Mark Bryant, Coordinator of New Media for the Big South Conference and writer of Big South SHOUT, is an RTC correspondent.

Updated Standings:

1. Coastal Carolina        7-1  ( 17-3)
2. Radford                            6-2    (10-7)
3. High Point                      5-3   (10-8)
4. Charleston Southern  5-3 (10-8)
5. Liberty                             4-4    (9-11)
6. Winthrop                        4-4    (8-10)
7. UNC Asheville             4-4     (7-12)
8. Gardner-Webb            3-5    (6-12)
9. VMI                                     1-7    (5-12)
10. Presbyterian College  1-7     (3-17)

Top Storylines:

Buccaneers Boarding. Can’t say we didn’t warn you–Charleston Southern is in the mix.  If you read the last check on the Big South in this space, we told you the schedule was set up very well for the Bucs to make a mini-run into the top group.  CSU closed the deal with home victories over High Point and Radford to reach 5-3 in conference play and set up a big-time match-up (again in Charleston) with leader Coastal Carolina on Saturday to possibly narrow the gap even further.

“Bieden” Down the Competition. Congrats to UNC Asheville’s Eddie Biedenbach, who now holds the all-time record for most regular season Big South wins (110, passing former Radford Coach Ron Bradley’s mark of 109).  With 187 wins overall at Asheville, Biedenbach is also within reach of becoming the Big South’s all-time winningest coach, a distinction currently held by former Winthrop Coach Gregg Marshall (194 wins).

A Look Back:

The race for the lead both expanded (in number of teams) and contracted (in game separation) over the last couple of weeks.  Coastal Carolina still holds the top spot, despite a home loss to Radford that ended the Chanticleers’ big win streak at 12.  The Highlanders lurk one game behind, even after falling to CSU, and Radford’s not going anywhere–as evidenced by Thursday’s 22-point sprint past VMI.  But then you have the traffic jam at 5-3 (CSU, HPU) and 4-4 (UNCA, WU, LU).  That’s five teams with a total separation of one game, so this competition remains wide open with regards to contenders and tournament seeds.

A Look Ahead:

We’re at the turn: the midpoint of conference play.  The big game ahead in the short run is certainly the CCU at CSU contest Saturday, but it is far from the only game that will have an impact.  Radford hosts Liberty Saturday evening (televised on MASN), and then the Highlanders hit the road for a while.  Fortunately for RU, the squad has been tough away from home–particularly in Big South games–but they need to prevent the travel from wearing on them.  Handicapping the race now, we certainly feel Coastal Carolina and Radford will remain in a battle for the top, and also believe that High Point and Charleston Southern are legitimate teams in the fight.  Don’t forget that, in the Big South, the top four teams at the end of the regular season all get to host first round games in the conference tournament.  While the top four now could well be the top four then, it’s just as likely there will be more movement.  If you’re looking for a candidate from the 4-4 group to break through, it seems more probable that UNC Asheville will emerge, rather than Winthrop or Liberty.  The Bulldogs did lose four conference games in a row at one point, but look closer: after falling by eight at Radford, they lost by four at High Point, by one to Coastal, and by three in overtime to CSU…close games against the upper teams.  Since then, they’ve had victories at VMI (by 13), at Liberty (4), and against Winthrop (13)–which includes wins over the peer group of hopeful contenders.

Team Breakdowns:

Charleston Southern — Last time in this space we called CSU a “pivot team.”  Well, they’ve made the turn now into a  legit contender.  Give a healthy dose of credit to freshman guard Jeremy Sexton, who has become a difference-maker for the Buccaneers and a player to watch.

Coastal Carolina — Nothing lasts forever, so the Chanticleers found out with the end of a remarkable 12-game winning streak.  Nonetheless, this is a team that is growing more playmakers.  All eyes were on Joseph Harris coming into the year, but he was quickly joined by Chad Gray in another starring role, and now Mario Edwards is also grabbing his share of headlines.  CCU should not be slowed down much by the Radford loss…and by the way, the rematch will be at RU on 2/13.

Gardner-Webb —  A struggling team, but one happy to eke out a come-from-behind home victory in overtime over fellow struggler PC.  GWU likely has more wins coming in the second half of the season, but not enough to change their position much, if at all.

