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Following last night’s 97-31 victory by Eastern Kentucky, the SCGD returns to more competitive action tonight as our focus shifts over to the Big South Conference.  Last season, UNC-Asheville took the conference tournament championship to advance to the NCAA tournament.  This year, the Big South has expanded to 12 teams and two divisions with the addition of Longwood.  The defending champions are half a game out of first place is the South Division, behind Charleston Southern.  While the Bulldogs host Winthrop tonight, it is the game involving the first place team that gets our attention.

The Buccaneers of Charleston Southern stand at 7-1, first place in their division, and have the best record in the conference.  They are 12-7 overall.  After starting the season losing 5 of their first 6 games, they have only lost twice, once at Wichita State, and the other time being upset last week by Gardner-Webb in overtime.  The Bucs are led by Saah Nimley who has scored 20 or more points in each of his last three games.

Tonight, the conference leaders try to rebound from their first loss of the season when they head out on the road to battle Coastal Carolina (7:00 PM Eastern).  The Chanticleers are 5-4 in conference and 10-10 overall, including wins over both Akron and Clemson.  However, they have had more than their share of bad losses, including Tennessee Tech, Liberty and Winthrop.  CCU has won 7 straight home games and is led by Anthony Raffa and Kierre Greenwood, who reached the 450 career assist mark last time out.

In terms of postseason implications, the Big South has been one of the weakest overall conferences all season, holding the second worst conference RPI among leagues with automatic bids.  Charleston Southern enters with an RPI of 184, while CCU has an RPI of 265.  Their KenPom ratings are not much better, sitting at 163 and 200 respectively.  What this most likely means is that, barring some crazy upsets during Championship Week, the Big South champion is destined for a trip to Dayton and a First Four matchup against another #16 seed.

The Battle of Chalk Bluff, May 1-2, 1863.  Union Brigadier General Vandever was repulsed in his attempt to prevent Confederate General Marmaduke from crossing the St. Francis River, though Marmaduke’s forces suffered considerable losses.  The battle was fought near the present day city of Paragould, Arkansas, at a geological formation known as Crowley’s Ridge.

Today, Crowley’s Ridge also gives its name to a tiny four year private college whose 2011 enrollment totaled 311 students.  Those students interested in playing basketball can fill out a simple signup form on the school’s web site (www.crc.edu).  The school is a member of the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA).  Through January 19 of this year, their men’s basketball team was 5-15 on the season.  Apparently, none of the 311 students at the school has bothered updating their website with the results of the four games they have played since then.*

Tonight, 7:00 PM Eastern, small Crowley’s Ridge College will send their Pioneers men’s basketball team on the road to Richmond, Kentucky to battle the Colonels of Eastern Kentucky out of the Ohio Valley Conference.  While on occasion a Division I school will face off against a Division 2 or 3 school, or even more rarely against an NAIA school, for a Division I team to play an NCCAA school is almost unheard of.  Almost.  This same Crowley’s Ridge team actually already played another OVC member, Tennessee Tech, back in November.  CRC lost 107-32.  Unfortunately, it is likely to be more of the same in tonight’s SCGD.

One more side note on CRC – they actually have only been a member of the NCCAA for about 4 years now.  Prior to that, they were in the Association of Christian College Athletics (ACCA), where they were actually the runner-up in the National Tournament in 2007.  If you want any further information about the team, feel free to check out their website.  The phone number and email address of Head Coach Chris Perkins is listed right on it.

*UPDATE: Through due diligence, it has been established they went 2-2 in those games, making their current overall record 7-17.

Northwestern State stayed a game behind Stephen F. Austin and Oral Roberts in the Southland yesterday with their win over McNeese State.  We also saw the Baltimore Ravens win a game of mild importance.  With football finally behind us, the SCGD today turns its attention to a very special matchup in the Colonial Athletic Association.

At 7:00 PM Eastern tonight, UNC-Wilmington will be traveling to Towson, Maryland to take on the Towson Tigers.  The importance of this game:  it is a battle between the two members of the CAA that have been banned from postseason play this season due to their APR (Academic Progress Rate) scores.  Towson and UNC-Wilmington are two of nine teams that have been banned from postseason play due to APRs this season, with the most notable team being the UConn Huskies.

The other special note in this game has to do with last season’s performance by Towson.  As has been documented, Towson controversially won the “Centenary Award” last season with their 1-31 record.  Their one victory, of course, was a home win last January over none other than UNC-Wilmington.

As for this season, Towson has been one of the most surprising stories all year.  They are sitting at 11-12 heading into tonight’s game and 6-4 in the CAA.  UNC-Wilmington, on the other hand, is only 8-13 overall and 2-6 in conference.  Towson’s story would be all the better if they had a shot at picking up a bid to the Big Dance this season, but just finishing at or above .500 would be a huge accomplishment coming off their disastrous 2011-12 campaign.