Over the years, sports has become a special identity for me as a journalist in my life, but with that taken away for much of the year, it has caused many of us in the field to realize how special it is to be able to cover sports.
With the pandemic still raging throughout the nation, my first trip back to a venue since last March to cover any sport came on Nov. 25, when Furman played Tusculum to open its 2020-21 basketball season. From there, it was on to Asheville on Saturday to take in some post-Thanksgiving hoops, as Asheville battled Western Carolina in the annual battle of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Overall, it was a great weekend and I hope all of you enjoyed watching hoops as much as I did. Here are some observations from feast week.
A Few Observations from the opening week:
How about Mercer. The Bears are off to a 3-0 start to the season, and so far, Greg Gary's Bears have the league's best win by topping Georgia Tech, as the Bears posted what was an 83-73 win over the Yellow Jackets Friday night to send Josh Pastner's club to 0-2 on the season. On Monday night in a matchup between the two winningest programs in the state of Georgia over the past 10 years, as Mercer posted an 86-69 win over the Georgia State Panthers.
Mercer was just the better basketball team for much of the night in both wins. The Bears were buoyed by their two transfers, in Fairfield transfer Neftali Alvarez and South Carolina transfer Felipe Haase in getting the 10-point win in their road opener to start the season against the Yellow Jackets. In the win over the Panthers, the Bears placed four players in double-figures, with Leon Ayers III and Felipe Haase leading the way with 17 points apiece. Mercer held a huge 51-31 edge on the boards. The win gave Mercer its first 3-0 start since the 2015-16 season.
Defending Southern Conference regular-season and tournament champion East Tennessee State is off to a 1-2 start to the 2020-21 season, with a 57-43 win over Middle Tennessee State to close out the Beach Bubble Tournament after opening the tournament with losses to Abilene Christian (L, 47-70) and Austin Peay (L, 66-67).
The opening 23-point loss to the Wildcats of Abilene Christian might have sent shockwaves throughout the Southern Conference, however, you have to consider that the Bucs had just one practice prior to arriving in Estero, FL, for the tournament due to COVID protocols. The final two games of the tournament, however, saw the Bucs play much better basketball.
Early on this season, LeDarrius Brewer, who is affectionately known as "L.A." to fans, teammates and coaches, was as good as advertised in the opening tournament of the season for the Bucs. LeDarrius Brewer scored in double figures in two of the three games of the tournament, posting 16 points in the narrow one-point setback to Austin Peay, while posting 20 points in the final game of the tournament with Middle Tennessee State, as the Bucs put forth an outstanding defensive effort, out-scoring the Blue Raiders, 30-13, to close out the game.
Though the Bucs are off to a 1-2 start, I expect this team to only get better as the season progresses, and in the last two games of the tournament, ETSU showed many of the same characteristics that made them a 30-win team and SoCon champion a year ago, however, much work is still to be done for Jason Shay's talent-laden ball club, including bringing the absurd amount of turnovers down. The talent is clearly there for the Bucs to be a factor in the SoCon race come January.
Co-SoCon favorite UNC Greensboro got its season started with a pair of tough games against conference favorites from both the Sun Belt and the Big South Conferences to start out the season, facing off against Little Rock in an MTE played at the University of Louisville to start out the season.
The first game against Little Rock saw the Spartans come up with a 77-70 win. It was a matchup between No. 4 and No. 12 in the preseason mid-major poll, which saw the Spartans do it with defense once again, as they came away with the win. Preseason SoCon Player of the Year Isaiah Miller came through with 24 points on an impressive 10-of-13 shooting from the field.
The win for the Spartans was a solid one to start out the season against a team picked to win the Sun Belt East. The win against the Trojans didn't come easy, but the Spartans used their customary strong defense to create 20 Little Rock turnovers, turning those into 21 points in the neutral court win. The Spartans had been scheduled to face perennial Big South power Winthrop in what would have been a mouth-watering matchup Sunday, however, the game was canceled due to COVID-19 protocols due to Winthrop testing positive for the virus. The game will be rescheduled. UNCG returns to action Tuesday afternoon when it faces Prairie View A&M in a 3 p.m. contest.
Furman, the other Southern Conference co-favorite, won its first two games of the season over Tusculum and USC Upstate, respectively, and at the forefront of both of wins was Mike Bothwell, who scored 20 and 24 points, respectively in the two wins. Bothwell has stepped into the starting nicely to replace leading graduated scorer Jordan Lyons. Freshman Garrett Hien has been solid thus far for the Paladins, posting 17 and nine points in his first two games as a Paladin. The Paladins were 95-62 winners over Tusculum and 91-63 winners over USC Upstate on Saturday afternoon.
The Paladins have now won 17-straight non-conference games in Greenville and 14-consecutive games at Timmons Arena. The Paladins get back into action on Wednesday night, facing off against Southern Wesleyan before heading to No. 19 Richmond on Saturday for a showdown with the Spiders at the Robins Center.
Western Carolina opened its 2020-21 season just down the road in Asheville taking part in the Mako Medical Classic at UNC Asheville's Kimmel Arena to open the season. The Catamounts got victories over UNC Wilmington (98-76) and UNC Asheville (83-81 OT), while the Catamounts' only loss of the season was a 66-64 setback to Troy.
Matt Halvorsen then became the 47th player in Catamount basketball history to score 1,000 points in his career, as he posted his third 20-point in four games this season, going 6-for-16 from the field and 5-for-14 from three-point range, leading the Catamounts to a 96-58 win over Piedmont College Monday afternoon at the Ramsey Center in Western Carolina's home opener, as the Catamounts improved to 3-1 on the young season. Halvorsen was one of four Catamount players in double figures in the win.
