SoCon Hoops 2025-26: Mocs Picked to Win League; Reigning Tourney Champs Selected Ninth by League's Head Coaches

 

Chattanooga picked to win the SoCon by league’s coaches

GREENVILLE, S.C.—SoCon defending regular-season and National Invitational Tournament (NIT) champion Chattanooga (29-9, 15-3) was selected to repeat as the SoCon champion, according to the league’s head coaches.

The Mocs, who won the regular-season title, but lost 80-77 in the tournament semifinals to Furman, went on to qualify and win the NIT and would become the first SoCon team in league history to win an NCAA sanctioned tournament.

Chattanooga comes off a season in which it won a school-record 29 games under the direction of head coach Dan Earl, who was in his third season leading the Mocs program. The Mocs had three players picked as a part of the preseason All-SoCon team, with Trevecca Nazarene graduate transfer Jikari Johnson, SEMO graduate transfer Terry Washington Jr., and returning sophomore center Collin Mullholland all returning to the fold, as the Mocs look to defend their regular-season title, as well as claim the program’s second title in a four-year span.

Chattanooga will open its 2025-26 season on Nov. 3, taking on NAIA Union Commonwealth. Some key matchups to circle your calendar for when it comes to Mocs basketball comes on Nov. 8, when the Mocs face off against Mountain West member UNLV, while taking on Auburn, who will be under the direction of first-year head coach Stephen Pearl on Dec. 13. The Mocs will look to replace their top five scorers from a year ago, and four of five starters from a year ago.

The Mocs totaled 77 total points and five first-place votes to edge out Furman (25-10, 11-7/5^th in SoCon in 2024-25) for the top spot in the preseason poll. Bob Richey heads into his ninth season at the helm in Greenville at the helm, as well as his 15^th season as a part of the Paladin program, which has seen Furman him be a part of 306 total wins as both an assistant and head coach, while having claimed 181 of those wins as a head coach since taking over the head coaching responsibilities in 2017-18.

Furman matched Chattanooga’s five first-place votes, and the Paladins finished with 73 overall points. In contrast to last season, Richey’s club won’t have to worry about 70.8% of their scoring, however, the Paladins will have to find a way to replace leading scorers and sharp-shooters PJay Smith Jr. (17.6 PPG, 4.1 RPG) and Nick Anderson (14.6 PPG, 2.2 RPG), who have both moved on due to graduation.

The sharp-shooting guard duo connected on 207 of the team's league-leading 380 triples last season, or just over half the team's three-point field goals, connecting on a combined 54.4% of Furman's made three-pointers.

The Paladins finished the season ranking sixth in the country in threes made-per-game (10.9) and finished the 2025 SoCon Tournament by making 42 triples in three games, which was just one off Chattanooga's tournament record of 43 made threes in the 2023 edition, which it did over the course of four games.

Furman, however, returns eight letterwinners and two starters, which is second to only VMI in terms of returnees coming back from last season. Both forward Cooper Bowser and guard Tom House, who were a big part of Furman’s late-season run during the stretch of the regular-season, as well as in the tournament, both return and have been named to the preseason All-SoCon team.

The Paladins will re-open the newly renovated Timmons Arena on Oct. 26, as the facility underwent a 40-million dollar upgrade last season when Furman hosts a charity exhibition against SEC power Alabama. It will mark the only non-conference power conference opponent the Paladins will face during the 2025-26 regular season, however, there are some good games during the non-conference slate, nonetheless. 

The Paladins will take part in the Terry’s Chocolate Challenge in late November, taking Richmond on Thanksgiving Day, and either Illinois State or Charlotte a couple of days later. The Paladins open the season on Nov. 3 against Big South and mid-major powerhouse High Point, as a part of the Field of 68’s tip-off marathon at the Rock Hill Events Center.

Samford (23-11, 12-6/4^TH in SoCon in 2024-25) enters the season with a new head coach for the first time in five years, as the Bulldogs were one of two programs to make a coaching change in the league.

After winning 99 games and taking the Bulldogs to the 2024 NCAA Tournament and ’25 NIT, Bucky McMillan took his ‘ball’ to College Station, where he takes over as the newest head coach at Texas A&M, elevating the coaching job to a whole new level.

When McMillan took over as head coach of the Bulldogs’ program prior to the 2020-21 season, Samford was predicted to finish eighth in the 10-team league. Five years later, Samford was picked to finish third. Part of that elevated position in the preseason league poll is what McMillan did to improve Samford basketball, while the other part of it is who Director of Athletics Martin Newton hired as McMillan’s replacement, in Lennie Acuff.

Acuff has been a proven winner at every level, and with over 400 wins at the NCAA Division II as head coach at Alabama-Huntsville, and level and fresh off leading Lipscomb to the 2025 NCAA Tournament, he now returns to his home state of Alabama, where it will give him a chance to close out his stellar coaching career coaching among friends and family, as he enters the twilight stage of his coaching career. Acuff has a total of 711 career wins.

Bulldogs Director of Athletics Martin Newton already had his targets in line to replace McMillan, and for many, it almost seemed like a no-brainer to bring Lennie Acuff back to his home state to enjoy the twilight of his career and ride off into the sunset, while doing so in front of friends and family.

It's a case of been there and done that for Acuff, as he's coached and won at pretty much every level of basketball, and so by Samford hiring the 60-year-old Acuff away from Lipscomb off an NCAA Tournament bid, it was the kind of image change that was both needed and unexpected. It allowed Acuff to one day at some point in the next decade or so, to retire on his own terms, and being able to do so in his home state in front of friends and family was a huge luxury and an opportunity too good to pass up.

With Acuff's son Will Acuff joining the staff NCAA Division II Montevallo, it now will give the elder Acuff to perhaps ensure his son can step right into some position, and even perhaps at Samford, when he calls it a career.

After all, that's exactly what Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl did recently by stepping down on the first day of official college hoops practice, retiring suddenly and ensuring his son--Steven Earl--would be given a shot to coach the Tigers in 2025-26. For now, Will Acuff will learn the ropes under his father as an assistant and Director of Player Development under his father.

Acuff is lauded in coaching circles, and Furman head coach Bob Richey said no one coach had meant as much to his career success, as Acuff had, and that Richey considers Acuff as the coach he learned as much as any about being a head coach and his offensive philosophy.

The Bulldogs received 62 total points, while also having two players selected to the league’s preseason all-conference team, in Florida Southern transfer guard Jadin Booth and junior Lipscomb transfer forward Dylan Faulkner.

The 6-10 Faulkner continues to develop as a player, and he comes off an injury-shortened campaign, which saw him average 10.5 PPG and 5.3 RPG, while shooting an outstanding 60.8% from the field, starting 13 of the 15 games he logged action in a year ago for the Bulldogs.

Booth is a 6-2 guard that comes to Samford's program out of Florida Southern and will have one year of eligibility remaining. During his time for Florida Southern, Booth was a prolific scorer for the Mocs and ended the 2024-25 season averaging 21.5 PPG, 5.3 APG and 4.7 RPG. He was a highly sought after point guard from the transfer portal, with teams like Minnesota, Creighton, Ole Miss, USF and conference rival Mercer all seeking the services of Booth.

He will be an immediate impact player for Samford and is one of the top incoming players from the transfer portal from the Southern Conference. As a junior in 2022-23, Booth put up similar numbers, as he garnered some NCAA Division II All-America honors after averaging 22 PPG, 4.1 APG and 4.4 RPG.

He will be in line to replace Rylan Jones, who was outstanding leading the Bulldogs at the point guard each of the past two seasons. Booth looks to join former Furman standout Nick Anderson (Barry University) as the latest guard to come to the SoCon from the Sunshine State Conference to the SoCon and blow up the league as an all-conference talent.

Samford will open the 2025-26 season on Nov. 3 at Tulane and have intriguing non-conference battles at Arkansas (Nov. 14) and at VCU (Dec. 5).

Rocco Miller (pictured right) of The Bracketeer interviews ETSU head coach Brooks Savage (pictured left) at 2025-26 SoCon Media Tip-off

Catch all of Rocco's Bracketology and other college basketball content at the link below.

Rocco Miller, The Bracketeer

Sitting just one point behind Samford in the preseason coaches poll is East Tennessee State (19-13, 12-6/3^rd in SoCon in 2025-26), which heads into its third season under head coach Brooks Savage with a pair of 19-win seasons and looking for a return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017, and its first 20-win season since that historic 30-win campaign back in 2019-20 before the NCAA Tournament was canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Bucs collected 61 points and had one player, in North Florida transfer and sharp-shooting guard Jaylen Smith, who transferred in from North Florida, named to the preseason all-conference team.

The Ocoee, FL., native finished out his sophomore season with the Ospreys in strong fashion, averaging 11.4 PPG, 5.7 APG, and 1.3 SPG, as he was able to be a factor on both ends for the Ospreys last season.

Smith finished out his sophomore campaign leading the Atlantic Sun in total assists (181), ranking as the sixth-most in a single-season in program history, while he totaled 259 total assists in just two seasons with the Ospreys rank sixth in program history overall. 

During his final season with the Ospreys, Smith connected on 34.9% (62-of-179) from three-point land. North Florida's 409 made three-point field goals this past season led the nation, which was just ahead of Cal Poly's 403 made triples. Smith's solid shooting touch from long-range will also be beneficial to the Bucs, who showed awesome improvement as a team from the perimeter last season, as opposed to Savage's rookie season as head coach in the 2023-24 season.

Smith was an A-Sun All-Freshman selection two years ago, averaging 6.5 PPG , 2.4 APG and 1.4 APG, starting 16 games for the Ospreys during the 2023-24 campaign. All told, in two seasons as the primary starter for UNF at point guard, Smith averaged 8.9 PPG, 1.8 RPG and 4.0 APG, including a 1.98 assist-to-turnover ratio and 102 made threes, which included a 32% career clip from long-range.

All told, the Bucs must replace nine of their top 12 producers from a year ago, with guards Maki Johnson, Allen Strothers and Gabe Sisk, who form a core group that veteran leadership and program equity that has been loyal to Savage.

The 2024-25 SoCon Player of the Year Quimari Peterson opted to make the move to the power conference level and Washington Huskies to play his final season of college basketball, while the Bucs’ other first-team all-league pick, Jaden Seymour, is out of eligibility. The 2024-25 SoCon Defensive Player of the Year Karon Boyd moved on to Wichita State to finish out his career following the 2024-25 season.

On Oct. 29, ETSU will welcome back former head coach and Savage’s mentor Steve Forbes back to Johnson City for a charity exhibition, as the Bucs will face off against ACC foe Wake Forest. The game will give Bucs fans both a chance to celebrate Forbes’ accomplishments over five seasons, which saw the Bucs win 130 games and win a pair of SoCon titles from 2015-2020. It will also be a nice test for his team, which once again has high expectations and an unwavering standard of success heading into a new hoops season.

UNC Greensboro (20-12, 13-5/2^nd in SoCon) has the second-most wins (218) and most SoCon wins (128) over the past decade, and head coach Mike Jones now heads into his fifth season having won 78 of those games, including winning 20 or more in each of the past three seasons, however, the one thing that has eluded Jones and the Spartans is success in the postseason tournament, as UNCG fell to 0-4 in the SoCon Tournament last March with a 64-57 loss to VMI.

The Spartans, which collected 43 points and were selected 5^th in the preseason poll, must replace its top 10 scorers from a year ago due to graduation and the transfer portal, and Jones and staff will face their biggest challenge yet in five seasons at the helm in the Gate City.

VMI (15-19, 8-10 SoCon/7^th in SoCon), which ended UNCG’s season abruptly in Asheville, was the SoCon’s Cinderella team last March, and were sitting in that dangerous No. 7 spot. The Keydets were selected sixth with 41 points heading into the season.

Head coach Andrew Wilson has finally settled into his position as head coach, and the confidence and comfort level were both notably different during this season’s media day, and no team returns more in the league than the Keydets, which welcomes the return of nine of their top 10 players from a year ago.

Included in that top 10 returning players from a year ago is the league’s preseason Player of the Year, in Rickey Bradley Jr., who became the first Keydets player selected as a preseason player of the year since Sam Okoye was chosen as the 2012-13 preseason Big South Player of the Year. Bradley is also the first player to be named SoCon Player of the Year (preseason or postseason) since VMI returned to the league as an official member in the 2014-15 season, as well as the first since Jason Conley garnered co-SoCon Postseason Player of the Year honors in 2000-01 after posting a nation-leading 29.3 PPG scoring average as a freshman.

Bradley Jr., who returned to VMI after spending his sophomore season at Georgia State, had a big return to the league in 2024-25 after ranking fifth in the league in scoring at 16.3 PPG a year ago, Bradley Jr. ranks as the top returning scorer in the league heading into the 2025-26 season.

With nine of its top 10 players back this season, the Keydets return to the second-highest production in the country, with only Purdue returning more.

Highlighting VMI’s 2025-26 schedule is an early trip to SEC country, facing off a Missouri (Nov. 9), and will take on Buffalo (Nov. 24) and Bowling Green (Nov. 25) as a part of the Sketchers Fort Myers Tip-off.

Picked to finish in the No. 7 spot was Western Carolina (8-22, 4-14/9^th in SoCon in 2024-25), who is under the leadership of second-year head coach Tim Craft, collected 32 points and it was a team that improved significantly throughout the 2024-25 season.

The Catamounts won just eight games, but if you saw the WCU play Milligan in its last non-conference game in comparison to their mid-February win over East Tennessee State, the improvement was notable.

