[ToTheLeft]

HPU beat Radford tonight. That should settle the "who is the class of the league" argument. It's CCU, then everyone else.

RU 62
CCU 52
Game played in Conway.

Way to cherry pick.

Like I said last night, I still can't say RU is better than CCU. RU on any given night can beat anyone, obviously, but I just think CCU is the better team. I might be wrong, tho. Either way, those two teams are the best in the league.

[knvb141]

HPU beat Radford tonight. That should settle the "who is the class of the league" argument. It's CCU, then everyone else.

RU 62
CCU 52
Game played in Conway.

Way to cherry pick.

Like I said last night, I still can't say RU is better than CCU. RU on any given night can beat anyone, obviously, but I just think CCU is the better team. I might be wrong, tho. Either way, those two teams are the best in the league.

RU matches up very well with Coastal. I'm not worried about the Coastal and Winthrop's of the world as much as a Liberty or CSU who can hit 3's in bunches.

[ToTheLeft]

RU 62
CCU 52
Game played in Conway.

Way to cherry pick.

Like I said last night, I still can't say RU is better than CCU. RU on any given night can beat anyone, obviously, but I just think CCU is the better team. I might be wrong, tho. Either way, those two teams are the best in the league.

RU matches up very well with Coastal. I'm not worried about the Coastal and Winthrop's of the world as much as a Liberty or CSU who can hit 3's in bunches.

Which is why UNCA is still scary, despite their record, and the Keydets are ALWAYS scary.

[TIMSCAR20]

Winning the regular season is important. Since the conference changed the format 5 years ago the #1 seed and host of the tournament has won every year except the year Winthrop beat UNCA on their floor 2 seasons ago.

[g-webb1994]

Doesn't Coastal play in a small building that only holds around 1,200 or so? If so, then if they won the regular season title, tix might be hard to come by for the tourney games there.

Of course, I don't have to worry about such a dilemma. Perhaps you folks may have to deal with such a possibility this year.

[SuperJon]

Doesn't Coastal play in a small building that only holds around 1,200 or so? If so, then if they won the regular season title, tix might be hard to come by for the tourney games there.

Of course, I don't have to worry about such a dilemma. Perhaps you folks may have to deal with such a possibility this year.

It seats barely 1000. It may actually be smaller than the Justice Center.

[Chris Lang]

I wonder if Coastal would rent out the MB Convention Center if they host the tourney ... having that thing in Kimbel would be a logistical nightmare. Then again, we've already dealt with that several times at UNCA...

[olldflame]

And UNCA had the option of moving it to the 4000 seat Ashville Civic Center, but chose not to because they believed they had a bigger home court advantage at the Justice.

[kingaling42]

Doesn't Coastal play in a small building that only holds around 1,200 or so? If so, then if they won the regular season title, tix might be hard to come by for the tourney games there.

Of course, I don't have to worry about such a dilemma. Perhaps you folks may have to deal with such a possibility this year.

It seats barely 1000. It may actually be smaller than the Justice Center.

Both CCU (Kimbel holds 1039) & CSU (Fieldhouse holds 881) are smaller than the JC (holds 1100 officially).. we won't have to worry about that next year...

Olldflame- if you're going to throw barbs at least get your facts straight.. Avl CC will hold 7200-7600 depending on the setup.. it was still the best decision for UNCA- get over it already!!

[SuperJon]

Standings after tonight:

Coastal 7-1
Radford 5-2
CSU 5-3
High Point 4-3
Winthrop 4-3
Liberty 4-3
UNCA 3-4
GWU 2-5
VMI 1-6
PC 1-6

[jcmanson]

We really need to split one of these next 2 road games, although I don't think we will.

[olldflame]

No barbs being thrown here Kingaling. UNCA had every right to make that decision. I don't think anyone here (probably including you) cares a lick whether the civic center holds 4000 or 7000. The point is that it's a lot bigger than the Justice Center. I notice that you didn't question my central point, which was the reason for the decision. I don't know that the chicken coop really gives that much of an edge to CCU, so Coastal may look at it differently if they end up having a similar choice.

[WinthropEagleFan]

No barbs being thrown here Kingaling. UNCA had every right to make that decision. I don't think anyone here (probably including you) cares a lick whether the civic center holds 4000 or 7000. The point is that it's a lot bigger than the Justice Center. I notice that you didn't question my central point, which was the reason for the decision. I don't know that the chicken coop really gives that much of an edge to CCU, so Coastal may look at it differently if they end up having a similar choice.

You don't think Kimbel is an edge for Coastal? Maybe it is just Winthrop, but I've always found that a very tough place to play on the road. The fans are right on the court, it gets loud, and Coastal seems to play well in there. I'm not sure what they would decide to do if they win the regular season, but I do think Kimbel is a good home court edge for them.

[olldflame]

I've been to see LU play at Kimble probably 8 or 9 or times over the years WEF. It's been a few years since I made the trip and I'm looking forward to going there (and Charleston) again next month if all goes as planned. I'm sure we lost more of those games than we won, but I never left the chicken coop with the impression that the atmosphere there had made a big difference in the outcome.

