SoCon Basketball Preview: Reigning NIT Champions Turn Attention to 2025-26

Chattanooga is a basketball program that has deep roots of tradition and success as an NCAA Division I Basketball member, and when the Mocs did something no SoCon programs have and only a few mid-major programs have managed to accomplish by winning the NIT crown, it was a great accomplishment for the league in the grand scheme of things.

Though the Mocs didn't achieve their ultimate goal of winning their way to the NCAA Tournament by claiming a Southern Conference Tournament title, Chattanooga did end up establishing a new school record for wins, with 29 after going on to claim the NIT crown with an 85-84 overtime win over UC Irvine.

At Southern Conference media day earlier this month, the Mocs were selected as the favorite to win the regular-season crown by the league's head coaches, edging out Furman, by four points (77-73) in the preseason poll, however, Mocs head coach Dan Earl and staff have been in the lab during the off-season trying to figure out how to replace 78.8% of his scoring from a year ago, and that includes having to replace five starters and two of the most dynamic scoring guards in program history, in both Honor Huff and Trey Bonham. Bonham is out of eligibility, while Huff, who set the school single-season record for threes made (131) last season, has moved on to play his final season at West Virginia.

The good news is head coach Dan Earl, who heads into his fourth season as the head coach of the Mocs, is much more familiar with the transfer portal, and how to use it to the Mocs' benefit. You could see that last season, as the Earl dipped into the portal and found some NCAA Division II products like Garrison Keeslar, Frank Champion and Jack Kostel, who were instrumental in helping the Mocs to a regular-season SoCon title last season along with being a big help in helping Chattanooga cut down the nets at Hinkle FieldHouse on the campus of Butler University after claiming the 2025 NIT title by a single point in early April.  The lone NCAA Division I transfer that helped the Mocs was Bellarmine transfer 

Now, Earl has procured what, at least on paper, appears to be another extremely strong signing class out of the portal, with a good mix of lower division players as well as NCAA Division I veterans, as the Mocs look to repeat their regular-season title run of a year ago, while also claiming their first

"I didn't have that much experience with it per-se because I was at VMI and at that time they didn't take transfers in and now that's changed a little bit for VMI over the years as well but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out, but it helps with time and you're just trying to make calculated decisions and that's what makes it so difficult now is because you don't know how the rules are going to change so it can be tough to make decisions sometimes," head coach Dan Earl said.

Another thing that Earl looks for when it comes to acquiring players from the transfer portal is a certain type of skill level, which we saw in former players like big man Jake Stephens as well as others like Keeslar just this past season. 

Is there a particular skill that coach Earl looks for when getting a player from the transfer portal? One thing that is irrefutable and that is coach Earl seems to attract intelligent players that also happen to be outstanding shooters and passers.  

"We have kind of a saying or mantra that we go by...see, share and shoot...we want them to see the floor and be able to make decisions and I think it all comes down to decision and we want guys that are able to make good decisions with the ball as well as be unselfish and be able to shoot and not be bashful about shooting the three...We want guys that can consistently make threes and so we certainly want skilled guys."

"There are some obstacles to finding those guys sometimes though... A-sometimes it's hard to identify them and B-sometimes when you take skilled guys like we do...you're giving up something and that is we're not getting LeBron James who is also super skilled but also is 260 or whatever he is and can jump over the moon and sometimes some of the guys we get are thinner for the position they are supposed to play or smaller for a position they are supposed to play or else they would be going someplace else."

A little like last season, the Mocs have a nice mix of both lower level and Division I guys. One of the most impressive of those "gets" from the transfer portal is Teddy Washington Jr., who comes to the Mocs program from SEMO where he was a standout for the Red Wolves last season, as they would end up making a run all the way to the conference title game before losing to SIU-Edwardsville.

“Teddy [Washington] is going to help us immensely this season, but particularly on the defensive end of the floor,” head coach Dan Earl said. 

“Defense is something that has always stuck out to me…It’s how I had to get on the floor as a freshman,” Washington said at SoCon media day earlier this month at SoCon media day. “It became something I enjoyed doing and kind of took pride in doing,” Washington added. 

Offensively Washington is no slouch either. He comes off a season which saw him also average in double figures, as he comes off a 2024-25 season which saw 13.9. PPG and 5.4 RPG.

“I think the other thing that really stands out about Teddy and his overall game is his ability to rebound the basketball as a 6-2 guard…He averaged over five boards per game last season and having a guard that can rebound like that shows really two things and that is that his overall basketball ability as a complete player is elite, but I think the most important part of that is the second part of that, which is his desire to have the ball and desire to get the ball for his team,” Earl said.

For Washington, it’s his sixth school in six years, and each one has brought a unique experience. If there is a positive to the whole transfer portal era thing, I suppose that would have to be it, which is that each stop has in some way provided a different life experience.

