October 22, 2010, Charlotte 49ers A-10 men's basketball media day story for Charlotte Observer
Charlotte coach pleased with 49ers' progress
NEW YORK The rise of the mid-major in college basketball has given programs hope that they can make a deep run come the NCAA tournament and possibly compete for a national championship.
The Charlotte 49ers are included among those programs.
"What you get now is that you have teams that have played together for two, three, sometimes four years," first-year Charlotte coach Alan Major said at Atlantic 10 media day at New York's Chelsea Piers Thursday morning.
"A class of seniors, four or five guys, that have played on the same roster for four years and aren't afraid of anybody. By the time they get to be seniors, you're talking about 110 games that they've played together, roughly."
Despite returning four starters and six lettermen to a team that finished 2009-10 with a 19-12 record and 9-7 in the A-10, the 49ers were picked to finish seventh in the 14-team conference. The biggest turnover was at coach, where the former Ohio State assistant replaces Bobby Lutz, who was dismissed and hired as an assistant at Iowa State.
Major is familiar with the A-10 as he was an assistant at Xavier for three years, 2001-04, under Thad Matta.
"If you don't have a lot of turnover, the message stays pretty intact," Major said before explaining that he wants his team to be tough defensively but with an ability to run and play halfcourt offense.
"For the little time we've had, (the players have) done a nice job of trying to embrace what we ask them to do. The thing I like the best is that their spirit to come in every day and work has been great."
In a state where the ACC's Duke, N.C. State, North Carolina and Wake Forest play, Major believes Charlotte has an advantage recruiting in the city and in the state.
"Carving our niche locally is an advantage we can have," Major said. "There's always going to be kids in a city of one-and-a-half million people, you're going to have a good selection of local talent. You may not get every guy, but you want to do your due diligence and put yourself in that position.
"It may not be to the same extent to the same guys that they're getting, but we're fortunate to have some success in-state already. We want to continue that."
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/10/22/1778749/49ers-picked-to-finish-7th-in.html
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 9:29 AM
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