High Point —  The battle royale last week with CCU-RU-HPU-CSU produced splits for Radford and Coastal, a big pair of wins for CSU–and two painful losses for High Point.  The Panthers had to take one step back from the fight for the lead, but can jump right back in with another surge like that with which they began 2010–a run that culminated in a win over Radford.   Like Coastal, HPU has seen most of its success thanks to a trio of playmakers: Nick Barbour, Cruz Daniels, and Eugene Harris.

Liberty — Strong program, seeking identity: please submit answers to Lynchburg, VA.  Not a lot of rhythm to the Flames’ season.  Not unless you like the seasick up-down-up-down pattern on which they’ve been.  Good news comes with bad; for example: Kyle Ohman reaches the 1,000-point career mark, then requires surgery that takes him out of play for a while.  That’s LU this year in  a nutshell.

Presbyterian — The Blue Hose can put up a fight; they’ve gone to overtime in three Big South games (losing two of them), but they can’t seem to break through.  Again, some of their best players are redshirting right now, so next season can’t get here fast enough for the Presbyterian College crowd.

Radford — “Big Art” Parakhouski continues to get the lion’s share of attention–from the media, from opponents, from scouts.  It’s well-deserved, as the inside force is the Big South leader in scoring (23.1), rebounding (12.9), and field goal percentage (.622).  He’s not alone, though, as fellow big-men Lazar Trifunovic and Joey Lynch-Flohr also collect double-doubles for the Highlanders, and Amir Johnson has become RU’s all-time leader in assists.

UNC Asheville —  As cited above, Coach Eddie Biedenbach knows about winning games, and his current edition of Bulldogs seems to be learning more about it all the time.  If they can keep themselves from falling into another slide, they could sneak into the top four seeds.

VMI — It’s been another verse of the same song lately for the Keydets–they can dictate the style and speed of play to a degree, but they can’t seem to come away with the win.  It’s nothing like the sensational start to last year, when VMI looked like it was ready to make national noise for a while…no, this year’s crew is still seeking its second Big South victory.

Winthrop —  Three straight Big South wins in early January helped the Eagles regain their footing, but this WU team still hasn’t established itself as a threat to the upper teams this year.  Team leader Mantoris Robinson may need to channel his best memories of Winthrop teams gone by to lift this group out of the middle of the pack.

Mark Bryant, Coordinator of New Media for the Big South Conference and writer of Big South SHOUT, is an RTC correspondent.

Updated Standings

1. Coastal Carolina        5-0  Big South ( 15-2 overall)
2. Radford                      4-0    (8-5)
3. High Point                  3-1   (7-6)
4. Liberty                        3-1    (8-8)
5. Charleston Southern  2-3 (7-8)
6. Winthrop                   2-3    (6-9)
7. VMI                             1-3    (4-8)
8. UNC Asheville           1-3     (3-11)
9. Gardner-Webb          1-3    (4-10)
10. Presbyterian College  0-5     (2-15)

Top Stories

The Chanticleer’s Tale — Coastal Carolina is now the fastest team to 15 wins in Big South history.  In addition, the Chanticleers are 5-0 in conference for the first time since 1990-91.  It’s a storybook start to the season, appropriate for a mascot plucked from classic literature (if you’re not up on your obscure nickname trivia, it’s from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales).  But can Coach Cliff Ellis get this kind of production when it counts at season’s end?  Looks like we may have to finish the book to find that one out, but CCU is getting the right mix of dominant play from Joseph Harris and clutch shooting by Chad Gray, so they might be able to stay strong all the way through the campaign.

Art Show — Senior big man Art Parakhouski of Radford is starting to have more dominant performances more often this season, a dangerous sign for the rest of the league.  Radford’s success a year ago owed a great deal to Parakhouski getting better as the season progressed.  Now that he’s clearly in top form, as demonstrated by back-to-back 30-point performances in the last week, RU may keep rolling.

A Look Back

Life has been mostly good for the home teams since Christmas:  all 13 games involving Big South teams in the final week of December were won by the home team or on a neutral site — no road wins.  Turn the calendar to January and it gets only slightly better in the new year:  10 of 13 Big South games (these were all in conference play) were won on the home floor.  Last season was a fairly successful one for Big South road squads, but there definitely seems to be a stronger than usual home-court advantage in play right now.