The other pieces brought in through the transfer portal are certainly no slouches either. Billy Smith (Bellarmine) and Brennan Watkins (North Dakota State) are a pair of guys that will add even more veteran leadership to Earl’s backcourt this season.

Watkins is obviously a guy that Earl is familiar with being that he was one of his last recruits when Earl was still coaching at VMI. Now the two are reunited once again in the Scenic City, keeping alive the string of players to join the program from Lexington, as Watkins now becomes the fourth former Keydets player to exchange the red and gold for the navy blue and gold.

The former VMI guard has battled injuries and has seen his role change since he transferred the first time, as he went from Lexington to Fargo. During his time playing for Andrew Wilson back in the 2023-24 season, Watkins was looked at as one of the team’s primary scorers.

Watkins started all 22 games he played in during the 2023-24 season with the Keydets before spending the final month on the bench with what turned out to be a season-ending injury. He would, however, end up closing out the season as VMI’s leading scorer, adding 15.2 PPG to go with 3.0 APG, while also knocking 47 triples on the season.

He ended up playing a key role for an NDSU team that finished the season with 21 wins and was a team that was among the most prolific in the nation when it came to shooting the three.  Unlike his previous season at VMI, which saw him serve a role as being one of the team's primary scorers, he wouldn't be asked to do that in Fargo. 

He ended the season shooting a solid 36% (39-of-109) from three-point range and enjoyed his best outing of the season against St. Thomas out of Minnesota, as he posted 18 points in an 89-85 home loss to the Tommies in the conference opener. 

All told, Watkins would end up posting double-figure scoring performances in a total of six games during the season. The 6-0 guard from Kearney, MO., ended up playing primarily point guard for the Bison last season, and finished second on the team in total assists, with 84 helpers on the season (2.9 APG). He will add both experience and shooting acumen to the Mocs backcourt for the upcoming season. 

Most of the excitement surrounding Smith has to do not only with his leadership, but also his ability. Smith arrives in the Scenic City as a junior and will have two years of eligibility remaining in the Navy Blue and Gold. Smith a 6-7 wing guard/forward that can flat outshoot the basketball. 

Smith is an intriguing addition for the Mocs, and he might just be the best shooter that Earl has added from the transfer portal since arriving at Chattanooga three years ago. The Indianapolis, IND., native was an All-Atlantic Sun performer last season while with the Knights, finishing 13th in the league in scoring, averaging 14.0 PPG. 

He also ranked second in the A-SUN in three-point field goal percentage (38.7%) last season, while ranking sixth overall, conference in field goal percentage (44.5%) and fifth in three-pointers made-per-game (2.7).

With Bash Wieland having moved on, Smith, who came from the same program as Wieland, Smith will now look to continue the strong pipeline that the Mocs have established with Bellarmine over the past couple of seasons. 

Another key on the wing for Dan Earl’s team this season will be wing Sebastian Hartmann, who comes to UTC from Munich, Germany and he will add another excellent shooter to the fold for Earl and the Mocs.

Hartmann came to Chattanooga from Eastern Washington, where he averaged 9.3 PPG and 4.2 RPG, while also finishing the season with 1.6 APG. Hartmann was a late pickup in the recruiting process, and he also will add some sneaky good athleticism.

Another unique, but talented find from the portal's lower levels is Pittsburg State transfer point guard Jordan Frison. Frison ended the 2024-25 season leading the Gorillas in scoring average, as he finished the season averaging 18.4 PPG and averaged a team-leading 6.1 APG.

Frison finished the season as the Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletic Association Player of the Year. About the only thing Frison struggled to do last season was shoot the three, finishing the season connecting on just 30.3% (33-of-109) from long range during the 2024-25 season. His quickness and scoring ability will enhance what figures to be an already-strong backcourt. 

The Mocs will also have one of the more interesting additions in the backcourt in the SoCon heading into the upcoming season, in Jikari Johnson, who has been a player that was under-recruited out of high school, and yet he has overachieved at every level in which he was played at in college.

Johnson could be an important piece for the Mocs this season, as he comes from a Trevecca Nazarene program, where he was coached by Kevin Carroll, who is the newest head coach at Lipscomb. Carroll was once an assistant of Earl's during his time as VMI's head coach. However, instead of joining forces with Carroll at Lipscomb, Johnson opted to join up with Earl at Chattanooga to continue his career at the NCAA Division I level. 

Johnson, who averaged 20.7 PPG at Trevecca Nazarene, should be an instant impact player in the Southern Conference this season. He has vertical athleticism and can play above the rim, giving the Mocs an element they were somewhat missing last season as good as they were. Johnson was one of three Mocs that was selected to the preseason All-SoCon team. 

