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The SoCon baseball tourney moves to Greenville

Posted on May 17, 2009 by Sandlapper Spike

It’s SoCon baseball tourney time, live from Riley Park in beautiful downtown Charl…

Oh. They moved the tournament this year.

That’s right. After 19 consecutive years in Charleston, the powers that be in the Southern Conference wilted from the non-stop complaints of a select few and moved the tournament (for at least one year) to Greenville, where it will be held at Fluor Field. (The tourney returns to Riley Park next year.)

The tournament regularly made money (!) when it was held in Charleston. Don’t expect it to do so in Greenville, where it will lack the kind of community support that has made it successful in the Holy City. Of course, the conference doesn’t realy need the money. Wait, what’s that you say? The economic climate in the country has hit the SoCon hard? The league is cutting costs, including not holding media days for football and basketball? It’s going to reduce the number of teams that qualify for conference tournaments in sports like women’s soccer, men’s soccer, women’s tennis, men’s tennis, volleyball, and softball? It’s going to force conference baseball series next year to be held over two days rather than three, with Saturday doubleheaders, to save on travel expenses? It’s going to do all those things and then cut off its nose to spite its face by moving its baseball tourney just to please a small group of whiners?

Yes, it is. (The league is also not printing media guides next year, although that strikes me as a good permanent move, what with being able to publish the guides online. It would be nice if the conference updated its historical records information in hoops and baseball, which hasn’t been done in several years.)

The complaints came over a perceived home field advantage for The Citadel (and for the College of Charleston to a lesser extent). The loudest of the voices was that of UNC Greensboro coach Mike Gaski, who campaigned to move the tournament for about a decade, or not too long after his 1998 squad had been defeated by The Citadel in the tournament championship game. That was UNCG’s first year in the league after having lots of success in the Big South. Gaski’s crew had won the regular season in the SoCon by a half-game over The Citadel, and by one game over Western Carolina, in a very tight three-way race. Then the tournament rolled around. The Spartans had actually swept the Bulldogs in Charleston earlier that season, but when the games really mattered, The Citadel prevailed twice over UNCG by a combined score of 21-1.

There really should not have been much to complain about — 21-1 strikes me as being rather decisive — but that was just the start of the drumbeat for moving the tourney. The thing is, though, UNCG hasn’t won the league regular season title since then. The Spartans did make it to the tourney title game in 2001, as the 5 seed, when they lost to (of course) The Citadel, which probably rankled Gaski even more.

As everyone knows, home field advantage in baseball isn’t nearly as important as it is in football or basketball. There is no comparison between The Citadel playing tournament games at Riley Park and UT-Chattanooga getting to host the SoCon men’s hoops tourney on its home court. That is borne out by the numbers. While UTC has won the basketball tournament both times it has hosted it, I think some people would be surprised if they took a look at the baseball tournament history since the SoCon set up shop in Charleston. There have been 19 tournaments held in Chucktown, and here is the breakdown over that time span:

The Citadel — 5 regular season titles, 7 tournament titles
College of Charleston — 3 regular season titles, 1 tournament title
Western Carolina — 3 regular season titles, 4 tournament titles
Georgia Southern — 5 regular season titles, 3 tournament titles
Elon — 2 regular season titles, 1 tournament title
UNC Greensboro — 1 regular season title, 0 tournament titles
Furman — 0 regular season titles, 2 tournament titles
Wofford — 0 regular season titles, 1 tournament title

The Citadel is +2 overall in 19 years of hosting the event (in terms of tourney versus regular season titles). Meanwhile, the other local school reputed to have at least something of an edge by the tournament being held in Charleston, the CofC, is -2. So much for a huge local advantage.

After Gaski and UNCG, the school with the most fans critical of the tournament being held in Charleston is probably Western Carolina — but the Catamounts have had their fair share of success there, and are +1. Really, it’s Georgia Southern that logically would have the biggest complaint (-2), but its fans don’t seem to have had nearly as much of an issue with the tournament being held in the port city (it’s not an inconvenient location for them, for one thing).

The school that appears to have had the biggest benefit to playing in Charleston, as far as tourney vs. regular season success goes, is Furman, with no league regular season titles but two tourney titles since 1990. Thus, the conference in its infinite wisdom is moving the tournament so the Paladins can be the host team…

You know what this is really about? It’s about programs not being as successful as they once were, and not getting in the NCAA tournament, and looking for an excuse. Western Carolina dominated the league in the mid-to-late 1980s, winning five straight tournament titles from 1985-89, all of which were held either in Cullowhee, Boone, or Asheville. In those five years, WCU also happened to win the league regular season (or division) title four times. The Catamounts also won a division title in 1984, but didn’t win the tournament that season.

UNC Greensboro won the Big South in 1994 and 1997, winning that conference’s tournament title both years as well. It entered the Southern Conference following the ’97 campaign.

Western Carolina fans remember the glory days of winning the league every year. The Catamounts have generally still been competitive, and among the better teams in the league, but they don’t win the conference title every year, and that is reflected in WCU’s tournament results. The same can be said for UNCG, which has usually been good, but hasn’t enjoyed as much success as it had in the Big South immediately prior to joining the SoCon.

Unfortunately for Gaski and the Spartans, the year the tournament finally moves to Greenville has coincided with that of one of his worst squads, and UNCG has not qualified for this year’s tournament. I suspect the coach finds that particularly galling.

I hope that Greenville does a decent job hosting the event. I think it’s safe to assume that there will be a tarp at Fluor Field. As some of us remember, that wasn’t the case when the tournament was held in Asheville. The league can’t afford to repeat the 1989 debacle, which just screamed “Mickey Mouse conference” (and which led directly to the tournament moving to Charleston).

I suppose any of the eight teams in the tournament could win it, but I would rank them like this:

Elon — clearly the best team in the league; NCAA lock
Georgia Southern, The Citadel, Western Carolina, College of Charleston — all think they can win the tourney
Appalachian State, Davidson — dangerous, but probably not dangerous enough to win the tournament
Furman — happy to be the host

The latest projections from Baseball America, SEBaseball.com, etc., suggest that as many as three teams from the SoCon can make the NCAAs. I am a little dubious about that. Elon is definitely in, but if the Phoenix win the league tournament I don’t know what other team, if any, will join them as a regional participant. That will depend on how the other teams fare in Greenville. My best guess is that Georgia Southern is best positioned to get a bid from among the other schools. I think The Citadel and the College of Charleston have to win the tournament (that’s probably a given for the CofC at this point), and that Western Carolina may have to at least reach the championship game.

The seedings were thus very important for the contenders, and the short straw was drawn by WCU and the CofC. Not only do those two squads have to play each other in the first round, but the winner likely has to face Elon in the next game. Georgia Southern’s second-place league finish means that the Eagles avoid all three of those teams until at least Friday (the same is true for The Citadel). That said, this tournament has a history of early-round upsets, and neither Appalachian State nor Davidson are easy outs. Even Furman has to be given a puncher’s chance.

As for The Citadel, I would like the Bulldogs’ chances a lot more if the relief pitching were a little better. Drew Mahaffey is a quality closer, but the setup corps has left a lot to be desired. Fred Jordan only appears to have faith in one other reliever, Raymond Copenhaver, but Copenhaver has had his ups and downs this year.

Of course, one solution to the problem with the relief pitching is to have the starters all throw complete games, similar to what happened in 2004 (when The Citadel had a tournament-record five complete games, two by Jonathan Ellis). If a particular starter is effective, then Jordan is likely to leave him in the game as long as he possibly can.

The Bulldogs appear to be playing better defensively, and the offense is close to its peak level entering the tournament, which is good. If the bottom of the order can be at least somewhat productive, The Citadel should score a lot of runs, because batters 1-6 have been getting the job done.

I favor Elon to win the tournament, but I am hoping the Bulldogs can have a special week. I would also find it a bit amusing if The Citadel wins the tournament in a year when it’s not held in Charleston.

Filed under: Baseball, The Citadel | Tagged: Appalachian State, Baseball America, Big South, College of Charleston, Davidson, Drew Mahaffey, Elon, Fluor Field, Fred Jordan, Furman, Georgia Southern, Jonathan Ellis, Mike Gaski, Raymond Copenhaver, Riley Park, SEBaseball.com, Southern Conference, The Citadel, UNC-Greensboro, Western Carolina, Wofford | Leave a comment »

Counting pitches

Posted on April 27, 2009 by Sandlapper Spike

On Friday night, Wes Wrenn started a key Southern Conference baseball game for The Citadel, at home against Georgia Southern. Getting off to a good start in a conference series is important, and Wrenn delivered for the Bulldogs, hurling 8 innings of 2-run ball. The Citadel won the game 6-2 and went on to win the series, two games to one.

In those eight innings, Wes Wrenn threw 143 pitches.

That is a lot of pitches, so many that a longtime poster on a message board for devotees of Bulldogs sports took notice. I didn’t watch the game, so I have no real idea what kind of stuff Wes Wrenn had late, whether he was tiring, or showed signs of tiring (apparently not). Sometimes a pitcher has had enough after about 70 pitches, and sometimes a pitcher is in a groove and can go a lot longer without significant risk.

