THE GOOD NEWS
Gardner-Webb's travel expenses and hassles should decline in the Big South, a league whose members are located in Virginia and the Carolinas. A strong recruiting class should ease the transition. JUCO shooting guard C.J. Hailey scored 14.8 points per game at Brunswick (N.C.) Community College and 6-5 forward Terrell Barrett led North Carolina's Farmville Central High to a 23-5 season in 2007-08.

THE BAD NEWS
The Bulldogs won't be top dogs in the Big South, where Winthrop has won four straight conference championships and has been to the NCAA Tournament eight times in the past decade. GWU has to replace forward Thomas Sanders, who had 910 points and 556 rebounds in just two seasons in Boiling Springs.

KEY RETURNEES
Four starters and all but one letter-winner returns next season, led by guards Grayson Flittner and Aaron Linn and forward Nate Blank. That trio averaged a combined 39 points per game and accounted for 213 made 3-pointers, or 78.8 percent of the team's long-distance production.

ROSTER REPORT

--Atlantic Sun Player of the Year Thomas Sanders led the league in rebounding (10.8) and finished third in scoring (18.1) and eighth in assists (3.3). The senior forward also earned first-team all-conference honors. His 346 rebounds fell 13 shy of the league record set by Centenary's George Lett in 1978-79.

--Forward Nate Blank garnered Atlantic Sun Freshman of the Year honors and became the first Bulldog to make the All-Freshman team since Andre Manning (2002-03). He had three 20-point games and one double-double and was second on the team in both 3-point shooting (38.2 percent) and free-throw shooting (79.5 percent).

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