Much at stake for Chanticleers on Senior Night

Cliff Ellis says he hasn’t looked very closely at all the scenarios that exist for his Coastal Carolina men’s basketball team depending on the outcome of their final two regular-season games.

“I let everybody else do that,” he said. “I refuse to do that. It’s just the way that I am.”

And that will no doubt save him a lot of time, as the bunched-up Big South standings could shift in any number of ways this week.

What the Chanticleers do know is if they defeat Charleston Southern on Thursday night in their final home game of the season , they will at least clinch one of the top-five seeds for the Big South tournament and a first-round bye into the quarterfinals.

Beyond that, the Chants (16-10, 10-6 Big South) aren’t technically eliminated from contention for the regular-season title, but they would need league-leading Winthrop (12-4 in the conference) to lose both of its final two games while having the necessary tie-breaker scenarios also fall into place.

Simply put, that is an unlikely outcome, but the Chants – currently in fourth place in the crowded standings – can nonetheless do their part to maximize their seeding as they close out the schedule against the visiting Buccaneers (9-19, 5-12) on Thursday before going on the road to UNC Asheville on Saturday.

“This is an important week because there’s so much in the air with regard to how this thing could shake out,” Ellis said. “There’s still conceivably six teams that could win the league. It’s kind of like it was a year ago, and next week is the tournament. So each game is important.”

The game Thursday night carries added significance as it will be the final home game for Coastal Carolina seniors Badou Diagne, Tristian Curtis, Marcus Freeman and Aaron Law.

Diagne and Curtis, in particular, have been four-year contributors and the core of the Chants’ frontcourt the last few seasons while Freeman has been the team’s top forward off the bench in two productive seasons as a junior college transfer. Law, meanwhile, has seen sporadic playing time in two seasons since transferring from Iowa State.

“We’ve got four seniors that are going out that have done so much for the basketball program, and we want to send them off in the right way,” Ellis said. “You get one game to kind of celebrate what they’ve done and what they’ve accomplished. You look at this group and look at what’s been happening here in the four-year period they’ve been here, it’s been pretty special.”

Ellis revealed Wednesday that Diagne injured his foot in practice the day before and will be a game-time decision Thursday night, but the senior forward said he is hoping to play.

“We were at practice and I probably pushed too hard on my foot. I mean, I don’t think it’s that bad,” Diagne said. “Hopefully I’ll be able to come back as soon as possible, but I don’t think it’s bad. ... I haven’t got the MRI result yet, so that’s what I’m waiting on.”

Meanwhile, both Diagne and Curtis said their final home game will be emotional.

Diagne comes into the game averaging a career-high 11.2 points and 7.0 rebounds per game while ranking third in program history with 764 career rebounds and 121 career games played, and fourth with 95 blocks. The senior from Senegal needs three more games to tie former teammate Warren Gillis for second in that category.

“Freshman year was not even too long ago when you think about it. It’s still a regular game, but the emotional aspect is going to be really different [with it] being the last game,” Diagne said. “I can basically [say this is] where I grew up, where I learned the game a lot better, developed a lot of friends, all that stuff, so it’s very emotional.

“It’s been great. I had the chance to have a coach like Cliff Ellis who is basically a Hall of Famer. I got a lot better. I will never regret making the decision to come to Coastal Carolina.”

Curtis, meanwhile, is averaging a career-best 6.3 points and 6.4 rebounds this season while shooting an absurd 75.6 percent from the field. That would lead the NCAA Division I list if he had enough shot attempts to qualify.

The senior from the Bahamas has started 56 games over the last two seasons while showing improvement each year he’s been in the program.

“I’ve been thinking about that for a long time. It’s bittersweet – very bittersweet,” Curtis said. “It’s probably going to be a very emotional night for me because I’ve been here four years and seen a lot and been through a lot, won championships and it’s pretty emotional, honestly.

“The coaching staff and the players and everyone around me, the whole community we’ve built here has really molded me into who I am today.”

Freeman is averaging 6.0 points and 5.7 rebounds off the bench and has been a key option off the bench since his arrival in Conway.

And Law has appeared in 10 games while scoring 17 points this season.

The seniors, who have been part of back-to-back Big South championship teams and consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, will be honored in a ceremony before the game.

Another senior, veteran forward Michel Enanga, will not be part of that ceremony as the Chants are hopeful he will be granted a medical redshirt and an extra year of eligibility after undergoing season-ending knee surgery in December.

After the Senior Night ceremony, the Chants will then turn their focus to a Charleston Southern team that has lost three straight games and eight of its last nine (including a 78-63 loss to Coastal Carolina in the teams’ first meeting).

And like their coach, the players said they are simply focusing on what they can control at this point.

“We just take it one game at a time and however it plays out that’s how it plays out,” Curtis said.

This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 6:45 PM with the headline "Much at stake for Chanticleers on Senior Night."