So Who Is Longwood
I always anticipate the release of the basketball schedule. I pour over the thing and immediately sign off potential W’s and L’s and then calculate our chances of making the Tournament. When I first saw the 2009-2010 schedule three things popped into my mine.
-How likely would it be to talk my wife into going to the Maui Invitational after just getting back from San Fransico for the Cal game (answer was not likely).
-There is a Winston-Salem State?! and
-Where or who is Longwood?
Well luckily for you I am going to answer that last one in today’s post. As it turns out, Longwood isn’t even that far away. It is actually located in Farmville, VA which is west of Richmond, if my history hasn’t failed me I think it was on the road to Appomattox where General Lee surrendered to General Grant which for all intensive purposes ended the Civil War. Longwood was established in 1839 as a woman college (and named something other than Longwood). It is the third oldest public College in Virginia behind William and Mary and UVA.
In 1976 the school became Coed allowing Men to attend. In July of 2002 the school became what it is now called today, Longwood University. There are currently 4,700 students at LU and of those only 31% are male! If I was in their Public Relations Department, I would probably make that the banner on the brochure. The average class size is 21, which is probably smaller than my smallest class at UM. In July of 2007 the school went D I in several sports including Men’s Basketball which we will see tonight in College Park. Oh and by the way, their nickname is the Lancers.
Some other interesting facts are that Longwood is called the Mother of Sororities and this will be an interesting note to several of you I know, Longwood is the birthplace of Kappa Delta (though you KD girls I’m sure already knew that). LU also was where Jason Mraz went to school, though per wikipedia, he did not graduate.
Moving on to Basketball the Lancers are struggling in the 2009-2010 season. They currently sit at 4-14 as they head up 95 for their first ever meeting with the Terps. Some of their previous games of note so far this season are a loss to VT by 35. A loss to South Carolina by 30, a loss to William and Mary (hey it happens to the best of us!) by 19, and a loss to UVA by 13.
Whenever we face teams like this the first thing I want to know is how well do they shot the 3. For LU they are lead by 3 gentleman who apparently have no qualms about heaving up shots from beyond the arc. Their best is Earl Gee II who is 9-18 in his limited playing time, but amongst the regulars Dana Smith is the best hitting 20/58 for 34.5%. Following him is Kevin Swecker who is 28/91 for a 30.8%, and then Martiz Washington who has hit on 39/109 for 28.4%.
When it comes to the foul line Swecker is their best shooting 74%. At the guard, EJ Dawson is their leading assist man with 58 so far this year. Another interesting fact about their basketball team is that Antwan Carter is averaging 14.2 points a game with 23.2 minutes played, yet has never started a game this year.
So based on how LU has preformed against other top schools, it doesn’t appear that the Terps will have much problem with the Lancers. Of course, at the same time, a small part of me would expect nothing less than having played two great games in a row, only to drop a head scratcher, and for me, this would definitely fit the description of a head scratcher.
So there you have it. The Lancers are in town tonight as the Terps get a nice rest from ACC play. Lets hope this one plays out as it appears on paper, and then we can switch focus to NC State and Conference win #3!
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on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 3:45 pm and is filed under Maryland Terps Basketball.
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