VCU's Run Nets Georgia State $193K

Not too shabby.  Thanks to the Rams for this.  As we discussed a few weeks ago, the CAA does not share profits equally and rewards the teams who actually compete in the postseason. 

Let's hope we can return the favor very soon.

Wilmington Star News Link

Georgia State Baseball Hosts CAA Opponent VCU

The 19-4 Panthers are hosting the 7-12 VCU Rams Friday through Sunday. The Panthers are 3-0 in CAA play after sweeping Towson and the Rams are 1-2 after a close series with James Madison. The Panthers are coming into the series on a hot-streak, both at the team level and individual level. The current 10-game winning streak and 19-4 record are good for a school record and the team is tied for the NCAA's third longest winning streak. Only four teams in college baseball have more wins than the Panthers.

Who: The VCU Rams are CAA conference mates of the Panthers and 2010 defending CAA Champions. Coach Frady is 9-3-1 against VCU and 4-2 at home, the Rams defeated GSU in the first game of the 2010 CAA tournament.

VCU at the Plate: The Rams are batting .284 as a team and scoring 5.3 runs per game. They have scored over their average only 6 times, 42 of their 100 runs have come in 3 games against Holy Cross (1) and Princeton (2). Removing those 3 games, they're averaging only 3.6 runs per game. Senior outfielder John Lenherr leads by large margin at the plate with a .419 batting average and slugging near .600. John doesn't have any home runs but he has 6 doubles and 3 triples on the year and he accounts for almost 30% of their stolen bases being 9-for-11. Hitting in the 2nd spot in the lineup, John is the guy you want to keep off base as he can get in scoring position very quickly on you. Utility man Taylor Perkins is hitting .300 and leads the team with 17 RBI's. Taylor has started every game for the Rams. VCU has not shown much power with only 3 home runs and slugging .371 as a team with three different players accounting for the home runs.

VCU on the Mound: The Rams have a team ERA of 4.26 and has been a decent squad this season. They're allowing an average of 5.8 runs per game and have allowed more than 6 runs only 4 times. Half of their 12 losses have been by 2 runs or less so their pitching staff has kept them in games. This leads me to say VCU is a better team than their 7-12 record shows. All three starters to face have good strike-to-walk numbers at or better than 3:1. Starters as follows:

Seth Cutler-Voltz (Jr., RH) will pitch on Friday. He is 1-1 with a 5.17 ERA after 5 starts. WHIP of 1.5 and batters are .312 against him. He was an innings eater in 2010 and is averaging just over 6 innings per start this season. Seth is a power fastball pitcher.

Kyle Haynes (So., RH) gets the start on Saturday. Kyle is 2-3 after 5 starts with a 3.81 ERA. Kyle has had some tough luck getting little help from the offense with 2 losses coming from scores of 1-3 and 3-4. WHIP of 1.3 and batters are hitting .267 against him. Kyle made 12 starts as a freshman and ended the season with a 5.60 ERA.

David Benson (Sr., RH) is a VCU newcomer and gets the ball on Sunday. He is 1-1 with a 2.25 ERA after 4 starts and 1 relief appearance. David has 30 strikeouts in 24 innings pitched and batters are hitting .250 against him. One of his no-decisions came in a 6 inning outing against Longwood where he allowed only 3 hits, no runs, 1 walk and 9 K's. His only loss came against James Madison where he went 6 innings and allowed only 2 runs off 7 hits and 2 walks. David seems to be the most talented starter the Panthers will face.

The Rams have a steady group of relievers in the fact that none of them have had a mound meltdown this season. About half the group has given up around an inning per outing, a quarter given up more and the other quarter given up less. They can throw some good pitchers out but none have proven to be shut down pitchers so runs can be scored late. Chris Shaklee is the exception here. He has 9 appearance with 15.1 innings pitched and he's allowed 4 runs (2 earned) off 12 hits and 7 walks. He has a WHIP of near 1.3. (This brings me back to my point about Will Campbell having a very low WHIP for a starter)

GSU at the Plate: The Panthers come into the series batting .317 with most starters above the .300 mark. Over the winning streak, the team BA has raised by 45 points from .272. Brett Maxwell and Brandon Williams are over the .400 mark at .429 and .407 respectively. Ryan Fleming continues to be the home run (5) and RBI (26) leader. Most of the lineup is hot right now so they'll be a good test for VCU's pitching staff. The team is scoring 7.6 runs per game. (I'm keeping this section short going forward since it's typically covered several times per week and I repeat most of what's said here.)

