elon +6: opening line moved up a point with early speculators so i'll buy in now. these two schools sit a few miles apart in the greensboro/burlington/highpoint triad area of north carolina and were basketball rivals for several years in the southern conference until elon bolted for the more lucrative caa four years ago. for years, the series stayed pretty even with elon holding 14-12 edge until coach mike matheny came to elon 9 years ago. during matheny's tenure, elon is 12-1 and have won the last 12 straight.
in college basketball, there are rivalries within coaching "trees" as well as between schools, and in north carolina there are coaching trees that have evolved through the big four schools of wake, duke, unc and nc state. the unc branch has kansas roots and includes phog allen - dean smith - roy williams. uncg's wes miller falls in here, having played on roy's 2005 nat'l championship team. he game to greensboro in 2011 and turned around a program in tatters, won socon coach of the year a few years ago, and now has the spartans in the upper echelon of the southern conference.
the nc state branch rose out of indiana through everett case - norm sloan -eddie biedenbach (best coach you've never heard of) - bob mckillop. elon coach wes matheny captained his davidson team for bob mckillop. matheny also turned the elon program around, partially prompting the miller hire in greensboro.
all of this leads me to note that, despite his overall success in greensboro, fox has never beaten matheny's elon team. that fact speaks volumes about where the competive edge currently glows hottest in this series. 6 points is a big edge in what promises to be a game between two relatively equal team where winning matters more to one team than the other. also, note that, while fox's spartans are 29-8 at home the last two seasons, this game is not played on campus but at the larger greensboro coliseum, where both schools will have equal contingents show up. line shouldn't be 6 playing there.
glta
in college basketball, there are rivalries within coaching "trees" as well as between schools, and in north carolina there are coaching trees that have evolved through the big four schools of wake, duke, unc and nc state. the unc branch has kansas roots and includes phog allen - dean smith - roy williams. uncg's wes miller falls in here, having played on roy's 2005 nat'l championship team. he game to greensboro in 2011 and turned around a program in tatters, won socon coach of the year a few years ago, and now has the spartans in the upper echelon of the southern conference.
the nc state branch rose out of indiana through everett case - norm sloan -eddie biedenbach (best coach you've never heard of) - bob mckillop. elon coach wes matheny captained his davidson team for bob mckillop. matheny also turned the elon program around, partially prompting the miller hire in greensboro.
all of this leads me to note that, despite his overall success in greensboro, fox has never beaten matheny's elon team. that fact speaks volumes about where the competive edge currently glows hottest in this series. 6 points is a big edge in what promises to be a game between two relatively equal team where winning matters more to one team than the other. also, note that, while fox's spartans are 29-8 at home the last two seasons, this game is not played on campus but at the larger greensboro coliseum, where both schools will have equal contingents show up. line shouldn't be 6 playing there.
glta
