The Southern Highland Reader

CULLOWHEE–Western Carolina built a 17-point second half lead, then fought off a strong rally from the Atlantic Sun Conference’s Campbell Camels to record a 66-59 win before some 2,700 fans at the Ramsey Center.

Junior college transfer Mike Williams, a guard, came off the bench to lead Western with 16 points.

The win was the eighth straight for WCU, which is ranked 15th in collegeinsider.com’s mid-major poll, and 23rd in the national RPI standings.

Western’s team, which was stuck in Peoria for a day-and-a-half after Monday’s win over Bradley because of weather delays, has played four games in eight days, and adds another — at Louisville on Saturday — before breaking for final exams.

Here’s a game story from the Asheville Citizen-Times’s Tyler Norris Goode.

An excerpt:

One of the flashy banners hanging above the pep band for the first time Thursday night listed off Western Carolina’s short list of success as a Division I men’s basketball program: Two Southern Conference division titles (1996, 2009) and a SoCon tournament title and an NCAA tournament appearance in 1996.

Thursday’s win won’t be commemorated on the banner, but WCU is off to its best start since opening the 1958-59 season with a 15-1 mark.

[Western's Jake] Robinson also reached a personal milestone with his 1,000th career point when his 3-pointer gave the Cats’ a 59-50 edge with 3:33 to go.

All the X’s and O’s here from catamountsports.com.

CULLOWHEE–The online basketball publication SLAM features WCU sophomore Harouna Mutombo in this Sunday post.

Mutombo, nephew of NBA great Dikembe Mutombo, was named Southern Conference Freshman of the Year last year, as well as to the SoCon All-Conference second team.

Here’s an excerpt from the story:

Playing in a mid-major conference, Mutombo’s exploits were regularly outshone by the bright star that was Stephen Curry at Davidson last season. Regardless, Harouna made a huge splash in the Southern Conference leading the Catamounts in both points (14.4) and rebounds (4.6) while placing second in assists (68), steals (56) and blocks (16) and minutes (30.4).

And it didn’t stop there. After he finished up his college season, Canada Basketball invited him to train with the National Team as they prepared for the World Championship Qualifying Tournament where he would be under the tutelage of not only Team Canada’s head coach Leo Rautins but also Raptors’ Maurizio Gherardini and Cavs assistant coach Mike Malone learning the international game, even playing a few exhibition games in Spain for Canada.

In a related matter, a Texas blogger wondered last week whether Harouna would adopt his uncle’s famous finger-wagging “no-no” after blocking an opponent’s shot. That remains to be seen, we suppose.

No-no.

This Western Carolina men’s basketball team starts the season with the highest expectations in decades, but after a frigid start offensively and an absolute pounding at the hands of no. 3 Texas Wednesday, it’s clear that the Catamounts (1-1) have some work to do.

In fact, the early Southern Conference darling would have to be surprising Wofford, of the South Division, which has a last-second loss to Pittsburgh and a win over Georgia under its belt.

Western showed some defensive bright spots against the mega-talent at Texas — the Cats forced 21 turnovers — but Western shot an abysmal 26.2% from the floor. Even adjusted for Texas’s overwhelming defense, that’s bad. The Catamounts are a combined 6-of-39 from behind the arc, an area where Western expects to perform well.

WCU has the chance to work on its issues in a Thanksgiving week basketball intensive in Cullowhee: Western hosts Duquesne, Binghamton and Arkansas-Monticello next week, in the O’Reilly’s Auto Parts CBE Classic tournament.

Read about the Texas game in the Austin American Statesman here.

See highlights from ESPN here.

CULLOWHEE–While Western Carolina’s men’s basketball program has had its moments, those moments have most often been related to individual performances, or nice late-season runs.

The Catamounts beat Nebraska, Tennessee, Florida State, Georgia Tech and Kansas State over the years. Danny Manning’s 1988 national championship Kansas Jayhawks team topped Western by only five points that year in Cullowhee. And Western once made a torrid run through the SoCon tournament and on to within a hair’s breadth of becoming the first 16th seed NCAA tourney team to knock off a number one seed, losing to Purdue by two in 1996.

WCU was also the first white southern school to admit African-American athletes (basketball players, in 1964); and a few pro players, including one of the NBA’s top current scorers, played college ball in Cullowhee.

Still, not since Western’s earliest years in the Southern Conference, some thirty years ago, have the Catamounts been regular, solid contenders, and never has a Western team been a preseason pick to win the league.