I will say that the tone of the game story published by the school seemed to me to be a touch defensive when reporting the subject:

“Wrenn, who was strong from start to finish, threw 143 pitches in the game as he fanned the last two batters he faced.”

Somebody wanted to make a point of getting ahead of the argument, didn’t they?

It’s the second time this season a Bulldog pitcher has thrown more than 130 pitches in a game. T.J. Clarkson threw 134 at South Carolina. I was at that game. He looked better late than he did early (at the time I wondered if he had trouble getting loose for that game; after the fifth inning he looked really good). I still thought it was a lot to ask of a freshman with little starting experience (at least in college). As it turns out, it was a very unusual performance. Clarkson threw more pitches in a midweek in-season game for The Citadel than any pitcher has since at least 2002. Other pitchers have thrown more pitches in a game, but all those games came in Southern Conference regular season or tournament play, or in an NCAA regional.

I don’t pretend to know it all when it comes to this subject. I was never a pitcher on any level, and I’m not a doctor or a physical therapist. I’m not a pitching coach or a scout. I just watch games like everybody else. What I do know, though, is there is a lot of evidence that overuse of pitchers usually leads to injuries in the long run. Of course, it’s also true that pitchers get hurt all the time no matter how they are used (or abused).

One thing I am hesitant to do, honestly, is compare college hurlers’ workloads to those of major leaguers, if only because college pitchers get seven days off between starts (usually) as opposed to the four or five days off a major league pitcher gets. This might make a difference. (Another potential difference is the variance in competition.) The starts that always worry me are the 120+ pitching performances on short rest during tournaments/regionals, not to mention the “drag the starter from two days ago/yesterday into the game in relief in an elimination game” situation.

I can’t be an expert on the subject from a medical or “baseball man” point of view, but what I can do is look at numbers. What I decided to do was take a look back as far as I could at the recent history of pitcher usage at The Citadel and see where Wrenn’s outing on Friday night compared.

First, here is a list of game-by-game pitch counts for The Citadel’s starting pitchers this season…

Wes Wrenn — 99, 99, 95, 80, 107, 110, 103, 123, 129, 143
Asher Wojciechowski –103, 31, 125, 124, 115, 91, 121, 98, 111, 124
Matt Crim — 95, 97, 99, 81, 48, 116, 106, 102, 85, 107
Matt Talley — 110,66, 63*, 112, 69, 93, 66
T.J. Clarkson — 67, 90,94, 134
Matt Reifsnider — 98

[I put a “*” by Matt Talley’s start against Charleston Southern on March 25 (in which he pitched well), because I wanted to note that he also appeared in relief three days before, on March 22, against Western Carolina, throwing 59 pitches in 2 2/3 innings. I believe this is the only “short rest” start for a Bulldog pitcher this season. He followed up his victory over CSU with a solid effort against South Carolina six days later, also getting the win in that game.]

After compiling that list, I then went to Boyd Nation‘s invaluable site to check out his PAP logs over the past few seasons. PAP stands for “Pitcher Abuse Points” and is a system Nation uses to see how overworked certain pitchers/staffs are. A few years ago Nation got into a bit of a controversy with Ray Tanner that spilled onto local Columbia, S.C. radio and a few other media outlets (here is a reprint of an article originally published in The State, the local newspaper in Columbia). It’s a delicate subject. Tanner appears to have adjusted his thinking on pitch counts, after issues arose over his handling of pitcher Arik Hempy (as noted in an article reprinted here).

What is interesting (and perhaps reassuring) is that over the past three seasons, The Citadel has less PAP than about 90% of the schools in Division I baseball. It’s a very good record over the 2006-2008 time period. Only six times in those three years did a Bulldog pitcher throw 121 or more pitches in a game, and in none of those games did a pitcher throw more than 132 pitches. Last season only one pitcher threw 120+ pitches in a game for The Citadel.

However, in 2004 and 2005 there were more sizable pitch-count starts. In 2005, there were five starts in the 121-132 pitch range, and two over 132. In 2004 there was only one start in the 121-132 pitch range, but six over 132.

If you go back a little further, though (as far back as online statistics are available), the trend is reversed again. Only one Bulldog pitcher threw more than 121 pitches in 2002 and 2003 combined.

I was a bit puzzled at first when I looked at the PAP stats. What was the deal in 2004 and 2005? I looked at the box scores for every game over those two seasons. I came to the conclusion that the numbers in 2005 were a little bit of an outlier. 2004 is a completely different story, and I’m going to get to that. The 2005 games of 120+ pitches were as follows:

3/11 Ryan Owens 135 pitches (lost 2-1 to UNCG; complete game)
4/2 Ryan Owens 120 pitches (7 innings in 21-5 victory over Wofford) [estimated pitch count]
4/3 Ken Egleton 127 pitches (complete game victory over Wofford)
4/23 Justin Smith 133 pitches (7 1/3 innings in 10-6 victory over Charleston Southern)
4/29 Ryan Owens 122 pitches (6 innings in a 9-7 loss to Davidson)
4/30 Justin Smith 126 pitches (7 innings in a 4-3 victory over Davidson)
5/13 Ryan Owens 120 pitches (7 2/3 innings in a 9-3 victory over Furman) [estimated pitch count]

[The boxscores of most games these days list the number of pitches thrown by each pitcher, but sometimes that information is left out, and for whatever reason it happened more often in 2005 than in any other year since 2002. For games lacking pitch counts, a “pitch count calculator” is used.]

All seven of those games were started by veteran pitchers. The 4/3 game would mark the only time in Ken Egleton’s career at The Citadel where he would throw more than 121 pitches in a game. This surprised me, because Egleton pitched a lot of innings while a Bulldog, but as it happens he regularly threw 100-120 pitches per game while never exceeding that general pitch count (with the exception of that Wofford game).

Owens and Smith were dependable workhorses for the most part (Smith in particular was noted for having a “rubber arm”, I seem to recall). Owens’ 135-pitch effort against UNCG was a dominant performance in a loss; he pitched well the following week in a six-inning performance against Elon in which he threw 100 pitches. After his 133-pitch outing against CSU, Smith took the hill a week later and pitched very well against Davidson, getting a no-decision (the Bulldogs would win the game with a run in the ninth). After that two-game stretch, Smith would have an indifferent 6-inning effort against East Tennessee State and a decent 5-inning start versus Furman.

2004? Well, 2004 was all about Jonathan Ellis.

Ellis threw 136 1/3 innings that season, by some distance the most innings ever pitched in one season by a Bulldog pitcher. He threw nine complete games in eighteen starts. As mentioned above, there were six 133+ pitching performances that season by Bulldog starters. Five of those were by Ellis (Chip Cannon had the other). Look at those five games:

4/9 142 pitches (complete game victory over the College of Charleston)
5/20 136 pitches (complete game victory over UNC-Greensboro)
5/26 134 pitches (complete game victory over East Tennessee State)
5/29 136 pitches (complete game victory over Western Carolina)
6/5 153 pitches (complete game victory over Coastal Carolina)

That’s right. On five days rest after a 136-pitch effort against UNCG, Ellis threw 134 pitches in The Citadel’s opening-round game in the Southern Conference tournament. The Bulldogs would later have to fight through the loser’s bracket of the tournament, and eventually faced Western Carolina, needing two wins over the Catamounts. Fred Jordan started Ellis on just two days’ rest, and Ellis responded with an outstanding 136-pitch effort, with The Citadel winning the game. (Justin Smith would start and win the next day’s game, as the Bulldogs won the tournament; Ellis would be the tourney MVP.)

Then Ellis would pitch one week later in yet another elimination game, in the NCAA regional, against Coastal Carolina. I sat in the stands that day in Columbia (and let me tell you, it was hot) and watched him throw 153 pitches to send the Chanticleers home. It would be the last game of Ellis’ college career.

So in terms of “pitcher abuse” over the last eight seasons at The Citadel, Jonathan Ellis would stand to be the poster boy. Yet, he is now in AAA ball in the San Diego Padres’ organization, with what seems like a reasonable chance at making the major leagues, and his pro career seems mostly unaffected by his large workload in college.

Incidentally, I think you can make a good argument that Ellis’ 2004 season was the most valuable pitching performance in the history of Bulldog baseball. Not the most dominant, necessarily, or the “greatest”, but the most valuable. He pitched a ton of quality innings, obviously, and also won the had-to-win game in the SoCon tourney, as well as the regional eliminator against Coastal Carolina.

What does it all mean? I don’t know, other than I hope Wes Wrenn can beat Samford on Friday night without having to increase his pitch count total for a fifth consecutive game. You wonder at what point Wrenn might run out of gas (disregarding injury potential for a moment). However, two years ago Wrenn threw 104 2/3 innings (he threw 87 last season). He is probably capable of handling that workload.

Asher Wojciechowski needs to avoid those innings where he loses control and starts walking people. If he does that, he won’t have to throw 125 pitches per outing.

Most importantly, the guys in the bullpen need to demonstrate to Fred Jordan that he can count on them in big games, and doesn’t have to leave the starters in as long as possible to secure a victory. I think that’s the real issue for this year’s team. The high pitch totals by the starters, in my opinion, can be attributed in part to the problems in middle relief. Not committing errors that prolong innings is also a factor.

