University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Photo by: Doug Cochran/Sports Focus Media
UNC Asheville Hits Road to Face UT Martin on Saturday
11.30.2018 | Men's Basketball
THE MATCHUP
Teams: UNC Asheville (1-5)
UT Martin (2-2)
Location: Martin, Tenn./Elam Center
Date/Time: Saturday, Dec. 1/8:30 p.m. EST
Video: ESPN+
Live Stats: uncabulldogs.com
Twitter: @UNCAvlMBB #IWWD #ThePursuit
MARTIN, Tenn. - The month of December will open for UNC Asheville with the Bulldogs traveling for the second meeting between UT Martin and UNC Asheville in the last three seasons.
The Bulldogs last visited the Skyhawks on March 16, 2017 in the opening round of the 2017 CollegeInsider.com (CIT) Postseason Tournament. UNC Asheville and UT Martin will face off this year at 8:30 p.m. EST on Saturday, Dec. 1.
Saturday's game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
BULLDOG BITES
MAKING IT HARD ON OPPONENTS: UNC Asheville as a team currently leads the Big South and is 38th in the country in three-point field goal percentage defense. Bulldog opponents are shooting just 28.3 percent beyond the arc.
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.
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.
BABY BULLDOGS ON THE FLOOR: In UNC Asheville's first six games of the 2018-19 season, 72 percent (864 of 1,200) of UNC Asheville's total minutes as a team have been played by freshmen.
STEALING THEIR WAY TO POINTS: UNC Asheville finished with 11 steals in the game with Furman. The Bulldogs turned the 11 steals into 11 points. UNC Asheville as a team now has two games with double-digit steals. UNC Asheville had 12 steals in the win over St. Andrews.
PERFECT FROM THE FREE THROW LINE: UNC Asheville was a perfect 3-of-3 from the charity stripe as a team in the game with Furman. It marks the first time UNC Asheville finished a game perfect from the free throw line since going 7-of-7 in a 73-47 road win over Presbyterian College on Jan. 26, 2017. The game also marked the first time since a game at Georgia on Nov. 14, 2016, that the Bulldogs had five or less free throw attempts in a game.
BAKER NAMED ALL-TOURNAMENT: UNC Asheville's DeVon Baker was named to the 2018 KEMI Northern Kentucky Basketball Classic All-Tournament Team after the conclusion of the tournament. Baker averaged 16.3 points and 2.0 steals per game in UNC Asheville's three games in the tournament.
STRONG ON THE OFFENSIVE GLASS: UNC Asheville held a 33-26 rebounding lead over Manhattan with the Bulldogs collecting an impressive 17 of their 33 rebounds on the offensive glass. In collecting a career-best nine boards, Jeremy Peck secured five of his nine boards on the offensive glass. Coty Jude collected four of his seven rebounds in the game on the offensive glass.
HOME SWEET HOME: UNC Asheville is 83-19 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 27 at Kimmel Arena overall.
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.
WELCOME TO THE FAMILY: UNC Asheville men's basketball head coach Mike Morrell announced the addition of AJ McBride on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018. A 6-foot-1 guard out of Houston, Texas, McBride joins the Bulldogs out of Manvel High School. He plays his AAU basketball for the Houston Clippers. McBride was a first-team All-District selection last year for Manvel High School. He is just the third from his school to earn a NCAA Division I men's basketball scholarship.
BULLDOG BLOCK PARTY: UNC Asheville finished the loss to NC State with six blocks as a team. The Bulldogs swatted five shots alone in the first half.
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.
To see the full game notes, please visit HERE. To see the 2018-19 UNC Asheville media guide, please visit HERE.
SERIES/ABOUT UT MARTIN
SERIES: Saturday's game will be the second all-time meeting between the two schools with UT Martin taking an 89-75 win over the Bulldogs in the CIT on Thursday, March 16, 2017, at the Elam Center. Three Bulldogs finished in double figures in the game with Ahmad Thomas leading the way with 22 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, three steals and one block. Kevin Vannatta ended his evening with 18 points, four rebounds and one assist. Alec Wnuk was the final Bulldog in double figures with 14 points and three rebounds.
ABOUT UT MARTIN: The Skyhawks welcome UNC Asheville owning an even 2-2 record on the season. Predicted to finish 11th in the preseason OVC poll, Fatodd Lewis was a preseason all-league selection for the Skyhawks. UT Martin presently has four players averaging in double figures.
BARKING ABOUT THE BULLDOGS
NEW STRATEGIC PLAN: UNC Asheville athletics officially unveiled its newest strategic plan on Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018. The strategic plan entitled "Believe. Achieve. Thrive." is the road map for UNC Asheville athletics over the course of the next five years. The strategic plan outlines key areas of focus and growth in developing lifetime leaders from the most valuable resource that UNC Asheville athletics has in its student-athletes. To learn more about the strategic plan, please visit HERE (PDF).
NATIONAL CHAMPS: The nationally second-ranked 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: 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 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.
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
You can watch the ESPN+ broadcast HERE. You can follow via live stats HERE.
UP NEXT
UNC Asheville will travel to Auburn on Tuesday, Dec. 4. The matchup will mark UNC Asheville's first trip back to Auburn since picking up a 70-69 win over the Tigers in overtime on Friday, Nov. 13, 2010. The Bulldog victory came in the inaugural game in Auburn Arena.
This year's matchup with Auburn is slated for a 8 p.m. EST start on Dec. 4. The game will be televised nationally on the SEC Network.