Finally, things have changed in Cullowhee. Coach Larry Hunter, one of the winningest coaches in college basketball, enters his fifth year at Western with a fully-stocked pantry of talent, and the Cats, coming off their first winning season in over a decade and a SoCon north division co-championship, are picked as the team to beat.

The Catamounts opened with a 23-point home win last weekend over NAIA St. Catherine, but leap directly into the fire tonight, when they visit number three Texas, in Austin.

Here’s a season preview from the WCU media folks:

Coming off its first winning season since 1996-97 and the program’s second conference divisional title a year ago, Western Carolina was today tabbed as the preseason favorite in the Southern Conference’s North Division as voted upon by the league’s 12 head coaches.

Western Carolina returns all five starters from a team that tied for the North Division Championship last season with an 11-9 mark in league play. The Catamounts earned 10 first-place votes and finished the balloting with 64 points, the most of any squad in the conference.

According to available records, WCU’s preseason first-place pick in the North Division is the first in program history since joining the SoCon in 1977-78. The media preseason poll will be announced next week as a part of the SoCon Preseason Head Coaches’ Teleconference.

Additionally, senior guard Brandon Giles and reigning conference freshman of the year, red-shirt sophomore Harouna Mutombo, were named to the preseason All-SoCon team as three teams put two teammates on the 10-man honorary squad.

Giles, who became the 37th different Catamount to eclipse the 1,000-point career plateau a season ago, earned third team All-SoCon plaudits from the media a season ago after ranking 13th in the league in scoring at 13.3 points per game. He led WCU in scoring on nine occasions including scoring 20-or-more five times.

Mutombo became the fourth different Catamount all-time to garner SoCon Freshman of the Year plaudits, and the first since Jarvis Hayes in 2000. The Pickering, Ontario native was the top-scoring freshman – and only one of three in the top 30 in the SoCon – with a 14.6 point per game average. He posted 24 double-digit scoring outings in his first season, reaching the 20-point plateau six times including a career-best 29 in the home win over UNC Greensboro.

Behind the first-place Catamounts, Appalachian State earned the remaining two first-place votes in the North Division and finished with 55 points. Samford (44) was chosen third while last season’s tournament champion, Chattanooga (39), was slotted fourth. Elon and UNC Greensboro tied for fifth place with 22 points apiece.

Opposite WCU in the South Division, the College of Charleston – led by preseason Player of the Year, Andrew Goudelock – was selected by the head coaches to finish first, garnering eight first-place votes. The Cougars finished 15-5 in league play a season ago and advanced to the tournament championship before falling to the Mocs.

Wofford picked up three first-place votes and finished second in the preseason balloting with 54 points. Davidson, which has won the South Division each of the past three years, earned the final first-place vote in the South Division and came in third with 48 points. The Citadel (36) finished fourth, followed by Furman (24) and Georgia Southern (21).

In addition to aforementioned Giles, Goudelock and Mutombo, the preseason all-conference team included Tony White, Jr., from the College of Charleston; Noah Dahlman and Junior Salters from Wofford. Other members of the preseason team included Will Archambault (Davidson), Kellen Brand (Appalachian State), Willie Powers (Georgia Southern) and Cameron Wells (The Citadel).

The regular season opens Friday, November 13 when nine teams hit the court with 11 of the 12 SoCon teams will begin play over that weekend. Western Carolina takes to the hardwood for the first time on Saturday, Nov. 14, as it hosts St. Catharine’s College at 7:00 pm in the Ramsey Center.

SoCon Men’s Basketball Predicted Order of Finish

North Division

Team (1st Place Votes) Total

1. Western Carolina (10) – 64

2. Appalachian State (2) – 55

3. Samford – 44

4. Chattanooga – 39

5. Elon – 22

UNC Greensboro – 22

South Division

Team (1st Place Votes) Total

1. College of Charleston (8) – 63

2. Wofford (3) – 54

3. Davidson (1) – 48

4. The Citadel – 36

5. Furman – 24

6. Georgia Southern – 21

2009-10 Preseason All-Conference Team

Will Archambault, Davidson

Kellen Brand, Appalachian State

Noah Dahlman, Wofford

Brandon Giles, Western Carolina

Andrew Goudelock, College of Charleston

Harouna Mutombo, Western Carolina

Willie Powers, Georgia Southern

Junior Salters, Wofford

Cameron Wells, The Citadel

Tony White, Jr., College of Charleston

2009-10 Preseason Player of the Year

Andrew Goudelock, College of Charleston

CHATTANOOGA–David Uchiyama at the Chattanooga Times Free Press writes about the legacy of Stephen Curry, who earned all-America stripes while leading tiny Davidson to the elite eight of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

Curry left Davidson a year early, was drafted way up the NBA list, and now plays for Golden State.

