Forget the free throw! Our men’s basketball team is riding a 4-game win streak and tonight they’re looking to make it 5! This is a different team now, just check out this dunk by Jay Canty over Elon the other night.
Tag Archive for basketball
VIDEO: Appalachian State Forward Jay Canty’s Baseline Slam VS Elon
Category: Basketball, Videos |
Tags: appalachian, basketball, dunk, elon, free, slam, state, throw, video
MEN’S BASKETBALL: Can the SoCon Get Any Worse?
D-II games do not count towards RPI, conference standings, or very much in NCAA playoff consideration. So let’s throw all of those out. That means so far all we have is a loss against High Point. RPI-wise, that winless record is good for 2nd best in the SoCon. I’m not kidding. Out of 32 D-I conferences the SoCon is currently #31 (right above the Southland conference).
It’s still REALLY early. Honestly, it’s too early to pay attention to RPI. But that doesn’t make me feel any better about the fact that we only have 1 team in the Top-100 and 6 teams in the Bottom-40.
But it’s not just the RPI that shows you how bad this conference is. As a conference, we are 2-11 against (mediocre) D-I competition. Not to mention, most of those losses weren’t even close. Let’s take a look:
North Division (RPI/Team/Record)
#98 UNC-Greensboro — Lost to High Point 81-73
#108 Appalachian State — Lost to High Point 86-64
#272 Elon — Lost to Butler 74-59
#323 Samford — Lost to Austin Peay 75-64
#338 UT-Chattanooga — Hasn’t played a D-I game.
#333 Western Carolina — Lost to UNC-Asheville 71-61
South Division (RPI/Team/Record)
#122 Georgia Southern — Lost to Valpo 85-54 & UNCC 66-53
#140 The Citadel — Beat VMI 84-76 & Lost to Air Force 77-70
#208 Charleston — Beat Towson 75-58
#306 Wofford — Lost to Colorado 74-59
#325 Davidson — Lost to New Mexico 86-81
#331 Furman — Lost to Columbia 68-47
If anything, this at least gives us an opportunity to compete for a championship this year. When we get into conference play, SOMEONE has to win. It might as well be us. We can start off by winning tonight against Campbell.
VIDEO/COMMENTARY: App State Men’s BBall Gets Dunked On
If anything sums up App State Men’s Basketball 86-64 loss to High Point earlier, it’s this video. It even caught the attention of SportsCenter. The loss was App State’s largest margin of defeat at a home game in 7 years and it was against a school many of you probably haven’t even heard of.
How bad was this loss? Well earlier in the offseason I did an RPI analysis to figure out which games we were “supposed” to win. I only found 5 D-I teams we were supposed to beat. This was one of them. In fact, I forecasted a dreadful 9-20 season and we are now behind my forecast. Actually, the first game we will be favored in is over a month away.
So is it time for someone to lose their job? I hate kneejerk reactions by fans that say “Fire the coach!” But in this situation, maybe. Coach Capel hasn’t done much of anything in his tenure here, not that we were THAT good before he got here. His only experience before getting the job was 1 year of being an assistant coach here at App and his last name being Capel. Frankly, he should have never been hired in the first place
Looking back, we almost hired Matt McMahon as head coach but went with Capel instead. Now McMahon is over at Murray State and helped turn it into last year’s Cinderella team going 31-2.
Capel gets paid about $150K a year plus bonuses and the buyout clause is roughly the same amount. He has 1 year left on his contract. So do we wait until then to see where we are at? Or do we cough up the money now?
The bottom line is, I don’t care what we do, but we need to get SERIOUS about men’s basketball. It’s hurting us in conference realignment, it’s hurting our reputation as a school….and it doesn’t have to be that way. We have the best facilities in the conference. We should run this joint. I hope our guys turn it around and I’ll continue to support them. But turning around our basketball program should be our administration’s highest priority. If it turns out a change of leadership is needed, they should do it.
CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT: College of Charleston to Join CAA? Who Replaces Them?
According to ESPN:
Multiple sources within the CAA told ESPN.com that they expect the Cougars to move to the CAA.
Still not official, but the writing’s on the wall. Davidson on the other hand is officially staying put in the SoCon. Personally, I consider Davidson to be the SoCon’s only premiere basketball team. Sure College of Charleston did ok here, but they never made a huge splash in the NCAA tournament like Davidson did. The bottom line is College of Charleston is replaceable, Davidson is not.
But who do we replace CoC with? Well it has to be a team that has something to gain by coming to the SoCon, someone within the footprint, and probably a basketball/olympic sports only team. But it could be a football school, but that would likely mean a couple of schools are coming along.
Likely Suspects
Coastal Carolina
No brainer pick. It puts another school in SC to replace Charleston. They would compete in baseball/football/basketball right off the bat.
Tennessee Tech
Fits well within the footprint. Decent RPI. Doubt they would move since OVC fits them better.
