Is Kennesaw State our shining light for tournament?
It was celebration time in Macon Wednesday when Kennesaw State beat Lipscomb. That's guard Spencer Dixon on top of the pile.
With Georgia Tech leaving us wondering as to whether it’s an NCAA Tournament team, and Georgia needing a series of upsets in the SEC tourney to gain admittance to the national party, is it possible that Kennesaw State will be our shining light?
In case you missed it — and we acknowledge that Atlantic Sun basketball is not widely dissected in these parts — your Kennesaw State Owls (seeded eighth) dumped mighty Lipscomb (seeded first), 72-69, in the first round of the A-Sun Conference tournament Wednesday in Macon.
Two more wins and the Owls are in the NCAA tournament. Forget records. Forget RPIs. Forget bracketologists. How sweet would that be?
Clark Freeman wrote a nice
feature on Kennesaw State in Wednesday’s AJC. Here’s your primer: This was the first season the Owls were even eligible for the conference tournament, and they qualified. They stepped up to Division I after winning the Division II national championship in 2004.
This season, the Owls went only 12-19 overall in the regular season, 7-13 in the Atlantic Sun. They had lost their last seven games before Wednesday. So it’s safe to say nobody saw this coming.
The Owls’ head coach, Tony Ingle, is a character. You can visit his website, TonyIngle.com. You also can read his book, “I Don’t Mind Hitting Bottom, I Just Hate Dragging.” He has been at Kennesaw State since 2000. He once had a higher profile position at BYU. But an 0-19 record ended that quickly.
Ingle is from Dalton, Ga. The sounds on the video from the post-game press conference below make that kind of obvious. Among his post-game comments: “We had four guys in double figures. I think the last time we had four guys in double figures, Moby Dick was a minnow.”
OK, Tech and Georgia fans: Can you find common ground and get behind Kennesaw State?
Follow me on Twitter @JeffSchultzAJC and on Facebook.com/JeffSchultzAJC
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Here’s the Owls’ post-game press conference.
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100 comments Add your comment
mmgtfan
March 4th, 2010
12:43 am
First
Pi$$onaDAWG
March 4th, 2010
12:57 am
Kennsaw Grad myself and I love it.
Gravy Train
March 4th, 2010
12:57 am
With more publicity from the local media and more donors, KSU could be a great basketball program. There is more than enough talent in north Georgia for the Owls to get a few good ones away from the big fish. I wonder if a resurgence within the Sports Information Department and or Sports Marketing would improve the situation?
What do GT and UG fans have in common?
March 4th, 2010
1:11 am
They both root for the KENNESAW STATE OWLS.
matt r
March 4th, 2010
1:12 am
Best case scenario (geographically) will be if KSU gets a 16 or 15 and gets paired with Duke or maybe Kentucky in Jacksonville.
Tide Rising
March 4th, 2010
1:13 am
Good luck to the Owls!
squires32
March 4th, 2010
1:53 am
Great win for the Owls. Ingle has got something special going at KSU.
tjhook
March 4th, 2010
4:21 am
I’m a Mercer supporter, if we find a way to win the tournament, will you give us the kind of love Kennesaw is getting?
Larry
March 4th, 2010
5:20 am
Kennesaw State’s nickname: “Harvard in the Pines”
Great academic institution that perennially leads the University of Georgia system (and that includes Emory, UGA and GT) of colleges and universities in student aptitude test scores and the regents exams. When they add the upcoming football program you will see more progress in athletic talent recruitment to compliment their academics. Then you have an attractive balance of sports and academic excellence.
Nice campus, too, only about 20-25 minutes north of Atlanta.
lanier
March 4th, 2010
5:55 am
I bet they couldn’t even beat Tech
Hoot Owl
March 4th, 2010
6:03 am
Jeff, thanks for giving some attention to KSU. Their hockey team is good too even though it’s not a supported sport. The players have to pay their own way just to play. But they won a nation title a year or so ago. Check them out, too!
JSS
March 4th, 2010
6:43 am
T.J., Mercer can not even get love in Macon… Tell Bill Shanks and all of those people who live above Pio Nono and out Zebulon who think that they are only people who are worthy of walking into University Center to support you… Mercer has wanted to isolate itself from the Greater Macon community, and Bobby Pope and former President Godsey did a great job… Good luck with your gentrification of the College Hill corridor and Montipelier Heights, the destruction of Macon continues…
RGP
March 4th, 2010
7:24 am
Enter your comments here
RGP
March 4th, 2010
7:28 am
Larry: Kennesaw State University (sic) a “great academic institution”??? Whoa…..the future of higher education in this state is in serious, serious trouble.
