Liberty Basketball

Liberty has automatically qualified for the 2021 NCAA tournament before taking the floor in Sunday's Atlantic Sun Conference championship game because its opponent, North Alabama, is not yet eligible to take part in the Big Dance.

ESPN's Myron Medcalf noted the NCAA's four-year rule, which prohibits teams transitioning to Division I from taking part in the tournament for that time period, prevents the Lions from being part of the field, even if they upset the Flames to win the conference title.

North Alabama is a surprise finalist in the A-Sun. It entered the tourney as the No. 5 seed after a seven-game losing streak, which ended with a win over Lipscomb in its regular-season finale, dropped the squad down the conference standings.

The Lions knocked off North Florida and Florida Gulf Coast to reach the final, showcasing the form they'd displayed earlier in the season when they raced out to a 10-3 record before the losing skid.

FGCU coach Michael Fly was impressed with UNA in the semifinals.

"They were unbelievable," Fly told reporters. "We played, man, zone, some junk ... threw everything at them ... they keep making shots. When you score 81 points and shoot 48 percent, you're supposed to win that game. We couldn't get stops. I don't think we played poorly. They were just better than us."

Meanwhile, Liberty has cruised to the final as the top seed with double-digit victories over Kennesaw State and Stetson. It won both regular-season meetings with North Alabama by the same score, 74-54.

The Flames are currently projected as a No. 14 seed for the NCAA tournament, per Bracket Matrix. A win in the conference final could potentially move them to the 13 line.

Liberty was down 54-50 with 7:36 left in its semifinal against Stetson before exploding for 27 points down the stretch to pull away for a 77-64 win. Head coach Ritchie McKay was happy with how his team responded to the challenge from the Hatters.

"When you are the No. 1 seed, I think there is an added pressure to you getting the desired outcome, and it just doesn't happen like that in college basketball, especially when you are on a neutral floor," McKay said. "The way we played from that point on I thought is a reflection of the kind of young men that are in our program."

Tip off in the Atlantic Sun championship game is set for Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Liberty women's basketball player Asia Todd announced she is entering the transfer portal after school president Jerry Falwell Jr. sent a racist tweet that included an image of a facemask with a photo of a person in blackface and a person wearing Ku Klux Klan attire.

"Due to the racial insensitivity shown within the leadership and culture, it simply does not align with my moral compass or personal convictions," Todd said. "Therefore, I had to do what I felt was best within my heart and stand up for what is right."

Todd, a freshman, averaged 8.6 points and 1.3 assists in 31 games for Liberty this past season (25 starts), shooting 41.6 percent from the field and 41.3 percent from three. 

The message in Falwell's since-deleted tweet read, "I was adamantly opposed to the mandate from Governor Ralph Northam requiring citizens to wear face masks until I decided to design my own. If I am ordered to wear a mask, I will reluctantly comply, but only if this picture of Governor Blackface himself is on it!"

Falwell claimed in a follow-up tweet that he had been trying to make a political point about Virginia's blackface scandal in 2019 after images surfaced of Gov. Northam in blackface from his 1984 medical school yearbook:

Alumni of the school have called for Falwell to resign, while three Liberty staff members have resigned, including LeeQuan McLaurin, the school's director of diversity. 

"Some draw a direct line between the start of President Falwell's divisive, insensitive, and unapologetic approach to politics and that drop," McLaurin wrote about the school's declining population of black students, from 10 percent in 2007 to just 4 percent in 2018, according to Mike DeCourcy of Sporting News. 

In a letter written by 35 faith leaders and former Liberty athletes to Falwell urging him to step down, per Elana Schor and Sarah Rankin of the Associated Press, they said he has "belittled staff, students and parents, you have defended inappropriate behaviors of politicians, encouraged violence, and disrespected people of other faiths," adding that his "heart is in politics more than Christian academia or ministry."

They also wrote he has "repeatedly violated and misrepresented" Christian values. 

BR Video

Take a bow, No. 12 seeds.

The Liberty Flames defeated the No. 5 Mississippi State Bulldogs 80-76 in Friday's first-round game in the 2019 NCAA men's basketball tournament. The victory means the No. 12 seeds went 3-1 in the first round, with the Flames, Oregon Ducks (over Wisconsin Badgers) and Murray State Racers (over Marquette Golden Eagles) all advancing.         

