Parity Party?

There is a certain beauty in the old "any given night" cliche--which rests on the fundamental understanding that every team enters a game with the opportunity to win. The result of when that free-for-all comes together is sometimes called "parity" among teams, but whatever you call it, it can be fun to watch.

Although it's still early in Conference play right now, the Big South basketball standings sure have that "any given night" feeling. On the men's side, UNC Asheville has the early lead with a 3-0 start--this from a team selected in the Preseason Poll to come in 5th, with no one on the Preseason All-Conference team!

A log-jam follows the Bulldogs, with Winthrop and VMI at 2-1 (and hey, they play each other Wednesday night--that should be something), then come Liberty, Coastal, and High Point all at 2-2. Charleston Southern (1-3) and Radford (0-3) round out the group as the only two squads with losing records in Conference (and overall).

Basically, we are seeing teams that know each other well knocking each other off of their respective pedestals, while a surprise team comes to the forefront--isn't that what Conference play in college basketball is all about? All I can say is that it should make for an amazing show over the next six weeks.

As for the ladies, they've just begun Conference play and don't have as many games notched on the board yet. Liberty (2-0) and High Point (1-0) have opened cleanly, CSU and Radford are right behind (both 1-1), while UNCA (0-1) and Coastal (0-2) have some early catching up to do in the Wins column (and Winthrop has not had a Conference game yet).

Another women's basketball note: congratulations to Megan Frazee on collecting her THIRD Player of the Week honor already this season, fitting perhaps for the Preseason Player of the Year and All-Conference Team member. Frazee is obviously a big part of Liberty's success this season--read more about the Player of the Week awards at this link.

In an earlier post, I mentioned the positive press going around, and pointed folks to an article about Kenny George from UNC Asheville. Here's another story about the growing legend of the Big South's very own K-G, this time from Yahoo and Rivals.com.

One last note--this may have started as an experiment, but it looks like Big South Sportstalk is here to stay--hooray for the new member of the "blogosphere"!!! Keep checking on us, and enjoy all the cool news from the Big South Conference...