A big part of that improvement was the offensive explosion that preseason All-SoCon selection Marcus Kell provided over the final month of the season.

All told, Kell's 352 points scored during the 2024-25 campaign ranked second to only that of senior forward Bernard Pelote, who finished out his final season in the purple and gold averaging 14.2 PPG and scored a total of 426 points. Kell’s 44 triples also ranked him fourth on the team in that category, while his 38% efficiency clip from long-range led the team.

Much like the 2024-25 season, when the Catamounts played Top 10 foes, in No. 1 Tennessee and No. 10 Marquette, Craft’s squad once again faces a tough non-conference slate. The Catamounts will play four high-major foes, starting off the season against a couple of those, with trips to Cincinnati (Nov. 3) and Duke (Nov. 8), while facing Virginia Tech (Dec. 11) and Georgia (Dec. 18) in their final two non-conference games.

The Catamounts will also face a trio of good mid-majors, with two of those on the road, facing games at Lipscomb (Nov. 22) and at High Point (Nov. 29), while also facing UNC Asheville (Nov. 19) at the Ramsey Center in the annual Blue Ridge Rivalry game.

Mercer’s second season under head coach Ryan Ridder will see the Bears selected a spot lower than the No. 7 position they were picked in Ridder’s inaugural season in Macon.

However, Ridder believes the talent he brought in during the portal signing period exceeds the first signing class he brought, which included the likes of guard Ahmad Robinson and Tyler “Chip” Johnson as a part of a talented backcourt. The Bears generated more than 70 possessions per game last season, which led the SoCon.

The Bears finished just two points behind Western Carolina in the preseason poll, with 30 points. The Bears sent the Catamounts home from Asheville after only one game, winning a thrilling opening round game, 67-66, contest last March.

Palmetto State programs Wofford (19-16, 10-8/6^TH in SoCon and reigning 2024-25 Tournament Champions) and The Citadel (5-25, 0-18/10^th in SoCon) rounded out the 2025-26 preseason coaches’ poll, with the Terriers finishing with 21 points, while the Bulldogs finished with 10.

Wofford, which has won the title six title six times in the past 15 years, including the latest of those coming last March with a 92-85 win over Furman in a dramatic title game, just fired and hired a coach within a three-week span, bringing in former player and assistant coach Kevin Giltner to replace Dwight Perry in a stunning early-mid September college basketball hot mess.

The Terriers are the first team to likely ever win the league only to be picked second-to-last in the league the following season.  Wofford became the first No. 6 seed in league history to cut down the nets last March.

A member of the Wofford basketball program from 2008-12, he helped the Terriers to two back-to-back titles as a player and another three as an assistant coach on Mike Young's staff. Giltner has spent the past six years serving as Young’s right-hand man at Virginia Tech, which included helping Young and the Hokies to the 2022 ACC Tournament title.

Giltner's philosophy will be much like his mentor and former coach, Mike Young was, which is placing a premium on defense and perimeter shooting and a slower, half-court style on the offensive end. As a player for the Terriers, he was a "glue guy" on the 2010 and '11 championship teams, and his ability as an on-ball defender and elite perimeter threat were two things that no doubt influences the way he coaches to this day. 

Wofford will open 2025-26 and the Kevin Giltner era on Nov. 3 against George Mason and will also face off in a high-major matchup with Auburn (Nov. 11), as well as facing off against Wichita State (Dec. 17) just eight days before Christmas.

No team had it worse than Ed Conroy’s Bulldogs last season, as The Citadel will look to put an end to a 22-game losing streak, which it ended the season on. It marks the longest losing streak in school history.

If you're looking for a place the long losing streak might end, this date might be one to highlight, as the Wolves finished just 6-25 a year ago and finished ranked 350 out of 366 NCAA Division I teams, which was just five spots ahead of the Bulldogs in the KenPom final released rankings for the 2024-25 season.  

The Wolves are still making the transition from the NCAA Division II level to the NCAA Division I level. The Bulldogs finish out the SoCon-A-SUN challenge on Nov. 24, hosting Bellarmine, which offers another excellent chance for a win, as the Knights matched The Citadel's win total with just five wins a year ago.

Stay tuned for a full preview, including quotes from players and coaches, as well as some interesting storylines entering the season. I am aiming to have the preview completed by the middle of October so be sure to check back on my blog or on mid-major madness.

2025-26 Southern Conference Preseason Coaches Poll
Team (1st-place votes)  Total
1. Chattanooga (5)             77
2. Furman (5)                     73
3. Samford                         62
4. ETSU                              61
5. UNCG                             43
6. VMI                                 41
7. Western Carolina              32
8. Mercer                           30
9. Wofford                         21
10. The Citadel                  10
 
2025-26 Preseason Southern Conference Player of the Year
Rickey Bradley Jr, Sr., G, VMI
 
2025-26 Preseason All-Southern Conference team
Jaylen Smith, Jr., G, ETSU
Cooper Bowser, Jr., F, Furman
Tom House, Sr., G, Furman
Jadin Booth, Gr., G, Samford
Dylan Faulkner, Jr., C, Samford
Jikari Johnson, Gr., G, Chattanooga
Collin Mulholland, R-So., F, Chattanooga
Teddy Washington Jr., Gr., G, Chattanooga
Rickey Bradley Jr, Sr., G, VMI
Marcus Kell, R-Jr., F, Western Carolina

 

 

 

Wofford's Basketball Turmoil Surfaces Again With Dwight Perry's Firing

Wofford head coach Dwight Perry (Photo courtesy of NCAA.com)

If you have followed Wofford Basketball over the past six years, then you know things haven't been normal when it comes to basketball culture. 

It just got a little stranger on last Friday when news broke that Dwight Perry and top assistant Tysor Anderson had been relieved of their duties less than two months before the start of the 2025-26 season.

Wofford has named former player and current assistant Drew Gibson (Wofford '08) as the interim head coach effective immediately. Gibson played point guard for the Terriers and was a standout performer as a part of some of those foundational teams, which former legendary head coach Mike Young helped build the program into a SoCon and a regional mid-major power. 

No reason for the firing was originally provided by the school, however, wide the news dam of news would ultimately break less than a week later, as  sources close to the program spoke about the circumstances surrounding Perry's untimely dismissal. All echoing some version of the same story--that it had to do with misuse of NIL funds for off-campus housing for players, as well as having an on-campus meal plan, while living on-campus. 

It was also alleged to have been brought to the attention to the administration by another athletic program's head coach, which put the Wofford compliance and athletic brass into crisis management mode.

After an alleged Board of Trustees Meeting, it was determined by both for Perry and top assistant Tysor Anderson be terminated. They had been on one week suspension from the program for an investigation into the situation

The news of Perry and Anderson's firings, however, would turn out to be just the tip of the iceberg, as more news would emerge six days later, when it was reported that six players had been ruled ineligible by Wofford for the 2025-26 season due to misuse of student-athlete benefits as well as the on-campus only meal plan and on-campus/off-campus housing and how rent was paid and allocated. 

The players moved off campus according to the reports, which was paid for with NIL money, however, they kept an on-campus meal plan, which was against Wofford's bylaws. No NCAA infractions were incurred due to any misuse of NIL money and if there was any misuse of the revenue share, it was an athletic department law and not an NCAA bylaw. 

No NCAA eligibility issues are at stake, as the central issue is a Wofford bylaw about student-athletes being required to live on campus to partake in the meal plan. Below is the originally reported story by Jeff Goodman of On3 and Field of 68.

Wofford Players Suspended by NCAA for Benefits as Low as $84 - On3

According to a tweet released by NCAA__PR later in the day, however, in contrast to the story on On3Sports, the players were not suspended by the NCAA. The pot is getting more bizarre.

It's one of the more unusual things you will ever see, however, Wofford is in jeopardy of not having a team in 2025-26. The SoCon's defending tournament champion and NCAA Tournament participant! The financial loss of not having a team, and perhaps even more the image of a program, could do irreparable damage for the future with the way things are trending currently in the two major sports in intercollegiate athletics.  

The Terriers are the reigning Southern Conference Tournament champions, having qualified for the NCAA Tournament by virtue of becoming the first No. 6 seed to ever claim the Southern Conference title, when Wofford knocked off Furman, 92-85, in the Southern Conference Tournament Championship game last March to cut down the nets for a sixth time in program history and for the sixth time in the past 15 years. 

Prior to knocking off Furman to win the title game, Wofford also posted an upset win over No. 3 East Tennessee State (W, 72-60) in the SoCon Quarterfinals before knocking off an upstart and No. 7 seeded VMI (W, 81-62) team that had become the Cinderella team of the 2025 SoCon Tournament in Asheville.

In the NCAA Tournament, the Terriers were competitive but overmatched against the No. 2 Volunteers, as Tennessee went on to a 77-62 opening round win in the NCAA Tournament in Lexington, KY. The game against the Vols provided a unique type of homecoming for Perry, as he returned to Rupp Arena as a coach.  

Wofford and Perry in 2024-25

Perry has had to deal with some key departures ever since his first season as head coach, with much of that having to do with the fallout from the Jay McCauley era as the head coach, in which must have seemed more like a dictatorship rather than a coaching tenure under McCauley. Among the main issues was practice time, or too much practice time put in a different way.

Because of such a tumultuous situation, Perry lost two top performers, in forward All-SoCon forward BJ Mack and guard and SoCon Freshman of the Year Jackson Paveletzke heading into the 2023-24 season, and despite the tough situation, Perry was able to lead Wofford to a sixth-place finish.

For the first time in his short time as the head coach at Wofford, Perry was able to retain nearly all of his talent that he had from a previous season, and though the regular-season might have only shown a near-identical finish to last year’s finish, the patience paid off for guys like guards Corey Tripp (14.3 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 3.2 APG), Jackson Sivills (9.3 PPG, 3.8 RPG), guard Dillon Bailey (11.3 PPG, 2.5 RPG), forward Jeremy Lorenz (7.9 PPG, 3.8 RPG) and center Kyler Filewich (11.9 PPG, 9.4 RPG), who have stayed loyal to Perry and the Terrier program, despite opportunities to leave and go explore other options.

In an era when it would have been easy to just hop into the transfer portal to make a change, Wofford would return all but eight points from a year ago heading into the 2024-25 season. The eight returnees marked the most to return for Wofford from one season to the next since the 2021-22 campaign. The Terriers

As big as it was to retain nearly all that talent from last season, Wofford and Perry even had some adversity to deal with entering the 2024-25 season, with Wofford’s top sixth man—guard Chase Cormier (7.1 PPG, 1.8 RPG in 2023-24)—deciding to step away from the program and redshirt just prior to the season to enter the transfer portal, as well as a season-ending injury to Egyptian big man Belal El-Shakery (3.3 PPG, 4.1 RPG), who was lost just eight games into the season and was a player set to be one of the most improved big men in the league this season and was set to make a jump similar to that of Samford’s Achor Achor had he not has season end prematurely due to an injury.

So even though Wofford has turned its retention into ultimate success in Asheville, it’s been a team affected depth-wise in both the backcourt and frontcourt this season without those two key pieces, which could have really helped Wofford reach an even higher level this season should one or both been with the team this season.

The trio of Filewich, Tripp and Sivills have been with Perry every step of the way during his short time as the Wofford head coach, while he added Dillon Bailey prior to the start of last season after he transferred in from Division II Northeastern State in Arkansas. Bailey was added prior to the start of the 2023-24 season, while the Terriers and staff added one significant player from the transfer portal prior to this season, with Justin Bailey (9.6 PPG, 3.5 RPG) making the short transition from nearby USC Upstate to Wofford prior to this season. Justin Bailey, along with freshmen guard additions Kahmare Holmes (4.1 PPG, 2.0 RPG) and Luke Flynn (4.2 PPG, 2.9 RPG), have proven to be key cogs in the wheel for Wofford and a big reason they were able to break through and win the 2025 SoCon Tournament title.

By and large, though, it’s been loyalty and patience that offered their notable payoff over the course of three days in March, as Wofford was able to knock No. 3 off East Tennessee State (W, 72-60), No. 7 VMI (85-65), and No. 5 Furman (W, 92-85) en route to helping Wofford get back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six years. The Terriers became just the first No. 6 seed in the 105-year history of the SoCon Tournament to make the tournament title game as well as win it.

Wofford took on an extremely tough non-conference slate, which featured trips to NCAA Tournament teams Duke and Lipscomb, as well as games at CAA members Elon and College of Charleston and Atlantic 10 member Saint Louis, as well as a tricky home game against vastly improved North Alabama. Elon (CBI), Saint Louis (NIT), and North Alabama (NIT) will also be a part of the March festivities, with that trio set to take part in March Madness as a part of either the NIT or the CBI.

It could be argued that there was a significant shift to Wofford’s season after it went on the road and captured a 68-63 win at Saint Louis, and though Wofford seemed to get lost in the mix in the regular-season in what was a tough Southern Conference, they were never an opponent that could be counted out in Asheville, proving what many prognosticators of the league had said prior to the 2025 tournament, and that is any of six teams could win the title. Wofford entered the 105^th SoCon Tournament as the No. 6 seed. The Terriers ended a streak of eight-straight SoCon regular-season champions to cut down the nets at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center.

Wofford Basketball 2019-2025/Tracing the Roots of Declining Culture

Former Wofford head coach Jay McAuley (2019-22)

Knowing exactly where things went off the rails for Wofford is hard to put a finger on. Some might point back even to that magical run in 2018-19, which saw Wofford win 30 games and make an unprecedented run through a SoCon that, during that particular season, had as strong of a top four as it had ever had in the modern history of the league.