The only loss for a No. 12 seed came in heartbreaking fashion, when the New Mexico State Aggies lost to the Auburn Tigers by a single point in the Midwest Region.

Liberty's Caleb Homesley was dominant with 30 points behind five made three-pointers, while Lovell Cabbil Jr. added 18 points, five assists and two steals.

Cabbil also drilled the biggest shot of the game with a go-ahead three-pointer in the final two minutes to put his team ahead for good.

The Flames will play the winner of the clash between the No. 4 Virginia Tech Hokies and No. 13 Saint Louis Billikens in the East Region's round of 32 on Sunday.        

John Caleb Sanders is a junior guard for Liberty. The Flames (15-21), Big South Conference tournament champs, narrowly missed securing the first NCAA tournament victory in program history on Tuesday. Liberty lost 73-72 to North Carolina A&T in a first-round game in Dayton, falling short of a Round of 64 matchup with No. 1 seed Louisville. Sanders missed a potential game-winning layup just before the final buzzer sounded.

Going into the North Carolina A&T game, that whole day I probably didn’t sleep an hour and a half the night before just because I was so amped up. I wasn’t tired during the game either. I remember walking out there and seeing the fans. It wasn’t real full, but then you look midway through the second half and that place was packed.

It was the opportunity of a lifetime. I’ve never had that feeling for a basketball game ever. It almost didn’t feel real.  

With seven seconds left when I got the ball down one point, I zoned out. It was the weirdest thing. I went right back to a little kid playing in the backyard like I used to do all the time. You imagine being in the NCAA tournament down one with six seconds left, dribble down and get the layup for the win. I zoned out for a little bit, and then I came back to reality and I had the ball in my hands and just tried to do the play I made up in my head.

I was either going to the rim or my only two other options that I thought about were finding Tavares Speaks or Davon Marshall. Tavares is clutch and had really been knocking them down. I figured they’d be face-guarding Davon because he’d already hit six threes. Whenever I got it, Coach has always said go right to the rim, so that’s what I did.

I was going right and Austin Witter took off that right block. I switched left and he got there quick enough and once I got to that left block, I’m only 6-foot so I tried to create as much contact as I could because if I would have faded he would have blocked it. I thought maybe I could get this thing up or get a foul.

When it didn’t go in, honestly, my first thought was Tavares. He’s the only senior we have, and he knows I did everything I could, but I just feel really sorry for him. I’m going to have another shot at this thing. I was upset that I didn’t finish for him.

I was sad for about a minute, but then I started thinking about the whole year and everything that we have done. All the emotions kind of hit you like a wave and you really don’t know what to do. I looked at my phone after we had a meeting, and someone texted me that as consolation prize you got a conference tournament championship and you got a ring.

Yeah, we wanted to win that NCAA tournament game and we wanted to succeed, but once you look back at the season, we did way more than anyone thought we ever would.

I thought the Charleston Southern game in the Big South championship was the biggest game of my life and the most important one that I played. But honestly that was nothing compared to the feelings and emotions of the NCAA game after you lost—even just the game itself.

At the end of the game, if I knew we were going to lose by one, I’d still play it a hundred times. I enjoyed that basketball game more than I’ve enjoyed any game in my life even though we lost.

The entire trip was great. When we arrived on the plane, we didn’t even get our own bags. We just walked 10 feet to get on the bus. We got a police escort to the gym and the same thing coming back. They treat you well.

We had fans at our practice. The hotel was nice and when we walked in, they had Liberty shirts and were cheering for us. It was the exact opposite of what was going on for us in February. It was definitely different.

One of the first people I noticed during our practice was Craig Sager. All I could think of was Kevin Garnett making fun of his suits during all his interviews. I had a 10-minute interview in a room with him and that was kind of weird talking to him.

Then after that I walked out and looked over and saw our media guy talking to a guy and thinking he looked really familiar. Then I realized it was Steve Kerr and went over there and said, “Hey, my name is...” and he stopped me and said “I know who you are, John Caleb, you had a great game against Charleston Southern.”

Steve Kerr knows who I am; that’s kind of weird. I know he’s just been doing his research about the game, but it was still cool.

