[PAmedic]

our shot at redeeming ourselves after getting humiliated at their place 88-75.

They are 8-17 but are improving and have won 4 of their last 5, and would love nothing better than to sweep us this year.

Evidently the guy to watch out for is Maurice Sumter, a 6-5, 180 junior G/F averaging 15 pts/game.

[PAmedic]

for a team/program transitioning to D1 athletics, they haven't backed down in their scheduling. Their next game is UVa, followed by JMU, and they've already faced Richmond, the mighty #4 Villanova Wildcats , K-State and Nebraska.

ok they're not all powerhouses but at least they're not playing Cincinnati Christian.

[PAmedic]

http://newsadvance.com/servlet/Satellit ... th=!sports

Sumter thrives under greater leadership role

By Chris Lang
Lynchburg News & Advance
February 13, 2006

FARMVILLE - Yes, it's as painful as it sounds.
In a season racked with maladies, Longwood's Michael Jefferson hit the mother lode when it comes to excruciating injuries in January when he tore a groin muscle clean from the bone.

Maurice Sumter, a Longwood wing who is Jefferson's roommate and close friend, winced when talking about Jefferson's latest setback; he had already played through sprains of both ankles.

"It looked painful," said Sumter, Longwood's leading scorer. "You could tell by the way he walked. It changed his whole demeanor."

There was no grimace, though, when Sumter was asked to take on a greater leadership and production role within the Lancers team after Jefferson went out for the season. That doesn't surprise Longwood coach Mike Gillian. Sumter said he has made a concerted effort to pick up his game to compensate for Jefferson's lost 12.8 points per game and team-best 39.6 3-point shooting percentage.

Gillian just sees it as a natural extension of Sumter's hard work.

"He clearly is the leader of our team," Gillian said. "He's the vocal leader. He's the guy that pulls everyone together. His effort and performance have been consistent ever since we came back to school. So I don't look at it as 'I see Mike Jefferson isn't going to be playing any more, so let me do more.' He just continued playing the way he was playing. It just so happens that his production has increased."

That unbending will to always get better has Sumter poised to join an elite group of Longwood basketball players. With five points in tonight's game at Liberty, Sumter will become the 15th Lancer to crack the 1,000-point mark for his career.

"It'll mean a lot to me," Sumter said. "I didn't even score 1,000 points in high school. To do it in college would be real nice."

Sumter's blend of rangy athleticism and dogged dedication on defense has helped him become Longwood's most valuable player. He leads the Lancers in scoring at 15.0 ppg and has a team-best 48 steals as a smart team defender.

He doesn't gamble and lunge for steals, instead using his superior awareness and anticipation to clog passing lanes, intercept passes and jumpstart the Lancers' fast break.

"Gambling is false hustle," Gillian said. "You gamble for a steal and you're flying out of bounds and running back in, everybody thinks you're going hard, but you're letting your guy compromise the defense.

"Mo has just done a good job learning and executing the fundamentals in all areas. He's a multi-dimensional player. The talent is there, the effort is there, and he's learned to perform at that level."

Sumter will face a major test tonight. He'll be one of the players asked to guard Liberty's high-scoring guard Larry Blair.

Since Jefferson was injured, Sumter's scoring numbers have predictably risen. He scored 19 points against North Carolina A&T, poured in 28 in a one-point win over IPFW and posted 23 in an overtime win against Hartford.

Those are performances befitting of a team captain, a player that Gillian has had his eye on since he was a senior at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria. Gillian was the only coach to give Sumter much of a chance.

Gillian, a former George Mason assistant who took on the challenge of leading Longwood's transition from Division II to Division I, knew of Sumter from watching him play AAU ball in northern Virginia. Sumter didn't really blossom into a big-time player until his senior year at T.C. Williams, when he averaged 18.4 points and 6.3 rebounds per game as a senior. He garnered all-state and all-Northern Region honors, and the Washington Post named him an All-Met player.

Colleges should have been all over him. But they weren't. Maybe it was Sumter's relative lack of size (he's 6-foot-5, but only weighs about 180), but Division I schools mostly ignored him.

Gillian didn't. What he saw was a hard-working, skilled player who could be a cornerstone in Longwood's transition. The courting process took only about two weeks, and Sumter came to Farmville along with Jefferson, Leland Beale and Husein Pistoljevic to form Gillian's first recruiting class.

"That really flattered me," Sumter said. "It made me want to come and work hard for (Gillian) and the program."

Still, Sumter is Longwood's fourth youngest player, a product of an ambitious mother who wanted her son to start kindergarten when he was four. Sumter just turned 20 in November, but he hasn't exactly struggled with being the younger man on the roster. As a seven-year-old growing up in Norfolk, he played against kids two years older than him. He started his senior year at T.C. Williams as a 16-year-old. He's gotten used to being the youngest player in his class on any team he's been on.

Sumter takes pride in helping the Lancers make the Division I transition. At 7-17, Longwood has shown tremendous improvement from last year when the Lancers went 1-31. Many of Longwood's goals are still intact for the season's final six games, including cracking double digits in victories.

Achieving that goal would give the Lancers' transition some credibility.

"I just want to go out above .500," Sumter said. "I want to do my best to help this program go in the right direction."

[LUconn]

I know they beat us before but I've been paying attention to them since then and they are really not good. With the way this season is going, I wouldn't be too surprised if we lost but I will be very embarrassed if we do. They lost to Savannah St.

[ATrain]

How the heck does in anyone in DI lose to Savannah State? If we lose, I will become an advocate for their admission into the Big South...AFTER we get that 6th football member.

