The SoCon's Public Endorsement of NCAA Tournament Expansion Leaves us With So Many Questions

While most that support mid-major basketball think it to be a bad idea, and that includes myself, the Southern Conference has announced its support for the expansion of the NCAA Tournament from a 68-team field to 76 teams it was announced Tuesday morning by commissioner Michael Cross. Most of us have several questions, and it's hard to know exactly where to start. Let's start by looking at the SoCon's general, unprecedented success over the past decade-plus.

SoCon POV: A Decade-Plus Like No Other

With the evolving landscape of the NIL/transfer portal era, it has been difficult for many mid-major conferences to keep up. The SoCon has not been immune to that either, as the last two seasons have seen the league go 0-34 against power five programs, with those types of games becoming fewer and fewer during the regular-season non-conference. 

The current era for the SoCon has been among its best in its 105-year history. Excluding the COVID-19 shortened 2020-21 season, the most notable thing about the SoCon upon first glance is that its league regular-season or tournament champion from 2014-25 has won 27 or more games over an 11-season span. 

The league has produced a pair of NCAA Tournament wins, two nationally-ranked programs within the same season, an NIT Champion, multiple wins over reigning national champions and Final Four programs, wins over power five and nationally-ranked programs, and two of the four 30-win teams the league has ever produced.

In fact, only in the past couple of seasons has the league seen its NCAA Tournament representative fall as low as a 15 seed in the Big Dance. Wofford competed as a No. 15 seed last season after winning the SoCon Tournament as a No. 6 seed, despite the SoCon having a solid No. 13 ranking in KenPom. 

The Terriers were somewhat competitive before falling to Tennessee, 77-62, while Furman was a No. 15 this past season, falling 82-71 to national runner-up Connecticut. This was the closest a SoCon team has played in a game against a No. 15 seed since Davidson dropped a 70-62 decision to No. 2 Ohio State in the 2006 NCAA Tournament.  Wofford playing as a No. 15 seed in the tournament marked the first time a SoCon team had that low of a seed in the NCAA Tournament since the No. 15 Terriers faced No. 15 Michigan in the 2014 NCAA Tournament.

The league did dip to No. 20 in the 2022-23 season, however, Furman's NCAA Tournament win over Virginia helped off-set that a little. 

SoCon’s Past 13 Tournament Champions KenPom Ranking at Season’s End

2013-14—Wofford (KenPom Rank=192)

2014-15—Wofford (KenPom Rank=No. 96)

2015-16—Chattanooga (KenPom Rank=109)

2016-17—East Tennessee State (KenPom Rank=67)

2017-18—UNC Greensboro (KenPom Rank=82)

2018-19—Wofford (KenPom Rank=18)

2019-20—East Tennessee State (KenPom Rank=56)

2020-21—UNC Greensboro (KenPom Rank=108)

2021-22—Chattanooga (KenPom Rank=67)

2022-23—Furman (KenPom Rank=92)

2023-24—Samford (KenPom Rank=81)

2024-25—Wofford (KenPom Rank=114)

2025-26—Furman (KenPom Rank=184)

All the accomplishments mentioned above are just a sampling of the league's success over the past 12 seasons or so, and sustaining that in this current era is hard enough, let alone having to now navigate how the league's current message is received by the NCAA and other stakeholders, as mid-majors struggle to keep their positioning in the NCAA postseason amid expansion rumors. 

With that said, there are also some concerning phrases in the principles listed below like the insinuation that the automatic bid process of the league might somehow be altered with an expansion? Read for yourself and see if that is how it sounds to you. 

The Release and What it says:

Most hold fast to the theory that expanding the NCAA Tournament would ultimately to include more marginal bigger programs, and thus, force more mid-majors to the front of the dance line, or the "First Four" if you catch my drift. Most view that as not part of the real tournament itself, and technically speaking, they're right. The event in Dayton is kind of viewed as a part of the tournament designed to placate perceived bubble mid-majors while simultaneously advocating for more borderline power conference teams to be included in the main field. 

For the SoCon to endorse such a view when no other mid-major conference has yet to publicly do so is a little eye-popping, and at the same confusing all in one. Why would the SoCon endorse such a perceived threat to dilution of the product that makes everything Madness in March? 

In a release laid out on the SoCon's website, there are three principles in which the league advocates using below when it comes to March Madness Expansion. I have copied and pasted those three principles from the league's website below. 

PRINCIPLE #1 – SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE ACCESS 

The NCAA transformation committee established that approximately 25% of teams should participate in postseason championships.  Just under 23% of 282 schools participated in March Madness when the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. Today, 18.6% of Division I schools participate. Critically, expansion must preserve automatic qualification for all conferences.

PRINCIPLE #2 – COMPETITIVE INTEGRITY 

The First Four in Dayton features two games between the four lowest-ranked automatic qualifiers, and two with the four lowest ranked at-large teams. The primary purpose of March Madness is to crown a champion.  Opening round participation should be based on merit, not the method of qualification, with the lowest NET teams playing in these games. Teams with a statistically better chance of reaching the Final Four should play fewer games.  March Madness formats should utilize complete bracket integrity.  If this is not achievable, the bracket should have all teams on a seed line playing the same number of games to reach the Final Four.

PRINCIPLE #3 – TRANSPARENCY 

Schools spending millions of dollars annually on their basketball programs shouldn’t have to speculate about the math informing selection metrics.  The NET is the committee’s foundational resource to rank teams, establish quadrants, and determine the cut line in the Wins Above Bubble (WAB) metric.  Unfortunately, NET calculations remain unknown.  Describing its formulas as “too complicated”; concerns coaches will “game the system”; and describing the NET as “only one tool” in an attempt to minimize its importance are not defensible rationales for withholding selection formulas.  Metric transparency is crucial for trust and better decision-making by coaches and administrators across Division I.  Disclosing NET and other selection metric formulas, while also revising the quadrants and WAB cutlines to align with a bigger tournament field, should be part of expansion.

I have listed several reasons which I think are valid as to why the principles above should not be endorsed, primarily because they limit a league that has proven it can compete at the highest of levels. 

Further Limiting League and Individual Player Exposure

There are so many issues and dangers in naively believing the NCAA cares about what mid-majors actually do for the sport. It's surprising that the SoCon should be the conference that should announce such advocacy when its been a league that has avoided having to play in a "First Four" game since the tournament was increased from 64 to 68 teams in 2011. 

In the past decade alone, the SoCon has seen two of its teams--Furman and Wofford--produce memorable opening-round wins over power conference programs in the NCAA Tournament, with No. 7 seeded Wofford took down No. 10 Seton Hall (W, 84-68) in the 2019 edition of March Madness, while it was just three years ago that No. 13 seeded Furman produced that memorable JP Pegues buzzer-beating win over No. 4 Virginia (W, 68-67) in Orlando. 

Even this past March with the league floundering at No. 23 in KenPom's metric for power rankings among 31 conferences, the SoCon's representative, which was No. 15 Furman, was competitive with No. 2 and eventual national runner-up UConn, dropping what was an 82-71 contest in Philadelphia. That was a stage that allowed point guard Alex Wilkins to further maximize his potential into the seven-figure category with his ability as a high-major player on display for all to see. 

His 21-point effort against the Huskies allowed the league's most talented freshman since Stephen Curry (2006-07) to capitalize on it in the transfer portal/NIL era we live in, as he will more than double the NIL money he was receiving at Furman in his new destination at the University of Kentucky. If he played in a First-Four game on a random Tuesday night, I am not sure what he is doing now is even a reality.

Why you ask? Primarily due to the fact that many high majors won't play well-established mid-majors anymore. In fact, UConn was Furman's only regular-season or postseason matchup against a team from a power conference. Those opportunities are dwindling in the SoCon and for other mid-majors throughout the country. Endorsing a tournament expansion to essentially a play-in round of eight games for mid-major teams would even lessen those opportunities even more. 

Trying to understand why the league would make such a public statement endorsing expansion is perhaps the hardest thing to rationalize about the entire ordeal. I know that is the same sentiment felt by my fellow colleagues and writers at mid-major madness, as we fail to fully be able to understand the SoCon's philosophy and the reasoning behind their stance on this. It feels like one of our beloved conferences has betrayed the order.  I hope I am wrong.

It could be the SoCon sees this as a financial benefit to its now 11 member institutions (Tennessee Tech will become an official member on July 2, 2026), with more opportunities to get wins if a team or teams are involved in "First Four" matchups.  

Endorsing the NET Makes Zero Sense Under Its Current Skewed Evaluation of Teams

There are so many reasons that even the principles don't make much sense. The fact that anyone from the SoCon office or involved with the league should mention the NET ranking seems almost blasphemous. For those of us in the "if you know you know camp" should reference just one aspect of how flawed the NET system is, no one should ever look past the 2018-19 season, which is the same season that Wofford won 30 games, went unbeaten in league play, and easily handled Seton Hall in its opening round matchup.

The NET only favors power conference teams, and it only benefits power conference teams to play each other during the regular-season, which by default, automatically ensures the least amount of mid-major games are scheduled for each league, which automatically plummets mid-major conference's overall power ranking, as well as its ability to improve its own strength of schedule, which come late February and in various NCAA Bubble Tournament discussions about the odd 30-win team, has its schedule automatically held against it by people like Jay Bilas. 

In 2018-19, not only was that Wofford team among the best in Southern Conference history, it was also one of the best mid-major teams in this current era of mid-major basketball. Wofford's dominance was even more historic when you consider the strength of the top four in the league from that season--Wofford, UNC Greensboro, Furman and East Tennessee State--with three of those as strong as any of those programs had ever produced in terms of strength. 

The only exception to that rule was ETSU, which was ranked in the Top 10 nationally in the early 1990s, and a year later, the Bucs would prove just how strong they were by keeping a core of veterans around for another year, as the Bucs capped the 2019-20 season with a 30-4 record and won the SoCon Tournament title just before COVID-19 canceled the NCAA Tournament. 

And yet, as strong as the SoCon was seven years ago, and in particular its top four teams according to whatever metric you looked at, it somehow it didn't produce a second at-large bid. In that season, the league literally had wins over previous Final Four participants and a reigning national champion, in Loyola Chicago and Villanova, as Furman defeated both en route to a 12-0 start and the program's first-ever Top 25 ranking, while Wofford also ended the regular-season ranked No. 20 in the AP Top 25 and also had a 20-point win on the road at a power five opponent, defeating South Carolina (W, 81-61) on the road, as the Terriers headed into the NCAA Tournament winners of 20-straight games. 

The opening round, 84-68, win over Seton Hall was Wofford's 21st-straight win and a win that would ultimately help the Terriers become the first team in reach 30 wins in the SoCon since 1950-51. Wofford was just the third of only four in the history of the conference!

My reasons for the disagreement largely stem from a 2018-19 season, when the SoCon became the highest ranked conference to not receive two bids to the NCAA Tournament. Never before in SoCon has never before received two bids in its history. As the league seemed closer to securing a second bid for 2018-19, a release like the one the league office issued yesterday suggests that window of opportunity has now firmly closed. 

I hope I am proven wrong. I hope Cross and the SoCon will be more transparent with us mid-major fans/journalists regarding why a public endorsement was necessary at this time, and what it all means. It's one of the things I have come to greatly appreciate about Commissioner Cross: his openness to dialogue and public discourse. If he can explain what all this means a little better to make us feel better, then this release would probably hit a little differently than it initially has. 

Season Recap Part 1: A November to Forget?

Furman Freshman Phenom Alex Wilkins

November Recap

Non-conference play in the Southern Conference left a little to be desired during the 2025-26, but it still had its moments. It marks the second-straight season in which the league failed to knock off one of the big boys, and there are less opportunities against teams that a SoCon team could upset. The league, which of course finished as the No. 23 ranked league according to KenPom’s metric, actually ranked No. 21 at the end of the non-conference portion of the schedule. It’s kind of crazy that it would fall two spots after the start of league play, but that probably had to do with several teams that looked like decent non-conference wins having poor seasons in their respective leagues.

The SoCon put together a combined mark of 62-66 during the non-conference portion of the slate, with wins over good opponents fewer and further between than losses were to teams that the league had no business losing games to. With that said, it was a much different feel for the league by the time we actually got into league play.

The SoCon’s 62-66 mark in the non-conference portion of the slate included a 45-13 record at home and a 14-43 record on the road. The SoCon is also 3-10 in neutral court games and 0-4 against Top 25. Against teams from power conferences during the non-conference portion of the schedule, the SoCon finished 0-17 and are now 0-34 over the past two seasons against teams from power conferences.

Like last season, the SoCon took part in the SoCon in the SoCon-ASUN alliance and claimed what was a narrow 11-9 win, marking the second-straight season in which the SoCon has claimed a win over the Atlantic Sun. Next season that alliance will continue, and the SoCon has added a new similar series with the Big South, which will begin during the 2026-27 season. The results of that series are listed below.

SoCon-ASUN Alliance (SoCon Wins 11-9)

Round 1
Nov. 9 - Mercer 92, Lipscomb 77 (Macon, GA/Hawkins Arena)
Nov. 14 - West Georgia 100, The Citadel 92 (Carrollton, GA/The Carrollton Coliseum)
Nov. 15--Florida Gulf Coast 91, Chattanooga 73 (Fort Myers, FL/Alico Arena)
Nov. 15 -Jacksonville 69, VMI 67 (Lexington, VA/Cameron Hall)
Nov. 15-Austin Peay 69, UNCG 63 (Greensboro, N.C./Fleming Gym)
Nov. 15 -Wofford 94, Bellarmine 86 (Louisville, KY/Freedom Hall)
Nov. 15--ETSU 78, North Alabama 74 (Florence, AL/CB&S Bank Arena at Flowers Hall)
Nov. 16 -Western Carolina 76, Stetson 85 (Cullowhee, N.C./Liston B. Ramsey Center)
Nov. 16 - Samford 84, Central Arkansas 77(OT) (Conway, AR/Farris Center)
Nov. 19– Florida Gulf Coast 77, Samford 62 (Homewood, AL/Pete Hanna Center)
Nov. 19- Wofford 86, North Florida 78 (Spartanburg, S.C./Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium)
Nov. 20- Queens 101, UNCG 94 (Charlotte, N.C./Curry Arena)
Nov. 22- Mercer 95, Eastern Kentucky 83 (Richmond, KY/Baptist Health Arena at Alumni Coliseum)
Nov. 22-Chattanooga 71, North Alabama 57 (Chattanooga, TN/McKenzie Arena)
Nov. 22-Lipscomb 83, Western Carolina 62 (Nashville, TN/Allen Arena)
Nov. 22- Stetson 99, VMI 80 (DeLand, FL/Edmunds Center)
Nov. 23-Furman 90, Queens 79 (Greenville, S.C./Timmons Arena)
Nov. 24-Bellarmine 70, The Citadel 58 (Charleston, S.C./McAlister Field House)
Nov. 29-ETSU 80, Central Arkansas 57 (Johnson City, TN/Freedom Hall)
Nov. 29-Wofford 83, Eastern Kentucky 77 (Richmond, KY/Baptist Health Arena at Alumni Coliseum

Round 2
Dec. 1 – Wofford 74, North Alabama 54
Dec. 3 – Lipscomb 80, Chattanooga 62
Dec. 4 – Western Carolina 86, Bellarmine 74
Dec. 4 – Furman 76, FGCU 73
Dec. 7 – Queens 81, VMI 78
Dec. 8 – Samford 72, Austin Peay 47
Dec. 8 - Mercer 93, Stetson 89 (OT)
Dec. 14 – Jacksonville 60, ETSU 52
Dec. 14 – North Florida 89, UNCG 77
Dec. 16 – Central Arkansas 73, The Citadel 71

The Southern Conference season would get off to a rocky start, and there were a couple of games that we had marked our calendars for during the preseason when schedules were released, and they just simply didn’t add up to being the games we all thought they would be.

One of those games happened on opening night, as two of the most celebrated mid-majors over the past five years or so would square off at the Rock Hill Sports Complex, as High Point and Furman would battle.

It was a highly anticipated campaign coming in for the Panthers, who were the prohibitive favorite to repeat as champions in the Big South, and one of the favorites to win the SoCon title, in the Furman Paladins. The game, however, was far from ever being that close other than about the opening 10 minutes of action.

The Paladins fell 97-71 in Rock Hill, as first-year head coach Flynn Clayman hit the ground running in his first game as a head coach with the Panthers, while ninth-year head coach Bob Richey knew there’d be a steep hill to climb to ultimate to get his team to “best” come March. Fortunately, Richey knew what he was getting into playing High Point in the opening game of the season, with several other opponents turning down the chance to play High Point in the Field of 68’s Opening Day Marathon.

For Richey and Furman, it felt like a good opportunity to play a quality opponent. Especially since for the first time in his nine years as the head coach, Furman would be starting a freshman point guard. The Paladins turned it over 20 times in the 26-point loss, with six of those miscues charged to the uber-talented true freshman. After the game, Richey’s demeanor wasn’t one of concern, but rather one of a coach that knew it was a long season and one that knew his team and the talent it had the potential of putting on the floor at every position, night-in and night-out. In the end, it would end up being an accurate belief.

The opening night saw some dismal results around the league, but maybe the most impressive of any of them was Mercer’s performance on the road at nationally ranked Tennessee, as the Bears, as Mercer ended up dropping a 76-61 contest. The Bears had a tough time finding their shooting touch in the contest, shooting just 30% (20-of-67) from the field, while the Vols finished the game shooting 49% (30-of-61) and that ended up essentially being the difference in the game. It was the first time we got to learn about Baraka Okojie highlighting the night for Mercer, posting 15 points, while Brady Shoulders led the Bears’ defensive efforts with six steals. Okojie finished his evening by connecting on 3-of-13 shots from the field and was 1-of-2 from long-range and a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe and also added four rebounds, two assists and a steal in 34 minutes of actions.

Okojie finished his evening by connecting on 3-of-13 shots from the field and was 1-of-2 from long-range and a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe and also added four rebounds, two assists and a steal in 34 minutes of actions.

Samford got its season underway in New Orleans against Tulane, and the SoCon was first introduced to Jadin Booth, but even his 33 points weren’t enough to help the Bulldogs to their first win under the leadership of new head coach Lennie Acuff, as the Green Wave posted the 85-72 win. Booth, a graduate transfer from Florida Southern, finished his night with 34 points on 10-of-20 shooting from the floor, including tying a program record with nine made three-pointers.

It was Booth and the Bulldogs that would open the second half in strong fashion, as he connected on 4-of-7 from three-point land in the second half, remaining hot from three-point land, and an 8-0 run capped by a Will Shaver dunk allowed the Bulldogs to get within a three-pointer of tying the game, at 56-53, with just under 14 minutes remaining in the second half.

A 16-7 spurt by the Green Wave, which was capped by a Scotty Middleton three-pointer, allowed Tulane to push the lead back to double digits, at 72-60, with 8:15 remaining. After a three-pointer by Keaton Norris got the deficit back to nine shortly thereafter, Tulane extended the lead to 18 twice inside the final four minutes to close out the win.

Booth was 10-of-20 from the field and 9-of-17 from three-point range. The Florida Southern transfer also added three rebounds, two assists and a steal. He was a perfect 5-for-5 from the line. Dylan Faulkner and Keaton Norris rounded out the Bulldogs in double figures, with 16 and 10 points, respectively.

Tulane placed four in double figures, with former VMI guard Asher Woods finishing with 24 points, while Curtis Williams Jr added 22. Rowan Brumbaugh and Tyler Ringold added 12 and 10 points, respectively, to round out the double-figure scorers for the Green Wave. Tulane shot a blistering 58.5% (31-of-53) for the game, which included a 52.4% from three-point land (11-for-21). Samford shot just 41.0% (25-of-61) for the game, which included just a 38.7% (12-of-31) clip from three-point range.

Mike Jones would begin the season as the head coach of UNCG in Manhattan, KS, against the Kansas State Wildcats. Unfortunately, both Jones and KSU’s Jerome Teng would finish the season unemployed, with Teng not even making as the head coach through the month of February.

On this night, it would be the Spartans that would come out and look the better team for most of the opening 20 minutes of basketball, taking a 34-33 lead into the half.

In the second half, however, the Wildcats would find their rhythm, outscoring the Spartans by 30—60-30—to go on to the 29-point, 93-64, win.

Three Wildcats found their way into double figures, with PJ Haggerty leading the way with 27 points, while Nate Johnson added 22 and junior guard Abdi Bashir Jr. added all 16 of his points to the cause in the second half.

Haggerty, who transferred in from the University of Memphis during the off-season, would pace the Wildcats in scoring despite getting off to a bit of a slow start in the contest, as he connected on 10-of-20 shots from the field and was 1-of-4 from three-point range, as well as being a near-perfect 6-for-7 at the charity stripe. Haggerty also added three assists, a block and a steal to the cause, while ripping down a pair of rebounds in the contest.

Nate Johnson nearly put together a triple-double effort, finishing with nine rebounds and nine assists to go with his 22 points. Johnson was hot all night, connecting on 8-of-11 shots from the field, including going 6-for-7 from three-point land in the win.

The Spartans also finished with three players in double figures, as Mike Jones' newly assembled roster of players saw both positives and plenty of negatives emerge in the season opener. Justin Neely led the way with 15 points for UNCG, while French guard Lillian Marville added 14 points in his first game with the program. Lithuanian forward and one of the few holdovers, Domas Kauzonas, rounded out the Spartans in double figures, adding 10 points, six rebounds, two blocks and an assist.

Defending regular-season champion Chattanooga opened its season against NAIA foe Union College, posting what would be a historic win and looking in mid-season form shooting-wise for much of the night. Mocs fans roared as the NIT Championship was raised high above the floor in the rafters at McKenzie Arena, however, few knew at that time there would be so many few things to cheer for the season as a whole in the Scenic City. Chattanooga used 19 three-pointers and a balanced scoring attack, with four players finishing in double figures, as the Mocs easily dispatched of the Chargers, 92-39.

Freshman point guard Tate Darner led the way with 15 points, as he went 5-for-7 from three-point range and also grabbed six rebounds in what was a strong debut for Chattanooga, and portal newcomers Jikari Johnson (14 pts), Jordan Frison (10 pts) and Brennan Watkins

The win would mark the 500th inside the Roundhouse for Chattanooga, which would go on to finish the season with a losing record inside the facility in its 44th season of operation. On this night, however, Chattanooga improved to 500-162 as a program inside the friendly confines, which originally opened during the 1982-83 season. Dating back to the 2024-25 season, the Mocs notched their sixth-straight win, which at the time, was the longest active winning streak in NCAA Division I basketball.

It was also UTC’s 30th-straight win to open a season on the home floor, with the last loss in a season and home opener coming back in 1959, with a 98-58 loss to Tennessee Tech. The Golden Eagles, of course, will be the newest member of the SoCon next season. The 53-point margin of victory was UTC’s largest since knocking off Tennessee Wesleyan by 61 points (112-51) on Dec. 10, 2023.

UNCG and Mercer weren’t the only one to face one of the big boys of power four basketball in the opening month of the season, as both Western Carolina and The Citadel had tough games against Cincinnati and Boston College. The Bulldogs had actually gotten a little bit of confidence to start out the 2025-26 season, completing what was a lopsided 101-68 win over Erskine, and for a team that ended the previous season with 19-straight losses, the win over the Flying Fleet at least gave the team so confidence to build on before having to face off against the Eagles.

The Citadel jumped to an early 16-7 lead, however, the Eagles would find their scoring groove midway through the opening half, surging to a 31-8 run to close out the opening 20 minutes of basketball and take what was a 38-24 lead into the halftime locker room.

The Eagles would then post an identical 38 points in the second half, while holding the Bulldogs to one less point than they had in the opening 20 minutes of basketball, as Boston College ensured that this time around, it wouldn't have to sweat out a close win over the Bulldogs, after BC posted single digit wins of nine and four points, respectively, over the previous two seasons.

After Sola Adebisi and Christian Moore connected on a pair of threes to get the Bulldogs out to that nine-point lead early in the game, the Eagles responded with a 14-0 to completely shift the momentum of the game and take a 14-point, 38-24, lead into half. The Eagles held the Bulldogs scoreless for over five minutes and turned a the nine-point deficit into a five-point lead following a 14-0 run was capped by a Boden Kapke layup with 8:31 remaining in the opening half. A Caleb Steger triple would extend the BC lead to eight shortly thereafter.

In the second half, Aiden Shaw brought the crowd to its feet on a stuff off an alley-oop feed from Chase Forte, extending BC's lead to 22, at 46-24, at the 15:55 mark of the second half, and the rout was officially on.

The Bulldogs couldn't find their shooting touch the entire night, thanks to BC's strong effort on the defensive end of the floor, as the Bulldogs finished the game connecting on just 30.2% (16-of-53) from the field and a meager 25% (5-of-20) from three-point range. The Bulldogs did manage to limit the Eagles ton just five made threes in the game, however.

Western Carolina had just as tough of a time with the Bearcats, who were coached by former UNCG legend Wes Miller. Miller had led the Spartans to a five-year run of success as good as any in this millennium, as he helped UNCG win a pair of SoCon titles in a four-year span, claiming the 2018 and 2021 league regular-season and tournament titles, respectively.

However, in his fifth season at Cincinnati, he found himself starting out the campaign on the proverbial hot seat. As well all know, that would end up being the beginning of the end for Miller as the head coach of one of the Midwest’s most prestigious basketball programs, as he was fired after a mediocre 18-15 season, which saw them miss out on the NCAA Tournament.

Western Carolina opened its 2025-26 season in a big-time venue to start year two under head coach Tim Craft, and it was a tough way to open the campaign, as Cincinnati was able to claim a 94-63 win in what was the fifth all-time meeting between the two programs and the first time since the 2017-18 season. The latest victory saw the Bearcats remain perfect in the series against the Catamounts, improving to 5-0 inside the friendly confines of Fifth-Third Bank Arena.

The Bearcats, who are led by former UNCG legendary head coach Wes Miller, as four players ended the night in double figures, including three players that ended up with 18 points to lead the way for a Cincinnati team predicted to finish in the middle of the pack in the 16-team Big 12 Conference and looking to make its first NCAA Tournament appearance under the direction of its fifth-year head coach.

