After last year's team won a school-record 25 games, expectations were high for the Mountaineers even though they'd lost five seniors from the 2006-07 team.

ASU was able to tie for the North Division title despite those losses and a second straight losing record, which, for such a young team, is definitely an accomplishment.

For the Mountaineers, the first part of the Southern Conference was great, with the team getting off to a 7-2 start. But then the bottom fell out, with ASU going 6-5 the rest of the way, with a BracketBusters loss thrown in for good measure. The resulting 13-7 mark tied the team for the North Division title, but the Mountaineers drew the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament thanks to tiebreakers.

In the tournament, ASU ran into a UNC Greensboro team that had beaten the Mountaineers by 24 in their previous meeting. It was much the same in the tournament game, the Spartans winning by 17.

Now Houston Fancher looks to the 2008-09 season knowing he'll be losing two of his top four scorers from this season, Donte Minter and Jeremy Clayton.

The Mountaineers will bring back a solid core, though, led by guards Donald Sims and Kellen Brand, who really stepped into major roles this year as a freshman and sophomore, respectively.

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