Heading into his eighth consecutive season at Liberty, Ritchie McKay and the Liberty Flames are being projected by nearly every prediction as the preseason ASUN favorites once again. The Flames are looking to win 20 or more games for a seventh straight year and win a fourth ASUN regular season and tournament title in five years.
Over the weekend, KenPom released its initial ratings entering the 2022-23 men’s basketball. The Flames are listed at No. 82 overall and 1st in the ASUN. KenPom listed Liberty as the 79th adjusted offense at 104.5 while the adjusted defense came in at 92nd and 94.9. Both of those numbers are based on points per 100 possessions.
This is the highest preseason ranking by KenPom for Liberty in school history. The Flames’ previously highest preseason mark was No. 86 during the 2019-20 season when Liberty was coming off its first ever NCAA Tournament win over Mississippi State in March 2019.
Liberty has finished with its highest ever rankings in the final KenPom ratings each of the past four seasons, finishing No. 58 following the 2018-19 season, No. 79 following the 2019-20 campaign, No. 98 at the end of the 2020-21 season, and finished No. 124 last year. The Flames’ next best finishes in the history of KenPom’s ratings came in 2003-04 when Randy Dunton’s team was ranked No. 181 and in 2017-18 when the Flames finished No. 184 under McKay.
Following Liberty in the ASUN is No. 172 Jacksonville. Behind the Dolphins is No. 180 Lipscomb, followed by Kennesaw State (#209), Jacksonville State (#217), Austin Peay (#218), North Florida (#219), Queens (#227), Bellarmine (#242), FGCU (#257), Eastern Kentucky (#259), Stetson (#313), North Alabama (#321), Central Arkansas (#332), and Queens (#227)
KenPom projects the Flames to finish the regular season with a 24-6 overall mark to go along with the 15-3 ASUN record projection. The computer model has Liberty as underdog against Alabama on Nov. 11 with just a 15% chance to win the game. The Flames are also predicted as an underdog against Northwestern on Nov. 22 with a 45% chance to win, but every other game on the schedule KenPom currently has Liberty with a greater than 50% chance to win.
Ritchie McKay’s Flames are coming off a 22-11 season and 12-4 mark in conference play that saw Liberty fall to Bellarmine in the ASUN semifinals, halting a streak of three consecutive conference championships. Liberty will open the season at home against Regent University, a member of the NCCAA, on Nov. 7, before heading to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to take on the Alabama Crimson Tide on Nov. 11.