Freshman forward Shon Abaev, senior forward Baba Miller and sophomore center Moustapha Thiam all finished the game with 18 points, while 6-6 freshman wing Jordi Rodriguez added 10 points off the bench to help a well-rounded Cincinnati offensive attack, which finished the night connecting at a 54.2% clip (32-of-59), including a 35.7% (10-of-28) from three-point range.

Baba Miller and Jordi Rodriguez are the latest Spaniards to excel on a Wes Miller coached team, who while at UNCG, brought in dynamic shooting guard Francis Alonso and went on to become that program's most-prolific perimeter shooter, and that would end up leading to a 2017-18 SoCon Tournament crown. Miller is hoping his latest couple of Spaniards mentioned above can lead the Bearcats back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.

Baba Miller posted a double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Bearcats, as he connected on 7-of-9 shots from the field and was 4-for-6 from the line, while also issuing out one assist in the win. Thomas is the lone returning starter for the Bearcats from a year ago, as he finished 3-for-11 shooting from the field and 2-of-5 from the charity stripe to share team scoring honors with his two teammates.

Western Carolina's offensive efforts were led by Cord Stansberry, who finished with a game-high 23 points on 9-of-19 shooting from the field, including a 4-for-9 effort from three-point range, as he would lead a Catamounts team that featured three players in double figures in what was a tough shooting night against the bigger, more talented Bearcats.

Stansberry, whose 23 points were just one off his career-high, was joined in double figures by newcomer Julien Soumaoro (13 pts) and preseason all-conference selection forward Marcus Kell (12 pts, 9 rebs) finished just one rebound shy of a double-double, as he continued off his strong close to the 2024-25 season, which saw him close out the 2024-25 season with 12-straight games in double figures.

The Bearcats started the game as you might expect for a major program steeped in tradition, beginning its 125th season of basketball by racing to a 25-8 first half lead a little over seven minutes into the contest, as Keyshaun Tillery capped an 11-0 spurt to bring the crowd of 9,126 fans on-hand at Fifth-Third Bank Arena to a loud collective roar.

The Catamounts could get no closer than 14 points for the remainder of the opening half, and the Bearcats led by as many as 28 (48-20) in the opening half before settling on a 21-point (49-28) advantage at the half.

After Cincinnati opened the second half on a 6-0 run to stretch the lead back to 28, at 56-28, the Catamounts would eventually trim the lead back to 19 points, on back-to-back buckets from Kell Stansberry, as the former connected on an three and the latter on a two-point shot in the paint, which saw the Catamounts cut the deficit to 64-45 with 10:35 left. It would be the only time the Catamounts would cut the deficit inside 20 points in the second half.

For the game, the Catamounts finished shooting the ball at a 35.9% (23-of-64) clip for the game, and the Catamounts were soundly outmatched in several key categories, including: points off turnovers (26-13), bench scoring (26-10) and fast-break points (16-0). The Catamounts turned the ball over 22 times in the game and shot just 33.3% (9-for-27) from three-point range. The Catamounts did hold a slight 37-36 advantage on the glass.

Another team that would be in for a rude awakening in their first game of the new season would be the defending tournament champion Wofford Terriers, who were playing a brand new head coach, with Kevin Giltner taking over under bizarre circumstances for former head coach Dwight Perry, who was fired abruptly in early September. That being said, the opponent in the first game of the Kevin Giltner era was no slouch, in the George Mason Patriots, who headed into the season as one of the favorites in the Atlantic 10.

George Mason ended 2024 SoCon champion Samford's season in the NIT last March at EagleBank Arena, and issued defending SoCon Tournament champion Wofford and its rookie head coach Kevin Giltner a harsh verdict in the Terriers 2025-26 opener, as the 2024-25 Atlantic 10 regular-season co-champion Patriots claimed a 70-46 win in the same venue.

The Patriots were led by three in double figures, with junior guard Kory Mincy coming off the bench to deliver a game-high 18 points, as the former Presbyterian guard, who was one of three players in double figures (10 pts vs. Wofford in 2024-25) for the Blue Hose last season in helping PC stun Wofford 71-68 at the Templeton Center, continued a theme of playing well against the Terriers, as he would lead the Patriots in scoring in the contest, leading all scorers with 18 points off the bench for George Mason.

Mincy finished the night by connecting on 6-of-9 shots from the field, as he did most of his damage from three-point range in the game, connecting on 4-of-5 shots from three-point range. In addition to his 18 points, Mincy also dished out six of the team's 12 assists in the win.

Mincy would be joined in double figures in the game by former Samford big man Riley Allenspach, who finished the night with 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field and added four boards, while senior guard Masai Troutman rounded out the Patriots players in double figures with 10 point and six rebounds in 29 minutes of action.

The Terriers would finish the evening with just one player able to scratch double figures, as Nils Machowski ended the opening night with 11 points to lead Wofford. Machowski went 4-for-10 from the field and was 2-for-6 from three-point range, while adding seven rebounds and a steal.

The Patriots finished the night shooting a solid 47.3% (38-of-65) from the field and held a 34-18 advantage in the points in the paint category, while George Mason took advantage of Wofford's youthful mistakes, turning 16 Wofford miscues into a 17-2 advantage in points off turnovers. After trailing by just seven (29-22) at the break, the Terriers would be vastly overmatched in the second half, with George Mason able to outscore the Terriers by 17 (41-24).

Points were tough to come by for the entire night for Wofford, thanks in large part to the stifling defense played by George Mason, which held the Terriers to just 30% (15-of-50) shooting for the game, including just 20.7% (6-of-29) from three-point land.

East Tennessee State would open up its championship season with a 102-50 win over Converse, taking the lead 36 seconds into the game, as Brian Taylor II scored his first basket of the 2025-26 season, and though the Bucs were taking on lesser competition, it became pretty evident that Brooks Savage had a different, more versatile offensive arsenal at his disposal than either of his previous two seasons as the head coach in Johnson City.

Five players finished out the season opener in double figures for ETSU, with the leading man in the opening act of the 2025-26 season being Jordan McCullum, who posted 18 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field in the win. McCullum was joined in double figures by Milton Matthews III off the bench, as he added 14 points, and Brian Taylor II finished with 13 to highlight McCullum’s supplemental help in the Bucs’ season opener. Brayden Crump, who transferred in from Elon, would add 12 off the bench. Unfortunately for Crump, he would have his season cut short due to injury. Also getting into the double figures act for the first of 27 times on the season was Blake Barkley, who finished with 11 points en route to finishing out a Third-Team All-SoCon season in his first season in Johnson City after transferring in from Northwestern. The Bucs ended the season opener by knocking down a solid 59.2% from the field for the game.

The Bucs would suffer their first defeat of the season four days later on the road in Clinton, S.C., where the Bucs would find a Presbyterian team laying in wait for them upon their visit to the Templeton Center on the first Saturday evening of the college basketball season. The Big South’s Blue Hose would end up stunning the Bucs, 68-64, as PC snatched the lead late, and thus, the game.

Presbyterian scored 11 of the final 15 points of the game and 19 of the final 27, as the Blue Hose held off the Bucs, 68-64, in a mild upset Saturday night at the Templeton Center.

With the win, the Blue Hose improved to 2-1 on the season, while ETSU fell to 1-1 on the young season. The win over the Bucs marked the second SoCon opponent in as many seasons that the Blue Hose have defeated on the home hardwood, as PC also took down Wofford () at the Templeton Center just last season.

The Bucs started slow, and PC took advantage, getting out of the gates quickly to take a 14-2 lead with 5:28 gone in the game, however, the Bucs responded to outscore PC 24-11 over the remainder of the half, getting buckets from seven different players to taking their first lead of the game following a Blake Barkley jumper with four seconds remaining in the half, giving ETSU the 26-25 halftime lead, which also happened to be their first lead of the night. It was part of a 13-2 run that the Bucs ended the half on.

In the second half, the visitors from Johnson City would stretch their lead to as much as five when Allen Strothers hit a jumper just 70 seconds into the second half. Carl Parrish answered for the Blue Hose with back-to-back triples to but the Blue Hose back on top and another three-point play the old-fashioned way allowed the Blue Hose to maintain a narrow advantage, at 34-33, with 15:30 remaining in the game.

A 9-2 spurt by ETSU saw the Bucs retake the lead, with a pair of Blake Barkley trips to the foul line, where he went 4-of-4, and another Barkley three-pointer highlighting run. However, the Blue Hose wouldn't go away, as Josh Pickett answered with two threes in less than a minute to put the hometown Blue Hose back in front.

Cam Morris III helped the Bucs re-take the lead in the see-saw affair, as he his triple with just under 10 minutes remaining would see the Bucs assume a 47-44 lead. Morris II then cushioned the lead when he posted a three-point play the old-fashioned way to make it a 50-46 game with 8:19 remaining. A Brian Taylor II jumper gave ETSU its largest lead of the half at six, at 55-49, on a jumper with 6:45 remaining. A three by Elon transfer Brayden Crump helped the Bucs keep the advantage at four, at 58-54, with just over four minutes left in the game.

However, Presbyterian took the lead with 1:38 remaining when Jonah Pierce hit the back end free throw of a two-shot foul to give the Blue Hose a 61-60 lead, and then an acrobatic jumper by Jaylen Peterson off a steal and then converted a three-point play after getting fouled, gave the Blue Hose a 65-60 lead with just under a minute left, and the Blue Hose were able to maintain that lead over the final 40 seconds to come away with a big win for the Big South over the SoCon, 68-64.

Cam Morris III led the Bucs with 17 points in 25 minutes before fouling out of the game, while Brian Taylor II finished the game with 13. The Blue Hose got a solid all-around, balanced scoring effort as well, with Carl Parrish's 17 points leading the way, while Jonah Pierce came up big with a double-double of 15 points and 13 rebounds.

The Bucs finished the night connecting on just 39% from the field in the road loss, including just a 24% clip from three-point range. The Blue Hose held a slight 33-31 edge on the backboards, but ETSU held a substantial 19-7 edge in points from turnovers, forcing a total of 16 Blue Hose miscues in the contest, while committing just 12 of its own. Chattanooga would get its first two tests of the season and they would both basically come back-to-back in a 24-hour span, as the Mocs traveled to Moraga, CA., and then Las Vegas to battle one of the most-prized mid-major programs in the country—St. Mary’s, following that with a trip to Las Vegas to face Josh Pastner’s UNLV team out of the Mountain West Conference.

Neither game would end up going well for Chattanooga, and the first signs that there might be some injury and underlying issues to this Chattanooga team as opposed to the team that had just won the NIT and the league’s regular-season title just a year earlier would become readily apparent.

The first game saw the Mocs run into a buzzsaw in the Gaels in what was the second-straight meeting between the two programs in as many seasons.

Both teams started the game slow, combining for just four total points over the first four minutes of the game. An early Tate Darner three-pointer would continue to keep the Mocs close on the scoreboard, as the true freshman's triple made it a 14-12 game with 13:52 remaining in the opening half.

The Gaels, however, answered with an 11-3 run, which started with a Paulius Murauskas jumper at the 13:28 mark and ended with a Mikey Lewis three-pointer in transition, as the Gaels went ahead by 10, at 25-15, with 10 minutes remaining in the opening half of play.

The Mocs, who were playing without injured Collin Mulholland, couldn't matchup with St. Mary's size underneath the basket, and that would prove to be a problem for a majority of the game. Chattanooga went to the half facing a 15-point deficit, at 48-33.

In the second half, the Mocs were able to pull within 12 early on in the frame, as Teddy Washington Jr. finished at the rim, cutting the Gaels' lead to just 12, at 52-40, with 16:43 remaining. However, a quick 6-0 spurt by Saint Mary's, which was highlighted by a three-point play the old-fashioned way from Mikey Lewis and finished with a conventional three on the next time down the floor by Lewis, restored the comfortable cushion on the scoreboard for the Gaels, at 58-40, with 15:51 remaining.

The Mocs would again charge back, as this time they got as close as 11 points when Bellarmine transfer Billy Smith connected on a three with 12:08 remaining, making it a 63-52 Mocs deficit. That would remain the deficit as the two teams headed to their respective benches for the second media timeout of the second half.

But over the final 11 minutes of the game, the Gaels would take control of the game once and for all, extending the lead out to as much as 23 points following a Mantas Juzenas three, at 87-64, with 1:11 remaining. However, the Mocs would score the final points of the game on a Makai Richards dunk with 16 seconds remaining, setting the final score, at 87-66.

The Gaels would be led in the contest by Lewis' 28 points, as he connected on 7-of-13 from the field, which included a 4-for-6 effort from three-point land. He was also a perfect 10-for-10 from the line. Lewis added four rebounds, five assists and three steals to the cause.

Paulius Murauskas added 22 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field and a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe, while posting eight boards and dished out five helpers. Rounding out the Gaels players in double figures was Andrew McKeever, who added 16 points, eight rebounds, one assist, one block and one steal.

Chattanooga placed three in double figures, as Teddy Washington Jr. led the Mocs with 13 points, four rebounds and a pair of assists. He connected on 6-of-15 shots from the field, but went 0-for-5 from three-point range in the contest. He also connected on 1-of-2 shots from the charity stripe.Washington was joined in double figures by both guard Billy Smith and Jordan Frison, who added 11 and 10 points, respectively, in the setback.

For the game, the Gaels shot a blistering 57.8% (26-of-45) from the field, which included a 50% (8-for-16) effort from three-point range. St Mary's was most impressive from the charity stripe, however, as the Gaels connected on 27-of-29 attempts (93.1%) for the game.

Chattanooga finished the contest connecting on 42.3% (22-of-52) of its shots from the field, including just 33.3% (7-of-21) from three-point range. The Mocs, who were one of the strongest free throw shooting clubs in the nation last season, finished a solid 78.9 from the line against the Gaels, connecting on 15-of-19 foul shots.

Just 24 hours later, the Mocs found themselves in Vegas for anything but what could be considered a vacation, taking on the Runnin’ Rebels. It was part of the agreement for UNLV to take the game, which was the fact that they would only take it if the Mocs had played the game at St. Mary’s a day earlier. As you might imagine, the trip was difficult enough even with a completely healthy, rested Mocs team, and much less one that was tired and undermanned. The game would result in Chattanooga’s worst loss of the season, as the Runnin’ Rebels routed the Mocs by 32 points, getting what was a 101-69 win at the Thomas & Mack Center.

After trailing 10-5 in the early stages of the game, freshman guard Tate Darner connected on a pair of threes to spark what was an 11-4 run in response, as the Mocs assumed a 16-14 lead at the under 12 minute media timeout.

A few minutes later, the game was tied, 22-22, after Jikari Johnson knocked down a three-pointer for UTC. The Runnin' Rebels then put together a quick 7-1 run to usurp the lead once again, at 29-23 with 7:25 remaining in the opening half of basketball.

UNLV eventually stretched its lead to eight, 38-30, following a dunk from Kimani Hamilton with 3:39 remaining in the opening half of play. The Rebels would eventually fatten their lead to 11, at 47-36, by the time the first half ended.

The Rebels would take complete control of the game in the early stages of the second half, scoring six of the first eight points to go ahead by 15 points, at 53-38. Makai Richards' layup would help stop the bleeding momentarily and get the deficit back to 13 for UTC.

The Mocs would pull within 12 points several times over the next five minutes of game time, however, could not get any close, as the Rebels continued to hold a double-digit advantage on the scoreboard. With the score settling at 67-53 with just under 12 minutes remaining, the Rebels started to wear down the fatigued Mocs, and would end up increasing their second half lead to as many as 32 points before settling on a 101-69 victory.

It marked the first time Chattanooga had played on consecutive nights since 1993, playing consecutive SoCon road games at both East Tennessee State in Johnson City and at Appalachian State in Boone, N.C., on Feb. 6 and 7, respectively, of that season.

While Chattanooga had several players ailing with injuries already, VMI had a very serious issue that wasn’t going away from the outset of the season. When Keydets head coach Andrew Wilson and star guard Rickey Bradley Jr. met with the media at SoCon Media Day at the Marriott in Greenville a month earlier, spirits had been high and there were no signs of what was to come, as Bradley Jr., who was named the preseason Southern Conference Player of the Year, never played one minute for the Keydets the entire season.

VMI was a team that some considered a dark horse contender for a top four finish in the league and a team that could be a threat when teams arrived in Asheville for the Southern Conference Tournament. Sadly, that would never be the case. The Keydets would win their first two games of the season over both Johnson & Wales (122-58) and on the road at Southern Indiana (W, 78-74). VMI would only win four more games all season, and the win over Southern Indiana would turn out to be the team’s lone road win.

At 2-0 though, at least spirits were good. Especially after the win over Southern Indiana, as the Keydets fought to come up with the win in dramatic fashion. In the four-point win over the Screaming Eagles, TJ Johnson would get his season started off in strong fashion, pouring in 32 points to help VMI gut out its lone road win of the season. His 32-point shattered his previous career best of 23 points, which had set in a game against Christendom a year earlier. Not only did he do it in the scoring column, but Johnson also did the job on the backboards, hauling down a career-best 14 rebounds.

It was Tan Yildizoglu, though, that helped the Keydets at a key moment in the game when they needed the most, as his top of the key three with just 65 seconds left untied the game, giving VMI a 72-69 lead. VMI never lost the lead again en route to the four-point win at 2-0 start.

Unfortunately, the Keydets would meet a harsh reality in the third game in a six-day span to start the season, traveling to Columbia, MO., to face off against the SEC’s Missouri Tigers on a Sunday evening contest, which was live on the SEC Network. Despite VMI’s best efforts to hang around in the game early, Mizzou had way too much firepower in the end. Without the services of Bradley Jr., TJ Johnson once again shined for VMI, as he was already coming off a 32-point, 14-rebound effort in the previous outing. He was able to string together back-to-back 30-point scoring performances against Missouri, as he finished out the contest with 31 points, which included 21 of those in the first half, as he was able to help keep the Keydets in the game for much of the opening 20 minutes of basketball, as the Keydets trailed by only 10 points (50-40) at the half.

The game was tied 22-22 with nine minutes remaining in the opening half of play before the Tigers started to pull away for good in the game. The Tigers would begin to slowly create some distance on the scoreboard, taking what was a an 11-point, 48-37, lead on a layup by Jayden Stone with 1:44 remaining in the half.

Johnson hit a three on VMI's next possession to get the deficit back to eight before Mizzou ended the half getting a pair of Mark Mitchell free throws to take its lead to double-digits again entering the halftime locker room.

In the second half, the Keydets found it much harder to generate anything offensively, due in large part to the Tigers helping manage to hold down Johnson, who had only 10 points after the halftime break.

It led to a half which the Keydets, who are still a really young basketball team outside of veterans like Johnson and Bradley, struggled to find scoring in other spots, as the Keydets scored just 28 points, while the Tigers exploded to double the Keydets' point total in the second half, posting 56 points on a 55.2% (37-of-65) shooting effort in the second half. The Keydets shot just 28.6% (8-of-28) in the second half and just 33.3% (19-of-57) from the field, including 35.7% (15-of-42) from three-point range.

Johnson finished the game with his 31 points coming on 8-of-19 shooting from the field, including a 6-for-15 effort from three-point range and was a perfect 9-for-9 from the charity stripe. He also added a team-leading seven boards.

The only other Keydets player in double figures was freshman guard Mario Tatum Jr., who posted 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field and 3-for-7 from three-point land. He was also 4-of-6 at the line.

Mizzou was led by Mark Mitchell, who posted a double-double of 24 points and 10 rebounds, while Anthony Robinson II added 20 points, four assists and four steals in the game. Jayden Stone and Jacob Crews added 16 and 14 points, respectively off the bench for the Tigers, who finished with five players in double figures.

Furman was beaten like it never had been in a season opener under Bob Richey in the season opener in Rock Hill by a very good High Point team, which would of course go on to win a game in the NCAA Tournament, as well as post 32 wins on the season.

When the Paladins officially hosted their first game in the newly renovated Timmons Arena, the opponent on the other side would be no slouch either, as the Paladins faced the Troy Trojans, who had faced off against another team that had made the NCAA Tournament a year earlier.

Cooper Campbell scored 21 points to lead three Troy players in double figures, as the Trojans led by as many as 15 points early in the second half, but had to hold off Furman for a 64-61 win before 2,207 fans on-hand inside the beautiful refurbished arena.

Campbell finished his night by connecting on 8-for-13 from the field, including 5-of-9 from three-point range, while posting five rebounds, three assists and three steals. Campbell was joined in double figures by both preseason All-Sun Belt selection Thomas Dowd, who posted 11 points, six rebounds and three blocks, while teammate Victor Valdes finished the night with 11 points and five boards.

Like Troy, Furman was highlighted by three players in double figures, with talented freshman Alex Wilkins able to overcome four turnovers in the opening 10 minutes to score a team-leading 16 points and added eight assists, including not turning the ball over for the final 30 minutes to help the Paladins get back into the game and nearly pull off the come-from-behind win.

Wilkins finished 6-of-15 shooting from the field, while included a 1-for-3 effort from three-point range and was a perfect 3-for-3 from the charity stripe. Along with his eight assists, Wilkins also added two rebounds to go with his other totals. Those his shooting numbers weren’t great, it was apparent there was a budding star that wore the No. 10 jersey in Greenville, and no I am not talking about Furman’s accomplished Final Four soccer teamn. It was Wilkins, who would go on to put together the greatest season by a freshman player in Paladin hoops history.

Eddrin Bronson added 14 points and added a pair of steals off the bench for the Paladins, while Cooper Bowser rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10 points, eight rebounds, one steal and one block. Charles Johnston led the Paladins with 10 rebounds, while Asa Thomas added nine points off the bench.

The Trojans finished the night connecting on 41.1% (23-of-56) from the field and 30% (9-for-30) from three-point land, while Furman finished the game connecting on 39.3% (22-of-56) from the field and 37.5% (9-of-24) from three-point land. Troy connected at a 69.2% (9-of-13) from the free throw line, while Furman was 66.7% (8-of-12) from the charity stripe for the game.

Troy finished the contest with advantages in points from turnovers (22-10), points in the paint (28-26), and fast-break points (16-9). The Paladins finished holding advantages in bench scoring (26-10), total rebounds (36-33), second-chance points (9-7) and total assists (13-10).

Troy came out and held Furman scoreless on its first five possessions, and much like it did against Kent State, when it took a 16-3 lead. Against the Paladins, Troy assumed a 15-3 lead.

Led by Alex Wilkins, Furman would put together a 17-5 run to get back to within a possession at 23-20 on a three-point play the old fashioned way midway through the half, however, the Trojans closed the half on a 16-3 run to take a 36-23 lead into the halftime locker room.

The Trojans scored 18 of their 36 points off Furman's 13 first-half turnovers, as well as shooting 50% (14-of-28) from the field in the opening half to build a 13-point lead.

In the second half, Thomas Dowd scored on a strong two-handed stuff and a free throw, while Cooper Campbell knocked down one of his five threes of the night to give the Trojans their biggest lead of the game and spark the Trojans to a strong start to the second half with a 42-27 lead with 16:57 remaining.

A 15-2 run by Furman, which started with an alley-oop slam off a feed from Alex Wilkins and ended with a three pointer from the right elbow off another Wilkins helper, helped the Paladins slice Troy's lead to four, at 44-40, with 11:25 left. A Wilkins jumper in the paint following a rebound off his own miss got Furman even closer on its next possession, at 44-42, with 8:50 remaining.

As is did for much of the night when the Paladins drew close on the scoreboard, the Trojans seemingly always had an answer, and an Austin Cross triple six seconds later gave Troy just enough breathing room, extending its advantage back to five, at 47-42.

Campbell would connect on another three four minutes later to keep Troy's lead at five, despite the Trojans best efforts, they couldn't shake loose of the hard-charging Paladins. A Bronson corner three off a feed from Tom House got Furman to within two with 4:25 left, and following a missed hook shot by Theo Seng in the paint, Wilkins tossed another beautiful lob to Bowser, who slammed it with authority, tying the game, 55-55, with 3:32 left.

Furman had three shots at taking the lead, missing a pair of layups in the paint and pretty good look at a three from Tom House allowed the game to remain tied. It appeared Furman might get a fourth chance to take the lead, however, after Charles Johnston rebounded a missed Cooper Campell three, Campbell stepped in front of Bowser's outlet pass and converted a layup off the steal to put the Trojans back up two, at 57-55, with 1:19 remaining.

Following a Bronson missed 15-footer, Victor Valdes hit a dagger three from the top of the key to give the Trojans 60-55 lead with 31 seconds left. Furman's Asa Thomas and Charles Johnston connected on a pair of threes in the final 12.1 seconds, but Theo Seng and Thomas Dowd went 4-for-4 from the line to close out the 64-61 road win.

The third time would end up being a charm for Furman, as the Paladins would pick up there first win of the season behind a 26-point effort from Alex Wilkins, knocking off NAIA Columbia International, 89-59.

The Rams are a member if the Appalachian Athletic Conference, and Stockman was a three-point specialist during his career at both Clemson and Ohio State (2000-05). Both of Furman's "inaugural wins" in different eras inside Timmons Arena have come against non-Division I competition.

On Dec. 30, 1997, Furman officially opened Timmons Arena with a 72-69 win over now defunct NCAA Division II program Northeastern Illinois. Furman's 89-59 win over Columbia International some 28 years later marks the first win following the facility's 40-million-dollar upgrade, as the Paladins improved to 3-0 all-time against the Rams and 258-109 in the history of facility, as the Paladins played their 367th home game in the facility in Monday night's triumph. The Paladins are now 110-20 at Timmons Arena since the start of the 2015-16 season.

Furman's talented rookie guard, Alex Wilkins, connected on 9-of-17 shots from the field and finished 4-for-9 from three-point land, as well as posting a perfect 4-for-4 effort at the line. Additionally, the native of Mattapan, MA., added two assists, two steals and a pair of boards.

Wilkins' 26 points was the highest by a Furman freshman in over a decade, as it was the most by a Paladin rookie since former talented rookie guard and 2014-15 SoCon Freshman of the Year Devin Sibley scored 29 points on Feb. 14, 2015, in what was a 66-59 road loss to East Tennessee State.

