[LUinPA]

This years team made me want to watch... That hasn't been the case for the last many years! I look forward to the future!

[flamehunter]

Tough end to an unexpected season. Future is bright and hopefully this loss will only make the guys more hungry. And thanks to Anthony Fields for your role in this transition season. Great article about him by Damien in the N&A today.

[kingaling42]

So, will RMK call a timeout with 1 minute left...??

Coach of the year ladies & gentlemen..

Absolutely he was! He got 13 wins out of that team. Are you serious?!? That is an amazing coaching job!

10 D1 wins all of which were in conference only- granted that was 6 D1 wins better than last year but when you really look at it, it's not as impressive as you might think.. grain of salt, to each his own. Very biased but I thought McDevitt did a better job all year long is all.

[ballah09]

not even upset. they made huge strides this year.

they played like a bunch of freshmen and sophomores today. acting like they never seen a press and the 1-3-1. missing bunnies. air balls. etc.

next year with another year under the strength and condition plus more added skill in Baxter, Gardner, and Baremore. Plus the added skills development from some of guys should take like we've seen from Maxwell. should be a top 3 team, up there with UNCA and Winthrop.

[libertyfan4life]

We lose 49-80. Thud.

Has Liberty ever lost in a BSC Post-Season Playoff Game by a wider margin than today's 31 point drubbing?

[olldflame]

Ashville actually ended up with more turnovers than we did. It was awful shooting (6-29 from 3) and rebounding that ended up doing is in. They outrebounded is by 15.

[FlameFan11]

Coach of the year ladies & gentlemen..[/quote]

10 D1 wins all of which were in conference only- granted that was 6 D1 wins better than last year but when you really look at it, it's not as impressive as you might think.. grain of salt, to each his own. Very biased but I thought McDevitt did a better job all year long is all.[/quote]

Great season by UNCA and Coach McDevitt. Will be shocked if they don't win the BSC tourney. They are a problem for years to come with their young talent.

However, if you were taking 5 guys to start a team right now between UNCA and Liberty rosters, which 5 would you take? Pretty safe to say the majority would take 4/5 or 5/5 UNCA guys. That is my point. Based on roster talent, there is no question which team overachieved between the two this season.

[kingaling42]

Coach of the year ladies & gentlemen..

10 D1 wins all of which were in conference only- granted that was 6 D1 wins better than last year but when you really look at it, it's not as impressive as you might think.. grain of salt, to each his own. Very biased but I thought McDevitt did a better job all year long is all.

Great season by UNCA and Coach McDevitt. Will be shocked if they don't win the BSC tourney. They are a problem for years to come with their young talent.

However, if you were taking 5 guys to start a team right now between UNCA and Liberty rosters, which 5 would you take? Pretty safe to say the majority would take 4/5 or 5/5 UNCA guys. That is my point. Based on roster talent, there is no question which team overachieved between the two this season.

If you picked at the beginning of the year, you surely wouldn't have picked our 2 freshmen as you have no idea what you're going to get. Andrew Rowsey transfers from UNCA in which the entire offense revolved around him. You have Vannatta, Hughes, Thomas only averaging 7, 6, & 6 points respectively last year, would you have picked them individually- the conference awards don't recognize the TEAM that UNCA has as the individual awards deservedly went to better individuals. So despite the stability of coaching, you still have a tremendous job done by McDevitt as well with far better season results is all I'm saying.

I'm not bashing LU or McKay, I acknowledge and admire the job that it took to go on that 7 game streak, sweeping HP and beating WU & CCU during that run, I simply feel strongly that McDevitt did a better job overall.

COY is fundamentally based on pre-season expectations vs reality which is a fundamentally flawed premise.. the same geniuses that thought Longwood would finish 6th also thought LU would finish last.. so I would argue that voting for anyone based on the ill-formed opinions in the preseason is a flawed consideration when evaluating the performance of a team/coach.

Voters typically don't factor in OOC wins since it's not 'league oriented' but I would argue that UNC Asheville by beating Georgetown, ETSU, Drexel, Loyola-Chicago, Furman, etc improves the entire league's RPI. I think the voting consideration was flawed and certainly the head-head results were decisive. Great season overall, the future is certainly brighter for LU, maybe the geniuses that vote preseason 'awards'/rankings will be better next year.

[Cider Jim]

Stat of the day: for the first time in 4 years, LU did NOT lose 20 games this season. Thank you, Coach McKay. The future is bright for next year!

[ballcoach15]

For whatever the reason we did not come to play. Must have been confused as to game time. UNC-A had better game plan than we did. They are not 31 points better. But that the score. Thankfully future is bright.

[thepostman]

After our win streak the team played tired and even with some time off this team looked exhausted. Missing shots they were making weeks ago. Plus unca just has our number. It always sucks when the season ends but as many have already said the future is very bright.