GSU on the Mound:


Aidan Francis (Sr., LH) gets the start in the series opener with a 3-0 record and a 4.91 ERA. Francis has faced some high-powered offenses with success against Mercer, Georgia Tech and Murray State so I don't expect him to have many issues against VCU. He's given up 5 of the staff's 8 home runs but considering who he has faced, it's not a concern in this game given VCU's lack of power. He's pitched 25.2 innings in his 5 starts and batters are .277 against him. He has allowed 9 walks and recorded 20 strikeouts. WHIP of 1.4.

Charley Olson (Sr., RH) will oppose Kyle Haynes on Saturday. Charley is 2-2 in 4 starts with a 3.51 ERA. Charley has an almost identical stat line as Francis beyond the record and ERA. Same innings pitched 25.2, same batting average against at .277, same WHIP at 1.4 and he has 2 more strikeouts on the season with 22. His last start came against Murray State where he pitched 6 innings and allowed only 2 runs.

Justin Malone (Jr., RH) gets the series wrap-up on Sunday. He enters the game with a 4-0 record and a 3.00 ERA after 5 starts. Justin has a WHIP of 1.3 after 30 innings pitched and allowing 14 runs (10 earned) on 31 hits and 7 walks. As I said earlier, all three starters have a strike-to-walk ratio of 3:1 or better. Batters are hitting .279 against him which is virtually the same as Francis and Olson. Malone's last outing was against Murray State where he pitched 5.2 innings and allowed 4 runs on 8 hits.

The great thing about these 3 starters (and throw in Will and Nick for that matter) is you know what to expect when each one takes the mound. They have been consistently great all season for the Panthers. I really like the pitching match-ups here as I think it gives us the best chance for a 3-game sweep. VCU has relied upon their pitching to get to the record they have but they haven't faced pitching to our caliber yet. They played James Madison close and JMU has an inferior pitching staff to GSU and the gap isn't even close. The VCU batting lineup isn't dangerous enough to worry about any one of our starters allowing more than their typical run allowance unless one just has a bad day. We likely see the best pitching from VCU and the lowest scoring game from both sides on Sunday. I have all the confidence in the world right now in our relievers so it's tough to bet against us for a sweep unless the Panther offense falls out of their hitting streak (knocking on wood).

It looks like rain could be around Saturday and Sunday so let's hope that it stays away long enough to let us move to 6-0 in the CAA. GO PANTHERS!!!

Closing the Book on the Barnes Era

Photo Courtesy of GSU Sports Communications

Whenever a Head Coach is fired, it's not a happy time.  We don't celebrate firings  (or at least I don't).  I understand what Coach Barnes inherited and I'm glad that he was able to refocus the men's basketball program in the classroom and running a clean program.  Recruiting had been a bit of an issue and if you missed my Recruiting Hits and Misses, check it out here.

I ran some numbers to see what the Barnes Era looked like: 
-44 wins and 79 losses overall
-24-48 in CAA play (8-10 was our best year in 2008-09)
-Team PPG was 61.6 in 4 seasons.  That's one of the worst in the country over that stretch.
-Team FG% was 41.9% in 4 seasons.
-Team FT% was 63.5% in 4 seasons.  This could easily be attributed to 3 losses this season.
-Team averaged 14.1 turnovers per game.
-Team fouls per game have risen each year and capped at 21.3 this past regular season.

So I've been asked: Why now?  I truly believe it was time to move on and let the college basketball world know that we are not happy about finishing in the bottom 3rd of the CAA.  The league may be at it's strongest season with 2 NCAA bids looking like a near lock.  I believe that buying out his contract now also gives us an entire week to reach out to agents and coaches who are not currently working.

I also believe that the foundation is there for a coach to be hired and evaluate this roster which will potentially return 9 players in 2011-12.  Also, this gives the new coach time to speak with Jervon Pressley and make sure he's still on board (which I believe he is, more on this later).

We will review my thoughts on possible coaching candidates this week and what our roster could look like in October when practice begins.

Panthers Fall 79-67 to James Madison

Disappointed in the loss but James Madison is a better team. I'll take the home and home split with this team. The Dukes are roaring right now and are playing like one of the top teams in the CAA.

