Kennesaw St

Atlantic Sun Basketball Preview: 08-09

Shawn Siegel — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:11:48 -0500

HTML clipboard

Conference Rank: 28th

10 year average: 25th

All-ATLANTIC SUN Team
Pos.	Player	Team	Yr.

G	James Florence	Mercer	Jr
G	Courntey Pigram	ETSU	Sr
G/F	Shane Dansby	Belmont	Sr
F	Marcus Allen	Jacksonville	Sr
F	Jonathan Rodriguez	Campbell	Jr
CHN Award Winners		Returning Leaders
Mid-Major All-Americans Courtney Pigram Jonathan Rodriguez		Points: Jonathan Rodriguez 20.9 Rebounds: Jonathan Rodriguez 10.1 Assists: Rob Quaintaince (FGCU) 5.3

ATLANTIC SUN Standings
Nat'l	Team	League	Tourney

109	Belmont* **	Asun	1	NCAA
156	Stetson	Asun	2
176	Jacksonville	Asun	3
227	East Tennessee	Asun	4
248	Lipscomb	Asun	5
275	Mercer	Asun	6
296	Kennesaw St	Asun	7
302	Campbell	Asun	8
313	Florida Gulf Coast	Asun	9
320	USC Upstate	Asun	10
344	North Florida	Asun	11

*Click on links for full Top 144 team preview

** returning conference champion

Poll: Who Do You Think Will Win the Atlantic Sun?

Other ATLANTIC SUN Content

Conference Media Poll

Belmont Favored in A-Sun Media Poll

Interviews

Rick Byrd: Belmont Head Coach

Other

Rise & Fall: A-Sun

State of '08: Georgia

Shawn Siegel — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 11:52:12 -0400

HTML clipboard

Duke or Carolina? BC or UMASS? Gonzaga or Washington.. or Washington State? What is the best program in each state? While there's not much competition in Hawaii.. there are great debates to be had in loaded regions like California, North Carolina, and Texas. The State of '08 is a ranking of every program in every state.. based mostly on recent success (the last five years) mixed in with subjective factors such as conference prestige, historical success, and overall program direction.

Up today: Georgia. For more info, check out the State of '08 introduction.

GEORGIA

GEORGIA TECH - After making the National title game in 2004, and being good again in 2005, Paul Hewitt was on the verge of entering the coaching stratosphere. But the past few seasons have been disappointing, and Tech should once again finish in the bottom half of the ACC. In Hewitt's eight seasons, the Jackets have never finished below 7-9 in ACC play.. and going 7-9 in the ACC is more impressive than winning most conference titles.

GEORGIA - The Bulldogs are coming off one of the more shocking seasons in NCAA history. After a completely sub-par season, which included a 4-12 SEC record, the team somehow managed to run through the SEC Tournament, knocking off 4 other postseason teams along the way. But don't be fooled by that March magic, Georgia still hasn't really recovered from the mess that Jim Harrick created, and 2008-09 should be similar to last year (at least in terms of the 4-12 SEC record..)

GEORGIA SOUTHERN - Although Georgia Southern hasn't made the NCAA Tournament since 1992, the program has been consistently solid in Jeff Price's 9-year tenure. In 2006, he guided the Eagles to the NIT, where they lost to Charlotte in the opening round. Last year was another solid campaign, which included 13 wins in the Southern Conference, and upset victories over highly touted UAB and Cleveland State.

GEORGIA STATE - The Panthers haven't had much success since making the move from the Atlantic Sun to the CAA. In three years in the more competitive league, GSU has hovered around the bottom of the standings and rarely been competitive against the better teams. But there was serious improvement last year, a win over George Mason, and a ton of close losses (including a one-point loss in the CAA tourney). 2008-09 could be Georgia State's best season since Lefty Driesell's imprint was still on the program.

MERCER - After an impressive 2003 campaign in which the Bears went 14-2 in the A-Sun, the program's fortunes have steadily gone down hill. Since that time, Mercer hasn't even won a game in the A-Sun tournament. Even worse, Mercer has finished behind D1 newcomer Kennesaw State each year since the Owls joined the A-Sun in 2006.

6. KENNESAW STATE - Considering the Owls are only entering their 4th full season of D1 basketball, the results haven't been half bad. They've finished 7-9 in the Atlantic Sun the past two seasons, and knocked off conference leader Belmont (a Top 100 team) in January. The next step for the program is to find a way to win some games away from home.

7. SAVANNAH STATE - From 2003 to 2006, this was simply the worst program in the country. I'm sure many fans remember the embarrassing 0-28 season of 2005. But there's been major improvement in the last two years including 10 D1 wins in 2008. Last year's RPI of 254 trumped in-state rivals Georgia State, Kennesaw State, and Mercer. I give Kennesaw the nod though due to their conference alignment, and because the Savannah State's horrible run isn't far enough in the past.

