UNTIL THEY ARE DETHRONED, SAMFORD STILL THE TEAM TO BEAT IN THE SOCON
SOCON PREDICTIONS
Samford
ETSU
Chattanooga
Wofford
UNCG
Western Carolina
Furman
Mercer
The Citadel
VMI
By Matt Hill
Very rarely would you ever see a team that lost all five starters from the year before be picked to win a mid-major college basketball league the next year. However, Bucky McMillan is not running an ordinary program and is not your ordinary coach.
Just like UCONN in the Big East with Dan Hurley, Samford has “The System” and it works to perfection. Therefore, we are going with Samford to win the SoCon until the Bulldogs are knocked off their perch.
I really believe there are four teams that could win this conference. ETSU, Chattanooga and Wofford are all going to be in the mix. I just couldn’t pull the trigger with any of those teams and not give Bucky the benefit of the doubt. ETSU is loaded and Chattanooga has the best backcourt in the conference. Wofford has the most experience.
There are some teams in the middle of the pack that aren’t normally there like UNCG and Furman, but both lost a lot last year and didn’t seem to really replace them. Mercer and Western Carolina have new coaches and The Citadel and VMI….well they are Citadel and VMI.
Without further ado let’s look at the SoCon, starting with our conference favorite, Samford.
SAMFORD
“The System” we referred to was Bucky Ball and Bucky McMillian has everything going for him right now. After reaching the NCAA Tournament last year and losing in a controversial ending against Kansas, Samford lost five starters, most of whom left for greener pastures in the Power 5 realm, but McMillian just went out and reloaded.
Picking Samford is a very controversial pick considering what ETSU and Chattanooga have on their roster, but I feel that Bucky McMillian is one of the best coaches in the country and with the roster he has put together, I can’t pick against Samford in this conference right now. McMillian has also proven that a high school coach can coach at the collegiate level.
Last year everyone said, Bucky Ball would not work in the Southern Conference Tournament and it did. Bucky Ball works everywhere and all the time. Samford went on to win the SoCon by three games and then won the SoCon Tournament.
Among the transfers Samford has, Collin Holloway from Tulane is a Bonafide All-Conference performer and then Samford went out and got Two SEC guys, Isaiah West from Vanderbilt and Trey Fort III from Mississippi State. Julian Brown, a transfer from Wagner, will also give production.
Two of the leading returnees are Riley Allenspach )5.6 PPG 3.1 RPG and Josh Holloway 4.3 ppg 2.1 rpg.
It is a brand-new team for Samford and this may be a very bold pick, but it is really hard to go against McMillian and Bucky Ball. I know not everybody will agree with this, but it is just hard to go against the Bulldogs right now. It will probably be tougher than last year, but the talent has been restocked and now Samford is ready to get Bucky Ball back to the NCAA Tournament.
ETSU
It took a while last year in Brooks Savage’s first year as ETSU head coach, but once the Bucs got rolling, they turned into one of the most heartwarming stories of Champ Week coming from the No. 7 seed to earning a bid to the SoCon championship game against Samford and going toe-to-toe for a good part of the contest. That one week plus some big gets in the transfer portal has the Bucs talking Conference Championship and the NCAA Tournament.
The Bucs have all the pieces to have a magical year, though Chattanooga is going to be hungry for revenge and there is still Bucky Ball to contend with, which the Bucs could not solve last year. Still, this looks like the best ETSU team since the 2019-2020 season when Covid wiped out the NCAA Tournament. Savage was an assistant on that team that year under now Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes.
The Bucs have three starters back, including All-Conference candidates Jaden Seymour (14.7ppg 6.1 rpg) and Quamari Peterson (13.5ppg, 4.5 rpg) and Karon Boyd (6.7ppg, 6.7rpg) Two reserves from last year that Savage is high on are Gabe Sisk and Maki Johnson, who should see their minutes increase this season.
ETSU has a high-profile group of transfers that should elevate this team to a championship level. John Buggs, a North Texas transfer, turned down Memphis to come to Johnson City and should be one of the best players in the conference. ETSU also added some size with Davion Bradford (New Mexico State) and Roosevelt Wheeler (VCU). A very promising freshman, David Meriwether, is also on the roster.
The Bucs are being predicted between first and third by most SoCon experts. It was a coin-flip being honest between Samford and ETSU to predict the No. 1 spot. Even though we chose to go with Samford, there is no doubt in my mind that the Bucs have tools to take the title and advance to the NCAA Tournament.
