November 14 Emerald Coast Classic Notebook

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UPCOMING SCHEDULE

All times listed Are Central

Friday, Nov. 15
Western Carolina at Florida, 6 p.m., ACC Network
South Alabama at Chattanooga, 6 p.m. SoCon Digital Net

Saturday, Nov. 16
Chicago State at Purdue, 1 p.m. Big Ten Network
Washington vs. Tennessee, 4 p.m. ESPN +/TSN

Sunday, Nov. 17
Jacksonville State at VCU, 11 a.m. MASN

Wednesday, Nov. 20
Chattanooga at Florida State, 5:30 p.m. Fox Sports South
Alabama State at Tennessee, 6 p.m. SEC Network

UNDERRATED COACH: When Florida State knocked off then No. 6 ranked Florida, 63-51, last Sunday, it marked the 17^thtime head coach Leonard Hamilton has led an unranked Florida State team to a win over a top 10 team.

VCU EARNS 1^STWIN OVER RANKED OPPONENT SINCE 2014: Students were ready with hostile signs, and the black and gold faithful brought their energy to the Siegel Center as men’s basketball beat former coach Will Wade and No. 23 LSU 84-82 on Wednesday night.

The win was the first time that the Rams beat a ranked opponent since 2014. “Give credit to the crowd making this place as loud as possible all night,” redshirt-senior forward Issac Vann said. “That’s the kind of environment you come to VCU for, you want to play in those type of big games.”

The crowd noise played a role in the game as LSU turned over the ball 26 times, several of which were errant passes. The Rams scored 37 points off the Tiger errors.

“This is my fourth year of college, and this is the No. 1 toughest environment I’ve ever played in,” said LSU guard Skylar Mays.

PROCTOR PROVIDES SCORING OPTION: Scoring 20 points at High Point brings one reaction.

Scoring 26 points in your debut at Purdue brings an entirely different response.

Welcome to Jahaad Proctor’s world. It’s a nice place right now, especially after the graduate transfer from High Point carried No. 22 Purdue from a scoring standpoint in the season opener against Green Bay.

He did talk with High Point’s coaching staff on the phone, including Tubby Smith.

“My social media hasn’t been that popular before,” Proctor said. “I never use social media a lot. I heard from a lot of people I didn’t hear from before.”

FRESHMAN LOOKING FOR MAJOR ROLE WITH VOLS: With the news that Uroš Plavšić won’t be eligible for the 2019 season, Tennessee’s post depth now becomes a major concern for the Vols. One of the players who has generated buzz this offseason and looks to pick up the minutes that Plavšić‘s eligibility leaves is freshman Oliver Nkamhoua.

Nkamhoua didn’t arrive it Knoxville with a whole lot of fanfare. Why should he have? Nkamhoua was a late addition to the Vols signing class, committing on May 7 before signing the next day.

At this time a year ago the three-star wasn’t even on Tennessee’s recruiting board, but a tip from former Colorado (now Tennessee) assistant Kim English put him on the Vols’ radar.

“We knew last year as the year went on that we wanted to add a couple front court players,” head coach Rick Barnes said. “Kim (English) called Mike (Schwartz) and said that he’d seen a young man play that was a terrific offensive rebounder and ‘someone you should look at’. Coach Schwartz jumped on it. From the first time he laid eyes on him he said, ‘this is who we want.’”

EMERALD COAST CLASSIC RECEIVES HIGH MARK: Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report ranks the Emerald Coast Classic as the third best preseason college basketball tournament.

Miller says the winner of this event is going to soar in the subsequent polls and will be viewed as a legitimate threat unless/until it shows otherwise in December. Even the fourth-place finisher will still have plenty of NCAA tournament potential, as it’s likely all four of these neutral-court games end up being Quadrant 1 opportunities.

LATE RUN FUELS MOCS: The Chattanooga Mocs are not looking to make a habit of coming from behind for its victories, but for the second straight game they did just that. It came on the road in a 74-68 victory at Troy Wednesday

It was an impressive, resilient performance. The Mocs trailed by 14 early and by 12 at the half. That makes back-to-back wins when trailing by 13 or more early in a contest.

“That resiliency…the will to win,” Matt Ryan explained. “Being down at the half and finding ways to win these last two is really good. If we could play like we have in second halves for the full game, which is what every team tries to do, we’ll be in better position to sustain this success. But we’ll take the win.”

HEADLINES

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

HEADLINES

FLORIDA STATE

PURDUE

TENNESSEE

VCU

ALABAMA STATE

CHATTANOOGA

CHICAGO STATE

JACKSONVILLE STATE