Mountaineers give Charlotte a scare; face Peterson’s Vols next

Aggressive Mountaineers fall short in loss to 49ers

Andy Morris - Sports Beat

The Appalachian State University men’s basketball team was a roll away from an upset over the University of North Carolina at Charlotte on Monday night at Halton Arena.

Both sophomore Matt Jones’ drive to the basket with less than 10 seconds left and the attempted follow shot by Donald Payne failed to drop in as the 49ers held on for a 71-69 win.

The Mountaineers trailed 69-59 with four minutes to play in the game, but went on a 10-1 run to close the gap to 70-69 after Jones hit a three-pointer with 58 seconds remaining.

Appalachian’s Shawn Hall then fouled Charlotte’s Curtis Nash with 10 seconds left on the clock. But Nash missed both free throws and set up the Mountaineers’ final attempt at the basket. Despite the loss, the team was pleased with the effort against Charlotte.

“Coach [Fancher] was real proud of us for sticking it out and the way we hung in there,” said Jones, who finished with 10 points. “This will help us out in the long run and gives us a lot of confidence going into [tonight’s] game against the University of Tennessee.”

The 49ers, which reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season, struggled to build a large lead against the scrappy Mountaineers. Charlotte (3-1) would get up by as many as 10 points, but Appalachian would fight its way back into the game with clutch shooting.

“Coach told us that [Charlotte] thought that if they could get a double digit lead, that we would fold, but we hit big shots and made big plays,” said Jones.

Although overmatched in size, the Mountaineers (2-2) took advantage of their aggressiveness and quickness to create problems for the 49ers’ offense.

“They really took us out of our offense just because of how aggressive they are,” said Charlotte’s Jobey Thomas. “It’s tough to get into your offense when a team pressures you really hard like they did.”

Thomas, a preseason All-Conference USA selection and the all-time C-USA leader in three-point shooting, had to deal with Jones on defense.

Jones battled and held the senior to two of 10 shooting from the field and just eight points. Both players are Charlotte natives.

“Jones was phenomenal defensively and gave all he had on the defensive end,” said Appalachian head coach Houston Fancher. “He really took that assignment to heart, playing in his hometown, in front of the hometown hero.”

Charlotte head coach Bobby Lutz praised Jones’ defensive efforts as well.

“He did an excellent job defensively and played [Thomas] as well as anyone has played him in the time Jobey has been here,” he said.

Shutting down Thomas was key for the Mountaineers as Charlotte shot only 3 of 16 from three-point range while Appalachian stayed in the game by shooting 12 of 24 from behind the arc.

However, Fancher said despite the good shooting from long range, it had a harmful effect on the team.

“We got too complacent staying out there on the perimeter and didn’t get to foul line as much,” he said.

Appalachian only took four foul shots the entire game while Charlotte got to the line 28 times.

Shawn Hall led the Mountaineers with 12 points and Noah Brown chipped in with 10. Charlotte was led by Cam Stephens with 15 points and Kevin Johnson’s 10.

The Mountaineers take on the University of Tennessee tonight at 7:30 p.m. (Fox SportsNet) in Knoxville before returning home to play Liberty University at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Seby Jones Arena inside the George M. Holmes Convocation Center.

ASU set to do battle with former coach, Tennessee tonight

James Nix - Sports Beat

One whole season has passed since Appalachian State University head basketball coach Houston Fancher has shared the court with former Mountaineer coach Buzz Peterson.

The two will meet again tonight when Appalachian travels to Knoxville to take on Peterson’s new team, the University of Tennessee Volunteers.

“I’m looking forward to playing Tennessee and not against Buzz necessarily,” said Fancher.

Fancher served as Peterson’s assistant head coach for four years before Peterson took the head coaching position at Tulsa University, a job he held for one season before leaving to assume the helm for the Vols.

“Neither one of us will want the other to lose just because of the relationship we’ve had,” said Fancher.

Fancher’s first season as ASU head coach was less glamorous than many had hoped as the team finished 11-20.

Fancher, however, has gotten his team off to a good start with a 2-2 record, including the 93-87 home opener win against East Carolina University and a 71-69 loss Monday evening to Conference USA contender the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC).

Few players on the Mountaineers team remember the Peterson era. Junior forward Josh Shehan was a freshman during Peterson’s last season.