As far as other backcourt additions are concerned, keep an eye on this season include some young, up-and-coming talent from the high school ranks, as both Tate Darner and Zach Bleshoy join the Mocs program. Darner is a 6-4 guard out of Marietta, GA., who was rated as a three-star recruit by both rivals and 247Sports. 

Tate’s father, Linc Darner, is the head coach of NCAA Division II member Tampa after a five-year stint as the head coach at Green Bay, where he led the Phoenix to the 2016 NCAA Tournament.

Darner is both a prolific scorer and an elite shooter and is ranked as one of the top shooting guards coming out of the state of Sunshine State. Darner chose Chattanooga among nine offers he held during the recruiting process, choosing to play for the Mocs over programs like Jacksonville, Stetson, Youngstown State, Dartmouth, North Florida, Upstate and Boston University.

Like Darner, Bleshoy comes to Chattanooga with some impressive credentials and comes from one of the top recruiting hotbeds in the country, in the Atlanta-Metro area, and he possesses the versatility to play either point guard or off the ball.

Heading into his senior season, Bleshoy was ranked as the 20th best prospect in the Peach State, including being ranked as the fourth-best point guard in the entire state. 

Bleshoy chose Chattanooga over 11 offers he held coming out of high school, choosing the Mocs over programs like Boston University, Kennesaw State, NJIT, Murray State, Southern Illinois, Towson, Boston and Ohio University. 

The Marietta native ranks as a three-star recruit and stands a better chance of seeing court time this season because of his versatility, but like Darner, will likely redshirt.

Not only has Earl added some nice pieces to the backcourt that should be instant impact performers, he's also gone about and supplemented the front court, which should be among the best in the SoCon this coming season.

It all starts with a guy affectionately known to Mocs teammates and fans known as "Big Maple." Collin Mulholland's progression last March and early April was easy to see, as Chattanooga made its historic run to the NIT crown. 

The 6-9 forward/center redshirt sophomore from Kitchener, Canada, logged action in 36 games, which included making five starts last season, which all came during UTC's historic NIT championship run. 

Mulholland would see his stock rise with each start, and without him, the Mocs aren't cutting down the nets in Hinkle Fieldhouse in early April. That's a major reason that Mulholland found himself as one of three Chattanooga players to garner preseason all-conference recognition. 

But there's a lot to Mulholland's game, and it isn't just his ability to score the basketball in a variety of different ways that makes him such a versatile player, but rather the completeness to his game. As both a passer and facilitator of Earl's motion offense, he's just as vital as Jake Stephens was three years ago, or even a guy like Jan Zidek was to the Mocs two years ago. 

Every young player has that moment when the light suddenly turns on for them as an NCAA Division I college basketball player, and for Mulholland, his moment came right around Thanksgiving, when the Mocs hosted Tennessee State and Bryant as a part of a multi-team Tournament at McKenzie Arena (The Roundhouse). 

"The Coke Classic is probably the big moment when it all came together for me.…I guess that's the moment when the confidence for me shifted a little and I got little bit of a lift....I had two good games then and wasn't just like scoring, but I was also grabbing rebounds and making some good passes so that was probably the moment it started to click for me," Colin Mulholland said at SoCon Media Day earlier this month. 

The Coke Classic proved to be a jump-off point and a harbinger of things to come for Big Maple, as he posted 10 points, two rebounds and posted a block in 16 minutes off the bench in an 85-78 win over Tennessee State. In the ensuing game against Bryant, Mulholland provided the identical stat line of 10 points, two rebounds, and one block in 16 minutes off the bench. That's as efficient as it gets. The only difference between the two games was that he was 5-for-8 from the field in the 84-76 win over Bryant, whereas he was 3-for-6 in the seven-point win over Tennessee State. 

His 19-point effort in the NIT Championship Game win over UC Irvine came up huge, and without Big Maple, the Mocs don’t even win game one of the tournament at Middle Tennessee State. 

That’s because “Big Maple” scored a career-high 21 points in UTC’s 109-103 triple overtime win over the Blue Raiders. He contributed a strong 19 points in the championship game against the UC Irvine Anteaters, which was a game that saw the Anteaters purposefully playing off the redshirt freshman big man, and eventually, in some big moments, Big Maple would make UC Irvine pay.

It certainly wasn't his best shooting performance from the perimeter of the season for the big red head from the perimeter, but his 5-for-17 performance from long range in the championship game was just enough to make the Anteaters pay in the championship game.

For the season, Mulholland continued to improve his shooting from beyond the arc, and in that way, he's very comparable to Jake Stephens early in his career at VMI, who continued to perfect his shooting and threat as a lethal shooter from beyond the arc. Mulholland completed the season a solid 35.2% (31-of-88) from long range. In the crucial win over the Blue Raiders in the NIT, Mulholland ended that contest by connecting on 6-of-10 shots from the field, including a 3-for-7 from three-point range. 