[SuperJon]

It's not always the atmosphere. It's the backdrop. It's the feeling of people being right on you when you dribble down the court. When you go from an arena like ours where the fans are 8-10 feet off of the floor (if not more) to one where the fans are two feet off the floor, even if they're just sitting there it makes you feel cramped.

As for you going to the Coastal game, I hope you already have tickets. Their games are sold out for the rest of the year.

[olldflame]

Thanks for the heads up on the tickets SJ. No, I don't have mine yet. Guess I need to do some checking around to see if I can come up with something.

I agree about it being more than just the atmosphere. As far as backdrop is concerned, while both CSU and CCU have ridiculously small gyms, IMHO the balcony at UNCA puts it in another category. I've only been there a couple of times, but the word that comes to mind is "claustrophobic".

[kingaling42]

No barbs being thrown here Kingaling. UNCA had every right to make that decision. I don't think anyone here (probably including you) cares a lick whether the civic center holds 4000 or 7000. The point is that it's a lot bigger than the Justice Center. I notice that you didn't question my central point, which was the reason for the decision. I don't know that the chicken coop really gives that much of an edge to CCU, so Coastal may look at it differently if they end up having a similar choice.

I didn't question your point because I've posted ad nauseum about the decision here in the past- I really didn't feel I had to continue to do so almost 2 years later- but if you must know...

If you think that the home team's players of whom practice, workout, & take hundreds of thousands of shots in their home gym doesn't feel like it's an advantage then you're out of your mind!!! It may be mental to some degree but much of athletics is, in fact, mental. Confidence is king so switching to a venue that the player's never practice & hadn't played in the CC for over 2 years prior doesn't instill the same feeling just to be able to accommodate a few more fans so that they feel better.. like I said before- get over it!! They EARNED that right to make that choice..

The rules have been set for ALL teams- everyone knows that there are about 4-5 smaller home gyms in the conference (depending on your definition) while there are others with bigger facilities.. perhaps those programs who are always whining about having to go to a smaller gym to play the tourney should do something about it & win some more games during the year to help their fans attend- shouldn't the problem lie there instead of some schools facilities or their choice to play games wherever they EARNED the right to play??

[jcmanson]

Here's my predictions for the final standings:
RU 15-3
CCU 15-3
CSU 10-8
WU 10-8
UNCA 10-8
LU 9-9
HPU 9-9
G-W 5-13
VMI 5-13
PC 2-16

[ToTheLeft]

We have more home than away games left. I can't see us going 4-5.

[Schfourteenteen]

We have more home than away games left. I can't see us going 4-5.

I agree, but we dont hold home court the way we have. That being said, our home schedule has 2 should wins, 1 winnable game and 2 games with top teams.

This is how I see it:

GW(Road), Presby(Home) and VMI(Home) = should win
Winthrop(Home), UNCA(Road), Radford(Home), HP(Home), CSU(Road) all could be W's(or L's)
I dont see us beating Coastal at their place, but wierder things at happened. We just won in Deadmon 2 years in a row.

2-1 in the should win games
3-2 in the iffy games
0-1 vs Coastal

5-4 sounds reasonable to me.

[g-webb1994]

Here's my predictions for the final standings:
RU 15-3
CCU 15-3
CSU 10-8
WU 10-8
UNCA 10-8
LU 9-9
HPU 9-9
G-W 5-13
VMI 5-13
PC 2-16

Just curious, where do you see G-W pulling out two more wins?

we have

RU
HP
@ CCU
@ CSU
VMI
LU
@ WU
@ PC
@ UNC-A

We won't win another on the road. We struggled to beat PC here in OT, and had to come from double digits down in the last ten minutes to beat CSU here. We shot 50% and beat VMI in Lexington.

We may beat VMI here for the season sweep, and get the #8 seed as a result. Note I wrote may....I fully expect us to tank starting with a royal butt-whipping courtesy of Radford Thursday evening here. It won't surprise me to see G-W not win another game this season, although we might luck up and draw Elon in the Bracketbuster game here, and might win that one. Knowing our luck however, we'll draw College of Charleston or Old Dominion here and get waxed instead.

[TheLouder]

Our next five games are very winnable in my opinion. Should be an exciting finish to the season.

[jcmanson]

I had G-W beating VMI and LU.

[UNCA Alum]

We are playing very well right now. But that can change in an instant. Should be an interesting second half.

Coastal is my least favorite place to play in the Big South. Arena is always either too hot or too cold. Rims are extremely tight and I swear the goals are 10'2" high. And they play with a crappy ball. Or at least did back in the day.

Liberty and VMI are the best "shooter" gyms in the conference, in my opinion.

[olldflame]

Just a week ago after the embarrasment in High Point this would have been hard to believe, but if we can take care of business against Winthrop next Thursday, the Radford game Saturday will be for second place. Realist's protestations aside, we came very close to beating WU in Rock Hill, and I think we are playing better ball now. The Flames are starting to heat up.