We’ll be watching (and, I suppose, counting).

Filed under: Baseball, The Citadel | Tagged: Arik Hempy, Asher Wojciechowski, Boyd Nation, Charleston Southern, Chip Cannon, Coastal Carolina, College of Charleston, Davidson, East Tennessee State, Elon, Fred Jordan, Furman, Georgia Southern, Jonathan Ellis, Justin Smith, Ken Egleton, Matt Crim, Matt Reifsnider, Matt Talley, pitch counts, Ray Tanner, Ryan Owens, Samford, San Diego Padres, South Carolina, Southern Conference, T.J. Clarkson, The Citadel, UNC-Greensboro, Wes Wrenn, Western Carolina, Wofford | Leave a comment »

Undefeated in Carolina Stadium

Posted on April 16, 2009 by Sandlapper Spike

The Bulldog baseball team enjoyed its first visit to the brand-new Carolina Stadium, winning 5-3 in 11 occasionally dramatic innings, and cementing a season sweep of the Gamecocks. Admittedly, it’s only two games, but this is the first time The Citadel has beaten South Carolina on the diamond twice in one season since 1961, although it should be pointed out that the two schools didn’t meet twice annually during most of the 1960s, and for a few years in the 1970s.

(The Citadel also won its first basketball game against the College of Charleston at Carolina First Arena, so these debuts at “Carolina ______” stadia are going rather well.)

At the end of this post you can see some pictures of the new park I took during the game, from a bunch of different angles, somehow forgetting to take photos of the concourse and the concession areas until the batteries in my camera died. I’m also not the most skilled of photographers, so they aren’t the best pictures in history. It’s a nice stadium, definitely SEC-caliber. Some observations about the park, and the game:

There was a sign noting that, in an effort to be eco-friendly, one half of the scoreboard was lit using a hydrogen fuel cell. Why only half, I have no idea.
Speaking of the board, I noticed that the “Carolina Stadium” lettering was not lit. I assume that either it wasn’t working, or more likely that the folks at USC are still looking to sell naming rights to the stadium, and didn’t want to pay for custom-designed lighting that will only be temporarily used.
There is a grass area down the first base line near the right field wall called the “Bi-Lo Berm”. I have to wonder how long Bi-Lo will continue to sponsor the berm, given that the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month.
The field itself looked fantastic, which was very impressive, particularly given the weather over the past few days. I give the groundskeeper an A.
The parking situation is abysmal. I’m just waiting for the first pedestrian fatality (it will probably happen after a game, after darkness). If anything, it’s worse than it was at Sarge Frye Field, which is really saying something. For someone like me, who would be inclined to go to USC games every now and then just to watch good baseball, it’s a reason not to go.
The stadium holds 9,000. The announced crowd last night was 6,923, which is a nice crowd for a weekday game, although to be honest I didn’t think the park was at 75% capacity. I thought it was more like 60%-65%. The Citadel brought a fair amount of people, which wasn’t that big a surprise.
Having a true freshman throw 134 pitches in a game is normally asking a lot, but I can’t really fault Fred Jordan in this case, given the actual performance by T.J. Clarkson. Clarkson didn’t exactly run out of gas, either, as he retired the last nine batters he faced. I wondered if he had a little trouble getting loose in the early going, but he ended the game on a roll.
Drew Mahaffey pitched in both games this season against South Carolina. In those two games, he faced 12 batters, retiring all 12, with 8 strikeouts (6 swinging), a foul out, a tapper back to the pitcher, and two routine fly outs. In the first game, he entered the contest with runners on second and third and no outs. Neither scored.
In two games this season against the Gamecocks, Bryan Altman had an OBP of .818, with seven hits (including a homer) , two walks, two runs batted in, and four runs scored.
This is a pretty good USC team, but it’s not as good as some more recent editions. I think part of this is due to its lineup not having a true scares-you-every-time-he’s-at-bat kind of player. Past Gamecock teams have usually had a couple of those guys.

I haven’t posted much about the baseball team. One reason for that is I’ve been a little busy. The other is that I was going to wait a little into the season so I could get a handle on this year’s club. The thing is, though, that the Bulldogs have played 35 games and I still don’t have a real good handle on the team. They have a .600 winning percentage in league play, and a .600 winning percentage out of conference — and yet I really can’t say the Bulldogs are a consistent outfit. Here are some of my thoughts on the team (some of which could be wildly off the mark, to be sure):

The lineup, from 1-6, is excellent. Those six guys can all hit, and with some pop. The two freshmen have both acquitted themselves very well. I worry a little about two lefties at the 4-5 spots, where a late-game LOOGY could come into play, but that’s a minor quibble. William Ladd is currently batting .351 (824 OPS), and looks to have locked down the seventh spot in the lineup (nice outfield assist in last night’s game, too). That leaves the designated hitter (for games Richard Jones catches) and shortstop as question marks in the batting order. The DH spot will likely be something of a revolving door, based on matchups, which is fine (although Sid Fallaw has received the majority of the opportunities so far). Shortstop is another matter.
The Bulldogs have been erratic defensively, which makes it all the more important to have an everyday shortstop. That would have been Kyle Jordan, of course, but you just can’t have a player with a 367 OPS as a regular. His terrible season-long slump has been a major problem. I’m not sold on Altman as a regular shortstop. Johnny Dangerfield hasn’t been bad, but his bat isn’t quite big enough to make up for the defensive deficiencies in the middle infield when Altman moves over.
The pitching has been mediocre, even though The Citadel does lead the Southern Conference in ERA, thanks to A) its home park, and B) the incredible lack of quality pitching in the league this year (SoCon ERA, as a conference: 6.35). Mahaffey has been outstanding in the closer role. The starting pitching hasn’t been that good, but it generally hasn’t been terrible, either. The midweek starters haven’t been bad at all. What the Bulldogs don’t have is an ace. The middle relief/setup men have been poor.

The Citadel, right now, strikes me as a team you wouldn’t want to face in the Southern Conference tournament, but a team probably not consistent enough to win the entire tournament. However, I can see that changing for the better. If Raymond Copenhaver (and/or someone else) can shore things up in the 7th-8th innings, and get the game to Mahaffey, the Bulldogs have plenty of starting pitchers capable of a solid 6-inning effort. In post-season play, having four (or five) of those kinds of pitchers will work to The Citadel’s advantage; that’s the type of depth you need to win a conference tourney.

First, though, The Citadel has to make sure it qualifies for the SoCon tournament, which means it has to finish as one of the top eight teams in the league. The Bulldogs are well on their way to making it, but there are still 15 conference games left, starting Friday at UNC-Greensboro. UNCG is currently 2-11 in the league, in last place, and will be desperate to win the series and climb out of the cellar.

It would be ironic if the Spartans ultimately do not qualify for the conference tournament, since UNCG coach Mike Gaski campaigned for many years to move the league tourney out of Charleston, claiming it was an unfair advantage to the two Charleston schools. The conference brass finally buckled under his criticism (among that of others), and moved the tournament for this season to Greenville. Now there is a decent chance the Spartans won’t even make the field.

Pictures from last night:

Filed under: Baseball, The Citadel | Tagged: Bi-Lo, Bryan Altman, Carolina First Arena, Carolina Stadium, College of Charleston, Drew Mahaffey, Fred Jordan, Johnny Dangerfield, Kyle Jordan, Mike Gaski, Raymond Copenhaver, Richard Jones, South Carolina, Southern Conference, T.J. Clarkson, The Citadel, UNC-Greensboro, William Ladd | Leave a comment »

Port and Jordan

Posted on March 25, 2009 by Sandlapper Spike

In the last four baseball seasons, The Citadel’s conference record by year is as follows: 14-16, 15-12, 12-15, 12-15. That is not exactly what Bulldog fans have come to expect from the baseball program, which has historically been the school’s strongest varsity sport. On the other hand, what should be expected? I decided to check some numbers in an attempt to answer that question. I concentrated on the team’s play since 1965, Chal Port’s first year as head coach.

One thing I want to make clear is that this discussion has nothing to do with the current Bulldog squad, which as of this writing is 9-9 overall, 5-4 in the Southern Conference. This is more about the program’s history, and the current edition of the baseball Bulldogs is just beginning to make its own mark in the historical record.

One of the difficult things in trying to compare and contrast baseball teams of the past is that there have been a lot of variables over the years — in the scheduling, in the makeup of the Southern Conference, in how the conference determines its champion, even in the equipment used. I made some decisions on how best to make comparisons. The biggest decision I made was to concentrate solely on league play.

Nowadays the Bulldogs play a lot more games than they did 30 years ago. In 1975, for example, Chal Port won his second conference title with an 11-3 league record. His overall record that season was 21-9. Twenty years later, in 1995, Fred Jordan won his first regular season SoCon title with a conference mark of 19-5, 39-21 overall. The Bulldogs played exactly twice as many games in 1995 as they did in 1975, and almost twice as many league contests.

Comparing by league record is hard enough, what with more games and more/different schools in the league, but it’s almost impossible to make observations based on the non-conference slate, not only because of the number of games but because of the level of the competition. Since 1994 The Citadel has played only three games against non-Division I opponents — a game against North Florida in 1995 (in a tournament hosted by UNF), and two games against Presbyterian in 1998 (scheduled after The Citadel won the league tournament in order to prevent an 18-day layoff prior to regional play).

