Thursday, January 26, 2012

MACON, Ga. - Eleven men's basketball contests are slated for play over the week including ten Atlantic Sun Conference contests. ETSU at USC Upstate on Friday will be shown on CSS and ESPN3 as the A-Sun Game of the Week.

Atlantic Sun Men's Basketball Weekly Notes:

• With 12 wins on the season, USC Upstate has increased its win total by seven from last season. Only three teams have posted bigger jumps in win totals over the last six seasons; Jacksonville (14; 2006-07), Belmont (11, 2010-11) and ETSU (9; 2006-07).
• In its four years of transition to Division I, USC Upstate posted a 27-92 (.227) overall record and 23-53 (.303) in A-Sun play. In the first year of full D-I sponsorship, the Spartans have boosted the winning percentages to .571 overall and .667 in A-Sun play.
• ETSU enters the contest with USC Upstate as fifth in the nation for steals at 9.9 swipes per game. The Bucs’ Sheldon Cooley (2.2 SPG) and Tommy Hubbard (1.8) both rank in the top-100 nationally for steals in 32nd and 85th, respectively.
• ETSU’s Isiah Brown has a chance to become the 140th A-Sun student-athlete to reach 1,000 career points and fifth this season. Brown, a senior, owns 997 points and is averaging 10.5 PPG.
  

  A-Sun Active Career Points Leaders
  Rank	Player (Team)	Points	Class	All-Time Rank
  1.	Markeith Cummings (Kennesaw State)	1,456	Jr.	36th
  2.	Spencer Dixon (Kennesaw State)	1,180	Sr.	T-84th
  3.	Ian Clark (Belmont)	1,136	Jr.	T-97th
  4.	Jordan Burgason (Lipscomb)	1,090	Sr.	110th
  5.	Mick Hedgepeth (Belmont)	1,063	Sr.	118th
  6.	Isiah Brown (ETSU)	997	Sr.	---
  7.	Jerron Granberry (North Florida)	903	Jr.	---
  8.	Adam Sollazzo (ETSU)	867	Sr.	---

• FGCU’s freshman guard Brett Comer tallied 12 assists in the 101-58 blowout of Longwood on Tuesday. It marked the third time the first-year player has passed out double-digit numbers this season. Only three A-Sun student-athletes have achieved the feat over the past five seasons. Comer leads the A-Sun with 5.7 APG.
• Lipscomb’s Jordan Burgason made his claim as the best shooter in the nation the last few weeks. He currently ranks first in Division I in three-pointers made per contest (4.0) and three-point shooting percentage (.536). Over the past 10 games, Burgason is averaging 4.3 threes made and is shooting .606 from behind the arc.
• This week’s Newcomer of the Week, North Florida’s Travis Wallace has registered double-digit points in the last seven contests. During that stretch, the sophomore forward is averaging 15.6 points per game. More impressively, Wallace is shooting .620 (44-71) from the field and has only dipped below .530 in one contest.
• With 44 wins over the past two seasons, Belmont is tied for the 19th-best two year win total in A-Sun history. The Bruins need 10 more wins this season to tie College of Charleston (1995-97) for best two-year stretch in conference history at 54 wins. The Bruins already own two of the top-10 marks in A-Sun history.
• In eight of its nine home victories this season, Mercer has defeated its opponents by double digits. Five times the Bears have won by more than 15 points and have a margin of victory of 13.8 in the University Center.
• At 29.0 PPG, Kennesaw State’s duo of Markeith Cummings and Spencer Dixon are the best 1-2 scoring punch in the A-Sun. They rank ahead of USC Upstate’s Torrey Craig/Ty Greene (28.2), Stetson’s Adam Pegg/Chris Perez (28.0), ETSU’s Adam Sollazzo/Marcus Dubose (26.8) and Belmont’s Kerron Johnson/Ian Clark (26.1). Cummings and Dixon are also first and second amongst active players in career points with 1456 and 1180, respectively.
• Belmont remained at No. 18 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Poll this week following a 1-1 week. Mercer picked up five points in the poll for the second time this season.

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