Like Keeslar, Mulholland was a bit of an underrated passer this past season, and I think he also did a great job taking care of the basketball this past season, posting 51 assists and only 27 turnovers.Mulholland acknowledged the fact that his role in Earl's uniquely efficient motion offense fits his skill set almost perfectly, playing to his overall strengths as a player. 

"I am very fortunate to be in an offense like this one because I am not that big man that is super-fast or super athletic and like I am not going to be catching a whole bunch of lobs or nothing like that, but the thing that I am naturally a little bit better at is court vision and passing and like shooting so this offense really fits the way I play," Mulholland said. 

Sean Cusano showed flashes for the Mocs during the 2024-25 season, and after spending almost the entire 2023-24 season injured, he would come up in some big moments for Chattanooga this past season. 

All told, Cusano would log time in 38 games, with four starts this past season. He finished the season with four double figure scoring performances, which included a season-high 16-point effort in UTC's 20-point win over NAIA Johnson University. He finished the game going 5-for-7 from the field, which included a 2-for-2 effort from three-point land.

Cusano would finish out his second season in a Mocs uniform by shooting 29.9% (20-of-67) from three-point land, while shooting 45.0% (58-of-129) from the field in 2024-25. Like Mulholland, I expect to see Cusano's game to also reach a higher level this season.

Makai Richards is another player that ended up showing a huge upside, and as he got more comfortable with time in the lineup, you could tell he was developing into a pretty polished player that stands a great chance to perhaps even challenge for a starting spot. While that remains to be seen, he does give the Mocs an element of physicality and toughness underneath the basket, and he's also decent athletically.

Richards will have one season of eligibility after transferring into Chattanooga prior to the start of the 2024-25 season. Like Mulholland, the 6-10, 225-lb big man was especially big for the Mocs after Champion went out of the lineup with a season-ending knee injury just prior to the Southern Conference Tournament.

Richards raised more than a few eyebrows with his early-season performance against one of the perennial mid-major powers, in St. Mary’s, as the Pacific transfer would end up posting a season-high 19 points in what was an 86-74 loss to the Gaels. Richards would go 8-of-12 from the field, which included finishing the contest with one of his two made three-pointers on the season, as he finished 1-for-1 from long range.

As the season progressed, his role would end up reaching into the double-figure scoring column three more times during the season, posting 17 points in a solid win over Bryant, while finishing out the postseason with two more double-figure scoring efforts, posting 10 points in the SoCon Tournament quarterfinal win over Mercer, and added 10 points in UTC’s NIT semifinal win over Loyola-Chicago. 

Another player with tremendous upside in the frontcourt heading into the 2025-26 season is Latif Diouf.

Like Richards, Diouf would see his role increase as the season progressed and then met with some adversity with a minor injury, however, would return late in the season to have an impact on Dan Earl’s winning formula.

The 6-9, 240-lb true freshman from Gouda, Netherlands started out the season as being one of the impact players in the paint for the Mocs while Champion worked his way back from an injury.

Diouf would start the first nine games of the season and would log action in a total of 31 games with nine starts and showed a very high skill level in his action on the floor this season. His passing skills are exceptional; however, he needs to work on improving his perimeter shooting during the off-season.

Diouf enjoyed his best scoring performance in the second game of the season against St. Mary’s, posting eight points in 20 minutes of action. Diouf finished the season averaging 3.1 PPG and 2.6 RPG, while posting an impressive overall field goal percentage of 63.8% (60-of-94) for the season.

The final newcomer is 6-9 forward Joshua Bowman out of Huntsville, AL, who committed to Chattanooga last November. With Isaiah Ityaluk transferring out of the program to Chattanooga, Bowman could see action this season to provide added depth in the frontcourt for the Mocs. 

Bowman was more of a late bloomer during his prep career, having an outstanding senior season, as he saw both minutes and offensive production increase. A good athlete and improving perimeter threat that has the potential to be a good defensive performer in the post for the Mocs, which could see him contribute minutes sooner rather than later for UTC.

Overall, this is a Chattanooga team that is dangerous and should again win 20 games and challenge to repeat its run as a the SoCon regular-season champions, as well as being a prime contender to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2022 when the Mocs arrive at the Harrah's Cherokee Center in early March.

SoCon Media Day 2025-26: Furman’s Continuity Fuels Hopes of a Quick Return to the NCAA Tournament

Furman senior wing forward Ben Vander Wal

Furman waited 43 years between NCAA Tournament appearances when it reached the Big Dance in 2023, but now the Paladins hope to make a return to March Madness in a much shorter turnaround and I think they’ll have a great shot to do so. If continuity, development and retention have anything to do with the equation, the Paladins should be dancing once again in 2025-26.