The lack of non-Division I games is due to a SoCon edict handed out following the 1993 season. For the 1994 season, the conference found itself in a situation in which it didn’t want to be, namely as a “play-in” conference. The NCAA tournament was a 48-team affair at the time, and in 1994 there were 30 automatic bids. However, the NCAA mandated that 24 berths for the tournament were to be at-large, which meant there were 6 auto bids too many. As a result, the 12 lowest-rated conferences from the 1993 season each had to qualify for a regional by winning a best-of-three series against one of the other low-rated leagues.

If that sounds like the NCAA basketball tournament’s “play-in” game, it’s because that’s exactly what it was, times six. The Southern Conference was one of the 12 leagues that had to play an extra round just to get in the main tournament, and the champion was drawn to face the winner of the Ohio Valley Conference. The Citadel won the league tournament that year and beat Middle Tennessee State, 2 games to 1, in Charleston to advance to the regional held at Clemson.

To prevent this from happening again, the league determined that its schools should play a Division I-only schedule to improve the league’s power rating. This was a marginally risky short-term strategy (what if the league had lost an overwhelming number of those extra D-1 games?) but proved a benefit to the conference in the long run. However, it meant that the days of The Citadel playing the likes of Hiram or Gannon were over.

As mentioned earlier, comparing eras by conference play is no picnic either. In 1965, league schools included West Virginia, George Washington, William & Mary, Richmond, VMI, and Virginia Tech. None of those schools are still in the SoCon. You also have schools like East Carolina, East Tennessee State, and Marshall, which have come and gone, Davidson (which left and then came back), and schools making their debuts in the league in the 1970s (Western Carolina and Appalachian State), 1990s (Georgia Southern, UNC-Greensboro, and the College of Charleston), and 2000s (Elon and Samford, the latter beginning conference play this season). UT-Chattanooga competed in the sport for six league seasons before the school dropped baseball following the 1982 campaign. The conference has had as few as seven and as many as eleven baseball schools over the past 45 years.

Let’s look at Chal Port’s career SoCon record. Port coached for 27 years and finished with an overall league mark of 253-156-1 (.618). Port won seven conference titles and one tournament title (it should be noted that the conference did not have a tournament until 1984; five of Port’s league titles came prior to that season). Port had a stretch of 10 consecutive winning conference records, with that run preceded by three winning records and a 7-7 season, so he actually had 14 straight non-losing seasons in SoCon action. Overall, Chal Port had 18 winning SoCon seasons, 7 losing seasons, and 2 at .500 in the league. Port had a winning record in conference play in exactly two-thirds of his seasons as head coach.

Incidentally, Port’s record in the conference after his first seventeen seasons was 143-98-1 (.593), with 12 winning seasons, four losing seasons, and one at .500 in SoCon play, with three league championships. I mention this because Fred Jordan completed his seventeenth season as head coach last year. Jordan entered this season with a record of 285-166 (.632) in league play, with 13 winning seasons and four losing campaigns, and with four regular season titles and six tournament championships.

Jordan, like Port, also had a stretch of 10 consecutive winning seasons in conference play (from 1995 through 2004). The problem, from the perspective of the program’s current status, is that since 2005, he has had just one winning league season, in 2006 (when the team was 15-12). In the last four years Jordan’s conference record is only 53-58 (48%). Did Chal Port ever have a stretch like that?

Well, yes. After Port’s earlier-mentioned 10-year run of success, which lasted from 1975 through 1984, he had five conference seasons that went like this: 8-10, 9-9, 6-12, 12-6, 8-9. Overall record during that five-year period: 43-47 (48%). You may see a pattern developing. You would be right…

Both Port and Jordan won four regular season titles during their respective 10-year winning streaks. During those runs, Port won 73% of his league games. Jordan won 72% of his.

The similarities in the two coaches’ records are striking. Of course, it’s not that simple. After those five relatively mediocre seasons noted above, Port finished his career with a run of 29 wins in 32 league games, with two regular season titles, a tournament crown, and a completely unfathomable trip to Omaha. It’s that finish that people understandably tend to remember, even more so than the terrific teams he fielded during a good chunk of the 1970s and early 1980s.

It’s difficult for Jordan to compete with those memories, particularly since the conference has in recent years seen an influx of schools that take their baseball seriously (Georgia Southern, College of Charleston, UNC-Greensboro, and Elon). The competition within the league is arguably tougher than it was two decades ago.

That’s not to take away anything from Port’s record, which is lauded with good reason, and in fact is probably even more impressive than a lot of people realize. Port had to make numerous on-field adjustments during his tenure, including the change from wooden to aluminum bats, and the conference moving to divisional play (and then dropping the divisions), among other things. Then there were the off-field adjustments, which included integration, and the fact that going to a military school wasn’t exactly the cool thing to do in the early-to-mid-1970s (not that it’s ever been the really cool thing to do). Consider what the baseball program accomplished, especially when compared to The Citadel’s football and hoops programs of that decade:

From 1971-1979, the football team was coached by Red Parker, Bobby Ross, and Art Baker. Ross in particular is known as having been an outstanding coach, with major success at multiple levels of the sport. The football team had four winning seasons overall in those nine years, with no league titles and a conference mark of 26-29 (47.2%). SoCon finishes: 3rd, 4th, 7th, 5th, 4th, 6th, 3rd, 5th, 3rd.

Tangent alert: Ross was really good at putting together a coaching staff. For example, his 1973 coaching staff included Frank Beamer, Ralph Friedgen, Jimmye Laycock, Cal McCombs, Charlie Rizzo, and Rusty Hamilton, along with none other than Chal Port (who doubled as an assistant football coach during his first decade at The Citadel; Port had been a fine football and baseball player for North Carolina in the early 1950s). The team itself also had some future coaches, like David Sollazzo and Ellis Johnson. Despite all that coaching talent, in 1973 The Citadel was 3-8 overall, 1-6 in the conference.

The basketball team was coached from 1971-79 by Dick Campbell, George Hill, and Les Robinson. Robinson would later prove his worth as a coach with an oustanding rebuilding job at East Tennessee State, but during this period the hoops program had just two winning seasons, bookends on seven straight losing campaigns, and had an overall conference record of 43-69 (38.4%). Conference finishes: 4th, 5th, 4th, 6th, 7th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 3rd.

Meanwhile, from 1971-1979 Port went 85-43 (66.4%) in conference play, with three championships, nine winning seasons overall, and eight winning seasons in the league (and the other was a .500 season). His SoCon finishes during that time: 1st, 4th, 3rd, 4th, 1st, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 1st. He finished in the upper half of the league all nine years.

He wasn’t done yet, either. He had his best teams up to that time in 1982 and 1983, with the ’82 squad finishing 40-8. At that point another power arose in the Southern Conference, as Western Carolina hired Jack Leggett to upgrade its already promising program. The Catamounts would win five straight league titles, a stretch dovetailing almost exactly with a gradual decline in The Citadel’s fortunes on the diamond.

Port outlasted WCU’s run and (even more impressively) Hurricane Hugo, however, and orchestrated a season that won’t soon be forgotten, plus a very nice coda (the ’91 campaign). That’s quite a legacy, one augmented by Port’s well-deserved reputation as a jokemeister and storyteller.

Jordan should be credited with maintaining the high standard of the program throughout much of his time as head coach, as the numbers rather clearly demonstrate that he has done so. What he needs now is a “second wind”. Port got his after a real-life gust of wind, Hurricane Hugo, blew through Charleston. Then, rather amusingly (and appropriately), he capped a season for the ages by beating a team called the Hurricanes to reach the College World Series, giving a then up-and-coming Miami sportswriter named Dan Le Batard enough material for several columns in the process.

Jordan doesn’t need another hurricane (let’s hope not, anyway) to re-establish momentum. He doesn’t even need to start making appearances on Le Batard’s radio show. He just needs better pitching and defense (don’t sleep on the need for better defense). He’s had championship-caliber pitching and defense in the past, and I see no reason to believe he can’t get the program to that championship level again.

I certainly hope so, anyway. I would like to make another regional trip, preferably sooner rather than later…

Filed under: Baseball, The Citadel | Tagged: Baseball, Bobby Ross, Chal Port, College of Charleston, Dan Le Batard, Elon, Fred Jordan, Gannon, Georgia Southern, Hiram, Hurricane Hugo, Les Robinson, Miami, Middle Tennessee State, North Florida, Ohio Valley Conference, Presbyterian, Southern Conference, The Citadel, UNC-Greensboro, UT-Chattanooga, VMI, Western Carolina | Leave a comment »

Trying to rise above a history of misery

Posted on March 4, 2009 by Sandlapper Spike

Yes, it’s Southern Conference tourney time. If you’re a fan of The Citadel, you may want to cover your eyes while reading some of this. If you’re not, you may want to cover them anyway…

First, the good news. The Bulldogs rebounded nicely (literally and figuratively) from their loss to Wofford by beating a ragtag Georgia Southern squad 74-53 on Monday night. The Eagles hung around a little too long for my liking, making two good runs in each half, and were down by just six points with over 13 minutes left in regulation. In the next seven minutes of the game, however, Georgia Southern had more technical fouls (2) than made field goals (1). It’s hard to complete a comeback when that happens.