KSU GRAD
March 4th, 2010
7:49 am
Go mighty HOOTERS!
Nate
March 4th, 2010
8:21 am
Larry, I’m all for KSU going to the tourney, but please don’t call Kennesaw the ‘Harvard in the Pines’. UGA and Tech are at least one step above KSU as far as academics are concerneed.
ETSUBUC
March 4th, 2010
8:21 am
It’s fine and good for them to win. Even better when ETSU dumps Campbell today and embarrasses Kennesaw.
Nate
March 4th, 2010
8:26 am
Just think if favors went to ksu, he’d have a better chance at getting in the big dance. tech isn;’t going to make it. they don’t deserve it. not with that pathetic coaching and playing.
Too Easy
March 4th, 2010
8:27 am
POAD: Your ‘Kennsaw’ education is showing. Should’ve learned either to spell or type.
Larry: University System of Georgia does NOT include Emory.
KSU alum 2007
March 4th, 2010
8:27 am
Let’s go KSU!! THings are looking up for the Fighting Owls! Even if they don’t make it to the tourney this year, they will start getting better recruits since they are out of their probationary period!
Too Easy
March 4th, 2010
8:30 am
POAD: Your ‘Kennsaw’ education is showing. Should’ve learned either to spell or to type.
Larry: The University System of Georgia does NOT include Emory.
I doubt you have anything to do with this
March 4th, 2010
8:37 am
The front page link to this story says that the owls are ’shinging’.
Please alert someone so that this can be corrected. No wonder Atlanta public school teachers have to change their students’ test scores.
Reality
March 4th, 2010
8:42 am
I am very happy for KSU and will root for them. However, I think that it is just silly to write off GA Tech at this point. The committee always looks at strength of schedule, RPI index, etc., beyond win/loss record. I hope that both KSU and GA Tech get into the tourney!
Dooley's Cardiologist
March 4th, 2010
8:42 am
Wife went to KSU and I went to Tech……..I have been to many more KSU BBall games since graduation. Due largely to the fact that Paul Hewitt is a HACK. Also, who can resist watching a good set of hooter bounce around the court.
NC Dawg
March 4th, 2010
8:43 am
All right!! Hey, I did my sophmore year in college there when it was just the really small Kennesaw Jurnior College. Good for them.
aztec
March 4th, 2010
8:49 am
i for one would like too see the local media support the smaller college athletic teams like KSU, MERCER, EMORY and OGELTHORPE, and would like too see more fans support these teams. div 1 athletics are getting as bad as pro sports
OldGoldnWhite
March 4th, 2010
8:55 am
I’ve been a Tech fan all my life, and now I’m actually going to KSU after a military stint. Go Owls.. I’ve been to a game and they have talent, just inconsistent… Kind of like another team in the Atlanta area…
Mike
March 4th, 2010
9:03 am
Georgia State is going to run the CAA tourney, now there’s a squad you can get behind. KSU and the A-Sun and complete garbage, sorry folks.
aztec
March 4th, 2010
9:05 am
lanier you are right, they probably wouldnt beat tech but they sure as heck would out coach tech
aztec
March 4th, 2010
9:08 am
your right mike, people in this area who like sports need too support georgia state athletics more, i have been to several baseball and basketball games in the past few years and cant wait till sept 2nd.
Point of order
March 4th, 2010
9:09 am
Emory is not part of the University System of Georgia. Carry on …
GT-80 KSU-55
March 4th, 2010
9:09 am
If KSU gets in it will bolster Tech’s chances. Since Tech beat them by 25 I doubt KSU has what it takes though.
Allen
March 4th, 2010
9:13 am
There’s media at the Atlantic Sun tournament?
Barnacle Bill Bavasi
March 4th, 2010
9:14 am
“Great academic institution that perennially leads the University of Georgia system (and that includes Emory, UGA and GT) of colleges and universities in student aptitude test scores and the regents exams.”
BZZZZZZZZZ. Fail. Emory is a private university, return immediately to remedial studies, Larry
Buzzzed
March 4th, 2010
9:15 am
Ingle, you want to be head coach at Tech?
JSS
March 4th, 2010
9:22 am
RGB…
Seriously, where have you’ve been the last 15 years? Kennesaw is one of the fastest growing schools in the SE… US News and World Report has consistently had it as one of its best buys in Public Education, especially when it comes to graduate programs…
I can not believe that I’m defending the honor of a member of the University System of Georgia on a blog!
