Written and Media by : Alex Carie
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The Greenville College Men’s basketball team has not been to the SLIAC Conference tournament since the 2010-2011 season. That drought has ended this year. The team finished the regular season in second place in the SLIAC Conference with a 12-6 record against conference foes and 13-12 overall. This tied with MacMurray who is seeded number one and earned the right to host the tournament. MacMurray received first place due to an extensive conference tie-breaker.
Greenville will play the number three seed in the tournament, Westminster College. This year Greenville played against Westminster two separate times. Greenville lost the game at Westminster 90-95, but when the Blue Jays came to Greenville, the Panthers won 114-97. MacMurray, the top seed will play fourth seeded Spalding University. Greenville split games with each Spalding and MacMurray as well, beating both teams at home but falling on the road.
The men’s basketball team has a new look to the style in which they play this season. “It’s called ‘The System’ and we can now play up to 15 players in a game so the participation of players has gone up! It keeps players engaged because they know they will be in the game at some point when the game is on the line,” head coach George Barber said.
It is a high-paced juggernaut of an offense led by Tim Daniel, who is averaging 19.4 points per game, and an extremely energetic tandem defense led by the conference leader in steals, Michael Hohm. Greenville has high hopes that their fast-paced, up-tempo offense can push them through the conference tournament to give them an NCAA tournament berth.
Barber believe his team’s chances of winning are “as good as any of the four teams in it.” “MacMurray has the home court advantage so they are favored. We have less experience than the other teams (this being only GC’s second tourney since 2011), but anything can happen!” As seen by the teams’ records, this should be a very competitive tournament.
Greenville will be tipping off at 6:00 P.M against Westminster for Game 1 at MacMurray College. Game 2 at MacMurray tips off at 8:00 P.M. and is between the host MacMurray College and Spalding University. The winners of each game will move on to the conference championship which will be held Saturday, Feb. 27 at 1:00 P.M. at MacMurray College.
Anyone can listen to the Championship Broadcast via CollegeCasts.