The last significant batch of out-of-conference games didn’t really offer any major moments, but did include a win for Radford over George Mason, the only win for the Big South against the Colonial this year, and a victory for Coastal Carolina over Georgia Southern–making CCU not only 5-0 in the Big South, but 4-0 in the SoCon this year as well!

Conference play established an early schism in the group — there’s a top four and a bottom six at the moment: CCU/RU/HPU/LU are a combined 15-2, while CSU/WU/VMI/UNCA/GWU/PC are a combined 7-20 in the Big South.  Unless some patterns start to change, we already have contenders for hosting the first round games in the Big South Tournament, as those go to the top four seeds.

A Look Ahead

The top teams haven’t crossed paths much–of that leading foursome, only one game has matched any of those teams head-to-head: Coastal over Liberty on Dec. 5th.  That will start to change in the next two weeks; watch out for these important games:

• 1/9         Radford at High Point
• 1/14       Radford at Coastal Carolina
• 1/16       High Point at Coastal Carolina
• 1/21       Liberty at High Point

And if you’re looking for another team that could shake things up, that honor belongs to Charleston Southern — outside the upper group but certainly not out of contention at 2-3.  The Bucs’ schedule includes home games against High Point and Radford within the next two weeks, giving CSU the power to insert itself back in the race.  All of which would make the Jan. 23rd match-ups of CSU at CCU and LU at RU very interesting indeed.

Team Breakdowns

Charleston Southern — As cited just above, CSU is a pivot team right now…the Buccaneers have games in front of them that will allow them to climb the ladder, but could just as easily find themselves going the wrong way.  Jamarco Warren continues to put up points and is unafraid to take his shots every game.

Coastal Carolina — It just gets better for the Chanticleers every time we write them up so far… no one expected them to be quite this hot.  If/when they falter, how they handle that may be a critical factor in the season’s outcome, but right now we should all enjoy the ride.  CCU has won ten straight and has earned its position in the mid-major poll (currently 21st with Collegeinsider.com).  Meanwhile, Coach Cliff Ellis eclipsed the 650 career win mark this week.

Gardner-Webb — The Runnin’ Bulldogs have not been going the right direction lately, but finally eked out a win to end a ten-game skid, their longest since 2002-03. This is a team needing a break and a little momentum — something not to be found previously against the likes of Texas and other powers on the out-of-conference slate for GWU this season.

High Point — The Panthers have been doing more than lurking on the outside lately — this is a squad that will likely have a major say in the Big South race down the stretch and in the tournament.  The first big test along that path is with Saturday’s visit by Radford, when a lot of eyes will be on the Millis Center and how HPU handles that match-up.

Liberty — Year-in and year-out, you just can’t count out the Flames.   Even when they’re not at their best, this is always a squad that can bring it on any given night.  They’ve done just that in winning three of four to start Big South competition.  Jesse Sanders is doing a lot to keep the team going strong these days, ranking in the Big South’s top ten in both assists and rebounding.

Presbyterian — It’s widely known that PC is essentially saving itself for next year and the arrival of postseason D-I eligibility for the former D-II school, with prominent players redshirting this season to take advantage of the next.  That said, this is rapidly becoming a totally lost year for the Blue Hose, faltering to 0-5 in the Big South and only 2-15 overall.

Radford — The Highlanders have won them close and they’ve won them going away, but the bottom line is that they’re winning, at least when it comes to conference games.  RU scheduled strong outside the Big South and did not always get the better end of that set-up, but it has steeled them for competition among peer schools.  In addition to an unblemished Big South record this season, the Highlanders have a streak of 11 road wins in the league dating back to last year.

UNC Asheville — The Bulldogs played Coastal Carolina within a point on Thursday, but regardless of the margin, it’s still a loss, and makes three of those in a row in Conference play for UNC Asheville after the school’s surprising opening win in Big South play.  Coach Eddie Biedenbach’s group will work hard for every game, but it’s hard to say this team has enough to change its direction this season.

VMI — The pace continues to be blistering in VMI games, although it’s still not working out on a regular basis for the Keydets, even as they hold the top scoring rank in the country (again).  They can push the pace, but VMI opponents have not blinked.  Liberty beat VMI 110-102 last Saturday, and Winthrop took advantage of the high pace and cold shooting of the Keydets to streak to a 96-63 win on Thursday (only the third time in 12 games VMI has been held under 85).  Last year, that strategy propelled the Keydets one game short of the Big Dance, but the Holmes twins are not on this team to hit those shots any longer.

