LU Basketball Preview: Freshmen Flames should make an impact

Seth Curry has no intentions of running from his brother’s shadow. Curry admits that Stephen Curry’s sensational NCAA tournament run a year ago, when he led Davidson to the brink of the Final Four, has added additional scrutiny to his freshman year at Liberty.

And that’s fine with him.

“People come up to me and say, ‘are you as good as your brother? Are you doing to do the same thing?’” Seth said. “That definitely puts more pressure on me. But that will put more eyes on me. I like it.”

Curry probably won’t lead his team to the Elite Eight, like Stephen did last season. But he’ll be counted on as a scoring threat right away for a Flames team that returns just one starter from a year ago.

That starter, though, is wing Anthony Smith, who last month became the first Liberty player to earn Big South preseason player of the year honors.

Add Smith to a recruiting class that features Curry and was ranked in the Top 50 nationally, Flames coach Ritchie McKay isn’t exactly working with scraps.

“I’ll say this, the freshman class is very, very fun to coach,” McKay said.

Curry isn’t the only one who will pick up prime playing time this season. Jesse Sanders, the younger brother of former Gardner-Webb honorable mention All-American Thomas Sanders, will start at one of the two guards spots.

Brolin Floyd, Carter McMasters and Austin Smith will all see considerable playing time in the post. Johnny Stephene and Bill Weaver fit into the mix as well.

Just two years into the McKay era at Liberty, the roster has nearly overhauled. The only players left who were recruited by former coach Randy Dunton are Anthony Smith, Kyle Ohman and Tyler Baker.

“I think you’ll see a group that’s really unselfish, plays hard and plays together, that’s a little bit deeper and that’s fun to watch,” McKay said.

The Flames were fun to watch last year “on occasion,” McKay said, but a lack of depth hurt Liberty’s consistency. The Flames relied heavily on the long-range shot and struggled on the defensive end at times, especially when the shots weren’t falling.

Depth was a major issue, as Liberty generally played with a seven-man rotation. Still, the Flames managed to finish .500 and advance in the conference tournament for the first time since 2004.

With at least 10 players getting extensive playing time this season, the Flames will be able to consistently operate at a higher tempo.

“Last year, our bodies kind of wore down,” Anthony Smith said.

“This year, we can rotate in and out and just run people.”

With so much youth, there are questions. Will the players buy in defensively? How quickly will the freshmen adjust to the speed of the Division I game?

But nearly every team in the Big South faces the same sort of questions. Only Radford and Charleston Southern returned a significant chunk of their respective rosters from last season. Gardner-Webb did as well, but the Bulldogs are in their first year in the conference and will have to adjust to the new teams they will face.

“I still think it’s going to be wide open,” Anthony Smith said.

“We’ll see.”

The other big question for the Flames is who will rebound?

Liberty is not a big team, as only Austin Smith, McMasters and Baker are taller than 6-foot-5.

“It’s going to be a group effort,” Anthony Smith said. “Last year, we had Alex (McLean) in the post holding it down.

“This year, everybody’s going to be battling for boards.”

The Flames will get an early taste of conference action in six days. After opening Friday night at home against Montreat, Liberty travels to UNC Asheville for an ESPN matinee as part of the network’s college hoops marathon.

And all eyes that day will surely be on Curry.

“He’s good enough to be one of the best players who’s ever donned a Liberty Flames uniform,” McKay said. “I don’t put that on a lot of people. But he’s got great talent.”