Competence at a small school

This year's Following the Compass games will take me to the Carolinas for football and basketball. The football game, between North Carolina and Appalachian State is certainly interesting, but perennial also-ran South Carolina Upstate's basketball team and potential opponent seemed less appealing, especially when, in the preseason, they were pegged as one of the worst teams in college hoops. 

But then, in 2021-22, they were competent. Certainly, they weren't at the talent level of the major conference teams, and even in the Big South Conference, they weren't necessarily the best team, but nor were they at the bottom of the conference. Ultimately, they ended up in 4th place, with a 10-6 record in conference play. 

Of the minor conferences, the Big South has been better than most, and 4th place netted the Spartans a postseason tournament berth, where they reached the second round of the Basketball Classic, beating Appalachian State and falling to South Alabama. For a team with low initial expectations, this has to be considered a success.

There were no big changes to the roster, but a look at the group shows a lot of juniors in the bunch. They got older, and they developed, staying in the same system with the same coach for the several years. Dave Dickerson is that coach, and he comes with a long resume, especially for a small school like Upstate. Dickerson's previous head coaching role took him to Tulane, but he also was an assistant at Ohio State for several years, and worked for the Utah Jazz as a scout before coming to Spartanburg. 

He has the buy in of his players, and those players are learned enough to play as well as they can play. Looking at their RPI, they feasted upon the lesser opponents in their conference, and managed to go 10-5 against Quad 4 teams. That's exactly what a team looking to get out of Quad 4 should do. Their game against Appalachian State was even a Quad 2 win, and it came late in the season, after a full, healthy season of Dickerson's coaching. 

The Spartans got notably better this year, and continued to do so throughout the season. They will return most of their team next year on what was already a fairly veteran group. They might not challenge for the Big South title, especially with Winthrop perennially in the catbird seat, but the game I go to in December looks to be more interesting than it initially seemed.