SOCON MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- Furman
- East Tennessee State
- Wofford
- Samford
- Chattanooga
- Tennessee Tech
- Mercer
- Western Carolina
- VMI
- The Citadel
- UNC Greensboro
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-SOCON TEAM:
-BJ Ward – SR, G – East Tennessee State
-Marcus Kell – SR, F – Furman
-Charles Johnston – SR, F – Furman
-Brady Shoulders – JR, G/F – Mercer
-Cooper Noard – SR, G – Samford
-Tate Darner – SO, G – Chattanooga
-Rickey Bradley Jr. – SR, G – VMI
-TJ Johnson – SR, F – VMI
-Cam Lowe – JR, G – Wofford
-Chace Watley – SO, G – Wofford
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COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
-The best rivalry in college basketball is The Citadel vs. VMI. It is not Duke vs. North Carolina, or Kansas vs. Missouri, or BYU vs. Utah, or Louisville vs. Kentucky. Those are all great in their own way, and while I recognize that all those games are hugely defining moments in those teams’ seasons, I don’t think it is THE defining moment in any of them. Deep NCAA Tournament runs or conference championships are more defining. The Citadel vs. VMI feels like it is more important than the entire rest of the season combined. It is on a smaller scale, but holy cow is it fun!
-Furman had a subpar season last year by their standards, but they were playing really well down the stretch and went on to win the SoCon Tournament. The problem is that all five starters from that team have moved on and Coach Bob Richey has been tasked with rebuilding the roster. Marcus Kell was a standout player for Western Carolina, so he is no stranger to SoCon play. Jaxson Bell also comes in from Army. Those two are joined by a smattering of players who have experience at higher-level programs and want to take on a bigger role, so Furman has some pieces this year.
-East Tennessee State was last year’s first-place team, but they fell to Furman in the SoCon Championship game. Like Furman, they are having to rebuild most of their roster. Jordan McCullum is the only returning starter, but he will be joined by BJ Ward from SEMO and Trevor Hennig from Weber State, both of whom averaged double-figures a year ago.
-Wofford was up and down last year, and in the stretch run of the season they were mostly down losing five of their last seven. It was not a bad year overall for first-year coach Kevin Giltner, but it is still not as good as what Wofford would like to be. Two starters are back and they have added several players who put up big numbers in lower divisions who can hopefully contribute at the D-1 level. Wofford had several off-court distractions heading into last season, so hopefully they will not have those same distractions this year.
-Coach Lennie Acuff is in his second year at Samford and posted a modest 18-14 overall record last year. Two starters are back and they appear to have a decent amount of players who came off the bench. Najimi George also transfers in from New Haven, who was a transitional D-1 program last year: he averaged-double figures so he should be able to contribute as well. Samford is my dark horse. People are going to think I am crazy, but they are actually my pick to win this league. They were fantastic in the second half of conference play and went 8-1 in their final nine games. They did lose some key players, but they have enough back, and they appear to add enough, and their coaches are now more experienced. I am on board with the Bulldogs!!
-Chattanooga struggled last year. They won just 13 total games after winning 29 the year before. Those struggles may continue into this year. Only one starter is back and while Tyler Houser transfers in after having a good year at Delaware, they just seem to be low on proven D-1 players. They do have some guys who put up impressive numbers at non-D-1 schools last year, so maybe some of them can step up.
-This will be Tennessee Tech’s inaugural season in the SoCon. They were chronic underachievers in the OVC, so it is hard for me to be all that optimistic about their chances in a conference that is stronger overall. Tobin Anderson takes over as head coach, and perhaps that is one of the changes they needed. They have not had a winning season since 2017-2018, so something needed to change. They do have some fairly solid players coming in. Trent Mosquera from Le Moyne and Cbo Newton from Abilene Christian both averaged double-figures a season ago. De’Ante Green was a solid role player at South Florida and could step into a bigger role this year. Part of this is that I would begin each year optimistic about Tennessee Tech and they would always underperform. Maybe they can start to turn it around, but I for one will not make any positive predictions until they actually start showing signs of improvement.
-Not a lot of love for Mercer this preseason. They had a fairly respectable year going 11-7 in SoCon play, which was good enough for 2nd place, and they have two pretty solid starters returning in Brady Shoulders and Quinton Perkins II. Keelan Steele transfers in, who was a fairly solid player for Maine. They may not have much in the way of depth, but 7th place seems kind of low.
-Western Carolina has landed two fairly solid transfers in Isaiah Manning from Sam Houston and Malachi Brown from Georgia State and both of those guys should be contributors, but outside of those two the roster does appear to be a little thin. The voters seem to think they will be closer to the bottom than to the top, and I cannot say that I disagree with that.
-Even by VMI standards, VMI was awful last year. They won just one SoCon game and six games total. One thing they can do is score. TJ Johnson averaged double-figures last year and they have added some guys who put up big numbers in JUCO. They may not be quite as bad, but they still will not be good.
-If you follow our Under the Radar podcast, you will remember how The Citadel did something last year that had us all jumping up and down with excitement! Between January 10th and January 31st, The Citadel played seven games…AND WON FIVE OF THEM!!! It was a level of success that I can never recall the Citadel ever having!! Unfortunately, outside of that stretch, they were just 3-20 in D-1 games for the remainder of the season. But, for that stretch of time, we did legitimately get behind this team! Unfortunately…this year is looking rough. Again. No starters are back, and it is very difficult for a school like The Citadel to attract D-1-level players, and the guys they have just do not look like they can compete with the rest of the conference. We actually do like it when this team has any amount of success, and last year’s 7-11 SoCon record was quite impressive. But…this year I could see them finishing back at the bottom.
-UNC Greensboro is picked to finish dead last. Jerod Haase takes over as coach, who had a meh run at Stanford and a decent run at UAB before that. I was surprised when I saw they were picked last, but in looking at their roster, they really do not have much. What they appear to have is guys who played limited roles at other Under the Radar schools. I do not think UNCG will be this bad very often, but they may actually be worse than VMI and The Citadel this year, and it is very rare that we see a team finish behind both of those schools.