Joining Wilkins in double figures for Furman were junior Cooper Bowser and true freshman guard Abijah Franklin, who added 11 points apiece, while Charles Johnston added a double-double, finishing with 10 points, 10 rebounds and dished out four helpers. Johnston has now posted double-figure rebound totals in each of Furman's first three games of the season. Asa Thomas added 10 points off the bench for the Paladins.

Franklin, who prepped at nearby Wren High School, posted his career-high 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field, including 1-of-5 from long-range, and was 2-of-3 at the charity stripe. The Greenville product also added four rebounds and two assists to the cause.

Junior 6-11 forward Cooper Bowser finished a perfect 5-of-5 from the field, including four powerful dunks, while adding seven boards, three steals and an assist.

The Paladins finished the night connecting on 44.3% (31-of-70) for the game, including just 24.4% (11-of-45) from three-point land. The Paladins finished a solid 69.6% (16-of-23) from the charity stripe.

Furman held the Rams to 38.5% (20-of-52) from the field and 25.0% (7-of-28) from three-point land. Columbia International was a solid 80.0% (12-of-15) for the game from the free throw line.

A theme was beginning to emerge for Bob Richey’s team that would end up paying dividends later on in the season, and that was the Paladins were extremely good in two areas that Furman had, for the most part, been very mediocre in during a majority of Bob Richey’s previous eight seasons, and that is the fact that the Paladins defensive efficiency was trending on the higher end of things, as was the rebounding. Two areas the Paladins would spend the season ranking at the top or near the top of the league for the entirety of the season. Furman’s defensive efficiency rivaled one of Richey’s best defensive units in his tenure as Furman’s head coach, which was the 2018-19 team.

Mercer would breeze past LaGrance (W, 101-62) to pick up the first of their 19 wins of the season and then came their first test in the SoCon-ASUN Challenge against Lipscomb. Lipscomb has established itself as the premier program in the Atlantic Sun, but on an early November afternoon, they would be no match for the Bears on this afternoon, which also happened to be Military Appreciation Day.

The Bears fired in at a 57% clip from the field, and a 13-4 run just before halftime allowed Mercer to finish off what was a 92-77 win at Hawkins Arena. Ethan Duncan pulled Lipscomb to within 33-31 on a baby jumper with five-and-a-half minutes remaining in the first half, however, an Armani Mighty hook shot in the paint on the other end allowed the Bears to go on that decisive 13-4 run and take an 11-point lead into the half.

Lipscomb started the second half strong, trimming the 11-point Bears lead to just five, at 55-50, following a jumper from Charlie Williams with 14:37 left. However, Mercer was able to push the lead back to double digits for good on a pair of free throws from Zaire Williams three minutes later, as Mercer pushed its lead to as much as 18 points in the process (87-69) before settling for the 92-77 win.

The Bears finished the matchup by posting 20 or more assists for the second-straight game and marked the first time the program has done so in consecutive games since the 2020-21 season, when it did so against Columbia International and Southern Wesleyan.

Mercer was led in the win by three players in double figures, with Baraka Okojie leading the way with 16 points and 12 assists, while Armani Mighty had a more conventional double-double, posting 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Brady Shoulders added 14 points and a career-high 14 rebounds to round out the double-figure scorers.

Lipscomb finished with four in double figures, as Ross Candelino led the Bisons with 17 points, while Charlie Williams finished with 14 and Mateo Esmeraldo finished with a double-double of 12 points and 11 assists.

Wofford returned home after its 24-point road loss to open the season to face UW-Milwaukee—the team picked to win the Horizon League—and the Terriers would capture an 86-76 win and even their record at 1-1 on the young season. It was a special win for first-year head coach Kevin Giltner, as it was his first in charge of the program.

The Terriers led from wire-to-wire, as Kahmare Holmes led the way for Wofford with a career-high 24 points before a crowd of 1,342 fans on-hand at Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium. True freshman forward and former Kenan High School standout Brian Sumpter added his first-career double-double, scoring 21 points and added 11 boards to Wofford's cause, while Nils Machowski and Luke Flynn rounded out the Terriers in double figures in the contest, adding 12 and 10 points, respectively, to the cause.

Wofford came out firing on all cylinders, as the Terriers scored on four of their first five possessions of the game, as triples by both Cayden Vasko and Nils Machowski helped push Wofford to an early 10-point advantage (15-5) with 15:26 remaining in the opening half of play. A Sumpter two-handed dunk officially took the early lead to 12, as the JRIS erupted with delight.

The Terriers shot the ball much better in this contest than they did in the opener on the road in Fairfax, VA., as Wofford on 44.4% (28-of-63) from the field in comparison to its 30% (15-of-50) performance in the season opener. Wofford also asserted its physicality on the backboards, as the Terriers were a +17 on the glass (46-29) for the game.

Milwaukee, a foe of fellow SoCon rival Chattanooga in recent seasons, started to gain some traction midway through the opening half of play, putting together an 11-5 spurt to get back into the game, cutting the Wofford lead inside double digits. However, a pair of Sumpter dunks pushed Wofford's lead back to 14, at 37-23, with just over six minutes remaining in the half, as once again the Wofford faithful rose in unison to cheer on their young, talented freshman forward.

Wofford's offensive aggressive was given credibility by the fact that the Terriers went to the line 13 times in the first half, while the Panthers had only eight foul shot attempts. Wofford knocked down 11-of-13 free throw attempts in the opening half, which included going 6-for-7 from the charity stripe in the final three minutes, taking a 47-33 lead into the halftime locker room.

In the second half, both teams were a little slow to get the scoring started, but when the lid came off the basket for the Terriers, order was restored in their offensive efficiency, beginning with a high-level, acrobatic layup from Luke Flynn.

The early going saw Wofford maintain its strong grip on the proceedings, knocking down four of its first six shots and going 1-for-2 from the line in the early going, heading to the first media timeout of the second half with a substantial 18-point (56-38) lead.

The Panthers came out of the first media of the second half refreshed, cutting Wofford's advantage by five, at 58-45, when Josh Dixon connected on a three-pointer with 14:04 remaining in the game.

But Wofford responded like it had in the first half when the Panthers threatened to make it a game, using a 9-3 run to push the lead to 19 with a little over 10 minutes remaining, as a layup by Machowski secured a 67-48 Terrier lead.

Holmes and Sumpter delivered back-to-back rim-rattling slams that got the house jumping again, helping Wofford to avoid one of those dreaded lulls when holding a double-digit lead, and that allowed Giltner's club to keep the energy and decibel levels relatively high inside the JRIS for a majority of the afternoon. The back-to-back dunks by Wofford were sandwiched by a Milwaukee three from Esyah Pippa-White, and after the Panthers briefly had the margin at 11, Sumpter's emphatic finish with 5:43 remaining helped quell any thoughts of road momentum being established by the visitors, as the Terriers assumed the 72-59 advantage.

After Wofford fattened its lead back to 15 (76-61) just inside four minutes on a pair of Machowski free throws, the Panthers scored on back-to-back possessions, while stopping Wofford in-between, getting the deficit back to 11 following Dixon's layup with 3:19 remaining, slicing the Wofford lead to 76-65.

The Panthers would cut Wofford's lead to 11 twice more inside the three minutes, but had to settled on a 10-point loss, as Wofford increased its lead to as much as 15 on another Sumpter rim-rocker with 1:19 left, making it pretty much academic at that point, increasing Wofford lead to 84-69.

A key element of Wofford being able to maintain a healthy lead and escape with the win over the Horizon League favorite came in the fact that their tenacity in attack mode around the basket never dwindled all afternoon, and after posting an 11-of-13 performance at the line in the opening 20 minutes, the Terriers connected on 14-of-17 charity shots in the second half, finishing the game at an outstanding 25-of-30 (83.3%) from the charity stripe, out-scoring the Panthers 25-15 at the line on 11 more attempts (30-19).

Milwaukee, which shot 42.9% (27-of-63) for the game, including 38.9% (7-of-18) from three-point range, was led by Seth Hubbard's 17 points, while Stevie Elam added 12 and Danilo Jovanovich added 10. Josh Dixon scored 11 of Milwaukee's 25 bench points, which was another area dominated by Wofford, thanks in large part to Sumpter's 21 points, as Wofford owned a 36-25 edge in bench scoring.

Like Kevin Giltner, Samford’s Lennie Acuff would have to wait until the home opener for him to see his team taste victory for the first time all season, and it didn’t come necessarily easy against MEAC member South Carolina State, however, in what was the “Battle of the Bulldogs”. Samford would eventually end up picking up what was an 82-72 win in the season opener at the Pete Hanna Center, which is a place that has become one of the toughest venues to capture a win in over the past few seasons within the Southern Conference.

The former Lipscomb head coach Acuff had taken the Bisons to the NCAA Tournament just last season before matriculating to Homewood, AL., calling his new coaching destination “home” and a place he’d like to finish out a storied career, and the win would mark the 661st win over his illustrious career, which also included a ()-year stint at University of Alabama-Huntsville at the NCAA Division II level. The Bulldogs, which went 11-3 at home during the 2025-26 campaign, improved to 58-8 inside the friendly confines of the Pete Hanna Center with the win. Samford jumped out to the early lead, as Jadin Booth canned a pair of quick triples to get the hometown Bulldogs going and that would get the crowd into it at the Pete early in the game, as Booth's triples gave Samford an early 11-7 lead.

Booth dominated the scoring with 34 in the opener against Tulane and was one of only six Samford players to score in the season-opening road loss to the Green Wave. However, in this outing Booth was one of eight Bulldogs players to score in the opening 20 minutes, as Samford's offensive effort was much more balanced than it had been at Devlin Field House in the opener at Tulane.

But as is the case with young basketball teams trying to gel early in the season under a new head coach, there is always a certain amount of adversity to deal with. That would emerge in the form of a nine-minute scoring drought, allowing and even allowed South Carolina State to take a first-half lead when James Morrow connected on a jumper to make it a 24-22 contest with 10:23 remaining in the opening half.

The visitors from Orangeburg would see Samford draw even on a pair of free throws by Cade Norris, but an Owen Bronston Jr. four-point play after he was fouled on a made three at the nine minute mark of the opening frame saw SC State re-take the lead at 28-24, as South Carolina State wouldn't relinquish the advantage for the remainder of the half, taking a 39-37 lead to the break. Despite the scoring drought, Samford was able to remain in the game with some stellar work at the charity stripe, as Samford knocked down 11-of-16 charity shots in the first half to hang in the game.

Samford came out and made some adjustments on both ends in the second half, looking like a much sharper team, connecting at a 52% clip in the second stanza, while holding the visiting Bulldogs to just 42% over the latter 20 minutes of basketball. A Will Shaver layup a little less than eight minutes into the second half helped Samford re-take the lead, at 55-53, and it would be a lead the hometown Bulldogs would maintain for the remainder of the game.

Samford's lead would grow as large as 11 points in the second half following a Dylan Faulkner tip-in off a long missed three-pointer, as the Bulldogs would enjoy their largest lead of the night at 70-59 with just 4:47 remaining.

SC State could only get as close as five the rest of the evening, after a James Morrow layup concluded a 6-0 scoring run from SC State to make it a 70-65 game with 3:18 remaining. However, a 10-5 spurt all but put the game out of reach for Samford, as a Jadin Booth free throw gave the hometown Bulldogs a double-digit lead once again, at 80-70, with just 41 seconds remaining, and the margin would remain 10 as Samford closed out win No. 1 of the 2025-26, 82-72, over SC State.

Just as he had done in the season opener against, Jadin Booth led the way with 26 points and connected on 6-of-12 shots from the field, including having gone 5-for-10 from three-point land in the win. He was also an impressive 9-of-10 from charity stripe and added six boards and three steals to the Samford cause.

Dylan Faulkner wasn't too far behind, adding 19 on 8-of-13 shooting from the field, while both Keaton Norris and Jaxson Pollard rounded out the double-figure scorers with 11 and 10 points apiece, respectively.

SC State got 22 points and seven rebounds off the bench from James Morrow, and he was joined in double figures scoring-wise by Owen Bronston Jr. and Jayden Johnson, who added 16 and 13 points, respectively, to round out the Bulldogs' double figure scorers.

At 1-1, The Citadel Bulldogs were in search of their first NCAA Division I win in 365 days when they hosted cross-town rival Charleston Southern at McAlister Field House on Nov. 10, 2025. On Nov. 11, 2024, the Bulldogs had picked up a huge, 74-52, win over Atlantic Sun member Stetson. This night, however, would belong to the boys just up the road in Ladson, S.C., as the Bucs got a huge night from Brycen Blaine en route to posting a 96-86 road win.

Brycen Blaine's performance was one of the best of the young basketball season so far, as he posted 42 points, 11 rebounds, dished out eight assists, and recorded a pair of steals and turned it over only once in leading the Bucs to the key non-conference road win. It was a stat line, that according to Charleston's Southern's sports information department, has never been recorded in the history of college basketball.

Blaine became the latest Bucs player to go for 40 points in McAlister Field House, as his 42-point effort matched East Tennessee State's former guard Jordan King's 42-point effort against the Bulldogs on Jan. 11, 2023. On that night, King also matched Blaine's three-point field goals total of eight, as he did so on one less attempt (8-of-12).

The Citadel jumped out to as much as a 14-point lead with 8:30 remaining in the opening half, as a three-point play the old-fashioned way by Eze Wali brought the crowd in attendance to its feet at McAlister Field House to its feet in unison.

The three-point shot, which both teams were definitely fond of, especially Charleston Southern, which connected on 14 for the night on 32 attempts (43.8%), would keep the Bucs in the game and over the final 8:30 of the opening half, the Bucs connected on half of their total of 14 threes down the stretch of the opening frame, going 7-of-10 from long range to trim the Bulldogs' lead to just three, at 48-45, by the time the halftime buzzer sounded. All told, the Bucs connected on 9-of-19 from three-point range in the opening half of play.

Blaine was a big part of the shooting performance down the stretch and throughout the game, as he connected on eight of the team's 14 triples in the contest, finishing the night with an 8-of-13 performance from long range by himself. Blaine's triple with 37 seconds remaining in the half, which gave him 23 for the opening 20 minutes of basketball, saw the Bulldogs pull even, 45-45. However, The Citadel's Braxton Williams added a three as time expired, giving the Bulldogs back the momentum along with a three-point halftime lead.

In the second half, the Bucs did a better job on the defensive end of the floor, limiting the open looks from the perimeter that had been more readily available in the opening half, as the Bulldogs connected on 5-of-13 from long range. That was the game plan coming in for Saah Nimley's Bucs, who needed to slow a Bulldogs team that had already attempted 85 long-range shots in just the first two games of the season.

A little less than four minutes into the second half, Blaine picked right up where he had left off previously, as his triple with 16:25 remaining would give Charleston Southern a 54-51 lead, and it would be a lead that the boys from Ladson would not relinquish the remainder of the night. The Bucs would slowly increase their lead, while keeping the Bulldogs within a safe enough distance for most of it, despite seeing The Citadel cut the deficit to one on three occasions.

The Bulldogs got it to one for the last of those three times in the game with 8:53 remaining after a layup by Wali cut The Citadel's deficit to a single point, at 70-69.

However, the Bucs would gradually increase the margin from there, going ahead by as much as 11 with 2:06 remaining, following a pair of free throws by A'lahn Sumler, which gave the Bucs an 88-77 lead as fans started to file for the exits inside McAlister Field House.

Blaine was one of three Bucs in double figures in the road win, as he connected on 14-of-24 shots from the field, including 8-for-13 from three-point land and was a perfect 6-for-6 from the line to put together his career-high effort. He was joined in double figures by Sumler and Luke Williams, who added 18 and 13 points, respectively.

The Bulldogs were paced in the game by Christian Moore's 21 points, which came on a 6-of-13 shooting effort, including a solid 4-for-8 effort from long range. He was also 5-of-6 from the charity stripe. Braxton Williams added 15 points off the bench, while newcomer Carter Kingsbury added 12.

Both teams shot the ball well in the game, with Charleston Southern finishing the game blistering the nets at a 50% (33-of-66) clip from the field, as well as a 43.8% (14-of-32) clip from long range. The Bulldogs finished the game with a slightly better shooting clip, connecting at a 50.9% (29-of-57) clip, while knocking down 40% (8-of-20) from three-point range and finishing 66.7% (20-of-30) from the charity stripe.

Wofford didn’t have much time to savor its win over UW-Milwaukee before it had to return to the floor and take on SEC member Auburn at Neville Arena.

The young Terriers would hang around for awhile in the opening half in what was a battle of first-year head coaches. But it would be Steven Earl’s team that would eventually figure it out on the offensive end of the floor, as they ended up blasting the Terriers, 93-62, in the early-season contest.

The Tigers got a combined 41 points from Keyshawn Hall and Elyjah Freeman, as the Tigers scored at least 93 points for the third-straight game. Freeman finished the night leading Auburn with 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field and finished 1-for-4 from three-point range. Hall added his 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field along with connecting on a perfect 3-for-3 from three-point range and was a perfect 3-for-3 from the charity stripe.

Wofford finished the contest with a pair of players in double figures, as Chace Whatley led the way with 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting from the field and was 3-for-4 from the charity stripe, while also dishing out two assists and recorded a pair of steals. Kahmare Holmes posted 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field and 2-for-7 from three-point range.

Wofford held an early 6-4 lead over Auburn following a pair of threes by Kahmare Holmes and Nils Machowski, however, the Tigers would score 12 of the next 14 points to take a 16-8 lead with a Keyshawn Hall layup with 14:36 remaining in the opening half.

The Tigers would eventually widen the gap over the remainder of the half, taking a commanding 40-22 lead into the half.

Consecutive buckets by the Tigers on a three by Tahaad Pettiford and a tip-in by Elyjah Freeman increased the Tigers' lead to 23 points, at 45-22, with 19:05 remaining. The Tigers outscored the Terriers 13-7 before the two teams headed to their respective benches for the media timeout, and later, the Tigers put together a 15-4 run to take complete command of the game, with the only two buckets for the Terriers during that stretch coming from Chace Whatley.

Auburn held several notable advantages in the game, with rebounding seeing the Tigers hold a significant advantage, as the Tigers were a +21 on the backboards (48-27) and used 28 offensive rebounds to post a 20-7 advantage in second-chance points in the game.

The Tigers finished the contest connecting on 50.7% (36-of-71) from the field, which included a 33.3% effort from three-point range (9-of-27). The Terriers connected on just 38.7% (24-of-62) from the field and just 24.0% (6-of-25) from three-point range.

UNCG’s struggles to start the season wouldn’t get any easier after starting the season with a blowout loss on the road Kansas State after leading that game at halftime. The Spartans hosted their home opener in a venue in which it would play a majority of its home games in the 2025-26 season—Bodford Arena—a much smaller venue than the mammoth Greensboro Coliseum—and it was designed to hopefully create a more of a homecourt advantage. It wouldn’t be that hard, however, in the home opener, as the Spartans battled a local foe from just up the road, in former SoCon member Elon.

It would be the visiting Phoenix, who would behind a combined 45 points and 23 rebounds between Kacper Klaczek (25 pts, 13 rebs) and Chandler Cuthrell (20 pts, 10 rebs), as Elon would come to UNCG’s new on-campus home venue and pick up what was 92-90 overtime win. The game would be a thriller like you might expect out of a local rivalry, featuring 11 ties and 11 lead changes before a winner could be decided.

Elon’s scoring duo in the frontcourt would ultimately outshine UNCG’s balanced afternoon in the home opener, which saw a crowd of 1,718 fans file into Bodford to take in the game and witness six players finish in double figures for UNCG in what a balanced effort in the two-point overtime defeat was. After Elon trailed late by six (80-75) with just under six minutes remaining following a Justin Neely layup, the Phoenix would score six-straight points to starting with a three-point play the old-fashioned way by Cuthrell, a free throw by Jajuan Carr and another layup by Cuthrell, as the Phoenix went ahead 81-80 with 3:33 remaining.

Lillian Marville finally snapped the mini scoring drought for the Spartans by knocking down a short jumper with 3:06 remaining, giving UNCG a one-point lead (82-81) once again and after a defensive stop, the Spartans increased the lead to three when Domas Kauzonas converted a layup in the paint to make it an 84-81 UNCG lead with 2:21 remaining. Carr’s layup with just over two minutes left got the Phoenix back to within a point, which then saw the two teams go 90 seconds without scoring. Another Kauzonas layup with 32 seconds remaining increased UNCG’s lead back to three. Things looked especially good for UNCG when Klaczek had his layup blocked by Kauzonas and rebounded by Neely, who then had to be fouled by Cuthrell, and that sent Neely to the line for a one-and-one opportunity. He missed the front end, however, and the ball was rebounded by the Phoenix with just 13 seconds remaining and the Spartans raced up the floor and Klaczek got a good look at a three, which was good to tie the game, 86-86, sending it into overtime.

Neither team was particularly efficient in overtime, and for the opening four minutes of the frame, neither team could score from the field. The two teams exchanged free throws, with Clifton Efinda knocking down a pair for UNCG and Klaczek doing likewise for the Phoenix, tying the game, 88-88. After Carr stole the ball from Efinda, it led to a Bryson Cokley dunk in transition, giving the Phoenix a 90-88 lead with a minute left. Following a pair of free throws on the other end by Kauzonas, it would be the final points of the night from UNCG, who didn’t score from the field over the final five-and-a-half minutes, including the entire five-minute overtime, as UNCG tied the game, 90-90, with 43 seconds remaining.

The game would fittingly, I guess, be decided at the charity stripe, as freshman guard KJ Younger would foul Cokley with 21 seconds remaining to send him to the line for two shots, and he knocked down both free throws to give Elon the lead for good, as 92-90 would end up being the final score. Donald Whitehead Jr.’s jumper with one second left was no good, as Elon escaped with the two-point win.

The game fizzled in the end, with eight of the combined 10 points in overtime coming from the charity stripe. Donald Whitehead Jr. would have a nice home debut for UNCG in front of the home fans, contributing a team-high 18 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field and 4-of-7 shooting from three-point range, leading six Spartans in double figures. Justin Neely had his first of what would be 19 double-doubles on the season, posting 13 points and 11 rebounds in the loss.

Staying in the Old North State, Western Carolina’s increasingly difficult start to the season would continue at No. 6 Duke, where the Blue Devils handed Western Carolina a 95-54 setback at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Graduate transfer Julien Soumaro led WCU with 14 points, and was one of three Catamounts to finish the contest in double figures, as he would be joined by both Marcus Kell and Abdulai Fanta-Kabba, who added 11 and 10 points, respectively, to round out the Catamount players in double figures. Soumaoro finished the afternoon connecting on 5-of-12 shots from the field, including finishing the contest 4-for-8 from three-point range.

Duke All-American big man Cameron Boozer led all scorers with 25 points and pulled down eight rebounds, as he led four Blue Devils in double figures in the win. Boozer finished the afternoon connecting on 8-of-15 shots from the field, which included a 4-for-9 effort from three-point range in the 41-point by the Blue Devils. Cam Boozer also tied for the team lead with his brother, dishing out five assists. Boozer would be joined in double figures by his brother Cayden Boozer, who added 14 points on 4-for-8 shooting from the field, 1-for-4 from three-point range, while also knocking down 5-of-7 foul shots in the game for Duke. He also added seven rebounds and five assists. Rounding out the Blue Devils in double figures in the game were both Patrick Ngongba and Maliq Brown rounded out the double figure scorers with 10 points apiece.

Duke, which was one of the top defensive teams in all of college basketball for much of the season, put the clamps down on the Catamounts, holding Western Carolina to a season-low 30.6% (22-of-72), while connecting on just 15.4% (4-for-26) from three-point land in the game. The Blue Devils, meanwhile, topped out 46.9% (30-of-64) and shot it at a 31.3% (10-of-32) from three-point range. The Catamounts scored the first four points of the game before Duke put together a 25-2 run to take a 25-6 lead midway through the opening half, settling for a 45-21 halftime lead. The game was over and done with pretty much from the time it started.

Gw32East Tennessee rebounded from its loss against Presbyterian over the weekend by returning to Freedom Hall and posting an impressive 75-63 midweek win over Horizon League member Northern Kentucky in a mid-week win.

The win saw the Bucs improve to 2-1 overall on the young season, while the Norse fell to 1-2 on the campaign.

The Bucs blistered the nets at a near 60% clip for much of the night, settling on 59.1% (26-of-44) shooting for the game, which included an impressive 44.4% (4-of-9) effort from three-point land. ETSU's defense was equally impressive, as it limited the Norse to just 36.5% (23-of-63) from the field and just 23.3% (7-of-30) from three-point range.

Cam Morris III and Brian Taylor II led a quartet of Bucs in double figures, with the two combining to score 42 of ETSU's 75 total points in the game. Morris III led the way for the Blue and Gold, as he finished with 22 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and 7-for-8 from the charity stripe, as well as knocking down his only three-point attempt.

Taylor II finished his night with 20 points by knocking down 7-of-12 shots from the field, including going 2-for-4 from three-point range and was 4-of-8 from the line. He just missed a double-double, as he grabbed nine rebounds to go with his 20, while also contributing a pair of steals and a pair of assists in the win.

Rounding out the Bucs in double figures in the win were both Blake Barkley and Jordan McCullum, who added 13 and 10 points, respectively. Barkley added six rebounds and a pair of steals to his overall totals.

Northern Kentucky finished the contest being led by Dan Gherezgher, who posted a game-high 24 points on 8-of-19 shooting from the field, including a 5-for-12 shooting effort from three-point range. Donovan Oday was the only other Norse player to finish the contest in double figures, posting 14 points, four assists and three steals to finish off a solid performance.

ETSU got off to a strong start in the game, getting out to a 9-0 lead on a jumper from Taylor II, a three from Morris III, and a pair of buckets from Barkley to get out to the fast start. It took the Norse nearly five minutes to scratch their first points of the night, with Brayden Crump and Jordan McCullum able to add to ETSU's lead, as the Bucs took a 15-2 lead into the second media timeout of the night.

