Here’s a few news and notes for some of the things that transpired during the Flames’ 35 game 2016-17 season:

  • Liberty won 20 games in a season for the first time since 2008-09 when a Coach McKay squad won 23 games. It’s just the 6th 20 win season in school history and 4th in the Division I era.
  • McKay joins Jeff Meyer as the only 2 head coaches in school history to have multiple 20 win seasons at Liberty.
  • 12 of the team’s 14 losses were to teams that appeared in a postseason tournament. The only 2 teams the Flames lost to that did not appear in a postseason tournament were William & Mary and Radford.
  • The Flames saw significant improvement in all of their defensive measurables in the 2nd year in McKay’s packline system he brought with him from Virginia. Liberty held opponents to 63.4 points per game, good for 19th nationally. This was an improvement from the previous season when the Flames held opponents to 68.4 points per game in the first year of the packline installation. Liberty also held opponents to 43.4% shooting from the field, an improvement from the 45.6% opponents shot last year.
  • As a team, Liberty shot 74.2% from the free throw line, the best single season in school history. This mark put the team at 54th in the country. The previous record was set during the 2002-03 season when the Flames shot 73.9% from the charity stripe.
  • Liberty committed 363 turnovers on the season, setting a school Division I record for fewest turnovers. The previous record was 377 set in 1988-89. The 363 turnovers equated to 10.4 turnovers per game, both numbers were significant improvements from a season ago when the Flames committed 442 turnovers or 13.8 per game.
  • With their 7 consecutive road wins to open conference play, the Flames set a school record for an away winning streak. The previous record was 6 set during the 1992-93 season.
  • As has been mentioned previously, Liberty’s 14 Big South wins are the most in school history. The 14-4 conference record equated to a .778 winning percentage, 2nd best in school history. The 1996-97 team went 11-3 in the Big South for a winning percentage of .786.
  • For just the 5th time in the program’s 29 seasons as a Division I member, the Flames advanced to a postseason tournament. Liberty was selected to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament for the 2nd time, also participating in the event in 2009. Liberty has also made the NCAA Tournament in 1994, 2004, and 2013.
  • In addition to the national rankings in scoring defense and free throw percentage, the Flames also ranked 9th in turnover margin, 56th in assist turnover ratio, 24th in total 3 point field goals made, and 37th in 3 point field goal percentage.
  • For much of the season Ryan Kemrite flirted with Liberty’s single-season 3 point field goal percentage record, which is 44.0% set by Matt Hildebrand in 1993 and Charles Richardson in 1989. Kemrite finished the season shooting 42.2% from 3, which ranks 5th best in the program’s all-time record books. For his career, Kemrite is shooting 42.0% from 3, just slightly behind Matt Hildebrand’s career mark of 42.9%. Kemrite has made 174 three pointers in his Liberty career, putting him 53 behind Larry Blair’s career record of 227 made 3 pointers.
  • Liberty had gone 4 straight seasons without a player selected to the Big South 1st, 2nd or all-rookie teams. This season, Kemrite was named to the 2nd team, while Georgie Pacheco-Ortiz and Myo Baxter-Bell were named to the all-freshman team. John Dawson made the honorable mention all-conference team as he did in 2016.
  • Liberty ended the streak of 5 consecutive losing seasons from 2012-2016, which was a school record.