Steve then called Davon over by name and talked to him, and that was pretty cool. I was never really into professional sports. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up, so I never went to any NBA games and I had never met an NBA player.

When we got home from Dayton after our loss, the cheerleaders were out there and probably 100 or so people. Our vice president was there. I walked into class on Thursday and had several people start clapping and my teacher was talking to me about the game.

You walk around campus and you can’t get anywhere. People are coming up and talking to us, telling us, 'Good game!' It’s been great.

I didn’t want to watch the Louisville vs. North Carolina A&T game. I’m happy for those guys, but I didn’t want to watch. All the other games I’ve enjoyed it and this is my favorite time of the year.

I am realistic when you see these teams. I would have gone in optimistic if we had played Louisville but chances are we weren’t going to win that game. You’re going to lose at some point. So we get to come back and enjoy it.

This is one of my favorite times of the year. I’ve had three TVs set up and switching back and forth between all the games.

It is different this year to think that could have been us playing, because we haven’t really been close the other two years I’ve been here. In a couple weeks, we’ll get to work and try to get back.

John Caleb Sanders is a junior guard for Liberty. The Flames (15-20) won the Big South Conference tournament to clinch an NCAA tournament bid. Liberty plays North Carolina A&T in a first-round game on Tuesday night to become the 16th seed in the Midwest Region. The winner meets Louisville, the No. 1 overall seed, on Thursday.

It finally hit me last night that the Liberty Flames are in the NCAA tournament. You see your name in the bracket. Now today, we’re flying out, and it’s starting to become real.

Over the last week, it almost felt like Christmas break. We were practicing and not playing, and you didn’t really know what was next.

We leave today on a charter jet that will pick us up at the Lynchburg Airport, which is about a half-mile from campus. The plan is to rest a little bit when we get to Dayton, eat and have a short practice. We reviewed North Carolina A&T's stuff last night for the first time, and we’ll go over it again, but there isn’t a ton of time to prepare because we play the early game on Tuesday.

It’s going to be wild to play in front of such a big crowd. Most of the guys haven’t experienced that. As crazy as this may sound, I did in high school. I was home-schooled, and at Home School Nationals, we used to almost pack out Missouri State’s arena. The crowd was not hostile, as you can imagine with home-school families, but it was a lot of people.

We also traveled to Texas A&M last year, and the building was about half-full. We should handle the crowd well.

The key this week is that we get rest and have faith. No one has really believed in us, so that’s nothing new. I try not to pay attention to that stuff, but even fans around here lost faith. Our last home game, we probably had 1,000 people. My sophomore year, we averaged closer to 3,000.

Anyway, it was one of the worst home crowds, and that was on senior night. You could tell people had started to give up on us for this year and look forward to next year.

There was a little blurb on a blog that said we had a 0.5 percent chance to win the Big South. We were 10th out of 12 teams, but playing well. You want to say if you play hard, anything can happen. That was our focus. Everything kind of flipped for us once we won at Radford and beat Coastal Carolina.

Like I said before, it’s real now that we have an opponent. I actually watched North Carolina A&T against Morgan State. Everyone knew we were going to be in the play-in game, so I looked at the SWAC and MEAC. I watched Morgan State closer because I thought it was going to win.

But A&T looked good. Just like any other team, it's hot right now. It's won four in a row. It has big guards. It's physical and rebounds well. It’s going to be a tough game.

I don’t feel like a massive underdog going into this game. I don’t know who the better team is; our records are not that different. If we win the game and get to play Louisville, we’ve just got to go in, have fun and enjoy the moment. Hey, we’ve got some good scorers. We shoot the ball and rebound well.

I’ve been saying this all week: It’s called March Madness for a reason. You go in there, play 40 minutes and you have no idea what could happen.

I’m a strong believer. Putting faith in God to keep persevering is the reason we’re here. We’re in the NCAA tournament for a purpose, and the bigger the stage we get, the more we have a chance to honor God.

The madness that is the NCAA Tournament officially gets underway this Tuesday night at 6:40 p.m. (ET) when a pair of No. 16 seeds square off in Dayton for the right to take on the No. 1 seed of the entire tournament, Louisville, this upcoming Thursday. The MEAC Champion North Carolina A&T Aggies will face the Liberty Flames, who won the Big South title, in this first-round game, and it will be broadcast nationally on tru TV.

