For the second consecutive year, College of Charleston senior point guard Andrew Lawrence (London, England) was named to the watch list of candidates for the prestigious 2013 Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award as announced by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Thursday.

The annual honor, named for Hall of Famer and former Boston Celtic Bob Cousy, recognizes the top point guards in men’s college basketball. Over 80 candidates were nominated for the 2013 Bob Cousy Award.

The 6-foot-1 team captain and 2012 London Olympian, became the first CofC men’s basketball player in program history to earn a spot on an Olympic Team roster this past summer. He helped his native Great Britain to its first-ever Olympic win over China in tournament pool play. Lawrence was the youngest member of the squad and one of only two current collegians to earn a spot on the roster of the 12 Olympic-qualifying countries. A 2012 NABC Division I All-District 22 Team and 2013 Preseason All-Southern Conference Team selection, he currently leads the Cougars in scoring averaging 13.0 points per game and ranks ninth all-time in career three-pointers made (163) in the school record books. Last year, he finished No. 31 nationally in assists per game (5.5 avg.) and No. 57 in steals per game (1.9 avg.).

This watch list of candidates will be narrowed down to a final 20 around Jan. 1, 2013, final 10 near Feb. 1, 2013, and final five by approximately March 1, 2013. A premier selection committee has been appointed by the Hall of Fame to review the final five candidates in contention for the nation’s top collegiate point guard award. These Hall of Fame committees are made up of top college basketball personnel including media members, head coaches, sports information directors and Hall of Famers. The winner of the 2013 Bob Cousy Award will be presented at the Hall of Fame’s Class Announcement on Championship Monday as part of 2013 NCAA Final Four weekend in Atlanta.

College of Charleston senior right-handed pitcher Matt Pegler has been named to the Preseason All-America Third Team selection by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA).

A native of Greenville, Pegler became just the fifth player in CofC history to record a 10-win season as he went 10-2 with a 2.83 ERA last season. He ranked second in the Southern Conference in ERA and third in wins as he was named to the All-SoCon Second Team.

Pegler led the conference in opposing batting average with a mark of .221, as he recorded 66 strikeouts and only 20 walks in 15 starts.

He earned Gainesville All-Regional team honors after throwing a complete game in CofC’s 8-2 win over Bethune-Cookman in the NCAA Tournament. Pegler recorded a career-high nine strikeouts and carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning.

Fellow SoCon players Alex Swim (C, Elon) and Will Callaway (SS, Appalachian State) were also named to the NCBWA’s All-America Third Team.

The Colonial Athletic Association will play its Men’s Basketball Championship at 1^st Mariner Arena in Baltimore beginning in 2014.

“We are excited to bring the CAA Men’s Basketball Championship and March Madness to Baltimore,” CAA Commissioner Tom Yeager said. “Baltimore’s renowned attractions will captivate our fans during tournament weekend and the electricity of championship college basketball will bring tremendous excitement to the area.”

Baltimore provides a central location for the CAA Men’s Basketball Championship. Seven of the CAA’s 10 member schools are located within 250 miles of Baltimore and more than 370,000 alumni from CAA institutions reside within 100 miles of the city.

With its vibrant downtown waterfront community, Baltimore welcomes 22.3 million visitors annually. Baltimore is a walkable city that offers restaurants, shops, hotels, attractions and museums in close proximity of each other. There are more than 130 attractions to visit in Baltimore, including the National Aquarium which is located along the Inner Harbor.

The CAA Men’s Basketball Championship has been held at the Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, Va. since 1990 and the arena will host the 2013 tournament on March 9-11. Total attendance at the championship has exceeded 42,000 for the past five years, including a tournament-record 47,833 fans in 2012. A recent study showed the CAA Tournament had a $5.8 million economic impact over four days.

“We appreciate the effort and resources committed by the city of Richmond, the business community and the staff at the Richmond Coliseum to promote our tournament,” Yeager said. “They have been a terrific partner for the past 23 years and together we created many magic moments for our student-athletes, alumni and basketball fans in the area. However, conference realignments have shifted our fan base and geography and the move to Baltimore repositions the conference to maximize those changes.”