CHATTANOOGA
The Mocs looked for all the world on that March night in Asheville last spring that they were headed to the SoCon championship holding a 20-point lead on ETSU in the second half. A certain sports writer not naming names posted on Twitter that the game was over and to get the Sharpie out.
What ensued was an epic comeback by the Bucs and Chattanooga has had to live with this for months about what happened and what could have been. Chattanooga has some unfinished business to take care and while a lot of players chose to go into the transfer portal, the two biggest keys to the engine decided to stay and that is why the Mocs are once again one of the favorites in the SoCon.
Trey Bonham and Honor Huff, two players of the year candidates in the SoCon, chose to stay with the Mocs. Bonham put his name into the transfer portal but took his name out and decided to stay at Chattanooga and give it one more ride with Dan Earl. The backcourt is one of the best at the mid-major level and should be tough in the SoCon.
Huff averaged 17.4ppg and 2.7rpg and Bonham averaged 16.0 and 5.0 rpg. I read a national magazine not naming names and they did not even have Bonham as an All-SoCon player, which had to be the biggest slight ever on an All-Conference team. That journalist really did not do his homework.
The top newcomer and someone who could be one of the best players in this conference is forward Frank Champion, a transfer from D2 North Georgia. This is a totally different level but there is a reason Chattanooga wanted him and that was because he is dominant.
Chattanooga was another team that I considered for the top spot. If these predictions go through, there is a chance for a rematch between ETSU and Chattanooga in the SoCon semifinals and you better believe the Mocs would be up for that one against their arch-rival.
WOFFORD
If you go by who has what back, Wofford should probably be picked to win the SoCon and was picked to win it by Lindy’s Magazine. However, most SoCon experts know a little more than a national publication that does not even watch the league and the Terriers did not pick up anyone in the portal and therefore though I think Wofford is going be strong, I do not have them in the top 3 of the league. This doesn’t mean Wofford is going to have a bad season because they have some very solid players.
Wofford did get a blow to the chest back in the summer when the program was put on probation thanks to issues during Jay McAuley’s tumultuous tenure in Spartanburg. This is limiting practice time and recruiting visits. Even with all the distractions, Wofford should be in the mix among the top of the conference.
Corey Tripp (15.6 ppg 4.5rpg), Dillion Bailey 11.8 ppg 2.3rpg), Kyler Filewich (9.4ppg, 8.8rpg) and Jackson Sivills (9.4 ppg 4.8apg) are all back for Wofford. Tripp is going to be one of the leading scorers in the conference. Filewich was the top rebounder in the league last year and he was a double digit rebound machine and should be this year.
The pieces are there for a special season, but Wofford does not have the athletes of the other top schools. The academic requirements at Wofford are among the most stringent in the nation. Still, the Terriers have turned the page on the McAuley era and Dwight Perry has this program in a position to contend with the elite of the SoCon.
UNC GREENSBORO
Nobody in the SoCon was more devastated by graduation losses than UNC Greensboro, but the Spartans still have some solid pieces to the puzzle to at least finish in the upper division of the SoCon.
The Spartans lost the heart and soul with Mikael Brown Jones, Kobe Langley and Keshaun Langley, which accounted for over the majority of their offense and also the tremendous defensive production, but the Spartans do have Donovan Atwell back who averaged 11.2 ppg last year and should really see that number go up and be one of the top scorers in the conference. Jalen Breath is the only returning starter other than Atwell.
Miles Jones was a reserve last year that big things are counted on for this year. UNCG finished second in the league last season, but saw its year unravel with a loss to ETSU in Johnson City to close out the year then another defeat to the Bucs in the conference tournament. The Spartans had a great regular season, but fell short at the end.
This year, expectations are going to be a lot lower for the Spartans by Mike Jones is a very good defensive coach and this definitely will play defense. Fifth may be pushing it a little bit but there are a lot of questions marks at the bottom of the league that I think fifth is a good spot for the Spartans.
WESTERN CAROLINA
For two seasons, Western Carolina was making waves not just in the SoCon but nationwide with Vontarius Woolbright. Justin Gray had brought a floundering program back from the ashes. Gray seemed very happy in Cullowhee and it looked he was going to be at WCU for awhile. Then for the Catamounts, reality hit after the SoCon Tournament, when Gray left the rural mountains for the beach of Conway, South Carolina in the Myrtle Beach area and went to Coastal Carolina. Western fans were very upset and wondering if they could get a coach of that level again to come to the very small town of Cullowhee.
