MBB: Great South Athletic Conference

[Pat Coleman]

Thanks for the heads-up on the release.

[coachwgh]

Lambert mentioned this move to me earlier this year and I am really glad that it worked. You know some people make the move in the other direction to avoid the late night travel on games and recruiting.  I think now that Lambert will be a one trick pony and since he has bolstered his staff up to 12 assistants, MC will be on the rise.  I don't know if current Associate AD, Schram would be in the mix for this but from an outsiders point of view she does a marvelous job.  I can honestly say that about any of the coaches that I have encountered enough to form an opinion about at Maryville.  It ain't no LaGrange but it is a pretty good place.

I remember so much talent being at Wade Houston's Big Man Camps.  The funny thing is, none of that talent ever ended up in Knoxville.  I still have a folder with "Never Nervous" Pervis' autograph from an appearance at camp.

Tip of the hat to Render...he hit 4 shots on Saturday with his right hand.  It only took him four years to use it.

[scottiedoug]

If the Scots need any more chips to carry on their shoulders for the rest of the year, they should go to the Multi-Regional/Poster's Poll board where they could find this:

I was glad to see that no one in our poll gave Maryville a single mention. I was surprised to see them at #25 in the real poll. I was considering them last week until I looked at their schedule and their 4 team league. They'd probably be a .500 team in most of the decent conferences.

[Ralph Turner]

Old Lion, have you heard if Piedmont has been invited to join the USA South?

(Here is my reasoning behind that question. We can see that Shenandoah wants to be in the ODAC.  The USA South needs Maryville football to keep from losing the AQ.  Maryville wants access to the AQ for soccer, baseball and basketball.  I count that there will be 2 Pool B Men's basketball bids in 2008-09 when the Northern Athletics Conference takes its 12 members into Pool A, and only one Pool B bid nationwide in 2009-10 when the Landmark Conference moves its 8 members to Pool A.  Plus, it makes more sense for Maryville to have a travel partner for hoops and soccer.  Piedmont is the next closest men's team.)

The next question is about the women, but other than the discussion about the intra-team relationships, there is very little activity on the GSAC Women's board.  The GSAC is a full women's conference and would have 2 years to fill the void left by Maryville's departure.  Agnes Scott, Huntingdon, LaGrange, Piedmont, Spelman and Wesleyan (GA) are the six.  The conference could add Fisk women to get a 7th and keep the AQ.  Is that a possibility?

[mattgrubb]

wow, Lambert no longer AD, oh gees, what has the administration done now???
Maybe they are wanting to pull a Don Devoe type firing.  Coach Haynes, do you know what i am referring to?
Maybe they want to fire him as bball coach b/c he cannot get past the sweet 16?
who knows over there

As for the Pool B bids, who cares, murvul is the number 1 pool B every year in my opinion

[old_lion]

If the Scots need any more chips to carry on their shoulders for the rest of the year, they should go to the Multi-Regional/Poster's Poll board where they could find this:

I was glad to see that no one in our poll gave Maryville a single mention. I was surprised to see them at #25 in the real poll. I was considering them last week until I looked at their schedule and their 4 team league. They'd probably be a .500 team in most of the decent conferences.

That person obviously doesn't know what they are talking about. They must hold some sort of grudge against Murvul ...

Murvul has beaten two scholarship schools (Carson Newman and King) with winning records, as well as several good USA South teams. Seems they have already proven they could do quite well in the USA South.

[old_lion]

Old Lion, have you heard if Piedmont has been invited to join the USA South?

Sorry Ralph, I haven't heard anything ... but then again, I'm not privy to that sort of discussion.

[scottiedoug]

Pat Coleman a shout out for the good coverage of Lambert's move.

[Ralph Turner]

wow, Lambert no longer AD, oh gees, what has the administration done now???
Maybe they are wanting to pull a Don Devoe type firing.  Coach Haynes, do you know what i am referring to?
Maybe they want to fire him as bball coach b/c he cannot get past the sweet 16?
who knows over there

As for the Pool B bids, who cares, murvul is the number 1 pool B every year in my opinion

Lambert's legacy as athletic director will also include the College's membership in a new athletic conference, which he helped form in the late 1990s. In 1999, bylaws and constitutions of the Great South Athletic Conference (GSAC) were in place, with LaGrange, Fisk, Piedmont, Stillman and Maryville colleges committing. Although lacking the number of schools required for recognition as an official NCAA conference, the Great South did hold conference championships, and it did recognize student-athletes for their contributions on the field or court and in the classroom.

By 2008, the conference has grown to seven schools and enough women's schools competing to guarantee the conference an automatic bid to a NCAA national tournament.

Maryville College teams have earned 37 GSAC championships and in only seven seasons, the Scots have earned eight different GSAC Presidents' Cups, which annually recognize the league's overall winning program.

On the heels of a successful negotiation with the College's football team into the USA South Conference in 2005, Lambert was honored with the College's Outstanding Administrator Award.

During that award presentation, Maryville College President Dr. Gerald W. Gibson described the administrator as "well liked and respected on campus."

--Maryville press release

Good morning, Grubby one! 

Randy has set his own course with this one.  From reading about the GSAC, we get the impression that he is "father" of the GSAC.  He was almost able to get the conference to AQ status, by convincing Piedmont, LaGrange and Huntingdon to move from the NAIA to D-III and join Maryville, Stillman and Fisk.  He could not get any other schools to move to D-III.  (Other winners in this process were Agnes Scott, Spelman and Wesleyan who got a formal conference.)