Even the likes of guys like Fletcher Magee, Cameron Jackson, and Nathan Hoover couldn't keep some of the news that there might be a few chinks in the armor upon the program that Mike Young had built within the SoCon, which was teflon tough and built to last.

However, the leadership at Wofford is a different story entirely. For starters, it was Young, which at the time as widely regarded as one of the top mid-major programs in the country, as well as being having one of the top mid-major coaches in the country, in Mike Young. His salary of a little over 150K per year certainly didn't match the prestige. 

Something obviously seemed off about that alleged pay for Young, and that he was among the lowest paid coaches in the SoCon. After winning 30 games and taking the Terriers to their first-ever national ranking and NCAA Tournament, he was hired away by Virginia Tech where he makes a cool $3,000,000 per year. A far cry from the 150K was making at Wofford.

The man given the keys to the program after Young's departure would be Jay McAuley and he would end up leading the program for a little over three years before being fired on New Year's Eve of the 2022-23 season.  

In McAuley's first season as the head coach, which was the 2019-20 season, things would go a little like this past season, although the Terriers wouldn't find themselves in the NCAA Tournament like the 2024-25 Terriers did. 

Wofford ended up being disappointing in the regular-season with a 17-15 record, which included an 8-10 mark in Southern Conference play, which saw the Terriers lose their final seven games entering the Southern Conference Tournament. That pushed Wofford into seventh place in the league standings, which meant it would be forced to take on The Citadel in the play-in round of the tournament before facing off against arch-rival and No. 2 Furman in the quarterfinals. 

The one advantage the game against The Citadel offered Wofford was the chance to have played a game, and the ability to rest some of their stars like Chevez Goodwin and Storm Murphy after building what was a healthy lead. The Terriers brushed aside The Citadel 93-76 for the opening round win.

In the following round against Furman, there was tension. This was not only a rivalry, but one that both Wofford head coach and top assistant--McAuley and Perry--had previously been assistants at Furman. 

Meanwhile, Furman had hired former Terrier legend Tim Johnson, who was part of that well-built foundation established by Young and then spent several seasons on the sidelines as Young's assistant before moving on to James Madison for a season before being Perry's replacement at Furman. 

McAuley and Perry won the night, as the Terriers dominated the paint and the glass en route to ending a good Furman team's season, knocking off the Paladins 77-68. After squeezing by Chattanooga, with a, 72-70, semifinal win, the Terriers finally met their match in the title game against another generational team, in Steve Forbes' East Tennessee State team, who won its 30th game of the season with a 72-58 title triumph. 

McAuley's season, for all he had to replace and the legend he followed was considered a success. Although Wofford did not win the title, getting back to the championship game where they ran into a Bucs team that was just better could have been considered a success. Wofford finished 19-16, which equaled the record of the team from 2024-25. 

Like almost every program in the league, the COVID-19 pandemic set Wofford back and with that, there were some players that decided to move on. Chevez Goodwin was the biggest loss, as he moved on to Southern Cal following McAuley's first season. No one really thought much of it at the time, however. That would be the one major loss for the Terriers moving into the 2020-21 season, with the only other one being Trevor Stumpe, who graduated.

High expectations were the order of the day coming into the 2020-21 season, with guys like Messiah Jones, Isaiah Bigelow, Storm Murphy and Ryan Larson back, and newcomers like BJ Mack, Max Klesmit and Sam Godwin expected to make an immediate impact. 

The season would be shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic, and games were never a certainty. Still on percentage points, the McAuley-led Terriers would finish second in the standings with a 15-8 overall mark and a 12-5 league mark heading into the SoCon Tournament in Asheville. 

The Terriers, however, would be snakebitten by being the No. 2 seed much like Furman had been the previous year. Mercer had a similar situation as Wofford had the previous season as the No. 7 seed, and the Bears would breeze past a struggling Samford team by 30 in their opening tournament game, and came into the tournament quarterfinal matchup with Wofford the crisper of the two teams.

In what was a defensive battle, the Terriers would find themselves trailing by as much as 19 points in the opening half, including facing a 17-point climb to overcome at the half, however, the Terriers would battle all the way back to take a 61-59 lead with 1:08 remaining on a pair of BJ Mack foul shots. 

However, the next trip down would see Mercer's Neftali Alvarez convert a layup and foul shot to give the Bears the lead back, 62-61, and despite a couple of looks at the end for Tray Hollowell and Morgan Safford, the Bears held on for the one-point win, ending Wofford's season.

If the 2019-20 season had been a success, the 2020-21 season would have to have been considered a big disappointment. Despite the second-place finish, the opening-round loss was not up to Wofford's standard. 

The major loss to the transfer portal was Storm Murphy, who transferred to Virginia Tech and ended up being a key cog in Mike Young's ACC Tournament title winning team in the 2021-22 campaign. 

The 2021-22 season would see Wofford finish off a 19-13 season, which included a 10-8 mark in Southern Conference play, however, fell at the penultimate stage of the Southern Conference Tournament, with a 76-69 loss overall top seed and eventual champion Chattanooga. The Terriers would ultimately qualify for the postseason, making "The Basketball Classic" but the tournament plans were so wild that the Terriers ended up withdrawing from the "pay-your-own-way" tournament.

That should a bad omen or negative harbinger of things to come in the off-season, and it would ultimately end up being the beginning of the end for McAuley. 

During the off-season, eight players would announce their desire to enter the transfer portal and vacate the program, with Max Klesmit (Wisconsin), Ryan Larson (College of Charleston), Isaiah Bigelow (Richmond), Morgan Safford (Miami OH), Sam Godwin (Oklahoma), Luke Turner (UC Riverside) and Austin Patterson (Sacramento State) all moving on. 

True, the transfer portal era was just beginning to be a craze across college basketball, however, losing eight players like Wofford did during the off-season, including three in a matter of hours on the first day the portal opened signaled something bigger was going on rather than players looking to move for playing time or NIL etc. 

Remember NIL was first put into place prior to the 2022-23 campaign. It actually had been true since the start of the 2021-22 season, as it was legalized to pay players on July 1, 2021. However, these eight Wofford players on the move were clearly not all in search of NIL. 

Sticking around for the 2022-23 season would be a good core group, which featured BJ Mack, who would be entering his third season in the program since transferring in from South Florida. Others like Southern Illinois transfer Kyler Filewich, Virginia transfer guard Carson McCorkle, and Murray State transfer Jackson Sivills were brought in from the portal. Both Filewich and Sivills would end up forming the core of the most-recent Wofford championship run. 

The Terriers also had a good, but young group in the backcourt, featuring another key cog of the most-recent tournament title team, in sophomore Corey Tripp, as well as a player, in Jackson Paveletzke, who would end up winning SoCon Freshman of the Year honors. Messiah Jones was potentially Wofford's best player but was coming back from a season-ending injury from a year earlier and ended up being more or less still being affected by that injury from the previous season. 

Wofford's 2022-23 season saw it play a pair of SEC members--LSU and Vanderbilt--extremely well with chances to win both games, dropping a 78-75 contest at LSU and a 65-62 setback to Vanderbilt in Nashville. It's also alleged that after that Dec. 3 loss to Vanderbilt is where the problems started to surface. There were even rumors of practices having taken place after the late-night bus-trip home from Vanderbilt, although that cannot be confirmed. What can be confirmed is that there was something very wrong with Wofford basketball. 

Following that game, McAuley would be suspended as the head coach and the Vanderbilt game would end up being his final game as the head coach of the Wofford basketball program. 

Interim head coach Dwight Perry would be installed for Wofford's next game, which happened to be at home on Dec. 6, 2022, against Coastal Carolina. The Terriers, who got a combined 38 points from Paveletzke (20 pts) and BJ Mack (18 pts) held off the Sun Belt member, 71-61, at the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium. 

Following the big win over the Chanticleers at home, the Terriers would then get humbled with a 22-point loss on the road at Georgia Southern (L, 57-79) before breezing past non-Division I Montreat,  107-65 at the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium.

The biggest moment early in Perry's short tenure as the head coach of Wofford would come when Wofford went on the road and into SEC country, where Wofford would end up garnering a huge 67-62 win over NCAA Tournament bound Texas A&M. Of his 48 wins in charge of the program, the win over the Aggies for obvious reasons would be one of the biggest of his 48 wins in charge of the Wofford basketball program. 

Paveletzke would go on to make some clutch free throws down the stretch to clinch the win, as the emotional team and coach celebrated one of the bigger power conference regular season wins in recent memory. The star freshman guard Paveletzke would lead the Terriers with 22 points in 34 minutes of action, while BJ Mack added 10 points and four rebounds, as that duo was the only two Terriers to finish out the win over the Aggies in double figures.

The win had given Wofford heading into the Christmas Break, as the Terriers would improve to 8-5 overall on the season. 

The conference season would see the Terriers involved in a slew of close games, and it would start with the SoCon opener at home against East Tennessee State, while the Terriers would drop by the narrow margin of 73-71. The loss to the Bucs would be part of an 0-2 start to league play, as Wofford lost the back half of that home double-header to open SoCon play, with a 73-64 setback to the UNC Greensboro Spartans. 

Wofford would have to wait on its next outing against Mercer on the road at Hawkins Arena to come up with the first win of league play under the direction of Perry, and that win would come in rather dramatic fashion, as Jackson Paveletzke went on to connect on a baby jumper just inside the free throw stripe, as the Terriers would hold off the Bears, 53-52. 

The win over the Mercer would be the first of what would turn out to be eight SoCon wins, as the Terriers would go on to an 8-10 finish in league play to match the record that Jay McAuley had during his first season as the head coach of the Terriers back during the 2019-20 season, however, instead of finishing seventh in the SoCon standings like McAuley's first team would when he was in charge, the Terriers would squeeze into that No. 6 spot in the league standings, as they set themselves to head to Asheville for the 2023 Southern Conference Tournament. 

Wofford guard Jackson Paveletzke (photo courtesy of Wofford athletics)

As the No. 6 seed, the Terriers would open the tournament against a UNC Greensboro team that had defeated the Terriers twice during the regular season, winning by nine in Spartanburg and then the Spartans held on for a 97-89 overtime win over Wofford in the meeting at the Greensboro Coliseum in early February. 

In what was one of the most thrilling games of the 2023 Southern Conference Tournament, Wofford would knock off No. 3 seed UNC Greensboro, 67-66, on a BJ Mack layup at the buzzer on a beautifully-designed play by Perry off a timeout. 

It was coaching that had played a key role down the stretch in getting the upset win in the SoCon Tournament over the Spartans, as a timeout taken at mid-court gave a more favorable court position to set up Mack's game-winning layup, which banked in high off the glass before coming down through the hoop for the one-point Wofford win. 

The Terriers were led in scoring in the win by Mack’s 16 points, while Paveletzke and Messiah Jones added 14 points apiece. Wofford connected on 45.2% (28-of-62) from the field, which included a just a 19.0% (4 of-21) effort from three-point range. 

 In the semifinals, the Terriers squared off against defending champion Chattanooga, who Wofford beat twice during the regular-season. 

The game, however, would see Chattanooga seemingly the fresher and more energetic team throughout the game, and the Mocs would end up holding off Wofford to get the 74-62 win to move on to the championship game to meet Furman. 

While there would be some players that would exit for perceived broader horizons, one of the last hires that  Director of Athletics Richard Johnson would be responsible for making was Perry, as the interim tag was removed shortly after the season and Perry was installed as Wofford's full-time head coach for the foreseeable future.

Johnson announced his retirement on Sept. 13, 2023, which was a couple of months prior to the start of the basketball season. It is almost a strange coincidence that almost two years to the day after Johnson's immediate retirement as Director of Athletics that Perry would be relieved of his duties originally given to him by Johnson, as Perry would be fired on Sept. 12, 2025.  

 With the end of the season, came another exodus for Wofford players. BJ Mack headed to South Carolina, while Jackson Paveletzke opted to move on to Iowa State.

Messiah Jones, who like Mack had another year eligibility, moved on to become a Towson Tiger. Also gone from the 2022-23 roster are guard Adam Silas and forward Amarri Trice. Forward Kyler Filewich, guard Jackson Sivills, guard Carson McCorkle, guard Corey Tripp, and guard Anthony Arrington Jr. are returned for the 2023-24 season. 

Perry and staff also went out and signed some decent additions to help supplement the returning talent, bringing in Northeastern transfer Chase Cormier in the backcourt. At Northeastern, Cormier saw action in 24 games, making four starts and scored 104 points, averaging 3.6 PPG during his freshman campaign with the Huskies. 

Also, the Terriers added Dillion Bailey from Northeastern State in the backcourt. The NCAA Division II transfer would end up playing a major role in Wofford's sixth SoCon championship-winning team in the 2024-25 season. Rounding out the newcomers that Perry brought in as a part of his first recruiting class were 6-8 forward Belal El Shakery and 6-0 guard Quentin Meza. 

The pieces appeared to be in place for another solid season in 2023-24, despite losing both Mack and 2023 SoCon Freshman of the Year Jackson Paveletzke, and then losing guard Carson McCorkle unexpectedly late in the summer due to a personal decision. 

The 2023-24 season would see Wofford start to build a new identity of toughness under Perry and new assistant coach Tysor Anderson, who had been added to the staff during the off-season. 

