Dec. 30, 2004

Charleston, SC - It's not often that The Citadel is a candidate for the title "hottest team in the Southern Conference."

But as the year 2004 comes to a close, there's a case to be made for the Bulldogs.

Dating back to the final week of last season, The Citadel has won nine of its last 11 regular-season basketball games, including three straight regular-season games against SoCon teams.

"I did not realize that," Bulldogs coach Pat Dennis said Wednesday when apprised of those numbers. "That's a good sign. Hopefully, it will continue."

At 7-2, the Bulldogs are off to their best start since the 1996-97 season. Four of those seven victories are against non-Division I teams, but a 65-60 win over SoCon foe Western Carolina on Dec. 21 seemed to validate Dennis' strategy of scheduling to build confidence in a young team that includes only one senior.

"I think that helped us against Western Carolina, because we really came out with a lot of passion in that game," Dennis said. "And I hope we can keep building on that. Confidence is fragile, especially for a young team. One bad loss, one roadblock you hit and you can lose a lot of confidence very quickly." The latest test to the Bulldogs' new-found confidence comes at 1 p.m. today against Navy (4-6), a team also looking for some confidence under first-year coach Billy Lange, a former assistant at Villanova.

Lange, 32, took over for veteran coach Don DeVoe last March with experience in coaching at a military school. He led the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy to a 39-19 record and two conference titles.

"I'm very impressed with them," Dennis said of Navy, which snapped a four-game skid with a 90-81 win over Mount St. Mary's on Dec. 21. "They have a new coach and are playing very enthused. They run a lot of the same type of system as Villanova, and I really like the way they play. They play with a lot of energy."

Lange has helped the Midshipmen to a turnaround similar to The Citadel's. The Bulldogs already have surpassed their win total from last year, when they were 6-22. Navy, 5-23 a year ago, is just one victory shy of matching their 2003-04 total.

Navy started three freshmen against Mount St. Mary's last week, and its top two scorers ñ 6-5 junior David Hooper and 6-8 senior Laramie Mergerson ñ have been coming off the bench. Hooper is averaging 13.1 points and Mergerson 12.9 points and 7.8 rebounds. Carlton Baldwin, a 6-8 sophomore who led Navy in scoring and rebounding last season, has been suspended indefinitely for violating Naval Academy policy.

The Citadel is 3-4 in its series with Navy, including a 1-1 record under Dennis. The Bulldogs are 64-49 all-time against fellow military schools, including a 53-44 record against rival Virginia Military Institute.

Dennis has long wanted to put together a tournament featuring military schools such as Navy, Air Force and Army, and said he hopes to return VMI to the schedule next season. The Citadel has not played VMI since the 2002-03 season, after which the Keydets left the SoCon for the Big South Conference.

"I'd love to have a tournament like that, and I've talked to their coaches about it," he said. "A lot of us are playing each other now, and next year we're hoping to play Army, Navy and Air Force. But I'd love to have a military classic and rotate it among cities.

-- Tip-off time for the Navy game was changed to 1 p.m. because of the Red Cross Rotary Roundball Classic at McAlister Field House ... Reserve forward Aaron Xia, who missed the Western Carolina game with an injured shoulder, has been cleared to play today.