MBB: Great South Athletic Conference

[mattgrubb]

Agreed Scottie, if the scots can pull something together and win out then they would have a legit argument for that B

[coachwgh]

The move by CNU sets up nicely for the GSAC merger. Alleviates travel concerns for the extreme north or south. Hopefully it opens up a spot for Covenant in a couple years. I feel for the people at Huntingdon but they are still too much of a geographical outlier. Since I am now out of the loop, who is the favorite for POY in the last year of men's GSAC?

[scottiedoug]

Coach don't we really need 12 teams to have divisions for travel and scheduling to make sense?  And if there were divisions, could not Huntingdon be the southmost but in range of 5 others? (Covenant, LaGrange, Piedmont, Maryville,....)?

[scottiedoug]

Randy Lambert wins his 600th game as coach of the Maryville College Scots as MC beats LaGrange 63-51.

[batteredbard]

Here's the Lambert story link

http://www.thedailytimes.com/Sports_News/story/Mr-600---Maryville-Colleges-Lambert-hits-career-mark-with-win-at-LaGrange-id-020802

[coachwgh]

Scottiedoug, yeah 12 would be ideal but 10 works(I'm assuming Covenant because I don't think the USA South likes Huntingdon). If you get 2 with each on your side and a single with the other side it leaves 12 nons to pick up but compared to what the gsac has been doing that is nothing. The odd number does rule out travel partner scenarios, since a single that rotates in every 2 years just isn't fair. Also the #1 concern for this league is money. It would be great to play everyone twice but that is just too much travel expense for 90% of these schools. With CNU leaving I like the make up of this league. The middle should always be very competitive. The champ will still travel every first round of the national tournament and an at large will have to be 19-3 in region or better.

[coachwgh]

I went to check out Senior Day at LC on Saturday. I have been very proud of Blake Craft, the one senior this year. He has given a lot to LC and will be a quality coach one day.
It was nice seeing Lambert get #600 Saturday. I saw #400 when I was scouting, #500 was against me in the conference tournament at our place so I told him to let me know when he expects #700 so I could be there. He hasn't had a losing season in 26 years. That is amazing.
I have only seen the Panthers a couple of times this year and no one else in the conference besides Maryville. The tournament seems to be pretty open from the looks of everyone's season.

[scottiedoug]

Did not get to see the Murvul-LaGrange game since only audio was available (why?), but with all the underclassmen on both teams playing pretty well, I suspect the USASouth will get tired of the newbies next year.

It is too bad the GSAC did not work out.

[mattgrubb]

what a way for Milt and Mav to hang on through the tough times and finish as champions and MVPs.

[narch]

i'm interested to see what m'ville fans think about the potential of going 18-9 in the usasac, and having the season end instead of playing on as a pool b...

[mattgrubb]

the scots wont go 18-9 in the usa south next year.  this was a rebuilding year for the scots.  Next year they will have some battle tested sophomores with tourney experience versus times when they had 4 freshmen on the floor this year.  Obviously, losing milt, mav, and ben will hurt but they will be returning a lot.  They also have some talent on the bench that did not get a chance this year.  The cupboard is full at MC and we are ready to dominate the USA south next year.  As long as the scots have Randy Lamber, championships will come.

[scottiedoug]

Narch I suspect you are making a point...  As you know, 18-9 (or 15-7 in region) won't get the Scots into the NCAA unless they win the USASouth tournament, and the Pool B bid this year is because the other Pool B teams had worse years than Maryville did.  As The Grubby One points out, we expect next year to be different.  Y'all also better watch out for LaGrange, another well-coached "new" USASouth competitor loaded with young talent.

Any idea how the people who do this think they are going to do scheduling?  Do we need 12 teams to make this really work well?

[mattgrubb]

Pool B is what it is.  The scots don't desire to be in pool B, see their joining the USA south.  It has been good to the scots.  I know Randy will play anyone anywhere, including past games at Rust, Fisk, guilford, wittenberg, transy, etc.

I am confident the auto bid will take stress off each individual game and make the tournament crucial which they will enjoy.

[Ralph Turner]

With CNU moving to the Capital, I see Murvul as the new team to beat in the USA South.

[scottiedoug]

As is often the case, Ralph is correct.