This Week in the Atlantic Sun

There is a really good women's game coming up this week: Kennesaw State at ETSU. KSU is 5-2 in conference, 10-9 overall. East Tennessee is 6-1, 10-10.

Kennesaw State is led by Brittney Henderson, who is averaging 13 points and 9 boards fr the season. Greteya Kelley has also done well in conference play, averaging 14 points a night in the A-Sun.

ETSU counters with two solid guards in Siarre Evans and Michelle DeVault, both double-digit scorers and solid rebounders and defenders. Leticia Belcher's post play has improved dramatically in conference play; in seven starts, her efficiency rate is up around 14, one of the best in the conference.

This match-up will be the classic cncflict between tempo and defense. ETSU likes to run and shoot a lot of 3's. Kennesaw makes its living creating turnovers and playing well in the half-court. Kennesaw's 22 steals helped them beat Lipscomb last week despite going 0-7 on 3's.

The game could come down to who shoots free throws better. ETSU shoots 71% as a team, while KSU is a hair under 65%. Given how they've been playing lately, I like ETSU -- especially at home -- but Kennesaw has the horsepower to give them a good game.

The other game on the women's side that looks to be close is Stetson @ Lipscomb. Neither team is in the upper echelon of the conference, but they play comparable styles and are relatively close in talent. If both teams play well, this could be a good game. But if one team lapses -- as both are prone to do at times -- the othe rhas a chance to run away and hide.

Not mchh to wrtie about on the men's side. Kennesaw is at Upstate Firday night in what looks to be the best match-up. But if Kennesaw keeps playing like they did this weekend against the Boulevard, USCU is in trouble. I don't know that Kennesaw has three straight superior performances in them, but we shall see.

A-Sun Week in Review

I've already written about the biggest game of the weekend (ETSU over Jacksonville), so here's a little more

Biggest Surprise, Women -- Stetson over Gardner-Webb. Stetson fell behind 13-2 right off the bat, rallied to take the lead, then trailed by 6 with 5 mintues to go. Lady Hatter Sharnesha Smith then hit a jumper with 2 seconds left to tie. Gardner-Webb then made only 1 of 6 shots in overtime and Stetson wins 71-68. Player of the Game Ayesha Barkley of Stetson led the way for the Lady Hatters, coming off the bench for 21 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 steals.

Biggest Surprise, Men -- Kennesaw State sweeps Nashville. Ronnell Wooten earned every oounce of his A-Sun Player of the Week Award, going for 30 points at Belmont and follwoing that up with 23 more back home against Lipscomb. Wooten hit 11 of 21 3-pointers in 2 games. But to win POW, it took every bit of production to out-distance teammate Shaun Stegall, who had 21 points and 8 boards against Lipscomb after missing a Triple-Double by one assist (18 pts, 10 rebounds, 9 assists) against Belmont. Both the Bruins and the Bisons played pretty well, but KSU was just better both nights.

One note: Lipscomb is now 0-4 in conference games that end in regulation, and 2-1 in OT.

Don Meyer Wins #880

Congratulations to former Lipscomb head coach Don Meyer, who picked up career win #880 this weekend. In his ninth season at Northern State, Meyer is 178-79, 18-4 this year. Coach Meyer won 665 games in 24 years at Lipscomb, one of whcih was for the 1986 NAIA national championship.

Among men's coaches, Don Meyer is now second behind only Bob Knight, who won #900 on January 17th. Pat Summitt of Tennessee holds the overall wins lead with 963 (at last count).

Jeopardy Practice Test Available

For those of you planning to take the Jeopardy on-line test this week, I have prepared a practice version for you.

Check it out here, here, or here.

Good luck.

A-Sun Women's Upset of the Year (So Far)

ETSU 80, Jacksonville 74

What's amazing about this is that the game was in Jacksonville, the Dolphins played pretty well, and ETSU still found a way to win. Michelle DeVault was out of her mind, hitting 6 of 7 three's en route to 20 points, 4 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals. Siarre Evans chipped in 18, and Kelly Turman added 14 off the bench.

Impressively, ETSU basically shut down Regina Omoite, holding her to 10 points on 2 of 7 shooting. The Dolphins tried valiently to pick up the slack, getting big nights from Ashley Williams, Courtney Jackson, and especially Virginia Gregorie (21 points, 7 boards, 4 assists, 4 steals).

But ETSU got ahead early, and Jacksonville just couldn't make enough of a run to retake the lead. Every time the Dolphins got close, ETSU had an answer. On the road.

Well done.

Breaking News

The Ohio Valley Conference has lifted a key membership restriction -- requiring member schools to field a football team.

The Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle reported the story yesterday:

http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080124/SPORTS07/801240343/1006/rss04

The OVC offices are in Nashville. All but 4 of their members are in Tennessee and Kentucky.