Anderson had a great link to basketball greatness, as he was the grandson of former Davidson and Maryland coaching legend, in Charles "Lefty" Driesell.  Anderson had spent time working his way up the coaching ladder, with his most recent position prior to Wofford he held as an assistant at Jacksonville State. 

Wofford would show minimal improvement in Perry's first official season as the head coach of the Terriers, matching the win total of the 2022-23 team, with 17 victories, however, the Terriers would fare better in conference play, improving by two games in the win column, garnering a No. 6 seed once again in the tournament. The Terriers would bomb out in the Southern Conference Tournament, losing their opening game in the quarterfinals with a 72-58 loss to the Chattanooga Mocs.

The 2024-25 season saw the Terriers entered the campaign with the second-highest KenPom ranking coming into the season, coming into the campaign at 110. Wofford would end up finishing out the season at 114. 

Just prior to the season, it was announced there would be several minor level violations involving practice time that Wofford would be penalized from the short stint under Jay McAuley, however, there was no postseason ban or scholarship reductions. It certainly wasn't enough to derail any championship aspirations. 

It could be said that the Terriers underachieved during the 2024-25 regular-season, however, as you know in a league like the SoCon, which has somehow never garnered more than one bid to the NCAA Tournament, the regular-season doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, especially if you break through and win the tournament.

Towards the end of non-conference play, the Terriers went on the road and were able to get a 74-71 win over Atlantic 10 member Saint Louis, which would turn out to be one of the best wins of the season for Wofford and would end up giving the team the type of confidence they could lean on as the season moved forward.

In one way, it was apparent the Terriers had the most experience in the Southern Conference, and that was because the Terriers almost played better on the road during the 2024-25 season than it did at home. The Terriers went 8-8 on the road, while posting a 7-6 record in home games.

Wofford had played well early in SoCon play, getting road wins at both East Tennessee State (W, 81-78) and at arch-rival Furman (W, 81-62), as the Terriers handed the Paladins one of their worst home losses in recent memory. The Terriers also posted what was a 77-69 home win over Western Carolina at the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium.

While it was a strong start to league play by winning three of their first four league games, which included a three-game winning streak, it would be the last time the Terriers would string three-straight wins together until the Southern Conference Tournament in Asheville. 

With a 78-75 home loss on Senior Day to close out the regular-season to Furman, it meant the Terriers would head to the postseason as the No. 6 seed, and despite not being in great form entering the postseason tournament, the Terriers knew they had the talent and experience to win the tournament when they arrived in Asheville. Plus, it was arguably the most competitive league season in its tradition-rich history.

In the opening game, the Terriers took down No. 3 East Tennessee State, 72-60, before meeting up with No. 7 seed VMI in the SoCon semifinals. Like Wofford, VMI had been a bit of a surprise package in the 2025 tournament, as the Keydets took down No. 10 The Citadel (W, 73-62) and No. 2 UNC Greensboro (W, 64-57) to reach the semifinal clash against Wofford. 

The Terriers and Keydets had split the two regular-season meetings, but Wofford got the better of VMI in Asheville, posting their second-straight win over the Keydets, with an 85-65 win over VMI to reach the championship game for the first time since the 2020 Tournament.

Wofford, which was 5-1 in championship games, with all five title wins notched by former legendary head coach and current Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young. In the championship game, head coach Dwight Perry's men would face an old rival, in No. 5 seed Furman, which had reached the championship game by virtue of wins over No. 4 Samford (W, 95-78) and No. 1 Chattanooga (W, 80-77 OT).  

The Paladins, which had snapped a 43-year NCAA Tournament drought with an 88-79 win over Chattanooga a couple of years earlier, were playing in the championship for the third time in four years and entered with 25 wins for the season. 

The Terriers and Paladins would play an epic, with the basketball of the highest quality, but at the end of it, Wofford's experience would matter when it went up against a pretty veteran Furman team, although the Paladins lacked the experienced depth in some areas, and that's where Wofford would make it the advantage it entered the 2024-25 season when compared to the rest of the league count the most, out-scoring Furman 13-2 in the final 2:43 of the game to capture the program's sixth Southern Conference title with a 92-85 win over Furman, as the Terriers overturned a late four-point lead by the Paladins (83-79) to emphatically rip the title out of the grasp of the Paladins. 

It would mark the first time in SoCon Tournament history that the No. 5 and No. 6 seeds have met in the championship game, and it would mark the first time in the history of college basketball's oldest postseason conference tournament would have a No. 6 seed lift the championship trophy.

In the NCAA Tournament, Perry's Terriers would end up garnering a No. 15 seed and would have to face off against Tennessee in Lexington in the opening round, and though the Terriers were pesky, they would end up being overpowered by the bigger and more powerful Volunteers, who finished off the Terriers, 77-62. 

Jackson Sivills, Corey Tripp, Kyler Filewich, Anthony Arrington Jr., Dillion Bailey, Justin Bailey, and Jeremy Lorenz added the kind of experience and talent that would ultimately allow the Terriers to have the type off success in the championship game and especially down the stretch in that win. It was the ultimately collection of winning talent, which helped Wofford finish the season in its desired destination.

All the players mentioned above have now departed the Wofford program, however, and that's what made this off-season in particular especially important for head coach Dwight Perry and staff, as they look to go about replacing that talent lost to either graduation or the transfer portal.

 Both Jeremy Lorenz and Justin Bailey moved on after the season, as did forward Belal El-Shakery, who spent most of the season injured and opted to transfer out at season's end, even after the Terriers were able to achieve the ultimate goal of winning the tournament title. Anthony Arrington Jr. and Don Douglass were two others that decided to enter the portal.

Lorenz, a 6-9 forward, ended up transferring out to join Depaul's basketball program for the 2025-26 season, while Justin Bailey will be suiting up for the Georgia Bulldogs next season. 

All told, Wofford was already going to have to replace five of its six top scorers from last season's championship run. Now, with so much in flux, it remains even a question as to whether the Terriers will even be able to have a team.

Concluding Thoughts

To me, Wofford is a great example of what can happen when the communication levels aren't clearly established all the way down the chain of command. Do I think this is a bit harsh by the Wofford administration and the NCAA?  Absolutely! 

However, I do know that there was a breakdown somewhere. I think a suspension to the coaches would have sufficed more than a firing. Also, the players are the ones that end up being the ones left out in the cold and that is the most unfortunate aspect of the entire situation.

Since Mike Young left following the 2018-19 season, Wofford has posted a 106-98 overall record, including a 58-49 record in Southern Conference play and one SoCon Tournament title. In the six seasons prior under Mike Young, the Terriers posted a 130-72 overall record, including a 77-29 record in league play and three conference tournament titles.

The equation for Wofford is a rather simple one. Changing the culture may require doing more than just firing basketball coaches. It may require a complete overhaul of the athletic leadership, which is seemingly something that has happened far too often lately.

If I might make a suggestion to Wofford's current administration. I think bringing Mike Young back in the future is the right call if things should not go well at Virginia Tech. It just so happens as fate would have it, the Terriers and Virginia Tech Hokies do battle on the football gridiron in less than 48 hours. It would be a good time to potentially broach some hypotheticals if possible.

I think Young's leadership would be valued as the Director of Athletics and installing a Wofford guy as head coach, whether it be Drew Gibson, Kevin Giltner, or Tim Johnson--all of which were part of Wofford's foundational success. 

Furman to face High Point in Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon

You know you're getting close to the start of all things college basketball when parts of the schedule begin to be announced. 

Furman, which is coming off a 25-win season and NIT appearance in 2024-25, will open the 2025-26 season on Nov. 3 against 2024-25 Big South Champion and NCAA Tournament participant High Point it was announced earlier this week by the "Field of 68", which has become college basketball's most comprehensive and informative podcast, with some of the best analysts that cover the sport, including but not limited to: Jeff Goodman, John Fanta, Terrence Ogelsby and Rob Dauster to name a few. 

Three years ago, the Field of 68 offered its first live broadcast live on X, as John Fanta and Rob Dauster were on location at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena to broadcast Furman's thrilling 72-70 win over Stephen F. Austin, as Mike Bothwell's baseline jumper with less than a second left, allowing the Paladins to post a 72-70 win over the Lumberjacks. 

The Paladins will face off against a High Point team in the 6:30 p.m. contest at the Rock Hill Sports and Event Center in Rock Hill, S.C., and will be part of a slate that includes six games in two different venues. In Rock Hill, the day will get started with Winthrop facing off against Queens in an 8 AM clash, which will also have plenty of local appeal. That will be followed by an 11 AM clash between St. Bonaventure and Bradley.  

Like Furman, both the Bonnies and Braves were part of the NIT last season and both are coming off 20-win seasons. The Braves would be knocked out of the NIT by eventual champion and Southern Conference member Chattanooga, 67-65, in the NIT quarterfinals. St. Bonaventure won 22 games last season, while Bradley finished with 28 victories on the season. 

Murray State and 2025 NCAA Tournament qualifier and Summit league champion will kick off the games in the Sioux Falls venue at the Pentagon in a 1:30 p.m. contest, which will be followed by reigning Missouri Valley champion Drake, which won 31 games last season, facing off against Big Sky member Northern Arizona, which finished 18-16 last season. That game will tip at 4 p.m. EST. 

Furman will then face off against the High Point Panthers in a 6:30 contest at Rock Hill Sports and Events Center in a 6:30 p.m. contest, which will close out the games for the day in Rock Hill. The final game of the day will see South Dakota State and Merrimack facing off against one another at the Pentagon. Merrimack finished 18-15 overall last season, which included a 14-6 mark in the America East Conference, which was good enough for a second-place finish. The Jackrabbits won 20 games last season and finished third in the Summit League last season.

More on Furman-High Point...

The Paladins and Panthers will be facing off against each other on the hardwood for the first time since Dec. 6, 2022, as the two will represent the nightcap of the opening day event at the Rock Hill Sports and Events Center. 

The Paladins welcome the return of five players, who have starting experience, while High Point is coming off a 2024-25 season, which saw it post a 29-6 record and a first-ever Big South title and trip to the NCAA Tournament, where the Panthers dropped a 75-63 contest to No. 4 Purdue in Providence, RI. 

The Panthers will have a new head coach leading the way when they take the floor to open the 2025-26 campaign against the Paladins, as Flynn Clayman succeeds Alan Huss, who left his role as the head coach of the Panthers to become the coach-in-waiting at Creighton whenever Doug McDermott calls it a career. During his two years leading the High Point basketball program, Huss established himself as one of the top coaches at the mid-major level of hoops, leading High Point to an impressive 56-15 record over a two-year span before moving on. 

Clayman was Huss' top assistant during his time at High Point and was part of both teams that helped win nearly 60 games over the past couple of seasons. He inherits a team that still has some veterans around that helped lead the Panthers so that NCAA Tournament success last season, and the Panthers will likely find themselves as a team picked to be in the mix for a Big South title on the hardwood once again in the 2025-26 season. 

Swingman Terry Anderson and shooting guard Chase Johnson are the two main veterans returning to the fold for the Panthers heading into upcoming season. Johnson is one of the better shooters on the team, and he comes off a season, which saw him start 34 of 35 games for the Panthers, averaging 6.9 PPG, 1.8 RPG and 1.0 APG last season. Johnson blistered the nets to the tune of 42.5% last season, connecting on 71-of-167 shots from long range.  He posted 213 of his 241 points from three-point range last season, and his 71 threes led the Panthers for the season, averaging 4.8 made threes per game. 

Terry Anderson is a 6-6 swingman that comes off a 2024-25 season that saw him appear in 26 games in his first season with the Panthers after transferring in from Lamar prior to the 2024-25 season, averaging 4.5 PPG and 2.8 RPG in those 26 games he logged action in a year ago. 

Much of the roster that saw the Panthers break through and punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament last season has moved on, either via the transfer portal or due to being out of eligibility all together. 

The season-opening clash will mark the fifth all-time meeting between the two, with Furman owning the 3-1 series edge. The last time the two played was Dec. 6, 2022, as the Paladins would drop an 85-82 contest at Timmons Arena. It was one of just eight losses the Paladins would suffer the entire season, as Furman won a school-record 28 games, including an NCAA Tournament win over Virginia (W, 68-67) after returning to the Big Dance after a 43-year hiatus. 

Ranking the SoCon's Head Basketball Coaches

 In the off-season, it's always fun to come up with content and different rankings. For the past few years, I have been meaning to write this article but have never gotten around to it. Now is the time, however, and it's time to rank the SoCon's 10 basketball coaches. 

The list is based a little on longevity in the league but also based some on success or lack thereof at previous stops in their respective careers. I have argued more than once that the SoCon has been a hotbed for developing young coaching talent to make the jump to the power conference level. I put a big emphasis on NCAA Tournaments that a current coach has led either his current team to, or the one he coached previously. 

During the off-season, the SoCon had just one coaching change, with Bucky McMillan having moved on to Texas A&M to become the head coach of the Aggies. He becomes the latest of the league's head coaches to make the jump to the power six level of college basketball. Below is a list of the coaches that have left for the power six conferences over the past decade.

Before we rank the current 1-10 coaches in the SoCon, let's take a look back at the coaches that are now coaching at the power six level, starting with the 2013-14 season. The 2025-26 season of basketball will mark the 106th season of college basketball in the SoCon.

