It?s go time for the Spartans.
UNCG has been building for this season for years, and this season has been building for this moment for months now. The stretch run is here.
?We all know where we are,? senior Diante Baldwin said today. ?We all know where we?re headed.?
UNCG has been through a lot lately. What once seemed to be a smooth-running program headed toward its best season in years was knocked off course two weeks ago. Out of the blue, the Spartans lost three straight games, a tumultuous fall from the top of the Southern Conference standings into sudden uncertainty.
Coach Wes Miller?s best team was at a crossroads. He understood that, and he also understood that it was just UNCG?s turn.
The SoCon is good again. And every team in the league has been through the crossroads.
Last week, the Spartans came out of it. Humbled. A little shaken. But still intact.
Now comes the stretch run.
UNCG has a huge game on Wednesday night against Wofford and then Furman and three more regular-season games before the tournament. Miller knows his team needs more wins to position itself for the run. But he also knows that anything can happen between now and a March Monday in Asheville.
?No win surprises me in this league, and there?s no loss that surprises me,? he said. ?I knew we had some stretches in our schedule where you could lose a bunch in a row. And that was one of those stretches.?
He also knows every team in the league has to survive something just to make it to the last day of the tournament.
UNCG has won two straight games since the losing streak. Now no one wants to play the Spartans.
Baldwin is trying to keep his teammates focused on what?s right in front of them, not what happened two weeks ago or what could happen between now and the Southern Conference tournament.
?We have a good grasp on where we?re headed and where we want to be,? the Greensboro native said. ?We?re trying to put together great practices. Things will take care of themselves. Eventually, we?ll keep winning and possibly have a chance to win this conference.?
Baldwin and fellow senior R.J. White are preaching to their young teammates that two weeks ago or two weeks from now don?t even exist.
The time, Baldwin said, is now. It?s go time.
White said nothing has changed his mind about this team. He believes UNCG is one of the best, if not the best, team in the SoCon. He said he and Baldwin had a simple message for the younger players.
?It?s time to get our heads straight,? White said. ?This is our biggest stretch. We know what we?re capable of. And we know we can still win this thing.?
Miller said he takes solace in the fact that his team has been tested without breaking. He knows, despite falling out of first and tumbling toward the middle of the conference standings in only eight days, his team righted itself and won two in a row without playing all that well.
?The neat thing about this team is we?re far from perfect and we?re in a really good league,? he said. ?But when we have moments when we don?t get it right, when we have failure, we respond. We?ve tried to keep the team focused on what?s next. When you think about the stakes too much, you can get paralyzed. Deep down, everybody knows what?s at stake. They know. Our job as coaches is to get them zeroed in on the moment. I haven?t felt like we?ve had a stretch where we?ve clicked on all cylinders all year. That?s exciting because we?ve had some success. But it also says something about our team and our team?s depth.?
UNCG might be the deepest team in the league. Teams with deep rosters are built for the long run and sometimes take all season to find their potential. UNCG has yet to find its potential.
?We know what?s out there, but first comes Wofford,? White said. ?They got us pretty good at their place. We owe them one. We want to get them pretty good.?
Every game is the game of the year from here on out. Miller has been waiting for this moment since he arrived in 2011, but he?s tried to keep the focus on one practice and one game at a time. Wofford comes first. Then comes league-leading Furman. And then everything the Spartans have played for all year.
For all UNCG has been through, the season hasn?t even started.
?We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,? Baldwin said. ?We?re healthy and this is our time. The younger guys might not understand it, but you never know about next year. You never know when you?ll get this chance again. We have to take advantage of this. We?re in the stretch run now. We can still accomplish all our goals, and that?s to win the regular season and the conference championship. There?s no more dealing with past moments. This is the moment.?
UNCG has been building for this season for years, and this season has been building for this moment for months now. The stretch run is here.
?We all know where we are,? senior Diante Baldwin said today. ?We all know where we?re headed.?
UNCG has been through a lot lately. What once seemed to be a smooth-running program headed toward its best season in years was knocked off course two weeks ago. Out of the blue, the Spartans lost three straight games, a tumultuous fall from the top of the Southern Conference standings into sudden uncertainty.
Coach Wes Miller?s best team was at a crossroads. He understood that, and he also understood that it was just UNCG?s turn.
The SoCon is good again. And every team in the league has been through the crossroads.
Last week, the Spartans came out of it. Humbled. A little shaken. But still intact.
Now comes the stretch run.
UNCG has a huge game on Wednesday night against Wofford and then Furman and three more regular-season games before the tournament. Miller knows his team needs more wins to position itself for the run. But he also knows that anything can happen between now and a March Monday in Asheville.
?No win surprises me in this league, and there?s no loss that surprises me,? he said. ?I knew we had some stretches in our schedule where you could lose a bunch in a row. And that was one of those stretches.?
He also knows every team in the league has to survive something just to make it to the last day of the tournament.
UNCG has won two straight games since the losing streak. Now no one wants to play the Spartans.
Baldwin is trying to keep his teammates focused on what?s right in front of them, not what happened two weeks ago or what could happen between now and the Southern Conference tournament.
?We have a good grasp on where we?re headed and where we want to be,? the Greensboro native said. ?We?re trying to put together great practices. Things will take care of themselves. Eventually, we?ll keep winning and possibly have a chance to win this conference.?
Baldwin and fellow senior R.J. White are preaching to their young teammates that two weeks ago or two weeks from now don?t even exist.
The time, Baldwin said, is now. It?s go time.
White said nothing has changed his mind about this team. He believes UNCG is one of the best, if not the best, team in the SoCon. He said he and Baldwin had a simple message for the younger players.
?It?s time to get our heads straight,? White said. ?This is our biggest stretch. We know what we?re capable of. And we know we can still win this thing.?
Miller said he takes solace in the fact that his team has been tested without breaking. He knows, despite falling out of first and tumbling toward the middle of the conference standings in only eight days, his team righted itself and won two in a row without playing all that well.
?The neat thing about this team is we?re far from perfect and we?re in a really good league,? he said. ?But when we have moments when we don?t get it right, when we have failure, we respond. We?ve tried to keep the team focused on what?s next. When you think about the stakes too much, you can get paralyzed. Deep down, everybody knows what?s at stake. They know. Our job as coaches is to get them zeroed in on the moment. I haven?t felt like we?ve had a stretch where we?ve clicked on all cylinders all year. That?s exciting because we?ve had some success. But it also says something about our team and our team?s depth.?
UNCG might be the deepest team in the league. Teams with deep rosters are built for the long run and sometimes take all season to find their potential. UNCG has yet to find its potential.
?We know what?s out there, but first comes Wofford,? White said. ?They got us pretty good at their place. We owe them one. We want to get them pretty good.?
Every game is the game of the year from here on out. Miller has been waiting for this moment since he arrived in 2011, but he?s tried to keep the focus on one practice and one game at a time. Wofford comes first. Then comes league-leading Furman. And then everything the Spartans have played for all year.
For all UNCG has been through, the season hasn?t even started.
?We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,? Baldwin said. ?We?re healthy and this is our time. The younger guys might not understand it, but you never know about next year. You never know when you?ll get this chance again. We have to take advantage of this. We?re in the stretch run now. We can still accomplish all our goals, and that?s to win the regular season and the conference championship. There?s no more dealing with past moments. This is the moment.?