Uchiyama talked to multiple SoCon coaches for the piece, which discusses Curry’s impact on the league.

A snip:

“Players like that graduate, he just went a year early,” Western Carolina coach Larry Hunter said. “Somebody else is going to fill those shoes this year, next year or down the road.

“Hopefully for the conference, there will be a few and they’ll come quick.”

Read the whole piece here.

CULLOWHEE–It’s probably been a quarter-century since basketball tickets were as hot in Cullowhee as they’re going to be this year, and folks at the Ramsey Center are making sure everybody who wants them gets them.

The Western Carolina athletics department has announced broad discounts on season ticket packages, including a $125 family pack (2 adults, 2 kids) that’ll get your entire brood into any men’s or women’s game all season long.

A single adult season ticket for all games is $75.

Western’s men’s team is as deep and talented as it has been in the Ramsey Center era, and has been picked to win the Southern Conference’s north division and compete for a league championship. Western shared the north division crown with Chattanooga last year.

The Catamount women went 21-12 and won their second league tourney crown in five years last year. They went on to a 13th seed appearance in the NCAA tournament, where they fell to Vanderbilt.

Western lost three starters who combined for some 29 points and 15 rebounds a game to graduation, and coach Kellie Harper moved on to become head coach at NC State. But Western landed a strong recruiting class and a quality coach in Karen Middleton, formerly an assistant at Illinois.

After opening with St. Catherine’s (KY) in mid November, the WCU men travel to Texas and then host Arkansas-Monticello, Binghamton and Duquesne as part of the O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic.

Read more about the programs, and about the season ticket offer here.

Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina women’s soccer was tabbed second in the Southern Conference preseason coaches’ poll and three Catamounts were honored with All-conference selections as announced by the conference office.

All-conference Goalkeeper Caitlin Williams

Western Carolina was picked to finish behind 2008 regular season champion UNC Greensboro, who the Catamounts edged on penalty kicks in the conference tournament final. WCU received three of 12 place votes after setting a school record nine conference wins and participated in the NCAA College Cup Championship for the second time in four years. Furman, Samford and Davidson followed WCU to wrap up the top five teams in the poll.

The second place vote in the preseason poll was the third time that Western Carolina has earned that distinction. The two other previous second place votes were earned in 2002 and 2007.

“With all of the talent and quality of opponents in the SoCon, it’s an honor to be ranked so high,” said Catamount coach Tammy DeCesare, who has led WCU to two conference championships in four seasons.

Seniors Jenny Matteson and Shanna Schmoker both garnered preseason distinction, along with 2008 SoCon Tournament MVP junior goalkeeper Caitlin Williams. Matteson, a defender from Cinnaminson, N.J., started in all 23 matches last season and played the most minutes on the team with 2,016. The honor was Matteson’s first preseason selection and her second career honor after being named on the 2008 SoCon All-Tournament team.

“Jenny is a tremendous player in the backfield for us,” said DeCesare. “We expect her to be a leader in our defensive unit this season.”

Schmoker is coming off a career season in 2008, where she scored a season best five goals and finished second on the team with 11 points. This is the third honor midfielder from Lake Jackson, Texas, who secured spots on the regular season All-conference and All-tournament teams in 2008.

“(Schmoker) is a tremendous presence in the midfield for us and is an indispensable factor in our defense,” noted DeCesare. “She is a leader in the way she plays and competes every day in practice and competition.”

Williams returns ranking third on the WCU all-time career list for saves (152) and shutouts (14) after just two seasons. The Liberty, S.C., native recorded a victory against Elon, a shutout victory against Samford and collected four penalty kick saves against top-seeded UNC Greensboro to capture the SoCon tournament title in 2008. She was named the tournament MVP and earned player of the week honors after shutting out nationally-ranked South Carolina in the regular season.

“Williams has improved every season,” said DeCesare. “She has the ability to be the best goal keeper in a very competitive and talented conference.”

Western Carolina opens the season on Friday when they host the Gardner-Webb Bulldogs. Kickoff is slated for a 7:00 p.m. start at the Catamount Athletic Complex.

2009 Southern Conference Women’s Soccer Preseason Coaches’ Poll

1. UNC Greensboro (7) 114

2. Western Carolina (3) 107

3. Samford (1) 101

4. Furman 87

5. Davidson 86

6. College of Charleston (1) 77

7. Elon 60

8. Appalachian State 47

9. Wofford 40

10. Georgia Southern 37

11. Chattanooga 23

12. The Citadel 13

REGIONAL–John Frierson at the Chattanooga Times Free Press is one of a dwindling few sports journalists who covers the Southern Conference in a thoughtful way.