Recant Coaches Who Have Made The Jump

Will Wade (Chattanooga, 2013-15)--With mentors such as former Clemson head coach Larry Shyatt and current Marquette boss Shaka Smart, the controversial head coach took over the Chattanooga basketball program following the resignation of John Shulman following the 2012-13 season. He left VCU where he was a top assistant at VCU under Smart to take over the suddenly struggling Mocs basketball program and the 2013-14 season would see Chattanooga turn things around in a major way, finishing with an 18-15 record and a 12-4 ledger in Southern Conference play--good enough to see the Mocs finish second overall in the SoCon standings that season and see the Mocs qualify for the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT), losing to bitter rival and then Atlantic Sun member East Tennessee State, 79-66, in the opening round in Johnson City. Wade would be named Southern Conference Coach of the Year in 2013-14. In his final season at Chattanooga in 2014-15, he would lead the Mocs to 22 wins, which included a 15-3 mark in regular-season SoCon action, which was good enough for a second-place finish in the regular-season, with only Wofford finishing with a better record. After No. 10 seed Furman upset Wade's Mocs in the quarterfinals of the SoCon Tournament, it brought an abrupt end to what had been a successful campaign. In two seasons at UTC, Wade posted a 40-25 mark in two seasons. Shortly thereafter, Wade would accept the head coaching job at VCU where spent two seasons before getting his first big power six job at LSU in 2017. Wade was recently named as the new head coach at North Carolina State in late March of 2025. 

Niko Medved  (Furman, 2012-17)--Took Minnesota job in the off-season; Left Furman for Drake during the Paladins' 2017 postseason run in the CIT; He then left following one year at Drake and then spent seven seasons at the helm of the Colorado State, leading the Rams to the Sweet Sixteen this past March before taking the job at his alma mater Minnesota just 48 hours after the Rams heartbreaking loss in the NCAA Tournament to Maryland at the buzzer. Medved started his propensity for turning around Furman during his time as the Paladins' head coach, taking over a Furman basketball program that won just six games in the season prior to him taking the reins. In Medved's first season at Furman, the Paladins won just nine games, finishing off the season with a 9-20 record. It wouldn't be until the tail end of the 2014-15 season that Medved would really start to turn the Paladin basketball program into being a perennial power in the Southern Conference, as he would lead Furman all the way to the SoCon title game as the No. 10 seed, as the Paladins came close to becoming the biggest upset story in league history before losing to top seeded Wofford, 67-64, in the 2015 championship game. Medved would lead Furman to 19 and 23-win seasons over the next two campaigns, which included a shared SoCon title in the 2016-17, as ETSU, UNCG and Furman all shared the regular-season SoCon crown. Medved was responsible for helping the Paladins to back-to-back CIT bids--the program's first postseason appearance since 2010--and the win over Louisiana Monroe in the 2016 CIT was Furman's first postseason win of any sort since 1974 only the second in program history. He finished with a record of 62-70 over four years, helping re-shape Furman basketball into a perennial SoCon title contender.

Mike Young (Wofford, 2002-19)--Mike Young was one of the "feel-good" stories of the Southern Conference coaching ladder over the past decade. Prior to the remarkable 2018-19 season, Young was the lowest paid coach in the Southern Conference. That's almost unbelievable when you consider what he had done and what he was in the process of doing for the Terriers basketball program over what was a 17-year coaching career in Spartanburg, which saw Young essentially build the Terrier program into a perennial SoCon and mid-major power over a 17-year span, taking the Terrier basketball program from NCAA Division infancy to one that made five of its six NCAA Tournament appearances in a 10-year span under his watchful eye. Young was 5-0 in title games in his career. He finished his career at Wofford with 299-career wins at Wofford, finishing with an impressive 299-244 record over 18 seasons as the head coach of the Terriers. His crowning achievement as the Terriers' head coach was leading Wofford to 30 wins, national ranking and Southern Conference regular-season and tournament titles during the 2018-19 season. The Terriers finished the season with a 30-5 overall record, which included an 18-0 record in regular-season play in what was a league that featured maybe the most strength across its top four in league history.  With players like NCAA record-breaking shooter Fletcher Magee and big man Cameron Jackson, Young helped the Terriers to cruise to an opening round, 84-68, opening round win over Seton Hall. The Terriers would eventually see their magical run end in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, with a 62-55 loss to a Tyler Herro-led Kentucky team. Wofford's opening round win over Seton Hall in the 2019 NCAA Tournament marked the program's first NCAA Tournament win in program history. Shortly after the 2019 NCAA Tournament exit, Young accepted the head coaching position at Virginia Tech where he remains the head coach currently. It ended a 30-year tenure at Wofford as either the assistant coach (1989-2002) or the head coach (2002-19). 

Steve Forbes (ETSU, 2015-2020)--Steve Forbes would end up being the coach that brought East Tennessee State basketball back to the pinnacle of success on the Southern Conference hardwood, as well as being a coach that like Young at Wofford, would end up leading ETSU to its most historic season in program history prior to his departure following the 2019-20 season. Forbes took over an ETSU prior to the 2015-16 season, which was just after the first season for the Bucs back in the Southern Conference after spending nine years in the Atlantic Sun. ETSU's first season back in the SoCon came on the heels of a very mediocre return to the league a year earlier under the direction of Murry Bartow, who led the Bucs to a 16-14 overall mark and an 8-10 record in league play in their first season back in the league in after the near-decade absence. Forbes, who had been serving a two-year show-cause penalty as a head coach at Northwest Florida State, leading the team from Niceville, FL, to a 62-6 record over two seasons at the helm. From there, he would join Gregg Marshall's staff at Wichita State for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons before being hired at ETSU prior to the 2015-16 season. Forbes' impact as the head coach was almost immediate, bringing in a high-profile class in that first season, which included Baylor transfer Deuce Bello and guard  Ge'Lawn Guyn from Cincinnati, as the Bucs won 24 games in Forbes' first season as the head coach and made the SoCon Tournament title game before dropping what was a 73-67 loss to Chattanooga in the title game tilt. The Bucs would garner a postseason invite to the Vegas 16, reaching the semifinals of that tournament. In his second season in Johnson City, he would lead the Bucs to their first of two SoCon titles over a five-year stretch, as the Bucs finished 27-8 overall and 14-4 in the SoCon, sharing the regular-season title with Furman and UNCG, who also posted 14-4 league marks that season. In the 2017 SoCon title game, the Bucs downed league juggernaut UNCG, 79-74, in the championship game. After winning 49 games over the next couple of seasons, the Bucs put together what was a historic run in the 2019-20 season, following up Wofford's 30-win campaign of the 2018-19 season with 30 wins in 2019-20, which included a pre-Christmas win over LSU in Baton Rouge (W, 74-63). The Bucs would complete the SoCon regular-season with a 16-2 mark, with the only league losses that season coming at Furman (L, 55-64) and vs. Mercer (L, 55-71). Unlike Wofford a year earlier, the Bucs reached the 30-win plateau prior to the NCAA Tournament, which was ultimately canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as ETSU knocked off Wofford, 72-58, in the title game. Following the 30-4 campaign, the Bucs unfortunately did not get to compete in the NCAA Tournament due to the aforementioned pandemic, however, the consensus is that the Bucs would have likely won one or perhaps two games in the Big Dance. After 130 wins and two SoCon Tournament titles in five years, Forbes followed his dream of coaching power six conference basketball, accepting the head coaching offer from Wake Forest in late April of 2020 where he remains presently. 

Wes Miller  (UNCG, 2011-2021)--Wes Miller was an example of a coach where patience paid off by the UNCG Athletic Administration. Miller, who won a 2005 national title as a player at UNC under Roy Williams, would become a head coach just six years later, as he took over on an interim basis for Mike Dement at UNCG in December of 2011 after the Spartans had gotten off to just a 2-8 start. Under the watchful of eye of the young interim head coach,  the Spartans would post an 11-11 record to finish out the campaign with a 13-19 overall record and a forged a tie for first place atop the North Division in the 2011-12 standings. He was named the 2012 SoCon Coach of the Year in the process. After being hired on as an assistant prior to UNCG's 7-24 season of 2010-11 and leading the Spartans over the latter half of the ensuing season as the interim head coach, Miller shed the interim tag the following season and officially become the head coach at UNCG for the 2012-13 campaign.  Miller wouldn't see success come as immediately as Forbes did at ETSU, or Wade did at Chattanooga. In fact, the first-place finish in 2011-12 as an interim coach would be followed by back-to-back last-place finishes in the North Division before the SoCon transitioned away from divisions prior to the 2014-15 season. UNCG's success would interestingly coincide with ETSU, Furman, Chattanooga and Wofford in the league during that same period. Following a seventh-place finish in 2014-15, Miller started to build UNCG into a perennial SoCon title contender in 2015-16 after a 15-19 season, which saw the program tie for fifth in the league standings with a 10-8 mark, and would garner a CIT bid and reached the quarterfinals of that tournament,  which accounted for UNCG's first non-conference tournament postseason win as an NCAA Division I member. Miller would lead the Spartans to 25 wins and a tie atop the league for a regular-season title in 2016-17, as the Spartans shared the title with both Furman (14-4) and ETSU (14-4) that season, but tiebreakers would see UNCG head to Asheville as the SoCon's top overall seed. UNCG would eventually lose in the tournament title game, 79-74, to ETSU in the 2017 title game but got revenge a year later, as the Spartans downed the Bucs, 62-47, in the championship game to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2001-02 season, when the Spartans won their first SoCon title under Fran McCaffery. UNCG lost a heartbreaking 68-64 decision in the NCAA Tournament's opening round, capping the campaign with a school-record 27 wins. A year later, the Spartans were even better, however, came up short of returning to the Dance and had to settle for a second NIT appearance in a two-year span, as the Spartans were downed 70-58 in the championship by Wofford, who went on to that magical 30-win season. The Spartans were the top overall seed in the NIT, and after defeating Campbell, 84-69, in the opening round, UNCG had reached a school-record 29 wins. The magical season would eventually come to an end with an 86-69 loss to No. 5 seed Lipscomb in the next round. The Spartans would post a 23-9 record and third-place finish in the 2019-20 season before breaking through and winning the SoCon regular-season and tournament titles once again in the 2020-21 campaign, which saw the Spartans finish 21-9 overall and a 13-5 mark in SoCon play, as the season was shortened in the non-conference due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following a 69-63 title game win over Mercer in Asheville, the Spartans would push Florida State in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament before eventually losing a 64-54 contest in the bubble in Indianapolis. Shortly after the NCAA Tournament exit and following a record of 185-135 over 10 seasons at UNCG, Miller would accept the offer to fill the University of Cincinnati's head coaching vacancy in the spring of 2021. 

Lamont Paris (Chattanooga 2017-2022)--Other than Furman's Niko Medved, no coach inherited a worse situation  than Paris when he arrived at Chattanooga. I'd say Paris' situation upon being named the 20th head coach at UTC in early April of 2017 was even worse than that of Medved when he took over in Greenville some four years earlier. Paris had his roster completely turned over, which was no fault of his own when he took over, as there was a mass exodus from the Mocs program in his first season as the head coach following the departure of Matt McCall to take the UMass job. Things weren't much better following winning just 10 games in Paris' first season as the head coach. Prior to even coaching one game at UTC, 11 players ended up leaving the Chattanooga basketball program prior to the 2017-18 season, and to one's real surprise, the Mocs struggled as much as any season in its storied history in the SoCon and at the NCAADivision I level to win games.  After winning a combined 22 games in his first two seasons, things would begin to take shape for Paris' Mocs and it would be the season after the COVID-19 in which the Mocs and Paris would be able to get things turned in the right direction. With the acquisition of guys like Malachi Smith from Wright State, Stefan Kenic from Cleveland State, and Josh Ayeni from South Alabama, the Mocs started to make some inroads in the 2020-21 season, starting the campaign by winning the first nine games of the season.  The Mocs would go on to finish out the season with 18-8 in the shortened season due to the pandemic, which included a 9-7 mark in Southern Conference play. The Mocs were knocked out of the conference tournament by league rival East Tennessee State, dropping a 63-53 decision to ETSU. One of the unfortunate developments prior to tip-off of that game was the Mocs were without Malachi Smith, who had tested positive for COVID-19, and that was severely detrimental to the Mocs moving far in the tournament. In the 2021-22 season, the Mocs went into the season as the preseason favorites, and would end up returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six years, knocking off Furman in overtime in what was one of the best SoCon Tournament title games in the great history of the league, with David Jean-Baptiste's 36-footer at the buzzer of overtime sending Chattanooga to the NCAA Tournament with a 64-63 win over the Paladins. Following the heartbreaking 54-53 loss to Illinois in an opening round NCAA Tournament clash in Pittsburgh, the Mocs finished with a 27-8 record and posted the outright SoCon title with a 14-4 mark. Not 48 hours after the loss to the Illini, Paris was named as the new head coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks where he remains presently installed as the head coach of the Gamecocks. Paris finished his five seasons at UTC with an 87-72 overall record. In his final season at UTC, Paris was selected by his peers as the league's coach of the year. 

