Big South Tournament Preview
Posted by rtmsf on March 2nd, 2010
Mark Bryant, Coordinator of New Media for the Big South Conference and writer of Big South SHOUT, is an RTC correspondent.
Standings
- Coastal Carolina 15-3 / 26-5
- Radford 13-5 / 18-11
- Winthrop 12-6 / 16-13
- UNC Asheville 11-7 / 14-15
- High Point 10-8 / 15-14
- Liberty 10-8 / 15-15
- Charleston Southern 7-11/ 13-16
- VMI 5-13/ 10-18
- Gardner-Webb 5-13/ 8-21
- Presbyterian College 2-16/ 5-26
Top Storylines
Tournament Time. The Big South races resolved themselves, the seeds have been set, and it’s time for the second season. At the top, Coastal Carolina held its lead and held off all comers to win the regular season title with a remarkable 15-3 and 26-5 record. Preseason favorite Radford defeated Winthrop in the season’s last game to settle the issue of seeds number two and three, while Asheville narrowly edged out High Point and Liberty for the right to be the final home team in the tournament’s first round. At the other end of the line, VMI had the tiebreaker edge over GWU for the eighth and final tourney position.
Award Winners. The Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awards in the Big South were each well-deserved repeats of the previous season: Art Parakhouski of Radford and Mantoris Robinson of Winthrop, respectively. Coach of the Year went to Cliff Ellis of Coastal, naturally, for his remarkable season with the Chanticleers. Jeremy Sexton of CSU took the Freshman of the Year honor, while Phillip Martin of Radford earned the Scholar-Athlete of the Year award.
Big South All-Conference. The First-Team All-Conference list matched four of the six (due to a tie for fifth) named in the preseason:
- C Art Parakhouski-RU
- F Joseph Harris-CCU
- G Nick Barbour-HPU
- G Jamarco Warren of CSU.
The new name to the squad was Harris’ Coastal teammate, F Chad Gray. Of that lineup, Parakhouski and Harris are seniors, Gray and Warren are juniors, and Barbour is the lone sophomore.
Looking Ahead
The first-round match-ups look like this:
