Checking in on… the Big South
Posted by jstevrtc on December 11th, 2009
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):
- Coastal Carolina (2-0/7-2)
- Radford (2-0/4-3)
- UNC Asheville (1-0/1-6)
- VMI (1-1/4-4)
- High Point (1-1/4-4)
- Winthrop (1-1/3-4)
- Liberty (1-1/4-6)
- Gardner-Webb (0-1/3-3)
- Charleston Southern (0-2/4-4)
- 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.
