A Sea Of Red

Here is the Tourney Schedule at the HTC Center in Conway:

• First Round - Tuesday, March 4
  Game 1 – No. 8 UNC Asheville vs. No. 9 Radford, 11:00am
  Game 2 – No. 7 Presbyterian vs. No. 10 Longwood, 1:00pm
  Game 3 – No. 6 Coastal Carolina vs. No. 11 Charleston Southern, 6:00pm
  
  Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 6
  Game 4 – Winner GM 1 vs. #1 High Point, 12:00pm
  Game 5 – #4 Campbell vs. #5 Gardner-Webb, 2:00pm
  Game 6 – Winner GM 2 vs, #2 Liberty, 6:00pm
  Game 7 – Winner GM 3 vs. #3 Winthrop, 8:00pm
  
  Semifinals - Saturday, March 8
  Game 8 – Winner GM 4 vs. Winner GM 5, 6:00pm – ESPN3.com
  Game 9 – Winner GM 6 vs. Winner GM 7, 8:00pm – ESPN3.com
  
  Finals - Sunday, March 9
  Game 10 – Winner GM 8 vs. Winner GM 9, 5:00pm – ESPN3.com

This one's up for grabs. WU, HPU and us are the 3 best teams and will return all starters except McClanhan for WU next year. HPU will get their PG back next year (ACL) and WU will get Kilpatrick back from her injury that kept her out of the starting lineup. It will be a 3 horse race for the next few years. I'm pulling for the Flames at the beach to retain the championship for LU.

Agreed that the top three are the clear favorites. But all have proven they can lose games they have no business losing. This is the most wide open tournament that I can remember on the ladies side.

This is one year where the championship experience of the players from last year's team will be tested. everyone knows that to get to the dance you're gonna have to go through Liberty. that's been the case since 1997 and only twice has it actually happened and I believe only one coach currently in the conference has done so. that said, they will get everyone's best shot this week so no one can be asleep at the wheel.

Ashley Rininger needs to be congratulated for double honors this year - 1st team All-conference and scholoar athlete.

Chippy wrote:Ashley Rininger needs to be congratulated for double honors this year - 1st team All-conference and scholoar athlete.

Ok

Congrats indeed to Ashley!

We matchup with Presbyterian on Thursday.

We will win by >20. Presbyterian wants their season to be over

I'm just curious if our girls believe they can win it like years past

Purple Haize wrote:We will win by >20. Presbyterian wants their season to be over

I'm just curious if our girls believe they can win it like years past

Then why didn't they just lose today? This one scares me - they played us tough at home and beat us at their place.

flamehunter wrote:

Purple Haize wrote:We will win by >20. Presbyterian wants their season to be over

I'm just curious if our girls believe they can win it like years past

Then why didn't they just lose today? This one scares me - they played us tough at home and beat us at their place.

Because Longwood is a dumpster fire

If we can keep our bigs out of foul trouble and keep our turnovers relatively low (like less than 15), we can win that game and comfortably. If you look at the two matchups, in the win in Lynchburg, our bigs (Rininger, Adams and Kearney) shot a combined 9-17 from the floor and 10-14 from the line. In the loss down in Clinton, Rininger and Adams combined to shoot 1-10 from the floor.

Purple Haize wrote:We will win by >20. Presbyterian wants their season to be over

I'm just curious if our girls believe they can win it like years past

Odd statement..PC has won 7 of their last 8 w/ wins over LU, HPU, and CU in that stretch. One of the hotter teams in the league.

Extremely well-coached team peaking at just the right time, that believes it is capable of winning this game because they have before. They'll be ready.

Ok. So maybe I was wrong.

I had them mentally confused with another team. I sit corrected

LU is getting rolling as well, and add to that the championship experience and I think LU gets this one. As I said above, if we can keep the turnovers relatively low and can get better performance from Ashley, Katelyn and Catherine (and Audrey as well), I think the only team that can stop us is HPU (provided they don't stop themselves)

I'm now feeling the upset

They have the best match up 2-3 zone in the BSC by far it seems to morph into a 1-3-1 at times. Fisher gets the most from the limited talent they have by playing a stifling zone and not giving up easy looks. Keyonna Allen is very active around the boards and outplayed our bigs in both games and she's listed at 6'. We need to start fast so as to not give them any ideas of an upset and keep the TOs down. They come in with the confidence that they have already beaten us and barely lost to us at home.

The road to the championship is going to go through the Lady Flames as it has every year since 1997. Only twice has a team actually managed to knock us off in this, the money week for the Big South, and only one of those head coaches is still at the school they were at when they beat us (Rick Reeves, Gardner-Webb). Regular season success doesnt matter now...its all about two words starting today: SURVIVE and ADVANCE. Liberty has done that with great consistency over the years...PC has not. I think that Liberty will be able to use that experience to their advantage. I harp on it I know, but that psychological edge proves invaluable

Liberty has like 12 freshmen and sophomores. Experience kinda goes out the window when you are that young. I think it is more up for grabs than it has been in a long time.

They're Calvinists, they're predestined to lose.

(I love using this line, and yelling it around their fans, and watching very few of them get the joke)

flamehunter wrote:Liberty has like 12 freshmen and sophomores. Experience kinda goes out the window when you are that young. I think it is more up for grabs than it has been in a long time.

Actually LU only has 6 players on the roster this year (all freshmen) who were not on the championship roster last year. All the sophomores who were freshmen last year got that taste of success. Of the remaining players, only Emily Frazier and Catherine Kearney did not play in the Big South tournament (both due to injuries). I do believe that leadership from players like Rininger and Emily Frazier and Reagan Miller and even Jasmine Gardner (who was on the shelf this season) and coach Campbell will be a bigtime help as well. We are going to get everyone's best punch but I still think we will be the last ones standing come Sunday night

Chippy wrote:They have the best match up 2-3 zone in the BSC by far it seems to morph into a 1-3-1 at times. Fisher gets the most from the limited talent they have by playing a stifling zone and not giving up easy looks. Keyonna Allen is very active around the boards and outplayed our bigs in both games and she's listed at 6'. We need to start fast so as to not give them any ideas of an upset and keep the TOs down. They come in with the confidence that they have already beaten us and barely lost to us at home.

THIS. We struggle with these and I'm a huge huge fan of them. I know one team who won 25 games one year playing this and they only had 7 players on the roster

Liberty leads 35-14 at half. JFD leads the way with 8, All-Freshman team members Mickayla Sanders and Simone Brown with 6 and 7 points respectively

Purple Haize wrote:We will win by >20. Presbyterian wants their season to be over

I'm just curious if our girls believe they can win it like years past

Maybe I should have stuck with this