It will take some time for the eight veterans to mix with the five newcomers, including three of which that are expected to crack Furman's 10-man rotation this season, however, and with a tough non-conference slate, you can expect the Paladins to take some lumps and encounter a fair share of adversity. You can also expect Furman’s pedigree to show when the stakes are at their highest in late February and early March.

Furman has a recent history of turning heartbreak into triumph. After losing the SoCon title game on a buzzer-beater by Chattanooga’s David Jean-Baptiste in 2022, the Paladins would respond by returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 43 years after defeating the Mocs a year later in the title game.

The Paladins saw their NCAA Tournament hopes ended by Wofford in an epic title tilt last March, as the Terriers claimed the program’s sixth tournament crown with a 92-85 win over the Paladins.

After head coach Bob Richey’s club posted a somewhat surprising 95-78 margin of victory over No. 4 Samford in the quarterfinals of the SoCon Tournament last March, he gave us this gem that gave us a first-hand perspective on just how he views the NIL era and how it’s important to manage the money you have to get a player or players to fit your culture and at the same time, the importance of having the most money isn’t as important is knowing how to spend it on the right fit. The key is that you could have culture and NIL, and Furman’s balancing of the two, at least so far under Richey, is something for future programs to consider studying.

"One thing I told myself during the off-season was I want to adapt but I never want to abandon...I never want to abandon what I believe in as the core values as a head coach and we've done to win, and my challenge is I am always looking for purpose in this business. We coach players that we ask them to go make plays and we ask them to win games so the light shines good on us and sometimes it can be one of those situations like you can make it about you," Richey said at the 2025 SoCon Tournament following the Paladins’ quarterfinal win over Samford.

"Sometimes in coaching right now, it’s like, ‘Man, I’ve got to make sure I have all this money.’ Well, the most money didn’t win this tournament this year, and it’s probably not going to keep winning this tournament. That’s not going to guarantee you that the most money is going to give you the most wins, and that’s been proven in a short time in this era," Richey added.

Richey officially heads into his ninth season as the head coach and 15th overall as a part of the Furman basketball program as an assistant or head coach, and has posted a 181-82 record overall, including a 99-42 mark in SoCon games. All told, Richey has been a part of 308 wins for Furman's program since joining Jeff Jackson's staff prior to the 2011-12 season. 

Under Richey’s leadership, Furman has valued its culture and retention rate and figuring out how to keep those two staples as valued character traits of the program’s overall culture in a world of college basketball that currently features a mid-major environment, which revolves around temptation to go to the portal for more NIL money or perceived major role at a power four program, remain a constant challenge.

Three Starters Must Be Replaced

Leading guards Nick Anderson (14.6 PPG, 2.2 RPG, 96 3PT FGs) and PJay Smith Jr. (17.6 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 111 3PT FGs), who accounted for 207 of the team’s 380 three-point field goals last season, have both moved on. Big man Garrett Hien (7.5 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 27 3PT FGs), who was a 1,000-point scorer in his career for the Paladins, and one of the most important players in the history of Furman basketball for his two made free throws, steal and assist to JP Pegues in the final seconds in the 68-67 NCAA Tournament win over Virginia three years ago, has also moved on.

The other piece that brought a defensive presence and mature leadership off the bench for Furman a year ago was Tyrese Hughey (1.7 PPG, 1.3 RPG), as Furman is down to only a couple of remaining players that were a part of its 2023 championship team of three years ago. Wing forward Tommy Humphries (0.7 PPG, 0.3 RPG) struggled to find his way into Furman’s rotation and opted to transfer back to his home state to play for Summit League power St. Thomas.

Many believed that selecting a point guard was the intended strategy during the off-season, and at first, Richey also expressed agreement on Furman’s postgame show after the Paladins’ 75-64 first-round defeat to North Texas. He would obviously change his thinking over the course of about a month.

"Well you get in that portal and it's like...a little bit of a needle in a haystack and you've got to find somebody that fits your place and you've got to somebody that fits your program and you've got to find somebody that you feel like is leaving for the right reasons and so you get in there and the funnel gets really tight really quickly and then you have to figure out who you can afford so then you got to say well you've probably go best player because there is only so many options and so are you going to take a less talented guy that might not fit you as well to get the quote unquote position you need and when we had the opportunity to get Asa [Thomas] it was just one of those situations where you know coming from Clemson...you know Brad [Brownell] and I have some similar values and we're good friends," head coach Bob Richey said at SoCon Media Day in early October.

