[thesportscritic]

ORU will be an interesting game for us. They will be pumped to beat another large christain school.

ORU will beat the crap out of us. They are way better than us. I will probably not be cheering for anyone in this game.

[Purple Haize]

This is a pretty soft schedule on the whole. But that may not be a bad thing to help the team get some cohesiveness. If we finish a game or two over .500 and 3rd (4th?) in the conference and make it to the tournament semi's I would say you could not call this year a failure.

[thesportscritic]

I am not as concerned with this team losing to a division II in the pre-season as some. I think they will be fine vs those teams.

losing to a d2 team will be an absolute embarrasment to the program.

[TIMSCAR20]

Have to disagree with you on that one critic. It depends on who it is. When we played as is the case now, VA Union would be a lot of division 1 schools. A lot of them. We get way too caught up with what level a guy or team is affiliated with. Believe me in this day and age there is so much talent out there that division II programs can put a division 1 caliber team on the floor. Like I said, pre-season is not the end of the world but I would rather win those games to send a message to the students and community that this team is better.

[thesportscritic]

losing to the d2 school will only show how far the program has fallen plain and simple. no excuses

[bigsmooth]

gotta disagree SCAR. so if winthrop lost to a DII that would not be an embarrassment? i know, you can't compare winthrop to liberty, but not that long ago LU was an up and coming mid-major program. a perennial losing D1 team, no not an embarrassment, but if we did, yes it is IMHO.

[TIMSCAR20]

I qualified the statement to say it depends on which division II team. Are we as short sited as to think that no divison II team should ever beat a division 1 simply because of their classification? There are some II's that are way better than some 1's not on a whole of course and I don't follow II like I used to but that is true. I don't ever want to lose to anyone but I wouldn't be embarrassed if we lost to a divison II team. Now the ones on the schedule this year should be beat. Winthrop almost lost to a non division 1 last year btw. Sean Golden's team came in and nearly stole one. Does that diminish what Winthrop is or where they stand in terms of being a mid major? Not to me. Even if they had lost I would just say that Golden's team had a good game plan and he has some players on his squad. I would say that the major schools should never lose to a division II like you boys up at UVA did when they lost to Chaminade years ago. But at Liberty's level I stand by what I say. It depends on the school. I would like to see VCU or someone go around the corner and play VA Union in the Arthur Ashe Center and see if they survive. My money would be on Union in a given year.

[bigsmooth]

pont taken. it does depend on the team.....VUU is solid, but i would have to take VCU or richmond. not saying it would be a blowout, im sure it would be a very close game. BTW nice dig on the hoos! the biggest upset ever in college hoops!

[TIMSCAR20]

I knew you would like that one Smoothie I don't live in a black and white world in men's hoops. I guess that comes from coaching and playing. Growing up in Philly we used to disrespect anyone that didn't come from Philly streets or NY street ball. The reality is that they play some mean ball in Indiana, Florida, Texas and other places. I learned that it is not necessarily who you are affiliated with that makes you or breaks you. In today's game there are really good players everywhere. I am convinced that the top 5 or 6 Big South players could play at most schools and be affective. Bradshaw, Martin, Blair, Brew etc could play in the ACC or Big East or Big 12 and do well. People assume because they chose HPU or Liberty that they must not be able to play or else they would be at Duke. That was true 30 years ago but not today. Even then there were top players that chose schools on a lesser competition level because of location or their major....By the way Alaska Anchorage beat a division 1 last year I believe in the Alaska Shootout but more folks will remember Chaminade over UVA 20 plus years ago it seems. I can't even remember who AA beat last season.

[Purple Haize]

I know Houghton USED to be an NAIA school Is that still the case? As for Lipscomb, anyone ELSE remeber Belmont (Obviously NOT you SCAR since you HAD access to a GREAT scouting report but judging by the amount of uncontested lay ups did not utilize it! ) They are VERy capable of beating us and would do our program great harm in the PR aspect. VERY difficult to get beat by teams you have never heard of (Speaking of the general public)

[jcmanson]

We lost to Lipscomb last year. No reason to think that will be an easy W this year.

