[g-webb1994]

Ask Realist how it feels for his school to spend millions on a brand new, state-of-the-art classroom building, only to have it catch fire the same day as his team won the conference tourney, only to have the fire get more press coverage in the Charlotte market as opposed to Randy Noapeele and the boys.

[WinthropEagleFan]

Ask Realist how it feels for his school to spend millions on a brand new, state-of-the-art classroom building, only to have it catch fire the same day as his team won the conference tourney, only to have the fire get more press coverage in the Charlotte market as opposed to Randy Noapeele and the boys.

Wow..When did Gardner-Webb fans start throwing punches? Is the school administration still fixing GPAs to keep athletes eligible over there?

Don't worry g-webb1994, the building will be repaired back to mint condition by next year and WU will be winning another conference tournament.

[g-webb1994]

Ask Realist how it feels for his school to spend millions on a brand new, state-of-the-art classroom building, only to have it catch fire the same day as his team won the conference tourney, only to have the fire get more press coverage in the Charlotte market as opposed to Randy Noapeele and the boys.

Wow..When did Gardner-Webb fans start throwing punches? Is the school administration still fixing GPAs to keep athletes eligible over there?

The answer is no, but I'm sure it is going on at Chowan if you are interested. Also, I have family that work at Winthrop...I wouldn't be throwing stones about academic fraud around when you have Greg Marshall's history of bullying faculty around to fall back on.....

[Realist]

G-W has fans?

I guess they wouldn't know about tournament coverage in the paper though.....have they ever even been.

You guys just aren't very intelligent. You only insult yourselves when you insult Winthrop----we've owned you for over a decade.

[ballah09]

[LUnpretty11]

I'd rather us not show up for a joke game, and not get embarrassed, than show up to an embarrassing game, and get even more embarrassed. We didn't lose face. You all got trashed in a joke game. Therefore, you have a reason to , us... Not AS much

please...i would love to get the opportunity to play in this game...we got embarassed worse on national tv earlier this year....i know you are just trying to make yourself feel better about our own season but in turn you are just making yourself look just as bad as realist...

most on this board would love to have the success wu has had...

That was low. Really really low. Comparing me to him...? All I'm saying is it hurts a lot lot lot more losing (esp. a blowout game) on tv, than not being in one at all. Because then I get hopes and possible expectations that we may do something with the opportunity, and those get dashed, smashed, and destroyed. Whereas, not being in the game to begin with, doesn't hurt any hopes or dreams.
I know we are awful on tv. It's horrible, I'm not denying that.
Also, I don't care what the NCAA says, you aren't in the tournament until you are in the bracket among the 64. The play-in game is a joke. I know most agree, but even if it wasn't WU, I would say the same thing. I've believed that every since.... ever.

[SuperJon]

I would've loved to be blown out tonight in the NCAA Tournament.

[LUnpretty11]

Not me. Maybe that's my pride, but I hate losing, especially on tv, especially being blown out. Now if we would have won the BSC and been a 15 or 16 seed playing a first round game, I'm fine with that... we'd be expected to be blown out.... But a blow out loss in a play-in game... sorry, I wouldn't want that.

[SuperJon]

I would've loved to finish third in conference.

I would've loved to beat my rival on their home floor to go to the NCAA Tournament.

I would've loved to get blown out in the Opening Round/Play-In Game.

We have a young team. Getting that experience would've been huge. Getting that extra week and a half of practice time would've been great.

Winthrop loses two guys that were worth anything. This experience will make their younger players that much better going into next year.

You play every game to win, but there are times when you have to look back and be proud of what you accomplished. Winthrop started out the season terrible and rebounded with an NCAA Tournament appearance. I'd take it without thinking twice about it.

[g-webb1994]

I'm not taking anything away from Winthrop, just sick of seeing Realist do nothing but flame on here and add absolutely nothing of consequence to any debate. It only takes one royal jerk to make your school look bad.