"We recruited Asa in high school and he can really shoot it and knows how to cut and knows how to play and then you have to ask yourself do we need a point or do we need to replace shooting...point guard in today's game and we're playing 94-feet offense and we're just trying to get the ball out of the net and go play...So we've taken two two-guards and turned them into all-conference point guards," Richey added.

Richey’s Offensive Innovation

Though Furman won 25 games last season, it still finished fifth in SoCon and did hit a lull in the middle portion of conference play. While Furman’s offense and shooters against uncommon opponents was something it had great success with, racing to a 13-1 start, including a 12-1 non-conference record, when the Paladins got in league against the good coaches that make up the league, there was a game-plan that seemed to work early on.

Part of Furman’s philosophy under Richey has been trying to always have five perimeter threats on the floor, and in most seasons, that has not necessarily always been easy, but it’s always made Furman so hard to account for defensively.

Aside from their offensive actions, which seem like QB progressions in that each action has four or five options that the Paladins can go to if an opponent shuts down one, is Furman has shot the ball maybe as well as it ever has from three over the past eight seasons under Richey, which included setting a single-season SoCon record with 401 triples in the 2021-22 campaign. All told, Furman has connected on 2,690-of-7,162 attempts from three-point range over the past eight seasons, which computes to an impressive 37.5% shooting clip over the past eight seasons.

While Furman had two of its best shooters from three in eight seasons under Richey, in Smith and Anderson, it also had guys like Cooper Bowser, Ben Vander Wal and Garrett Hien that were basically minimal perimeter threats at best, with only Hien really factoring in as a potential long-range threat, and outside of his sophomore season, had struggled to hit from long-range with great efficiency.

So the strategy from the opposition in the SoCon was to play off Furman shooters by a process known as “painting”, which meant it could more closely keep tabs on Anderson and Smith at all times with the luxury of an extra defender by playing off Furman’s non-shooters.

Richey's innovative offensive strategy that used Vander Wal as the quarterback and free screener for both Anderson and Smith down the stretch was nothing short of brilliant because it didn't allow teams to just play off Vander Wal like they had done when Furman took a bit of a tumble in the standings, and it forced the opposition to have get out and engage Vander Wal in some manner with a defender. It was a move that kept teams from essentially having an extra player defensively as it had off-set the balance by making it a 4v5 game before when playing off Vander Wal

Those changes led to a major turnaround for Furman basketball during the 2024-25, as the Paladins would win six-straight games, which included the very team they would lose to in the championship--the Wofford Terriers--to reach the championship game.

Personnel Preview

Eight letterwinners, including a pair of starters, in Ben Vander Wal (5.7 PPG, 5.5 RPG) and Cooper Bowser (8.3 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 57 BLKs)  have built of plenty of equity playing for the Paladins, and the duo enters the season as Furman’s two most veteran players. Vander Wal is the last remaining holdover from the team that won the 2022-23 SoCon crown and has played in 100 games for the Paladins heading into his final season, as well as logging 34 starts.

If there were an award for the league’s best “glue guy” heading into the season it would likely go to Vander Wal, as he does all the little things right for the Paladins.

Bowser is a player that seems primed for a breakout season. The junior is coming off a season where he started to emerge as a more consistent scoring threat around the basket, and at 6-11 with great length, as well as being a freak athlete, he is Furman’s leading returning scorer from a year ago. His length and athleticism started to become a problem for the opposition last season, so expect him to make a huge leap.

Bowser was one of two Paladins selected to the preseason all-conference team, with sharp-shooting Tom House (7.1 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 54 3PT FGs). House is a microwave perimeter shooter, meaning that if he gets hot, he can string together points in a hurry. He put up 21 points in Furman’s first tournament win over Samford and scored a season-high of 26 points in a mid-February win over Mercer. House’s 54 three-point field goals last season rank as the most returning three-pointers on the club, and he shot a blistering 40.6% (54-of-133) from long-range. Interestingly, House shot 56% from three and averaged over 11 PPG in Furman’s final seven games of the season.

One of the more intriguing players on Furman’s roster last season was Charles Johnston (5.3 PPG, 3.1 RPG, 33 3PT FGs), and his progression over the course of the off-season has been notable, according to Richey, especially as a true post player. Johnston spent most of his first season with the ‘Dins as a primary perimeter threat, but now he’s put on some more muscle and dedicated the off-season to becoming more of a low-post threat. Also, Johnston is a sneaky good post defender, and that will be another aspect of his game to watch this season.

More importantly, having both Bowser and Johnston in the lineup at the same time, will allow the Paladins to go with two 6-11 guys on the court at the same time. Johnston shot 38.8% (33-of-85) from three-point range last season, and it’s almost impossible to think that the big man from Australia has played only six years of organized basketball.