Bucky McMillan (Samford, 2020-25)--The most recent coach to make the jump from the mid-major level to the power six level of coaching in college basketball is Bucky McMillan, who has agreed to become the head coach at Texas A&M following the 2024-25 season. He won 99 games in five seasons as the head coach at Samford, which included leading the Bulldogs to the 2024 NCAA Tournament, as well as an NIT at-large invitation this past season. McMillan was selected as the SoCon's Coach of the Year in three different seasons, winning the award in 2021-22, '22-23, and '23-24. No coach won more games in the Southern Conference over a four-year span than McMillan did. He inherited a mess when he took over at Samford during the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, and it wasn't all too unlike what Medved was left with when he took over at Furman, or what Paris found when he took over at Chattanooga.  He helped the Bulldogs reach a new prestige by the time he left for College Station to become the newest head coach of the Texas A&M Aggies this past spring. He won just six games total in the season after COVID-19, as the Bulldogs finished with a record of just 6-13 overall and 2-9 in Southern Conference play, which saw the Bulldogs finish dead-last (10th) in the SoCon in his first season as the head coach. Over the next four years, however, no team in the SoCon would win more games, as Bucky Ball had a notable impact and became the craze and the talk around the Southern Conference and throughout mid-major basketball. 

Ranking the Current SoCon Basketball Coaches 

1. Bob Richey (Furman 2017-present)--Having won 181 games over nine seasons at Furman, the Paladins head coach has led Furman to some pretty incredible heights during his time as the head basketball coach at Furman. Of the many milestones he has had in his nine seasons as the head coach, Richey's most cherished accomplishment as the head coach at the charter SoCon member was leading the Paladins back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 43 years when he did so during the 2022-23 season. After helping the Paladins to an 88-79 win over Chattanooga in the championship game, he led Furman to a memorable 68-67 win over Virginia in an opening round NCAA Tournament game in Orlando, as the Paladins became just the third SoCon team to win an NCAA Tournament game in the 21st century, joining both Davidson (2008) and Wofford (2019) as the only SoCon teams to do so. The 28 games won by the 2022-23 team were the most in program history, and putting the cherry on top of all of it was developing Jalen Slawson into a player good enough to draw the attention of the NBA, as he became the 54th overall pick in the second round by Sacramento Kings in the 2023 NBA Draft. Richey's motion offense with Princeton concepts mixed in is some of the prettiest offensive basketball you'll find at the mid-major level. An offensive mastermind, Richey was the lone coach kept on staff by Niko Medved when he took over as the head coach in the spring of 2013. The Paladins have become known as one of the best perimeter shooting teams in mid-major basketball during Richey's time as the head coach, as well as being routinely ranked in KenPom's Top 50 when it comes to offensive efficiency. Over the past eight seasons under Richey, the Paladins have connected on 2,690-of-7,285 from three-point range, which converts to 36.9%. The Paladins connected on 380 three-point field goals during the 2024-25 season, connecting at a 36.6% clip from long-range, which was good enough for second overall in the SoCon this season. Richey did arguably his best job coaching in the 2024-25 season, leading the Paladins to a 25-win season and an appearance in the 2025 SoCon Tournament title game against Wofford, as the Paladins would come up just short against a hot-shooting Terriers squad that shot over 60% for the game and hit 14 threes to come up with a thrilling 92-85 win in the championship game. Richey and staff did a masterful job in replacing 70.8% of his scoring from a year earlier, turning those lemons into some pretty sweet lemonade in Greenville. The Paladins posted their 14th 20-win season, including their seventh since 2016-17 and sixth under the direction in eight seasons under Richey. Though having never won SoCon Coach of the Year, Richey has more wins than any SoCon Coach in the past eight seasons (181-81) and is averaging 22.6 wins-per-season over that span, which ranks sixth (two-season minimum) in average wins per season in the tradition-rich history of the SoCon. The 22.6 wins-per-season by Richey in eight seasons at Furman ranks just behind some legends of ancient and recent past in the league, including Everett Case (26.7/7 seasons at NC State), Steve Forbes (26.0/5 seasons at ETSU), and John Kresse (23.8/4 seasons at CofC as a coach in the SoCon), while ranking just ahead of legendary Mocs head coach Murray Arnold (22.5/6 seasons at UTC). Richey has also led the Paladins to their first-ever AP Top 25 national ranking (2018-19), and wins over several power six programs, including No. 8 and reigning national champion Villanova (2018-19), Louisville (2021-22), South Carolina (2022-23), Virginia (2022-23). Though Richey was courted by South Carolina prior to the 2022-23, he ultimately returned to Furman and ended up leading the Paladins back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1980. Since then, however, though his name has been mentioned and has interviewed for several major job openings, he has remained firm at Furman. In addition to leading the Paladins back to the NCAA Tournament, Richey has also led Furman to a pair of NIT appearances in his eight seasons at the helm (2019 and '25). Prior to his arrival at Furman in the spring of 2011 as an assistant coach for the Paladins under former head coach Jeff Jackson. Richey spent five years under the leadership Barclay Radebaugh from 2006-11, helping bring in five of the program’s top 11 scorers all time, including Saah Nimley, who is the current head coach at Charleston Southern. The Paladins are slated to open the 40-million dollar renovated Timmons Arena in 2025-26, which is loosely referred to as "The house that Bob Richey built."


2 Dan Earl (Chattanooga 2022-present/VMI 2016-22)--Dan Earl was on top of the mid-major basketball world this past April when he led the Mocs to heights no Southern Conference program had ever reached, which is a National Invitational Tournament (NIT) title and did that on the back of dropping a heartbreaking 80-77 overtime decision in the Southern Conference Tournament semifinal, as the Mocs were relegated to trying to win the NIT, which would be exactly what they would end up doing, as the Mocs won at Middle Tennessee State (W, 109-103 3OT), vs. Dayton (W, 87-72), at Bradley (W, 67-65), vs. Loyola-Chicago (W, 80-73), and vs. UC Irvine (W, 85-84 OT) in the championship game. Earl let the Mocs to their first nationally-recognized title as an NCAA Division I program, and it is also the SoCon's first NCAA sanctioned national title on the college basketball hardwood. No SoCon team had gone past the semifinal round of the tournament prior to UTC's breakthrough during the 2024-25 season. Earl is part of a class of coaches in the SoCon that are proven winners. The Mocs head coach will head into his fourth season at the helm of the Chattanooga basketball program, having compiled a 68-38 mark in three seasons as the head coach in the Scenic City. He led the Mocs to a school-record 29 wins this past season, as Chattanooga completed the 2024-25 season with a 29-9 mark, winning 17 out of their final 18 games of the season, with the only loss coming in the SoCon semifinals. The Mocs put together an impressive 15-3 Southern Conference regular-season mark to claim the regular-season title, which was the first the Mocs have claimed under Earl in three seasons. He also led the Mocs to the SoCon title game in his first season at the helm in 2022-23, as he did so despite some injury issues, including to his best player, Jake Stephens, who missed a large portion of regular-season Southern Conference play with a hand injury. Heading to Asheville as the No. 7 overall seed, he helped the Mocs make a run all the way to the title game, playing four games in four days only to come up just short of the ultimate goal, as top-seeded Furman went on to the 88-79 win in the championship tilt. Earl proved even more how good of a coach he really is in his time prior to arriving in Chattanooga, where he was coach of VMI for seven seasons, compiling a record of 73-139 mark, including leading the Keydets to a sixth-place finish in the regular-season SoCon standings in his final season as the head coach in Lexington and an 18-17 overall record to end the season. He helped lead VMI to consecutive .500 or better seasons in his final two campaigns as the head coach in Lexington, marking the first time that had happened since 2010-12. If you know anything about mid-major college basketball, then you know that VMI is one of the toughest jobs in all of college basketball--maybe the absolute toughest. Like Richey at Furman, Earl's teams at both VMI and Chattanooga have run great offensive sets out of a motion offense, and it focuses on cutting and having skilled big men that can pass. There's no better coach in the league at developing skilled big men, especially ones that can pass out of the post like UTC's Earl. It led to some big three-point field goal shooting numbers during his time as the head coach at both Chattanooga and VMI. In his final season as the head coach at VMI, Earl's Keydets knocked down 401 three-pointers, which wasn second-most in the country that season, while his 2022-23 UTC squad set a Southern Conference Tournament record with 43 triples connected on in four games in the Mocs' run to the title in that particular season. Earl also picked up one of the biggest wins of his coaching career during the 2023-24 season at UTC, where he led the Mocs to an 81-71 win at Louisville en route to a 21-12 season and a third-place finish in the Southern Conference standings last season. The only thing that has eluded Earl in his time coaching in the Southern Conference is a tournament title and a trip to the NCAA Tournament. He has led the Mocs to at least the semifinals of the tournament in each of his three seasons as the head coach, and was named the SoCon's "Coach of the Year" by both the media and his peers following the 2024-25 regular-season title. Prior to becoming a head coach at VMI in 2015-16, Earl spent time learning his craft as an assistant coach at both his alma mater Penn State (2006-11) and Navy (2011-15) where he served under former SoCon title-winning coach Ed DeChellis. Earl was given the reins at Navy as the offensive coordinator, as he would also be the Associate Head Coach during his time in Anapolis with the Midshipmen. Finally, Earl has been able to build both continuity and quality within his staff during his 10 seasons as a head coach in the SoCon, building one of the best staffs in the league at both VMI and UTC. Anders Galfsky is Earl's top assistant and associate head coach, and he's developed into one of the top assistants in mid-major basketball in his time spent under Earl at both VMI and now at Chattanooga. All told at both VMI and Chattanooga, Earl has compiled an overall record of 141-177, which includes a mark of 68-108 in SoCon play. He's already reached 34 wins in league play in three seasons at UTC, and it took him six seasons at VMI to accomplish the identical win total. Earl is not only one of the best coaches in the SoCon, he's also one of the best in mid-major basketball overall, proving that last March in the NIT. In addition to being named SoCon Coach of the Year, Earl was also the Tennessee Sports Writers Association Coach of the Year. He had his contract extended in mid-May to a new six-year deal, making him one of the highest paid coaches in the SoCon.

3. Lennie Acuff (Samford 2025-present/Lipscomb 2018-25/Alabama-Huntsville )--In many circles and depending on who you talk to, Lennie Acuff is considered a basketball savant by many, and has served as a mentor for some pretty outstanding head basketball coaches, including Furman's own Bob Richey. Acuff will now get a chance to coach against his pupil in the SoCon, as Acuff was a homerun hire for Samford during the off-season following Bucky McMillan's departure to become the head coach at Texas A&M, and some might even consider Acuff a slight upgrade from McMillan, given his track record of success at both the NCAA Division I and II levels, respectively. Acuff is a proven winner and he's been able to do it both at the NCAA Division II level as the longtime head coach of Alabama-Huntsville, and now, he's proven at the NCAA Division I level at Lipscomb, taking the Bisons to the NCAA Tournament. While Bucky McMillan was the "hometown boy" given a chance to start his collegiate coaching career in front of friends and family, which could help further launch him into even greater success now at the power six level, Lennie Acufff, who is now 68, will have the chance to close out the twilight of his stellar coaching career in his home state and now too far from friends and family to see him coach his final few years so should they choose to do so. It's not often that a program gets a chance to experience both ends of the career coaching spectrum, however, that's exactly what Samford and its basketball-excited faithful will now get to do with Acuff taking the helm. During Acuff's six years as the head coach at Lipscomb, the Bisons compiled a 110-82 overall record, which of course included getting the Nashville-based school back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2018 NCAA Tournament, which represents the only other NCAA Tournament appearance for the program. He led the Bisons to three-straight 20-win seasons as the head coach, including the Atlantic Sun regular-season and tournament titles in 2024-25. He also coached what ended up being the A-Sun's Player of the Year, in Jacob Ognacevic, as well as the tournament MVP, in former Furman guard Joe Anderson. Acuff's strong reputation as a head coach was built long before he arrived in Nashville in 2019, as he established himself as a proven winner on the hardwood during his time at NCAA Division II Alabama-Huntsville, where he spent 22 seasons as the head coach, compiling an impressive record of 437-214, which included winning seasons in 20 out of the 22 he spent in charge of the Chargers. He led UAH to eight regular-season Gulf South Conference crowns and three Gulf South Conference Tournament titles in his 22 seasons and left as the program's all-time winningest head coach. His job won't be as much about rebuilding Samford, as it will be sustaining its perch as a new mid-major power and perennial SoCon title contender. In the age of NIL and the transfer portal, that will now be increasingly difficult, even for coaches as good as Acuff.

4. Mike Jones (UNC Greensboro 2021-present/Radford 2011-21)--This will be an unpopular selection at No. 4 for some, as Mike Jones has yet to win when it matters in his four seasons at the helm of the UNC Greensboro basketball program, which means he hasn't made it past the first day in the Southern Conference Tournament at the Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville. Conventional wisdom, however, is that he will be able to figure that eventually. After all, he's led the Spartans to three-straight 20-win seasons and has finished no lower than third in any of the three previous campaigns. He also established himself as a proven winner during his time at Radford, where he spent the previous decade building the Highlanders into a Big South power, taking over that program when it was struggling during a probation period under NCAA sanctions. All told in his time as the head coach of the Highlanders, Jones would win 174 games and led Radford to a remarkable run in the 2017-18 season, which would eventually see the Highlanders win the Big South Tournament to qualify for the Big Dance for just the third time in program history. Jones also won a First Four game against Long Island in the 2018 NCAA Tournament, leading the Highlanders to a 71-61 win in Dayton before eventually getting knocked out of the tournament by Villanova. Jones has won at every stop along the way, and it hasn't really mattered where he has been the head coach, as he won 20 or more games in five different seasons at Radford and has already accomplished the feat three times in four seasons at UNCG. However, fans are getting a little bit restless with his inability to win the first game of the Southern Conference Tournament in Asheville, with the latest team he took to the Altitude City coming away with a 64-57 loss to No. 7 seed VMI. So far during his time at UNCG, Jones has posted a record of 78-50 as the head coach and has a combined record of 252-200 at both UNCG and Radford as a head coach. During his time coaching both, Jones has some rather big wins under his belt, having taken down Notre Dame, Texas, and Northwestern during his time as the head coach of Radford, while having posted a 78-72 win in the 2023-24 season in arguably his biggest win non-conference as a head coach at No. 14 Arkansas. Jones and the Spartans will have the opportunity to be "giant slayers" once again this season, as the Spartans will travel to take on Will Wade's North Carolina State team in the upcoming 2025-26 season. Jones cites some important coaching mentors in his career as an assistant, which actually started at Furman in 1997, where he spent three seasons from 1997-2000. He cites former Georgia head coach Dennis Felton and former VCU head coach Shaka Smart as shaping and mentoring him as a young coach. Jones certainly had some tough shoes to fill after succeeding such a successful coach like Wes Miller as a predecessor, but he's done a pretty good job thus far. Now it's about taking that next step in the postseason and figuring out that championship puzzle.