Some positives:
-FT shooting - Panthers were 12-15 from the charity stripe (80%). That's progress folks.
-Keeping Denzel Bowles below his season scoring average.  The dude is a monster.  Eric Buckner doesn't have the weight, James Vincent doesn't have the quicks.  Bowles still went for a double-double but the guy will have many better days on teams better than us.
-Playing JMU even through the 2nd 20 minutes.  JMU outscored us 47-44 in the 2nd half.  We can build on that.

I've said all year, I believe this team will continue to get better. VCU just lost Rozzell for 2-3 weeks with a broken hand. I hope we can get a win over there on Saturday.

Panthers Fall 59-56 on GW 3 at UNC-W

Man, this one hurt.  We seemed to do more wrong than right and still had a great chance to win.  Panthers fall to 7-6 overall and 2-1 in CAA play.

Missing starting PG Devonta White, who has been receiving a tremendous amount of treatment on his ankle and is trying to return as soon as possible, was evident.  The Panthers managed only 9 assists vs. the Seahawks and made too many mistakes down the stretch to put UNCW away.

On the last play: Trevor DeLoach has hit a total of 22 career 3 pointers in his 2 year UNCW career.  This was his only made basket and he made it count.  As Coach Barnes said in the postgame, he would have likely preferred DeLoach take that shot than Tomko, Grant or Milson.  Credit him with a clutch shot.

Highlights:
-Dante Curry.  Plain and simple he carried the Panthers tonight. 27 points on 9-13 shooting and hitting seven 3 point baskets for the second time in 3 games.  Great game by Dante and a credit to our guys for finding him.
-Eric Buckner.  He struggled mightily but finished with a still impressive 8 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocks on the night.  He is stating his claim as one of the best centers in GSU history after only 13 games.  Yes, he is that good.

Key Factors in the Loss:
-Panthers were 6-18 from the FT line.  We are currently last in the CAA in this category and approaches new depths.  This stat alone has cost us at least 2 games in the Win column this season.
-James Fields shooting misery continues.  He was 0-3 from the field and is now 1-13 from the field in CAA play scoring a total of 4 points in 3 games.  This is not acceptable a starting guard in Division 1 basketball.  I really hope 'Boom' can get it going this weekend vs. Towson.

Next game: Panthers Return Back to the Sports Arena on Saturday for a 6pm tilt vs. Towson.

2011 Schedule - What We Do Know

Deep breaths people.  Our team will get back together this weekend and class starts Monday (with at least one confirmed new player at Georgia State).

What We Do Know

From what's available online (not inside information, you can do a web search and find out these dates out):

9.10.11 - Old Dominion - 3rd Year Program. Impressive Record vs. FCS opponents (15-5 in 2 years).

10.15.11 - @ SC State - FCS Playoff team in 2010 and returns 5 starters on Offense and 6 starters on Defense in 2011.

10.22.11 - South Alabama - Have never lost to an FCS opponent (4-0). Should travel well to Atlanta. Would love to have this as an afternoon game.

10.29.11 - @ University Texas San Antonio - First year program coached by former Miami (FL) HC Larry Coker.
 
*Only one CAA team, Delaware, even has a tentative schedule listed on their website right now.  We are not behind.  We are line with our peers in the CAA.

Virginian-Pilot: Rumblings in the CAA

More good work by Rich Radford of the Virginian-Pilot:

If UMass bolts, expect New Hampshire to do likewise right on the Minutemen's heels. They just won't be hopping to the same conference, but they'll be leaving the CAA as yet another natural rival departs. With Hofstra and Northeastern cancelling their programs last season, if UMass goes, why would UNH stay? And it's all but a done deal that Rhode Island is bolting the league in 2013.

Full blog entry here: Virginian-Pilot Link

Virginian-Pilot: Expect some changes in CAA football's future

From the well duh department: "As a football conference, the Colonial Athletic Association will look different in the coming years."

Rich Radford makes the case for Charlotte (which would be good for us in the short term and likely keep us in the South) to join the CAA as a football only member.

Virginian-Pilot Link

Today was an important day for GSU Football

We've basically put the cabash on FBS talk on PantherTalk.com message boards recently and for good reason.  It was getting just plain nuts.  Many of those (including your humble blogger) who know how we are building and the potential is there.

So the title of this post indicates that today is especially important.  I'll tell you why in a second.

I recently said the next 12-24 months will be extremely fascinating for those who follow our program.  We are building and preparing for the CAA in 2012.  There is some debate whether there will be a conference to join because of the expected pending move of Rhode Island to the NEC and Villanova to the Big East.