Finally, guys like Davis Molnar (3.5 PPG, 2.7 RPG) and Mason Smith (2.9 PPG, 1.7 RPG) are a couple of guys that Richey hopes to see continued progression with this season. For Molnar, he started to be a difference maker in some games, with Furman’s home win over Samford in the first of three meetings between the two coming to mind, providing a crucial inbounds pass to Bowser late in the game, which was not an easy pass against heavy pressure. Molnar saw action in 33 games last season, averaging almost 11 minutes per game.

The real x-factor for the Paladins this season might be Clemson transfer Asa Thomas (Clemson/Lake Forest, Ill) who red-shirted his freshman season and then battled injuries throughout the 2024-25 season while with the Tigers and didn’t see much action. When he entered the portal, the Paladins went after him, forgoing their initial plans to get a point guard. Thomas was available and too talented to pass up. His ability as a shooter will complement the skill-set Vander Wal already brings to the position. His shooting ability just makes Furman different on the wing than they were last year, and more like they have been in past seasons with guys like Noah Gurley (2018-21) and Daniel Fowler (2014-18) in terms of having that type of scoring versatility.

While the frontcourt is much more the settled piece of the team, the backcourt is somewhat of a concern or maybe a question mark might be the better way of putting it.

Eddrin Bronson (5.6 PPG, 1.6 RPG) is the latest two-guard to make the move to the point guard spot under Richey, joining both Smith and Pegues in that regard.  Bronson was already one of the best defensive players on the team last season, and if his offensive game has progressed in the off-season like most believe that it has, it could be case of Furman turning a potential question mark into an advantage much the same way it did when it moved both JP Pegues and PJay Smith Jr. from the two-guard spot into two different seasons and both turned in all-conference campaigns. He showed glimpses of what he could do as a shooter, leading Furman with 14 points in the road loss to No. 1 Kansas, while topping that previous career-high by posting 15 points in the Paladins’ opening round NIT loss at North Texas. He went a combined 7-of-13 (53.8%) from three in those two games, but shot

Bronson is being pushed this preseason by as four-star recruit and 6-5-point guard Alex Wilkins (Brooks School/Mattapan, MA). Wilkins’ game is unlike any Furman has had at any point under Richey or even his predecessor at the quarterback of Furman’s diverse offensive scheme, and that is having a player that is a smooth ball-handler and elite passer on the offensive end combined with the length and athleticism to be a real asset on the defensive end. Wilkins will play a lot and may even end up being the starter for Furman. That’s not to diminish Bronson in any way, who will be playing a new position this season and is a dynamic player in his own right, but rather a testament to just how talented Wilkins is. Adding credibility to that claim is the fact that Wilkins received 33 offers from NCAA Division I programs before settling upon Furman.

Wilkins isn’t the only freshman that the Paladins added either, as Furman found its next big-time 6-5 backcourt talent from much closer to home, in South Carolina “Mr. Basketball” and state leading scorer (35.1 PPG), in Abijah Franklin (Wren HS/Greenville, S.C.). While his status for playing this season—whether he redshirts or plays—remains up in the air, one thing is undeniable and that is his raw ability as a scorer at all three levels.

With players like Devin Sibley (Karns HS/Knoxville, TN), JP Pegues (Hillsborough HS/Nashville TN) and most recently PJay Smith Jr. (LaVergne, TN/Lee University/Goodpasture Christian School) all hailing from Tennessee, the next potentially special talent with a link to Volunteer State is 6-3 guard Collin O’Neal (Montgomery Bell Academy/Nashville, TN) out of Montgomery Bell Academy, where he established himself as a three-star prospect according 247 and Rivals, and an all-state and all-region honoree as a senior. O’Neal is a player that should see some time this season, as Richey mentioned that three of Furman’s five starters would be featured in the rotation this season. He is one of the best athletes on the roster, and his elite skill level and defensive tenacity should be reasons as to why he will see the floor rather than redshirting this season for the Paladins.

The final two additions to the latest recruiting class for Furman are 6-6 wing Cole Bowser (DeMatha Catholic, Bowie MD) and 6-9 power forward Owen Ritger (Marist School/Atlanta, GA), that will give the front court some added depth. 

It's my prediction that one of these two players stands the most likely chance to redshirt from this class, but both come into the Furman program with an eye on playing right away and will have the opportunity to do so. In fact, there's also the chance that all five could play as soon as the 2025-26 season. 

Cole Bowser is of course Cooper Bowser's little brother, and he comes to Furman from DeMatha Catholic, as he will unite season with his brother, and both will look to join some other great brother tandems to have starred in the league in its rich history, including guys like identical twins Ramon and Damon Williams in the late 1980s at VMI.

Bowser chose Furman among eight offers from others like Bryant, Norfolk State, Old Dominion, Towson and George Washington to name a few of those. The 6-6 small forward is athletic and an outstanding defender, which will give him a chance to play this coming season. He's also versatile but excels as a long-range threat. 

