— Chris Lang

Hola from the land of the Beach Chickens. Lovely 75 degrees here today in Conway, S.C. Makes me want to head down to Myrtle Beach right now. Then again, I don’t want to scare children away with my ridiculous whiteness. Actually, that happens every time I try to recreate ODB’s “Got Your Money.” Note to self, stay away from the karaoke bar at Broadway at the Beach.

Big game today for both Liberty and Coastal Carolina, which enter today in a tie for fourth place in the conference standings. If Liberty loses, it’s going to need a lot of help to host a Big South tournament game. Liberty’s loss Tuesday to Winthrop gave the Eagles a season sweep of LU, and because Coastal and High Point both own wins over Winthrop, they would win any tiebreaker with Liberty down the line. Unless UNC Asheville finishes first and beats Coastal at home, then Liberty would own the tiebreaker against CCU because it would have a win over UNCA.

Of course, Liberty can clinch the tiebreaker with Coastal today with a win, since it would own a series sweep over the Chanticleers.

Couple of other random notes:

*  I can see why Coastal wants a new arena. Kimbel “Arena” has an official capacity of 999 and is slightly nicer than the gym at Brookville High School (better seatbacks). From all I’ve heard, the Coastal arena project is still stalled, so the Chants will be in Kimbel for the time being.

* CCU students are wearing “Cliff Dwellers” t-shirts, in deference to coach Cliff Ellis. Well played.

* Props to the North Carolina Department of Transportation for finishing the stretch of U.S. 220 around Ellerbee and Norman. That cut 30 minutes off the trip. I’m sure it’s been done for some time, but I haven’t been down this way since July of last year, so it was a nice surprise on an early morning drive.

* Song of the day on the trip down: Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder.

* Coastal has moved freshman Anthony Breeze into the starting lineup ahead of senior Phil Wallace at forward. Interesting, considerng Wallace was about the only player who did anything in the first meeting between the teams, a 78-59 LU win Jan. 21.

* Liberty held CCU senior Jack Leasure to four points in the first meeting. Won’t happen again. Prediction: Leasure scores at least 20 today.