In a recent Sunday piece he takes a good look at SoCon football “money” games.

An excerpt:

While FCS teams have been taking beatings (usually) and cashing big checks from big-time opponents for years, the money is more than ever a crucial revenue stream now, according to Samford athletic director Bob Roller. The Bulldogs open their season at Central Florida on Sept. 5, and that game is expected to earn Samford more than $250,000.

“We absolutely have to have one,” Roller said of the guarantee games. “It’s a salve. (The money) will all be used and it will go toward the athletic department, not just football.”

Another:

Appalachian State, again a preseason favorite to win the national championship, isn’t facing the same kind of financial difficulties that UTC, Furman and some other SoCon schools are having to endure. Because of the Mountaineers’ recent success — three straight national championships from 2005 to ’07 — donations and ticket sales remain strong. In eight games last season, counting the playoffs, ASU’s average attendance was 25,161.

That strong financial footing allows the Mountaineers to schedule games against bowl subdivision teams with an eye toward opportunity, rather than money — the win at Michigan to open the 2007 season being a prime example.

“I’d hate to think that we’d ever get into the situation where we’re playing these games for financial reasons,” Appalachian State athletic director Charlie Cobb said, “but I understand that some schools have to do that.”

Read Frierson’s piece — along with a sidebar list of league money games — here.

CULLOWHEE–Western Carolina’s baseball team, considered to be “on the bubble” for at an at-large NCAA tourney invite after going 1-2 in the Southern Conference Tournament over the weekend, received bad news from the NCAA this afternoon.

Georgia Southern took the SoCon’s automatic bid after edging Elon for the tourney crown. Elon was awarded an at-large bid. Western and The Citadel were left out.

The Catamounts were considered by prognosticators to be on the bubble’s very edge after putting together a 35-22 record and a #40 national RPI ranking during the regular season, but a shaky record against top 50 teams (2-9) and Friday’s loss to Furman did the Cats in.

CULLOWHEE-Western Carolina’s women’s soccer team, the defending Southern Conference champion and fresh off its second trip to the NCAA tournament, will play in a tourney at the University of Miami next Labor Day weekend, according to Florida sources (Western hasn’t released its schedule yet).

The Catamounts will take on the Hurricanes on September 4 at 7pm. Western will also play the Dayton Flyers at that tournament.

CLEVELAND–Former Western Carolina standout David Patten, a 12-year NFL veteran, has signed to play with the Cleveland Browns in 2009.

David Patten

He has played for five NFL teams – including the Browns in 2000 – and he won three Super Bowl rings with the Patriots.

Patten, who will turn 35 this year, played the last two years in New Orleans, where he was the team’s second-leading receiver in 2007. He was hobbled by injuries for most of last year, and many thought his career might come to a close. The Browns signed him with some fanfare, though, no doubt in part because of his reputation as a leader. After graduating from Western, Patten began his pro career in a storybook fashion. He was loading heavy bags of coffee beans on a Columbia, SC warehouse dock when his call came from the Albany Firebirds of the Arena Football League. He worked his way up to the NFL from there.

Here are a few links:

The Canton Repository speculates.
The Orange and Brown Report gives the facts.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer puts both together.

CULLOWHEE–Western Carolina’s baseball team, which got a lukewarm forecast in pre-season polls, is off to a fine start.

The Catamounts are 15-5 overall, and 6-3 in the Southern Conference after taking 2-of-3 from the Citadel over the weekend. The Cats are in third, behind Charleston, which took 2-of-3 from the Cats just over a week ago, and Georgia Southern, which visits Cullowhee the second weekend of April.

For their performances over the past week, Catamounts Stephen Notaro, a junior catcher from California, and Chris Masters, a junior pitcher from Marietta, GA, were awarded SoCon player of the week and pitcher of the week honors, respectively. More from the league office:

Notaro led Western Carolina with a .529 batting average (9-of-17) with five of his nine hits going for extra bases last week as the Catamounts went 4-1 overall. Notaro belted two doubles and three home runs for a 1.176 slugging percentage. The Thousand Oaks, Calif., native also drew four walks as a part of a team-best .619 on-base percentage. Notaro amassed nine RBIs on the week as Western defeated High Point and UNC Asheville in non-conference play and took two-of-three SoCon games from The Citadel.

