University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Photo by: Adrian Etheridge
Men's Basketball Travels to NC State for First Road Game of 2018-19 Season
11.12.2018 | Men's Basketball
THE MATCHUP
Teams: UNC Asheville (1-0)
NC State (2-0)
Location: Raleigh, N.C./PNC Arena
Date/Time: Tuesday, Nov. 13/7 p.m.
Video - ACC Network Extra
Radio: ESPN Radio 92.9 FM
Talent - Brian Hall (PBP), Mike Gore (Analyst)
Live Stats: uncabulldogs.com
Twitter: @UNCAvlMBBÂ #IWWDÂ #ThePursuit
RALEIGH, N.C. - UNC Asheville men's basketball will hit the road for the first time in the 2018-19 season to take on NC State on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018.
The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start on Tuesday. It will be streamed live on ACC Network Extra.Â
BULLDOG BITES
BULLDOGS OPEN FIRST SEASON UNDER MIKE MORRELL WITH WIN: The Mike Morrell era of UNC Asheville men's basketball started off in emphatic fashion with the Bulldogs picking up a dominating 87-47 victory over St. Andrews at Kimmel Arena on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018. UNC Asheville basically led from start-to-finish in the win over St. Andrews with the Bulldogs leading by as many as 41 before securing the 40-point win.
FIRST HEAD COACHING VICTORY: After the Bulldog victory over St. Andrews, UNC Asheville Director of Athletics Janet R. Cone presented Mike Morrell a commemorative ball to congratulate him on his inaugural win. The UNC Asheville men's basketball team then congratulated Morrell in the locker room for starting his career off the right way.
ONE OF THE YOUNGEST STAFFS IN NATION: Mike Morrell is joined on the sideline by assistant coaches Kyle Perry, R.J. Evans and Mike Moynihan along with Director of Basketball Operations Corey Guderyahn. The UNC Asheville men's basketball coaching staff is one of the youngest in the country. In fact, the staff is the fifth-youngest in the country at an average age of 33 years and 274 days.Â
BABY BULLDOGS: The 2018-19 UNC Asheville men's basketball team is also one of the youngest  in the entire country. In fact, the Bulldogs are in the top-5 youngest in NCAA Division I in every major statistical category. The Bulldogs return just 5.5 percent of their points from last season and 2.9 percent of their starts. In total, the Bulldogs return only 141 points from the 2017-18 season.Â
DISHING IT OUT: UNC Asheville finished the win over St. Andrews with 18 assists on 27 made field goals. The Bulldogs also protected the basketball with only nine turnovers as a team.
HOME SWEET HOME: UNC Asheville is 83-18 overall and 57-12 against Big South foes within the friendly confines of Kimmel Arena inside the Sherrill Center. The Bulldogs have won 24 of their last 26 at Kimmel Arena overall.
FIRST SEASON-OPENING WIN SINCE 2012: UNC Asheville secured its first season-opening win since 2012 with the win over St. Andrews. UNC Asheville had last opened its regular season with a win in the 2012-13 season when the Bulldogs knocked off Mountain Rival Western Carolina, 71-61. In 2013 the Bulldogs fell to Kentucky in the season opener before falling to Wake Forest in the season opener in 2014. In 2015 the Bulldogs dropped their opener at Tennessee and then in 2016 the Bulldogs fell at VCU. The Bulldogs dropped their season opener at Rhode Island last season.Â
MORRELL TAKES PART IN FIRST BIG SOUTH MEDIA DAY: First-year men's basketball head coach Mike Morrell took part in his first Big South Basketball Media Day on Tuesday, Oct. 23 at the Renaissance Suites Hotel. Both the UNC Asheville men's and women's basketball teams took part in the annual media gathering in Charlotte, N.C. Donovan Gilmore also took part in Big South Media Days with the Bulldog senior forward participating in a league photo/video shoot on Monday, Oct. 22. On Tuesday, Oct. 23, Morrell spent time talking with the numerous media in attendance in addition to making multiple appearances on a variety of ESPN platforms. One of the youngest teams in the country with only 2.9 percentage of their starts returning and 5.5 percent of their points returning, UNC Asheville was picked eighth in the Big South Men's Basketball Preseason Poll.
WATCH THE BULLDOGS ON BSN ON ESPN+: All of UNC Asheville's home men's and women's basketball games that are not on ESPN3 or picked by an ESPN linear network will be streamed live on ESPN+, which is now the exclusive streaming home of Big South Network live-event productions. A minimum of 900 Big South Network events will air annually on ESPN+, the first-ever multi-sport, direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service from The Walt Disney Company's Direct-to-Consumer and International division in partnership with ESPN. It offers fans thousands of additional live events, on-demand content and original programming not available on ESPN's linear TV or digital networks. Fans can subscribe to ESPN+ for just $4.99 a month (or $49.99 per year). ESPN+ is an integrated part of the completely redesigned ESPN App. To learn more and to sign up for BSN on ESPN+, please visit uncabulldogs.com and visit the MEDIA tab.
