by Hunter Patterson | Oct 15, 2010 | News Slider, Sports
MACON, Ga. – A year after sharing the regular-season crown, Lipscomb emerged as the favorite in both the Atlantic Sun preseason men’s basketball coaches’ poll and media poll. The Bisons senior All-American Adnan Hodzic garnered unanimous preseason Player of the Year honors. Hodzic and fellow unanimous preseason All-Atlantic Sun performer Josh Slater look to lead the Bisons to a first NCAA appearance. Last season the pair represented the highest scoring teammates in the conference, averaging close to 40 points per game. Hodzic paced the league at 22.7 points per game, the highest average in the conference in 20 years in earning the Player of the Year award. He enters this season carrying the nation’s longest active streak of scoring in double figures, at 57. Since the start of 2000, the streak ranks as the ninth-longest in nation. Last season’s General Shale Brick Atlantic Sun Basketball Champion, ETSU, took second in both polls. The Buccaneers made their ninth appearance in the NCAA Tournament by beating Mercer in the A-Sun title game. The Bucs return with the MVP from last year’s Championship, Micah Williams, and Second Team guard Tommy Hubbard and welcome back Mike Smith ¬– who missed all but four games last season. In ETSU’s 2008-09 championship season, he averaged 15.3 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. All three landed on the preseason All-Atlantic Sun squad, giving the ETSU the greatest representation on the team. Belmont, one of the league’s four co-champions a season ago, placed third in both preseason polls. The Bruins return 11 letter winners and four starters from last year’s 19-win team headlined by last year’s Freshman...
by Jeremy Keck | Oct 15, 2010 | Sports
The time has finally come for the Lipscomb Bisons men’s basketball team to officially begin practice. However, due to the Nashville Symphony using Allen Arena this weekend, the Bison will be begin practice out of town at the University of the South at Sewanee. The first practice will be held on Friday night with two to follow on Saturday. The weekend will wrap up with a practice on Sunday before the team heads back to Nashville. “I want there to be an emotional attachment among each other,” said Bisons’ coach Scott Sanderson. “That’s why on opening weekend we’re going to go out of town and practice and do some team bonding type of stuff.” Coming off of a 17-13 regular season and having won a share of the conference championship last year, many would feel that Lipscomb has accomplished a lot. However, Coach Sanderson feels differently. “In my opinion, and in the players’ opinions, we really haven’t done anything,” Sanderson said. “A lot of teams might be satisfied with winning a conference championship. Now obviously that’s exciting, but as you keep winning, your goals get higher and higher. “We have a lot of motivation and our preseason has shown that we have a lot of motivation to continue to go that one step further.” The players will be staying at a hotel on Sewanee Mountain. They will spend every moment of the weekend with each other, both on and off the...
by Hunter Patterson | Jul 29, 2010 | Sports
A week ago I posted an excerpt from Rivals.com writer David Fox who declared Lipscomb’s Adnan Hodzic the nation’s most underrated player. Today, the story that Fox hinted about became public. The story in its entirety can be viewed after the jump. It is a magnificent piece about the struggles that Hodzic dealt with as a child in Bosnia and his journey to Lipscomb. From David Fox, Rivals.com college basketball staff writer NASHVILLE — Some memories of Adnan Hodzic‘s early childhood come to him only in flashes. Hodzic, a forward at Lipscomb who is the top returning scorer in the nation, never had a plastic basketball hoop or an orange foam basketball growing up. He rarely even went outside to play. Instead, Hodzic remembers running through the streets of Sarajevo with his mother with bullets flying. Lipscomb’s Adnan Hodzic is the nation’s top returning scorer. “It’s really hard to remember, man,” Hodzic says. “I remember a lot of war stuff. You know — bombs, gun shots, hiding. I also remember a loving family. Beautiful country. Granted, a lot of stuff I remember is bad.” Hodzic, who averaged 22.7 points per game last season and won Atlantic Sun player of the year honors, was the first in his family to touch a basketball. For a time, neither Hodzic nor his family knew if he’d have the opportunity to do even that, much less that his mother, father and older sister Amina one day would be able to drive a few hours to watch him play college basketball. Hodzic is 21. He was 3 when Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from the...
by Hunter Patterson | Jul 23, 2010 | News Slider, Sports
Lipscomb’s center Adnan Hodzic took home several awards last season, including the Atlantic-Sun’s Player of the Year title. Last season, Hodzic really showed the nation what he was capable of. This season, though, he hopes to show the rest of the country what he can do. An article broke this morning from Rivals.com asking who the most underrated player in the nation was. One writer thinks that player is none other than Bosnia native, Hodzic. The following is an excerpt from the article which can be read in full here. At the College Basketball Roundtable each week, we ask each member of the coverage staff for his opinion about a current topic in the sport. We have two questions this week, one today and one Sunday. Today’s question: Who is the most underrated player in the nation? David Fox’s answer: I can’t claim I’m fully impartial on my pick of the most underrated player in the nation. This guy plays a few miles from Rivals.com headquarters, and we’ll be writing a story on him in the coming weeks. I’m going to go with Adnan Hodzic of Lipscomb. He’s the nation’s returning leading scorer at 22.7 points per game, and he’s not too far off from averaging a double-double, with 9.1 rebounds. Lipscomb shared the Atlantic Sun regular-season title before being bounced in the conference tournament, so his efforts aren’t for nothing. What’s most impressive to me, though, is his performance out of conference. Often, the top players from low-major leagues dominate their conference competition and get shut down by big-name teams. Not Hodzic. Last season, he scored 18 points...
by Hunter Patterson | Jul 18, 2010 | News Slider, Sports
Coach Scott Sanderson has proven in his time as the head coach of the Lipscomb Bisons that he is not afraid of assembling a challenging schedule. He may have outdone himself this year as the Bisons are scheduled to play North Carolina, Baylor, Alabama and Memphis. Rounding out the non-conference opponents are Austin Peay, Tennessee Tech, Stillman College and Tennessee-Martin. Only two of the non-conference games will be played at home. The other seven are on the road. “I thought last year when we played Ohio State, Vanderbilt, Cincinnati and Arizona was the toughest schedule we had ever played,” Sanderson said. “This one is tougher than that one. There are no easy games on our schedule. “It’s not even close. It is even more demanding than last year. But I have always tried to schedule according to our talent level that we have coming back. You can bury a team with this type of schedule. It should be very challenging for us.” The Bisons will open the regular season in Chapel Hill Nov. 12. They will play Baylor, expected to be a top 5 to top 10 team, in Waco, Texas Nov. 22. “North Carolina had a down year last year based on their standards as a top five to top 10 team year in and year out,” Sanderson said. “There will be a lot of publicity on that game.” The final game before Christmas break will be Dec. 21 at Tuscaloosa against Alabama. The Bisons will be in Memphis Dec. 30 to take on the Tigers. “All these games give you notoriety that you can’t buy,” Sanderson said....