Winthrop — Still looking forward to finding out which Winthrop we’ve really got here…they pushed Radford to the brink earlier this year and ran VMI all over the floor this week, but that latter feat was done only after five losses in a row with fewer than 60 points in each game (ouch).

Mark Bryant, Coordinator of New Media for the Big South Conference and writer of Big South SHOUT, is an RTC correspondent.

Standings:

1. Coastal Carolina 2-0 / 10-2
2. Radford 2-0 / 5-4
3. UNC Asheville 1-0 / 3-7
4. Liberty 1-1 / 6-6
5. Winthrop 1-1 / 5-6
6. High Point 1-1 / 4-6
7. VMI 1-1 / 4-6
8. Gardner-Webb 0-1 / 3-7
9. Charleston Southern 0-2 / 5-6
10. Presbyterian College 0-2 / 2-10

Top Stories:

Rooster Crows

The Chanticleers have been the surprise so far this year, improving to 10-2. That’s the best start for Coastal Carolina since 1981-82.  That year, CCU opened 10-2 and dropped the next one, so this could be the school’s best launch ever if they can ruin Cornell’s beach trip on the 27th.  Coastal has won six in a row and has won all its games against SoCon foes, faring much better against the Southern than other Big South squads.  CCU even managed a vote in the rankings, yet inexplicably lost that vote in the following week without losing a game in that time.

Out-of Conference Woes

Nights like Tuesday (12/22) are really killing the Big South when it comes to other leagues.  That evening, Big South teams were 0-4 against outside foes — not going to help the profile of the conference with showings like that one.  There are ten conferences that have not lost to the Big South this season:  the ACC, A10, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Big West, C-USA, Horizon, Mountain West, and SEC are a collective 34-0 when facing the Big South this season (Big Ouch).  The record for the Big South is a more average mark of 14-10 against a collection of the A-Sun, MEAC, SWAC, MVC, OVC, Patriot, and SoCon.

Trading Blows

The ten teams of the Big South may take some solace in the fact that they can soon take out their frustrations on one another.  Every team got a taste of conference play with one or two games earlier in December, but it’s going to be full-tilt league games with the arrival of the New Year.  That said, they still have to get there — the last week of 2009 includes foes like Florida (for PC), Auburn (CSU), NC State (Winthrop), and, believe it or not, Texas (GWU).

Looking Ahead

Echoing the last item, the next steps for the teams of the Big South will be taken on the conference road.  The December match-ups gave RU and CCU a leg up at 2-0, while starting CSU and PC in a hole 0-2.  All the others are even or only one game up or down, so the jockeying for position has just begun!

Looking Behind

Did we mention the recent woes outside the conference?  Yeah, most of the squads will not want to look back on the recent weeks, although Coastal Carolina would likely be the exception to that.

Team Capsules:

Charleston Southern – sharpshooter Jamarco Warren is still the go-to guy for the Buccaneers, but Jeremy Sexton is drawing more attention, now a two-time winner of Freshman of the Week and showing a good deal of consistency on a team that could use it.

Coastal Carolina – as cited above, the Chants are on a roll.  CCU has taken six wins in a row and has turned some heads.  Joseph Harris has been the biggest producer, but don’t overlook Chad Gray, who has joined Harris as a Player of the Week honoree this season and is becoming a bigger factor in games.

Gardner-Webb – the opposite of Coastal right now, the Runnin’ Bulldogs are running the wrong way, with seven straight losses.  It’s not getting better for GWU, with the powerful Texas Longhorns on the schedule before starting Big South play.

High Point – the Panthers have been having a rough go of things lately, too…four losses in a row have the HPU faithful looking for a quick turnaround.  High Point always turns to the shooting of Nick Barbour and inside play of Cruz Daniels to make a difference.

Liberty – the Flames remain a relative question mark, since it’s hard to handicap when a squad falls to major foes and beats smaller ones as LU has.  Conference play will be especially telling for Liberty in the weeks ahead.

Presbyterian College — PC has mortgaged its future a bit by redshirting players for next year’s postseason eligibility, as they are still transitioning to D-1 now.  With that in mind, the Blue Hose are taking plenty of lumps this season as expected.