[olldflame]

If I were a UNCA fan I would no doubt feel the same as kingaling. McDevitt did a great job, and deserved consideratión for COY. I disagree that Rowsey's departure made his job harder. It was a classic case of addition by subtraction and the best thing that could have happened for their team. As much credit as he deserves this year, McDevitt gets the blame IMHO for allowing too much focus on one player the last 2 seasons.

IMHO the hardest and best thing Ritchie did was to clean house before his first game, letting some talented and experienced players go in order to start fresh with a group that was willing to buy in completely to what he was doing. Not sure if we would have won more games this year or not with those guys, but I'm 100% convinced it was the best thing long term.

[kingaling42]

No argument here- Rowsey leaving was definitely the best thing for the UNCA and many of of felt that way upon Rowsey's announcement to leave, versus being bitter/holding pointless grudge..

One question, by the same logic would McKay deserve blame for letting Seth shoot all those shots as a freshman as well though? I think that its hard not to utilize the talent you have on a team/with individuals and hindsight for young coaches is 20-20.

[olldflame]

No argument here- Rowsey leaving was definitely the best thing for the UNCA and many of of felt that way upon Rowsey's announcement to leave, versus being bitter/holding pointless grudge..

One question, by the same logic would McKay deserve blame for letting Seth shoot all those shots as a freshman as well though? I think that its hard not to utilize the talent you have on a team/with individuals and hindsight for young coaches is 20-20.

I don't think it was quite the same. Seth took a lot of shots, but on that team, Smith took almost as many and Ohman jacked up his share as well.

Went back and looked at the stats.
3 pt fg made/attempted 2008-09

Curry. 102/294
Ohman 100/241
Smith. 75/202

[kingaling42]

Which are similar numbers (when you look at FGA/FGM) as Rowsey's freshmen year when there were 2 seniors (Jaron Lane/DJ Cunningham) on the squad.. but UNCA never shoots the volume of 3 pointers like Ritchie's squads tend to so comparing 3 pt attempts as a team isn't the complete offensive picture.. and we obviously can't compare their sophomore stats to one another. I just don't think at the beginning of the year that many UNCA guys are jumping off the page vs how they performed this year and I think between Dylan Smith, Dwayne Sutton, Lovell Cabbil, & Caleb Homesley it's hard to know what you're actually going to get from true freshmen.

At the end of the day both teams improved by 6 D1 wins but the voters went off of preseason expectations which as I stated seems flawed. It seems like rewarding a coach for those same voters not predicting well to start with is all. Again, not taking anything away from what Ritchie did in his own circumstances, it's certainly commendable just not as impressive overall. IMHO I think it's an easier feat when you're coming off of multiple 20-loss seasons and at the bottom of the league with no where to go except up vs when you're coming off a middle of the pack season in comparing the improvement. Otherwise both squads are in great positions going forward, 1 senior contributor each and mostly sophs/freshmen this year carrying the load. Will be fun to watch over the next few years..

[youngflamer]

How sad that our basketball program has fallen so low that some are praising the achievement of winning seven in a row, finishing fifth in a relatively week conference, and not loosing 20 games during the season.

[BJWilliams]

Checkers is that you?

[flameshaw]

How sad that our basketball program has fallen so low that some are praising the achievement of winning seven in a row, finishing fifth in a relatively week conference, and not loosing 20 games during the season.

Layer ran it into the ground for sure. But it appears we are heading down the right path right now. Continuous improvement is the key.

[olldflame]

While some of the things which have been cited as progress , like not losing 20 games, are indeed not much to "write home about" winning 7 conference games in a row is something that doesn't happen that often even in a lot of really good programs. I be!leve Liberty has done it once before.

[thepostman]

How sad that our basketball program has fallen so low that some are praising the achievement of winning seven in a row, finishing fifth in a relatively week conference, and not loosing 20 games during the season.

I agree it is sad it got to the point it did last year but the improvement shown this year prove we are heading in a positive direction.

[Chippy]

Reinforcements are coming. I'm also hoping we get a transfer to bolster the frontline.

[olldflame]

Reinforcements are coming. I'm also hoping we get a transfer to bolster the frontline.

With one schollie left for next year, but no seniors, currently things are tight for 2017 and I doubt we will sign another Freshman this Spring. We could use that schollie for a grad transfer though, and still have it the next year. As the list of graduating players with eligibility looking to transfer starts to grow, I'm pretty sure Ritchie and Co will be on the case, looking for the next Anthony Fields, but probably a bigger version.

[PAFlame]

Kyle Ohman... Never thought I would hear that name in a while, dude had the ego the size od Texas and never backed it up either

[olldflame]

Kyle Ohman... Never thought I would hear that name in a while, dude had the ego the size od Texas and never backed it up either

I'll concede the point on his ego, but his Junior year he made 100 3s at over a 40% clip and was a huge part of a team that won 23 games, including a win over UVA, when he scored 27. As a senior, he was thrust into the role of being the number one option in Layer's discombobulated offense and he forced the issue toó much.

[Cider Jim]

Ohman had talent as a walk-on, but he was no SCAR.