DUNTON

[GREG]

Coach Dunton is a class act. His mission is to produce a team that is commited to Jesus Christ and the game. There was a rumor when I was at Liberty 89- 94 that Shaq narrowed his choice to Liberty or LSU. We all know where he went. Even if is was a rumor, wouldn't be great to starting hearing that top players are considering Liberty. There are allot of christian basketball players our there and I believe that Dunton, as the excellent recruiter (he was here when Liberty went to the 1st round of the NCAA Tournament).

In case you don't recall, with 9:59 to go in the second half the Flames led North Carolina 46-45. The dream of an upset died as the Tarheels bench showed what they were made of.

Going to the men's tournament is a great accomplisment for the Flames. Coach Dutton has been apart of two NCAA tournament. Other than Coastal Carolina and Winthrop, no other team in the conference has been to the tourmanet more, I believe. I think that the Flames also were in the finals and lost to UNC-Greeenboro and I cannot recall the other team they played.

The Flames prgram is in ecxellent hands in Coach Dutton. He wears the program on his sleve as they say. He wants to make the Flames the best that he can.

Give him a chance. He did when Jeff Meyer was here as a recruiter he can do it now as the head coach.

Randy in case you don't know, this is Greg from Baltimore. I'll try to get to a game or two this season.

I'll be praying for you and the team.

God Bless

[ATrain]

I thought we were tied with Coastal for trips, and I thought CSUI and possibly Radford have been more

[Realist]

I think he's right. WU, then CCU and LU, then others. RU definitely doesn't have more than you, I think they only have one.

[Realist]

And do you count CCU's? They went on probation for bad violations in the years they won.

[WinthropEagleFan]

Trips to the Big Dance:

Winthrop - 5
Liberty - 2
Coastal - 2
UNCA - 1
CSU - 1
RU - 1
Campbell (former member) - 1
UNC Greensboro (former member) - 1

VMI has made 3 appearances, but they all came before they were in the Big South, with the last one coming in 1977.

[grm]

Thanks for the info, EagleFan. I guess your beat writer, Gary McGann, is the guy with the input for Street & Smith Mag. He's got us last in the preseason pics, making me wish Chris Lang was the man for S & S. Anyway, all the better for us. I'll bet Gregg Marshall & Team respect us more than McGann. Not your fault, EagleFan, just sounding off.

[WinthropEagleFan]

Yeah, I think I laughed out loud when I saw LU at 9th place in the Street & Smith mag. Also, to clarify, McGann writes for the Herald (he might even be the sports editor if I'm not mistaken), but he isn't the Winthrop beat writer, so though I'm sure he follows Winthrop and the league, he probably wasn't the best choice for S&S to pick (Earl Gault is the beat writer).

[Sly Fox]

Even in our worst case scenarios, I don't see us falling anywhere near the bottom. Having newspaper guys write these stories for a few extra bucks isn't an ideal situation.

[Chris Lang]

sumner said:

Even in our worst case scenarios, I don't see us falling anywhere near the bottom. Having newspaper guys write these stories for a few extra bucks isn't an ideal situation.

It's a really tough deal, Sly. Just to give you a bit of insight, one year, I did a Pac-10 preview for one of these mags. Of course, I covered the Big Sky, and not the Pac-10. I wasn't complaining. It was worth $500 to me, so of course I took the assignment.

The other thing was that the preview was due the first week of August. So basically, I was writing off summer prospecti. These things don't take into account whether or not a key JC guy transfers in late into the summer, or if a guy gets injured in September.

So they're nice to talk about, but not terribly reliable.

[SCAR]

True, not reliable at all. When I first started doing television I used to buy all the pre-season magazines but now I just search the websites and talk to the coaches and SID's.

[WinthropEagleFan]

Yeah, I'll usually pick up the Sporting News' guide (I like to have one sitting on the coffee table) and I live off of the Blue Ribbon Yearbook, but the other guides are generally worthless when it comes to covering the 'smaller' conferences.

[Chris Lang]

Sporting News is my favorite by far.

[Sly Fox]

Chris, I don't blame you collecting some income on the side. I've done it myself. But frankly, its not a situation that breeds quality work.

I concur on the praise for The Sporting News. I have to admit I haven't given Blue Ribbon much of a read in the past. Perhaps I should.

[PAmedic]

...so I was reading Better Homes and Gardens the other day, and there was this really cool article on refinishing antique coffee tables, ya know, and...

[elicoolbreeze]

Since much was spoken of about the Sporting News I decided to post the rankings of the teams in the Big South Conference by this magazine.

1) Winthrop
2) UNC Asheville
3) Coastal Carolina
4) Radford
5) Liberty
6) Birmingham Southern
7) Charleston Southern
8) High Point
9) Virginia Military Institute

Michael Bradley who was the writer had Rashad Robinson still on the Liberty squad obviously due to having to get the writing in before Rashad's departure.