Big South Reset: Turning to December
As the calendar turns to December, we’ve had a few weeks to check out what the Big South looks like thus far this season. So, we thought we’d do a fly over on the league and where everyone stands at this point.
UNC Asheville (5–2): The Bulldogs have been the most solid of Big South teams and have sound wins over comparable mid-major teams and their only losses came against Rhode Island and Vanderbilt. MaCio Teague, Ahmad Thomas, and Kevin Vannatta are the leagues best trio combining for 43 points and 16 rebounds per game.
Liberty (5–2): Despite their 5–2 mark, the jury is still kind of out for Liberty. The Flames beat Wake Forest, but so did Drake and Georgia Southern. Beyond the ACC win, Liberty has taken down pretty sub-par teams in Quinnipiac, Howard, and two non-Division I teams. Upcoming match ups against UNC Greensboro and Georgia State should give us a little more insight into this team.
Winthrop (4–3): On paper, this Eagles team will probably enter Big South play at 6–5 and the team may be the victim of a strange schedule. The opening night loss to Southern Illinois was disappointing and really the only other match up against comparable competition came last night when the Eagles rolled Furman 93–74. A non-D1 and a road trip to Georgia, Alabama State (weird), and VCU remains on the schedule at this point.
Charleston Southern (4–3): Earlier this week Charleston Southern looked like the biggest surprise of the Big South after knocking off Illinois State on the road. But then the turtleneck-less Barclay Radebaugh laid a stinker Tuesday in a home loss to VMI. The record is about where it should be at this point and a home match up looming against Eastern Kentucky is the most interesting game left on the Bucs non-con slate.
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Radford (3–3): Radford is doing Radford things at this part of the season. Their two Division I wins are against a struggling JMU team and an ECU team who just saw their coach resign yesterday. This is probably will continue to be a .500 team heading into conference play, but their trip out west to take on Nevada and San Francisco could be a good measuring stick of who good this team could possibly be.
Campbell (3–4): The Camels were the darling of preseason Big South pundits and thus far they have not lived up to the hype. To be fair, Chris Clemons has been in and out of the lineup, but their schedule is loaded with teams they should be competing with night in and night out. They went 1–2 in their own tournament this past weekend and have match ups with Stetson, ECU, and The Citadel up next. That stretch of mediocre teams will tell us a lot about the Camels, if Clemons continues to play.
Presbyterian (3–5): A new look Blue Hose got a little bit of national notoriety this week with a buzzer beater against UNC Greensboro. I’m not totally sure what to think of this team? Don’t forget, they were 3–4 on December 1 last year and had a win against another SoCon power in Furman. PC lost to VMI badly and has another bad loss in Nicholls State.
Basically, we won’t know much about this team heading into Big South play. PC has five games remaining on their schedule and four of those games are at home against teams ranked towards the bottom of Division I or they are non-Division I competition. We won’t really get a measuring stick for this team until they see Radford to kick off the Big South slate.
High Point (2–4): This is another WTF team. The Panthers blew out William & Mary on opening night and haven’t beat a Division I team since. Sure, they’ve played Charlotte and Pittsburgh pretty tough, but they should have taken care of business against The Citadel at home. Remaining match ups against Wofford, Western Carolina, and Charleston should give us a better idea of where this team is at and if they can contend in the Big South. I think the answer is “yes”.
Longwood (2–5): We all know Longwood’s story with injuries and right now it’s really about whether or not the Lancers can get their core rotation on the floor to start to build some continuity. The measuring stick games for Longwood are VMI and Cornell, but that all depends on who is playing. The rest of the schedule is a tough road swing from Illinois to Top 25 Arizona State and Grand Canyon.
Gardner-Webb (2–6): I’m not sure what Tim Craft was thinking when he put together the Bulldogs schedule this season, but it’s kind of stupid. G-WU is the only other Big South team, beyond Longwood, who has yet to beat a Division I team. The year started with three straight Top 75 match ups, then the Bulldogs couldn’t grab a win in a stretch that included Fairfield, Jacksonville, and Wright State. The remaining schedule features future Big South members USC Upstate and Hampton (o yeah and honorary member Toccoa Falls), those are the games that will mean a little something to G-WU. Beyond that the Bulldogs will play top 50 competition in Auburn and Maryland.