The Citadel thus got a much-needed bye into the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference tournament. Besides not having to play four games in four days in order to win the tourney, the extra day may also help the Bulldogs in their preparation for the event, as there are some on-court adjustments that need to be made. Among other things, The Citadel committed 18 turnovers on Monday night, many of them unforced.

Demetrius Nelson and Cameron Wells each had five turnovers, which is too many, but they also combined for 42 points (Nelson had 11 rebounds as well). John Brown had four, and that’s a bit more worrisome, as he isn’t in a position to handle the ball nearly as often in a scoring or closely guarded position (and thus shouldn’t have as many turnovers). Brown forced things a bit on offense, particularly in the first half, which was a carryover from the Wofford game on Saturday.

In the Southern Conference tournament, teams are almost certainly going to employ Wofford’s strategy of doubling Nelson repeatedly while giving Brown space on the wing, because Brown is not yet an offensive threat unless he’s making layups or dunks. How Ed Conroy and company adjust to this will go a long way to determining The Citadel’s tournament fate.

Having said that, it should be noted that despite those 18 turnovers and decent-but-not-great outside shooting, the Bulldogs went on the road and under a good deal of pressure (given the importance of winning the game) defeated a conference opponent by 21 points. The fact it’s actually possible to be disappointed in some aspects of The Citadel’s play after a result like that speaks volumes about how good this team has been, and the expectations it now has.

Those expectations include making a serious bid at a first-ever Southern Conference tournament title. Before casting a forward glance towards Chattanooga, however, perhaps it’s best to realize just how arduous a task the Bulldogs face. When it comes to The Citadel and its history in the Southern Conference tourney, a few paragraphs are in order, because just a few words cannot begin to adequately describe the horror…

One of the more curious things about The Citadel’s wretched history in the SoCon tourney is that there is no firm answer to just how many times the school has lost in the event. That’s because the league has mutated so many times there is a dispute as to what year the first “official” conference tournament was held.

Before 1920, The Citadel was one of many schools in a rather loose confederation known as the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association. (The Citadel initially joined in 1909.) There were about 30 colleges in the SIAA by 1920, including almost every member of the current SEC and about half of the current ACC, along with schools such as Centre, Sewanee (somewhat amusingly, later a member of the SEC), Chattanooga, Wofford, Howard (now called Samford, of course), and Millsaps, just to name a few. As you might imagine, the large and disparate membership had some disagreements, and was just plain hard to manage, so a number of the schools left to form the Southern Conference in late 1920.

In the spring of 1921, the SIAA sponsored a basketball tournament, which would be the forerunner to all the conference hoops tourneys to follow. Any southern college or university could travel to Atlanta to play, and fifteen schools did just that. Kentucky beat Georgia in the final. The Citadel did not enter the event, but several other small colleges did, including Newberry. The tournament featured teams from the new Southern Conference, the old SIAA, and squads like Newberry, which wasn’t in either league (it would join the SIAA in 1923).

In 1922 the SIAA held another tournament in Atlanta, this one won by North Carolina, which beat Mercer in the final. The Citadel entered this time, losing in the first round to Vanderbilt. The SIAA tournament remained all-comers until 1924, when it was restricted to Southern Conference members.

Some sources suggest that the 1921 tournament is the first “official” Southern Conference tournament, some go with the 1922 event, and others argue for 1924. From what I can tell, the league itself is a bit wishy-washy on the issue. On the conference website, it states:

The first Southern Conference Championship was the league basketball tournament held in Atlanta in 1922. The North Carolina Tar Heels won the tournament to become the first recognized league champion in any sport. The Southern Conference Tournament remains the oldest of its kind in college basketball.

That’s great, but the conference’s own record book lists Kentucky as having won the first tournament title in 1921 (on page 113; oddly, that year is excluded from the game-by-game tournament results that begin on page 114). Of course, the edition of the record book on the conference website is three years old and lists The Citadel as having once lost 37 straight games, which is incorrect, so take it for what you will.

Personally, I think that the idea of having a conference tournament is to determine a league champion, and it stands to reason that such a tournament would only include league members. So the first “real” Southern Conference tournament, in my opinion, was held in 1924.

There is a point to this, trust me. The difference between counting the Vanderbilt loss as a SoCon tourney loss and not counting it is the difference between The Citadel’s alltime record in the event being 10-55 or 10-56. Not that they both aren’t hideous totals, but as of now The Citadel shares the NCAA record for “most consecutive conference tournament appearances without a title” with Clemson, which is 0-for-55 in trying to win the ACC tournament. Counting the Vanderbilt game would mean The Citadel is alone in its conference tourney infamy. No offense to the Tigers, but I don’t believe the 1922 game should count, because it wasn’t really a Southern Conference tournament game.

By the way, you read that right. The Citadel is 10-55 alltime in the SoCon tournament. That’s just unbelievably bad. It comes out to a 14% winning percentage, which is more than twice as bad as even The Citadel’s lousy alltime conference regular season winning percentage (35%). The Citadel lost 17 straight tourney games from 1961-78, and then from 1985-97 lost 13 more in a row. Incidentally, the single-game scoring record in the tournament is held by Marshall’s Skip Henderson, who put up 55 on The Citadel in 1988 (in a game Marshall won by 43 points; karma is a you-know-what, as the next night the Thundering Herd, which had won the regular season title that year, lost to UT-Chattanooga by one point).

Those losses aren’t all in consecutive years, as The Citadel didn’t always qualify for the tournament, particularly in the years before 1953, when there were up to 17 teams in the league at any given time, and only the top squads played in the tourney. The Citadel’s first “real” appearance, in 1938, resulted in a 42-38 loss to Maryland. The Citadel would lose two more tourney openers before winning its first game in 1943, against South Carolina. That would be the only time the Bulldogs and Gamecocks faced each other in the tournament, and so South Carolina is one of two teams The Citadel has a winning record against in SoCon tourney play (the Bulldogs are 2-0 against VMI).

The next time The Citadel would win a game in the tournament? 1959, when the Bulldogs actually won two games, against Furman and George Washington, and found themselves in the tourney final. Unfortunately, the opponent in the title game was West Virginia, led by Jerry West. West scored 27 points and the Mountaineers pulled away late for an 85-66 victory. This would be the only time The Citadel ever made the championship game; it’s also the only time the Bulldogs won two games in the tournament.

After a 1961 quarterfinal victory over Richmond, The Citadel would not win another tournament game until 1979, when the Bulldogs defeated Davidson before losing to Furman. The game against Davidson was played at McAlister Field House, and was the 20th victory of the season, which until Monday was the most games ever won by a Bulldog squad (now tied, of course, by the current edition of the Bulldogs).

The Citadel would win single games in 1982 and 1985 before going winless until 1998, when it finally broke a 13-game tourney losing streak by beating VMI. The Keydets would be the next victim as well, in 2002, and were apparently so embarrassed they left the league. The Citadel’s latest win in conference tournament action came in 2006 against Furman.

Twenty different schools have defeated The Citadel in tournament play, with Davidson’s eight victories leading the way (against one loss to the Bulldogs). East Tennessee State went 6-0 against The Citadel while in the league.

At least ETSU won’t be around this season. The Citadel’s first game in this year’s tournament will come against either first-year league member Samford or Furman. The Paladins are 5-2 alltime in tourney play against The Citadel, with the Bulldogs having won the first and most recent meetings. Records against other tourney teams: Chattanooga 0-1, Elon 0-1, College of Charleston 0-1, Georgia Southern 0-2, Western Carolina 1-1, Appalachian State 1-6, and Davidson 1-8. (The Citadel has never played Wofford or UNC-Greensboro in the tournament.)

The very first game worries me. If it’s Samford, don’t look for another 25-point win. The Citadel caught that team on a bad night. Samford is well-coached and its slow-slower-slowest offense can give even a patient team like The Citadel fits. I am concerned about how the team will react when the bright lights come on for the first time and suddenly everything is on the line, especially when in the unfamiliar role of favorite. If the opponent is Furman, it would be a much more confident Paladin squad (after coming off a victory) than the one which recently lost to The Citadel, and one that would be more than happy to end a rival’s dream season.

If The Citadel survives the opener and moves to the semifinals for only the second time in 24 years, the opponent could be one of three teams, a trio against which the Bulldogs had a combined regular season record of 1-4, with the one win coming at home by two points. Of course, one of those potential opponents, Chattanooga, is also the host school for the tournament.

It has been fifty years since The Citadel made its first and only trip to the title game, and if the Bulldogs somehow win two games (for only the second time ever), the opponent will likely either be Davidson, with a healthy Stephen Curry in tow, or a red-hot College of Charleston squad ready to avenge two regular-season defeats at the hands of the Bulldogs.

It’s easy to see that winning the tournament will be a very tall order. Combine that difficulty with the sordid history of The Citadel in the SoCon tournament, and it’s really hard to imagine the Bulldogs cutting down the nets on Monday night. That’s a scenario that seems unlikely to unfold.