Looking ahead to next fall, do you make WU preseason first in conference? More than likely, although I believe the polling will be alot closer than last fall, when everyone was giving the title to Radford on a silver platter. I'd say:

1. WU
2. CCU
3. LU
4. UNCA
5. PC
6. RU
7. HPU
8. VMI
9. CSU
10. G-W

I love looking to next year, even if it is WAY early to do so....I'm really excited about having a new coach in place for the first time in 15 years, hope springs eternal...it had better losing at least 7 seniors and who knows what else off of our roster with the change.

Now a good topic for debate would be the implementation of a rule that the Atlantic Sun had when G-W played there, which was that no school could schedule more than two games in a season against opponents that were not D-1 level. Meaning no Houghtons, Limestones, Covenants, Methodists, Montreats, Bartons, Roanokes, etc. Having a rule like that in place would help to begin to raise the conference RPI. If the biggies can have things like the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, why can't KK have some foresight to create a Big South/SOCON or Big South/CAA or even Big South/MEAC Challenge?

[SuperJon]

Now a good topic for debate would be the implementation of a rule that the Atlantic Sun had when G-W played there, which was that no school could schedule more than two games in a season against opponents that were not D-1 level. Meaning no Houghtons, Limestones, Covenants, Methodists, Montreats, Bartons, Roanokes, etc. Having a rule like that in place would help to begin to raise the conference RPI.

I've been wanting that for years. The conference would never do that though.

[ATrain]

If the biggies can have things like the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, why can't KK have some foresight to create a Big South/SOCON or Big South/CAA or even Big South/MEAC Challenge?

We've been wanting this for years as well, but then look at the initials of the conference commish.

[olldflame]

With all this Big South talk I'm surprised not much has been said about the elephant in the room. WU was not supposed to be in the dance this year. CCU was not supposed to win the regular season and go to the NIT. There was supposed to be one dominant team this year with everyone else fighting over the scraps.

They were defending champions.
They had a 2 time POY and the best post player in the history of the conference.
They had 3 of the best 5 or 6 bigs in the conference.
They had a senior 4 year starter running the point.
They had all the parts that pointed toward a team which should have brought INCREASED credibility to our conference.

They didn't get it done, and the Big South at the moment is pretty much a joke.

[Cider Jim]

Olldflame, that's also a team that we beat on their home court--without Ohman.

I just wonder if Greg Marshall would have had this Winthrop team better prepared. He would have at least looked better on camera in his $1,000 suits (that is, until he turned purple).

[olldflame]

Yeah CJ, the fact that we beat them at Dedmon and came close to sweeping them is sort of an indicator of how poorly RU played relative to their level of talent and experience.

We also gave WU a much more competitive game in the tourney that RU did, despite the fact it was an away game as opposed to a neutral site.

Who knows what kind of Eastern European or Middle Eastern rabbit Ali Ton and company may pull out of their hat, but they lose more than anyone, and you have to think they'll be down next year at least.

[4everfsu]

I watched the game last night and was impressed with the coaching and playing of UAPB. I was impressed with UAPB defense.
Not bad for a team that started 0-11. I think they played a very hard schedule at the beginning of the year and took their lumps but it payed off in the long run. They won their conference championship and the opening game in the NCAA tournament.

[WinthropEagleFan]

Not me. Maybe that's my pride, but I hate losing, especially on tv, especially being blown out. Now if we would have won the BSC and been a 15 or 16 seed playing a first round game, I'm fine with that... we'd be expected to be blown out.... But a blow out loss in a play-in game... sorry, I wouldn't want that.

Last night definitely wasn't fun as a WU fan, but it was 100 times more fun than last season when RU was in the dance. The fun of winning the conference tournament, the build-up to Selection Sunday, and the anticipation going into an NCAA tourney game (yes, even the opening round game) is much better than watching another conference team doing it, even if the result last night was not good. A bad NCAA loss is much easier to swallow than any Big South Tournament loss.