North Carolina A&T comes into this matchup with an 8-8 record in conference play and a 19-16 straight up record overall. It went a perfect 7-0 against the spread this season in games with a posted line. The total stayed “under” in three of its last four games.

The Flames actually finished well below .500 SU at 15-20 SU, but also had a winning record ATS at 5-3. They went 6-10 SU in the Big South this season but pulled off three straight upsets as underdogs to qualify for this game. The total went “over” in their last two games.

North Carolina A&T vs. Liberty Betting Storylines

Both of these teams overcame some adversity down the stretch to get to this point, but the Aggies might have the overall edge behind the duo of Adrian Powell and Lamont Middleton. Each is averaging over 12 points a game and pulling down a combined 9.1 rebounds a game. Neither player is shooting over 40 percent from the field, but Powell has made 35.8 percent of his shots from three-point range.

North Carolina A&T is averaging 62.2 points a game while shooting 39.9 percent from the field. Austin Witter actually leads the team in rebounds with 7.1 as part of a team average of 34.5 rebounds a game. Defensively, the Aggies have held teams to 61.4 points a game.

Liberty’s amazing run to the Big South title consisted of victories over Gardner-Webber as a seven-point underdog and Charleston Southern as a 7.5-point underdog. It now brings a five-game winning streak into this matchup after going 2-4 SU in its previous six games. The Flames overall numbers on offense are a bit better with an average of 69.1 points a game while shooting 42.9 percent from the field.

If they are going to get by the Aggies on Tuesday night, it will be up to the trio of John Caleb Sanders, Davon Marshall and Tavares Speaks. These three have combined for 40.7 points, 9.4 rebounds and 7.5 assists this season. After that, the production drops off quickly with the exception of JR Coronado, who leads the team in rebounds with 8.1 a game. Liberty’s biggest weakness is on the other end of the court where it is giving up an average of 70.8 points a game.    

North Carolina A&T vs. Liberty Betting Odds and Trends by BetOnline

BetOnline has opened North Carolina A&T as a slight 1.5-point favorite in this contest with the over/under line set at 127.

The Aggies are 6-0 ATS in their last six neutral-site games and 8-0 ATS in their last eight games following a SU win. The total has stayed under in four of their last five games played at a neutral site.

The Flames are 7-18-1 ATS in their last 26 nonconference games and 2-7 ATS in their last nine games played at a neutral site. The total has gone over in five of their last six games played outside the conference.

NCAA Tournament Picks: North Carolina A&T vs. Liberty Betting Predictions

This should end up being a very entertaining game between two teams that are playing their best ball at the right time of the year. The slightly elevated level of competition and a better balance of both sides of the ball tip the scales to North Carolina A&T in this matchup, but it will not be by much more than the 1.5-point spread.

Take # 540 North Carolina A&T (-1.5) over Liberty (Tuesday, March 19, 6:40 p.m.)

Tuesday, March 3 (games at higher seed)

No. 8 High Point @ No. 1 Radford

Radford beat High Point the two times they played them this year, yet strangely enough with their 15-3 conference record, Radford's only losses came at home. However, High Point shouldn't be too much of a challenge for Radford, so I'm saying Radford wins this game.

No. 7 Coastal Carolina @ No. 2 VMI

Coastal Carolina has been a tough matchup for VMI, as both games went to the end and were both decided by fewer than four points as they split the series over the regular season. However, Coastal Carolina has lost four in a row and is going to be on the road against a very tough team in VMI, so I don't see them turning it around in this game...VMI wins.

No. 6 Gardner-Webb @ No. 3 Liberty

The regular season matchups were split, but since Gardner-Webb didn't win an away game in February and Liberty is just coming off of an away win vs. Radford and having the scoring power of Seth Curry, I see it hard to bet against Liberty come tournament time, especially in this matchup, so Liberty wins.

No. 5 Winthrop @ No. 4 UNC Asheville

Winthrop won both of the matchups in the regular season and is on a five-game winning streak going into the tournament. This is the game that should probably be the closest due to rankings, but it seems to me to be the most one-sided—I give the edge to Winthrop in this one.

