SB Nation Atlanta got the chance to sit down with Coach Hunter on Wednesday and speak with him about the Colonial Athletic Association’s unanimous decision to exclude Old Dominion and Georgia State from being eligible. It became apparent very quickly that Hunter was very displeased with the vote and had some strong things to say about how his team will respond.
"It’s disappointing," Hunter said. "I feel as though and will coach this year as though we are an independent. To say we are in the Colonial, just to be playing games… we’re not and I don’t want anyone to kid themselves. So that’s how we’re going to approach this year and we will definitely have a chip on our shoulder. "
"If we do play in the Colonial, we aren’t looking at it as the Colonial," Hunter continued. “To be honest I would be happy to take everything off our floor that says CAA and I probably won’t even say the word Colonial, I will just say we are playing this team.”
Hunter also seemed to think he had some insight into who might have particularly opposed the Panthers playing for a conference title.
"This will cause me to be more motivated against certain schools, because I know who wanted Georgia State and Old Dominion to not be eligible," explained Hunter. "There are certain teams I would love to play and I hope they are having good years so that we can try to knock them out of an at-large bid. There are a lot of ways to use this to motivate our players. But we may not even play these guys, and if I made my way we wouldn’t."
Regardless of whether or not the Panthers will compete in the CAA, one thing for certain is that Coach Hunter is one of the best in the country at finding ways to motivate his team. This time he didn’t have look very hard.
Hunter has said many times in the past his goal is to win 20 games every season and be competitive in postseason play. In order for that to be the case in the NCAA Tournament this year, he will have to have a very impressive unit and earn an at-large bid. The University announced on Wednesday that Hunter has taken steps to help ensure that by adding non-conference games at Duke and BYU, thus bolstering Georgia State’s strength of schedule.
Stay tuned for more updates on Georgia State Basketball as the updates continue to unfold.