The Norse were able to chip away at ETSU's lead, however, using some good and timely shooting from beyond the arc, with a tide-turning play provided by electrifying guard Donovan Oday, who powered home a right-handed dunk, despite heavy contact in the lane and then converted the three-point play the old-fashioned way. Another three-point play the old-fashioned way from Oday with just 44 seconds remaining in the first half saw the Norse even take a brief lead, however, Morris III converted a layup on the other end for the final points of the half, giving ETSU the narrow 33-32 lead as the two teams entered the halftime locker room.

In the second half, ETSU was able to start the halfway through the game, using its stellar effort on the defensive end of the floor to create offensive opportunities on the other end. After the Bucs forced the Norse to turn the ball over on their first three possessions of the second half, ETSU was able to create some breathing room on the scoreboard with just under 12 minutes remaining, and it would eventually get to double digits, as Taylor hit back-to-back jumpers to give the Bucs a 13-point advantage (64-51) with 4:12 remaining, and the Bucs would maintain that double-digit lead the remainder of the game to notch win No. 2 of the 2025-26 season.

Samford would pick up its second win in succession against an HBCU, but had to do so in overtime, as the Bulldogs went on the road and came back from Houston with a 93-90 overtime win over Texas Southern.

The win would see the Bulldogs improve to 2-1 on the young season, and though it was a unit that had within its arsenal the best scorer in the SoCon, it was still a team that was very much gaining a synergy and syncing its talent throughout the non-conference portion of the slate.

The Bulldogs struggled from long-range in the opening 20 minutes of basketball, finishing the opening half a woeful 5-for-17 from three-point range. Foul trouble for Dylan Faulkner, who came in as the Bulldogs’ second-leading scorer, picked up two early fouls and that effectively took away Samford’s best option in the paint for a majority of the opening half.

Even without Faulkner, the Bulldogs found a way to own the boards in the opening 20 minutes of basketball, as Samford used a late 11-0 run in the opening half of play to take a 44-39 lead into the halftime locker room.

In the second half, TSU continued to shoot the ball well, as the hometown Aggies shot the ball at a 50.8% clip for the game, including a 66.7% clip from three-point range for the game. Five threes in the second half helped not only keep the Aggies in it, but it also gave them a chance to win the game in regulation. The final of those five threes came with just 44 seconds remaining in the game, as Jaylen Wysinger’s three gave Texas Southern an 82-79 lead. But the Bulldogs wouldn’t go away, and Keaton Norris got free for a three of his own, which was perhaps the biggest shot of the night for Samford, as his triple tied the game, 82-82, with 29 seconds remaining to send the game to overtime.

In the extra session, Samford played some of its best defense of the game, holding TSU to just 3-for-9 shooting from the field, while being aggressive on the offensive end of the floor, as Samford got the free throw line some 14 times in overtime, and despite going just 8-of-14 from the charity stripe, the Bulldogs were able to grab a five-point lead with another Keaton Norris three-pointer, and were able to hold on for a three-point, 93-90, road win.

Notably, Samford would once again be led by Jadin Booth in the contest, as he posted 23 points, including making four threes, as he would end up leading four Bulldogs in double figures in the contest. Booth finished the night connecting on 6-of-14 shots from the field and were 4-for-10 from three. He was also a near-perfect 7-of-8 from the charity stripe. Keaton Norris added 22 points, while true freshman guard Isaiah Campbell-Finch added 21 and Cade Norris rounded out the double-figure scorers for the Aggies, as he added 11 points and seven rebounds.

Texas Southern finished the game with four in double figures as well, as Troy Hupstead led all scorers with 25 points, connecting on 9-of-12 from the field and was a perfect 4-for-4 from three-point range and was just 3-for-7 from the charity stripe. Duane Posey added 16 points, while Cameron Patterson and Zaire Hayes finished the game with 14 and 11 points, respectively.

VMI would pick up yet another win over a non-Division I, as the Keydets easily dispatched of Virginia University of Lynchburg, improving to 2-2 on the young season with a 106-54 win. In the win, Walker Andrews posted a career-high 29 points, while Linus Holmstrom added 25 and Jaylen Pazon added 20. Rounding out the double-figure scorers for the Keydets in the contest would be Cal Liston, who posted 17 points. AJ Clark finished with a career-high 20 rebounds, and Pazon added 10 rebounds to post his first-career double-double. VMI finished the night 18-of-49 (36.7%) from three-point range, with Andrews knocking down a career-high six threes, while Holmstrom knocked down a career-best five, accounting for 11 of the team’s 18 long-range efforts.

UNC Greensboro headed to Raleigh where Mike Jones met up with his good friend, Will Wade, who was, at the time, the head coach of the North Carolina State Wolfpack, but despite playing well early in the game, the game as a whole would be a forgettable one for the Spartans, who fell to 0-3 on the young season, as the Wolfpack would find their rhythm midway through the opening half, taking a 110-64 win at PNC Arena.

Despite the lopsided loss, the Spartans trailed by just 10 points (47-37) at the half. The second half, however, would be all Wolfpack, out-scoring UNCG, 63-27, to come away with the 46-point margin of victory.

Early in the second half, the Spartans cut the margin to just eight, when Donald Whitehead Jr. knocked down a three-pointer, making it a 51-43 lead with 17:07 remaining. However, a 47-11 run for the Wolfpack from that point had salted the game away. This was a UNCG program that looked far from a squad that had come into the same venue and handed the Wolfpack a stunning loss some nine years earlier. A Darrion Williams three-pointer with 4:45 remaining extended NC State’s lead to 42 points, at 96-54. The Wolfpack would increase their lead to as much as 48 points with just under a minute left, as Scottie Ebube’s layup made it a 110-62 contest with 55 seconds left. The Wolfpack would eventually settle on a 46-point win after a pair of Noah Nogaard free throws set the final margin.

UNCG would have just one player finish the contest in double figures, as Donald Whitehead Jr.’s 21 points led the way for the Blue and Gold. He finished the evening connecting on 6-of-14 shots from the field and was 4-for-10 from three-point range, while also completing the night by going 5-for-7 from the charity stripe.

NC State, meanwhile, had four players finish in double figures, with Darrion Williams leading all scorers with 32 points on 12-of-19 shooting from the field and also finished an impressive 6-for-8 from three-point range. Teammate Paul McNeil Jr. finished with 27 points, knocking down 8-of-16 from the field and was 6-of-13 from three-point range in the game, as State’s two top players nearly equaled the Spartans’ total for the entire night, combining for 57 of the team’s 110 points. Quadir Copeland and Matt Able rounded out the double-figure scores for the Wolfpack, posting 13 and 10 points, respectively, in the win.

Western Carolina would end up picking up its first win of the season against a non-Division I foe, as the Catamounts made easy work of Voorhees inside the friendly confines of the Liston B. Ramsey Center, posting what would be a 95-44 win. The Catamounts shot a season-best 52.2% from the field and had five players in double figures, while defensively limiting the visitors to just 15 first-half points en route to the lopsided, 51-point win.

The Catamounts would be led in the blowout by a balanced offensive attack, which saw Julien Soumaoro lead all scorers with 15 points on 4-of-10 shooting from the field, which included a 3-for-7 effort from three-point land. Soumaoro was joined in double figures by CJ Hyland’s 14 points, while Samuel Dada added 13 pts and Marcus Kell added 12. Justin Johnson rounded out the double figure scorers for the Catamounts with 10.

While the Catamounts made rather easy work of Vorhees for their first win of the season, Furman was on the road for another team that sported its primary color as purple, although on this night the color of choice would be black uniforms.

The Northern Iowa Panthers were one of the top defensive teams in the nation for a reason, and it was little surprise, then, that the eventual Missouri Valley Tournament Champions would limit the Paladins to their lowest point total of the season, in what was a 70-54 home win for the Panthers over the Paladins.

The Panthers would be led in scoring in the contest by Trey Campbell, who finished with 18 points to lead five UNI players in double figures, as the Panthers featured a well-balanced offensive output. Campbell knocked down 6-of-11 shots from the field and was 3-for-6 from three-point range and a perfect 3-for-3 from the charity stripe. Additionally, Campbell added three assists and two steals in the win.

Campbell would be joined in double figures by Ben Schwieger, who gave off the bench to add 14 points for the Panthers, while starters Leon Bond III and Tristan Smith added 13 points apiece, and Will Hornseth added 11 points and eight boards to round out the balanced offensive effort from the Panthers.

Furman was led by junior center Cooper Bowser, who posted 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field, while adding four rebounds, two blocks and an assist to his overall totals for the night. Charles Johnston added a double-double of 11 points, 10 rebounds and an assist, while shooting 3-of-7 from three-point range. The rest of the team shot just 1-of-23 from long-range in the game.

True freshman point guard Alex Wilkins also finished in double figures, finishing with 10 points and four assists, as he connected on 4-of-14 shots from the field, but was 0-of-9 from three-point land.

For the game, the Panthers ended the night connecting on 46.3% (25-of-54) from the field but were just 30.0% (6-of-20) from long-range themselves. UNI did knock down 14-of-17 attempts from the charity stripe, which converted to an 82.4% clip from the charity stripe.

The Paladins finished the night connecting on just 39.3% (22-of-56) from the field and just 13.3% (4-of-30) from three-point range and were 6-of-11 from the free throw line. Furman owned advantages in points in the paint (34-30) and second-chance points (6-5), while UNI held advantages in points from turnovers (13-11), fast-break points (5-2), bench points (15-9), total rebounds (35-33), and total assists (11-10).

Furman and Northern Iowa played it close to the vest early in the game, with each team struggling shooting-wise early on, and Furman jumped out to an early 8-5 lead following a pair of Cooper Bowser buckets, however, the Panthers responded with a 15-4 run to take a 20-12 lead following a nice mid-range jumper from Leon Bond III to force a Furman timeout at the 9:09 mark of the opening half.

Furman would battle back and after missing its first 10 threes of the game, finally broke the ice from long range when Charles Johnston knocked down a three in transition following a Ben Vander Wal steal, cutting the UNI lead back to five. However, back-to-back jumpers and a free throw gave the Panther a brief double-digit lead before a pair of Furman buckets by Bowser and Alex Wilkins to get the deficit back to six. However, the Panthers would take a 27-19 lead to final media timeout of the half following short jumper All-Missouri Valley Conference guard Trey Campbell.

Off the timeout, a Ben Schweiger three with the shot clock winding down was followed by a Tristan Smith hook shot in the paint extending the Panthers to their largest lead of the night, at 32-19 with just under three minutes remaining in the half. A little over a minute later, Smith’s layup extended the lead to 15 before Charles Johnston three cut it back to 12 and that’s where the score would remain at the half, as the Panthers took a 36-24 lead into the half. Furman finished the opening half of play connecting on just 2-of-17 from three-point range in the opening half of play.

The second half would begin with a technical foul, as Furman was issued a technical foul as a result of Eddrin Bronson not being written in the official stats manual before the start of the game. That would lead to a free throw for the Panthers without any time elapsing off the clock, and increasing the Panthers lead to 13, at 37-24.

Trailing by 15 in the early portions of the second half, the Paladins would trim the Panthers lead to 10, at 45-35, following a layup by Bronson at the 11:16 mark of the second stanza. However, UNI produced its most decisive run of the night following Bronson's layup, utilizing a 10-0 run, which began with a Ben Schwieger three-pointer with the shot clock winding down and ended with an alley-oop slam from Tristan Smith off a feed from RJ Taylor, as the UNI lead ballooned to 20, at 55-35, with 8:36 remaining.

Furman could get no closer than 15 points for the remainder of the night, watching as UNI's lead would increase to as much as 23 points, at 63-40, with 4:01 left after Campbell knocked down a baby jumper in the lane.

By now, the NCAA Division I losing streak was starting to weigh upon The Citadel head coach Ed Conroy and his Bulldogs team, but The Citadel fans figured an new NCAA Division I program, in West Georgia, might be just the place to start when looking to break that long losing streak that had now lasted over a year. However, unfortunately for the Bulldogs, it wouldn’t come to an end on this night, as the Wolves notched what would be a 100-92 win in what was a part of the SoCon-A-Sun Challenge at The Coliseum.

Five different UWG players would find their way into double figures in the eight-point win. Wolves guard Josh Smith would have a career night against the Bulldogs, as he scored a career-high 27 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field and was 3-for-4 from three-point range. He also connected on 6-of-7 shots from the charity stripe. Shelton Williams-Dryden joined his teammate in the 20+point scoring category, as he finished the night with 22 points on 9-of-19 shooting from the field and was 4-for-5 at the free throw line. Chas Lewless and Kenneth Chime added 16 and 15 points, respectively, while Xavier Shegog rounded out the double-figure scorers for the Wolves, finishing with 13.

The Citadel got a big night from Kenyan Davis, who led the Bulldogs with 17 points, as he did most of his damage from long range, finishing the game 6-of-9 from the field, including going 3-for-5 from three-point range. Freshman Marco Gonzales had a strong outing for the Bulldogs, posting 14 points. seven assists and five rebounds off the bench. Sola Adebisi and Eze Wali posted 11 points apiece, while Braxton Williams rounded out the Bulldogs in double figures with 10.

The Citadel found themselves trailing in at the half by eight, 47-39, as the Wolves lit it up for 51.2% (19-of-37) in the opening 20 minutes of basketball. The Bulldogs would get off to a strong start in the second half, however, scoring the first five points of the frame to trim UWG’s lead to just three in the opening minutes of the second half. However, UWG would extend its lead to as many as 13 with 13:09 remaining following a jumper by Javar Daniel with 13:09 remaining before The Citadel’s Braxton Williams answered with a triple of his own to get the Bulldogs back to within 10, at 67-57, with 12 minutes remaining. A 19-10 run from that point forward would extend the Wolves lead out to 19, at 86-67, following a layup by Chas Lewless with 5:30 remaining.

The Bulldogs, however, could get no closer than six points the remainder of the game, as The Citadel would do so twice inside the final 20 seconds, with the last coming at 98-92, following an Eze Wali layup with just eight seconds remaining.





While The Citadel remained in search of its first NCAA Division I win of the season, the league’s other Bulldogs—the Samford Bulldogs—would go toe-to-toe with the No. 15 Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville.

The Bulldogs would put up a valiant effort before eventually dropping what was a 79-75 contest to the Razorbacks.

The second half saw a back-and-forth battle with the two teams swapping runs, and after trailing 45-35 at the half, Samford sliced the lead to just two, at 48-46, on a pair of Jadin Booth free throws with 17:12 remaining in the game. The Razorbacks would push the lead back to nine when a Darius Acuff Jr. three-pointer made it a 57-48 game with 13:51 remaining.

The Razorbacks eventually pushed their lead back to 13 with 5:47 remaining, as Acuff Jr. knocked down a jumper in the paint to give the 21stranked Razorbacks a 71-58 lead. A 12-5 run would get the Bulldogs back to within six with 1:07 left, as a Booth three-pointer would trim Arkansas’ lead to just six, at 76-70. After a pair of Keaton Norris free throws again got Samford to within six, at 78-72, with just 24 seconds remaining. Acuff Jr. was then immediately fouled and he knocked down 1-of-2 free throws to make it a seven-point game before Cade Norris’ three with five seconds left set the final margin at just four, 79-75.

The Bulldogs would finish off the evening with five players finishing in double figures, as both Cade Norris and Zion Wilburn finished with 15 points apiece for the Bulldogs, while Jadin Booth contributed 14 and Dylan Faulkner added 13 points and six rebounds. The Razorbacks finished the game being led by Darius Acuff Jr., who led all scorers with 20 points, while Maleek Thomas added 17 and Trevon Brazille added 15.

On Nov. 15, a slew of SoCon teams would take part in SoCon-ASUN challenge games, beginning with Chattanooga starting the day at Florida Gulf-Coast. The Mocs would end up running into a buzzsaw in Fort Myers, as the Mocs would end up dropping what was a 91-73 contest at Alico Arena. The loss would see the Mocs fall to 1-3 on the season, which was not a good look for the defending SoCon regular-season champions and the reigning NIT champions.

It was a case of the Mocs not being able to find their shot, while the Eagles were on fire, especially in the second half, as the Eagles connected on 56.7% (17-of-30) in the second half, while shooting an impressive 51.5% (34-of-66) from the field for the game en route to the 18-point win. The Eagles carried all the momentum into the halftime locker room, ending the half on a 14-2 run to take a 41-25 lead into the halftime locker room.

Early in the second half, the Mocs were able to trim the lead to 13, at 45-32, when Teddy Washington Jr. connected on a three-pointer, however, the Eagles were able to capitalize on multiple turnovers by the Mocs, pushing the lead to 20, at 63-43, when Gabe Tanner raced in for an FGCU layup with 10:51 remaining. After getting the deficit to 16 on three-straight made free throws, at 70-54, with 6:32 left, the Eagles punched back over the next five minutes, pushing their lead to as many as 29 on a three-pointer by J.R. Konieczny with 1:51 remaining, pushing the score to 91-62. The Mocs would score the final 11 points of the game.

Finishing the game as Chattanooga’s leading scorer was Jordan Frison, who posted 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and 5-for-8 from the charity stripe in the loss. He was one of three Mocs in double figures in the contest, as he would be joined in double figures by both Teddy Washington Jr. and Jikari Johnson, who added 12 and 10 points, respectively, in the loss. The Mocs finished the contest shooting just 41.5% (22-of-53) from the field and just 29.6% (8-for-27) from three-point range.

Four Eagles finished in double figures, led by Konieczny’s 24 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field and 2-for-4 effort from three-point range. Guard Rahmir Barno added 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field and 1-of-4 from three-point range. Jordan Ellerbee added 14 points of the bench, while Michael Duax rounded out the double-figure scorers for FGCU with 12.

In another SoCon-ASUN Challenge matchup, Wofford came out on the winning side of things for the Southern Conference on day, as the Terriers went on the road to Louisville, KY, and came up with a big, 94-86, road win. Nils Machowski led the way for Wofford in the win, as he finished out the contest with 28 points, while fellow star backcourt mate—sophomore guard Kahmare Holmes—added 24 in what would be an eight-point win for Wofford. Luke Flynn would add 16 for the Terriers, while Cayden Vasko finished with 11.

Machowski finished the game by connecting on 5-of-11 shots from the field, including going 4-for-8 from three-point range. He also went an impressive 14-of-16 from the free throw line. Holmes finished 8-for-12 shooting from the field for the game, including going 5-for-6 from three-point land and finished 3-for-6 from the free throw line. The game would go back-and-forth in the opening eight minutes before Wofford connected on consecutive threes courtesy of Machowski and would take a 20-16 lead into the under 12 media timeout.

Wofford hit 16 threes in the game, with 12 of them coming in the opening 20 minutes of basketball, as Wofford blistered the nets for 75% (12-for-16) from long-range in the opening half of play alone. That kind of shooting serves you especially well when playing on the road, and so on the strength of that 75% effort from three and 62.5% shooting from the field, Wofford went to the half holding what was a comfortable 51-38 halftime edge.

In the second half, the Terriers wouldn’t be as efficient from three (4-of-12), but they wouldn’t need to be. After the break, Holmes got the first points of the second half for Wofford, as he would give the Terriers a 16-point lead (54-38) on Wofford’s 13th trey of the night. A Machowski layup then pushed Wofford’s lead to 18 on the Terriers’ next possession. A 9-3 run by the Knights would trim the Terrier lead to just 12, at 59-47, when Brian Waddell converted a two-handed stuff in the lane to get Bellarmine back to within 12, at 59-47, with 16:12 left. Rex Stirling scored six of the next nine points for Wofford, as Wofford pushed its lead to 21, at 68-47, with 14:20 remaining.

Wofford would then hit a dry spell through the middle portions of the second half, as the Terriers went for over seven minutes without scoring from the field. Fortunately for Wofford, managed to hit some free throws, however, a 22-5 run during that span by the Knights, as a pair of Jack Karisinski free throws got Bellarmine to within three, at 73-70, with 7:32 remaining. For Wofford, it was a scare, but it would be as close as the Knights would get for the remainder of the game, as Wofford pushed its lead back into the comfort zone at eight points, when a pair of Luke Flynn free throws made it an 80-72 Wofford lead with exactly four minutes left. The Terriers managed to keep no less than a five-point lead the rest of the way en route to what would be the first road win of the Kevin Giltner era. It would be beginning of a season that would see Wofford earn the title of the road warrior Terriers under their first-year head coach, as Wofford would go on to win nine road games in Giltner’s first season at the helm.

Wofford would turn out to be the lone win in the SoCon-ASUN challenge over the course of the afternoon. In an early afternoon contest at Cameron Hall, VMI faced off against Jacksonville and would end up falling on a buzzer-beating effort by the Dolphins, as Jacksonville escaped with a 69-67 win. The Keydets had rallied late in the game to take a 67-66 lead before Jacksonville’s Chris Arias launched a long three-pointer with two seconds remaining to help the Dolphins escape with the win. On the afternoon, Arias was big-time for the Dolphins from long-range, as he was able to connect on 5-of-8 downtown efforts in the first half and finished the game going 8-of-12 from long range, as he connected on all but two of Jacksonville’s three-point field goals for the entire games, as he finished with 24 points to lead all scorers.

TJ Johnson once again led VMI’s scoring efforts, finishing with 18 points and finished 7-of-13 from the field and was 2-for-7 from three-point range. He also finished off the contest with six rebounds. AJ Clark added 15 points, four rebounds and had a pair of steals.

UNC Greensboro faced off against a good Austin Peay team at Bodford Arena and while it would be close, the Spartans would remain winless on the season, falling to 0-4 with a 69-63 setback to the Governors.

After Austin Peay took an early 6-0 lead though, it looked like the day might go a little better than it ended up ultimately going for UNCG, as the Spartans were able to go on a 10-0 run, which was capped by a Valentino Pinedo layup to give the Spartans the early 10-6 lead. Later in the half, A Clifton Efinda triple helped the Spartans regain a 22-20 lead at the 4:06 mark of the opening frame, however, the Govs finished the half on a 13-5 run to take a 33-27 lead to the halftime locker room.

Much like that start of the game, when UNCG had a 10-0 run in the opening 10 minutes of the game, the Spartans would also open the second half in strong fashion, taking a 46-41 lead following a Pinedo free throw at the 12:48 mark, completing a 19-8 run to start the frame. Austin Peay would eventually tie the contest for a sixth time, at 48-48, on a three-pointer by Collin Parker with 11:16 remaining. A Ja’Corey Robinson triple the next time down the floor for the Govs gave Austin Peay for good. Austin Peay would grow its lead to as much as nine inside the final minute of the game when a pair of free throws by Antwon Brookshire increased the Govs lead to 67-58 before they would eventually end up settling for a 69-63 win.

Justin Neely was one of two Spartans in double figures, as he finished the contest with 15 points and 14 rebounds, as he finished out the contest connecting on 7-of-11 shots from the field, which included a 1-for-3 effort from three-point range. Valentino Pinedo was the only other UNCG player to finish the night in double figures, completing the contest with Valentino Pinedo, who finished the contest with 12.

Austin Peay’s Collin Parker finished the contest leading all scorers with 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the field, which included a 2-for-5 effort from three-point range and he was also 2-for-2 from the line. Parker also added nine rebounds, five assists and a steal. Tate McCubbin added 13 points and eight rebounds, while Zyree Collins rounded out Austin Peay’s players in double figures with 11.

While it was a tough all-around afternoon at the office for SoCon hoops, no team would suffer a worse defeat than that of the Mercer Bears, who were in Rock Hill, S.C., to take on the Winthrop Eagles. The Eagles, who would end up finishing second in the Big South behind High Point.

The Eagles were red-hot shooting the basketball the entire night, connecting on 51.5% (34-of-66) from the field for the game, while connecting at a 44.0% (11-of-25) clip from three-point range in what ended up being a 36-point margin of victory for the Eagles, which would also end up being the largest margin of defeat of the campaign for the Bears.

Kareem Rozier led the way for Winthrop with 20 points and was one of six Eagles in double figures in the game. Rozier finished off his night by connecting on 7-of-13 from the field, including going 4-for-7 from three-point range. Josh Meo added 18 points off the bench, while Kody Clouet finished his evening with 14 points, while both Daylen Berry and Tommy Kamarad added 11 apiece. Rounding out the double-figure scorers for the Eagles in the game was Seifelden Hendawy, who finished with 10.

Mercer would be led in the game by three in double figures, as Kyle Cuffe Jr. came off the bench to post 17 points, while Baraka Okojie added 16 points, four rebounds and a pair of assists. Quinton Perkins II rounded out the double figures scorers with 14.

The normally high-octane offense of Mercer didn’t function anywhere close to optimum level on this evening, connecting on just 42.9% (24-of-56) from the field and only 20.8% (5-for-24) from three-point range.

Mercer trailed 13-6 with five minutes elapsed in the game, and a Brady Shoulders layup would keep the Bears in it later in the opening half, as his two-point field goal trimmed the Winthrop lead to eight, at 21-13, with 11:43 remaining in the opening frame.

After trailing 31-20 with just over eight minutes remaining in the opening half of play, the Bears proceeded to go on a 10-0 run to get within a point of the Eagles when Kyle Cuffe Jr. converted a layup at the 6:43 mark of the opening half. But Winthrop would end up closing out the opening half of play on a 13-1 run and took what was a 44-31 lead into the halftime locker room.

In the second half, the Eagles started to pour it on, as they would first extend their lead to 16, at 64-48, following a Kody Clouet jumper. Another Clouet three with just under 13 minutes remaining put the Eagles ahead by 19, at 69-50. The Eagles would never look back from there en route to one of the more embarrassing defeats a reputable SoCon program endured during the entirety of the non-conference slate.

One of the SoCon’s top wins of the non-conference season would come via regular-season champion East Tennessee State, which had to come from behind on the road to steal what was a 78-74 road win over North Alabama as part of the SoCon-ASUN Challenge. The Bucs were able to overcome an 18-point second half deficit on the road, posting a thrilling four-point win thanks to what would become a theme of ETSU throughout the 2025-26 season, and that would be a balanced scoring effort.

