University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Big South Championship Season In Review: Men's Basketball
04.20.2016 | Men's Basketball
The 2015-2016 season was a banner year for the UNC Asheville men's basketball program, as the Bulldogs won the Big South Championship and made a trip back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in four seasons. Asheville finished the year with a 22-12 overall record, including a three-game run in Buies Creek in early March to win its fourth Big South Tournament title, capping the weekend with a come-from-behind 77-68 victory over Winthrop to advance to the Big Dance for the fourth time in program history.
“Every year our goals are to win the regular season championship and the tournament championship. We gave ourselves a chance to win the regular season championship with our performance all year, even going into the last day, and I'm certainly proud of what they did all year long,” head coach Nick McDevitt said. “What they did at the end of the year to win the Big South Tournament and make the NCAA Tournament was certainly something we all have to be proud of.”
McDevitt was named Big South Coach of the Year by the outside publication HoopsHD for his efforts during the season, as the Bulldogs started two freshmen and two sophomores in their starting five. After losing three of its first five games, Asheville closed the 2015 calendar year by winning nine of 11 games, including a Dec. 19 win at Georgetown, to set up the Big South schedule and the New Year. Highlighting the regular season conference schedule was a 23-point second half comeback at home against Winthrop on January 6, becoming the 12th-largest second half comeback in NCAA Division I history.
“We were a very mentally tough basketball team this year that never panicked. That's a little bit unusual for any team, much less a team that was as young as we were. To watch them stay together when we were behind – that's to their credit. To come from behind, and do it the right way and stay together – and do it several times – is what allowed us to do it in the (Big South) tournament,” McDevitt stated.
The Bulldogs swept the season series against six of their 10 Big South foes, and posted an 11-3 record inside Kimmel Arena to improve their overall record to 55-17 at home over the history of the now five-year old building. Asheville also upped its Kimmel Arena record to 39-10 when hosting Big South opponents after tallying a 7-2 in-conference record at home.
Asheville prided itself on its defensive effort, oftentimes going to a 1-3-1 defense when it needed a stop or spark. As a team, the Bulldogs finished inside the Top 15 in four different defensive national categories – including holding opponents to the second-lowest three-point field goal shooting percentage in the country at 29.1 percent, just one tenth of a percentage point behind the top national spot (James Madison – 29.0).
The Bulldogs 312 total steals were the third-most in the country this season, while their 9.2 steals per game average was ranked sixth in the nation. As a team, Asheville forced 15.59 turnovers per game, the 15th-most of all Division I programs in 2015-2016.
“Any time that you are committed to defending and rebounding, you give yourselves a chance to win on the nights you don't shoot particularly well. We felt like some mistakes would happen on the offensive end of the floor this year just due to the youth and inexperience of our team, but that we felt like we could make up for some of it on the other end of the floor. Our guys did that all year long,” McDevitt said. “You can't finish in the Top 15 in multiple national defensive categories and not be committed for the entire season. That was a big reason we had a season we did.”
Sophomore Ahmad Thomas may have enjoyed the defense more than anyone, as he tallied 71 steals as an individual this season, finishing the year with the 17th-most steals by a single player across the country. His 2.09 steals per game average was the 20th-best in the nation in the category.
As impressive as the defensive numbers were, all five of the Bulldog starters finished with a 10.0+ points per game average, the first time a Big South member team has accomplished the feat since Charleston Southern in the 2013-2014 campaign.
“It was a very unselfish basketball team. You can't have five guys score in double figures if you're selfish. To see how they shared the ball night in and night out, it made us hard to guard. Certainly each individual player is talented and hard to guard in their own right, but what made us as a team more effective was each individual's willingness to share the ball. It was fun to watch.”
For the Bulldogs, the mentality has already had to become that the schedule calendar has flipped and next season has begun. The team has already started its offseason work in the weight room and on the court, a process that will continue over the summer.
“It's exciting when you think about the possibilities of our future teams and the direction our team is going in. At the same time, our returning players have to realize they too have to improve and work on their weaknesses,” McDevitt said.
“It's not just going to happen again because you got older. After winning 22 games and winning the Big South Tournament and going to the NCAA Tournament, we probably won't catch too many teams off guard next year. That's something that our players have to recognize. You have to prove it just that much more because of this year's success.”
