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In my last blog entry on UNCG, I noted how much better the Spartans are when Ricky Hickman plays up to his customary levels. Just to reinforce the point, Hickman poured in 28 more as UNCG destroyed St. Peter's on Thursday night.

Now UNCG takes on Delaware, which is 0-8. Holy cow! What happened to this program between the time when Mike Brey left for Notre Dame and now? Is it all the fault of former Blue Hens coach David Henderson?

But I digress, the issue here is the Spartans. After the Delaware game, they'll have another week off to prepare for a huge conference game, against Georgia Southern. Is it just me, or isn't it a little strange that the G will have played four conference games before the new year? What's up with that. Anyone with an explanation please send it my way. Maybe it's been this way since I left the UNCG beat and I'm just now aware of it.

The Georgia Southern game has taken on added importance because it's looking like UNCG can't afford to lose too many games if it wants to keep up with App State in the North Division. The Mountaineers just completed an impressive roll through the San Juan Shootout and are now adjusting to life with UVA transfer Donte Minter in the low post.

Minter's an interesting story by the way (and I'm looking forward to to the day when he and Kyle Hines bang heads in the low post). Minter was originally an App State early signee out of West Rowan. As Minter's senior season rolled on and it became more and more apparent to everyone else just how good Minter was, App fans began to voice this mixture of elation and dread. Clearly Minter was a fantastic steal for App. Less clear was whether Minter would qualify - or whether he even wanted to. UNCG fans who remember Jamaal Brown will know all about this scenario.

Long story short, Minter doesn't qualify, he goes to prep school and winds up at UVA. But the whole Pete Gillen thing didn't work out so well, in case you haven't heard, and Minter started rethinking things. You might think App would have held a grudge against Minter - wondering whether he deliberately tanked qualifying to get out of his App commitment - but if you think the Mountaineers would turn down a second chance at a talent like Minter, then you just don't know college coaches very well. So Minter is back in Boone, his original destination, and all is well for the Mountaineers.

That means that UNCG needs Ricky Hickman to keep things up if it wants to keep pace with Appy.

Like how I brought that full circle?