Jaylen Smith showed why he was the SoCon’s Sixth Man of the Year, as he came off the pine to post 14 points to lead four Bucs in double figures, as Brian Taylor II, Cam Morris III and Jordan McCullum all added 11 points in the road win, as ETSU shot a solid 47.6% (30-of-63) from the field and 35.7% (10-of-28) from three-point range. The Bucs would end up limiting the Lions to 43.6% (24-of-55) shooting for the game, but UNA did manage to shoot a solid 40.9% (9-of-22) from three-point range in the loss.

UNA started the game strong, while ETSU was slow getting out of the gate, as the Lions would go on an early 10-0 run to turn what had been a 7-7 game into a 17-7 North Alabama lead. The Lions would end up maintaining that advantage into halftime locker room, as UNA would assume complete control of the game before the halftime buzzer sounded for the end of the opening 20 minutes.

After Allen Strothers’ jumper made cut ETSU’s deficit to just four with just under six to play in the opening half, at 28-24, the Lions finished off the half with an impressive 18-7 run to close the half and take what was a 46-31 lead into the halftime locker room. Just a little over a half-minute into the second half, the Lions extended their lead out to 18 when on the opening possession of the second half, Dallas Howell connected on a three-pointer to make it a 49-31 advantage for the Lions. ETSU would begin to chip away at the lead from that point forward.

The Bucs immediately answer with a 7-0 run, with five of those coming from McCullum, as the Bucs did a nice job of not letting the UNA advantage become even more. Meanwhile, on the defensive end of the floor, the Bucs were able to hold UNA to just four points over the next eight minutes, trimming the deficit to 10 when Gabe Sisk converted a layup at the 12:19 mark of the second half, which made it a 53-43 Lions lead. Just a little less than four minutes later, Smith hit the first of what would turn out to be four threes getting the Bucs to within seven, at 57-50, with 8:37 left. After another ETSU stop, a second Smith triple drew ETSU even closer, cutting the deficit to just four, at 57-53, with 8:15 remaining.

ETSU trailed by six with 4:25 remaining, as Smith came up big on the defensive end of the floor this time, getting a steal before finding Maki Johnson for an open three in transition, and that would get the Bucs to within a possession, at 65-62 lead with just over four to play. ETSU continued to match every punch thrown by UNA with a counterpunch of its own, as Blake Barkley answered a Corneilous Williams dunk with a bucket in the paint and after a Kevin De Kovachich triple pushed the lead back to six, another Johnson three trimmed the Bucs deficit back to three, at 72-69, with 2:36 remaining.

ETSU would then finish in a flurry, finding the offense to balance out its play on the defensive end of the floor to close out the game and finish strong, as ETSU finished on a 9-2 run over the remaining two minutes and change, starting with turning a UNA turnover into points, as Johnson got a steal and fed Cam Morris II for a layup to make it a 72-71 gameAfter De Kovachich missed a three, the Bucs got a three from Brian Taylor II on the other end with 1:39 remaining. It was ETSU first lead since a 7-5 advantage following a McCullum layup in the paint at the 17:34 mark of the opening half.

Another steal by Smith and an emphatic dunk by Morris on the other end, extending ETSU’s lead to two possessions, at 76-72, with 51 seconds remaining. UNA’s Donte Bacchus would answer with layup seven seconds later to trim the Bucs’ lead back to two, but ETSU was able overcome a late turnover, which eventually resulted in a missed Williams jumper and Smith was fouled after corralling the rebound with two seconds remaining, knocking down both free throws on the two-shot bonus, as the Bucs escaped Florence Alabama with a 78-74 win.

ETSU’s win over North Alabama on was a good way to cap what had otherwise been a tough second Saturday of the college basketball season for the SoCon, as the league would finish just 2-4 on the day.

The following Sunday would see the SoCon pick up two more key wins in the SoCon-ASUN Challenge, as Western Carolina picked up what was a 76-65 win over Stetson at the Ramsey Center before Samford would pick up what prove to be another of the league’s top non-conference wins, as Samford would claim a win in a battle between former Alabama-Huntsville head coaches, with Samford’s Lennie Acuff getting the better of Central Arkansas’ John Shulman in what was a thrilling 84-77 overtime win in Conway. It would turn out to be the lone home loss of the season for the Bears, as Jadin Booth led five Bulldogs in double figures with 21 points in the win. UCA would go on to claim the regular-season Atlantic Sun title with a 15-3 record, including finishing the season with a 20-11 record, as the Bears would end up losing the Atlantic Sun title game in much the same fashion as the loss to the Bulldogs, dropping what was a 98-93 contest in the title game in Jacksonville.

Furman got a career-high 22 points from redshirt sophomore Asa Thomas, as the Paladins used offensive efficiency in the second half to join the defensive intensity the team had from the outset, in garnering a 79-44 win over NAIA Ohio Christian Wednesday night at Timmons Arena. It was the second non-Division I win of the season, as Furman already defeated Columbia International (89-59) for its first victory of the 2025-26 season just last week.

Thomas finished the night connecting on 9-of-16 shots from the field, including going 4-for-11 from beyond the arc, while adding seven rebounds, three assists and one steal in just over 29 minutes of playing time for the evening.

Samford didn’t have much time to enjoy that thrilling overtime road win over Central Arkansas, returning to the floor to face Florida Gulf Coast the next time out and they would get about the same treatment from the Eagles, as they had given the Mocs the previous weekend, only this time it was FGCU that went into a SoCon team’s house to pick up what was a monumental road win, capturing a 77-62 win at the Pete Hanna Center.

The Citadel would get back on the winning track, picking up what would be its second win of the season, as the Bulldogs downed NCAA Division II member North Greenville, as the Bulldogs would end up claiming what was a 70-57 win over the Trailblazers. The win was keyed by a strong start for the Bulldogs, which saw them get out to a 14-0 lead, and that would eventually grow to 20-3 following a layup from Marco Gonzalez.

The Citadel wouldn’t necessarily cruise to the win from that point, however, the Bulldogs would do enough the rest of the way to maintain their lead. Gonzalez would actually end up leading the Bulldogs in the win, as he finished the contest with 20.

VMI traveled to in-state rival Richmond, who was 4-0 on the young season, and Chris Mooney’s team didn’t have all that much difficulty moving to 5-0, as the Spiders made rather easy work of the Keydets, handing VMI an 84-57 setback. It was the Spiders’ defense that proved to be most bothersome for the Keydets, holding VMI to just 37% shooting in the contest to come away with the lopsided 27-point win. The Spiders also bothered VMI enough to force 16 Keydet turnovers, which they were able to turn into 15 points. The Spiders had an incredibly balanced offensive effort in the contest, with four players finishing in double figures, as guard AJ Lopez led the way with 12 points, while Aiden Argabright added 11. Off the bench, UR got 10 points apiece from 6-7 wing Jaden Daughtry and guard David Thomas.

For VMI in 2025-26, on nights when TJ Johnson struggled, it wasn’t a harbinger of good things to come for head coach Andrew Wilson’s ball club. That was the case on this night, as the normally proficient leading scorer for VMI was held to a season-low four points. It would be only one of four times in 31 games he would play on the season that he would not end up in double figures. The only player that would end up there on this particular evening for the Keydets was Jaylen Pazon, who came off the bench to add 14 on 6-of-11 shooting from the field, which included just a 1-for-4 effort from three-point range. The Keydets, who finished the season with a league-high 343 three-pointers made, made only eight against the Spiders, connecting on just 25.8% (8-of-31) from long range, which included just a 3-for-15 effort in the second half.

While the Keydets fell to 3-3 on the young season, the Chattanooga Mocs ended a tough string of three-straight losses by going on the road and getting what was a 78-66 win over South Carolina State.

The Mocs would lead the contest for almost 37 of the 40 minutes en route to getting a big confidence-building win. UTC’s backcourt was a big reason why the Mocs ended the three-game skid in Orangeburg, with Jordan Frison and Teddy Washington Jr. leading the way for Chattanooga, with 17 and 16 points, respectively.

The talented guard duo was joined in double figures by center Collin Mulholland and guard Billy Smith, who added 12 and 11 points, respectively. The Mocs shot a solid 45% (22-of-49) from the field for the game, while seeing some improvement from three-point range, finishing the night at 34.6% (9-for-26) from long range. Meanwhile, it was also one of UTC’s top defensive performances of the season, holding the Bulldogs to just 29.5% (18-of-61) from the field for the game, including a 32.1% (9-for-28) from three-point range. The two teams didn’t exactly put on a shooting display in the game, especially in the second half, as the Mocs and Bulldogs combined to go just 2-for-20 (10%) from the field over the final 10 minutes of the contest.

While Dan Earl notched his 70th win as Mocs head coach on the road at South Carolina State, Wofford was in the friendly confines of the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium to face North Florida as part of the SoCon-ASUN Challenge, and the Terriers would move above .500 (3-2) with an 86-78 win over the Ospreys. It wasn’t a typical hot start, especially shooting-wise for the Terriers, but Wofford would slowly, but surely find an offensive rhythm. The Terriers only held the lead for a little over 90 seconds in the opening stanza, but stayed close enough and even entered the halftime locker room with some momentum that it didn’t appear the Terriers might initially have.

Following a BJ Plummer three with 7:08 left in the opening half, the Ospreys assumed what was a 24-16 lead. However, the Terriers hit a 14-6 spark over the next 4:21, tying the game, 30-30, when Chace Watley connected on a three with 2:47 remaining in the opening half of play. With the game tied once again at 32, the Ospreys got a big three-pointer from Trey Cady with 2:01 remaining to give North Florida the 35-32 lead once again. Wofford’s momentum going to the half would come courtesy of its best player, and he did so in the most emphatic fashion you can in basketball—the slam dunk—as his final two of the half almost seemed like it gave the Terriers the lead with the eruption that ensued from the vocal crowd of 1,738 fans on-hand at the JRIS, and Wofford went to the locker room trailing by just a single point, at 35-34.

The second half was played closely as well, but eventually the Terriers would assume the lead for good just eight minutes into the second half. With the game tied 51-51, Wofford’s Chace Watley knocked down a jumper to make it a 53-51 lead. Another Watley bucket and a Brian Sumpter dunk extended the lead out to six, as Wofford built as much as a 13-point lead just inside the final minute on a pair of Cayden Vasko free throws, making it an 82-69 game before eventually settling on an 86-78 victory.

In the win for Wofford, Kahmare Holmes led the way with 21 points, as he finished 7-for-11 from the field and was 1-for-3 from three-point range, while also finishing 6-of-7 from the free throw line. Watley added 16 off the bench for Wofford, while Nils Machowski (11 pts), Cayden Vasco (10 pts) and Luke Flynn (10 pts) rounded out the double figure scorers for Wofford.

For the Ospreys, Kamrin Oriol led all scorers with 22 points, while BJ Plummer added 16 points off the bench. Mason Lee and Kent Jackson rounded out the UNF players in double figures, finishing up with 13 and 10 points, respectively.

On November 19, UNC Asheville traveled to Western Carolina for their annual rivalry game between the two, and it was the Catamounts that came up with a thrilling, 80-73, win inside the Liston B. Ramsey Center.

The game would essentially be decided by redshirt junior guard Cord Stansberry, who connected on a clutch, step-back three-pointer with just 15 seconds remaining, untying what had been a tie game, at 73-73.

Stansberry’s made three-pointer set off wild celebrations of the WCU sidelines, and when players from the bench and personnel came on the floor to celebrate with Stansberry and no technical foul was issued against the Catamounts per the rulebook, UNC Asheville head coach Mike Morrell became enraged.

He not only incurred a technical foul himself but made it a double and got tossed from the game. UNCA didn’t score the rest of the way, while Stansberry hit all four free throws down the stretch, finishing 9-of-10 from the free throw line and posted a career-high 29 points in the win. In addition to coming 9-of-10 from the free throw line, Stansberry finished 8-of-18 from the field and finished 4-for-11 from three-point range.

The only other Catamount to find his way into double figures in the game was Tahlan Pettway, who finished the game with 12 points off the bench.

Asheville would be led by Toyaz Solomon’s 22 points in the losing effort, as he paced three Bulldogs in double figures, with Kameron Taylor adding 17 points, while Justin Wright finished with 12. Solomon knocked down 8-of-14 shots from the field and was 3-for-4 from three-point range in the game.

The game between the Catamounts and Bulldogs never disappoints, and that was certainly the case this season, as it was one of the most thrilling games of the entire non-conference slate in the SoCon. It was the 59th all-time meeting between the Catamounts and Bulldogs on the college basketball hardwood, with WCU’s seven-point victory marking the 34th win in the series for WCU, as the Catamounts pulled ahead 34-25 in the all-time series.

While the series has seen some thrillers over the years, WCU’s seven-point margin of victory marked the first single-digit margin of victory on either side for the first time since 2021, when the Bulldogs came into the Ramsey Center and handed the Catamounts a heartbreaking 73-72 setback. Coming into this season’s renewal of the rivalry, the Catamounts had lost three of the previous four meetings.

While WCU improved to 3-2 and got a little momentum with a three-game winning streak, UNCG faced Queens in another big matchup in the SoCon-ASUN Challenge in Charlotte. The Royals were a very good basketball team, and one was picked to win its conference.

It would end up being a high-scoring affair, but Queens showed its quality in handing the Spartans a 101-94 setback at Curry Arena. It was becoming quite clear that the Spartans were nothing like the defensive lockdown teams we have been accustomed to head coach Mike Jones having over the year his previous four seasons as the head coach. In a game that never lacked for excitement, and it was all Royals early in the game, using a 15-4 run to take a 17-6 lead following a three-pointer from Maban Jabriel with 14:47 remaining in the opening half.

With 6:41remaining in the half, the Spartans got a three-pointer from Justin Neely and a free throw from KJ Younger in quick succession, cutting the Queens lead to four, at 32-28. However, that would not last, as the Royals hit back with six-straight on a three-pointer from Chris Ashby three-pointer and another triple by Yoav Berman pushed the lead back to double digits in a little over a minute after the Spartans had cut it to four.

Queens eventually took what was a 51-37 lead into the second half. Despite winning the second half 55-50 and having one of its best offensive halves of the season, they couldn’t cool off the Royals enough to make too much of a dent in the halftime deficit of 14 points. It was essentially a case of UNCG losing the game in the opening half and playing winning basketball in the second. There were far too many games like that during the 2025-26 season, but even at that, it shouldn’t have led to the quick dismissal of Mike Jones just two days after UNCG’s season ended in the SoCon Tournament in the semifinals in Asheville.

In the loss, the Spartans had six place in double figures, led by freshman KJ Younger, who posted 22 points, while Justin Neely added 19 points and eight rebounds. Donald Whitehead Jr. continued his strong early play for UNCG, as he added 14 points, while Lillian Marville and Domas Kauzonas added 11 points apiece. Rounding out the double-figure scorers for the Spartans is Valentino Pinedo, who finished with 10 points.

The Royals were on fire the entire evening, connecting on 53.2% (33-of-62) for the game, including a blistering 46.9% (15-of-32) from three-point range. Five Royals finished in double figures, with Chris Ashby pacing the team with 18 points, which included a 5-for-12 effort from three-point range.

While UNCG tried to solve its defensive woes, Mercer would get back on the winning track after its debacle in Rock Hill and went on the road to get what was a 95-83 win over Eastern Kentucky.

Six Mercer Bears would find their way into double figures in the contest, with Quinton Perkins II leading the way for the Bears with 20 points, as he knocked down 7-of-9, including finishing 4-of-5 from three-point range and was a perfect 2-for-2 from the charity stripe. Baraka Okojie wasn’t far behind Perkins in terms of scoring, as he added 18 points and five assists, while Zaire Williams added 14 points and Armani Mighty posted a double-double, with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Kyle Cuffe Jr. came off the bench to add 12 points, while Brady Shoulders contributed 10.

The Bears sizzled from the field for the entire evening, connecting on 55.7% (34-of-61) from two-point range, while shooting the ball even better from three-point range, as Mercer finished 56.5% (13-of-23) from long range. Mercer also shot the ball extremely well from the free throw line in the win, connecting at a 77.8% (14-of-18) clip on the road.

EKU had four players finish the contest in double figures, with Juan Cranford Jr. finishing with 18 to lead the Colonels, as he knocked down 7-of-18 shots from the field, including 4-for-9 from three-point range. Cranford Jr. also added three steals and three rebounds to the Colonels’ cause.

As far as the actual game was concerned, Mercer came out and took initiative early in the game and never looked back, as Ryan Ridder’s team ended up being the aggressor on the road. With the game tied, 23-23, in the opening half of play, the Bears went on a 9-0 run and it was capped by a Kyle Cuffe Jr. three that helped cap off the Mercer run, giving the Bears the 32-23 lead. Consecutive buckets by Zaire Williams and Quinton Perkins II would extend the Bears’ lead out to its largest of the afternoon, at 45-27. The Bears would eventually settle on a 15-point halftime lead, as Mercer went to the locker room holding what was a 53-38 lead.

In the second half, the Bears would continue to maintain their edge, with an Okojie triple extending the Mercer lead to 19, at 59-40, with 17:26 remaining. Less than a minute later, another three by Williams extended the Bears lead to 20, at 62-42, with 16:45 left. The Colonels would trim the lead to 10 twice in the second half, however, they could get no closer in the game, as the Bears helped the SoCon notch another win in the SoCon-ASUN Challenge, as well as improving to 3-2 on the season in the process.

Wofford would notch its third-straight win in a row by knocking off its first non-Division I opponent of the season, taking down in-state Division II program Erskine, 81-57, inside the friendly confines of Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium. Freshman guard Jaden Tyler would lead a balanced offensive effort by the Terriers in the home win, as he posted 13 points, and was one of four Wofford players to finish the contest in double figures. The Terriers shot the ball at an impressive 54.5% (30-of-55) for the game, which included a solid 36.4% (12-of-33) from three-point range in the win.

Samford and Lennie Acuff were out west to take on New Mexico State and suffered a second-straight loss, as the Aggies ended up coming up with a hard-fought 81-72 win on their home hardwood. The game came just 48 hours after the Bulldogs suffered a 77-62 home loss to Florida Gulf-Coast in the SoCon-ASUN Challenge, and the Aggies defensive game plan was completely centered around taking Jadin Booth completely out of the game, and that, in theory, wasn’t a terrible decision. The defense on Booth was the best anyone played against him this season that wasn’t food poisoning, as the Aggies held the eventual SoCon Player of the Year to just three points, which ended up being one of his lowest scoring outputs of the season.

Kam Martin was one of two Bulldogs in double figures, leading Samford with 17 points, while Zion Wilburn added 15. Dylan Faulkner, who was Samford’s second-leading scorer, finished with just five points, meaning the Aggies held the two top scoring Bulldogs to just a combined eight points in the entire game. The Bulldogs finished the night connecting on just 40% (24-of-60) for the game, while the Bulldogs could only muster a 26.7% (8-of-30) effort from three-point range.

The Aggies, meanwhile, ended up with four in double figures, as Julius Mims matched Samford’s Wilburn for game-high scoring honors, contributing 17 points on a perfect shooting night from the field, as he went 7-for-7 from the field, including a 2-for-2 effort from three-point range. He also added 11 rebounds to complete a double-double effort. The other three players in double figures for the Aggies were Jemel Jones, Jayland Randall and Kyrese Mullen, who each added 10 points apiece, and NMSU ended the night shooting 54.4% (31-of-57) from the field, including a 43.8% clip from three-point land (7-of-16).

The Aggies would end the season 16-16, and this was one of those matchups that, for Samford, if it had been played later in the season when there was more team synergy, there might have been a different result for the Bulldogs, or at least Samford would have made it a much tighter game on the scoreboard.

ETSU was a team that was a team that was starting to find its “happy place” a little earlier in the season than Samford, and by the time the season reached Thanksgiving, the Bucs were starting to hit their grove on both ends of the floor. The Bucs’ next victim on the hardwood would be Morehead State. Cam Morris III and Brian Taylor II both served up a pair of 20-point performances, as ETSU was able to come away with a 77-62 win over the Eagles as part of an MTE. Morris, who would go on to be selected as the SoCon’s Defensive Player of the Year, finished the contest with his 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field and was also 6-for-10 from the charity stripe.

Taylor logged 38 minutes of floor action and finished out the contest by going 7-of-13 from the field and 2-for-5 from three-point land, while also finishing the game a perfect 5-for-5 from the free throw line. Jordan McCullum and Blake Barkley finished out the double-figure scorers with 13 and 12 points, respectively. McCullum added a double-double performance to his seasonal resume, finishing the contest with 14 rebounds.

Morehead State got off to a strong start in the contest, as an early 7-0 run allowed the visitors to take a 15-6 lead early in the game, as Davion Cunningham knocked down a jumper with 11:34 remaining in the opening half. However, ETSU when Allen Strothers found Blake Barkley on a hard, baseline cut for a two-handed dunk before Jaylen Smith knocked down a jumper to cut the Morehead State lead to five with 10:16 remaining in the half. The Bucs got their next 18 points from either Taylor or Morris, which included 11-straight by Taylor, as the Bucs took a 27-26 lead following a Taylor jumper with 4:45 remaining in the half. The Bucs would eventually take a 38-31 lead into the halftime locker room.

Much like it game started, Morehead State would get off to a fast start, scoring the first seven points of the second half to tie the game, and then retook the lead when Anouar Mellouk converted a layup to make it a 42-40 lead for the Eagles with 14:52 left. With game tied 47-47 with 10:34 remaining, the Bucs would embark on what was an 18-2 run to take control of the game, as a pair of Barkley free throws put ETSU by 14 (63-49) with 5:38 remaining. The Eagles could never get within double digits on the scoreboard the rest of the way, with ETSU growing its lead to as much as 19 points when Morris converted an emphatic dunk, which proved to be the final points of the afternoon and gave the Bucs a 77-58 lead with just 53 seconds remaining.

Davion Cunningham led MSU’s scoring efforts, adding 21 points on 5-of-13 shooting from the field and 11-of-15 from the free throw line. The Bucs defense was once again stellar, limiting the Eagles to just 43.5% (20-for-46) shooting from the field and just 31.3% (5-of-16) from three-point range. The Bucs finished the game connecting on 43.9% (25-of-57), despite struggling shooting the three-ball, as ETSU finished the contest knocking down just 12.5% (2-for-16) from three-point range.

Chattanooga had gotten a good bit of momentum off its road win at South Carolina State in the middle of the week, and that would carry over to the weekend matchup with North Alabama as a part of the SoCon-ASUN Challenge. With that triumph, Chattanooga would get a little bit of momentum moving forward, as the Mocs hosted a big home game against North Alabama in what would be the second part of the SoCon-ASUN Challenge for the Mocs.

The Lions had been one of the Cinderella Stories of mid-major basketball a year ago and were once again highly regarded entering the clash with the Mocs. The Lions were even picked to finish as high as No. 2 in the Atlantic Sun by Blue Ribbon Sports Publication, however, on this Saturday afternoon in the Scenic City, were no match for Chattanooga, who posted a 71-57 over its visitors.

The win meant Chattanooga got its record back to .500 for the season, evening its mark at 3-3. The win also meant that the Mocs had posted back-to-back double-digit wins over the reigning regular-season champions out of both the Atlantic Sun and the MEAC from last season.

The performance also easily marked the Mocs' best defensive performance of the non-conference, holding a Division I foe to their lowest point total of the non-conference slate (57) and held the Lions to just 42.0% (21-of-50) from the field, and only 30.0% (6-of-20) shooting from the three-point land. Bellarmine transfer Billy Smith led the Mocs with 18 points, while Sebastian Hartmann and Tate Darner contributed 11 and 10 points, respectively, leading Chattanooga to the win.

A loud, rowdy crowd of 3,455 fans saw the Mocs shoot the ball just a tad better than their visitors from Florence, AL, as Chattanooga connected on 44.6% (25-of-56) from the field and 33.3% (11-of-33) from three-point range.

Kevin Da Kovachich led the way for the Lions, as he matched Smith's game-high point total with 18 of his own. Smith knocked down four trifectas in the early portions of the second half, preceding a triple from Hartmann, which gave the Mocs a double-digit cushion, pushing the lead to 14 with 12 minutes left in the game.

The Mocs would maintain a healthy distance on the scoreboard from there, increasing their advantage to as much as 18 (59-41) following a layup in traffic by Jordan Frison at the 9:21 mark of the second half. The Mocs were never seriously threatened the rest of the way.

Western Carolina headed up to Nashville looking to continue to build momentum, as the Catamounts came to Lipscomb having won three-straight games. Things didn’t go according to plan for the Catamounts, however, as Lipscomb made rather easy work of the Catamounts, 83-62, at Allen Arena.

The two teams would start slow, and WCU held an 8-7 lead following the under 12 media timeout. However, a quick 10-0 spurt, which featured threes by Ethan Duncan and Kennedy Okpara, and a pair of layups by Cole Middleton and Grant Asman 17-8, saw the Bisons take a 17-8 lead. Lipscomb kept its defensive intensity high and limited the Catamounts to two of its next nine field goal attempts, running its lead to 22-12 when Charlie Williams finished off a dunk with just under six minutes remaining in the first half. The Bisons would eventually settle for a 34-23 halftime lead.

In the opening 90 seconds of the second half, the onslaught by Lipscomb would continue, as the Bisons scored seven of the first eight points in the second half, running the lead to 18, at 42-24 following a layup by Asman in transition, prompting a WCU timeout. The Catamounts hit back with a 7-1 run of their own to cut the deficit to 12, however, a 13-4 run by the Bisons, which began was bookended by layups from Charlie Williams and Titas Sargiunas allowed the Bisons to push the margin to its largest of the afternoon, at 21, leading the contest 56-35 just before the under 12 media timeout. Eight-straight points following the media timeout put the run at 21-4, with 15-straight points scored to run the lead to 29, at 64-35, following an Asman layup with 9:43 remaining. The Catamounts could never get within 20 points in margin the rest of the way.

