Where do you start with this team that time has forgot? How about a school-record 11 straight wins and their (16-1) overall mark? What about the job that head coach Jason Tuggle has done in his time as the head women’s basketball coach at Greensboro College?(127-56 overall record)
There are a number of elements that make up the this formula for success, but you can start by saying the game-plan has a local feeling and that might be the biggest reason Greensboro College is the best basketball team in the city, men’s or women’s this season.
No disrespect toward N.C. A&T ladies coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs, but the Pride have the best record of any college basketball team in town, with that sterling (16-1) GC mark.
We mentioned Danielle Duncan in our headline and the young sophomore out of Ragsdale High School has been a local headliner for the Pride. Duncan, a 6’0 forward, has averaged 12.3 points per game and 5.8 rebounds and she has only started one game…..Here’s what Duncan did in helping the Pride to another win back on Sunday:
Greensboro, NC — The Greensboro College women’s basketball (16-1, 10-0 USA South) team won its 11th straight game, 82-57, over visiting Shenandoah on Sunday. Danielle Duncan (Greensboro, NC/Ragsdale) posted a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Nikki Wilborn (Graham NC/Graham) also had 14 points for GC, which had five players score in double digits.
Dione Eccles tallied 13, Kim Enoch had 12 and Ashley Burnette added 11 for the home team. Wilborn dished out a game-high five assists.
The local flavor is what sets this Greensboro College Pride team apart from many others in the area…..We gave props to the kid from Ragsdale, Danielle Duncan and the team’s leading scorer, Dione Eccles, is from West Forsyth HS over in Clemmons. Eccles is averaging 20.2 points per game and 7.2 rebounds per game.
Niki Wilborn(from Graham HS), like Duncan, has only started one game, but she is still averaging 12.4 points per game. Kimberly Enoch out of Bartlett Yancey is scoring 10.9 points per game. Jamie Motsinger(out of Ledford HS) and Katie Freeman from East Davidson add more local flavor to the Pride lineup, as does Southwestern Randolph-grad, Lindsay Thrift.
Ashley Burnette joins Freeman, Motsinger, Eccles, and Enoch in the Pride starting lineup and again Duncan and Wilborn have only started one game each, but both are averaging double-digits in the scoring department. You have to think that Coach Tuggle is going with the strategy of starting his veteran players and then bringing help from the bench, but that’s his job, as we speculate.
Speaking of Coach Tuggle, Jason Tuggle that is. He is a native of near-by Eden and he played some hoops at Morehead High School back in the Donnie Seale days and later on Coach Tuggle was the head man for the girls team at Western Guilford High School and an assistant at UNCG with Spartan women’s Coach Lynn Agee, before he took over the progam at Greensboro College.
There is another Tuggle at GC with the women’s program and that’s Jason’s cousin Randy Tuggle. Randy is a Greensboro man that attended Northwest Guilford High School where he played basketball and baseball and later on, he was the assistant boys varsity basketball coach at NWG, helping Anthony Long.
Randy Tuggle serves as an assistant coach to Jason Tuggle and the other Pride assistant coach has local ties too. Jenifer King is the second assistant to Jason Tuggle and Jenifer was one of the all-time leading scorers in Guilford College women’s basketball history back when she starred for the Quakers.
They have the local flavor and their time has come as we declare them to be the best team around. Are the Pride the best team in town????? ;
The best team in town? Come see for yourself, Wed. 5:30 p.m. vs. Methodist with the game being played in the Hanes Gym on the Greensboro College campus.(Just off of West Market Street downtown…..)
Here’s what the most recent polls are saying about the Pride:
GC is the only one loss team not represented in the top 25. Eighteen teams in the rankings have two or more defeats.
The Pride leads the nation in scoring margin (+27.6 PPG).
# Team W-L Pts. Last Week
1 Illinois Wesleyan (24) 18-0 623 1
2 UW-Stevens Point (1) 18-1 581 3
3 Rochester 17-1 557 5
4 Hope 16-1 542 6
5 UW-Eau Claire 17-2 516 8
6 George Fox 19-0 515 7
7 Oglethorpe 18-2 462 9
8 Messiah 17-2 419 11
9 Amherst 19-1 391 4
10 Thomas More 17-2 356 12
11 UW-Whitewater 17-3 354 2
12 York (Pa.) 18-1 353 13
13 Simpson 18-2 311 15
14 DeSales 16-2 299 14
15 Tufts 15-2 286 16
16 New York University 16-2 256 10
17 Washington U. 14-4 212 24
18 DePauw 17-3 187 23
19 Kean 17-3 174 21
20 Eastern Connecticut 17-2 134 25
21 Washington and Jefferson 17-2 89 —
22 Mississippi College 17-2 77 —
23 Moravian 17-3 73 17
24 Brandeis 13-4 67 19
25 Texas-Dallas 16-3 63 18
Dropped out: No. 20 Chicago, No. 22 Muhlenberg.
Others receiving votes: Muhlenberg 56, Mary Washington 43, Greensboro 31, Marymount 26, Chicago 19, Western Connecticut 14, St. Norbert 11, UW-La Crosse 11, Bowdoin 8, Baldwin-Wallace 4, Scranton 3, Hardin-Simmons 2.
The D3hoops.com Top 25 is voted on by a panel of 25 coaches, Sports Information Directors and media members from across the country, and is published weekly