1^st Mariner Arena, which seats 11,800 for basketball, hosted the first and second rounds of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship in 1995. The venue was named the #1 arena in the United States by Billboard Magazine and Venues Today in 2009. It annually ranks among the top-five highest grossing arenas in the world for venues under 15,000 seats.

The first CAA Men’s Basketball Championship in Baltimore will be held March 7-10, 2014. Future tournament dates are March 6-9, 2015 and March 4-7, 2016. The semifinals and finals of the CAA Men’s Basketball Championship are televised nationally on the NBC Sports Network and all four quarterfinal contests are televised regionally by Comcast SportsNet and other CAA television partners.

CAA teams have combined to win 36 games in postseason play since 2006, including 13 victories in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. During that seven-year period, the CAA has had two teams reach the NCAA Final Four (George Mason – 2006, VCU – 2011), one reach the semifinals of the NIT and has had squads capture championships of the CBI and CIT. The CAA has had at least five teams reach postseason play for the past four years.

Members of the CAA for 2013-14 include the College of Charleston (Charleston, S.C.), the University of Delaware (Newark, Del.), Drexel University (Philadelphia, Pa.), George Mason University (Fairfax, Va.), Hofstra University (Hempstead, N.Y.), James Madison University (Harrisonburg, Va.), the University of North Carolina Wilmington (Wilmington, N.C.), Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.), Towson University (Towson, Md.) and the College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, Va.)

There’s really no nice way to say a team got beat by 42 points, so I’m not even going to try.

If you’re a College of Charleston fan, I wouldn’t worry too much about the 80-38 loss to No. 5 Louisville last night at TD Arena. The next time you see Louisville, if at all, will be in the NCAA Tournament in March. If you get that far, then you’ve gotta believe it’s been a good season.

Louisville looked the part of a national-championship caliber team. And remember they were without 6-11 center Gorgui Dieng, who blocked more than 120 shots last season, last night at TD Arena. This is an impressive, deep, talented team that should make a deep run into March Madness.

You put Dieng with guards Peyton Siva and Russ Smith and you can see why the Cardinals were the preseason No. 2 team.

Here are some of the ugly numbers from last night.

40 — number of points the Cardinals scored in the paint

30 — number of points the Cardinals scored off of turnovers

27 — number of turnovers by the Cougars

21 — bench points by the Cardinals

3/0 — numbers of points scored by Andrew Lawrence and Willis Hall respectively.

Before the game, Cougars coach Doug Wojcik talked about his best players playing their best and let’s face it, Hall and Lawrence, who are both great kids, did not play well. Louisville, obviously, had a lot to do with that.

As I wrote in this morning’s paper, the one bright spot for the Cougars was sophomore center Adejhi Baru. He had 16 points, 14 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals. He looked liked he belonged on the floor with Louisville. If he plays like that the rest of the year and Trent Wiedeman gets healthy, the Cougars will around come March.

If you look at the overall picture, the Cougars are 5-3, about where we expected them to be at this point in the tournament. (I thought they’d go 2-1 in the Charleston Classic, then probably lose to Baylor and Louisville.)

The Cougars have a great chance to win their next five games — Anderson, Coastal Carolina, Vermont and Marist — and be 10-3, 1-0 in the SoCon, heading into their conference schedule.

So, don’t let this lose get to you too much. There’s still a lot of basketball left to be played.

Remember you can keep up with the latest Cougars news by following me on Twitter @APMILLER_PandC.

See you at The Arena,

APM

College of Charleston sophomore Sloane White was named the Southern Conference Volleyball Offensive Player of the Month, the conference office announced Wednesday.

A native of Indianapolis, Ind., White averaged 3.39 kills per set and hit a scorching .449 in November, leading College of Charleston to an 8-0 record, the SoCon Tournament Championship and an NCAA first-round victory over No. 23 Miami.

White reached double digits in kills six times in the month, including in each the last five contests. She hit an even .700 in CofC’s 3-0 win over Wofford to open the month and followed that up with 13 kills and three blocks in the Cougars’ five-set win over Furman, including six in the fifth set.

In the Southern Conference tournament, the sophomore totaled 51 kills and hit .453 in three matches to earn tournament Most Outstanding Player honors as College of Charleston won its seventh SoCon tournament title. White had 18 kills and six digs against Chattanooga in the first round, 17 kills and three digs in a second-round win over Samford and 16 kills and six blocks in the title match against Furman.