“He was a real good coach, and I was lucky to play under him for a year,” said Shehan. “I hope we go up there and beat him; that’s our goal.”

Peterson’s last season with the Mountaineers resulted in a Southern Conference (SoCon) Tournament Championship and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

In Peterson’s four seasons at the helm of the Mountaineers, he led the team to a 79-39 overall record and a 47-14 record in the SoCon.

Appalachian either won or shared the SoCon North Division Title in three of those seasons.

In his first season at Tulsa, Peterson led the Golden Hurricane to a 26-11 overall record and a National Invitational Tournament (NIT) Championship.

Now with the Volunteers, Peterson has started the season with a 2-2 record, defeating Tennessee Technical University and the University of Alaska and losing to St. Johns University and Marquette University.

Peterson was welcomed with much enthusiasm at Tennessee when he replaced fromer Volunteer head coach Jerry Green.

Green was fired after the Vols dropped out of the national basketball rankings late last season after posting a fourth-place ranking early on and eventually being defeated by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Tennessee has reason to be excited about Peterson.

In high school, he was named one of the top players in North Carolina. He played for the University of North Carolina Tar Heels during the Dean Smith era and was a member of the 1982 NCAA championship team along with Michael Jordan.

During his stay at UNC, Peterson was also Jordan’s roommate.
With all the excitement in the air in Knoxville, the Mountaineers will have to work hard to defeat the Vols, a fact highlighted by Appalachian State forward Josh Shehan.

“If we work hard and do what we need to do to work on our system, we can beat anyone.”

COMMENTARY

I-AA playoffs reveal flaws of I-A’s BCS debacle

Chris Boyce - Sports Beat

Forget the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). Having a computer decide who plays for national championships is a joke.

As the NCAA Division I-AA football playoffs begin Saturday, it’s anyone’s game.

The BCS is a poor solution to college football’s woes of an exciting post season. It pits two teams in the national championship based on strength of schedule, margin of victory and other statistics but denies other deserving teams the right to compete.

College football is the only major sporting event to not utilize a playoff system, and it’s simply a bad judge of who is the best team.

The BCS leaves the rest of the top 25 teams playing in meaningless bowl games for pride but really, for money.

But for Division I-AA teams, a potential championship is on the line, possible for any one of the teams.

The 16-team field is as diverse and exciting as any of the teams you could find in Division I’s Gallery Furniture Bowl or the Silicon Bowl.

The field has its fair share of heavyweights in the University of Montana, Georgia Southern University and Furman University, the always-popular giant-killers of Northern Arizona, the College of William and Mary and the Appalachian State University Mountaineers.

That’s right, the Appalachian State Mountaineers are back in the playoffs for the fourth straight time and have their second home playoff birth in four seasons.

One of the best things about a playoff system is the uncertainty of even being selected. The Mountaineers, along with other teams, were on the bubble Sunday morning with a broad range of fates in the balance, from playing Saturday on the road, to playing at home, to not playing at all.

Appalachian State received a home game against William and Mary, a team that shared the Atlantic 10 title and is fresh off an upset over the Villanova University Wildcats.

The game is assured to be a battle with the high-scoring Tribe squaring off against the Mountaineers and their dominant pass defense. In fact, it may be redemption time for Appalachian State, who find themselves pitted in a bracket with two teams it narrowly lost to earlier in the season.

If not for penalties and several big plays, the Mountaineers would have beaten both the second-seeded Eagles of Georgia Southern University and the third-seeded Furman University Paladins.

But with playoff time quickly approaching, the Mountaineers have a shot of avenging both losses in addition to possibly getting another crack at Montana, the team that beat the Mountaineers on an overtime pass in Montana last December for a trip to the Division I-AA National Championship game.

Why watch a horrible Florida State University team in the Gator Bowl when you can watch a college football playoff game that actually counts?

It is just a matter of time before the BCS system is abandoned and a playoff system is implemented for the top 25 teams.

But until then, Division I-AA’s playoffs are the real way to watch college football in December.

So put aside the BCS hype of Miami and Florida.
The Mountaineers and their quest for a national championship will be a much better show.

Josh Brown - The Appalachian

Freshman guard Corwin Davis (1) applies full-court pressure against an ECU’s Bryan Foxx (10) during the Mountaineers’ Nov. 19 win. ASU followed that win with a victory over Barton and a loss to Charlotte.