Mike…
A-Sun is not garbage, Belmont was a really solid team last year… However, you are absolutely right about Georgia State, they are ripe for a run into the tournament if they bring their A-game all the way through the CAA Tourney…
Aztec…
It sure would help if the supposed voice of the South gave the smaller schools some real coverage…
Shot, Augusta State goes to 2 straight D-II Elite Eights (including 1 Nat’l Championship Game appearance) and got absolutely no coverage from the AJC…
Riff
March 4th, 2010
9:33 am
Anything is better than Yech. Yech is the most overrated school in D-IA athletics. All their programs are annually overrated. They are a complete embarrassment and should be forced to shutdown all their male athletic programs.
SOUTH GA DAWG FAN
March 4th, 2010
9:34 am
I agree go HOOTERS all the way !!!!!
Nawls
March 4th, 2010
9:35 am
Thank God for Kennesaw and Ga. State. Atlanta at least has some college hoops programs they can be proud of. And once State gets their football program up and running, we’ll finally have a football team in town to be proud of as well.
iggy
March 4th, 2010
9:37 am
KSU is one the college institute in Atlanta whose athletics Atlantans can actually be proud to support.
hahhahahhaa!!!!
March 4th, 2010
9:47 am
God Tech sucks at everything!!!
Michael Foster
March 4th, 2010
9:48 am
I’m a student at Kennesaw, and have followed the team all season. It would be really great if this team could build off the confidence they get from these games and start to compete for A-Sun championships. The home game vs. Mercer this year sold out, and it was a great environment. Unfortunately it was the only time they’ve filled the Convocation Center. Dont know if the football team is coming (budget cuts apparently are not affecting the funding of the football team…which is going to be funded with private money…f that, send that money to the school!)…okay, now that I sound like a socialist…(and I’m a huge football fan, so I’m being blasphemous). W/o a football team, it would be nice to have a legit basketball program.
Dr. Phil
March 4th, 2010
10:00 am
Speaning of SAT scores, I understand that Coach Calipari has a very big eraser in his desk.
Danny O
March 4th, 2010
10:11 am
@ Michael Foster: Dude, there is nothing socialist about private money coming to a school. I doubt there’s a college or university in this country that doesn’t solicit and receive private donations. People seem to throw that word around a lot these days without really knowing what it means.
As to the Owls, I commend them and I’m glad to have a prominent victory from a Georgia-based D-I prgram, which has been sorely lacking of late. I know that they can achieve great things in the A-Sun with a steady approach to building a strong program. But if they are tempted to jump to a more prominent league at some point in the future, just know that it won’t be easy. Look at GSU’s move to the CAA.
As for GSU (where my current tuition payments go), I hope that the prominence of a downtown football program can help them with basketball recruiting. The Sports Arena is a really fun place to go catch a game but the fans need a glimmer of hope from Coach Barnes and Co.
As for Tech (my alma mater), this year has been ridiculously frustrating. They have a load of talent but not enough disciplined workhorses (like Sr. Zach Peacock) to keep the team focused on defense and fundamentals. I am rooting hard for them and will be at the game on Saturday, but any success in the postseason would frankly be a surprise. I’m looking forward to next year when Udofia, Oliver, and Glen Rice Jr. will have more experience. We’ll see if Hewitt is still around.
KSU 94
March 4th, 2010
10:15 am
Just like a bunch of idiots to dump on a University’s academics when they get a little media attention!
RGB, what prestigious school did you go to? KSU is a fine institution!
Coach D
March 4th, 2010
10:36 am
Too Easy: You only have to press “Submit Comment” once.
Go KSU!!!!!! Hoot, Hoot!!!!!!!!
Coach D
March 4th, 2010
10:38 am
See Too Easy 8:27 & 8:30 am post.
Schultz is a joke
March 4th, 2010
10:57 am
Jeff’s journalistic credentials are actually receding faster than his hairline.
BartBuzz
March 4th, 2010
10:57 am
Paul Hewitt should call Tony Ingle for some advice.
That Guy
March 4th, 2010
11:11 am
SCHULTZ!!!! Thanks for the coverage on the Owls. I graduate from there in May and have followed this team for the student paper for three years. Coach Ingle has recruited very well. Redshirt freshman Markeith Cummings is one of the top five freshman scorers in the nation, and the Owls’ starting lineup consists of 2 freshmen 2 sophomores and 1 junior. Only three seniors depart following this season. It’s an exciting time for the black and gold.