Courtside here at the renovated Dedmon Center, and I have to admit, I like what they’ve done to the place. Some impressions:

* Love the steel trusses for the roof support. Gives the place a much more enclosed feeling, rather than the cavernous, hissing air-dome this joint used to be.

* The black curtains at each end of the court give Dedmon a better aura, like the place is an actual basketball arena, not just a building that happened to house a basketball court.

* The new floor is a vast improvement. Radford used to have the league’s worst court, with dead spots galore. Not so much any more.

Now onto some game notes:

* Liberty guard Jesse Sanders isn’t dressed and won’t play. I’ve said ad naseum this season that Sanders is the Flames’ most important player. With him out, I really give them little chance of winning here tonight. That’s of course why they play games, to prove folks like me wrong, though. So we’ll see.

* Radford entered the day tied with American, Creighton and LSU for the nation’s longest winning streak at nine games. Creighton beat Illinois State by four and American knocked off Lafayette in overtime to extend their streaks to 10. LSU is currently losing at Kentucky.

* This Radford team is no fluke and will be extremely difficult to eliminate next week in the tournament. I’ve always felt if a team has a plus point guard and a solid big man that it will be set up for success. Radford has the Big South’s best point man in Amir Johnson and its two best “true” bigs in Joey Lynch-Flohr and Artsiom Parakhouski. The Highlanders aren’t 15-2 in league by accident.

* There are eight possible scenarios left involving Liberty, Gardner-Webb and UNC Asheville, and seven of those scenarios have Liberty playing Gardner-Webb in the first round of the tournament next Tuesday at the Vines Center. The only other possible opponent is Winthrop, and Liberty would only draw the Eagles if Liberty, Gardner-Webb and UNC Asheville all win tonight. Just to show my work, as my old algebra teacher would say ...

—LU win, GWU win, UNCA win—Liberty (12-6) is 3, UNCA (11-7) is 4, GWU (9-9) is 5, Winthrop (9-9) is 6.

—LU win, GWU loss, UNCA win—Liberty (12-6) is 3, UNCA (11-7) is 4, Winthrop (9-9) is 5, GWU (8-10) is 6

—LU win, GWU win, UNCA loss—Liberty (12-6) is 3, UNCA (10-8) is 4, Winthrop (9-9) is 5, GWU (9-9) is 6; Presbyterian would also be 9-9 and WU wins the three-way tiebreak.

—LU win, GWU loss, UNCA loss—Liberty (12-6) is 3, UNCA (10-8) is 4, Winthrop (9-9) is 5, GWU (8-10) is 6

—LU loss, GWU win, UNCA win—UNCA (11-7) is 3, Liberty (11-7) is 4, GWU (9-9) is 5, Winthrop (9-9) is 6

—LU loss, GWU loss, UNCA win—Liberty (11-7) is 3, UNCA (11-7) is 4, Winthrop (9-9) is 5, GWU (8-10) is 6

—LU loss, GWU win, UNCA loss—Liberty (11-7) is 3, UNCA (10-8) is 4, Winthrop (9-9) is 5, GWU (9-9) is 6; PC tiebreaker comes into play again

—LU loss, GWU loss, UNCA loss—Liberty (11-7) is 3, UNCA (10-8) is 4, Winthrop (9-9) is 5, GWU (8-10) is 6.

That’s all for now. I’ll stop back at halftime with an update.

*****

UPDATE: Liberty 45, Radford 33—Halftime.

First-half impressions and notes:

* James Spencer and Austin Smith start for the Flames.

* Eric Hall and Jamar Jenkins start for Radford instead of Joey Lynch-Flohr and Phillip Martin. Not surprising, seeing as its senior night and Hall and Jenkins are seniors.

* Liberty coach Ritchie McKay must be trying to send a message. It was eight-plus minutes until Brolin Floyd got on the floor, and that was only because Austin Smith got into foul trouble. Johnny Stephene hasn’t played, and I don’t think he’s hurt.

* Liberty made a few adjustments on the handoff plays that VMI defended so well Tuesday, namely making Kyle Ohman the target of some of those handoffs. Ohman hit two treys off those handoffs.

* This is the first time I’ve seen the Flames look reasonably competent on offense without Jesse Sanders. Ohman is being smarter with his drives, using them to create rather than to force baskets. Curry is doing the same.

* The defensive effort between the first half here and the last three halves (at ODU, vs. VMI) is like night and day. Liberty is playing with intensity and passion. McKay said he wanted to take ownership of the defense after the VMI debacle. I’d say he has.

* Curry’s streak of consecutive free-throws ended on the front end of a one-and-one with 5:20 left. Curry had made a school-record 41 straight free throws

* Foul trouble will be a second-half issue for Liberty—Austin Smith, Tyler Baker and Floyd have three each. Radford’s Martin and Chris McEachin have three each as well.

* Ohman leads all scorers with 22 points.