Sad day for UNCG Spartans basketball as they lose Tevon Saddler, but Miller’s men plan to move on and become even better

Saddler nowhere to be seen, as UNCG might now be looking a bit green in the ‘Boro
(Courtesy of Michael Fields with UNCG’s 103.1 FM Sports and college basketball writer for GreensboroSports.com)

The UNCG men’s basketball team is days away from officially starting their season.

They play in an exhibition game on Saturday at 5 PM in Fleming Gymnasium against Greensboro College.

The Spartans are ready to play, because their future is very bright. They were one of the worst teams in the Southern Conference last season. This season is a different story.

They were projected to finish 6th in the Southern Conference in the preseason poll. They also had two players that were recognized. Junior guard Tevon Saddler and senior forward Kayel Locke were picked for the preseason All-Southern Conference team. That means that Tevon Saddler and Kayel Locke were recognized as some of the best players in the Southern Conference entirely.

I mention this, because these two are the main players that the University of North Carolina at Greensboro depend on these two to take their basketball team to “the promised land”. Tevon is probably the main man for the Spartans though.

Tevon transferred to UNCG his freshman year. He has played two years for UNCG and head coach Wes Miller. Tevon has been the main scorer and facilitator ever since he has arrived in Greensboro. In his first season at UNCG (2013-2014 season), he averaged 12.5 points per game. He averaged 3.8 rebounds per game. He averaged 2.9 assists per game, and 1.3 steals per game. He was second on the team in points per game. He was fourth on the team in rebounds per game. He was first on the team in assists per game. He was first on the team in steals per game. He was also first on the team in blocks per game.

In his second career game, he scored 34 points and had 8 rebounds for the Spartans against East Carolina University. These stats showed that as soon as Tevon got to UNCG that he was ready to be their playmaker. His sophomore season was even better. He averaged 13.4 points per game. He averaged 4.6 rebounds per game. He averaged 4.0 assists per game. He averaged 1.5 steals per game. In his sophomore season, Saddler led the Spartans in points, assists, free throws made, and steals.

This proves that Tevon Saddler had proven that he should be named to the preseason All-Southern Conference team. He was the best player on the UNCG team. Everyone was excited to see Tevon and Kayel shine for the Spartans this season.

I mentioned all of these statistics, because Saddler announced last week that he was leaving the team.

This came out of nowhere. Nobody was expecting this at all. There has been no reason announced why he left the team yet. Here is what UNCG men’s basketball coach Wes Miller had to say about the situation: “Our entire program was caught off guard by Tevon’s decision to quit our team a week before our first game”. It will be interesting to see how the Spartans respond to this situation. I think that Tevon’s absence will take them back as a team a few steps or motivate them to become even better!

5 thoughts on “Sad day for UNCG Spartans basketball as they lose Tevon Saddler, but Miller’s men plan to move on and become even better

  1. This program has had a lot of kids quit. Why? If you look at their roster from year to year over the past 5 years, you will see a lot of kids (that were actually getting minutes), leave after their freshman, sophomore and even junior year. This specific player may have had a different experience or very private reason for leaving but it fits a trend that does not appear to be the norm for a D1 program similar to UNCG. Does anyone else see this issue?

  2. It’s not just the men’s basketball program. Several teams at UNCG are on probation due to the AD not ensuring the proper paperwork was completed for players over the past 3 or 4 years. The sad part about the UNCG problem is that nobody knows much about the players, results or whatever. You never read anything about their girls or boys programs. I have seen Guilford College, Greensboro College, A&T and Elon post information on this site for years but UNCG must not know that this site exist or their PR people have no clue.

  3. The hoops program since the move to the coliseum has just not been very exciting. It is depressing to go in to that huge empty facility. The student support is non-existent.
    I used to go to Flemming and bring neighborhood kids with me. I never go now. I prefer GC and Guilford games by a long shot. Maybe a change in venue is in order

  4. We reached out to UNC-G on many occasions and frankly got tired of their lack of response. Schools Sports Information Offices send press releases to the media, it is as simple as including “press@greensborosports.com” to their distribution list. It costs them absolutely nothing to get their game reports posted, or their games covered.

    UNC-G is not the only school missing the boat.

  5. No disrespect, but when UNCG had Ty Buckner over there they had one of the top Sports Information Directors in the U.S.A.

    Since Ty stepped away and took another job over in a different department at Guilford College, things have never been the same…That has probably been 15 years ago now and UNCG has never recovered in the SID area…

    Mike Hirschman did OK for UNCG, but he was only there a couple of years…Not much public communication at all since the “Days of Buckner “….The guy was only there for about 10 years, but he is in the school’s Hall of Fame already…

    I remember going to the UNCG sports offices back in the day when Nelson Bobb(UNCG AD) and his staff worked out of a log cabin and they did a very good job with their athletics…

    We have Michael Fields on the inside over there at UNCG now with The Music and Sports 103.1 FM and maybe Michael can be “The Man” and let us and the public know what is going on with Spartan Sports…

    Couldn’t even tell you who the SID is over there now and it has been that way for a few years, but maybe Michael Fields can plow some new ground and lead the Spartans this way, or into our direction….

Comments are closed.