Kamil Chapman (left) & Brian Graves
The Opening Tip
• Longwood returns home to Willett Hall to host Hampton Wednesday, facing the Big South newcomer Pirates on a home court in which the Lancers are off to an 8-2 start.
• Longwood assistant coach
Brian Graves, whom first-year head coach
Griff Aldrich hired as part of his first coaching staff in Farmville, spent his previous two seasons as an assistant coach at Hampton under Edward Joyner. Graves helped Hampton to the 2017-18 MEAC regular-season title during that stint.
• Both Aldrich and Graves are natives of the Tidewater area and grew up near Hampton University.
• Longwood is 7-2 in games following a loss this season, including 4-1 when those games take place in Willett Hall.
• Hampton is the second straight Big South newcomer Longwood has faced following this past Saturday's 80-63 loss at USC Upstate.
Last Time Out
• Playing its third game of the week and second in less than 72 hours, Longwood had no answer for the USC Upstate duo of Deion Holmes and Malik Moore and fell on the Spartans' home court, 80-63, Saturday evening at the Hodge Center.
• In the first meeting between the teams in nearly three decades, Holmes scored a game-high 20 points, and Moore poured in 16 with three assists. Everette Hammond also added 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting to lead a 33-point effort from the Spartan bench.
• USC Upstate became only the fourth team this season to score 80 points against Longwood. The defeat was only the fourth double-digit loss of the season for the Lancers.
• Longwood had four players score in double figures, led by freshman
Gus Okafor and redshirt senior
Isaiah Walton who scored 12 points apiece off the bench.
By The Numbers
• Longwood first-year head coach
Griff Aldrich has already led Longwood to six more wins than the team had one season ago, which so far ranks as the biggest turnaround among the 55 NCAA Division I head coaches who are in their first season at their respecitve institutions this season.
• Following a 7-26 season in 2017-18, the Lancers are currently 13-10 for a winning percentage improvement of +.353, which is the second-highest improvement of those 55 new head coaches.
• Of those 55 newly hired head coaches, Aldrich is one of just 19 with a winning record. Of those 19, he is one of only two who inherited a program that won single-digit games a year ago, joining Pitt's Jeff Capel in that group.
• With 13 wins this year, Longwood is just four wins shy of tying the program's Division I wins record of 17 set by the 2008-09 Lancers.
• Junior guard Seán Flood has hit a three-pointer in 14 consecutive games. Of his 50 made field goals, 38 have come from long range.
• Flood's past 17 made field goals have all come from three-point range.
• Longwood has allowed the most three-point attempts in the Big South (664) but is holding opponents to the third-lowest three-point shooting clip in the conference (.316).
• Longwood has held six of its past nine opponents under 30.0 percent shooting from three-point range. Eleven of Longwood's 23 foes have shot under 30.0 percent from long range.
• Junior forward
JaShaun Smith has more dunks this season (15) than Longwood has allowed to all opponents combined (13).
•
Shabooty Phillips is the Big South's leading free throw shooter at 89.5 percent (68-of-76), which would rank as the highest single-season mark in school history.
Quotable
"In probably about the first 15 minutes, every person who caught the ball tried to dribble it. We had one pass and then tried to drive it into the lane. That's just not how we play. If we do that, we're not going to be successful in many games going forward."
— Head coach
Griff Aldrich following Longwood's 80-63 loss at USC Upstate
Series History
• Longwood and Hampton meet for the first time as Big South foes and fourth time in series history Wednesday in Willett Hall. Hampton owns a 3-1 advantage in the series, which began during the 2005-06 season.
• All four of the previous meetings between the schools has been since Longwood began its jump to the Division I era.
• Longwood and Hampton have played each other in closed preseason scrimmages since the Lancers joined the Big South in 2012-13 but have not met during hte regular season since Dec. 30, 2011, Longwood's last season as a Division I Independent.
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