Men’s hoops update
Liberty basketball continues their struggles. The Flames lost both of their games this week to Presbyterian and UNC Asheville. The home loss to Presbyterian was especially troubling since PC is ranked as one of the worst teams in Division I basketball and was projected to finish in last place in the Big South this season. It is the Blue Hose’s only Division I win of the season. When will the first conference win come? It may be a while as Liberty hosts Coastal Carolina on Saturday. The Chanticleers are 3-0 in conference play and 12-3 overall this season.
Women’s hoops update
The Lady Flames continue their terrific play as they improved to 6-0 in Big South play following wins over High Point, Presbyterian, and Coastal Carolina this week. LU has won an amazing 43 consecutive games against Coastal Carolina in women’s basketball. Liberty is the only remaining undefeated team in conference play with High Point and Winthrop both with just 1 loss.
Des Rice cleared to play
Running back Des Rice tweeted this week that he is cleared to play and will participate in Spring practice. Rice tore his ACL during Spring practice in 2014. He was Liberty’s leading rusher in 2013 with over 900 rushing yards.
Praise God I’m finally cleared! See ya in the spring @Flames_Nation
— Desmond Rice (@Drice26) January 8, 2015
Football recruiting update
As we updated earlier this week, Dorian Kithcart has named his top 5 schools which are Liberty, Kent State, William & Mary, Mercer, and Kennesaw State. The big defensive lineman is scheduled to visit Liberty January 23rd. Get caught up on all of Liberty’s 2015 class including the commits and pending offers from our football recruiting update earlier this week.
Bonds’ waiver request denied
Former Liberty signee Braxton Bonds’ waiver request to play this season as Tennessee has been denied by the NCAA. The freshman guard originally enrolled at Liberty this past summer, but left after just a week. He ended up walking on at Tennessee, but he will not get to play this season due to the NCAA’s transfer fules. He will redshirt and have four years of eligibility remaining.
Holtmann named Butler’s head coach
It’s a slow time of the year so allow us to interject a couple of Big South tidbits. First, former Gardner-Webb head basketball coach Chris Holtmann has been named the head coach at Butler. Holtmann was Gardner-Webb’s head coach from 2010-2013 before leaving to take an assistant coaching job at Butler under Brandon Miller. Miller has been on medical leave since early October with Holtmann filling in as interim coach during this time.
Ray Lewis III transfers to Coastal
The son of the former NFL star has decided to transfer from the University of Miami to Coastal Carolina. Lewis will be eligible immediately and has 3 seasons of eligibility remaining. He redshirted in 2013 and did not see any playing action in 2014. Lewis was originally recruited as a running back, but has switched to defensive back while with Miami.
Realignment update
It’s still rather slow on the realignment front, but there was this tweet earlier in the week:
According to Karl Benson the Sun Belt commish, the NCAA should be ruling on deregulated champ games within 90 days — Landthieves (@LandThieves) January 5, 2015
If that is the case, we may not hear anything until the ruling is made. If you want Liberty to make the move to FBS, you want the NCAA to rule against the proposal. The proposal is to allow conferences to hold conference championship games without having 12 teams. If this proposal is passed, there’s no need for the Sun Belt, or the Big 12 for that matter, to seek to add any additional schools to reach 12 football playing members.
FlameFans thread of the week
We’ve resurrected the annual FlameFans Awards after a few years off. You can find the polls for each of the 12 categories in the FlameFans 101 forum. Categories include poster of the year, thread of the year, best opposing team poster, weirdest post of the year, etc.
