Football season is over for everyone in the Big South with the exception of Charleston Southern, leaving us to focus on basketball. With a couple weeks into the season, and most of the Big South teams having played 5 or 6 games, we thought it was time to unveil our inaugural 2015-16 men’s basketball power rankings. This is based on all games played through the end of November.
Note: National rankings are courtesy of KenPom.com. Arrows denote movement in power rankings since last week.
1. High Point 4-2 #141
no change
The John Brown era continues in much the same way its been his entire career at High Point. The Panthers have a couple solid nonconference wins, including a road win over Drexel, and 2 very close losses to Power 5 schools (Texas Tech & Georgia by a combined 7 points). We know Scott Cherry’s club is good and will rack up the wins during the regular season, the question remains on how the Panthers will perform in the postseason.
This week: 12/2 vs Longwood, 12/5 @ Gardner-Webb
2. Winthrop 4-1 #190
no change
If it wasn’t for Cat Barber’s career-high 37 points to lead NC State over Winthrop by 8 points in Raleigh, the Eagles would remain unblemished this season. Pat Kelsey’s squad has taken care of business against the likes of Hampton, Jacksonville State, and USC-Upstate, and they are doing so by scoring a ton of points. Winthrop is 14th in the country in points per game as they are nearly averaging 90 points each night, eclipsing the 100 point mark in their first 2 games of the year.
This week: 12/2 @ Charleston Southern, 12/5 vs Presbyterian
3. Radford 4-3 #196
no change
The Highlanders have had an up and down first few weeks of the season. They started the year with a win over Georgetown, but then struggled to beat Catawba and lost to Siena. Radford also holds a win over Penn State, but then lost at home to JMU last night. Senior guard Rashun Davis is leading the team with 16.1 points and 6 assists per game.
This week: 12/3 vs Liberty, 12/6 @ Coastal
4. UNC-Asheville 3-4 #195
no change
UNCA is a tough team to get a good read on this early in the season. Asheville has very close losses to the likes of Tennessee and Middle Tennessee State, but got blitzed by Texas A&M. The Bulldogs also have a couple of nice wins by beating Drexel and Loyola Chicago, but a questionable loss to Western Carolina. Their leading scorer is sophomore guard Kevin Vannatta who has only scored in double figures once and is averaging 11.1 points per game. UNCA has 7 players averaging between 6.7 and 11.1 points per game.
This week: 12/5 vs Johnson & Wales
5. Charleston Southern 2-4 #312
no change
The Buccaneers have challenged themselves early this season with games against Wichita State, Stanford, and Arkansas, but they have lost each of those games by an average margin of 26 points. CSU’s lone Division I win came against East Tennessee State at home. We’ll obviously learn more about the Bucs this week as they face Winthrop and travel to Lynchburg to take on the Flames.
This week: 12/2 vs Winthrop, 12/5 @ Liberty
6. Coastal Carolina 3-3, 0-1 #174
no change
The Chanticleers opened conference play very early with a 79-73 loss at Campbell. Coastal is being led by junior guard Elijah Wilson who surpassed the 1,000 career point mark in the game against the Camels. Wilson is averaging 13.5 points per game on the season.
This week: 12/2 vs Auburn, 12/6 vs Radford
7. Gardner-Webb 2-5 #254
no change
The Runnin’ Bulldogs have played the toughest schedule in the conference so far with matchups against Iowa, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, George Washington, and Army. Other than forcing the Black Knights to overtime, Gardner-Webb hasn’t been competitive in any of those games. Their lone Division I win came against Southeast Louisiana.
This week: 12/2 @ PC, 12/5 vs High Point
8. Campbell 4-2, 1-0 #281
no change
The Camels’ season got off to a slow start with bad losses to Savannah State and Morgan State, but they have rebounded with 3 straight wins first beating SIU-Edwardsville on the road, then opening conference play by defeating 2-time champ Coastal Carolina, and following that up with a 1 point win over VMI. Campbell is off until December 9th when they face Charlotte.
This week: No games scheduled
9. Presbyterian 3-3 #329
no change
DeSean Murray has picked up right where he left off a season ago. Last season’s Big South Freshman of the Year is leading the Blue Hose with 19.5 points per game while averaging 6 boards a game. He’s already scored 20 or more points in 3 games, including each of his last 2.
This week: 12/2 vs Gardner-Webb, 12/5 @ Winthrop
10. Longwood 3-4 #270
no change
Longwood got off to a terrible start, losing their first 4 Division I games before rebounding with a nice win at Columbia, 70-69. Kanayo Obi-Rapu is leading the way at 16.1 points per game.
This week: 12/2 @ High Point, 12/5 vs UMBC
11. Liberty 3-4 #346
no change
The Coach McKay era got off to a solid showing thanks to favorable scheduling. Liberty opened with 4 home games, 3 against sub-DI teams, as they raced to a 3-1 record. The Challenge in Music City wasn’t as friendly, the Flames dropped all 3 games. The packline defense McKay brought with him down 29 from Charlottesville is already paying dividends, Liberty ranks 2nd in the league in scoring defense, holding opponents to 63.9 points per game.
