SoCon Media Day Recap and Responses

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MEDIA DAY PRESEASON COACHES’ POLL

  1. East Tennessee State
  2. UNC Greensboro
  3. Furman
  4. Wofford
  5. Samford
  6. Chattanooga
  7. Western Carolina
  8. Mercer
  9. The Citadel
  10. VMI

MEDIA DAY PRESEASON MEDIA POLL – IT IS EXACTLY THE SAME DAMN ORDER!!

MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL CONFERENCE TEAM

Bo Hodges – East Tennessee State, JR G
Jeromy Rodriguez – East Tennessee State, SR F
Daivien Williamson – East Tennessee State, SO G
Jordan Lyons – Furman, SR G
Ross Cummings – Mercer, SR F
Isaiah Miller – UNC Greensboro, JR G
Josh Sharkey – Samford, SR G
Carlos Dotson – Western Carolina, SR F
Nathan Hoover – Wofford, SR G

NOTES FROM DAVID.  Last year Wofford landed in the top half of the bracket, and UNC Greensboro ended up being the contingency team, meaning that had Oregon not won the Pac 12 Championship game then UNCG would have been in the NCAA Tournament.  Having a team that was in the field on the first ballot and another one that just missed the cut is the best year the SoCon has had in recent memory.  Here’s the thing: I think it could be even better this year!

East Tennessee State is the consensus favorite to win the league from pretty much everyone I’ve seen, and that obviously includes the coaches and SIDs.  All five starters are back from a team that won 24 games and finished in third place last year.  This is a team that is certainly good enough to land inside the bubble.  They are multidimensional, are good in all five positions, and have sufficient depth.  The question is will they have enough realistic opportunities to make a strong case to the committee.  They go to Kansas on November 19th, and obviously if they win that they’ll be well on their way, but that’s probably too tall of an order and other than another road trip to LSU there doesn’t appear to be much that will get the committee all that excited.  So, as good as they are, they’ll have a small margin for error when it comes to making the field.

I’m HUGE on this Furman team!  They are yet another team that I think is good enough to land inside the bubble.  They won some big games last year and actually cracked the rankings earlier in the season, had 25 overall wins, and have four starters back.  Notable OOC games include going to Auburn and Alabama, and it wouldn’t shock me at all if they ended up winning all the rest of them and entering conference play with a bloated record.

UNC Greensboro, as mentioned earlier, barely missed the NCAA Tournament last year, and had they won just one more game at any point during the regular season they would have probably made the field.  They return three starters from a team that won 29 overall games last year and who didn’t lose any conference games to anyone accept Wofford.  Replacing Francis Alonso, who was a fantastic three point shooter, won’t be easy.  I like this UNCG team a lot, and it wouldn’t shock me if they were once again knocking on the door of the NCAA Tournament, but I don’t like them quite as much as Furman and ETSU.

Wofford was a strong team a year ago, and you never want to write off the terrors, but they lost a ton.  Three starters are gone, including Fletcher Magee who was perhaps the best player in the SoCon, I don’t foresee them finishing ranked in the top 20 like they did a season ago.  Also gone is Mike Young, who left to take the head coaching job at Virginia Tech.

I don’t know if it’s fair to call Samford a sleeper because they got off to a fantastic start in OOC play last year, had an overall winning record, and have four starters back, but it wouldn’t shock me if they made more noise in the league than what many are projecting them to.  They may not have won the league, but they had what was perhaps the highest point of awesomeness in conference play last year when referee Karl Hess decided to step up on Samford head coach Scott Padgett prompting him to ask “Are you stepping to me right now?”  This lead to what is perhaps the greatest t-shirt in the history of college basketball:

After Samford, there appears to be a big drop-off.  It is worth noting that The Citadel, despite not really being in a position to compete for the league title, is still a ton of fun to watch.  Chattanooga didn’t do too badly in conference play last year at 7-11 and has three starters back, but they don’t appear to be as good as they were a few years ago.  I’m not seeing a whole lot from Western Carolina, Mercer, or VMI either.

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