Enter Tim Craft. Craft is the new coach of Western and his track record is flattering. Craft does not have losing seasons even when he doesn’t have the most talent and can flat out coach. I do not expect Western to be down very long and because of Craft, I have this makeshift roster picked to finish sixth in the conference instead of close to the bottom.
Craft came from Gardner Webb, who went toe-to-toe with Virginia in the 2019 NCAA Tournament. He has taken teams that lacked talent and made them winners. Now with more resources, expect Craft to take his career even further at Western Carolina.
Bernard Pelote is expected to have a big year for the Catamounts coming off a 6.7ppg and 4.6rpg average. Look for Vernon Collins to have a solid year as well coming from Princeton.
FURMAN
It wasn’t that long ago when Furman was the team to you had to beat to win the SoCon. Just two years removed from defeating Virginia in the NCAA Tournament, the Paladins are going through a major rebuild under Bob Ritchie. They are also finding out success usually mean schools are coming after your players and that is what happened when it came to Marcus Foster.
Foster was the go-to-player for Furman last year, but was snatched away by Xavier and will now be a part of a program that is expected to be among the best in the Big East. It is just a way of life now as a mid-major coach. With all that being said, Furman has found itself in a major rebuild.
Foster was not the only player to leave as JP Pegues ended up at Auburn. It was definitely a rough off-season for the Paladins.
P.J Smith (10.0ppg), Garret Hiel 6.8ppg and 3.9rpg and Tyrese Haghery (4.9ppg, 3.8rpg) are among the returners)
MERCER
Former UT Martin head coach Ryan Ridder takes over the reins in Macon this season after a successful run in West Tennessee in the Ohio Valley Conference. Mercer has never really recovered from the shocking firing of Bob Hoffman a few years ago but Riddler is hoping to change the fortunes.
I know it is a different team with different players from last year, but Mercer beat some of the best teams in the Southern Conference last year. They also lost to the bottom teams as well. Ridder has been brought in to lead the Bears to some more consistent results.
Mercer lost two outstanding players from last in Jalen McCreary and David Thomas, who Mercer will see this year when they play DePaul, Thomas’ new team. Jah Quinones is the lone returning starter for Mercer averaging 5.9ppg and 4.3rpg. Alex Holt (7.3ppg, 4.7 rpg) was a sixth man last year who probably start this year. Big things are expected from Cam Bryant as well.
THE CITADEL
The last two schools we are previewing I could probably write the same story. It is very difficult to win in the SoCon in basketball at military academies. Basketball is not the focus and if a team does have a glimmer of success, they usually go to greener pastures (Dan Earl at VMI who went to Chattanooga for example.
One coach who went on to greener pastures then returned was Ed Conroy, who is in his second stint at The Citadel. He is finding things to be a lot harder than the first time when he did have some success.
One thing that is a constant at the military academies is roster turnover as Kenyan Davis is the only returning starter at 5.8 points per game. The Citadel lost four starters from last year and it is a problem that is not easily fixed.
You know The Citadel is going to play hard, but unfortunately the biggest thing that The Citadel and VMI have to look forward to every year is the Military Classic of the South Basketball game, which is my favorite game in the SoCon to cover each year.
VMI
The Keydets were even more damaged than The Citadel with the transfer portal as they lost all five starters.
VMI did have quite a bit of success a few years ago with Dan Earl, entering the upper division of the SoCon. He took that success and ran with it, becoming the coach at conference foe Chattanooga. VMI has not been the same since.
One of my favorite coaches ever in the SoCon was Bart Bellairs, who had a one-liner for everything. Earl also has some personality, but right now VMI is back in doldrums of the SoCon. There isn’t a whole lot that looks like can be done with the makeup of the school.
VMI did get some transfers in, including Cyrpian Hyde from Portland, Augustinas Kiudulas from Indiana State and Ricky Bradley, Jr from Georgia State. It was very untraditional of VMI to dip into the portal but might have been a good move going forward.
I am definitely looking forward to covering lots of VMI-The Citadel games in the future. It is always special to see the men wanting to serve our country play against each other.
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