His stepping down from the AD post allows the new Athletic Director to move Maryville in a new direction on behalf of the university.  If that person determines that Maryville should move to the USA South, and the "father" of the GSAC cannot get the remainder of the GSAC into the USA South in his "subordinated" post as Maryville head basketball , then Coach Lambert doesn't have the political baggage of that action. 

As for Pool B status, the Maryville football team was closer to a playoff bid as the Pool A of the USA South in 2007 than it ever has been in Pool B.  The same can be said for other Maryville sports as the number of Pool B bids is shrinking in all sports.  Independent teams are aligning into conferences as Coach Lambert recognized in 1999.  The Athletic Driector at Maryville needs to optimize the playoff chances for all sports, and getting into a Pool A conference is the logical choice.

That happens to be the USA South.  I am investigating whether Piedmont is the next domino to fall into the USA South.  From the friends that I have made at LaGrange and Huntingdon over the years, I hope that the whole GSAC is merged into the USA South, because I do not like the prospects of trying to fill a schedule for LaGrange and Huntingdon as independents.

As for the USA South, they are still vulnerable losses.  They need to bolster their membership above the basic 7.  I think that we see more movement due to the "Mid-Atlantic Shuffle".

[old_lion]

Old Lion, will you go ahead and concede that Render is a member of the all conference 1st team b/c i will.

I will. I agree whole heartedly, Matt. In my opinion, he and Jake Green were the two of the most obvious guys who were wrongly overlooked for all conference recognition when the gsac came up with that ridiculous idea of recognizing only 8 guys last year. I also thought they both warranted serious consideration as opposed to a couple of guys who were selected, but that's another discussion.

While the "gsac brain trust" still has time to give it consideration, I'd like to propose that we go back to what we did two years ago ... picking a total of 11 guys ... a POY and then a first and second team. (This year, I think 5 guys should be a lock ... picking the next 5 or 6 becomes much more difficult.)

Yeah, I know we only have 4 teams. So what does that really matter? We aren't much of a conference anyway ... why reiterate that fact by doing something really lame again like picking only 8 guys?

Let's go ahead open a discussion now of the pros and cons of picking 11 guys ... as opposed to only 8 ...

I'll start.

Pros:

* This is how the real conferences do it. They pick teams (1st, 2nd, etc.) and sometimes a POY.

* Real conferences don't decide on the # of all-conference selections by multiplying the # of teams by 2!  When have you heard of anyone else ever doing it that way? What ... are we trying to see just how lame we can appear to be?

* The vast majority of all-star teams I've seen selected (including football and baseball) were picked by position. What could possibly be the logic for us not doing it that way, as well? So, why not pick two guys at every position, and then a POY?

* Whenever any all star team is selected, there are always a few guys on the bubble for whom a good case could be made. Obviously, trimming the team to a smaller, arbitrary number only worsens that situation. An all-freshman "team" of 4? How asinine did that look?
http://www.greatsouth.org/06-07%20News/2_19_06_MBB_All-Conf.htm

* Seems like a good idea to recognize 3 more guys. After all it is D3 ... no athletic scholarships, not a lot of glory, playing for the love of the game ... what would be the harm in handing out a little more recognition. Heck, pick an all defensive team too.


Cons:

Hmm ... I don't know, I'm having trouble coming up with anything ... Maybe ... it would cost more to buy more plaques? Well, I'll step up and take care of that one right now.  I'll volunteer to pay for the 3 extra plaques.

Anybody got anything else?

[scottiedoug]

I agree with old_lion and Ralph.  11 players and all the GSAC into the USASouth.  Whether LaGrange and Huntingdon wants to do this is a different question....Makes it pretty big on the women's side....

[Ralph Turner]

I agree with old_lion and Ralph.  11 players and all the GSAC into the USASouth.  Whether LaGrange and Huntingdon wants to do this is a different question....Makes it pretty big on the women's side....

Actually, the women can break into divisions.  That will cut half of the travel.  Salem College in Winston-Salem is another provisional school that would probably like to join a conference.  They can join the USA South (East Division).

Huntingdon and LaGrange need games badly in all sports.  They are the most vulnerable if the GSAC falls apart.

As for football, a school is not required to participate in the conference, if it chooses not to.  Hamilton is a member of the Liberty League in all other sports, but chooses to compete in the NESCAC in football.  Huntingdon and LaGrange could be permitted to stay in the SLIAC for football, especially if the other 7 schools thought it to their (travel budgets's) advantage and yet keeping the AQ.  I think that Huntingdon and LaGrange will be instantly competitive in the SLIAC in football.

[mattgrubb]

I will go along with more guys on the all conference team this year b/c murvul has more guys who deserve it.
Go Scots

Ralph,
Randy can do anything, he has Bruce Pearl and the rest of the University of Tennessee wanting to join the GSAC but they have some red tape to work through.  RDL has that much pull.

Pat
Nice job on the headlines for RDL and thank you for leaving out a picture, he doesn't have any hair color after coaching last year's killer B's

[Ralph Turner]

Ralph,
Randy can do anything, he has Bruce Pearl and the rest of the University of Tennessee wanting to join the GSAC but they have some red tape to work through.  RDL has that much pull.

Are you sure those Tennessee athletes could meet the academic entrance requirements at Murvil?  I thought that was the reason that Murvil did not have them on the team now!   

[mattgrubb]

ralph
you are a man of infinite wisdom