In the NCAA first round, White had 17 kills and added eight digs as the Cougars knocked off the Hurricanes for the first win over a ranked opponent in school history. White tallied the match-winning kills against both Furman and Miami to seal the dramatic five-set victories for the Cougars.

A couple of thoughts about tonight’s game with No. 5 Louisville.

First, if you’re going, get there early, parking will be a major issue. The game has been sold out for a while and parking, as usual at TD Arena, will be at a premium.

As far the game. Here are a few keys in my opinion.

Foul trouble

Can Willis Hall, Adjehi Baru and Anthony Thomas stay out of foul trouble. Baru struggled with foul trouble during his freshman season, but has appeared to make the adjustments in his game. Baru had a great game against Baylor and stayed out of foul trouble, major reason for the upset.

The Cardinals will be without their 6-10 center Gorgui Dieng, who is out with a broken wrist. He had more than 120 blocks last season, so that should help the Cougars in the paint. The Cougars are a vastly improved rebounding team from a year ago.

Willis Hall, must play like he’s been playing the last four games. The Cougars will need his toughness and hustle in the paint for second-chance points.

Pressure/Easy Baskets

Louisville coach Rick Pitino has made a living and a reputation playing pressure basketball.

Historically, Pitino’s teams are all about full-court pressure, forcing turnovers and getting easy baskets as a result. It’s crucial that the Cougars take care of the basketball, especially after made baskets by the Cardinals.

Unfortunately, the Cougars have not done a great job of taken care of the basketball early in the season. The Cougars averaging more than 16 turnovers a game, which is about as many turnovers per game as the Cardinals are forcing.

The Cardinals also try to wear down their opponents’ backcourt with their pressure. Andrew Lawrence and Anthony Stitt are really the Cougars only true ball handlers. Cougars coach Doug Wojcik will have to figure out ways to rest them and let someone else do some of the ball handling.

Backcourt

The strength of both teams is in their backcourt.

Peyton Siva (11.7 ppg, 6.0 apg) and Russ Smith (19.9 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 2.0 apg) might be the best backcourt in the country. Smith is especially tough to defend.

The Cougars need to make them work for every point they get.

If you can’t make the game, keep up with action by following me on Twitter @APMILLER_PandC.

See you at The Arena

APM

College of Charleston junior Darcy Dorton earned AVCA All-South Region Honors, the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) announced on Tuesday afternoon.

A native of Muncie, Ind., Dorton finished the 2012 season with 529 kills (4.20/set) for the most CofC kills in a single season in the rally scoring era that began in 2001. Dorton’s average of 4.20 kills per set ranks fourth all-time in the CofC record books.

Dorton was named an All-Southern Conference First Team selection and led the squad in total kills (52) during the Cougars’ run through the Southern Conference Tournament to a league-best seventh tournament championship.

The redshirt-junior then spearheaded the Cougars’ five-set thrilling victory over No. 23 Miami in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Dorton set a new career high and a CofC record for kills in an NCAA Tournament match as she landed 27 kills to give CofC just its second-ever NCAA Tournament win and first victory over a ranked opponent.

Dorton becomes the first player in CofC history to earn a spot on the AVCA All-Region team after such recent standouts as Sarah Havel and Cole Dawley earned All-Region Honorable Mention status. Dorton’s spot on the All-Region team guarantees her the designation of AVCA All-America Honorable Mention which will be announced at the NCAA Volleyball Championships later this month.

Dorton earned AVCA All-America Honorable Mention honors in her freshman season at Penn State, but she becomes the first College of Charleston player to garner that accolade in program history.

Redshirt junior men’s basketball player Willis Hall and redshirt junior volleyball player Darcy Dorton earned College of Charleston Student-Athlete of the Week honors sponsored by Piggly Wiggly for the week of Dec. 3.

Hall led College of Charleston to a 2-0 week with wins at Charleston Southern and Elon. He registered his third career double-double with a game- and season-high 19 points and 12 rebounds at Elon in the team’s lea­gue opener on Dec. 1. It also marked his fifth career double-figure rebounding game. He averaged a team-leading 15.0 points and 9.5 rebounds per game in the two road wins.

