Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 16, 1993 TAG: 9312160106
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-12 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PETE IACOBELLI ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: COLUMBIA, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
Several startling early-season victories, though, are opening eyes and gaining the league some respect.
It started when Towson State defeated St. John's 66-65 in the opening round of the preseason NIT tournament.
It continued with Campbell's 72-69 defeat of North Carolina State.
And it finished with Coastal Carolina's 88-74 dumping of South Carolina.
"We're really starting to live up to first part of our name," Winthrop coach Dan Kenney said.
Is the 10-year-old conference that stretches from Baltimore to Charleston - and which includes Radford University - ready to regularly defeat teams from the Big East, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southeastern Conference?
"We think that our conference is going to continue to grow and continue to get better," said Coastal Carolina coach Russ Bergman, whose team ended the Gamecocks' 14-game winning streak against Big South members.
"If you don't recruit better players, you're going to be in the bottom of the Big South every year."
The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers have been the benchmark of the Big South.
Until Campbell's Fighting Camels topped North Carolina State on Dec. 4, Coastal Carolina had the league's last victory over an Atlantic Coast Conference team - 106-104 at Wake Forest in 1987.
Big South Commissioner Buddy Sasser figures that the strong start will help his conference when the postseason bids go out in March.
He and Bergman expect an increase in the conference's power ratings, a complicated formula that uses a league's overall schedule strength in deciding on the National Collegiate Athletic Association's tournament selection and seeding.
Coastal Carolina has been the league's NCAA tournament representative in two of the three years the Big South has had an automatic bid. The Chanticleers lost to No. 2 seed Indiana in 1991 and to No. 1 seed Michigan this past March.
Bergman thinks this season's victories will expand the league's postseason possibilities.
He said his 1989-90 team went 23-6 with a 73-72 victory at Cincinnati, yet was shunned by the NCAA and the National Invitation Tournament. "Now if someone goes 23-6 in the Big South and doesn't get to the NCAA, they're surely going to get an NIT bid," he said.
Kenney said Division I scholarship reductions from 15 to 13 have had a trickle down effect for Big South teams, creating a little more parity throughout the division.
Conference coaches talked about improving their nonconference opponents during summer meetings, said Towson State coach Terry Truax.
Besides St. John's, his Tigers have played Massachusetts, Connecticut and Dayton. "The conference is making a concentrated effort to play those teams, even if you have to play them on the road," Truax said.
League members will even agree to two road games with just one home game to attract certain schools, he said.
"Wake Forest, North Carolina State, Cincinnati are schools that have won championships," Bergman said. "When you can beat a team that has that type of history, those schools are always going to be shocked when a Big South team beats them."
by CNB