Thursday, March 5 at the Dedmon Center (Radford, VA)

No. 2 VMI vs. No. 3 Liberty

This game is what I believe is the Championship game from the beginning...VMI showed that they had talent with their very early win over Kentucky, and Liberty has a freshman star in Seth Curry.

VMI destroyed Liberty @ Liberty late in the year, while Liberty won by 11 at VMI...Seth Curry scored 14 in the loss and 35 in the win, so he seems to be the deciding factor. After seeing the way his brother played in the tourney, I decided that the Big South tourney is Curry Time, and Liberty wins in a closer game than what these two teams are used to having against one another.

No. 5 Winthrop vs. No. 1 Radford

Radford has beaten Winthrop both times they played each other in the regular season and have won nine of their last 10, so obviously are a lock in this game, right? But it's March, and crazy things happen in March, and for some reason I feel Winthrop pulling off the upset and getting into the Championship game...Winthrop wins a thriller.

Saturday, March 7 (at highest seed)

No. 5 Winthrop @ No. 3 Liberty

The regular season was split between these two teams, but were split where the winner was always at home...so I guess I am going to have to keep riding the Curry train to the NCAA tournament...Liberty wins pretty comfortably by about nine or 10 and heads to the NCAAs.

The conference that flaunted college basketball's tallest player and last year's leading scorer is sending a message to viewers: Even though Kenny George and Reggie Williams are out of college basketball, there is still reason to watch Big South basketball (even after Chavis and Travis Holmes graduate at the end of this season). 

Seth Curry and Keith Gabriel will be around for three more seasons after 2008-09 and will keep the Big South entertaining to watch. 

You all know Stephen Curry, and by now lots of you know his younger brother, Seth, who plays for Coach McKay at Liberty University.

Somehow, Lil Curry, as I like to call him, did not receive any attention from the media before the season started. In fact, he still has not been the topic of any discussion—outside of Big South country—despite averaging 20.1 points per game and shooting 44.9 percent from the field and 38.7 percent from long range.

Fun fact: Stephen Curry had slightly superior stats as a freshman. He averaged 21.5 points per game and shot 46.3 percent from the floor and 40.8 percent from deep. 

Like his older brother, Seth has shown up against the best of competition. He led his team past Virginia with 26 points and four treys on nine-of-17 shooting from the floor. In a win against George Mason, Lil Curry dropped in 22 points on eight-of-19 field goal shooting. And, the freshman nearly led his team past Clemson with his 24 point performance—he was six-of-nine from deep and nine-of-16 from the floor. 

What's most impressive about Seth curry is that he is a freshman who has had a dramatic impact on his team. Liberty was 16-16 last year. This year, they are 12-6, largely because of Curry. The team is winning big games that they never won before this year.

Pretty much, Lil Curry has proven he can play. Time will tell if he will transcend his brother's achievements, but he's certainly on his way. 

In order for Liberty to make the NCAA Tournament and allow the national spotlight to find Lil Curry, the Flames will need to beat out VMI for the Big South championship. 

The Keydets of VMI have always been a high scoring team, but this year their points are actually leading to wins. They are currently undefeated in Big South play and are 14-2 overall. 

Senior twins Chavis and Travis Holmes lead the fast-pace offense and sophomore Austin Kenon is third, adding 17.8 points per game. Behind those three is freshman Keith Gabriel. 

Gabriel, who grew up in Charlotte like the Currys, is flourishing in VMI's offense. He is averaging 15.9 points per game and he is shooting 45 percent from the field and 43.1 percent from long range.

Sure, it isn't too hard to average 15.9 points per game on a team that scores 96.7 points per game. However, Gabriel could average mid-20s in this style of offense. The only block that is preventing him from doing so is the three other options ahead of him.

Gabriel's statistics against the upper echelon of competition are not as impressive as Lil Curry's, but he has played well. In his college debut and season-opening upset at Kentucky, Gabriel fouled out but scored 20 points in 19 minutes.

He nailed four three-pointers and shot eight-of-12 from the floor. At Virginia, he played in foul trouble and scored 14 points on six-of-18 shooting.

Gabriel has been vital to the success of the Keydets and if it weren't for Lil Curry, he would probably be the favorite to win Freshman of the Year in the Big South.