Big South Conference
March 3-6. All games at Campbell.
kPOY: John Brown, High Point.
Big South action gets underway Thursday at Buies Creek, N.C, population 2,215.
The Big South has moved its tournament from the beaches of South Carolina to central North Carolina, thereby giving home court advantage to the 11-seed for this event. The top four teams in the league are remarkably equal, separated by a game in the conference standings and by 20 spots in the ratings.
UNC Asheville is the favorite here, and this doesn’t consider the status of High Point’s John Brown. The three-time kPOY winner missed the last three halves of basketball with a foot injury. Under third-year head coach Nick McDevitt, the Bulldogs start two freshmen and two sophomores (and somehow nobody over 6-5), so they figure to be challenging for a conference title in upcoming seasons. But they did some damage this season, going 12-6 in conference play. And in their six Big South losses they were outscored by a total of eight points in regulation. With a good showing here, they could be a sneaky-strong 16-seed.
Qtrs Semis Final Champ 4 UNC Asheville 100 78.9 45.1 26.0 1 High Point 100 80.9 44.5 25.3 2 Winthrop 100 70.5 40.1 20.3 3 Coastal Carolina 100 65.1 34.8 16.9 7 Radford 78.0 26.7 11.0 3.9 11 Campbell 50.9 18.0 7.0 2.5 6 Gardner Webb 49.1 16.9 6.5 2.2 5 Liberty 100 21.1 5.9 1.6 8 Longwood 53.3 10.7 2.7 0.7 9 Charleston Southern 46.7 8.5 1.9 0.4 10 Presbyterian 22.0 2.9 0.5 0.07
Big South tourney records (since 1999)
Winthrop 32- 8 UNC Asheville 20-14 Longwood 3- 3 Coastal Carolina 13-15 Liberty 11-15 High Point 10-14 Gardner Webb 4- 6 Radford 10-15 Ch. Southern 10-16 Campbell 1- 4