BULLDOGS TO BE FEATURED ON ESPN3: UNC Asheville men's and women's basketball will both make appearances on ESPN3 during the 2018-19 season. UNC Asheville men's basketball will play host to Campbell at Kimmel Arena at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 16, while women's basketball will play host to Radford on ESPN3 at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 26.
To see the full game notes, please visit HERE. To see the 2018-19 UNC Asheville media guide, please visit HERE.Â
SERIES/ABOUT NC STATE
SERIES: UNC Asheville and NC State will be meeting for the 19th time on Tuesday. The matchup will mark the first meeting between the two programs since Nov. 23, 2012 when the Bulldogs just missed on upsetting the then 15th-ranked Wolfpack in a narrow 82-80 loss.
ABOUT NC STATE: The Wolfpack are 2-0 on the young season with wins over Mount St. Mary's and Maryland Eastern Shore. NC State was selected eighth in the ACC Preseason Poll.Â
BARKING ABOUT THE BULLDOGS
NATIONAL CHAMPS: The UNC Asheville men's tennis doubles duo of Oli Nolan and Henry Patten secured a national championship on Sunday, Nov. 11, with a 6-2, 6-1 win over nationally 42nd-ranked Bjorn Thomson and Parker Wynn of Texas Tech in the championship match of the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships at the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex. In addition to the national championship win, Patten was also voted by the ITA Officials at the event to receive the Sportsmanship Award for the 2018 Oracle ITA National Fall Championships. The championship match win for Nolan and Patten was part of a tremendous fall of 2018 for the pairing. Nolan and Patten went undefeated playing together during the fall and won three titles including the national championship.
MORE THAN MAKING THE GRADE:Â For the 2017-18 athletic year, the UNC Asheville student-athletes showed their commitment to the classroom by finishing the academic year with a combined grade-point average of 3.142. Impressively, 72 percent (161 of 223) UNC Asheville student-athletes during the 2017-18 athletic year received Athletic Director Honor Roll recognition with a grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.
TWO-TIME SCHOLAR ATHLETE OF THE YEAR: For the second time in his career, UNC Asheville senior Blanton Gillespie was selected as a Big South Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Gillespie was chosen as the 2018 Big South Men's Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year at the Big South Cross Country Championship presented by Musco Sports Lighting and UCS at the Ivey M. Redmon Sports Complex on Friday, Oct. 26. The honor is just the latest for Gillespie, who was named the 2018 Big South Outdoor Track and Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year in May of 2018.
BIG SOUTH WOMAN OF THE YEAR: UNC Asheville graduate Kayli Nichols was selected as the 2017-18 Big South Conference's Woman of the Year. With degrees in German and Political Science and a minor in Spanish, Nichols graduated from UNC Asheville with a GPA of 3.974. During her senior campaign, she was named the Big South Outdoor Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the Big South Indoor Co-Scholar-Athlete of the Year.Â
BIG SOUTH MALE SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR: On the same day that he started his new full-time position in the Corporate Analyst Development Program at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Columbus, Ohio on July 11, 2018, former UNC Asheville men's basketball standout Kevin Vannatta was chosen as the 2017-18 Big South Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year. In addition to winning the Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year award for the conference, Vannatta was also chosen as the Division I-AAA Athletics Directors Association (DI-AAA ADA) Scholar-Athlete of the Year for men's basketball and as the Big South Men's Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The Upper Arlington, Ohio native was also selected to the 2017-18 Academic All-America® NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). An Accounting major at UNC Asheville, Vannatta graduated with a 3.94 grade-point average.
FOLLOW IT LIVE
To watch the game live on ACC Network Extra, please visit HERE. You can follow via live stats HERE.Â
UP NEXT
UNC Asheville men's basketball will next participate in the KEMIÂ Northern Kentucky Basketball Classic Nov. 16-18 at BB&T Arena in Highland Heights, Ky. In addition to the Bulldogs, host Northern Kentucky, Coastal Carolina and Manhattan will compete in the event.
The matchup against Coastal Carolina in the tournament will mark the first time the two former league rivals have met since the Bulldogs claimed a thrilling 79-77 overtime win over the Chanticleers at the HTC Center in Conway, S.C. on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016. UNC Asheville will be taking the court against Northern Kentucky and Manhattan in the multi-team event for the first time on the hardwood.