Winthrop
They haven’t been good lately, but
Category: Basketball, ConferenceRealignment, Football |
Tags: appalachian, appstate, basketball, caa, charleston, coc, college, conference, davidson, realignment, socon, southern, state
APP STATE BASKETBALL: Looking Over the Newly Released Schedule
This year’s basketball schedule was just released. I’m excited about basketball season as usual, but I don’t hold high hopes for a breakout season. I’ll support our guys either way but I would like to see us take the next step this year. A realistic goal would be to win the SoCon North Division and a longshot goal would be to win the conference and/or conference tournament.
Last year we finished the season with an RPI of 257 out of 344. Just to give us a quick idea of what we’re up against, I put last years RPI next to each opponent (unless they are D-II). If our RPI was better, I put their name in bold.
D-II Montreat
268 High Point
206 Campbell
164 East Carolina
115 Virginia Tech
109 Duquesne
10 Missouri
219 Western Carolina
266 UMKC
194 South Carolina
244 Presbyterian
D-II Milligan
177 Wofford
229 Elon
236 UNCG
309 Chattanooga
269 Samford
203 Georgia Southern
64 Davidson
121 College of Charleston
219 Western Carolina
203 Georgia Southern
64 Davidson
235 Furman
229 Elon
236 UNCG
325 The Citadel
269 Samford
309 Chattanooga
So basically if the numbers from last season held up, and there were no upsets, we would finish 9-20. Again, this is just to give us an idea of expectations. Last year we finished 11-18 which isn’t much better. I hope we made some big improvements in the offseason, or it’s gonna be a long season. Either way I’ll be cheering em on!
Basketball: SoCon Hires Fmr Coach Dave Odom as Special Advisor
Remember back when the SoCon had its big annual meeting and we all expected to hear big conference realignment news? But then they had absolutely no conference realignment news and announced that they were going to hire a basketball coordinator to help the conference not suck at basketball anymore…well
They have hired that basketball coordinator, and his name is Dave Odom. He started off at ECU but ACC basketball fans should remember him as the guy who made Wake Forest not suck (back before they started sucking again). He coached Tim Duncan way back when. He reached the Sweet 16′s twice and the Elite 8 once. He also won the NIT one year.
Then he moved on to South Carolina where his biggest achievement was winning the NIT twice in a row. Overall he was a 3x ACC coach of the year and a 1x SEC coach of the year. He retired from coaching in 2008.
These days he’s the tournament chairman of the EA SPORTS Maui Invitational. Now he will also try to somehow get multiple SoCon teams into the NCAA tournament every year. His job description is to:
…work with Commissioner John Iamarino, league basketball coaches and administrators to address such matters as non-conference scheduling, participation in exempt tournaments, the operation of the conference tournament and institutional recruiting efforts.
Good luck with that. Last year the SoCon finished 23rd out of 31 Div-I conferences in Men’s basketball. He was a good coach, but I’m not really sure how he’s going to make a difference. I guess we need all the help we can get.
BASKETBALL RECRUITING: PG Chris Burgess (FL) Verbally Commits to App State
Chris Burgess, a 5-8 PG out of Florida, verbally pledged to Appalachian State, per a source.
— Evan Daniels (@EvanDanielscout) May 14, 2012
According to ESPN, Chris Burgess is a 2-Star recruit ranked as the #34 player out of Florida. Nothing official announced so far, but this guy works for Scout.com and Fox Sports so it should be pretty reliable info. Here is a highlight video of him from this past season.
BASKETBALL RECRUITING: PG Frank Eaves (Page High) Commits to App State
Looks like a good pickup for Capel and company. Eaves was selected to the NCPreps.com All-State 4A basketball team. According to MaxPreps.com, he averaged 17.7 pts a game and is the #30 recruit in the highly competitive state. You can watch some videos of him in action HERE.
Category: Basketball, Recruiting |
Tags: all-state, app, appalachian, basketball, capel, eaves, frank, guard, high, page, pg, point, recruiting, school, socon, state
CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT: Coastal Carolina to the SoCon?
Well hopefully we aren’t stuck in the SoCon, but if we are we might have a new rival coming to join us. Current Big South member Coastal Carolina is looking hard at its options. According to multiple SOURCES, Coastal Carolina’s Board of Trustees has passed a motion allowing CCU’s President to take action action on a conference change. What conferences are they looking at?
The Board of Trustees asked DeCenzo in February to look into whether a potential move to another conference would make sense for the university. He said exploratory talks were held with the Southern Conference and Colonial Athletic Association.
“Those two seem to be potentially good fits for us,” DeCenzo said.
Personally I think it would be a good add if we have to stick around. There are too many small private schools in the league and they put out quality teams. In baseball they are currently #32 (we are #27). In football they went 7-4 last year, beating both Furman and Western Carolina. In basketball they finished the season with an RPI of #181, not great but significantly better than us actually. Normally the CAA might be the better choice but as of late, it isn’t stable, and the quality teams are leaving. Even though the CAA needs them more than the SoCon does, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them in the SoCon in the very near future.
What do you think about Coastal Carolina in the SoCon? Let us know in the comments!
Category: ConferenceRealignment |
Tags: app, appalachian, baseball, basketball, caa, carolina, coastal, conference, football, realignment, socon, state