[TIMSCAR20]

It is one thing to use the scouting report, it is a whole other thing to actually execute it The Back door seemed to be open all night though if I remember correctly. Even with Aluma they still gave us a scare and we had a great team at Liberty that year and I mean Great! Ask Killen em and others and they will tell ya.

[jmdickens]

The reason why Liberty needs to win is because people are getting tired of losing....wasn't it jerry who said "If it's christian, it should be better."




Liberty better win, there could be a few riots

[A.G.]

The reason why Liberty needs to win is because people are getting tired of losing....wasn't it jerry who said "If it's christian, it should be better."
Liberty better win, there could be a few riots

That is no reason to sell your soul just for the W. That is why I am a big fan of the Faith in the Furnace program.

[LU'sbestmanager]

we did lose to lipscomb last year. they were good. eddie ard is a really good shooter, driver, and he has a great body. he's pretty tough to stop. he was voted pre season player of the year. but i think on our home court with brew we take this one. but that's just me

[jcmanson]

I think we win that game as well, but it won't be easy.

[WinthropEagleFan]

gotta disagree SCAR. so if winthrop lost to a DII that would not be an embarrassment? i know, you can't compare winthrop to liberty, but not that long ago LU was an up and coming mid-major program. a perennial losing D1 team, no not an embarrassment, but if we did, yes it is IMHO.

Back in the '01-'02 season, Winthrop lost to Queens College in an exhibition game. Queens had a nationally ranked D-II program at the time and Winthrop was coming off three straight Big South Championships. WU ended up winning the conference again that year (finishing tied for first w/ UNCA in the regular season and winning the conference tourney), so an exhibition loss didn't kill the season (in fact, WU almost lost their first real game of the year against a D-II team, having to go into OT to beat Lander by 2). Were we proud of that loss? Of course not, but I think everyone realized that it was an exhibition game against a strong squad, so it wasn't as if people stopped going to games because of it...

[SuperJon]

Nevermind, I almost gave Winthrop a compliment. I thought better of it though.

[TIMSCAR20]

Why is it that when I make a good point it takes a Winthrop guy like WEF or Realist to back me up Concrete example about exhibition games and losing to a good DII not being the end of the world. That said, I hope we kick the crap out of all the nons-division I's

[WinthropEagleFan]

In fact, Coach Marshall has gone away from scheduling exhibition games in recent years. Either you end up completely overmatching your opponent and not really finding out much about your team, or you end up having a close call or a loss to a non-D1 school...Winthrop has opted to play the closed scrimmages against Division I teams (I know in recent years they have played Davidson, Furman, etc.) in place of the exhibitions. The only bad thing about those scrimmages is that fans can't attend.

[thesportscritic]

Why is it that when I make a good point it takes a Winthrop guy like WEF or Realist to back me up Concrete example about exhibition games and losing to a good DII not being the end of the world. That said, I hope we kick the crap out of all the nons-division I's

i could answer that one. i tell it like it is SCAR.

[LU'sbestmanager]

didnt WU just get by against a d-2 school last year?

by the way, coach D has led larry franklin to the lord, and brew is growing inhis faith.

[TIMSCAR20]

I read that somewhere Critic But really I tell it like it is as well. I think my point was proven though by WEF with his examples about Winthrop when they lost exhibitions and reg season games but still went on to have a great year.

[thesportscritic]

I read that somewhere Critic But really I tell it like it is as well. I think my point was proven though by WEF with his examples about Winthrop when they lost exhibitions and reg season games but still went on to have a great year.

except i am more blunt

[SuperJon]

Winthrop playing a D2 close isn't a big deal, especially at the beginning of the season because of how good they've been recently. Fans and coaches can look at it and say it was the other team's Super Bowl or that they just came out flat. Coming off the abso-freakin-lutely horrible year last year, if this team plays a D2 close, it's not a case of "Oh, we're better than that" but rather a case of, "Oh no, here we go again" in the eyes of the fans, students, and alumni.