with intriguing Big South Christmas gifts, as in "what special/creative present would you wish for a Big South player/coach/team, etc.?"
Here's what we've seen so far:
Brandon: a purple suit for Scott Cherry (first-year HPU MBB coach)
Larry: safety and a quick return home for those Keydets who will soon be going off in harm's way... (we second that one for sure)
Kimberly: a new coach for the Winthrop women's basketball team (hmmm...risking the 'naughty' list, Kimberly--considering that's not a vacant job)
Tim: the entire 2009 HS All-American football squad to commit to Coastal Carolina (that's creative, all right--perhaps a little ambitious, but why not aim high)
On the heels of those Christmas wishes, we asked for your Big South Athlete of the CALENDAR year 2009 -- not just the current academic year, but from January 1-present day. The responses haven't flowed as fast yet, but here's what we've seen:
Paul Carmany
I'll have to think about the coach, but for me the Big South Athlete of the Year is a no-brainer: Sam Chelanga of Liberty. How many other Big South athletes have won a NCAA Division I national championship, set an all-time collegiate record and were ranked No. 1 in the world in their event/sport at some point during this calendar year?!
Good point...Chelanga MUST be on the short list of candidates (oh, and no one can cry bias for Paul's LU connection, as ALL the submissions obviously reflect some favoritism).
Monday, December 7, 2009
What Did We Learn?