Is this a play to get Belmont and Lispcomb out of the A-Sun? Are they making a run at former members ETSU, Evansville, or somebody else?

We shall see. Stay tuned.

I Was Right, For Once

Lipscomb's game with Mercer last night was every bit of the ball game we thought it would be.

Mercer 84, Lipscomb 82. Lipscomb has 3 chances to tie or win in the final 6 seconds. Ard missed a 3. Pfaff missed two free throws (the second one on purpose). Josh Slater got the rebound, but his 3-ball was blocked by Player of the Game Calvin Henry.

Henry was one of 4 Mercer starters in double figures -- 13 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists. Mercer also had 8 players play at least 14 minutes, showing off the depth we discussed yesterday.

Lipscomb also showed some nice depth, too. 9 players played at least 12 minutes, a welcome change of pace from Scott Sanderson's M.O. Jason Hopkins had a nice night, pulling down 8 rebounds in 24 minutes. He only scored 6 points, but he didn't miss a shot all night. Lakroy Daniels played well (as he usually does in games Lipscomb has a chance to win), and Eddie Ard was Eddie Ard.

In other action, Gardner-Webb beat Stetson by 5 (I was right again), Kennesaw got Belmont by 2, and Gulf Coast upset Campbell. Here's hoping the rest of the weekend is this much fun.

Moment of Truth Weekend

Now than conference play is in full swing, there are a couple of nice stories that I fear will come crashing back to Earth this weekend.

Jacksonville -- They're unbeaten in conference so far, including 2 overtime wins, so they'll probably still find themselves in first place come Tuesday morning. But ETSU is coming to town, and the Bucs are strong in the Dolphins weak places. Jacksonville makes its living on 3-point defense, and in the A-Sun, that's as close to a recipe for success as you're going to find. That said, ETSU is the conference's best-shooting team inside the arc. Even on Jacksonville's home court, this match-up plays to ETSU's strengths. Look for the Belmont's and Lipscomb's of the league to take notice.

Stetson -- Their only loss in conference so far is a 3-OT thriller at Jacksonville, and since then they have won 5 straight including a non-conference win over Longwood. That run should end this weekend, as they make the North Carolina trip. Garfield Blair has played well, but the rest of his team doesn't match up well against the deeper GW. Campbell is a lot like Stetson in their make-up, but their top player (Jonathan Rodriguez) is just better than Blair. Sorry, but he is.

The closest match-up this week looks to be Lipscomb at Mercer. If both teams play the way they are capable of, this should be a great match-up. Eddie Ard has risen to the occasion of conference play after struggling in the '07 part of the schedule, and Adnan Hozdic has been a revelation. Mercer is as balanced as ever, and gave league-leader Jacksonville all they wanted before falling by 2 in overtime. They're not real deep, but they're shooting the lights out in conference. Can Mercer's hot shooting continue against one of the league's best defenses? Can Lipscomb force Mercer to defend somebody other than Eddie Ard? Will Lipscomb have a conference game end in regulation?

We shall see.

A-Sun Weekend Review

The ETSU-Belmont game turned out to be pretty good. Kudos to the Bucs, making their toughest road trip of the year and coming away with the split. Either team is good enough to get the 1-seed and the automatic spot in the NIT, provided Jacksonville comes back to Earth.

The rest of the weekend, not so much. Upstate's men gave Lipscomb a scare at Allen Arena Thursday. But the lesson of the rest of the weekend is never to underestimate the ability of bad teams to make other bad teams look good. Case in point -- Upstate @ Lipscomb women. Lipscomb is nowhere near good enough to beat anybody by 35. A team that shoots under 30% from the field for the season can only hit better than 50% and go 9-19 from 3-point range is they're playing a bad team having a bad night. But that's what happened. Lady Bisons 82, Upstate 47.

The most impressive performance of the weekend was Jacksonville's women winning by 15 at North Florida. Even when they don't play particularly well, the Dolphins can still make anybody else in the conference look really bad.

Easily the best defensive team in the league, Jacksonville went on an 18-minute stretch where they outscored North Florida 23-2. During that stretch North Florida hit 1 of 23 shots and turned the ball over 13 times.

And Jacksonville posted those defensive numbers while commiting one foul. One. Jacksonville had zero team fouls in the first 14 minutes of the second half.

This game might have been the conference's best shot at pinning a loss on Jacksonville this year. I'm not saying they will go 16-0, but I won't be too terribly surprised if they do.

Atlantic Sun Games of the Week

ETSU at Belmont tonight. Belmont is coming off a double-OT thriller at Lipscomb, and should have Justin Hare back. ETSU has won 3 of 4, and seems to be hitting their stride now thatthey've settled on a starting line-up. A couple of weeks ago I picked these two teams to finish 1-2 in the conference race. I'm picking Belmont, but not by much.