Radford – if there’s disappointment at the moment, it may be coming from the Highlanders.  RU has talent and size, but has not yet registered anything you could really consider a “signature” win, and had to scrap to get its two conference wins.  Radford’s success last year came in the middle and late season, so we’ll have to see if history repeats itself.

UNC Asheville – the start for the Bulldogs was a rough and winless one, but Asheville has gotten off the mat a bit with a pair of wins in recent weeks (and a 3-7 mark overall).

VMI – pinball numbers remain the rule for the Keydets, win or lose, you can always expect the scores to be at or near triple-digits for each side.  So the good news for VMI remains the team’s general ability to get teams to play at VMI’s pace, but the bad news for the Keydets is they get beaten at that speed just as often as they can run to wins.

Winthrop – like Liberty, we’re seeing a lot of losing to bigger squads and beating smaller ones, so we may need to see more peer play to get a proper handle on what Coach Randy Peele has to work with this season.

Mark Bryant, Coordinator of New Media for the Big South Conference and writer of Big South SHOUT, is an RTC correspondent.

Updated Standings (Conference/Overall):

1. Coastal Carolina  (2-0/7-2)
2. Radford  (2-0/4-3)
3. UNC Asheville  (1-0/1-6)
4. VMI  (1-1/4-4)
5. High Point  (1-1/4-4)
6. Winthrop  (1-1/3-4)
7. Liberty  (1-1/4-6)
8. Gardner-Webb  (0-1/3-3)
9. Charleston Southern  (0-2/4-4)
10. Presbyterian College  (0-2/2-7)

Top Storylines:

Joseph Harris, Double-Double Machine —  Coastal Carolina’s Joseph Harris graduated last year (Biology), but still had a year of eligibility in his pocket from a medical redshirt season.  He almost took that off to grad school at UAB, but changed his mind to play one more year for Coach Cliff Ellis and the Chanticleers, who must be very grateful by now.  In the season’s first four weeks, Harris earned Big South Player of the Week honors three times.  You read that right–three PoW awards in just one month…not too shabby, huh?  Harris is the league’s top active scorer and rebounder, with more than 1,000 points and 900 rebounds.  He holds the #3 career spot in rebounding (919) and stands an excellent chance of taking the top position from Arizona Reid (1013) early in 2010.  Harris would join Reid as the only players in Big South history to surpass both the 1,000 point and 1,000 rebound plateaus.  Harris currently leads the conference in 20+ point games (six) and 10+ rebound games (seven) this season, just one game ahead of Preseason Player of the Year Art Parakhouski on both counts.

Home Court (Dis)Advantage? — The first weekend of Big South Conference games favored the travelers more than the hosts.  Of the nine games played, the road team won six.  Of those six, four wins belonged to Radford and Coastal Carolina, who each pulled down a pair of road victories.  RU, in fact, has run its Big South road victory streak to eleven games now, the longest such run since Winthrop reached 11 from Jan. ’05 to Jan. ’06.

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Mark Bryant, the Coordinator of New Media for the Big South Conference and writer of Big South SHOUT, is an RTC correspondent.

Updated Standings

1. Coastal Carolina      1-0  Big South ( 6-2 overall)
2. High Point     1-0   (4-2)
3. Radford      1-0    (3-2)
4. Liberty      1-0    (4-5)
5. Gardner-Webb    0-0    (3-3)
6. UNC Asheville      0-0     (1-6)
7. Charleston Southern    0-1   (4-3)
8. VMI     0-1     (3-3)
9. Winthrop    0-1      (2-4)
10. Presbyterian College    0-1     (2-6)

Top Storylines

All-Conference Team Justifying Selections.  Players of the Week (or Co-Players) in the early going for the Big South: Nick Barbour (HPU), Art Parakhouski (RU), and Joseph Harris (CCU), all members of the Preseason All-Conference Team.  Fellow honorees Jamarco Warren (CSU) and Grayson Flittner (GWU) have been candidates for the award as well this young season.  The first ten 20-point/10-rebound games logged in the Big South this season all came from that same set of players — four each from Parakhouski and Harris, plus two from the other half of Radford’s twin towers, Joey Lynch-Flohr.  Right now we’ll take the position that these are great players having great games, rather than suggesting that there’s a lack of depth in the star production department beyond those six guys (six in all because of a tie in the vote).

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