[olldflame]

Pine Bluff's early schedule was absolutely killer. If you look at it game by game, winning any one of them would have been an upset. Reminded me a bit of how UNCA has scheduled sometimes, but they usually sprinkle a few D2 games in the mix to give them a chance to remember what it feels like to win. Pine Bluff didn't, and it is to their credit that they were able to keep grinding and turn things around when they got into winnable games in conference.

[jcmanson]

I love how everyone keeps pointing out that UAPB started 0-11. Have you looked at their schedule? It's likely that all 11 teams in the Big South would be 0-11 after that schedule.

@ Colorado
@ Denver
@ UTEP
@ Akron
@ Arizona State
@ Michigan
@ Oklahoma St
@ Georgia Tech
@ Missouri
@ Kansas State
@ Oregon

That is 5 NCAA tourney teams that went a combined 229-127 on the season. 7 of those teams won 20+ games.

No shame in being 0-11 during that stretch.

[LUnpretty11]

I would've loved to finish third in conference.

I would've loved to beat my rival on their home floor to go to the NCAA Tournament.

I would've loved to get blown out in the Opening Round/Play-In Game.

We have a young team. Getting that experience would've been huge. Getting that extra week and a half of practice time would've been great.

Winthrop loses two guys that were worth anything. This experience will make their younger players that much better going into next year.

You play every game to win, but there are times when you have to look back and be proud of what you accomplished. Winthrop started out the season terrible and rebounded with an NCAA Tournament appearance. I'd take it without thinking twice about it.

That's fair. I'll agree with that. Didn't really look at it from that point of view.

[BJWilliams]

I was watching last night and really it looked like APB was playing WInthrop's style a lot better than Winthrop was, and when they were missing shots in bunches, APB was able to capitalize. There is certainly a good chance for WU to be right at or VERY close (although itd be interesting to see who would vote them second or lower) to the top of the conference going into next year. Itll be a very competitive race I think between three teams: WU, LU and CCU.

[WinthropEagleFan]

I was watching last night and really it looked like APB was playing WInthrop's style a lot better than Winthrop was, and when they were missing shots in bunches, APB was able to capitalize. There is certainly a good chance for WU to be right at or VERY close (although itd be interesting to see who would vote them second or lower) to the top of the conference going into next year. Itll be a very competitive race I think between three teams: WU, LU and CCU.

WU and UAPB do have very similar styles, and UAPB simply out-executed WU last night...made more shots and did better on the glass.

[jcmanson]

Why would the conference race be close between LU, CCU, and WU? We were 0-5 against those two teams this year. No reason why anyone can say we'd be competing with them for the conference championship.

[Rocketfan]

Why would the conference race be close between LU, CCU, and WU? We were 0-5 against those two teams this year. No reason why anyone can say we'd be competing with them for the conference championship.

They stole the koolaid you used to drink Manson....

[horrez]

Now a good topic for debate would be the implementation of a rule that the Atlantic Sun had when G-W played there, which was that no school could schedule more than two games in a season against opponents that were not D-1 level. Meaning no Houghtons, Limestones, Covenants, Methodists, Montreats, Bartons, Roanokes, etc. Having a rule like that in place would help to begin to raise the conference RPI. If the biggies can have things like the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, why can't KK have some foresight to create a Big South/SOCON or Big South/CAA or even Big South/MEAC Challenge?

Things might have changed, but I didn't think non-D-1 schools counted in the RPI rankings. So I'm not sure how dropping them will help the conference RPI. Having said that, I would be fine with a limit of 2 per season. In a perfect world, I'd say don't schedule any of them... but I understand that some schools need them to fill out a home schedule. I've always been a fan of a Big South/SOCON Challenge, though I don't know how much the SOCON would be into that. I haven't thought about any other conference but right now I would take any conference. If anything, it would give schools some help when it comes to scheduling OOC games.