Teams: UNC Asheville (1-5)
UT Martin (2-2)
Location: Martin, Tenn./Elam Center
Date/Time: Saturday, Dec. 1/8:30 p.m. EST
Video: ESPN+
Live Stats: uncabulldogs.com
Twitter: @UNCAvlMBB #IWWD #ThePursuit
MARTIN, Tenn. - The month of December will open for UNC Asheville with the Bulldogs traveling for the second meeting between UT Martin and UNC Asheville in the last three seasons.
The Bulldogs last visited the Skyhawks on March 16, 2017 in the opening round of the 2017 CollegeInsider.com (CIT) Postseason Tournament. UNC Asheville and UT Martin will face off this year at 8:30 p.m. EST on Saturday, Dec. 1.
Saturday's game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
BULLDOG BITES
MAKING IT HARD ON OPPONENTS: UNC Asheville as a team currently leads the Big South and is 38th in the country in three-point field goal percentage defense. Bulldog opponents are shooting just 28.3 percent beyond the arc.
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.
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.
BABY BULLDOGS ON THE FLOOR: In UNC Asheville's first six games of the 2018-19 season, 72 percent (864 of 1,200) of UNC Asheville's total minutes as a team have been played by freshmen.
STEALING THEIR WAY TO POINTS: UNC Asheville finished with 11 steals in the game with Furman. The Bulldogs turned the 11 steals into 11 points. UNC Asheville as a team now has two games with double-digit steals. UNC Asheville had 12 steals in the win over St. Andrews.
PERFECT FROM THE FREE THROW LINE: UNC Asheville was a perfect 3-of-3 from the charity stripe as a team in the game with Furman. It marks the first time UNC Asheville finished a game perfect from the free throw line since going 7-of-7 in a 73-47 road win over Presbyterian College on Jan. 26, 2017. The game also marked the first time since a game at Georgia on Nov. 14, 2016, that the Bulldogs had five or less free throw attempts in a game.
BAKER NAMED ALL-TOURNAMENT: UNC Asheville's DeVon Baker was named to the 2018 KEMI Northern Kentucky Basketball Classic All-Tournament Team after the conclusion of the tournament. Baker averaged 16.3 points and 2.0 steals per game in UNC Asheville's three games in the tournament.
STRONG ON THE OFFENSIVE GLASS: UNC Asheville held a 33-26 rebounding lead over Manhattan with the Bulldogs collecting an impressive 17 of their 33 rebounds on the offensive glass. In collecting a career-best nine boards, Jeremy Peck secured five of his nine boards on the offensive glass. Coty Jude collected four of his seven rebounds in the game on the offensive glass.
HOME SWEET HOME: UNC Asheville is 83-19 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 27 at Kimmel Arena overall.
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.
WELCOME TO THE FAMILY: UNC Asheville men's basketball head coach Mike Morrell announced the addition of AJ McBride on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018. A 6-foot-1 guard out of Houston, Texas, McBride joins the Bulldogs out of Manvel High School. He plays his AAU basketball for the Houston Clippers. McBride was a first-team All-District selection last year for Manvel High School. He is just the third from his school to earn a NCAA Division I men's basketball scholarship.
BULLDOG BLOCK PARTY: UNC Asheville finished the loss to NC State with six blocks as a team. The Bulldogs swatted five shots alone in the first half.
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.
To see the full game notes, please visit HERE. To see the 2018-19 UNC Asheville media guide, please visit HERE.
SERIES/ABOUT UT MARTIN
SERIES: Saturday's game will be the second all-time meeting between the two schools with UT Martin taking an 89-75 win over the Bulldogs in the CIT on Thursday, March 16, 2017, at the Elam Center. Three Bulldogs finished in double figures in the game with Ahmad Thomas leading the way with 22 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, three steals and one block. Kevin Vannatta ended his evening with 18 points, four rebounds and one assist. Alec Wnuk was the final Bulldog in double figures with 14 points and three rebounds.
ABOUT UT MARTIN: The Skyhawks welcome UNC Asheville owning an even 2-2 record on the season. Predicted to finish 11th in the preseason OVC poll, Fatodd Lewis was a preseason all-league selection for the Skyhawks. UT Martin presently has four players averaging in double figures.
BARKING ABOUT THE BULLDOGS
NEW STRATEGIC PLAN: UNC Asheville athletics officially unveiled its newest strategic plan on Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018. The strategic plan entitled "Believe. Achieve. Thrive." is the road map for UNC Asheville athletics over the course of the next five years. The strategic plan outlines key areas of focus and growth in developing lifetime leaders from the most valuable resource that UNC Asheville athletics has in its student-athletes. To learn more about the strategic plan, please visit HERE (PDF).
NATIONAL CHAMPS: The nationally second-ranked 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: 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 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.
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
You can watch the ESPN+ broadcast HERE. You can follow via live stats HERE.
UP NEXT
UNC Asheville will travel to Auburn on Tuesday, Dec. 4. The matchup will mark UNC Asheville's first trip back to Auburn since picking up a 70-69 win over the Tigers in overtime on Friday, Nov. 13, 2010. The Bulldog victory came in the inaugural game in Auburn Arena.
This year's matchup with Auburn is slated for a 8 p.m. EST start on Dec. 4. The game will be televised nationally on the SEC Network.
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
Distance
/ Cross Country
F
/ Men's Basketball
Sprints
/ Track and Field
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's BasketballMonday, March 18
Monday, March 18
Thursday, March 14
Monday, March 04