5. Brooks Savage (East Tennessee State 2023-present)--In just two seasons as the head coach of East Tennessee State, Brooks Savage has won 38 games and has already changed the complexion of ETSU basketball and its fan base into being believers for big things on the college basketball hardwood once again. In his first season as the head coach in 2023-24, Savage helped the Bucs to 19 wins and a run all the way to the SoCon title game as the No. 7 seed, where ETSU would come up just short of the title, with a 76-69 loss to Samford in the championship tilt. In the 2024-25 season, Savage and the Bucs had some pretty lofty expectations after that run from a year earlier, with some, including myself, predicting the Bucs to win it all in Asheville, and while that didn't happen, the Bucs did finish the regular-season in impressive fashion, posting a third-place finish in the league standings with a 12-6 mark, which included sweeping defending champion Samford. Savage is a big believer in getting his teams to play hard-nosed basketball, but to play within themselves. In an era of do-everything in a hurry, that's not the style for coach Savage even though he wants to have a basketball team that is exciting to watch and has fun while doing it. In fact, he's a coach that is against the "play fast now ask questions later" mentality that many coaches in this era not only embrace, but endorse as part of their culture. Savage is more of a coach that would like his team to play fast when they need to, but to play smart and be hard-nosed on the defensive end as being part of his team's primary DNA. One of the things that ETSU has done exceptionally well in Savage's first couple of seasons as the head coach in Johnson City is rebound the basketball exceptionally well. The Bucs led the league in offensive rebounds per game two years ago (13.9 ORB per game) and ranked third (12.6 ORB per game) this past season. In Asheville this past March, the Bucs saw their season come to an end much earlier than expected, with a 72-60 loss to eventual champion and No. 6 seed Wofford in what was the second really major upset of the tournament following up VMI's win over UNCG. However, by the time the Bucs had reached March, they were struggling with injury issues, which had caused them to have some depth issues by the time they arrived for the tournament. Savage helped procure the services of Quimari Peterson from the JUCO ranks, and in two seasons with the Bucs, helped him become SoCon Player of the Year as the head coach this past March. In two seasons as the head coach, Savage and his staff also helped transform Jaden Seymour into a pro talent, which saw Seymour go from a player that was averaging 8.7 PPG prior to Savage's arrival to averaging 14.7 PPG and would become one of the top players in the Southern Conference by the end of his first season as the head coach. This past season was Seymour's best of all, as he posted a 15.4 PPG scoring average, as well as 6.6 RPG. He also posted just the program's third all-time triple-double along the way, doing so in ETSU's SoCon-opening win over VMI at Freedom Hall on New Year's Day 2025. He also brought in Karon Boyd from USC Aiken and in two years with the Bucs, would become the SoCon's Defensive Player of the Year this past March and become maybe the SoCon's top "glue guy" and was a fan favorite. Though he was the offensive coordinator at Wake Forest in his final two years there, he has helped ETSU be one of the top defensive units in the SoCon in his first two seasons as the head coach of the Bucs, helping the Bucs rank second in scoring defense in each of his first two campaigns as the head coach of the Bucs. In conference games only, the Bucs ranked better than anyone during the 2024-25 season, with a 101.4 defensive efficiency according to KenPom, ranking second in the league in turnover percentage (19.1) and second in both effective field goal percentage defense (49.6%) as well as second in 2pt field goal percentage defense (47.5%). Savage has built up quite the resume in his 12 years as an assistant coach. He’s been prepared by some of the best, which of course includes Forbes. This season will mark the seventh time he’s been a part of a first-year staff. Savage knows Southern Conference basketball, having been a part of the league’s two most decorated programs. He served as an assistant coach at Chattanooga from 2013-15 under the direction of Will Wade and as an assistant with ETSU from 2015-2020 under Steve Forbes, who Savage considers as his primary mentor in coaching and also a good friend. All told at both ETSU and Wake Forest, Savage spent a total of eight years coaching under Forbes at the NCAA Division I level, and that doesn't include the 2011-12 season, which he spent coaching as one of Forbes' assistant at Northwest Florida State, helping the program to a school-record 32 wins and a NJCAA national runner-up finish that particular season. Savage and his current staff have already been hard at work in the portal and have put together what I think is the best incoming transfer portal class heading into the 2025-26 season. Through two seasons as the head coach in Johnson City, Savage has posted a 38-29 overall record.


6. Tim Craft (Western Carolina 2024-present/Gardner-Webb 2013-24)- Craft's coaching ability was blatantly clear last season, and what he did to improve Western Carolina during the season was almost as remarkable as what Andrew Wilson was able to do at VMI. Craft spent his first season in Cullowhee trying to figure out the right mix among the players he had. Over the final month-and-a-half of the 2024-25 season, things finally started to click for the Catamounts and they would be competitive in nearly every game over the course of the final month of the season, and would even post maybe the biggest win of the season for the Catamounts in a 74-67 win over East Tennessee State in the middle of February. The Bucs might have been a little short-handed playing with Jaden Seymour, but that didn't matter to Craft and the Catamounts, who posted a win that was something to be able to hang their proverbial hat on for the rest of the season and something to build on moving forward. As fate would have it, the Catamounts would end up facing off against the other team with a brand-new head coach in the opening game of the 2025 Southern Conference Tournament, as No. 9 Western Carolina took on No. 8 Mercer in Asheville. The Bears were being led by the other first-year head coach in the SoCon, in Ryan Ridder, and what would play out over the course of 40 minutes at the Harrah's Cherokee Center was one of the top games of the 2025 tournament, as the Bears held on for the 67-66 win to move on to play top-seeded Chattanooga in the opening quarterfinal matchup of quarterfinal Saturday at the tournament. Mercer also held the distinction of being WCU's first Southern Conference win under Craft's leadership, as WCU would knock off the Bears, 85-82, in an overtime thriller at the Ramsey Center in a game that was delayed by one day due to the effects of snowstorm Cora. The Catamounts were beaten by double digits in six out of their first nine SoCon games in the month of January, however, in six of their final nine losses, which includes the SoCon Tournament loss to Mercer, the Catamounts lost by 10 points or less. Only Samford (W, 92-73), Wofford (W, 90-67) and Mercer (W, 81-69) were able to post double-digit wins over the Catamounts. As I mentioned in the portal update on Western Carolina, nowhere could Craft's coaching more be visibly understood better than the transformation in the play and confidence of Marcus Kell, who went from an afterthought under Justin Gray to an all-conference caliber performer under Craft. It could be argued there was no better player in the SoCon over the final month of the season. With Kell and Pelote leading the way, the Catamounts became a problem--even for the league's top teams like Chattanooga and Furman, with the Paladins needing overtime to knock off the Catamounts in Greenville, surviving to get an 84-75 win after trailing much of the night. The Paladins had won by 29 at WCU on New Year's Day. That same narrative would be true for Chattanooga, which had beaten the Catamounts 84-60 in Cullowhee in January. In a late-season clash between the two, the Mocs survived to get a 91-86 win at the Roundhouse. Though the Catamounts were just 8-22 overall and only 4-14 in Southern Conference play, many can attest how much the team improved from early January until the end of the season. Craft is no stranger to success nor is he a stranger to building teams in small towns in North Carolina into being winners. One need look no further than what he was able to do in Boiling Springs, N.C., in his time prior to arriving in Cullowhee as the head coach at Gardner-Webb. He led the Runnin' Bulldogs to the 2019 NCAA Tournament, as Gardner-Webb won 23 games and even put a first half scare into eventual national champion Virginia in the NCAA Tournament before the Cavaliers used their experience and talent advantage to eventually overcome Gardner-Webb in the second half. He had a pair of 20-win seasons during his time as Gardner-Webb's head coach, as well as leading the Runnin' Bulldogs to nine.500 or better seasons in his 11 as the head coach. In addition to leading the Bulldogs to the 2019 NCAA Tournament, Craft was also responsible for helping the Bulldogs to the 2014-15 CBI. Craft spent time as an assistant under Jeff Lebo at both East Carolina (2010-13) and Auburn (2008-10), as well as serving as an assistant at Gardner-Webb (2004-07) and Pensacola JC (2002-04). Craft started his coaching career at Robert F. Munroe high school as an assistant in 2000-01 before serving for one season as the head coach a year later (2001-02). In his time as a head coach at both Western Carolina and Gardner-Webb over 12 seasons, Craft has a record of 196-188. I expect Craft will ascend this list quickly, and if I update this list in two or three years, he will not be in eighth any longer and could very well have broken into the top four of this list by that time.

7. Dwight Perry (Wofford 2022-Present)--In just his third season as the head coach of Wofford, head coach Dwight Perry had the Wofford Terriers dancing as a part of March Madness, as he led the Terriers to a cinderella-like run through the Southern Conference Tournament this past March, as the Terriers took down No. 3 seed East Tennessee State (W, 72-60), No. 7 VMI (W, 85-65) and arch-rival Furman (W, 92-85) en route to leading Wofford to its sixth appearance in the Big Dance overall. In 2022, Perry was named the interim head coach at Wofford after an investigation into head coach Jay McAuley ended up eventually leading to his firing amid allegations of mistreatment of players in the program. Despite having a start that involved some crisis management skills as much as coaching acumen, Perry didn't flinch and the moment wasn't too big for him even though it was his first time leading a program as a head coach. His audition for the part ended up yielding a permanent status, with his installation as being officially named the head coach of Wofford's basketball program shortly after the 2022-23 season. Perry's interim season would see him lead the Terriers basketball program in an important moment, as the program was in a spot of thin ice so-to-speak, with a mass exodus out of the program having already taken place in the off-season between the 2021-22 and the 2022-23 seasons, and even after Perry's first interim season, even more players exiting the program like BJ Mack, who would go on to play his final season at South Carolina for Lamont Paris in 2023-24. Shortly after taking over, Perry and the Terriers went to College Station and took down Texas A&M, with a 67-62 win over an Aggies team coached by Buzz Williams, which went to finish second in the SEC that season, posting a 15-3 mark and finished with a 25-10 record and ranked No. 17 in the country. Perry's interim season would see the Terriers finish out the campaign with a 17-16 overall record, including an 8-10 mark in Southern Conference play. The Terriers were the No. 6 seed in Asheville, and would end up getting a thrilling, buzzer-beating effort from BJ Mack, as Wofford held off No. 3 seed UNC Greensboro for a 67-66 win. After being named the official head coach shortly after the season, the 2023-24 campaign would see Perry's Terriers finish the season with a nearly identical 17-15 record, which included finishing better in Southern Conference play, as Wofford went on to post a 10-8 mark, which was good enough for another sixth-place finish in the league standings. Unfortunately for Perry and the Terriers, however, the time spent in Asheville would ultimately be short-lived, as Chattanooga ended the Terriers' SoCon Tournament run abruptly, capturing what was a 75-57 win over the Terriers. In winning the tournament this past March, the Terriers would reel off wins against East Tennessee State (W, 72-60), VMI (W, 85-65) and Furman (W, 92-85). Wofford, which was making its sixth NCAA Tournament since 2010, was a No. 15 seed and fell 77-62 to the No. 2 Tennessee Volunteers. Prior to becoming the head coach of the Terriers, Perry spent three seasons as an assistant coach with the Terriers before being named the interim head coach and eventually the full-time head coach. Prior to his arrival as part of Jay McAualey's staff at Wofford in 2019-20, Perry spent five seasons as an assistant at Furman, with three spent under Niko Medved and two under Bob Richey. He was a big part of helping the Paladins to an impressive 91-68 record over that span, which included three 20-win seasons, while being instrumental in helping coach and recruit 17 all-conference and all-freshman selections, which included a pair of SoCon Players of the Year and a SoCon Freshman of the Year. Prior to coming to Furman, Perry got his career started in coaching at VCU under former head coach Shaka Smart, where he was the Rams' video coordinator. Perry, a native of Durham, N.C., is a 2010 graduate of the University of Kentucky where he played from 2007-10 and earned a degree in business management. In three seasons as the Wofford men's basketball coach, Perry has compiled an overall record of 48-43 in his third season.