Lipscomb’s Asman led all scorers with 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting for the game, which including a 4-for-8 effort from three-point land, and he would be one of three Lipscomb players to end up in double figures. Ethan Duncan added 18 points, doing all his damage from three-point range, as he went 6-for-10 from downtown coming off the bench. Ross Candelino rounded out the Bisons in double figures with 12. The Bisons, who improved to 1-1 against SoCon foes one the season, finished the game shooting 45.7% (32-of-70) from the field, including a sizzling 43.2% (16-of-37) from three-point range.

WCU saw its three-game losing streak end, falling to 3-3 on the season, and the Catamounts were led by three in double figures, as Julien Soumaoro paced the Purple and Gold with 15 points on 6-for-13 shooting from the field and was 2-for-9 from three-point range. Soumaoro’s struggles from long-range were kind of a microcosm for the Catamounts as a whole shooting the ball from long-range the entire contest, was WCU shot just 17.9% (5-for-28) from long-range. WCU finished the game connecting on just 43.6% (24-of-55) from the field.

VMI also suffered a setback in their SoCon-ASUN Challenge game, as the Keydets were never able to find their rhythm in what was a 99-80 loss in DeLand, marking the Keydets’ third-straight loss. In the setback, TJ Johnson had another strong outing for VMI, as he finished with a team-high 20 points and tied a career-high 20 points. AJ Clark notched his second-career double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds, while the Hatters finished off the contest connecting on 21 threes, while three players finished the contest in double figures. Ethan Copeland led all scorers with 25 points, while Jamie Phillips Jr. and Alex Doyle added 24 and 21 points, respectively, in the 19-point win for the Hatters. All told, the Hatters finished the game connecting on 52.5% (21-of-40) from three-point land and finished shooting an impressive 59.0% (36-of-61) from the field.

While VMI found it tough going against the Hatters, the Bucs continued to find their groove against Louisiana Monroe in the second part of the MTE, as the Bucs would blast visiting Sun Belt member Louisiana Monroe, 97-55, at Freedom Hall to move to 5-1 on the season. The Bucs’ 42-point win over the Redhawks marked its margin of victory over an NCAA Division I foe during the 2025-26 season, and it was one of seven victories by a double-digit margin during its non-conference slate. In fact, seven of eight ETSU wins during the non-conference came by double digits. It marked ETSU’s first win by 40 or more points against an NCAA Division I foe since Jan. 13, 2018 when the Bucs won by 40 at home against VMI. Not since January 5, 2017, when ETSU won by 45 points at The Citadel have the Bucs won by more points against an NCAA Division I foe.

The Bucs blistered the nets to the tune of 59.1% (39-of-66) and knocked down 11 threes, shooting an impressive 45.8% (11-of-24) from long-range. The defense was once again smothering for the Bucs, which held the Warhawks to just 33.3% (19-of-57) from the field and just 22.2% (6-of-27) from three-point range. ETSU’s balance was one again a feature of another comprehensive non-conference win, as Jaylen Smith paced the Bucs with 15 points off the bench and was one of four Bucs in double figures, while 12 of the 14 players that logged time in the game scored. Smith finished the game connecting 6-of-8 shots from the field, including posting a 3-for-4 effort from three-point range. Brayden Crump, Allen Strothers and Brian Taylor II all finished the game with 10 points apiece.

Renars Sondors was one of two ULM players to finish in double figures, as he finished with 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field, including a 3-of-5 effort from three-point land. The only other ULM player to finish in double figures in the contest was MJ Russell, who added 10.

Furman, meanwhile, faced off against a good Queens team as another game in the SoCon-Atlantic Sun challenge, and it would be arguably Furman’s best performance of the season to-date, as the Royals came into Timmons Arena a team brimming with confidence and fresh off a 101-94 win over fellow SoCon member UNC Greensboro. The game would mark Furman’s lone game in the SoCon-ASUN Challenge for the 2025-26 season, with a scheduling conflict preventing a clash between the Paladins and Austin Peay that had been originally scheduled as a part of the challenge.

The Paladins were finally starting to click, and in the win over Queens, and then later in non-conference wins over Richmond and Elon, there would be some glimpses of Furman as being a championship caliber team. Furman posted a 90-79 win over the eventual NCAA Tournament bound Royals, as it would mark the Paladins’ first win over a Division I foe all season, as the Paladins improved to 3-3 overall.

Alex Wilkins led five in double figures in helping the Paladins to their first win over NCAA Division I competition this season, as he posted 23 points, seven assists, five rebounds and turned it over only twice in Furman's best and most-complete performance of the season.

Wilkins connected on 9-of-15 shots from the field and was 3-for-7 from three-point land and a perfect 2-for-2 from the line. It marked Wilkins' sixth game in double figures to start his career, posting his second 20+ scoring performance of the season. The Mattapan, MA., native posted a season-high 26 points in the Paladins' win over Columbia International earlier this season.

Charles Johnston added his fifth double-double in six games this season, as he posted 14 points and 13 rebounds, connecting on 5-of-6 shots, including going 2-of-3 from three-point range. The Sydney, Australia native was also a perfect 2-of-2 from the charity stripe. It was Johnston's sixth-consecutive double-digit rebound performance to begin the season. He also finished second on the team in total assists, dishing out four helpers without turning it over.

Cooper Bowser continued his strong play of late, adding 17 points, two rebounds, two blocks and an assist, while Eddirin Bronson added 15 points off the bench. Asa Thomas, who garnered his second-straight start, rounded out the Paladins in double figures with 12 points.

Not to be overlooked was the performance by senior wing Ben Vander Wal, who posted a +/- of +23 in the win, as he returned to the lineup after a minor injury kept him sidelined against Ohio Christian. Vander Wal delivered the ultimate "glue-guy" stat line, as he posted six points, five rebounds, three assists, and two blocks in 30 minutes of floor time.

Queens also posted five players in double figures in the game, as the preseason Atlantic Sun favorite was led by Maban Jabriel off the bench, as he posted 16 points and seven rebounds, connecting on 6-of-8 shots from the field and was 2-for-4 from three-point range. Jabriel also added two assists, a steal and a block to his well-rounded effort, logging 25 minutes off the Royals' bench.

True freshman point guard Jordan Watford and junior wing Nasir Mann added 14 points apiece, while Chris Ashby and Avantae Parker added 12 and 10 points, respectively, to round out the double figures scorers for the Royals.

The Paladins finished the game with their top shooting performance of the season, as the Paladins posted a 53.3% (32-of-60) performance from the field, including a solid 36.4% (12-of-33) effort from three-point land. About the only thing the Paladins didn't do exceptionally well was shooting from the charity stripe, as the Paladins finished the game just 66.7% (14-of-21) from the charity stripe. The 90 points scored by the Paladins were also a season high. Furman's four turnovers were also a season low.

Queens, which finished the two prior games shooting over 49% or better from the field and had hit 17 and 15 three-pointers in its previous two outings against UNC Greensboro and Sacred Heart in back-to-back wins, was held to 47.5% (28-of-59) and connected on just nine three-pointers, finishing the game connecting at a 34.6% (9-of-26) from three-point range. The Royals continued to shoot the ball well from the charity stripe this season, connecting on 82.4% (14-of-17).

Furman took the early initiative, and it was Alex Wilkins that scored the first seven points of the game, as the Paladins got off to a strong start for the first time this season, and the Paladins went to the first media timeout with a 12-5 lead, including making two of their first three long-range shots.

A Collin O’Neal three-pointer gave the Paladins their largest lead of the afternoon, at 22-12. However, threes by Maban Jabriel and Chris Ashby and a free three throw by Jordan Watford got Queens back to within three, 22-19, and that is how the score would hold up as the two teams headed to their third media timeout of the opening half with 7:55 left.

The Paladins responded with a 7-0 of their own out of the media timeout, led by Alex Wilkins, who posted five of those points on a three and a driving layup, while Cooper Bowser added a strong dunk in traffic off a feed from Wilkins to stretch the lead back to 10, at 29-19 with 6:03 remaining in the opening half.

Queens cut the deficit inside of eight four times over the next three minutes, however, the Paladins would hit another strong stretch offensively in the final three minutes of the half to take a 13-point lead to the break. Back-to-back threes from Eddrin Bronson and Asa Thomas saw Furman extend its lead to 14, at 41-27, with 2:10 to play in the half, and the Paladins would eventually settle for a 45-32 halftime edge.

In the second half, Furman would push its lead to 20, at 58-38, following a strong Bowser dunk in traffic with 16:26 remaining. The Paladins remained with a comfortable advantage for most of the half, however, Queens would mount a late charge.

Leading by 19 with 6:39 remaining (79-60), the Royals made one last move to try and get back into the game, using a 10-1 run to get to within 10, highlighted by an Avantae Parker strong dunk and three-point play the old fashioned way and a conventional three in transition by Nasir Mann, which cut Furman's lead to 10, at 80-70, with 4:25 left. An Ashby three following a pair of Bowser free throws with just under four minutes remaining got the Royals to within single digits for the first time in the second half, at 82-73, with 3:55 left.

Furman followed with Tom House feeding Bowser for another strong two-handed stuff before Parker answered with a layup for Queens to cut Furman's lead to nine, at 84-75, with 3:07 remaining. However, four-straight made free throws by Bronson and Charles Johnston, which was sandwiched by a missed Asby three, took Furman's lead back to 13 and the Royals never threatened again the remainder of the game, as Furman closed out its strongest performance of the season with an 11-point win.

While Furman improved to 3-3 on the season and was finally starting to find some semblance of a rhythm as a basketball team, UNC Greensboro was still in search of that elusive first win of the season. In fact, UNCG’s 0-5 start to the season was its worst start to a campaign in 15 years, as the last time the Spartans struggled as much was the 2010-11 campaign, which was one that would see the Spartans win only seven games total. The Spartans would start that season with 15-straight losses before notching their first win on Jan. 13 at Appalachian State (W, 75-74) that season.

The Spartans were in Jacksonville, FL, taking part in the 2025 Jacksonville Classic on the campus of Edward Waters College and in the first game of the tournament, UNCG would be facing off against a good Youngstown State team out of the Horizon League. UNCG would end up coming from behind to notch win No. 1 of the season, as UNCG was able to post a 68-62 win over the Penguins.

The win would end up being among the most impressive of the season for the Spartans, as they went to the half trailing by 18 (43-25). The Spartans would begin the second half, however, utilizing a 17-9 run chip away at Penguins’ lead, slicing the lead to just 10, at 52-42, following a pair of made free throws by Justin Neely with 11:20 remaining. After YSU’s Jason Nelson connected on a triple with 10:56 remaining to push the lead back to 13, the Spartans responded with nine-straight points, starting with a layup from Noah Norgaard and ending with a Clinton Efinda layup to make it a 55-51 contest with 7:39 remaining.

YSU’s Tyler Robinett answered with a three to push the lead back to seven, however, the Spartans would go on a 14-2 run to take a 65-60 lead, following a Assane Mandian triple with 1:17 remaining. The Spartans would manage to hold on down the stretch for their first win of the season. Justin Neely had a huge outing for the Spartans, finishing with 16 points and 16 rebounds. Neely was outstanding, as he finished 4-of-7 from the field and was a near-flawless 8-of-9 from the charity stripe. Donald Whitehead Jr. added 14 points, while KJ Younger finished with 11 to round out the double figure scorers for the Spartans.

Both The Citadel and VMI were in action on Nov. 24, as the Bulldogs hosted Atlantic Sun member Bellarmine at McAlister Field House, while Buffalo was at Cameron Hall to face off against the Keydets. Neither military school would come out on the right side of the scoreboard on the day, as the Bulldogs were beaten 70-58 by the Knights as a part of the SoCon-Atlantic Sun Challenge, while VMI fought valiantly before the Buffalo eventually gained the upper hand with a 78-70 win over the Keydets.

A day later, UNCG was ready for another game in the Jacksonville Classic, as Mike Jones’ Spartans faced off against the Delaware Blue Hens out Conference USA. Fresh off the big six-point win over Youngstown State, the Spartans were brought back to reality against the Blue Hens, as Delaware finished off UNCG with a 73-60 verdict at Edward Waters College.

The Blue Hens started off the game with a 5-0 lead, holding the Spartans for the first four minutes of the game. Seven minutes into the game, Valentino Pinedo’s short jumper in the paint tied the game, 7-7, and it would be the start of a surprising 14-0 spurt to take a commanding 12-point lead, with a jumper by Donald Whitehead Jr. giving the Spartans a 19-7 lead with 9:42 remaining. Delaware would storm back, however, connecting on four-straight three-pointers in the span of 3:38 to cut the deficit to just two at, 26-24, with Christian Bliss connecting on a three-pointer with 2:52 remaining in the first half. UNCG would eventually take what was a 29-27 lead into the halftime locker room.

In the second half, the Spartans got off to a bit quicker start to the second half, as the Blue Hens went on a 14-9 run out of the locker room to take what was a 41-38 lead at the 14:45 mark following a three-pointer from Macon Emory.

All nine of UNCG’s points to start the half came from a red-hot Lillian Marville, who hit three-straight three-pointers and was the offense for UNCG to start, as the rest of the team was a little slow to get going in the latter 20 minutes of basketball.

Marville’s hot streak would be very much like the heater he would get on in UNCG’s final game of the season against Furman in the semifinals of the Southern Conference Tournament, when he connected on three-straight three-pointers to make things interesting down the stretch against the Paladins.

Later in the half, a pair of KJ Younger free throws would end up getting the Spartans to within a single point, at 41-40, following a pair of free throws with 14:03 remaining.

Delaware would then respond with a 12-3 run to go ahead 53-43 following a Tyler Houser three-pointer with 9:17 left in the game. The Blue Hens remained on top for the rest of game, going up by as much as 14 points with 80 seconds remaining on a Macon Emory jumper, at 71-57. before settling on a 73-60 triumph. The loss saw the Spartans fall to 1-5 on the season with one game remaining in the Jacksonville Classic against undefeated Miami (OH).

Thanks to that nine-point flurry on three-straight threes to start the second half, Marville ended the night as UNCG’s leading scorer, finishing with 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and was 5-for-7 from three-point range. Donald Whitehead Jr. finished with 12 points, and KJ Younger added 10, while Justin Neely just missed notching another double-double, posting eight points and 10 boards. As a team, UNCG struggled the entire evening, connecting on just 30.2% (16-of-53) from the field and just 33.3% (10-of-30) from three-point range.

Delaware, meanwhile, got a game-high 24 points from Tyler Houser, as he connected on 9-of-12 shots from the field and was a perfect 6-for-6 from three-point range. Macon Emory and Christian Bliss added 18 and 17, respectively, while Justyn Fernandez finished with 12 in 33 minutes of action.

The Blue Hens finished the game shooting a blistering 51.9% (28-of-54) from the field and even better from three-point land in the contest, connecting on 52.0% (13-of-25) from long-range in the game in the win.

As Thanksgiving Day drew closer, the basketball in the league got even more fast and furious as several of the league’s teams took part in Feast Week Tournaments. One of the teams that did not was Mercer, and the Bears faced off against Appalachian State the day before the turkey feast day in a mouth-watering matchup between the old and the new when it comes to Southern Conference membership.

On this afternoon, the spoils of victory would go the way of the Bears, who improved to 4-2 overall and 3-0 at Hawkins Arena with a hard-fought 75-67 win over the Mountaineers. Mercer also improved to 5-0 all-time in matchups against Appalachian State. Both teams were slow to get going in the game, which saw the pace favor the defensive-minded Mountaineers take the 29-26 lead into the halftime locker room.

The fireworks for Mercer, however, would commence in the second half, as the Bears scored 49 second-half points, connecting on seven on their 11 three-pointers in the second half, shooting a blistering 53.8% (7-of-13) from long-range as a part of that 49-point second half output. After shooting just 32.3% (10-of-31) in the opening half, the Bears would connect on 50% (14-of-28) in the second half.

Less than two minutes into the second half, Zaire Williams connected on his third three of the game to tie the game, 31-31. App State hit back by scoring nine of the game’s next 11 points to take a 40-33 lead on a pair of Kasen Jennings made free throws for the Mountaineers with 15:32 left in the game. However, Mercer responded with an 8-0 run to take their first lead of the game, at 41-40, following a Connor Serven three-pointer with 13:21 remaining. It was Serven’s first minutes since the season-opener against Tennessee, suffering an injury in that contest that would sideline him three weeks.

The game settled into a donnybrook from this point forward, with each team matching punch and counterpunch with neither team leading the game by more than five points over a six-minute stretch of the second half. Tristan Gross gave the Bears a 55-54 lead following a layup with just under seven minutes remaining. Then back-to-back threes by the gave Mercer its largest lead of the afternoon at seven (65-58) with 3:30 left in the game. The Bears were able to close out the game at the line by making their free throws down the stretch, holding on for what was a huge win.

Zaire Williams ended the night by leading the Bears in scoring, as he would lead three Bears players in double figures, scoring a game-high 21 points. Williams finished the afternoon connecting on 8-of-13 shots from the field, which included going 5-for-10 from three-point land. Baraka Okojie continued his strong play through the early portions of the season, contributing 16 points, seven assists, and six rebounds. Armani Mighty just missed a double-double, finishing out the contest with 12 points and nine boards. The Bears finished the game with decent overall shooting totals, connecting on 40.7% (24-of-59) from the field, which included a 39.3% (11-of-28) effort from three-point range.

The Mountaineers also finished with three in double figures, led by Kasen Jennings’ 16 points, as he connected on 5-of-12 shots from the field, including going 3-for-7 from three-point range and 3-for-4 at the charity stripe. He was joined in double figures for ASU by Alonzo Dodd and Luke Wilson, who added 11 and 10 points, respectively.

App State didn’t shoot the ball particularly well in the contest. Credit Mercer’s defense for that. The Apps did shoot it better overall from the field, finishing at 45.9% (28-of-61) for the game, but finished connecting on just 19.0% (4-of-21) from three-point range. The win would see the Bears move to 4-2 on the season, while the Mountaineers, which would later go on to defeat Big South juggernaut High Point in Hickory, but would fall to 4-4 with the loss to the Bears.

Wofford was also back in action on the road at a very good Northern Kentucky ball club, and it would be one of those afternoons that would see the defense leave a little bit to be desired, which can sometimes happen with a young basketball team, as the Terriers fell, 93-83, in Highland Heights. The game would amount to what was a foul-fest, as 53 fouls were whistled and 74 free throws were shot between the two teams in the contest.

When it came to toughness, however, it was the Norse who got the better of things in this one, winning some of the areas like 50-50 balls won, which is not a statistic that shows up on a stats sheet, but is revealed when watching the game. The loss to the Norse is very much the same type of loss that would end up bringing an abrupt end to Wofford and Kevin Giltner’s first season in charge of the program in Asheville, as UNCG ended up taking down Wofford, 75-72 in the quarterfinals of the tournament. Kahmare Holmes led the way for the Terriers in the losing effort, adding 21 points and led four Terriers in double figures.

In other action on the same day, Miami OH took care of UNCG in the Spartans final game in the Jacksonville Classic, as the Red Hawks posted an 82-71 win over UNCG. In the losing effort, freshman KJ Younger led UNCG with 14 points, while Justin Neely added another double-double to his season tab, posting 13 points and 11 rebounds. Asane Mandian came off the bench to add 11 for the Spartans.

Eventual MAC Player of the Year Peter Suder led all scorers with 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field, including going 1-of-4 from three and was a perfect 5-for-5 for the Red Hawks in the win. Almar Atlason added 18 off the bench and Brant Byers rounded out the double-figure scorers with 11.

There will be better days ahead for Samford basketball. At least that's what new head coach Lennie Acuff is hoping for after the Bulldogs played well despite being down two starters in their opening matchup of the Cancun Challenge, which Samford went on to win, 78-63, against Georgia State.

While they didn't miss leading scorer Jadin Booth in the win over the Panthers, a less than 100% Booth due to illness was not enough to quell Samford's shooting woes in its final game of the challenge against Utah Valley, which saw the Bulldogs drop an 89-45 game to the Wolverines, in which Samford lost the game in the opening half of play.

That's because the Bulldogs had a historic half for all the wrong reason, and it had to be one that even baffled the mind of their offensive savant of a head coach, Acuff, who could only watch as his team scored only 14 points and shot just 20.7% (11-of-38) in the opening half, falling behind by a whopping score of 42-14 at the break.

Things wouldn't get much better in the second half, as the Bulldogs didn't crack 30% and barely eclipsed 25% shooting for the game, knocking down just 22.2% (6-of-27) from three-point range in the setback. However, it is important to put things in perspective here. Not only did the Bulldogs have one starter under-the-weather, in Booth, but also had another two starters that were out with injuries, in guard Keaton Norris and center Dylan Faulkner.

With its 1-1 performance in the Cancun Challenge, the Bulldogs would finish out the first month of the Lennie Acuff era with a 4-4 record, which wasn’t all that bad considering the adversity due to what would have been the starting point guard for Samford, in Daijon Humphries, who went down with a season-ending Achilles Tendon tear in the exhibition matchup just before the season against Alabama A&M.

VMI struggles would continue, as the Keydets would endure a fifth-straight loss after dropping what was an 81-48 setback on the road at Bowling Green in their opening game of the Fort Myers Tip-Off Tournament.

Linus Holmstrom connected on three 91 seconds into the game to account for the first VMI points of the day on a day when points would come at a premium for the Keydets. It wasn’t in the cards for VMI from the outset of this contest, and the Falcons quickly ran out to a 25-point lead, at 43-18, when Mayar Wol connected on a three-pointer with 1:27 remaining in the opening half of play. VMI’s TJ Johnson and Wol would exchange a buckets prior to the half, as the Falcons went to the half holding a commanding 45-20 lead. Bowling Green continued to hit big shot after big shot in the second half before settling on what was a 33-point win. Holmstrom would be the lone Keydets in double figures, adding 11, while Johnson finished just outside recording another double-figure scoring effort, finishing with nine. Bowling Green’s Mayar Wol led all scorers with 21 points, as he finished 8-of-11 from the field and 5-for-7 from three-point land.

The Citadel was the final team in action on Thanksgiving Day’s Eve, as the Bulldogs faced off against Houston Christian and in a clash between two very evenly-matched foes, it was the Huskies that would emerge with the upper in the final game of The Citadel’s MTE, as HCU posted what was a 72-65 win at McAlister Field House. The Huskies weathered an early surge by the Bulldogs and were able to bounce back from a loss to Bellarmine a day earlier in their first game in the MTE. After an early Kenyan Davis three gave the Bulldogs an early 3-2 lead, the Huskies hit a 17-2 run to take a commanding 19-5 lead on a dunk by Mamborou Mara with 12:07 remaining in the first half. Davis converted a three-point play the old-fashioned way to get the Bulldogs to within 13, at 23-10, and after back-to-back three-pointers Braxton Williams for the Bulldogs cut the Huskies lead to seven, at 23-16.

A Demarco Bethea layup pushed the lead back to double digits for the Huskies, at 32-22, with 4:39 remaining in the half. The Bulldogs, however, would close the opening half strong, as they ended the half on a 10-3 run, holding the Huskies scoreless from the field for over three minutes, as Houston Christian settled upon a narrow 35-32 halftime lead.

In the second half, HCU would open up with a three by Kylin Green, and then the Huskies added a bucket by Demarco Bethea and another three from Trent Johnson, which pushed the advantage to 49-38 at the 13:09 mark of the second half. The Bulldogs, however, wouldn’t go quietly on their home floor and following back-to-back layups from Eze Wali and Christian Moore, the Low Country Bulldogs pulled to within three, at 56-53, with just over eight minutes remaining in the game.

The Bulldogs then used back-to-back threes from Christian Moore to move to within a point of the Huskies, at 60-59, with 6:40 remaining. A minute later, a Braxton Williams made free throw pulled the Bulldogs to within a point, at 60-59. A decisive 10-0 spurt by the Huskies after the Bulldogs had pulled even proved to be the main difference in this one, however, as the Huskies used back-to-back layups from Elijah Brooks, a three-by Green and a three-point play the old-fashioned way from Mara to go ahead 70-60 with 1:11 remaining. A Williams three stopped the bleeding briefly, but a dunk by Brooks with 11 seconds remaining sealed the eventual 72-65 road win for the Huskies. The Huskies would outscore the Bulldogs 12-5 over the final 5:42 of the game to come away with their fourth win of the season, while the Bulldogs fell to 2-5.

The Citadel’s Braxton Williams led all scorers with 20 points, connecting on 7-of-19 shots from the field and was 5-for-12 from three-point land in the game. The only other Bulldogs player in double figures in the win was Christian Moore, who added 17 on 6-for-10 shooting from the field, including a 3-for-5 effort from three-point land.

HCU’s Demarco Bethea led five Huskies in double figures in the road win, as he finished with 14, while Kylin Green added 13 and Mamadou Mara finished with 12 off the bench. Elijah Brooks and Ryan Bartley rounded out the double figure scorers for the visitors, adding 11 and 10 points, respectively.

There would be only one game reserved for Thanksgiving Day, as Furman and Richmond would face off against one another in the Imagination Bracket of the Terry’s Chocolate ESPN Events Invitational at the Walt Disney Sports Complex and specifically, State Farm Fieldhouse in Kissimmee, Florida.

The Paladins and Spiders were at one time old Southern Conference rivals, and it was the first meeting between the two programs on the college basketball hardwood since 1976. The Paladins came into the game having won 14 of the last 16 matchups with the Spiders over Richmond’s final seven years as a Southern Conference hoops member, surrendering 106 points in each of those losses, which came in January of 1976 (L,106-96/Jan. 15, 1976) and February of 1971 (L, 106-87/Feb. 15, 1971).

The last time the Paladins and Spiders met on the hardwood, it could definitely be argued that it was during a hey-day for Paladin basketball in the early-mid 1970s—an era in which Furman made five of its now eight NCAA Tournament appearances, and it could be argued that, the Furman team that previously unbeaten Richmond would face on Thanksgiving Day at Disney World was a return to that sort of dominance on the Southern Conference hardwood.

The Spiders were attempting to improve to 6-0 for the first time since 1985-86. Richmond had already easily dispatched of one SoCon program as a part of its 5-0 start under veteran head coach Chris Mooney to begin the season, and it was also a little bit of a turning point in the season for Furman, which it seemingly flipped the proverbial switch. The Spiders definitely offered Furman’s stiffest competition-to-date.