Ritger is another player that is versatile, and the 6-9 power forward gives Furman a true four in the paint, rather than having to develop a five into four, which the Paladins have had to do in recent seasons. His ability as a rebounder as well as a shooter from beyond the arc will give the Paladins plenty of ability to stretch the floor when he's in the lineup.  

The final addition is 5-10 point guard Gunnar Lewis (Christ Presbyterian Academy/Nashville, TN), who is a great shooter and joined the program as a point guard out of Christ Presbyterian Academy in Nashville. His ability as a shooter makes him a unique add for the Paladins as a walk-on, which also means he could see time in the Furman backcourt at some point in his career.

A Return to Timmons Arena

If you’ve followed Furman basketball for the past three decades or more, you’ll recall the many different evolutions of Timmons Arena.

It has gone from being the exciting, new on-campus facility, to being an oddly shaped arena that offered Dippin’ Dots ice cream as one of its main perks along with bad acoustics to go with bad basketball, to being an arena that, over the past decade has become one of the most hostile facilities in the Southern Conference for the opposition to garner a win, and one that Furman and its fanbase have finally learned to embrace as home.

With the hiring of first Niko Medved prior to the 2013-14 season, and then some four years later, the hiring of Bob Richey, those two coaches have now elevated the program to not only one of the best in the Southern Conference, but also one of the best in mid-major basketball over the past 11 seasons.

Since the start of the 2015-16 season, Furman has been nearly unbeatable at Timmons Arena, posting what is a 109-19 record, which includes a 63-10 mark against Southern Conference foes. In all home venues over that same span, the Paladins have posted a combined mark of 127-24.

The Paladins have made it a home, but it hasn’t always been easy. Drawing the same hearty and loyal fanbase that once attended games in downtown Greenville at the Memorial Auditorium and before that, Textile Hall, has been a challenge and a constant work in progress.

Since Furman’s rise to Southern Conference prominence over the past 11 seasons, the Paladins have also seen a rise in the level of opponents willing to come play at Timmons. Some high-profile mid-majors like Belmont (2022 and 2023) and Loyola-Chicago (2019) have brought a certain excitement that the program lacked in the previous two decades.

Sure, Furman had hosted the likes of power conference foes like South Carolina, Georgia and Clemson before, as well as welcoming in stars like generational talent Stephen Curry from former Southern Conference rival Davidson, or a College of Charleston team on the verge of being ranked in its first season as a league member in 1998. However, never before had the buzz been about Furman basketball from a fan’s perspective.

During those days prior to Furman’s turnaround as a program, which dates back to its run all the way to the tourney title game as the No. 10 seed in 2015, fans were most often filling the Timmons Arena seats and pull out bleachers to see the opposition—be it South Carolina, Clemson or Georgia, or Curry or that record-setting CofC team from 1998-99.

If you could chart a defining turnaround for Furman basketball, it might be the 2016 CIT buzzer-beating win over Louisiana Monroe, with Daniel Fowler knocking down the game-winning shot.

Others might say it came in a loss to close the 2014-15 regular-season, which saw the Paladins drop a 62-60 contest to Wofford, who would end up repeating as Southern Conference champions in 2015. Whatever the case, the 251-105 all-time record inside the facility, despite the hiccups of shortcomings of it over the years, has been one of the best home records in the league over the better part of the past three decades.

Pack Line Paladins

What’s striking about the Paladins this season is they are a big team, and one of the bigger teams in the SoCon. It will be interesting to see what the change to a pack line defense will look like and how much the Paladins will use it this season, as that was one of the main reasons new assistant coach Joe Pierre III was brought in from Ritchie McKay’s staff at Liberty. Furman playing the pack line with Johnston and Bowser on the floor at the same time and with their length, as well as being in a mid-major league that features smaller, quicker guards, it all makes a lot of sense.

Final Word

“This is the most returning plus new I’ve had since I’ve been here as the head coach…six new players…I’ve never had that…but also a good clump of returners back and so really getting the young and the old assimilated quickly you know I think that’s going to be a big challenge for us and getting the point guard spot figured out…we’ve got talent there but it’s going to be young talent…We are going to have a new point guard and I can guarantee you this…the 40 point guard minutes this year will all be all guys that have never played point guard before in a college game,”—Bob Richey at SoCon Media Day 2025.

What’s Coming Soon…

Be sure to check back soon for more coverage of SoCon media day soon, as I detail Chattanooga’s outlook for the upcoming 2025-26 season after having caught up with Mocs head coach Dan Earl to discuss the upcoming season and look back to the Mocs’ amazing run to NIT glory last March.

 

 

 

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.