Unhappy New Year
Despite the fact that the Carolina Panthers clinched a playoff spot on Sunday by beating the Atlanta Falcons (again) this has not been a good sports week as far as I'm concerned. That didn't even go compleltely as planned. Tampa Bay beat New Orleans to clinch the NFC South so the Panthers road to the Superbowl will all be on the road.
But back to the bad news...
During my absence from Wilmington for Christmas break the Seahawks squandered a good chance at their 10th win of the season by dropping a 4 point contest to the College of Charleston Cougars. I didn't see the game but I did see the Box Score. And if you look at the stats for #11 Dontaye Draper you may notice that he dropped 33 points on my poor Seahawks in the friendly confines of Trask Coliseium. It is kind of hard to prepare for a player who is planning to drop the most points in his schools history. You may also notice that Charelston shot 79% in the 2nd half compared to 39% for UNCW. So I guess it isn't all bad that we only lost by 4 points.
So when I thought the worst was behind us I took a road trip to Greenville to see the Seahawks take on the Pirates of ECU on New Year's Eve. About 1 minute into the game I knew I had probably wasted my time as ECU was knocking down everything they threw in the general direction of the basket and UNCW was doing it's best to win a layup missing contest. It seemed like we panicked after giving up an early double digit lead but I credit ECU with doing a good job of grinding out the clock and never letting us get back to single digits. After getting down by 25 with 11 minutes to play we did do a good job and rallied to make it a 10 point deficit with about 2 minutes remaining. But ECU hit their free throws to pull out a 13 point upset. You could almost see our chances of an at large bid flying out the window as we pulled away from Minges Coliseuim that day as our record dropped to 9-4 when it could have easily been 11-2 or maybe even 12-1. If you want more info on this game consult your friendly neighborhood Box Score.
Now to make matters worse UNCW faces off against pre-season CAA favorites Old Dominion at 7:00 in Norfolk. ODU stands at 8-4 right now and #7 in the latest Mid-Major poll. The Seahawks dropped 3 spots in that same poll to #16. Now this doesn't seem too intimidating except that this is an absolute must win for the Seahawks as both teams are playing for first place. And the fact that Coach Brownell has never beaten the Monarchs as a head coach. Thats right not even in Brett Blizzard senior could we muster a win against Blaine Taylor's club even in Wilmington. So Brownell will try for his first win against ODU in 7 tries once again tonight. You can listen to the game on 980 AM in Wilmington. Here is a link to the live stats.
Here is how the CAA teams fared in the latest Mid-Major Poll.
7 ODU
14 Drexel
16 UNCW
17 Hofstra
24 VCU
29 GMU
35 Northeastern
In the latest CAA basketball standings UNCW and Drexel remain in first place at 2-0. A half game back in a 3 way tie for 3rd are GMU, VCU and Northeatern at 2-1. They are followed by Hofstra, ODU and Towson who are in a 3 way tie for 6th place at 1-1.
Thats all for now. I should have a game report tomorrow.
By the way those two recent losses have pushed UNCW's RPI down to 63. A win tonight would help. ODU's RPI is 45. This is a far cry from 2 weeks ago when we were 9-2 and in the top 20 RPI.
But back to the bad news...
During my absence from Wilmington for Christmas break the Seahawks squandered a good chance at their 10th win of the season by dropping a 4 point contest to the College of Charleston Cougars. I didn't see the game but I did see the Box Score. And if you look at the stats for #11 Dontaye Draper you may notice that he dropped 33 points on my poor Seahawks in the friendly confines of Trask Coliseium. It is kind of hard to prepare for a player who is planning to drop the most points in his schools history. You may also notice that Charelston shot 79% in the 2nd half compared to 39% for UNCW. So I guess it isn't all bad that we only lost by 4 points.
So when I thought the worst was behind us I took a road trip to Greenville to see the Seahawks take on the Pirates of ECU on New Year's Eve. About 1 minute into the game I knew I had probably wasted my time as ECU was knocking down everything they threw in the general direction of the basket and UNCW was doing it's best to win a layup missing contest. It seemed like we panicked after giving up an early double digit lead but I credit ECU with doing a good job of grinding out the clock and never letting us get back to single digits. After getting down by 25 with 11 minutes to play we did do a good job and rallied to make it a 10 point deficit with about 2 minutes remaining. But ECU hit their free throws to pull out a 13 point upset. You could almost see our chances of an at large bid flying out the window as we pulled away from Minges Coliseuim that day as our record dropped to 9-4 when it could have easily been 11-2 or maybe even 12-1. If you want more info on this game consult your friendly neighborhood Box Score.
Now to make matters worse UNCW faces off against pre-season CAA favorites Old Dominion at 7:00 in Norfolk. ODU stands at 8-4 right now and #7 in the latest Mid-Major poll. The Seahawks dropped 3 spots in that same poll to #16. Now this doesn't seem too intimidating except that this is an absolute must win for the Seahawks as both teams are playing for first place. And the fact that Coach Brownell has never beaten the Monarchs as a head coach. Thats right not even in Brett Blizzard senior could we muster a win against Blaine Taylor's club even in Wilmington. So Brownell will try for his first win against ODU in 7 tries once again tonight. You can listen to the game on 980 AM in Wilmington. Here is a link to the live stats.
Here is how the CAA teams fared in the latest Mid-Major Poll.
7 ODU
14 Drexel
16 UNCW
17 Hofstra
24 VCU
29 GMU
35 Northeastern
In the latest CAA basketball standings UNCW and Drexel remain in first place at 2-0. A half game back in a 3 way tie for 3rd are GMU, VCU and Northeatern at 2-1. They are followed by Hofstra, ODU and Towson who are in a 3 way tie for 6th place at 1-1.
Thats all for now. I should have a game report tomorrow.
By the way those two recent losses have pushed UNCW's RPI down to 63. A win tonight would help. ODU's RPI is 45. This is a far cry from 2 weeks ago when we were 9-2 and in the top 20 RPI.
posted by TAH at 2:04 PM
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