It was a meeting that would be five years in the making, as the Paladins and Spiders were originally supposed to renew their rivalry during December of 2020, however, COVID-19 had other plans, and after some players tested positive from Richmond in 2020, the game, which was slated for Timmons Arena, never took place. Instead, Furman went to the College of Charleston and demolished the Cougars, 81-50, at TD Arena.

With the college basketball nation tuning in on ESPN2 to view the only game in that timeslot of the day, they were first introduced to what Furman fans had the treat of getting to see for six games already, in 6-5 freshman guard Alex Wilkins. Wilkins’ 26-pont effort would lead three Paladins in double figures in what would be a dramatic 73-72 win for Furman. It would be the lone Furman game decided by just a single point over the duration of what would be a 35-game season.

Furman’s defense would be charged from the tip-off, as the Paladins surprised the unbeaten Spiders by employing the 1-3-1 zone for much of the opening half as much as a 15-point (28-13) lead with 8:26 remaining in the frame following an Alex Wilkins three-pointer. It was Furman's defense that had to overcome its miscues down the stretch to get the win, as the Paladins turned it over on their final five possessions and connected on just 9-of-21 (33.3%) from the line, but Furman's defense was enough.
For Wilkins, his performance of 26 points matched his career-high, while backcourt mate Asa Thomas added 20 and Cooper Bowser finished with 10 to round out the Paladins in double figure scorers.

Wilkins finished the afternoon by connecting on 10-of-19 shots from the field, including 2-of-7 from three-point range and 4-of-7 from the charity stripe. The true freshman guard from Mattapan, MA., added four rebounds, three assists and had one steal.

Thomas connected on 7-of-12 shots from the field and he finished 5-of-12 from long-range and was 1-for-3 from the charity stripe. Thomas hit a key three and came up with one of the defensive plays of the night, blocking Jaden Daughtry dunk attempt following a rare turnover on the other end. His corner three with 4:12 remaining gave the Paladins a nine-point, 71-62, lead off a beautiful cross-court feed from Thomas. The Paladins would get only one more field goal, which came from Wilkins, for the remainder of the game, but held on despite getting outscored 10-2 down the stretch.

"We threw the zone [1-3-1] out there a little bit and got them off rhythm a little bit but we knew that wasn't going to last forever because Chris [Mooney] is too good of a coach and they were going to figure out...We started in the 1-3-1, but he had to trust our man-to-man late and they had two cracks at it baseline out to essentially take the lead and to be honest with you it was too not good looks" head coach Bob Richey said of his defense after the one-point win over the Spiders.

The Spiders held just two leads in the game, at 3-0 after Collin Tanner connected on a three on Richmond's first shot of the game, and then at 3-2 following an Alex Wilkins runner in the lane. A Thomas three in transition on the next trip down following a Spiders turnover gave the Paladins a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the game.

Furman was able to employ a 1-3-1 zone early on to get the Spiders out of rhythm early in the game, for a team that averaged 90 points coming into the game, was held to season lows in both halves, as the Paladins held the Spiders below 40 points in both halves for the first time all season to post the one-point win. The Paladins led by as many as 15 points in the opening half (28-13) following a Wilkins three with 8:26 remaining in the half. The Spiders would whittle the lead to five, at 43-38, at the half.

In the second half, the Spiders were able to trim Furman's lead to one possession on six occasions, but could never take the lead, as the Paladins forced a shot-clock violation and Thomas blocked a shot at the rim, and then following a Richmond timeout and a review, forced a pair of tough shots from Aiden Argabright and Mike Walz on the final two shot attempts off baseline out of bounds attempts, and the Paladins held on for the one-point win.

"Coach kind of threw a curve ball there with the 1-3-1 and we thought it worked and they didn't know it was coming and we got a lot of stops at the beginning of the game and that allowed us to get out to that big lead and we kept it and that's all that matters," Furman redshirt sophomore guard Asa Thomas said.

Richmond would be led by three in double figures, as Jaden Daughtry led the Spiders with 12, while Mikkel Tyne and Will Johnston finished with 10 apiece. The Paladins shot 51.9% (28-of-54) for the game, including a 32.0% (8-of-25) effort from three-point land. The Paladins were strong defensively all day, holding the Spiders to just 40.7% (24-of-59) from the field and just 33.3% (9-of-27) from long range, but were able to stay in the game with a 88.2% (15-of-17) effort at the charity stripe.

Furman’s would for a long time be the best win of the season for the Southern Conference in terms of where teams ranked in KenPom, as Richmond came into the tournament in Kissimmee ranked in the Top 100 in the nation according to KenPom, which at the time was the only one of the season for the SoCon. The win by the Paladins and a 76-69 win by Illinois State over Charlotte in the second game of the day, setting up a blockbuster mid-major clash between the Paladins and Redbirds—two favorites in their respective conferences of the SoCon and Missouri Valley coming into the season—for the title clash a little over 24 hours later.

Illinois State captured the 2025 Terry's Chocolate ESPN Events Invitational Imagination Bracket Title with a 72-65 win over Furman, while Richmond picked up a 71-66 win over the Charlotte 49ers in the consolation bracket at State Farm Fieldhouse, concluding a fantastic two days of basketball, which featured four good basketball games contested between true mid-major programs, with the largest margin of victory being 10 points.

The Redbirds, which returned to four starters and entered the season as the preseason favorite to claim the Missouri Valley Conference title, used their experience and Midwest grit down the stretch in a close game to claim the win over the battle-tested Paladins.

Illinois State shot the ball well in the second half, using a 57% effort to outscore the Paladins 39-29 in the second half, overcoming what was a 36-33 halftime deficit to come away with the win, improving to 6-2 overall, while Furman saw its three-game winning streak come to an end, falling to 4-4.

The Redbirds were a team built to adapt, and coach Ryan Pedon's team showed it could both play up-tempo and in the halfcourt, and offered a variety of scoring options that, if the opposition shut one down, another one always seemingly found a way to emerge.

While Boden Skunberg led the Redbirds in their semifinal win over Charlotte, with 22 points and 10 rebounds, in the championship win it was Imagination Bracket MVP Ty Pence that came up huge for the Redbirds, as he posted a career-high 20 points and 10 boards, and was the player that made key shots down the stretch to help the Redbirds get baskets when they needed them in crucial moments.

The Paladins, who got a career-high matching 26 points from true freshman point guard Alex Wilkins in Thursday's one-point win over Richmond, saw the talented true freshman point guard pour in 25 more points in Friday's title game to lead all scorers, as Furman came up just short and fell to 0-2 this season against Missouri Valley Conference teams. Furman also fell to another of the MVC's top teams a couple of weeks ago, falling 70-54 in Cedar Falls at Northern Iowa.

With the game tied, 52-52, just over midway through second half, the Redbirds made the move that would ultimately put them over the top and come up with the program's first in-season tournament title since the 2010-11 season, putting together an 8-0 run, which started with a Cameron Barnes tip-in and ended with a Ty Pence fade-a-way jumper at the 8:31 mark to give the Redbirds some cushion with a 60-52 lead.

A Cooper Bowser tip-in on the other end ended a 2:21 scoring drought for the Paladins and made it a two-possession game once again, at 60-54.

Over the next seven minutes, the Redbirds would maintain a 4-8-point advantage on the scoreboard until a Wilkins running layup on the other end brought the Paladins back to within three, at 68-65, with 39 seconds remaining.

A Johny Kinzinger jumper from about 17-feet out with the shot-clock winding down off a nice set play following a Redbirds timeout, restored a two-possession lead, at 70-65, with 12 seconds remaining.

Following Asa Thomas' missed three-pointer on the other end, the Redbirds' Skunberg got the rebound and was immediately fouled with four seconds remaining, and he knocked down both double-bonus foul shots to close out the win and create the final seven-point margin.

Furman fell behind 16-6 early in the contest, following a Johnny Kinzinger jumper at the 14:06 mark. After a Bowser two-handed flush on the other end, Skunberg got a nice feed from backcourt mate Ty'Reek Coleman to knock down a right elbow three to give the Redbirds their largest lead of the game, at 19-8, with 13:20 remaining.

Furman would whittle the lead away over the final 10 minutes of the half, and went to the half with all the momentum, using a stretch of three made three-pointers by freshman guard Collin O'Neal over roughly a six-minute stretch, igniting the Paladin offense, and with a 10-0 run to close the half, the Paladins found themselves up, 36-33, at the break.

O'Neal's career-best 12 points came in 17 minutes of work, which included a perfect 4-for-4 shooting effort from three-point range in the game. O'Neal, who suffered what looked to be a charley horse injury early in the second half and didn't return to the game, gave Furman some important points off the bench on an afternoon when two of its veterans--Tom House and Charles Johnston struggled to make shots on a combined 2-for-8 from the field and 0-of-5 from three-point land --also added four rebounds.

Pence finished off his career-best effort by connecting on 8-of-12 shots from the field and 2-for-3 from long-range, while adding 10 rebounds, two assists, one block and a steal.

He was one of four ISU players in double figures, as preseason All-MVC selection and league player of the year candidate Chase Walker added 14 points and four boards, while Skunberg followed up his season-high 22 points yesterday with 12 and Kinzinger finished with 11 points. Coleman just missed double figures, finishing with nine points, four assists and a pair of steals, while turning it over only once.

Wilkins, who led all scorers in the tournament with 51 points in two games, finished 9-of-17 from the field and 2-for-6 from three-point land and connected on five of his six charity stripe attempts to equal his game-high total of 25 times. In addition to his fourth 20+point scoring effort and eighth double-figure effort, The Mattapan, MA., product added five assists and a block, while turning over three times.

Wilkins was one of three Paladins in double figures, as the freshman was joined by classmate O'Neal and junior Cooper Bowser, who both added 12 points apiece. All told, freshmen combined to score 37 of Furman's 65 points.

The Paladins shot the ball at a 45.5% clip for the game (23-of-55) and 36.0% (6-of-11) from three-point range. Furman was once again not very good at the free throw line, as the Paladins finished the game just 6-of-11 (54.5%) from the free throw line and shot less than 50% (15-of-31) in the tournament from the stripe. The Redbirds finished the game connected on 45.6% (26-of-57) from the field 33.3% (8-of-24) from three-point range.

A day after Furman’s loss to Illinois State, Western Carolina closed out its opening month of the 2025-26 season on the road at one of the top mid-major program’s in the country, as the Catamounts would face off against High Point at the Qubein Center.

The game would be close for awhile, as Western Carolina jumped out to an early lead, however, the Panthers would come to life in a big way in the second half to steal what was a 93-73 on the home hardwood.

High Point would eventually overcome what was at one point as much as five points on two occasions in the first half, as there would be eight lead changes before the Panthers eventually went to the half with a narrow 45-43 lead.

The Panthers would begin the second half by showing their championship pedigree, scoring the first 15 points of the second half to run out to a 60-43 lead following a Cam’Ron Fletcher dunk in transition just four minutes into the latter 20 minutes of basketball. The Catamounts, however, would manage to show some fight, as WCU used an 11-4 run over the next 2:39 of court time, which was highlighted by a pair of Marcus Kell three-pointers, making it a 64-54 game with 13:41 remaining.

The Panthers once again answered the bell, however, as they mounted another run, this time using a 13-3 spurt to run their advantage to 77-57 when Fletcher knocked down a short jumper with 8:12 remaining. Over the remaining eight minutes, it was hard for the Catamounts to chip away too much at the lead, and the Panthers moved to 2-0 against Southern Conference foes on the season with the 93-73 win over the Catamounts.

In the loss, Western Carolina saw Marcus Kell post one of his best performances of his final campaign in the Purple and Gold, as he finished with 27 points on 11-of-19 shooting from the field, including 2-for-6 from three-point range, while also finishing 3-for-5 from the charity stripe. The other two Catamounts that would end up finishing in double figures would be Julien Soumaoro, who finished with 12 points, while Cord Stansberry finished with 11.

The Panthers would finish the contest led by four in double figures, with Cam’Ron Fletcher posting a double-double, posting 22 points and 10 rebounds. Rob Martin added 17 points and five assists, while Terry Anderson added 16 points and six rebounds. Rounding out the double figure scorers for HPU off the bench was Conrad Martinez, who finished with 12.

The Panthers finished the game blistering the nets to the tune of 56.9% (33-of-58) for the game, including a 48.8% (12-for-25) effort from three-point range. The Catamounts shot a solid 48.2% (27-of-56) from the field, but were just 32.0% (8-of-25) from three-point range in the loss.

VMI closed out its tournament in the Fort Myers Classic against Central Florida, and it would be the Golden Knights that would end up getting the rather easy victory, 82-57, as the Keydets dropped their sixth-straight game to fall to 2-7 on the season. Mario Tatum Jr. would end up being the lone Keydets player in double figures with 19 points. UCF got 21 points and 14 rebounds from JaMichael Stillwell in the win.

Next up for the Mocs was their annual MTE, which was once known as the Dr. Pepper Classic and took place in late December, and has now moved to around Thanksgiving and now is sponsored by Coke Zero in the current iteration of the tournament.

The first opponent for the Mocs would also be the second of three non-Division I opponents in the non-conference slate, and Chattanooga would score a season-high 109 points en route to a 109-59 win on the home floor.

The win was the third-straight for the Mocs, as Chattanooga moved to 4-3 overall and used a 59-point second half to break open the game in what was the 72nd all-time clash between the two programs, with the Mocs improving to 54-18 all-time against the Bulldogs.

The Mocs held a 50-31 lead at the half before outscoring the visiting Bulldogs by 31 points in the second stanza, posting a 59-28 advantage over the latter 20 minutes of basketball. The Mocs would end up placing six different players in double figures, as Jordan Frison once again led the way with 17 points, connecting on 7-of-8 shots from the field, including finishing the contest a perfect 3-for-3 from long-range.

Billy Smith added 15 points, while Teddy Washington Jr. and Makai Richards added 12 points apiece. Rounding out the Mocs players in double figures in the contest would be both Sean Cusano and Brennan Watkins, who both added 10 points apiece in the win.

Just when it looked like the Mocs might have gotten their groove back after having won three-straight, Chattanooga suffered a somewhat surprising home loss to Tennessee State in the Coke Zero Classic Championship game against Tennessee State, as the Tigers came to McKenzie Arena and surprised the Mocs, getting a 70-64 win. The Mocs' nine-game home winning streak, which began last season, came to an end.

Chattanooga couldn't overcome a poor shooting half and fell behind by nine at the break (42-33), and despite playing much better basketball in the second half, and outscoring the Tigers, 31-28, couldn't overcome that tough start and ended up on the wrong end of a six-point loss.

The loss snapped a six-game winning streak for Chattanooga against its in-state rivals from Nashville, as the Mocs suffered their first loss to the Tigers for the first time since Dec. 5, 1994, as the Tigers picked up an 86-75 on that occasion. Tennessee State raced out of the gates taking a 7-0 lead at the 16:45 mark and then after the first media timeout of the afternoon, increased its lead further to 19-8 following a layup by Antoine Lorick III at the 11:49 mark of the opening half.

The Mocs would begin to settle in, and a Sean Cusano layup and free throw on a three-point play the old-fashioned way, got the Mocs to within six, at 27-21, with 7:24 remaining in the half. But another layup by Lorrick III and a three by Travis Harper II pushed the Tigers lead back to double digits with 6:11 remaining in the first half. A halftime buzzer-beating three by Tate Darner sent the Mocs to the locker room with some momentum and cut the Tigers lead to nine, at 42-33.

In the second half, the Tigers built their lead back to 11 points, at 53-42, with 12:30 remaining following a Dante Harris layup. However, another Darner triple almost exactly four minutes later trimmed the Tennessee State lead to 55-52 with 8:38 left. It would be as close as the Mocs would get until half-a-minute remaining, following consecutive threes from Darner and Billy Smith, which got Chattanooga to within two, at 66-64.

However, a powerful dunk in transition by Travis Harper II and a pair of free throws from Jalen Pitre helped seal the six-point win for the Tigers. Darner led the Mocs with 16 points, while Smith added 11. Unfortunately, about 24 hours after the loss bad news would start to make its rounds on social media, as it was learned that Sean Cusano would be done for the season with a lower body injury, leaving the already walking wounded Mocs a little more wounded.

Fresh off its win over App State a couple days earlier, Mercer was on the road to take on Elon in another clash between a new SoCon member and one that had vacated the league a little over a decade ago. The Bears were able to get what was a much-needed win on the road at 91-84 win and had to come from a halftime deficit on the road in order to do so. The Bears, who trailed 46-42 on the road at the half, got a double-double from Armani Mighty, as he posted 12 points and 11 rebounds, while Baraka Okojie continued to make a strong case for SoCon Player of the Year by posting 29 points, which included an 18-of-20 effort at the charity stripe, while also knocking down 5-of-11 shots from the field and going 1-for-2 from three-point range. The Memphis transfer finished off what was a double-double performance by dishing out 10 assists in the win, while also adding five rebounds to the Mercer cause.

All five of Mercer’s starters finished out the contest by scoring in double figures, with Zaire Williams adding 14 and Quinton Perkins II and Brady Shoulders both finishing with 11 points apiece in the win. Elon got another strong performance out of Chandler Cuthrell, who finished with a double-double of 24 points and 13 rebounds, as he was one of three Phoenix in double figures in the game. Cuthrell finished off his evening by going 7-of-17 from the field, including 2-for-4 from three-point range, and was 8-for-12 from the charity stripe in the win. He was joined in double figures by Randall Pettus II and Bryson Cokley II, who added 13 and 12 points, respectively.

The Bears won despite a massive disadvantage on the backboards, which saw Elon own what was a 48-31 advantage on the glass and the Phoenix also won the points in the paint stat (38-32). However, Mercer was able to connect on a solid 46.7% (28-of-60) for the game, while shooting a strong 40% (12-of-30) from three-point land in the win. Elon finished the evening shooting at a 41.8% (28-of-67) clip from the field and a 34.6% (9-for-26) from three-point range.

In other action around the league as the opening month of the season ended on the SoCon hardwood, it would East Tennessee State able to take care of a really good Central Arkansas team, 80-57, in the friendly confines of Freedom Hall. Central Arkansas would end up being a team that would end up winning the Atlantic Sun regular-season title, despite just a 3-4 record coming into the matchup. It would be a return home for UCA head coach John Shulman, who was an assistant at ETSU during the glory days of basketball in Johnson City. Shulman was an assistant coach in Johnson City from 1990-96 when the Bucs were under the leadership of former legendary head coach Alan LeForce.

The Bucs finished off the month in style, as Brian Taylor II produced the second triple-double by a Bucs player in the last two seasons, joining Jayden Seymour, who do one of the first day of the calendar year for 2026 when he did so in a home win over VMI. For Taylor II, the 14 points, 10 assists, and 10 rebounds; His triple-double joins with Tim Smith (2006 vs. Kennesaw State), Courtney Pigram ( 2008 vs. Wingate) and the aforementioned Seymour (2026 vs. VMI) as the fourth player in ETSU’s tradition-rich basketball lineage to accomplish the rare feat.

The win was arguably ETSU’s best performance of the opening month of the basketball season, as well as being one of its most comprehensive performances in its 23 wins during the 2025-26 season. Taylor II’s performance was one that would close out an opening month of the season, which would also see him post double-figure scoring performances in all seven of ETSU’s games, including posting 20 or more points twice during that stretch against both Morehead State (21 pts) and Northern Kentucky (20 pts). Like Okojie’s performance in the win over Elon, the triple-double scoring performance along with going 8-for-8 in double-figure scoring performances in the opening month of the season should have been easily enough to put Taylor at least in the conversation when it came to league Player of the Year. Any conversation that didn’t include him along with Mercer’s Okojie, UNCG’s Justin Neely, Samford’s Jadin Booth and Wofford’s Kahmare Holmes was folly.

The key to the game for ETSU was a 13-3 run just before the halftime break, which allowed ETSU to assume a 37-30 lead heading into the halftime locker room. In the second half, the Bucs opened with a 9-0 run to start the latter 20 minutes of basketball, pushing the lead to 16, at 53-37, following a Blake Barkley made field goal at the 13:37 mark. It would be part of what would prove to be a decisive 4:36 drought for the Bears to open the second half, and coupled with the 13-3 run ETSU had to close out the opening 20 minutes of basketball, the Bucs utilized essentially a 22-3 run over the a time period commonly referred to by head coaches and media as the “middle eight” which is the last four minutes before halftime and the first four minutes of the second half to decide the ball game.

In addition to Brian Taylor II’s 28-point performance, Jaylen Smith would lead all scorers in the contest with a career-high 28 points, as the SoCon’s eventual Sixth Man of the Year, finished 10-for-16 from the field, including going an impressive 7-for-13 from three-point land in the win. Rounding out ETSU’s double-figure scorers were both Cam Morris II and Blake Barkley, who finished with 14 and 12 points, respectively. The win by the Bucs would also end up being another win for the SoCon in the SoCon-ASUN Challenge.

Continuing the theme of strong individual performances to close out the opening month of the season was the one by Kahmare Holmes of Wofford, who led the Terriers with 30 points in an impressive 83-77 road win at Eastern Kentucky in what was a SoCon-ASUN Challenge matchup.

Holmes’ 30-point effort would end up being the fourth of the opening month by a SoCon player, joining both VMI’s TJ Johnson, who ended the month with two 30-point performances (32 pts vs. Southern Indiana and 31 pts vs. Missouri) and Samford’s Jadin Booth (34 pts vs. Tulane), as Holmes had showed himself to be arguably one of the most, if not the most, improved player in SoCon hoops from last season to this season.

The sophomore native of Charlotte, N.C., was a big reason why the Terriers ended the opening month of the season a somewhat surprising 5-3 under new head coach Kevin Giltner, who did an outstanding job of managing Wofford through what could have been a much more tumultuous situation in transitioning from the awkward ending of the Dwight Perry era into his first season as a rookie head coach at his alma mater. While Giltner’s performance couldn’t have been better in managing that situation, he would be the first to tell you that he has a huge thank you to Holmes’ play during that opening month of the season to help ease the nerves for not only him, but also Wofford nation as a whole.

As for the road win over the Colonels, it would see the Terriers end the opening month of the season with a 5-3 record, which included a pair of impressive road wins over ASUN competition. It would become a theme as the season progressed, and Wofford end up notching a league-high nine road wins by the time the season came to a close in Asheville in early March.

In the win over EKU, Wofford started the game looking like it was the team-to-beat in the SoCon, as Holmes knocked down a pair of free throws to spark a 9-0 start for the road team, and Wofford managed to keep the Colonels off the scoreboard for the first three-and-a-half minutes in the game. After a Cayden Vasko jumper made it 11-2 at the 15:37 mark, the Colonels proceeded to go on a 9-0 run over the next four minutes of game time to take a 13-11 lead when MJ Williams knocked down a three-pointer at the 11:29 mark of the opening half, bringing the small crowd just over 700 fans at the Baptist Health Arena to its feet in unison.

The Terriers wouldn’t be deterred, despite finding a little road adversity for the first time in the game, hitting back with a 9-0 run of their own and eventually pushed the lead back out to eight after back-to-back threes from Brendan Rigsbee and Kahmare Holmes, making it a 31-23 Wofford lead with 4:23 remaining in the half. Wofford’s defense was key in the closing stages of the opening half of basketball, as the Terriers held the Colonels to just 1-of-12 shooting from the field over the final six minutes of the opening half of basketball, taking a 37-28 lead into the halftime locker room.

So many times in basketball the game is often determined in the opening four minutes of the second half, so coming out of the locker room playing good basketball should be a priority, especially for the road team. There is built-in mindset among the coaching fraternity in knowing that, at some point, if you’re the road team, the home team is going to make a run at some point and having the punch-first mentality on the road when leading at half is something that if can help you build the type of cushion needed to weather that impending storm.

On the final Saturday of November, the Terriers would come out and take the game to the Colonels in the second half, using a 9-3 lead to expand a nine-point halftime lead to double digits for the first time in the game, as a pair of Nils Machowski free throws gave Wofford a 46-31 lead less than three minutes into the second half. By the time the game reached the 11-minute mark, the Terriers had built as much as a 19-point lead following a layup by Rex Stirling, which made it a 60-41 Terriers lead with 11:01 remaining.

Courtesy of that early 9-3 spark to open the half, Wofford was able to maintain a double-digit lead for most of the second half, or at least until Turner Butry’s three-pointer with 48 seconds remaining, got the Colonels to within eight, at 80-72. Three free throws by MJ Williams after Wofford inexplicably fouled the Colonel guard attempting a long-range effort with five seconds left would eventually see EKU close to within six, but that’s as close as EKU would make it the rest of the way, as the margin remained six with the Terriers escaping with an especially satisfying 83-77 win to close out the opening month of the season.

Holmes, who knocked down 10-of-13 shots from the field, including going 4-for-5 from three-point range, while also finishing 6-for-7 at the line, led four Terriers in double figures in the road win. Holmes also added eight rebounds, three assists and turned it over only one time in one of his most superlative performances in a season filled with superlative efforts from the Queen City native.

Cayden Vasko added 13 points to the Wofford cause, while Nils Machowski finished with 11 and Rex Stirling added 10 points and five rebounds in a solid 22 minutes of work.

Austin Ball posted 20 points to lead the Colonels on 6-of-16 shooting from the field, including going 3-for-9 from three-point land. MJ Williams and Turner Buttry rounded out EKU’s double figures scorers with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

A Quick Summary of November:

The opening month of the season in the Southern Conference was mixed back really. For instance, it was hard to tell that Furman would end up being the team that would ultimately cut down the nets in Asheville. The Paladins no doubt had talent, but it was at times hard to see how it would all shake out for the ‘Dins in the early going. Of course, this would end up being a team that seemingly would get it somewhat figured out by the middle of December only to be hit with injuries to two key players and two other rotational players forcing the Paladins to adapt to adversity and re-adjust roles right at the start of the conference season.