8. Andrew Wilson (VMI 2022-Present)--At the beginning of last year, I'm not sure where I would have had VMI head coach Andrew Wilson on this list, and this year, I am still not sure whether or not No. 7 is too low or not, but what I can tell you is the guy can flat out coach, and the second thing is, what he did by helping VMI to a 15-19 record in his third season at the helm in Lexington was nothing short of being absolutely remarkable in so many ways. The challenge now will be sustaining the success and building on what he had from this past season. He helped VMI to a 7-11 record in the Southern Conference this past season, and in March at the Southern Conference Tournament at the Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville, he helped lead the Keydets to a 64-57 upset win over UNCG in the quarterfinals following up a tournament-opening 73-62 win over The Citadel, completing a three-game sweep of the Keydets' bitter rival. Though he has just a 26-72 record in three seasons as VMI's head coach, the adversity and ability to overcome and persevere despite it are two of the most impressive attributes about Wilson as a head basketball coach. When he helped VMI to the SoCon semifinals last March, he did so with not only one of the youngest teams in the Southern Conference, but also one of the youngest teams in college basketball. VMI ranked 336th out of 364 NCAA Division I teams in average age this past season. Youth is something Wilson has had to had to deal with in each of his three seasons as the head coach of the Keydets, due primarily to players leaving on account of either VMI not having a graduate program, but more often than not just leaving due to the fact that they weren't about that military lifestyle. The good news is, for the first time since taking over as the head coach Wilson was able to keep most of his top players around, as the Keydets lost only one real key piece, in Augustinas Kiudulas, to the transfer portal from last year's team that saw an 11-win improvement, which marked VMI's greatest single-season turnaround since 1908, as only 14 schools in the country improved by 10 or more wins from the 2023-24 season. The 15 wins in a single-season marked just the 12th time in program history that the Keydets were able to achieve that win total and only the seventh time in VMI's 89-year history in two different stints as a SoCon hoops member. It's almost hard to put into writing how good and refreshing it was to see VMI's turnaround last season as compared to Wilson's first two seasons in charge. In his very first season, the Keydets were ravaged by injuries so much that he didn't even have enough players to play a 5-on-5 scrimmage in practice for the entire season! The Keydets won three-straight SoCon road games for the first time since 1998 and knocked off both The Citadel and UNCG for the first-time ever in the Southern Conference Tournament. The Keydets' two wins in the tournament in Asheville were the most in the conference tourney since 2002-03 and just the second time in 37 years. VMI's two most-impressive wins in SoCon player were a 91-82 home triumph over Furman, marking the program's first over the Paladins since the 2021-22 season, as well as knocking off eventual SoCon champion Wofford, 74-67, in Spartanburg near the end of January. So what's Wilson's specialty? It's defense. A former player at Florida State, Wilson cites the outstanding former Seminoles head coach Leonard Hamilton as being one of his biggest mentors and being most influential in his coaching philosophy. Wilson's ability to change defenses mid-possession reminds me a little of some of the stuff Duggar Baucom did at The Citadel when he coached there, but Wilson's team this past season played outstanding in the matchup zone. It also was a little reminiscent of some of the things that Dan Earl did during his time as the head coach of VMI before moving on to Chattanooga after the 2021-22 season. With players like point guard Tan Yildizoglu, top defender AJ Clark and leading scoring and shooting guard Rickey Bradley returning, a top half or even a top 3-4 finish and a dark horse as a SoCon title contender in 2025-26 are real possibilities for VMI next season. With that said, it was enough to get Wilson a nice pay raise and extend his contract through the 2029-30 season during the off-season. Prior to coming to VMI, Wilson spent time learning under current Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington at both James Madison (2 seasons) and Georgia Southern (7 seasons) and spent six seasons coaching with Byington at College of Charleston under the leadership of the coaching legend Bobby Cremins (2006-12), as he coached the Cougars in the Southern Conference. After Cremins stepped down in the middle of the season in 2011-12, Mark Byington became the interim head coach, but CofC didn't extend the offer to Byington, who eventually moved on to Georgia Southern to become the head coach of the Eagles. Interestingly, the three top assistants at College of Charleston under Cremins are all now head coaches, with Wilson (VMI), Byington (Vanderbilt) and Kyle Perry (Converse) all being part of a great staff assembled by Cremins. They helped CofC average 22 wins a season from 2006-11 and four 20-win seasons overall. Also, Wilson was part of a staff that helped lure one of the greatest players ever to CofC, in Andrew Goudelock, who was eventually drafted in 2011 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. Wilson served one season as an assistant at Binghamton before returning to coach at Georgia Southern under Byington. Though battling injuries throughout his career, Wilson received two medical redshirts and played six years (2000-06) under Leonard Hamilton for the Florida State Seminoles. He has an exciting future, and he is a great person, and I look forward to covering Wilson's VMI teams as he continues to build a successful program in Lexington.


9. Ryan Ridder (Mercer 2024-present/UT Martin 2021-24/Bethune-Cookman (2017-20/Daytona State 2013-17)--Ryan Ridder is another of mid-major basketball's young and upcoming head coaches, and the Southern Conference seems to be the place to find those these days. In his first season as head coach at Mercer, Ridder spent time figuring out his team and his players, as well as trying to mend the culture, which Mercer isn't so far removed from, which came under Bob Hoffman some 11 years ago in what was Mercer's final season as a member of the Atlantic Sun, winning that league and then beating Duke in one of the most historic NCAA Tournament victories in the great history of the Big Dance. Ridder's job is to figure out the difficult road back to sustained success for a Mercer program that hasn't been quite the same since Jibri Bryan was murdered at Breakers convenience store less than a mile from campus back in February of 2016. But if we learned anything of Ridder last season, we saw a humble coach trying to get a finger on the pulse of what makes the program tick, and how to revive a program that has proven it can win. Ridder made a shrewd move by bringing in assistant coach Langston Hall during the off-season, as he is a direct link to Mercer's most successful days as a winning program. If nothing else, he will be able to relay the vibe of what it was like when Mercer really had it rolling in its latter days as an A-Sun member. Like Craft, it's hard to believe that someone as successful as Ridder would be considered ninth of 10 coaches in any league, but after one season, it's hard to evaluate a coach fully so that's where he ended up in the rankings. That said, I doubt he remains in this spot, having already shown the ability to transform programs with much greater challenges, such as Bethune-Cookman and UT-Martin. Ridder racked up 48 wins in three seasons as the Skyhawks' head coach, and that included a 21-11 mark in the 2023-24 season. In his 10 seasons as a head coach at Mercer (2024-present), UT Martin (2021-24), Bethune Cookman (2017-20) and JUCO Daytona State (2013-17), Ridder sports an overall mark of 205-139. During the 2023-24 season, Ridder would help lead the Skyhawks to 21 wins and a co-regular-season title-place in the Ohio Valley Conference. In 2022-23, Ridder helped the Skyhawks to 19 wins, which marked the fifth-most wins in a season in school history, and were part of a nine-game turnaround from his first season in charge of the program. In Mercer's 70-67 win at VMI this past season, Ridder reached a milestone with his 200th game as a head coach. Ridder has an eye for talent, and like others who have coached in and have been successful in this league--former and current ETSU coaches Steve Forbes and Brooks Savage--Ridder has a unique background of being able to not only find and evaluate talent from the JUCO ranks, but also develop. That will definitely be something to watch as his career moves forward in Macon. In his first season, he led the Bears to a decent 14-19 season, which included a 6-12 mark and seventh-place finish in league play.

10. Ed Conroy (The Citadel 2022-Present/Tulane 2011-22/The Citadel 2006-10)—Ed Conroy might be the top Xs and Os coach in the Southern Conference, so when The Citadel struggled on the hardwood during the 2024-25 season, it wasn’t necessarily a complete reflection Conroy as a head basketball coach. What it did reveal in some respects was the fact that there was a breakdown in talent assessment overall somewhere in regards to The Citadel’s first real major transfer portal haul. The fact is that The Citadel might actually in fact be the most difficult basketball job in all of the country, even having overtaken its league rival in that respect. The Bulldogs endured what was an incredibly difficult 2024-25 season, as for the second time in program history, and for the second time in the past decade, the Bulldogs went winless in Southern Conference play. The Bulldogs took Furman and Western Carolina to overtime and even thought they had won at the buzzer in the Scenic City over eventual SoCon regular-season champion Chattanooga until it was rightly waved off, as the shot came just after the buzzer. It was that kind of season in Charleston. The good news is Conroy isn’t the type of coach to get down on himself or the program, and is the essence of “The Citadel man” for his persevering attitude. He’s also the best coach the school has had since the great Les Robinson was patrolling the sidelines of McAlister Field House and the mid-1970s-early 80s before leaving to take over at league rival East Tennessee State in 1985. In Conroy’s second season as the head coach in the 2007-08 season, the Bulldogs won just one game in league play (1-19) and were just 6-24 overall. Year two saw big improvements, as the Bulldogs finished with 14 more wins overall (20-13) and improved by a whopping 14 wins in conference play (15-5), as it was the biggest turnarounds in The Citadel basketball history. His selection as the 2008-09 SoCon Coach of the Year was pretty much a “no-brainer.” Not only has Conroy coached in two different stints for the Bulldogs, but was also a player at The Citadel from 1985-89, and was a tremendous shooter, still ranking among the top 10 in program history in career free throw percentage (81.5%) and career three-point field percentage (39.5%). In his first stint as the Bulldogs head basketball coach from 2006-10, Conroy helped turn a program around that had struggled mightily in the final few seasons under Pat Dennis—the longest tenured coach in The Citadel’s basketball history, spending 14 seasons at the helm from 1993-2006. Among his accomplishments in his first stint as head coach, Conroy guided the Bulldogs to a win over a Stephen Curry-led Davidson team, the program’s first 20-win season in 30 years, and a first-ever postseason berth in a non-conference basketball tournament, when the Bulldogs were selected to be part of the 2009 CollegeInsider.com Tournament. The Bulldogs’ signature season under Conroy the first time around came in the 2008-09 season, which saw the Bulldogs finish the season with an impressive 20-13 record, which included a 15-5 record in the SoCon’s South Division, which was good enough to tie for second place in the league standings with cross-town rival program College of Charleston, which was coached by Bobby Cremins at that time. Conroy and the Bulldogs would sweep their cross-town rivals during the 2008-09 season, downing the Cougars 72-58 at Kresse Arena and posted a 72-63 win at McAlister Field House. Conroy would lead the Bulldogs to a 16-16 mark overall and 9-9 conference record in 2009-10, and over the course of two seasons, the Bulldogs’ 36 wins in consecutive seasons were the most in school history, eclipsing the 34 won by Les Robinson in 1977-78 and 1978-79. All that winning by Conroy in two seasons at a program that didn’t normally win was enough to draw attention from other, bigger programs, and after just four seasons, Conroy accepted a job offer at Tulane as head coach of the Green Wave from 2010-16. He helped lead the Green Wave to two postseason berths and first 20-win season in 13 years, however, Tulane’s treatment of Conroy in revealing that news was not very becoming of the Tulane basketball program, as he would find out about his firing from a media member. Conroy posted a 92-103 record at Tulane in six years as the head coach, leading the program to appearances in the CBI and CIT, and leading their transition into the American Conference. He would then serve in stints as an assistant coach at Vanderbilt (2021-22) and Minnesota (2016-21) prior to returning to The Citadel to take the head coaching position prior to the 2022-23 season. The Bulldogs would post a 10-22 mark overall and a ninth-place finish in the 10-team league with a 5-13 record in his first season back as head coach. The season would be highlighted by a 69-65 win over eventual league champion Furman in mid-February. The 2023-24 season would see a one-game improvement in the overall record, as the Bulldogs finished 11-21 overall, however, the Bulldogs won two less games in league, finishing just 3-15 and in ninth place for a second-straight season. In addition to being the head coach of Francis Marion, The Citadel and Tulane, Conroy has also spent time as an assistant at Coastal Carolina (2005-06), Tennessee (2001-05), Tulsa (2000-01), Furman (1994-97), VMI (1993-94) and NC State (1990-93). All told, Conroy has posted an overall record of 208-286 as a head coach at three different places in his career, which spans a total over 16 seasons, and he’s 75-143 over the course of seven seasons in two different stints as the Bulldogs’ head coach.

NCAA Division I Tournament Berths as Head Coaches:

Bob Richey (1 at Furman; led Furman to 2019 and 2025 NITs; has wins over Villanova, Louisville, Loyola-Chicago (2) and South Carolina in his tenure as Furman's head coach)

Dan Earl (none as a head coach at VMI or Chattanooga, but won SoCon's only ever NIT title)

Lennie Acuff (1 at Lipscomb; has over 400 wins as head coach at Alabama-Huntsville and Lipscomb)

Mike Jones (1 at Radford; has led UNCG to 20-win seasons in each of the past three seasons)

Brooks Savage (0 as head coach in only two seasons at ETSU; led the Bucs to a title game appearance in 2024 and 3rd place finish last season; back-to-back 19-win campaigns)

Tim Craft (1 at Gardner-Webb in 2019; transformed Marcus Kell into one of the best players in the SoCon this past season)

Dwight Perry (1 at Wofford in 2025; has managed adversity and been able to overcome so big losses in his short time at Wofford; led the Terriers to wins over Texas A&M in Dec. of 2022 and notched a huge non-conference win at Saint Louis in Dec. 2024)

Andrew Wilson (0 at VMI, but is coming off an 11-win improvement, which was one of the best in all of college hoops last season).

Ryan Ridder (0 as head coach so far, but has led remarkable turnarounds at places without tremendous tradition like UT Martin and Bethune Cookman; Led Bethune Cookman to a share of the 2017-18 MEAC Title; Led UT-Martin to a share of the 2023-24 regular-season OVC title

Ed Conroy (0 NCAA Tournaments as a head coach; Led The Citadel to the 2009 CIT; Led Tulane to the CIT and CBI tournaments in 2013 and '14, respectively.