It was 41 and pouring down rain when I left Lynchburg this afternoon, so it was kind of nice to get out of the car at the Winthrop Coliseum to find 67-degree temperatures at twilight.

Abbreviated blog tonight, due to time constraints (i.e. hitting Charlotte rush hour).

Your starters:

LIBERTY (19-10, 13-3 Big South)
Jesse Sanders (G, 6-3, 200)  11.1 ppg/6.1 rpg
Evan Gordon (G, 6-2, 185)  14.9/2.8
David Minaya (G, 6-6, 205)  10.9/3.3
John Brown (G, 6-4, 195)  11.5/10.8
Joel Vander Pol (C, 6-10, 225)  4.1/3.3

WINTHROP (12-15, 8-8 Big South)
Reggie Middleton (G, 6-1, 195)  11.2/3.7
Robbie Dreher (G, 6-4, 190)  13.0/4.3
Andre Jones (G, 6-2, 200)  10.2/3.3
Charles Corbin (F, 6-7, 230) 11.1/8.1
George Valentine (C, 6-9, 240)  6.9/7.1

Quick thoughts, etc.

1. The matchup to watch tonight is Winthrop’s Reggie Middleton against Liberty’s Evan Gordon. I don’t think Middleton appreciated the way the game in Lynchburg went, with Gordon picking him left and right and converting those steals into layups. It won’t be easy going for Gordon here tonight.

2. Liberty hasn’t won here since the 2003-04 season.

3. Winthrop needs a good bit of help to secure a home game in the conference tournament. Unless a lot of things fall into place, I don’t think Winthrop has much of a shot at the No. 3 seed, so this is probably not a preview of a conference tournament semifinal game.

4. Tonight’s game will be on the Liberty Channel locally in Lynchburg (WTLU), as will Saturday’s game at Presbyterian College.

4a. Quick coverage note: I will not be staffing Saturday’s game at Presbyterian. Tough to justify spending a bunch of money on hotel rooms for a game that is essentially meaningless to Liberty.

4b. Speaking of Saturday’s game, I’m really curious to see how the team will approach that if indeed High Point is locked into the No. 7 seed after tonight’s action. I’m no coach, but I think the tendency would be to prepare more for the do-or-die Tuesday game than it would be to spend a bunch of time prepping for a game that means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things.

5. Winthrop’s Andre Jones can be a dangerous 3-point threat, but he’s 0-for-6 in his last two games and 1-for-11 in his last three. Winthrop has lost those three.

6. Liberty’s John Brown is in a major funk at the free-throw line. In his last 13 games, he’s 10-for-28 from the stripe.

7. Your shooters to watch:
a. Liberty’s top 3-point threats: Evan Gordon (65-190, 34.2 percent); David Minaya (21-62, 33.9); John Caleb Sanders (32-93, 34.4); Jeremy Anderson (18-55, 32.7).
b. Winthrop’s top 3-point threats: Robbie Dreher (33-91, 36.3); Andre Jones (26-79, 32.9); Gideon Gamble (20-62, 32.3); Reggie Middleton (22-69, 31.9)
c. Liberty’s top free-throw shooters: Gordon (80-105, 76.2); Jesse Sanders (111-148, 75.0); Minaya (60-79, 75.9); Chene Phillips (20-23, 87.0)
d. Winthrop’s top free-throw shooters: Jones (49-66, 74.2); Matt Morgan (42-59, 71.2)
e. Liberty’s worst free-throw shooters: John Brown (40-74, 54.1); Antwan Burrus (46-66, 69.7); Joel Vander Pol (38-65, 58.5); Sommy Ogukwe (3-10, 30.0)
f. Winthrop’s worst free-throw shooters: Middleton (71-105, 67.6); Dreher (83-126, 65.9); Justin Burton (25-38, 65.8); Charles Corbin (31-52, 59.6); Joab Jerome (24-45, 53.3); George Valentine (28-53, 52.8).

8. In-game updates will be available on Twitter @ChrisLangLNA.