However, there is another way to look at things. This isn’t your typical Bulldog squad. This is a team that has the league’s second-best record, that has won 12 of its last 13 games, that has proven it can win away from home, and has demonstrated it can win even on nights when its key players aren’t at their best. It has won close games and blowouts, is led by the newly minted coach of the year in the conference, and features an all-conference post player along with an outstanding, versatile group of guards. If there ever was a team from The Citadel capable of overcoming all that negative history, and making some positive history of its own, this is the one.

Saturday night can’t get here soon enough…

Filed under: Basketball, The Citadel | Tagged: Appalachian State, Cameron Wells, Centre, Clemson, College of Charleston, Davidson, Demetrius Nelson, East Tennessee State, Ed Conroy, Elon, Furman, George Washington, Georgia, Georgia Southern, Jerry West, John Brown, Kentucky, Marshall, Maryland, McAlister Field House, Mercer, Millsaps, Newberry, North Carolina, Richmond, Samford, Sewanee, SIAA, Skip Henderson, SoCon, South Carolina, Southern Conference, Southern Conference Tournament, Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Stephen Curry, The Citadel, UNC-Greensboro, UT-Chattanooga, Vanderbilt, VMI, West Virginia, Western Carolina, Wofford | Leave a comment »

Time to start a new streak

Posted on March 1, 2009 by Sandlapper Spike

Well, it wasn’t going to last forever, but it would have been nice for the winning streak to have lasted for at least one more game…

What was the difference between Saturday’s game and the previous eleven?

It was really a lot of little things. Some of them were aberrations (like Demetrius Nelson struggling from the foul line), but some were not, and what is important is that the Bulldogs must learn from the loss and make the necessary adjustments, because other teams will study tape of this game and try to emulate Wofford.

Of course, emulating Wofford first means having a player capable of a good Noah Dahlman imitation, and that won’t be easy. Dahlman showed why he is a serious candidate for first team All-Southern Conference with an excellent night, rarely forcing anything but taking advantage of any and every opportunity. Dahlman scored 17 points on only 9 field goal attempts (exactly the same numbers he had against the Bulldogs in Spartanburg) and also contributed 7 rebounds to the Terriers’ cause.

Wofford’s strategy on defense was to double-team Nelson whenever possible, which they did more successfully than most SoCon outfits (the College of Charleston could learn a thing or two about how they did it), and they did this in part by leaving John Brown open on the wing throughout the game, knowing he wasn’t an offensive threat. Brown had a frustrating evening. For one of the few times since he burst onto the scene at the beginning of January, he seemed a half-step behind or a split second late to a number of loose balls and rebound opportunities. His trademark frenetic style never seemed to have an impact on the game.

Ed Conroy tried a couple of different things to counter the way Wofford was playing defensively (including playing Daniel Eykyn for Brown for a brief period during the second half), but the Bulldogs never really got into an offensive rhythm. The Citadel did not get many open looks from outside, and as a consequence went 3-15 (20%) from three-point land.

Dahlman’s going to get his points, but at least he didn’t burn The Citadel for 36, like he did Thursday night at the CofC. The shot to break the 55-all tie was a tough one converted by a player (Brad Loesing) who came into the game shooting only 29.7% from beyond the arc (and who had missed his previous nine three-point attempts). He made the shot, though, and you just have to give him credit for it. The Bulldogs did force thirteen turnovers, but on the whole Wofford had an efficient night on offense. The Bulldogs were also outrebounded by the Terriers (28-22).

Now the Bulldogs have to regroup and focus on their immediate goal, which will be to regain the momentum gathered during the eleven-game winning streak and clinch a first-round bye for the Southern Conference tournament. The action moves to Statesboro, Georgia, where on Monday night The Citadel tangles for a second time this season with Georgia Southern.

A win in that game would be the Bulldogs’ 15th of the season in SoCon play (and 20th overall, of course) and would tie the College of Charleston for second place in the South Division, with The Citadel holding the tiebreaker by virtue of its sweep of the Cougars. A loss would mean the Bulldogs would have to play in the opening round against UNC-Greensboro, the sixth-place team from the North Division. The difference between having to win three or four games in order to claim the tournament title is huge.

Injuries and suspensions have left Georgia Southern ripe for the picking for most Southern Conference teams, and as a result the Eagles have lost ten of their last eleven games, with the only win a non-conference victory over Jacksonville State. Georgia Southern’s last conference win came against Furman on January 24.

Georgia Southern is the league’s worst defensive team, and against Davidson on Saturday the Eagles allowed 99 points on only 81 possessions, as the Wildcats shot 55% from the floor. Davidson raced to a 16-0 lead in the game, and in that stretch GSU only attempted two shots while committing seven turnovers. The Eagles committed 25 turnovers during the game, while Stephen Curry was scoring 34 points (on only 19 FG attempts).

The Bulldogs won’t have Curry, but they should have enough to defeat a depleted and possibly demoralized Georgia Southern team. In the first game between the two teams, The Citadel won at McAlister Field House 84-75 as Demetrius Nelson and Bryan Streeter combined for 38 points and 12 rebounds, with John Brown adding 11 boards.

Willie Powers and Julian Allen teamed up for 34 points, 15 rebounds, and 6 assists for Georgia Southern in that game, which is noteworthy because neither will play for the Eagles on Monday. Powers was lost for the season after that game with a knee injury, while Allen was suspended at the beginning of February (along with Trumaine Pearson and Antoine Johnson, both of whom also played against The Citadel). The Eagles are down to seven scholarship players.

Incidentally, The Citadel has not swept the Eagles in the regular season since 1998. The Bulldogs’ last victory in Hanner Fieldhouse came in 2003.

The loss to Wofford on Saturday won’t by itself cost The Citadel a chance at achieving any of the season-long goals it would have had before the game. However, the Bulldogs have now taken their mulligan. The Citadel has to win on Monday night, and must do so on the road, with all the pressure associated with trying to produce a successful finish for what has been to this point a remarkable regular season.

In a way, things are now simplified for the Bulldogs. If The Citadel is to live the big dream, a trip to the NCAA tournament for the first time, it has to start a new winning streak, and that streak must be four games in duration. The Bulldogs can either win on Monday and then win three games in the SoCon tourney, or they will have to win four times in four days in the SoCon tourney. The first option is by far the more manageable of the two. Let’s hope the new streak starts on Monday night.

Filed under: Basketball, The Citadel | Tagged: Bryan Streeter, College of Charleston, Daniel Eykyn, Davidson, Demetrius Nelson, Ed Conroy, Furman, Georgia Southern, John Brown, Julian Allen, McAlister Field House, NCAA Basketball Tournament, Noah Dahlman, Southern Conference, Southern Conference Tournament, Stephen Curry, The Citadel, UNC-Greensboro, Willie Powers, Wofford | Leave a comment »

When a win is a win

Posted on January 30, 2009 by Sandlapper Spike

I’ll start off by quoting…myself. From the previous post:

I expect The Citadel to win the rematch, but it won’t be easy. Nothing is ever easy at The Citadel.

It sure wasn’t easy; of course, the Bulldogs made it hard on themselves by playing the last 33 minutes of the game the way Elon wanted to play it. The Citadel could have put the game out of reach early, especially against a low-scoring team that had not won on the road all season, but it wasted multiple possessions and let Elon crawl back into the contest.

Elon called a timeout at the 16:49 mark of the first half, trailing 12-2. Over the next five minutes Elon could only muster four points, missing seven shots from the field and committing a turnover during that time. That was when the Bulldogs should have put the Phoenix away, but over that same stretch The Citadel committed five turnovers and missed two out of three shots.

As it happened, The Citadel maintained the lead throughout the game well into the second half, leading 55-45 with 6:30 to play. That was deceiving, however, because the Bulldogs had never been able to put any distance between themselves and the Phoenix after the initial run to start the game. So it wasn’t a huge surprise when Elon finally put a run of its own together, and two and a half minutes later The Citadel found itself trailing for the first time. The Bulldogs only made two more baskets (and no free throws) the rest of the game, but it was just enough to win.

Elon shot poorly for much of the game, and had almost no success running its normal offense. The Phoenix scored mostly in transition and from the foul line. The Citadel gave Elon a number of transition/free throw opportunities, though, by taking a lot of out-of-character shots and committing a slew of fouls (the officiating, which was somewhat inconsistent, did not help matters).

It was a very frustrating game to watch, and I kept thinking, “we’re going to get swept by Elon, and we’re better than they are.” Then The Citadel actually won the game…

There haven’t really been too many times over the years when The Citadel has not played well and still won. Thursday night was one of those times. This is The Citadel we’re talking about, though, so every win is worth celebrating, no matter how ugly.

Maybe the Bulldogs were tired from playing their fourth game in eight days. I hope not, because they’re about to play their fifth game in ten days.

The game against UNC-Greensboro on Saturday will be the eleventh game in a twenty-eight day stretch that started with a one-point escape over Bethune-Cookman. The rest of the games have been in league play. With a win over the Spartans, The Citadel would finish with an 8-3 record in January, with seven of those wins in conference. However, the Bulldogs have to play better against UNCG than they did against Elon if they hope to win their fifth straight SoCon game.