Masters, a junior from Marietta, Ga., struck out a career-best 11 batters in his first career complete game Saturday, holding The Citadel to a single run while scattering six base hits in a 3-1 win. The left-hander limited the potent Bulldogs offensive line up to a .188 batting average and improved his season record to 3-1 with a team-leading 3.19 ERA.

Western’s early season success has included winning 2-of-3 at then-nationally-ranked Southern Cal and sweeping three from best pals Appalachian State.

Western travels to Knoxville tomorrow for a single game against the Tennessee Volunteers, who, under second-year coach and former WCU skipper Todd Raleigh, are off to a 9-12 start.

CHATTANOOGA–The Western Carolina womens basketball team won its second Southern Conference championship in heart-stopping fashion yesterday afternoon at McKenzie Arena, knocking off the College of Charleston 101-87 in three overtimes.

Seniors Brooke Johnson and Lauren Powell had 40 points and 20 rebounds between them – Johnson was named tourney MVP – but it was their clutch play in the extra periods that led Western to the win. Johnson and Powell combined for 20 in OT.

Cougars coach Nancy Wilson said afterwards it was a game of well-executed situations by both sides, and Powell had one for the ages. Near the end of the first extra period Western trailed by two, 76-74, with 1.8 seconds remaining, and was inbounding the ball an improbable 94 feet from the Cougar basket.

There was hardly time to turn and shoot, even assuming a long pass could be made.

So when WCU coach Kellie Harper saw that Charleston would defend the Catamount who was to throw the ball in, she sent Powell sprinting downcourt, and told her in-bounds passer (Emily Clarke) to run the baseline (the inbounds passer can move along the baseline after a made basket).

Cougar defender Brooke Kotcella likewise ran along the baseline, focused on Clarke, and Powell slipped in unnoticed, set her feet, and was bowled over by Kotcella. Foul. Two shots at the other end for Powell, who calmly drained them both, forcing the second overtime.

An extraordinary play.

The Catamounts improve to 21-11 with the win, and move on to the NCAA tournament. Charleston drops to 23-8.

WCU has played in three straight league title games and five of the last six.

Read John Frierson’s column about Powell in the Chattanooga Times Free Press here.

View video of Powell’s play (and others) here (Powell is misidentified as Clarke in one segment):

Chattanooga Times Free Press

Read game stories from:

catamountsports.com
Asheville Citizen-Times
Charleston Post and Courier
College of Charleston athletics

CULLOWHEE–Pick your headline:

Dewey defeats Truman.
Martians invade New Jersey.
Beelzebub frostbitten on the butt.
Western Carolina basketball nationally ranked.

Release from Western’s sports information department:

CULLOWHEE–Collegiate Basketball News released its first Rating Percentage Index (RPI) Report for men’s basketball today with Western Carolina leading the Southern Conference with an RPI of 28. The Catamounts are currently riding a three-game winning streak stemming from its pair of neutral court wins at the Great Alaska Shootout, and last Saturday’s win over Kent State on the road.

The SoCon, which features four teams in the nation’s top 100 RPI, debuted at an all-time high of sixth overall as a conference among the 32 NCAA Division I conferences. In addition to WCU, preseason SoCon favorite, Davidson, is ranked 50th on the list, followed by conference counterparts Wofford at 68th and Georgia Southern in 92nd.

Gonzaga is the national RPI leader in the first rating report, with the Atlantic Coast Conference representing the league leader. The Big Ten ranks second, just ahead of the Big East, Big 12 and Mountain West in fifth.

The RPI is used by the NCAA basketball committee to supplement the selection of at-large teams and the seeding of all teams for the NCAA basketball tournament. Using statistics generated through games played Dec. 7, the list is an independent duplication of the RPI without input from the NCAA. It is derived from three component factors: Div. I winning percentage (FI, 25%); schedule strength (FII, 50%); and opponent’s schedule strength (FIII, 25%).

Games against non-Division I opponents are not used in calculating the RPI.

According to the CBN RPI list, WCU boasts the nation’s 15th toughest strength of schedule, with the SoCon rated first in the same category. Catamount opponents Connecticut and San Diego State rank 12th and 35th, respectively, with upcoming foe, Marquette, standing 75th on the list.

WCU, which has tied its best start under fourth-year head coach Larry Hunter, is amidst final exams this week, with the team not returning to practice until late in the week to concentrate on studies. The Catamounts return to the court to host Tennessee Wesleyan on Monday, Dec. 15 at 7:00 pm in the Ramsey Center.

For the complete RPI list: http://rpiratings.com/mensrpi.html