Liberty Basketball: 2020-21 season preview for the Flames
By William Cash
After a historic year in the 2019-2020 season, how does Liberty Basketball fare this year?
Liberty Basketball had the best year in school history last year. The Flames went 30-4 last season, was A-Sun regular-season champions and A-Sun Tournament champions with an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Flames most likely would have been an 11 to 12 seed if the Tournament would have happened.
The Flames have a lot of turnover from last year’s team to this year’s team. Last year’s leading scorer Caleb Homesley just recently signed a UDFA deal with the Washington Wizards, the Flames also lost leading rebounder Scottie James and also third-leading scorer Georgie Pacheco-Ortiz. This leaves Coach Ritchie McKay stuck with having to replace four of last year’s top five leading scorers on the team.
The one important player who does come back for the Flames is junior Darius McGhee. Mcghee averaged nine points, four rebounds, and one assist on 43% shooting last season. With that Coach McKay brought in a solid recruiting class that ranked fourth in A-Sun. The class included three-star recruit Isiah Warfield, Drake Dobbs, Jonathan Jackson, and Micaiah Abii.
With the recent success that Mckay has had in Lynchburg, there is no reason to think that the Flames could not be towards the top of the conference again. Which should give Liberty fans a reason to be excited about this upcoming season.