The Citadel last won five consecutive league games during the 2000-01 season, which was also the last time the Bulldogs finished with a winning record in Southern Conference play. That year The Citadel was 3-6 in the SoCon before winning five straight to move to 8-6. It then lost once, won once, and then finished the season by losing in the first round of the conference tournament.

I could be wrong about this, but after doing some checking, I think that’s the only time in school history The Citadel has won five consecutive Southern Conference games. That gives you a little perspective on what the team is trying to accomplish.

In the first meeting between the Spartans and Bulldogs, The Citadel pulled away early in the second half and held that lead for the remainder of the game. UNCG never got closer than four points down the stretch, as the Spartans endured a miserable 5-29 night from beyond the arc. The Citadel won the game despite committing 14 turnovers (in only 60 possessions), thanks to UNCG’s poor shooting and a solid shooting effort of its own (eFG of 51.3%). This was the conference opener for both teams, and The Citadel outrebounded UNCG 37-30. As I mentioned in the last post, John Brown did not make his conference debut until after the new year, which I think is something to consider when looking at the rebounding stats.

At the time the game was a bit of a surprise, as The Citadel won its conference opener (and on the road) after having only won one league game all season the year before. However, as things stand today it isn’t nearly as surprising. The Citadel has played well all year in conference action, while UNC-Greensboro is now 3-16 overall (2-8 SoCon). Curiously, both of the Spartans’ conference victories have come away from home, including a 17-point win over Elon, so the Bulldogs have to be prepared for a team that isn’t going to roll over just because they’re on the road.

On Thursday UNCG dropped an 89-73 decision to the College of Charleston in a game in which the Cougars hit 12 first-half three-pointers en route to a 55-point half. Ben Stywall scored 26 points in a losing cause; in the first game against The Citadel, Stywall scored six points in 36 minutes (he’s averaging 11 points per game on the season).

The Spartans are one of the nation’s poorest shooting teams (39.4 FG%) and also one of the country’s worst defensive teams (46.5%). Defensively, the numbers for UNCG aren’t as bad defending the three, but opponents are making two-point shots at a 54.5% clip, which is atrocious.

If The Citadel stays within itself offensively (in other words, don’t play too fast), and maintains its excellent run of defending three-point shooting (a conference-best 28.3% against the 3 in league play), then the Bulldogs should win this game — and maybe make a little history in the process.

Filed under: Basketball, The Citadel | Tagged: Ben Stywall, Bethune-Cookman, College of Charleston, Elon, Southern Conference, The Citadel, UNC-Greensboro | Leave a comment »

We won by HOW many points?

Posted on January 28, 2009 by Sandlapper Spike

The Citadel 70, Samford 45. At Samford.

Just to put that score in perspective, The Citadel last won a road game by 25+ points in 1960, against VMI (76-45). In 1958, the Bulldogs beat the Keydets in Lexington, VA by 32 (86-54).

Other 25+ point road wins since 1940 (games are not listed by home/road in the media guide prior to that year, although it’s likely that there was no 25+ point road victory prior to 1940 anyway): Furman in 1951 (62-36); Davidson in 1945 (60-26); and Clemson in 1943 (63-38). All of these games were Southern Conference matchups (yes, Clemson was in the SoCon in 1943).

It’s not all that surprising that all of The Citadel’s lopsided road victories occurred in conference play, since A) most of the Bulldogs’ road games are against conference opponents, and B) a good chunk of The Citadel’s out-of-conference road games over the years have come against major-conference teams. The Citadel isn’t going to play Piedmont, for example, on the road.

Tangent: of all the games I’ve seen The Citadel play, Piedmont was the only opponent where I thought, “I could play for that team”. I’m not saying I would have started or anything like that…

Let’s see, what else about this game is worth noting…Samford missed its last 10 three-pointers as part of its woeful 6-32 night from behind the arc…Samford made no field goals over the last 8:30 of the game, a stretch in which it only attempted two non-three pointers from the field…there were no fast break points for either team according to the “play analysis” stats…The Citadel scored 70 points in only 59 total possessions…John Brown had 12 rebounds despite playing only 15 minutes because of foul trouble, although part of that was having plenty of rebounding opportunities thanks to Samford’s poor shooting, not to mention Samford isn’t a good rebounding team anyway…10 of the 11 players seeing minutes for Samford had at least one three-point attempt (the one guy who didn’t only played three minutes)…Samford had an 80% assist-to-made basket ratio, which is great, except that it only had 15 made baskets…Samford was only called for nine fouls for the entire game.

So The Citadel is now 11-10 overall and 6-4 in the league. The Bulldogs now have a reasonable chance at finishing with a winning record in league play, which hasn’t happened since the 2000-01 team finished 9-7 in the conference. It would only be the second winning season in the league for the school since the 1984-85 team went 11-5 in the SoCon.

That 1985 team’s 11 wins is the school record for conference victories in a season, and obviously if The Citadel were to have a winning season this year in the league it would at least tie that mark for victories. Of course, the difference is that there are 20 league games this season (which, as I’ve said before, is ridiculous). Still, a SoCon win is a SoCon win, especially for this program. Imagine if Ed Conroy and co. managed to go 12-8 in the league this season (which as of today is The Citadel’s projected conference record by Ken Pomeroy’s ratings system). Those 12 wins would equal The Citadel’s total number of conference victories from 1946-56, an eleven-year stretch (the school lost 102 SoCon games over that period).

Before I get to the upcoming game, a note of caution. The Citadel has played some good basketball over these last three games, but it’s not time to pencil the team into the Final Four just yet. This is the same club that got thumped at home by UC-Davis, and was fortunate to escape a terrible Furman team in OT. It’s also the same team that lost earlier this season to Elon, Thursday night’s opponent, one of only two league victories for the Phoenix so far this season.

Against Samford, the Bulldogs took advantage of a team that appeared to be leg-weary and could not throw the ball in the ocean in the second half, and while The Citadel played good defense, Samford did get some open looks. Still, I don’t want to devalue that performance. Cameron Wells was sensational no matter how poor Samford may have been, and it’s worth noting that it was the third straight game The Citadel had outstanding results in defending the three-point shot. Samford, as mentioned above, was 6-32 behind the arc. The College of Charleston was even worse (2-18), and Western Carolina was only 4-15 from three-land. That’s an 18.5% three-point shooting percentage for Bulldog opponents over those three games. For league games, The Citadel now leads the SoCon in defending the three (28.4%).

Last season The Citadel allowed opponents to shoot 40.0% from beyond the arc, which was in the bottom 15 nationally. That contributed in a major way to opponents shooting an effective field goal percentage of 51.3%, worst in the entire country. This year the Bulldogs have an OppeFG of 44.5%, a significant improvement, and that percentage is dropping even lower as the season progresses.

Okay, now to the rematch with Elon, which defeated The Citadel 56-54, a game marred in the closing seconds by a shaky shotclock operator. Elon parlayed that win into the start of a three-game winning streak that left it 4-4, 1-1 in league play. Apparently the Phoenix ate some bad turkey over Christmas, however, because since that third consecutive win Elon has lost eight of nine games, the only victory a one-point upset of Chattanooga last Saturday at the Koury Center. Elon is now 5-12 overall and 2-7 in SoCon action. Many of the losses have been competitive — the Phoenix lost at Wofford by three (same as The Citadel), by four to Samford, by four to Navy, and by seven at Western Carolina. There isn’t any shame in losing at Davidson by 15, either. However, Elon has also lost by 26 at Maryland (pre-Terp meltdown), by 24 at Appalachian State, and by 17 in a home game against UNC-Greensboro.

The first game between the Phoenix and Bulldogs was a very slowly paced affair (57 possessions for The Citadel) in which Elon won by shooting over 50% from the field (to The Citadel’s 42%). The Citadel made only 5 of 21 three-point attempts and went to the foul line only eight times. Interestingly, The Citadel outrebounded Elon 29-23 in that game, noteworthy in particular because rebounding savant John Brown did not play in that game. (Ed Conroy waited until after the new year to unleash Brown on an unsuspecting Southern Conference.)

Elon was 10-14 from the foul line in the game, but that was an anomaly, as it is the conference’s worst free throw shooting team (just over 60% in league play). Elon has not shot the ball well in conference action from the field, either. Also, above I discussed The Citadel’s improvement in defending the three-ball. Elon is just the opposite, as it has allowed its opponents to shoot a collective 38% from behind the arc, a percentage among the nation’s worst and last in the Southern Conference (and in conference games the number is even worse: 41.3%).

These two teams have gone in very different directions since December 6. I expect The Citadel to win the rematch, but it won’t be easy. Nothing is ever easy at The Citadel. It will be interesting to see how the Bulldogs play as a solid favorite. I’ll also be watching to see what the attendance figures are. Previous attendance for home Thursday conference games: 845 against Georgia Southern on January 8, and 1133 against Western Carolina last week.

I anticipate the trend of rising attendance to continue. I hope the level of play continues to rise as well.