Western Carolina will return to action Sunday, Dec. 6, when it welcomes Tennessee Tech to the Ramsey Center for a noon tip-off. The Catamounts were 89-76 victors over the Golden Eagles last season in Cookeville.
Chattanooga got its season off to a strong start with wins over Lander (99-63) and on the road at Tennessee Tech (62-54), as year four for head coach Lamont Paris seemingly has picked up right where the 20-win Mocs of a year ago left off. The Mocs did have last Saturday's contest slated against Horizon League power Northern Kentucky postponed due to COVID-19 protocols.
The Mocs had to come-from-behind to get the win on the road, as Chattanooga trailed 52-48 with just under five minutes remaining. However, the Mocs closed out the win with a 14-2 run to improve to 2-0 on the season. The Mocs shot just 30.8% in the win, which was the second-lowest shooting performance in school history in a win behind only a 30.4% shooting effort during the Henry Dickerson era back in 1998 in a win over West Virginia State.
Malachi Smith became the first Mocs player in the Division I era to ever start off his career with back-to-back double-doubles, posting 15 points and 14 rebounds to help the Mocs pull out the road win in an all-Volunteer State road battle. The Mocs return to action on Sunday, Dec. 6, when they face Middle Tennessee State in Murfreesboro.
Wofford had the easiest start to the season, easing into the 2020-21 campaign with wins over Toccoa Falls (88-49) and Carver Bible College (111-37). It's hard to glean much from those two matchups for head coach Jay McAuley's club, but with a number of injuries heading into the season, which included a season-ending one to Isaiah Bigelow, the start against a pair of non-Division I foes might have been just what they needed.
All-SoCon point guard Storm Murphy got his season off to a solid start with 19 and 16-point efforts in a pair of wins, while highly-touted freshman Nick Pringle added 17 points and 11 boards off the bench in the win over Carver. Wofford will take on its first Division I opponent on Wednesday night when it hosts North Carolina-Central at the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium.
VMI opened its season last Wednesday night by picking up a 90-63 win over St. Andrews at Cameron Hall. The Keydets assumed control of the game midway through the opening half, using a 13-0 run to take control of the game and never looked back en route to the 27-point win. Senior guard Ta'Vonne Bond scored a career and game-high 15 points for the Keydets, as he finished the contest by going 6-of-7 from the field. VMI got the season started in solid fashion from long range, canning 13 triples.
The next time out against head coach Dan Earl's alma mater, Penn State, the Keydets fought valiantly before eventually falling 86-65 in Big Ten country. The Keydets trailed by only two points (37-35) at the half, however, the Nittany Lions turned up the defensive pressure in the second half to come away with the 21-point win. The Keydets, which shot 52-percent in the opening half of play, were held to just 32-percent in the second. Greg Parham led the way for VMI, posting 21 points, while sophomore Kamdyn Curfman finished with 17.
VMI returns to action on Tuesday night in a 5 p.m. contest against Longwood at Cameron Hall.
Bucky McMillan's Samford Bulldogs certainly got our attention this past week when they scored 174 points in an exhibition game against Greenville University out of Illinois. Too bad that didn't count as the opening game of the season. What did count as the opening game of the campaign was a 78-76 loss to Alabama A&M.
In the loss to the Aggies at the Pete Hanna Center, Samford fell to 0-1 on the season and were led in defeat by Christian Guess, who posted 22 points and 11 rebounds, while Myron Gordon continued his early-season strong play by posting 16 points. Big man Logan Dye added a career-high 21 points for the Bulldogs in the loss.
Bucky ball will return to action on Tuesday night, welcoming Covenant College from Lookout Mountain, GA to the Pete Hanna Center. Tip-off for that contest is set for 8 p.m. EST.
The Citadel ended what had been a 19-game losing streak last Wednesday night when it posted an 89-64 win over Piedmont College to open the 2020-21 season at McAlister Field House. Hayden Brown looked great in his return to the hardwood for the Bulldogs, posting 22 points and 16 boards, while Kaiden Rice knocked down nine of The Citadel's 18 three-pointers, as he finished with 27 points to lead all scorers.
The Citadel returns to action on Thursday night when it hosts North Carolina A&T at McAalister Field House.
Power Rankings Following Week One:
1. Mercer 3-0--Hard to rank Mercer lower than first when they have beaten arguably the two best teams in Georgia.
2. UNCG 1-0--UNCG looked good in solid win over good Sun Belt team.
t-2. Furman 2-0--Furman hasn't really been tested, but Saturday's test vs. Richmond will tell us a lot more.
4. East Tennessee State 1-2--The Bucs tested themselves in a good early-season tournament, playing well in two of the three games.
5. Western Carolina 3-1--Western's wins in Asheville showed that they could be a factor in the SoCon once again this season.
6. Chattanooga 2-0--Malachi Smith has been an outstanding addition so far for the Mocs.
7. Wofford 2-0--Wofford didn't test itself much in the first two games, but right now the team's overall health is of utmost concern.
8. VMI 1-1--VMI looked good for a half against a pretty good Penn State team. Let's see if they can carry that confidence forward.
9. The Citadel 1-0--Hayden Brown made his emphatic return for the Bulldogs in the win over Piedmont with 22 and 16.
10. Samford 0-1--Bucky ball is still a work in progress, but there's no doubt Samford has talent.
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