[TDDance234]

Mix it up tonight, why not?

PG - Holland
SG - Blair
SF - Hubbard
PF - Bigby
C - Monroe

What could it hurt?

[Chris Lang]

No way you take Porter out of the lineup in favor of Bigby, who doesn't work hard and can't play defense and doesn't rebound well. That'd be a pretty bad message to send.

[Chris Lang]

Oh, and when your team is 5-18 with two DI wins by a combined five points and have an RPI in the bottom seven in the nation, you have NO RIGHT to call out other teams. Especially one that ran you off the floor in their gym. C'mon A-Train.

[PAmedic]

I'm not a pessamist- but this Longwood team is not THAT bad. really

[The True Flamer]

A-Train help me out here.... Aren't you supposedly some kinda writter for the school newspaper... well make up your mind if you are going to be a Flames fan or a writter... you can't just call teams out and say that they suck... you need to learn the rules of journalism...I hope you talk to the Longwood Coach afterwards and tell him how bad they suck and then ask Coach D how embaressed he is if they loose tonight......Feel free to come back on this thread and post there answers I would love to hear there responses...

[LUconn]

I thought he worked at the bookstore.

[bigsmooth]

amen true flamer and chris lang. longwood beat us...if we had won down there we could talk a little bit of smack. we really cannot run any smack to anyone right now. longwood has 5 DI wins, we have 2. college RPI says longwood is 317, we are 324. longwood has played very respectable against teams like villanova and VCU, and have been competitive. no room for smack! lets hope we play hard and win, and give longwood their due.

[LUconn]

I don't care what any of you say, this is a lineup I'd like to see. They don't have to start:

PG - Hubbard
SG - Blair
SF - Smith
PF - Monroe
C - Stewart

Sure it's unorthodox but I think it's the best fit for all of those players. It'd allow Russ to do what he does best. Maybe give him a taste of success. While I think this lineup could be great, as it stands right now it's filled with some of our most underacheiving players.

[Sly Fox]

Come on, True Flamer. Don't you think its time you joined the ranks of the registered?

As for the the Lncers, we really could use a victory for many reasons. Not only have they been few & far between this season but I don't want to give those boys over in Farmville in leverage in their Big South aspirations.

[TIMSCAR20]

LU Conn we have seen that lineup you speak of. In fact 4 of the 5 you mentioned are starters. You took Rell out and put in Doug. One thing this team has done well in my mind is play Liberty Defense (for the most part). They have held teams in the low 60's and high 50's (Birmingham, Radford and Chas So for example). Obviously the issue all year has been points. If you take Rell out of the lineup for long periods of time I can tell you that the scoring of the other team would probably go up significantly. No offense to Doug because he is one of my favorite guys to ever wear a Liberty Uniform (He is a great kid) but Rell gives you more at the defensive end. Rell may go down in history as the most under appreciated Liberty player ever. As far as talking smack, I rarely do unless I am playing Madden (because I can more than back it up most of the time) but I would definitely not talk smack as an LU fan right now. We should not be looking down our nose to anybody out there. Thankfully our players and coaches and media know that but I was really addressing us as fans. But A Train, you are still young and are learning from good people (Lang, FSN etc.) on how to conduct yourself as a media member. Good to see you at press row btw! I guess you are moving up in the world which means that feature on Flames Television can only be around the corner correct?

[LUconn]

I know we may have those 4 or 5 guys on the floor but we've never seen Russ at the 4 that I've ever noticed. I'd much rather have Rell in than Stewart but I needed somebody taller to play at the 5 so I went with him instead.

[WinthropEagleFan]

Coastal Carolina is proving that you don't need to have a true center or any height to win games...Their starting lineup lately has been 6'5" Moses Sonko, 6'4" Joseph Harris, 6'3" Pele Paelay, 6'3" Jack Leasure, and 5'9" Colin Stevens....I'm not saying a similar lineup would work for LU, but the Chants have been giving people (especially Winthrop) fits with that lineup...

[TIMSCAR20]

LUConn, I catch your meaning now. I didn't realize you were playing Russ at the 4. Truthfully I like him at the 4 too. I think I said it on the air the other night that he seems to look more comfortable shooting the baseline jumper than he is with his back to the basket. WEF Coastal's small lineup works for them well it seems. They still have tough guys in there to rebound like Sonko and Paeley. Liberty had gone small at times too with Rell Porter and Bigby in the game at the same time both at 6-6 with 3 perimeter players.

[thesportscritic]

A-Train help me out here.... Aren't you supposedly some kinda writter for the school newspaper... well make up your mind if you are going to be a Flames fan or a writter... you can't just call teams out and say that they suck... you need to learn the rules of journalism...I hope you talk to the Longwood Coach afterwards and tell him how bad they suck and then ask Coach D how embaressed he is if they loose tonight......Feel free to come back on this thread and post there answers I would love to hear there responses...

What is wrong with being a fan? He attends the school and writes for the LU Champion. He has a right to be entitled to his own opinion.

[TDDance234]

Ok, I'm here in the Vines 30 minutes before the game and the #1 Fan isn't in his chair, I don't know what to do with myself.

[bigsmooth]

has anyone has trouble with the webcast?? i am unable to get it, so i have to trade in SCAR for jerry edwards.

[Sly Fox]

Yeah, the video stream isn't working tonight.

[Sly Fox]

We really need to close the gap before the half.

[Sly Fox]

We trail 36-30 at the half despite 50% shooting.

[A.G.]

Flames have the lead with 1132 to play--up by two

Blair with 16 points, so far--10 this half.