Speaking of the Big East (see I told you I'd get to the point): Today the conference presidents voted to go forward with an expansion plan that would increase the football playing membership from eight to 10 teams. From ESPN.com: "The cheers you heard were from athletic directors and coaches at the football schools, who long had wanted to add teams to help with scheduling. The Big East has survived as an eight-team league since 2005, but as the Big Ten and Pac-10 have expanded and more possible conference re-alignment in the future looms, the conference knew it had to get bigger or face extinction." 
Read more via the ESPN.com Link

So you ask yourself, self what could this mean?  Is Georgia State headed to the Big East?  Not so fast, my friend (as the Sunshine Scooter Lee Corso would say). 

First in line is likely the aforementioned Villanova. They have the plan in place and are the only non-football members of the Big East that is prepared to dive in head first.  The next spot would be for the most attractive. There are rumors about TCU making a bid (leaving the WAC),  Houston or Central Florida (leaving Conference USA) or even Temple (leaving the MAC).  I believe it will likely be Temple as they are a hot team right now and have locked up another winning season after taking over a greasefire. 

So then what?  CAA football loses a member (likely 2 with URI moving on) and so does the MAC (which is not an attractive landing spot).  What happens in 2014 when the current BCS agreement expires?  I believe the Plus One game (1 vs. 4, 2 vs. 3 and the winner in the BCS Title game the following week) is all but a formality.  Again, what does that has to do with us?

The Big East will absolutely want to expand either to 12 or 16 teams by the time the BCS agreement is up.  Whether that want develops into a plan, is another question but this is only the first step.  If they look into emerging programs from Conference USA or the Sun Belt to fill those spots, guess what just opened up?  Yep.  Spots on the board.  You do the math but I believe once again, patience is our best friend.

AJC: CAA Commissioner Talks GSU

The CAA Commish is happy here but will he be if Rhode Island & 'Nova jump?

More great work by Ken at the AJC.  Looking forward to Saturday's game more and more.

AJC Link

Wednesday's Quick Hitters - 9.15.10

Big news locally today as: Kennesaw State starts a program.  We are serving as an example. Let that rattle around in your head. 'If things work perfectly' they plan to start in 2014. The press conference didn't start perfectly as Vince Dooley called our friends up I-75 Kansas State University. Oops!

My take on KSU: We'll be in the CAA by then and entrenched in the state. Better recruiting base, better coaching staff, better facilities. Not a major threat folks. Congrats to them but they'll be the FAU or FIU to our South Florida. AJC Link

JSU Preview from SB Nation: Link

Men's Basketball Announces Schedule: No suprises here. If you follow this blog and a reader of PantherTalk.com, we had nearly every matchup as they were announced by the other schools. We are typically one of the last schools to announce our men's basketball schedule and it really doesn't matter as football grabs the headlines and attention. Just win baby! GSU Sports Link

Speaking of Men's Basketball: The trip to the Bahamas was key for the coaches in regards to practice time and developing team chemistry. However, the scores left some scratching their heads at why we were so close to losinf to the Bahama National team (which from all acounts was a heavy mix of local guys that played against multiple teams). We could have been Portland State, they actually got beat in a game against the Bahamian All Stars. Link

Blueligans: The Second Coming of Lefty's Loonies? Big ups to Mr. Bray for getting a shout out.  Good pub.  Now grow and multiply.   Signal Link

CAA Official Men's Basketball Preview

This gave me heartburn.  Some of the highlights (really shouldn't call them that):
-George Mason returns their entire starting lineup from 2009-10.  ODU and VCU return 4 out of 5 starters.  There's the Top 3 teams in the league for 2010-11.
-We do not return a single person in any major statistical category.  Again, not a good sign.
-The Preview:

Senior point guard Marques Johnson is Georgia State’s lone returning starter. The N.C. State transfer started 20 of the Panthers’ final 24 contests and was second on the team with 73 assists.


Junior guard Jihad Ali averaged 8.9 ppg and 3.6 rpg over GSU’s final nine games last season. He poured in a career-best 22 points in the Panthers’ 61-57 victory over George Mason, including the game-winning three pointer with 42 seconds left.


The Panthers face the difficult task of replacing their top five scorers from a year ago, who combined to average 47.2 ppg. GSU has added seven new players to this year’s roster, including three junior college transfers.
 
Ugh, more bad news considering we were one of the worst scoring teams in the conference.

CAA Link