Some would say that starting the conference schedule early is like skipping the December holidays and going straight to the January post-holiday depression. Ridiculous, I say! Meaningful basketball should know no season.The Atlantic Sun slate got underway last night (welcome,
Matt Doherty, and North Florida too!), but tonight it achieves "full swing." And there's already a game with implications - SoCon refugee ETSU, a victim of its own budgetary constraints, kicks things off at home with cross-staters Belmont. Both teams figure to get high seeds when the tourney comes around (held in Johnson City, incidentally), and both are all about the guard play - look for a three-pointer duel between Buc bomber
Tim Smith (21.7 PPG in 3 games) and
recent A-Sun Player of the Week Bruin
Justin Hare.