Last: Florida - Next: Illinois

State of '08: The Introduction

Daily Dribble: Surprises by Conference

Shawn Siegel — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:49:00 -0500

Today's column is the first in a Surprise Teams series, in which I list a surprise team from each conference. Some, like Texas are, are positive surprises, while others, like Louisville, have been disappointing..

America East

Vermont (3-7) – The Catamounts were by no means expected to roll in the AE, but we had them projected at 3^rd in the conference, and most had them in the top half. Instead, they’ve lost 4 of 5, including a bad home loss to bottom feeder Delaware. The problem has been depth. There’s virtually no production outside of Mike Trimboli and Marqus Blakely

A10

George Washington (3-5) – GW has been one of the country’s underrated programs in recent years, but things aren’t looking to good for 2008. The Colonials are coming off a 12 point loss to Binghamton, following a 32 point shellacking by Virginia Tech. The biggest key to GW’s blunders has been the horrendous start by senior Maureece Rice. Coming off a season in which he averaged 15 ppg on 45% shooting, Rice is down to 9 ppg on 33%. He also has more turnovers than assists, half as many rebounds, and half as many steals. Eeek.

ACC

Maryland (6-5) – No one thought the Terps were going to be great this year. But we had them pegged at 47^th in the country, on the fringe of making the Big Dance. Instead, the Terps are 100 spots lower in the RPI, sitting at 141^st. The latest debacle was a home loss to Ohio, a team that then went to Kansas and lost by about 100 points, just their 4^th non-conference home loss in 19 years. Its not like Maryland has no talent, and with teams like Delaware, AU, and Savannah State coming up, a new winning streak is almost certain.

Atlantic Sun

Kennesaw State (1-7) - Too be honest, the A-Sun is mostly going according to plan. Belmont is at the top as expected, followed by ETSU and Jacksonville, just as CHN predicted. For some reason though, we did put Kennesaw State 5^th.. and they’ve been absolutely atrocious, one of the bottom 20 teams in the nation

Big 12

Texas (11-0) – I personally had the Longhorns rated higher than most other pundits, but I didn’t see 11-0 coming. Honestly, I did see 10-1 because outside of the road trip to UCLA, their schedule has been mostly soft (no disrespect to Tennessee). That will change this week with a road trip to Michigan State and then a game against Wisconsin. Except for the squeaker against the Bruins, Texas has been winning big, outscoring opponents 84 to 62. Individually, things have all gone as planned: Augustin’s manning the point like a champ, Abrams is knocking down threes, James is hitting the boards, and Atchley improves every week.

Big East

Louisville (6-3) – Like Texas above, I really thought Louisville would be for real.. but they’ve simply been really disappointing. Granted, they’ve faced some adversity with more Padgett injuries and the suspension of Derrick Caracter, but no one has looked particularly sharp. Even in home wins to Miami (OH), Marshall, and Old Dominion, not exactly murderers row, they’ve often been down at half and had to work overly hard to pull off wins. Basically, it comes down to the fact that they have no true dominant point guard, no one’s hitting threes, and their bigs have been injured or suspended. Not a good combination.

Big Sky

Portland State (7-5) – This is admittedly an odd choice for this list. The Vikings have the 2^nd best record amongst Big Sky teams, and we projected them to be 2^nd.. so nothing exciting going on there. Last year, they started with the exact same 7-5 record as this year. What is surprising though is that the Viks have an early RPI of 68, a highly impressive number for a Big Sky team. The reason has been neutral court wins over decent teams like IUPUI and Akron, and competitive losses to Colorado State and Washington State.

Big South

UNC Asheville (8-3) – The great record is somewhat deceiving because 3 of the wins have been against D2 squads. Still, the Bulldogs started last year 1-10 against D1 teams, so .500 is a substantial improvement. The one name you may know on UNCA is Kenny George, a huge 7-6 center who has actually been contributing this year. After averaging just 5 and 4 last year, the Chicago native is averaging 11 and 9. More importantly, he’s been a force on D with 5.8 blocks per game including 10 against Campbell.

- More surprises coming soon!

Atlantic Sun Conference Preview

CHN — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 12:24:58 -0500

Conference Previews | Top 144 | 06-07 Preview Home

America Sun Preview

Conference Rank: 26th

Conference Page

All-Conference

Player of the Year - Boomer Herndon, Belmont, C

Golden Ingle, Kennesaw St, G

Justin Hare, Belmont, G

Eddie Ard, Lipscomb, F

Rashad Williams, North Florida, F

Nat'l	Team (Click for Preview)	Conf	Tourney
131	Belmont	1	NCAA
148	Lipscomb	2
179	Kennesaw St	3
201	East Tennessee	4
242	Gardner-Webb	5
274	Campbell	6
312	Stetson	7
296	North Florida	8
328	Jacksonville	9
332	Mercer	10

Preseason Head Coach Interviews:

Murray Bartow - ETSU