Filed under: Basketball, The Citadel | Tagged: Appalachian State, Cameron Wells, Clemson, College of Charleston, Davidson, Ed Conroy, Elon, Furman, Georgia Southern, John Brown, Ken Pomeroy, Maryland, Navy, Piedmont, Samford, Southern Conference, The Citadel, UC Davis, UNC-Greensboro, UT-Chattanooga, VMI, Western Carolina, Wofford | Leave a comment »

Longtime rivals UC Davis and The Citadel to play Monday night

Posted on December 14, 2008 by Sandlapper Spike

Before writing a little bit about Monday night’s game, I just wanted to briefly comment on the results of The Citadel’s first two SoCon games. First, it’s great to actually win a conference road game (or any road game, for that matter). I also think it’s good that the team is probably a little disappointed it didn’t pull off the road sweep. Expectations may be gradually increasing for this team. This happens when in one year you go from a 30-point loss at UNC-Greensboro to a 7-point win in the same building. Holding UNCG to 5-29 from beyond the arc was also a welcome development (struggling down the stretch from the foul line, not so much).

I will say this. The SoCon owes The Citadel a couple of makeup calls against Elon in both football and basketball (actually, in football three or four makeup calls are in order). I can’t say I was upset to see Elon choke away a potential FCS berth by losing to Liberty. Elon should never have been in a position to get a bid in the first place, because it was given a win over The Citadel by hilariously inept Southern Conference officiating. Just desserts and all that.

The hoopsters’ matchup at Elon featured a really convenient (for the Phoenix) shotclock reset situation at the end of the game. Nice. No telling what the umpiring will be like at Riley Park for the first SoCon series of the year.

Okay, on to the battle with the Aggies…

I’ve been trying to figure out how this matchup (the first ever between the two schools) came to be ever since the hoops schedule came out. My best guess is that UCD was going to have to play Presbyterian in Clinton, S.C., anyway (in a return game from last season) and figured if it had to travel all the way to South Carolina, why not make it a two-game trip. I don’t know if this means a journey to Davis is in the cards for The Citadel in the next couple of years. If it is, I hope the team doesn’t spend too much time at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science.

The institute is just part of a sprawling campus scene at UC Davis, which is one of those schools nobody on the east coast has ever heard of that just happens to have 30,000 students. It’s part of the UC system, along with fellow Big West schools Irvine, Riverside, and Santa Barbara. It’s located in Davis (surprise!), which is a city of about 60,000 near Sacramento. Davis is a haven for bicyclists, and for toads. Seriously. From a Wikipedia entry (and remember, wiki is never wrong):

Davis’ Toad Tunnel is a wildlife crossing that was constructed in 1995…Because of the building of an overpass, animal lovers worried about toads being killed by cars commuting from South Davis to North Davis, since the toads hopped from one side of a dirt lot (which the overpass replaced) to the reservoir at the other end. After much controversy, a decision was made to build a toad tunnel, which runs beneath the Pole Line Road overpass which crosses Interstate 80. The project cost $14,000. The tunnel is 21 inches (53 cm) wide and 18 inches (46 cm) high.

The tunnel has created problems of its own. The toads originally refused to use the tunnel and so the tunnel was lit to encourage its use. The toads then died from the heat of the lamps inside the tunnel. Once through the tunnel, the toads also had to contend with birds who grew wise to the toad-producing hole in the ground. The exit to the toad tunnel has been decorated by the Post-Master to resemble a toad town.

The Wikipedia entry also refers to Davis as being “known as a strongly leftist-liberal town,” which after reading about the toad tunnel shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise.

UCD started off as a farm for UC Berkeley (basically, an extension service) and gradually morphed into a free-standing university, being officially established in 1959. It’s still an agricultural school (hence the nickname “Aggies”) but has added several other academic disciplines. In reading about UCD I noticed that it has an Army ROTC program, which is apparently the largest of its kind in the State of California.

UC Davis is in its sixth year as a Division I school after a successful run in NCAA Division II. Last season the Aggies finished last in the Big West with a 1-14 record (9-22 overall). UCD lost 13 of its last 14 games and completed the campaign sporting an RPI of 283. Over the last three seasons the Aggies are 2-33 in road/neutral contests. The Citadel can relate to those types of numbers.

This season, UCD is 3-6, with wins over Loyola-Marymount, Tulane, and Cal State-Bakersfield, and losses to UW-Milwaukee, Iowa State, South Alabama, Portland, Arkansas, and Sacramento State. The Aggies are a really good free throw shooting team (81.8%, which is currently third nationally) and have a very nice assist/basket ratio (70%, also third nationally). They have not been a strong defensive team, allowing opponents to shoot 47.5% from the field.

The Aggies average a little over 70 possessions per game. It will be interesting to see which team controls the tempo, as The Citadel has averaged just over 60 possessions per game. Few teams have collectively played their games at a slower pace than the Bulldogs.

UCD has three players averaging in double figures in scoring. Joe Harden is a 6’8″ guard (!) averaging 15 points and 8 rebounds per game. Dominic Calegari is a 6’10” forward who can shoot the three. He’s 16-31 from beyond the arc so far this season (and a career 40% 3-point shooter). Vince Oliver, a 6’3″ guard, is averaging 10.8 points per game. Mark Payne is another tall guard (he’s 6’7″) who leads the team in assists, with 5.3 per game (he also boards at a 5.6 clip). The Aggies employ a nine-man rotation.

I’m not sure what to make of UCD, a tall team that doesn’t rebound particularly well and has no shotblockers. Defending the three could be a challenge for The Citadel, and the Bulldogs definitely don’t want to send the Aggies to the foul line. If the Bulldogs can keep UCD from having a good night from beyond the arc, The Citadel can win this game. The other factor to consider is the layoff. Neither team has played a game in the past nine days.

Filed under: Basketball, The Citadel | Tagged: Arkansas, Big West, Cal State-Bakersfield, college basketball, Dominic Calegari, Elon, FCS, Iowa State, Joe Harden, Liberty, Loyola-Marymount, Mark Payne, Portland, Presbyterian, Riley Park, Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, Sacramento State, South Alabama, Southern Conference, The Citadel, toads, Tulane, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, UNC-Greensboro, UW-Milwaukee, Vince Oliver | Leave a comment »

SoCon hoops is upon us; hide the women and children

Posted on December 4, 2008 by Sandlapper Spike

I long for a simpler time, when life’s problems were all solved in half-hour increments (allowing for an occasional one-hour special) and conference play in basketball didn’t start until January. Those days are gone, however, and so it’s time for some SoCon hoops. Last night Appalachian State kicked off the conference season by beating Furman. There are two games tonight, College of Charleston-Elon and the game everyone in the nation is awaiting, The Citadel-UNC Greensboro.

This will be the seventeenth time these two non-rivals have faced off. Sixteen of those appearances have come since UNCG attained Division I status in 1992. The Citadel won the first four games of the series, but the Spartans have won 11 of the last 12, all of which have come since UNCG entered the Southern Conference (the Spartans began Division I existence in the Big South). UNCG has had some good teams during that stretch, and The Citadel…has not. The Citadel has only won at Fleming Gym in Greensboro one time, on its first visit in 1992, losing six straight at UNCG since then. Overall the Spartans have beaten the Bulldogs eight straight times.

This season UNC-Greensboro must replace Kyle Hines, a 6’8″ bruiser who used The Citadel to enhance his All-Conference credentials, and it’s off to a tough start in doing so. The Spartans are 1-3, with the one victory over non-Division I opponent Webber International. UNCG has also lost non-competitive games at UNC Charlotte and North Carolina State, while also losing on the road to Central Arkansas (which beat The Citadel in Cancun last weekend, of course).

UNCG has some ugly offensive numbers so far this season. It is shooting 39.7% from the field (44.8% eFG) and only 58.2% from the foul line. Its turnover rate per possession is among the nation’s worst. Its assist/turnover ratio is abysmal.

Defensively, it is allowing opponents to shoot 2-pt. shots at a 56.9% clip, which is alarming. Demetrius Nelson, take heed. UNCG does appear to rebound the ball fairly well. Again, with only three games played, warnings about small sample sizes need apply.

Individually, the Spartans are led by Mikko Koivisto, a 6’4″ guard from Finland averaging 15.8 points per game with solid stats across the board. They employ a nine-man rotation (UNCG has only 10 scholarship players this season). Ben Stywall, a 6’5″ forward, is the leading rebounder, pulling down 8 boards per game, but he’s not making shots, either from the field or the foul line (10-23 from the stripe).

I don’t have a sense for how this game may turn out. Considering how dominant UNCG has been in this series over the past decade, it would be hard to bet against them winning again tonight, but perhaps The Citadel can take advantage of some early-season struggles by the Spartans. I like The Citadel’s recent trend of low-possession games, and I think that should continue (the Spartans’ games have mostly been played at an average tempo). Offensively, the Bulldogs need to keep holding onto the ball, waiting for good shot opportunities, get some inside scoring, and take (and make) free throws. Defensively, The Citadel needs to do a good job guarding the perimeter (especially against Koivisto) and hold its own on the boards.

Filed under: Basketball, The Citadel | Tagged: Appalachian State, Central Arkansas, College of Charleston, Demetrius Nelson, Elon, Furman, Kyle Hines, Mikko Koivisto, North Carolina State, Southern Conference, The Citadel, UNC Charlotte, UNC-Greensboro, Webber International | Leave a comment »

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