Cliff Ellis has the life, man. As head coach of Coastal Carolina, he gets to live near the beach, coach at a school with a new arena, and regardless of how his team does during the regular season, it gets to host the Big South tournament. While other conferences of a similar stature have adopted formats that reward the regular season, the Big South will hold its tournament at the home of the three-seed.
High Point lost out on the top seed after losing a wild triple overtime game to Charleston Southern on Saturday. The Buccaneers’ diminutive point guard Saah Nimley played all 55 minutes and scored 38 points. He earned the distinction of launching the most 3’s in a game this season with 20. He also received the conference’s player of the year award. But the kPOY went to High Point’s John Brown for the second consecutive season.
The single-site format of this event gives more teams a realistic chance at a title and five teams have at least an eight percent chance of a title.
Big South
All-kenpom.com: John Brown, High Point (kPOY); Saah Nimley, Charleston Southern; Javonte Green, Radford; Jerome Hill, Gardner-Webb; Keon Moore, Winthrop.
March 4, 6, 7, 8. All games at Coastal Carolina
Qtrs Semis Final Champ 3 C. Carolina 100 82.7 54.7 38.6 2 High Point 100 71.8 32.1 19.4 1 Charleston S. 100 82.0 41.3 15.6 5 Winthrop 100 53.5 30.5 11.9 4 Radford 100 46.5 24.9 8.9 7 Gardner Webb 67.6 22.1 6.5 2.8 6 UNC Asheville 79.1 16.0 5.5 2.1 10 Campbell 32.4 6.1 1.1 0.3 9 Longwood 55.2 10.7 2.1 0.3 8 Presbyterian 44.8 7.3 1.2 0.1 11 Liberty 20.9 1.3 0.2 0.02