Â
Teams: UNC Asheville (1-0)
NC State (2-0)
Location: Raleigh, N.C./PNC Arena
Date/Time: Tuesday, Nov. 13/7 p.m.
Video - ACC Network Extra
Radio: ESPN Radio 92.9 FM
Talent - Brian Hall (PBP), Mike Gore (Analyst)
Live Stats: uncabulldogs.com
Twitter: @UNCAvlMBBÂ #IWWDÂ #ThePursuit
RALEIGH, N.C. - UNC Asheville men's basketball will hit the road for the first time in the 2018-19 season to take on NC State on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018.
The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start on Tuesday. It will be streamed live on ACC Network Extra.Â
BULLDOG BITES
BULLDOGS OPEN FIRST SEASON UNDER MIKE MORRELL WITH WIN: The Mike Morrell era of UNC Asheville men's basketball started off in emphatic fashion with the Bulldogs picking up a dominating 87-47 victory over St. Andrews at Kimmel Arena on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018. UNC Asheville basically led from start-to-finish in the win over St. Andrews with the Bulldogs leading by as many as 41 before securing the 40-point win.
FIRST HEAD COACHING VICTORY: After the Bulldog victory over St. Andrews, UNC Asheville Director of Athletics Janet R. Cone presented Mike Morrell a commemorative ball to congratulate him on his inaugural win. The UNC Asheville men's basketball team then congratulated Morrell in the locker room for starting his career off the right way.
ONE OF THE YOUNGEST STAFFS IN NATION: Mike Morrell is joined on the sideline by assistant coaches Kyle Perry, R.J. Evans and Mike Moynihan along with Director of Basketball Operations Corey Guderyahn. The UNC Asheville men's basketball coaching staff is one of the youngest in the country. In fact, the staff is the fifth-youngest in the country at an average age of 33 years and 274 days.Â
BABY BULLDOGS: The 2018-19 UNC Asheville men's basketball team is also one of the youngest  in the entire country. In fact, the Bulldogs are in the top-5 youngest in NCAA Division I in every major statistical category. The Bulldogs return just 5.5 percent of their points from last season and 2.9 percent of their starts. In total, the Bulldogs return only 141 points from the 2017-18 season.Â
DISHING IT OUT: UNC Asheville finished the win over St. Andrews with 18 assists on 27 made field goals. The Bulldogs also protected the basketball with only nine turnovers as a team.
HOME SWEET HOME: UNC Asheville is 83-18 overall and 57-12 against Big South foes within the friendly confines of Kimmel Arena inside the Sherrill Center. The Bulldogs have won 24 of their last 26 at Kimmel Arena overall.
FIRST SEASON-OPENING WIN SINCE 2012: UNC Asheville secured its first season-opening win since 2012 with the win over St. Andrews. UNC Asheville had last opened its regular season with a win in the 2012-13 season when the Bulldogs knocked off Mountain Rival Western Carolina, 71-61. In 2013 the Bulldogs fell to Kentucky in the season opener before falling to Wake Forest in the season opener in 2014. In 2015 the Bulldogs dropped their opener at Tennessee and then in 2016 the Bulldogs fell at VCU. The Bulldogs dropped their season opener at Rhode Island last season.Â
MORRELL TAKES PART IN FIRST BIG SOUTH MEDIA DAY: First-year men's basketball head coach Mike Morrell took part in his first Big South Basketball Media Day on Tuesday, Oct. 23 at the Renaissance Suites Hotel. Both the UNC Asheville men's and women's basketball teams took part in the annual media gathering in Charlotte, N.C. Donovan Gilmore also took part in Big South Media Days with the Bulldog senior forward participating in a league photo/video shoot on Monday, Oct. 22. On Tuesday, Oct. 23, Morrell spent time talking with the numerous media in attendance in addition to making multiple appearances on a variety of ESPN platforms. One of the youngest teams in the country with only 2.9 percentage of their starts returning and 5.5 percent of their points returning, UNC Asheville was picked eighth in the Big South Men's Basketball Preseason Poll.
WATCH THE BULLDOGS ON BSN ON ESPN+: All of UNC Asheville's home men's and women's basketball games that are not on ESPN3 or picked by an ESPN linear network will be streamed live on ESPN+, which is now the exclusive streaming home of Big South Network live-event productions. A minimum of 900 Big South Network events will air annually on ESPN+, the first-ever multi-sport, direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service from The Walt Disney Company's Direct-to-Consumer and International division in partnership with ESPN. It offers fans thousands of additional live events, on-demand content and original programming not available on ESPN's linear TV or digital networks. Fans can subscribe to ESPN+ for just $4.99 a month (or $49.99 per year). ESPN+ is an integrated part of the completely redesigned ESPN App. To learn more and to sign up for BSN on ESPN+, please visit uncabulldogs.com and visit the MEDIA tab.