Close second -- Kennesaw State at Stetson. A true coin-flip game. Probably not as well-played as ETSU-Belmont, but the stats say it could truly go either way.

Women's GOTW -- Jacksonville @ North Florida. Here is where we find out whether North Florida is for real. Jacksonville is. The Dolphins made the ARV line in the latest coaches poll. Saturday looks to be their best chance to lose a game in conference this year.

Closest match-up -- USC-Upstate @ Lipscomb. Neither team is very good, and Lipscomb is at home, but there is at least a decent chance for an upset here.

Battle of the Boulevard, Part 1

Men -- Belmont 99, Lipscomb 91 (2OT). Since Lipscomb joined the A-Sun, 5 of the 10 Belomnt games have gone to overtime.

Lipscomb came from 15 down in the final 9 minutes to take a 75-72 lead into the final seconds. Andy Wicke then hit a 3-ball with 8 seconds left to tie it, then banked in a 60-footer that got waved off because it was after the buzzer.

In overtime, it was Lipscomb's turn to pull off the last-second heroics. LaKory Danies got loose in the corner for a tying 3-ball with 3 seconds left. But the second overtime was all Bruins. Belmont went on a 9-1 run in the first two minutes of the second overtime to put the game away.

The only dark spot was Belmont's star senior guard Justin Hare, who was "not with the team due to personal reasons." That's too bad. I'm a Lipscomb guy, but Hare has become such a central character in the rivalry it's a shame he had to miss his last regular season game at Allen Arena. Whatever the "personal reasons" are, I hope they get resolved soon so he can rejoin the Bruins.

Women -- Belmont 47, Lipscomb 43.

The less said abot this game, the better. Ugh. After 50 minutes of fabulous, hard-nosed basketball, the building itself was exhausted and the teams played like it. Lipscomb shot 6-22 from 3-point range, made only 58% of their free throws, and was 7-32 (21.9%!!) from inside the arc. And they still had a chance to tie the game at the free throw line with 6 seconds left.

Each team had 65 possessions, and they combined for 90 points. 0.95 points per possession is the standard of mediocrity in the men's game, 0.85 for women. This game they combined for 0.69. 1 out of every 3 possessions ended in a turnover.

Here's hoping this turn around for both teams. Quickly.

A-Sun Upset of the Year (so far)

USC-Upstate 73, Gardner-Webb 59

For GW, Sanders was his usual really good self, but Flittner and Linn combined to shoot 6-22 from the field, 2-9 from 3, and 5-9 (!) from the FT line. As a team they shot 5-13 FTs in the first half. Ugly.

Upstate answered with a balanced attack, with 5 different guys taking 8 shots and nobody going over 10. They also shot the ball well late, hitting all 7 FG attempts they took in the last 6:50. 2 turnovers in the last 9 minutes also helps, as does a 68-possession game against a team accustomed to 75.

Good stuff.

A-Sun Women's Basketball Conference Preview

I know, I know. Conference play started last week. But I'm just now getting the numbers together. So here we go. Numbers are based on games played through last night.

Projected Conference Standings:

Jacksonville 14 - 2
North Florida 12 - 4
Gardner-Webb 11 - 5
Kennesaw State 11 - 5
East Tennessee State 10 - 6
Belmont 9 - 7
Campbell 7 - 9
Florida Gulf Coast 7 - 9
Stetson 4 - 12
Lipscomb 4 - 12
South Carolina Upstate 4 - 12
Mercer 3 - 13

Pre-Conference Player of the Year: Marlena Murphy, Campbell

All-Conference Team: Murphy, Ashlee Williams (Jacksonville), Siarre Evans (ETSU), Brittney Henderson (Kennesaw State), Brooke Sunday (Belmont)

Second Team: Margaret Roundtree (Gardner-Webb), Regina Omoite (Jacksonville), Sarah Russell (Mercer), Delia Delatorre (Florida-Gulf Coast), Virginia Gregorie (Jacksonville)

Three Questions for Presidential Candidates

1. Title IX Reform

Right now the primary argument against paying college football and basketball players is that they are "getting a free education" and that "revenues subsidize the rest of the athletic department."

Setting aside the ethics of coaches known to stand in the way of players getting the education promised, there is the question of who else benefits, specifically women. Since Title IX, basketball, golf, soccer, softball, and volleyball teams have sprung up like weeds as schools try to comply with the law.

But where do they find the players to fill these new women's teams?

Very little talent evaluation of high school recruits happens at schools. Mostly college coaches watch players at summertime, club-based invitational tournaments around the country. What that means is that for players to be seen by college recruiters, they have to have both the talent and the money to travel to and play in these tournaments.