Dorton tallied a career-high 27 kills in CofC’s NCAA Tournament first round win over No. 23 Miami, the program’s first victory over a ranked opponent and only the second NCAA Tournament win in program history. Dorton’s 27 kills also set a new school record for a single NCAA Tournament match. Dorton finished her season with 529 kills, ranking sixth all-time in CofC history.

The College of Charleston volleyball team will face No. 23 Miami in the first round of the NCAA volleyball tournament this Friday at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla.

The match is set to start at 5 p.m.

This will be the fourth straight time the Cougars have played in a Gainesville regional during the single-elimination NCAA tournament. The Cougars played on Florida’s campus during the NCAA tournament in 2009, 2007 and 2006. The Cougars fell to Florida 3-0 in 2009 and 2007, and lost to Arizona State, 3-1, in 2006.

The winner of the College of Charleston-Miami match will take on the winner of Florida-Tulsa on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The host Gators earned the tournament’s 14th overall seed in the 64-team field.

Miami advanced to the title match of the ACC Tournament but fell to Florida State, 3-1, but received an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament.

“I’m very happy with the draw that we got today,” said College of Charleston volleyball head coach Jason Kepner. “In my two previous trips we’ve gone to Gainesville and had to play Florida on their home floor. Miami is a great team, but any time that you get a chance to play on a neutral site, you have to be happy. We’re really confident right now. The team is playing great together and that’s what you need to do when you go to the NCAA Tournament. You need everyone to be a part of the offense and defense together.”

The Cougars earned an automatic bid to this year’s tournament by defeating Furman in a five-set thriller in the title match of the Southern Conference Tournament in Davidson, N.C. last Monday night.

“We look forward to preparing to play College of Charleston, knowing historically that [CofC head coach Jason Kepner] has done a great job with that program,” said Miami coach Nicole Lantagne Welch. “Anyone can beat anyone in the NCAA Tournament, so we will have to play at our best in order to win this weekend.”

The College of Charleston will be making its seventh trip to the NCAA Tournament. With the 2012 title, the Cougars have now won 12 straight regular season or SoCon tournament championships, the second-longest streak in the nation. With a 2005 first-round victory over North Carolina, College of Charleston is the only SoCon program to ever win a match in the NCAA Tournament.

The Cougars have been led this season by redshirt-junior Darcy Dorton who transferred to the college of Charleston from Penn State. She has amassed 498 kills and will look to become the first Cougar player in the rally scoring era (since 2001) to record 500 kills in one season.

Sophomore Sloane White, who earned SoCon tournament MVP honors, finished the season on a tear, hitting .453 in the SoCon Tournament and finishing second on the team with 336 kills.

The CofC middle blockers stepped up immensely after entering the season with relatively little playing time as Emily Neideffer (228 kills, 87 blocks) and Kerstin Koehler (185 kills, 101 blocks) helped to shore up the middle of the net and take over after the departures of CofC greats Elyse Chubb and Sarah Havel.

Freshman Melissa Morello was a surprising performer as she earned SoCon All-Freshman honors after finishing third on the team with 241 kills. Setter Taeler Davis also surprised many by averaging 12.04 assists per set as the full-time starter after taking over for the injured Kallie McKown. Finally, senior Emily Shelton closed out her final season with 638 digs, the third-most in a single season in CofC history.

The College of Charleston men’s basketball team is one of seven teams locked in to the eight-team field for the 2013 DIRECTV Classic to be held over the Thanksgiving holiday on Nov. 28, 29 & Dec. 1, in Anaheim, Calif., next year.

The Cougars are joined in the seventh annual tournament field by Arizona State (Pac-12), Creighton (Missouri Valley), George Washington (Atlantic 10), Marquette (BIG EAST), Miami (ACC) and San Diego State (Mountain West). The eighth team will be announced at a later date.

The 2013 DIRECTV Classic will feature a bracket format with 12 games over three days. Each team will compete in one game per day, advancing through the bracket. The two teams that remain undefeated throughout the tournament will face off in a championship game on the final day of competition.

The College of Charleston can only compete in the Charleston Classic once every four years. This tournament is one of several that ESPN puts on during the months of November and December.

You can follow me on Twitter at APMILLER_PandC.

See you at the gym,

APM