BULLDOGS TO BE FEATURED ON ESPN3: UNC Asheville men's and women's basketball will both make appearances on ESPN3 during the 2018-19 season. UNC Asheville men's basketball will play host to Campbell at Kimmel Arena at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 16, while women's basketball will play host to Radford on ESPN3 at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 26.
To see the full game notes, please visit HERE. To see the 2018-19 UNC Asheville media guide, please visit HERE.Â
SERIES/ABOUT NC STATE
SERIES: UNC Asheville and NC State will be meeting for the 19th time on Tuesday. The matchup will mark the first meeting between the two programs since Nov. 23, 2012 when the Bulldogs just missed on upsetting the then 15th-ranked Wolfpack in a narrow 82-80 loss.
ABOUT NC STATE: The Wolfpack are 2-0 on the young season with wins over Mount St. Mary's and Maryland Eastern Shore. NC State was selected eighth in the ACC Preseason Poll.Â
BARKING ABOUT THE BULLDOGS
NATIONAL CHAMPS: The UNC Asheville men's tennis doubles duo of Oli Nolan and Henry Patten secured a national championship on Sunday, Nov. 11, with a 6-2, 6-1 win over nationally 42nd-ranked Bjorn Thomson and Parker Wynn of Texas Tech in the championship match of the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships at the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex. In addition to the national championship win, Patten was also voted by the ITA Officials at the event to receive the Sportsmanship Award for the 2018 Oracle ITA National Fall Championships. The championship match win for Nolan and Patten was part of a tremendous fall of 2018 for the pairing. Nolan and Patten went undefeated playing together during the fall and won three titles including the national championship.
MORE THAN MAKING THE GRADE:Â For the 2017-18 athletic year, the UNC Asheville student-athletes showed their commitment to the classroom by finishing the academic year with a combined grade-point average of 3.142. Impressively, 72 percent (161 of 223) UNC Asheville student-athletes during the 2017-18 athletic year received Athletic Director Honor Roll recognition with a grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.
TWO-TIME SCHOLAR ATHLETE OF THE YEAR: For the second time in his career, UNC Asheville senior Blanton Gillespie was selected as a Big South Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Gillespie was chosen as the 2018 Big South Men's Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year at the Big South Cross Country Championship presented by Musco Sports Lighting and UCS at the Ivey M. Redmon Sports Complex on Friday, Oct. 26. The honor is just the latest for Gillespie, who was named the 2018 Big South Outdoor Track and Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year in May of 2018.
BIG SOUTH WOMAN OF THE YEAR: UNC Asheville graduate Kayli Nichols was selected as the 2017-18 Big South Conference's Woman of the Year. With degrees in German and Political Science and a minor in Spanish, Nichols graduated from UNC Asheville with a GPA of 3.974. During her senior campaign, she was named the Big South Outdoor Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the Big South Indoor Co-Scholar-Athlete of the Year.Â
BIG SOUTH MALE SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR: On the same day that he started his new full-time position in the Corporate Analyst Development Program at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Columbus, Ohio on July 11, 2018, former UNC Asheville men's basketball standout Kevin Vannatta was chosen as the 2017-18 Big South Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year. In addition to winning the Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year award for the conference, Vannatta was also chosen as the Division I-AAA Athletics Directors Association (DI-AAA ADA) Scholar-Athlete of the Year for men's basketball and as the Big South Men's Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The Upper Arlington, Ohio native was also selected to the 2017-18 Academic All-America® NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). An Accounting major at UNC Asheville, Vannatta graduated with a 3.94 grade-point average.
FOLLOW IT LIVE
To watch the game live on ACC Network Extra, please visit HERE. You can follow via live stats HERE.Â
UP NEXT
UNC Asheville men's basketball will next participate in the KEMIÂ Northern Kentucky Basketball Classic Nov. 16-18 at BB&T Arena in Highland Heights, Ky. In addition to the Bulldogs, host Northern Kentucky, Coastal Carolina and Manhattan will compete in the event.
The matchup against Coastal Carolina in the tournament will mark the first time the two former league rivals have met since the Bulldogs claimed a thrilling 79-77 overtime win over the Chanticleers at the HTC Center in Conway, S.C. on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016. UNC Asheville will be taking the court against Northern Kentucky and Manhattan in the multi-team event for the first time on the hardwood.
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Players Mentioned
Distance
/ Cross Country
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/ Men's Basketball
Sprints
/ Track and Field
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
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