So these are mostly middle- to upper-middle-class white women on these new teams.

And their college scholarships are being paid for by the labors of (mostly) lower- to lower-middle-class (mostly) black men.

So, Mr(s). Presidential Candidate -- Should rich white women go to college at the expense of poor black men? If not, how would you fix Title IX to correct this inequity?

2. Electoral College Reform

Minnesota has sent Democrats to the Electoral College every election since 1972. It was the only state never to cast an electoral vote for Ronald Reagan. This is despite the heavily-conservative, reliably-Republican rural area outside the Twin Cities.

Likewise, Alabama has voted for exactly one Democrat since 1960, despite one of the highest per-capita (reliably Democrat-voting) African-American populations of any state.

Despite these divisions, both states (and 46 others) still use a winner-take-all system for allocating electoral votes.

There is a better way. Nebraska and Maine count votes for electors on a (Congressional) district-by-district basis, with only 2 electoral votes assigned based on state-wide totals, giving them the potential to be "purple states."

So, Mr(s). Presidential Candidate -- Since many states are more purple than blue or red, would you support a constitutional amendment banning state-wide winner-take-all electoral vote assignments in favor of the Nebraska Plan?

3. Disaster Recovery

Measured by loss of life and economic impact, the biggest event of the Bush Presidency was not 9/11 or the Iraq War. The most significant impact was Hurricane Katrina.

Two years before Katrina, southern California was ravanged by wildfires. Two years after Katrina, it happened again.

More federal and private dollars were spent in Katrina recovery than in response to both fires combined. Yet three months after the second round of fires, life in LA and San Diego is pretty much back to normal.

On the other hand, we're 2 1/2 years out from Katrina, and parts of New Orleans are still uninhabitable.

So, Mr(s). Presidential Candidate -- What are you going to do to find out where the money went? What lessons should the folks in Louisiana have learned from California's disaster response? And what are you going to do to make them learn?

If anyone connected with a Presidential campaign wants to respond, I'm all ears.

How Lipscomb Can Win

Last night's overtime win at Campbell provides a textbook example of how Lipscomb can do well in the A-Sun this year.

1 -- Play good defense. Lipscomb is the best defensive team in a very offense-oriented league. They were the only team to allow less than 1.0 points per possession in the pre-conference schedule. The league average was 1.03. In terms of PEP-allowed, Lipscomb had a 1.01 rating in a conference that allowed 1.16. While Campbell actually shot better against Lipscomb than they did against their pre-conference opponents, they were 1-for-13 in the last 5 mintues of regulation and overtime. Lipscomb wins with defense. In an offense-minded league, that's a formula for success.

2 -- Play their pace. Lipscomb plays the second-slowest tempo of any team in the A-Sun, fully 2 possessions slower per 40 minutes than the conference average. Last night they played 75 possessions in 45 minutes, taking Campbell completely out of their up-tempo game, second-fastest in the league.

3 -- Get production from LaKory Daniels. The year they went to the finals of the conference tournament, LaKory Daniels emerged as a viable threat, making second-team all-tournament. Other than that weekend, Daniels has been largely invisible. Until last night. Eddie Ard and Brandon Brown are the best players Lipscomb has, but to be successful they need someone else out there to force the opposition to defend three threats instead of two. With all due respect to Michael Lusk and Jason Hopkins, Daniels is the best option to be that third guy.

Oh, and Eddie Ard had 35, including a tying 3-ball at the buzzer. Good stuff.

All this said, the key to success in the Atlantic Sun is how you play in March. To win in the conference tournament, you have to be able to play three solid games in four days. That means depth. Last night does give Lipscomb one concern -- only 6 players played 12 or more minutes. To win in March, Lipscomb is going to need quality minutes from somebody off the bench (Adnan Hozdic, Jimmy Oden, Devon Seaford, etc.)

All in all, a good win. Let's see if they can keep it going.

2008 A-Sun Conference Preview, Teams

Based on the stats available at the Atlantic Sun website, here is my projection of the final standings. Remember, each team plays 16 games -- 10 against divisional foes and 6 against the other division. Tournament seedings are based on overall record. Teams ineligible for the conference tournament are marked with an asterisk (*).

Belmont: 12 - 4
East Tennessee State: 11 - 5
Mercer: 10 - 6
Gardner-Webb: 10 - 6
Lipscomb: 9 - 7
*Florida Gulf Coast: 8 - 8
Campbell: 8 - 8
Jacksonville: 8 - 8
Stetson: 6 - 10
*USC-Upstate: 6 - 10
*Kennesaw State: 5 - 11
*North Florida: 3 - 13