Liberty Univ. men’s basketball team hit hard by offseason departures

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Considering the staggering personnel losses and the offseason drama Liberty’s men’s basketball team endured, it’s not surprising at all that the Big South’s coaches and media picked the Flames to finish seventh in the league race this season.

The top two scorers — Seth Curry and Anthony Smith — are gone, one via transfer, another via graduation. When Ritchie McKay left in the spring to take a job on Tony Bennett’s staff at Virginia, new coach Dale Layer was left to pick up the pieces.

“In the beginning, it was rough at times,“ Layer said Tuesday. “As adults, you have experiences to draw upon. These guys have never been through anything like that. It shook them a little bit. But they’ve regrouped, refocused and have steadily moved forward.”

Liberty is one of the league’s most unknown commodities heading into the season. Point guard Jesse Sanders and wing Kyle Ohman return, but the rest of the team is young and unproven. Layer expects big things from Tennessee Tech transfer David Minaya, senior Tyler Baker, sophomore Jeremy Anderson and freshmen Evan Gordon, Chris Perez and Patrick Konan.

Sanders, a sophomore who contemplated leaving Liberty in April, has played a key role in rallying the team after the player and coach defections, Layer said.

“He is a gifted leader and person,” Layer said. “He’s respected across campus and he has the utmost respect and attention of every player and coach in this program. He affects a lot of things.”

Swine flu scare

Dymond Morgan, a junior transfer on the Liberty women’s basketball team, was recently diagnosed with the H1N1 virus. She is recovering fine and has returned to team workouts, Flames coach Carey Green said.

Once Morgan was diagnosed, she was immediately quarantined at the old Ramada Inn on Odd Fellows Road, where Liberty has set up an isolation area to handle any occurrences of H1N1 on campus.

“She actually broke her fever on Thursday and she was ready to come back on Friday,” Green said. “But I wouldn’t let her come back. … I think we dodged a bullet, but she did work out (when she had the virus), and her roommate is Avery Warley. But so far, no one has come down with it.”

Green said every player on the team will receive a seasonal flu shot, along with an H1N1 vaccine once it becomes available at LU.

Dribbles

Liberty and High Point were selected as Big South women’s co-favorites, with each team receiving 160 points in a weighted voting system. Liberty received nine first-place votes. High Point got seven. One voter tabbed the Flames for a fifth-place finish. … No Liberty player on either side was voted preseason all-conference. … High Point G Jurica Hargraves was tabbed the Big South’s preseason player of the year. … Several Big South men’s games will be televised on ESPN networks this season: Coastal Carolina at Duke (Nov. 16, ESPNU); Clemson at Liberty (Nov. 17, ESPN); Radford at Kansas (Dec. 9, ESPNU); Gardner-Webb at Duke (Dec. 15, ESPN2) and Gardner-Webb at Penn State (Dec. 19, ESPNU). The Big South semifinals on March 4 will be on ESPNU, and the championship game March 6 will be on ESPN2.