With that said, there was no question the Paladins had within their offensive arsenal a Ferrari at point guard in the form of Alex Wilkins. The problem was sometimes it was “all gas no brakes” when the Paladins needed some brakes at times. Furman struggled against the likes of High Point, Northern Iowa and Troy early on, but then again, all of those teams mentioned went on to the NCAA Tournament in March, so the losses look a little different at the end of the season than they did at the end of November. For me, it was easy to see things starting to click for Bob Richey’s bunch in what would be a 90-79 win over Queens and then a 73-72 win over Atlantic 10 member Richmond was clearly the best win in the opening month of the season according to KenPom, although that wouldn’t necessarily hold true by the time the season ended. The Spiders were ranked 104 at the time the Paladins garnered the one-point win at State Farm Fieldhouse in Kissimmee, FL, but would end the season at 153.

It was pretty evident from the outset of the season that ETSU (6-1) was going to be the team to beat when it came down to it. The Bucs had the right mix, and in his third season as the head coach, Brooks Savage had a championship contender. I suppose that could have been with last season’s team, given the talent of that group, however, that was a team that lacked depth, especially in the front court, and that would end up costing them in Asheville.

The biggest surprises were Mercer and Wofford. It was clear that these two were going to factor into the league title race, and while the Bears might have been clearly the most improved team in the league, clearly Kahmare Holmes was the most improved player in the league and one of the most improved in all of mid-major basketball.

There were disappointments, too. Chattanooga had injury issues, but it was too early to tell if the defending league regular-season champs and defending NIT Champions were just rusty or had the wrong mix of players. For the entire season, it seemed that even had the Mocs not had all the injuries to deal with in the frontcourt, that this team was one that was at of balance when it came to scoring distribution, with nearly all of it having to come from its star-studded group of guards.

Finally, there was the disappointments of teams like UNCG and VMI. The Spartans looked nothing like a Mike Jones coached team, predicated on getting stops on the defensive end. In fact, the Spartans remained one of the worst defensive teams in mid-major basketball throughout the season. VMI had hoped to build on strong continuity and the return of Ricky Bradley, Jr., but he started the season injured—the SoCon’s Preseason Player of the Year! —and he would never play even one second the entire season as the Keydets ended the month with a 2-7 mark of a season that would end at 6-26. It’s disappointing given the fact that so much progress had been made, as the Keydets were one of the storylines of Asheville in March, finishing out semifinalists and with a 15-19 record. Continuity was supposed to have been a key ingredient in getting the Keydets to a top six finish and a dark horse contender in Asheville in the 2026 tournament. After just one month though, unfortunately for Andrew Wilson’s club, they seemed quite the distance from reaching any of those goals.

All told, the league finished the month of November with a losing record overall, finishing with a 37-43 overall mark, including a 25-9 mark for home teams and a 9-26 mark on the road. The league also posted a 3-8 mark on neutral floors.

The following content below is from an article I wrote from mid-major madness at the end of the first month of basketball in the SoCon (published Dec. 5, 2025).

A Comparative Analysis

The league as a whole, however, is down. Way down. Much like football, it’s going to be a season much like the 2022-23 season, when the SoCon ranked 20th in the final KenPom rankings, despite Furman’s high ranking that season. The Paladins, at least, helped the league save face with that 68-67 win over Virginia in the NCAA Tournament.

I don’t foresee the league champion this season duplicating that feat, especially as a No. 14 or No. 15 seed, which is likely the seed the league will garner come time for the NCAA Tournament. The SoCon ended the opening month of the season with just a 37-43 record against other major and mid-major leagues. By comparison, league teams at the end of the first month a year ago were 44-33, including a 33-3 mark at home.

No team is currently ranked inside any mid-major polls, although the ETSU Bucs are receiving votes in at least two. League teams went 25-9 on their home floors inside the first month of the season, while struggling to go 9-26 on the road. While teams were 33-3 on their home floors at the end of the opening month of the season last season, SoCon teams have three more wins on the road this season as opposed to last season. The league was just 6-25 on the road through the first month last season. SoCon teams are just 3-8 on neutral floors this season, while the league went .500, at 5-5, in neutral site games through the opening month last season.

In an interesting comparison in 3-point shooting, which is always the thing that keeps the SoCon in the conversation when it comes its potential impact and upset potential on a national scale, helping the league punch well above its weight more often than not, the stats are very similar. Last season through the opening month, SoCon teams connected on a combined 726 threes and shot 33.1% (726-of-2,191) from long-range (33.1%), while this season, league teams have combined to connect on 728 triples, as league teams have combined to shoot 74 more threes (728-of-2,265) from long range for with a slightly lower percentage (32.1%).

The one major difference appears to VMI, which through nine games in the opening month shot 253 threes last season, while through one more game in 2025-26, Andrew Wilson’s team has hoisted up a full 90 more 3-point attempts this season (343). The Keydets connected on a league-best 108 triples through the opening month of the 2025-26 season, however, could only muster a 31.5% clip on those 108 makes from long range. Last season, the Keydets shot 32.4% (82-of-253) and made 82 threes in the opening month.


One of the major concerns when it comes to VMI moving forward is the status of Rickey Bradley Jr., who has been out the entire opening month of the season. Bradley, who was the preseason league player of the year and leading returning scorer, hasn’t played in a game and no information has been provided about the injury, but more importantly, no timetable has been relayed to any media outlet on his potential return to the lineup or even if he will play at all.

1. EAST TENNESSEE STATE (7-2)

There is little question as to who the best team over has been the first month of the season as head coach Brook Savage’s East Tennessee State squad is off to its best start since its last championship winning season of 2019-20.

It certainly didn’t appear it was going to be that way after the 68-64 loss at Presbyterian back during the opening Saturday night road trip of the season, as the Bucs blew a lead in the final four minutes at the Templeton Center against the Blue Hose.

As bad as that loss at PC might seem--a place where coach Savage was once an assistant--other good SoCon teams have also fallen short at the Templeton Center. Furman’s 2016-17 team, which tied with ETSU and UNCG, lost its first game of the season, with a 73-71 setback to a Blue Hose team that went on to win just six games. The Paladins would then turn around and end a good UAB team’s 26-game homecourt winning streak the next time out.

Just last season, eventual Southern Conference champion Wofford found itself on the wrong end of a 67-63 contest in the Templeton Center. So, while the loss is not a good look for the league, it’s also not the end of the world.

Defensive Bucs!

How did the Bucs go about achieving five-straight wins to close November? They’ve adapted defensively and bought in to Savage’s defense-first approach. I remember talking with coach Savage back on Oct. 1 at SoCon media day about his defensive approach, and more how tough it might be to teach when there is little if any continuity. In a word, he said “tough.”

He said it’s much harder when you have to not necessarily re-teach the concepts, but you never know what a guy’s “buy in” is going to be and what the defensive background is from the program they come from or how they were even taught as a defender from the program which they came from. Reading between the lines, that’s probably what makes Savage such a good, young basketball coach.

The Bucs led the league in defensive efficiency and rating last season and were third in Savage’s first season as the head coach in 2023-24. So, why is a defensive rating so important you might ask? It’s usually a good sign usually in a league of who the champion might become March. In fact from 2011-24, a top two rating in KenPom’s defensive efficiency/adjusted tempo metric could predict the SoCon champion over a 13-year span. Last year, neither Chattanooga (regular-season champion) nor the first-ever No. 6 seed to win a SoCon title (Wofford) ranked in the top two in the aforementioned defensive metric.

It’s so far so good for the Bucs this season, which rank first overall in the league in defense (104.5) as we end the opening month of the season, and he’s gotten some well-rounded offensive performances as well.

Offensive Disparity

The Bucs have posted wins over Converse (W, 102-50), Horizon League member Northern Kentucky (W, 75-63), Ohio Valley member Morehead State (W, 77-62), UL Monroe (W, 97-55), and Central Arkansas (W, 80-57).

Against Central Arkansas, the Bucs were able to get their fourth triple-double in program history, including the second in as many seasons, as SIU-Edwardsville transfer Brian Taylor II posted 14 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.

The Bucs also got a 28-point effort from Jaylen Smith in the win over Central Arkansas, which was an individual season-high for a Bucs player. ETSU has had three different players lead the team in scoring this season, with Taylor leading the team in scoring average at 14.6 PPG, while UMass-Lowell transfer and 6-foot-8 forward is right behind, Cam Morris III (14.4 PPG). The third player averaging in double digits this season so far for the Bucs is Jaylen Smith (11.6 PPG)

Scoring and shooting as a whole are both up this season. The Bucs rank second in the league in points per game (81.9 PPG) and rank eighth nationally in points surrendered per outing (61.3 PPG). This version of the Bucs is the best shooting team since 2019-20, which of course raced through the SoCon regular-season and tournament titles to the NCAA Tournament, which would be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ETSU is shooting 50.4% (213-of-423) and 32.5% (93-of-134) from 3-point land.

2. MERCER (6-2)

The surprise package of Southern Conference basketball’s opening month of the season has no doubt been the Mercer Bears under the direction of second-year head coach Ryan Ridder. 

Like ETSU’s Savage, Ridder is a good example of a coach that got the team balance and needs absolutely right when bringing in guys from the transfer portal. The Bears were picked to finish seventh by the league’s head coaches. However, for the most part it looked like one of the best teams in the Southern Conference for the opening month of the season.

The Bears have wins over LaGrange (W, 101-62), Lipscomb (W, 92-77), at Eastern Kentucky (W, 95-83), Appalachian State (W, 75-67), at Elon (W, 91-84) and Georgia State (W, 78-67). Losses for the Bears came at No. 17 Tennessee (L, 61-76) and at Winthrop (L, 69-105).

Part of what has made the Bears so good to start the season is having one of league’s most-dominant big men, in Armani Mighty (13.3 PPG, 8.3 RPG). The one-time, big-time prep product played two years at Boston College before transferring to Central Michigan, where he took a medical redshirt and then decided to take his talents to Macon to play for Ridder and the Bears.

For the first time in Mighty’s career, Mercer offered a chance to settle, and it aligned with his development, which Boston College didn’t have time to wait on. That’s a big gain for Ridder and the Bears. So far, so good through the early portion of Mighty’s career in Macon, as the 6-foot-10, 240-pound center is averaging 13.3 PPG and 8.3 RPG, while posting a 66.7% (38-of-57) field goal percentage.

While Mighty has been dominant at times, he’s had some help, as the Bears have developed what is the league’s best inside-outside game through the early portions of the 2025-26 season, with a trio of guards averaging in double figures, led by Baraka Okojie, who is posting 17.7 PPG and 4.4 RPG.

Okojie is another one-time, big-time prep recruit that tried to get his career going at a couple of places--Memphis and George Mason--but fell through the cracks at both and struggled to stay healthy, and it appears, at least through the early portion of the season, has found the exact right fit at Mercer. Okojie’s the anecdote the Bears and Ridder have needed at point guard, averaging 6.0 APG to lead the SoCon, while the Bears rank third in the league behind only Chattanooga and ETSU in assists/turnover ratio (1.41) this season.

The assists totals were high last season for Mercer with Ahmad Robinson running the point, however, so were the frustrating turnovers and some erratic plays that likely kept the Bears from winning a few games they came up short in during Ridder’s first season at the helm in Macon. As of Dec. 1, Okojie ranks as the 40th-best offensive rating in college basketball so far this season in college basketball, according to KenPom.

Quinton Perkins II (13.1 PPG, 2.0 RPG) and Zaire Williams (13.0 PPG, 3.4 RPG) have helped supplement Okojie nicely in the backcourt scoring-wise, as well as being solid perimeter threats. It’s made the Bears arguably the top backcourt in the SoCon through the first month of the season in terms of production, which it is why that it is of little surprise that the Bears finished out the month topping the league in overall points per game (83.4 PPG), while the Bears lead the league in 3-point field goal percentage (35.8%/67-of-187) and third in overall field goal percentage (45.0%/201-of-447).

Defensively, the Bears are still needing to find a rhythm, and sometimes the style of play that the Bears have lends itself to a higher success rate for the opposition when it comes to offensive efficiency, but if the Bears are serious about winning the league and being on top of the final power rankings of the season, they’ll need to be a little more serious about their defense. The Bears are currently seventh in the SoCon in points allowed (79.1 PPG).

3. FURMAN (5-4)

Furman has seen surprising trends on both ends of the spectrum, but the bad trends are starting to be overtaken by some unexpectedly good ones, which is why head coach Bob Richey has not in the least been concerned about the trends that haven’t hit their marks.

College basketball can be daunting enough, which is compounded by an analytics craze, which if you over-analyze the numbers, it can be to your detriment. The point being, just because Furman is struggling to shoot the three doesn’t mean it can’t. The other perspective is, this Furman team is an outlier to some in Richey’s eight previous years as the head coach in a lot of good ways. If you look at the numbers, you’ll find the Paladins do more to contribute to the overall winning formula than they do to take away from it.

With four wins in its last five games, including the league’s best win overall this season to this point, the Paladins are starting to trend towards where many prognosticators had them to begin with, which is to compete for the SoCon regular-season and tournament titles.

Furman’s four wins in November have come against Richmond (W, 73-72), Queens (W, 90-79), Ohio Christian (W, 79-44) and Columbia International (89-59). Losses have come to High Point (L, 71-97) Troy (L, 61-64), at Northern Iowa (L, 54-70), and Illinois State (L, 65-72). It beat Elon (W, 97-88) to begin December.

The Paladins are playing an extremely tough non-conference slate of mid-majors picked in the preseason at or at the top of their respective leagues. In fact, only Richmond, which was undefeated (5-0) when the Paladins played them at the Terry’s Chocolate ESPN Events Challenge in Kissimmee, was picked lower than a top four finish in the always-strong Atlantic 10 conference, as the Spiders were picked 10th in the 14-team league. However, the Spiders, who rank 110 in the latest KenPom rankings in the top rated mid-major league in the nation, should easily exceed those preseason prognostications after winning six of their first seven games to begin the season.

The other major piece beginning to come together for Richey’s Paladins is the old and the new beginning to gel as one unit. By old, I mean the seven (now six with Davis Molnar out) that returned from last season’s 25-win team beginning to mesh with the new, which is a talented cast of three or four primary freshmen that would rank among the top freshman signing classes in program history.

Freshman Phenom!

The Paladins have one of the best freshmen guards the league has seen in recent memory at least, or perhaps even as far back to Stephen Curry in 2005-06. That remains to be seen, however, what I can tell you, that in my lifetime and in over three decades of watching Furman hoops, I can tell you I’ve seen maybe one other Furman PG--Stephen Croone--as quick as Alex Wilkins is.

Furman’s also never had a 6-foot-5 point guard in my lifetime that I can recall, and he’s as tough a guy to guard as there is in this league when he hesitates and goes. He gets from A-to-B astonishingly quickly. Wilkins has four 20-plus efforts in his first eight games as an Division-I starting point guard and has scored in double figures in all eight. He turned the ball over quite a bit in the first four games, but since that, he’s learned to slow his actions and thoughts down a little so his passes or his decision to pass or shoot can align with one another.


The turnovers are actually a sign of his thinking is so far ahead of everyone else’s that oftentimes he sees things too quickly and throws an ill-advised pass. That is starting to change, and you could really see improvement in that during his two games in Orlando last weekend. Wilkins is averaging 18.4 PPG and 4.25 APG so far through eight games and is the Paladins’ top foul shooter, at 84.6% (22-of-26).

Wilkins is one of four Paladin players averaging in double figures so far this season, with Cooper Bowser looking every bit the all-conference player we all thought he would be, as he’s posting 11.3 PPG, 6.0 RPG and 1.8 APG, while shooting a ridiculous 74.5% (38-of-51) from the field this season. Bowser is joined in double figures by Asa Thomas (11.3 PPG, 3.8 RPG), who also leads the team with 21 made 3-pointers. Charles Johnston, who has five double-doubles in eight games to start the season and has double-digit rebounds in six, is averaging a double-double per game, at 10.5 PPG and 10.1 RPG.

The Paladins have looked particularly good of late in wins over Queens and Richmond, employing the 1-3-1 zone defense for the first time this season, for the first time this season--a type of zone the Paladins used with great effectiveness in their six-game winning streak down the stretch last season.

In the Queens win, the Paladins shot the ball the best they have all season, connecting at a 53.3% clip (32-of-60) in that game, including a solid 36.4% (12-of-33) effort from three. The Paladins also connected at a 52% clip (28-of-54) in the narrow, one-point win over Richmond.

The Paladins are averaging 75.4 PPG through the first nine games this season, while surrendering 71.7 PPG to the opposition over the same span. The Paladins have shot it at a 46.8%, ranking second in the league in team field goal percentage.

The story is a little different when you consider 3-point shooting and free throw shooting, however, as the Paladins are tied for last in the league in 3-point shooting, shooting the ball at just a 27.6% clip from long-range so far this season, which ranks the Paladins 317 out of 361 teams in Division I. Furman is even worse when it comes to shooting free throws this season, as the Paladins rank 356 out of 361 teams ranked in NCAA Division I in foul shooting, connecting at just a 62.8% clip.

The good news is Furman has shot the ball a smidge better from three of late, but the foul shooting has not been good the past three games and that has to come around for the team to be able to achieve what it wants to this season. The Paladins have been especially good from 2-point range, however, ranking 33rd out of 361 in 2pt FG% this season, connecting at a 60% clip.

Furman is also once again starting to see higher assists totals, finishing the Queens game with high 20 assists and are averaging 16.1 APG to rank third in the league behind Chattanooga and ETSU.

The defense has been solid for the Paladins, who rank second in defensive rating and scoring defense this season, while the Paladins lead the league in total rebounds (39.3 RPG) and offensive rebounds (12.8). The two-point field goal percentage, rebounding numbers, and defensive numbers are right now what makes Furman a good basketball team, however, unless the free throw numbers improve, they will have a tough time being a championship team. The 3-point field goal percentage is a bit of a misnomer, as while I don’t think this is as good of a shooting team as some that Richey has coached, it’s still a pretty good perimeter shooting team as a whole.

I see those numbers gradually improving as we get towards league play. This is Furman’s best defensive team since the 2018-19 team that got nationally ranked, and it’s what will continue to make Furman tough on that end, most notably due to their length and how they use that length in their various zone concepts.

4. CHATTANOOGA (4-4)

If you need evidence on just how unpredictable era of college basketball can be in even a mid-major league like the Southern Conference, you need look no further than Dan Earl’s Chattanooga team, which like Furman, also had a very tough slate, and also like Furman was considered one of the teams that realistically could win the regular-season and tournament titles.

While nothing has changed about that, what is apparent is the period of adjustment hasn’t gone as quickly and smoothly for the preseason favorites and reigning NIT Champions. Just when it looked like the Mocs might have gotten their groove back after having won three-straight, the Mocs suffered a somewhat surprising home loss to Tennessee State in the Coke Zero Classic Championship game, as the Tigers came to McKenzie Arena and surprised the Mocs, getting a 70-64 win. It ended a string of nine-straight home wins for the Mocs, which dated back to last season.

With that said, the Mocs couldn’t overcome a poor shooting half and fell behind by nine at the break (42-33), and despite playing much better basketball in the second half, and outscoring the Tigers, 31-28, couldn’t overcome that tough start and ended up on the wrong end of a six-point loss. Things have overall been improved, however, for Earl’s squad, who started the season with a lopsided win over NAIA Union Commonwealth University before taking a road trip out west to take on St. Mary’s (L, 66-87) and then UNLV (L, 69-101) in less than a 24-hour span.

Following those defeats came another sound beating at the hands of a good Florida Gulf Coast (L, 73-91) team before reeling off wins at South Carolina State (W, 78-66), vs. North Alabama (W, 71-57) and vs. Tennessee Wesleyan (W, 109-59) before suffering the setback against Tennessee State in their most recent matchup.

The Mocs, like Furman, lost their two top backcourt players, in Honor Huff (now at West Virginia) and Trey Bonham (out of eligibility).

The veterans who returned off that school-record 29-win team were mostly in the front court: Collin Mulholland, Makai Richards, and Sean Cusano. UTC brought in talented guards from other spots to help try and rebuild quickly what was lost with the departures of guy like Huff, Bonham, as well as others like Bash Wieland and Garrison Keeslar.

The rebuilt Mocs backcourt has been solid so far, led by all three transfer guards leading the way in scoring. Pittsburg State transfer Jordan Frison (11.4 PPG, 2.6 RPG) is currently leading the way scoring-wise, while Teddy Washington Jr. (10.9 PPG, 4.5 RPG) and Billy Smith (10.3 PPG, 2.5 RPG) round out the Mocs players averaging in double figures through the first eight games.

The Mocs rank third in the league in points per game through the first eight games of the season, averaging 77.8 PPG, while also ranking third in points allowed, surrendering 71.3 PPG. As a team, UTC is shooting 44.7% (212-of-474), while also placing fourth in the league in 3-point shooting, posting a 34.5% (89-of-258) from long range through the first month of the season. Defensively, the Mocs have been pretty solid, holding teams to just 41.6% (192-of-461) from the field and 32.0% (58-of-181) from long-range through the first month.

While it was supposed to be a strength coming into the season, Chattanooga’s post production has left a little to be desired through the early going this season. That should get better as Mulholland (8.8 PPG, 3.3 RPG) and others get healthy, and much like last season, I expect to see Mulholland’s numbers to go up as we inch towards conference play.

5. WOFFORD (6-3)

Other than maybe Mercer, it would be hard to argue with Wofford as being the surprise story of the Southern Conference through the first month of the season, and so that would likely make Kevin Giltner the frontrunner for SoCon Coach of the Year honors given the whirlwind of events that transpired prior to him coming in to calm the waters and retaining the roster.

It’s obvious that it didn’t take Giltner all that long to gain the trust of his players, taking over the program with just a little over a month remaining before the first ball was tipped off at midcourt for the 2025-26 season. If Giltner has been Coach of the Year through November, then it’s quite possible you could also make the argument that sophomore guard Kahmare Holmes (19.1 PPG, 5.7 RPG) has been the league’s Player of the Year.

Holmes, a defensive specialist as a rookie a year ago, has shown his offensive talents in 2025-26, which includes leading the SoCon in scoring at the end of the first month of the season, averaging 19.1 PPG. Holmes posted a career-best performance in Wofford’s 83-77 road win over Eastern Kentucky back on Nov. 29. He has scored 20 or more points in the four-straight games for the Terriers. In that game, Holmes connected on 10-of-13 from the field and is scorching the nets to at 43.8% (14-of-32) from 3-point range through the early portion of the season. 

What makes it more rewarding for the Terrier fans is likely the fact that, along with Cannon Richards and Luke Flynn, was one of the holdovers that stuck around from last season’s SoCon Tournament title-winning team. 

In many ways, Holmes has a game that reminds me some of former Terrier guard Karl Cochran (2011-15), only Holmes is a couple of inches taller, but has similar athleticism and perimeter shooting ability, as well as being a tenacious defender just like Cochran was.

Holmes has helped fuel a solid string of games down the stretch in November, as the Terriers head into December having won five of their past five games. Wofford has claimed wins over the following teams in the first month of the season: Milwaukee (W, 86-76), at Bellarmine (W, 94-86), vs. North Florida (W, 86-78), vs. Erskine (W, 81-57) and at Eastern Kentucky (W, 83-77). Losses for Wofford have come at George Mason (L, 46-70), at No. 21 Auburn (L, 62-93) and at Northern Kentucky (L, 83-93).

Holmes has been joined in double figures by Central Florida transfer Nils Machowski, who is averaging 12.1 PPG and 4.3 RPG. Machowski has matched Holmes’ team-leading 14 made 3-pointers through the early portions of the season, shooting 30.4% from downtown through the first month of the season. Brian Sumpter has been one of the top young big men in the league early in the season, as the rookie forward is averaging 8.4 PPG and 5.0 RPG.

Sumpter plays bigger than he is, but the 6-foot-8 forward might have to--even as a rookie--as the Terriers aren’t blessed with the kind of the bulk they possessed in the paint a year ago, with the likes of Kyler “Moose” Filewich and big man Jeremy Lorenz, who transferred out to DePaul last spring. As a result, the Terriers have lacked a little bit of post defense and physicality when it has faced more physical teams this year.

The month started with a midweek test inside the friendly confines of the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium, as Wofford beat Presbyterian 63-56 on Wednesday. The Terriers visit from former SoCon member Elon on Saturday before heading off to face one of the worst teams in Division-I in the Gardner-Webb Bulldogs on Dec. 15. The toughest remaining matchup for Wofford prior to making a trip to Cullowhee to open SoCon play on Dec. 31, is a trip to face off against mid-major power and American Athletic Conference member Wichita State on Dec. 17.

6. SAMFORD (4-6)

There will be better days ahead for Samford basketball. At least that’s what new head coach Lennie Acuff is hoping for after the Bulldogs played well despite being down two starters in their opening matchup of the Cancun Challenge, which Samford went on to win, 78-63, against Georgia State.

While they didn’t miss leading scorer Jadin Booth in the win over, a less than 100% Booth due to illness was not enough to quell Samford’s shooting woes in its final game of the challenge against Utah Valley, which saw the Bulldogs drop an 89-45 game to the Wolverines, in which Samford lost the game in the opening half of play.

That’s because the Bulldogs had a historic half for all the wrong reason, and it had to be one that even baffled the mind of their offensive savant of a head coach, Acuff, who could only watch as his team scored only 14 points and shot just 20.7% (11-of-38) in the opening half, falling behind by a whopping score of 42-14 at the break.

Things wouldn’t get much better in the second half, as the Bulldogs didn’t crack 30% and barely eclipsed 25% shooting for the game, knocking down just 22.2% (6-of-27) from 3-point range in the setback. However, it is important to put things in perspective here. Not only did the Bulldogs have one starter under-the-weather, in Booth, but also had another two starters that were out with injuries, in guard Keaton Norris and center Dylan Faulkner.


The Bulldogs have already been a little undermanned from the outset of the season when Daijon Humphries went down with a season-ending injury, tearing his Achilles Tendon in the exhibition contest against Alabama A&M.

Other than the 1-1 performance in Cancun, the Bulldogs have picked up win vs South Carolina State (W, 82-72) in Acuff’s first win as the head coach of the Bulldogs, and the other two wins have both come on the road at Texas Southern (W, 93-90 OT) and at Central Arkansas (W, 84-77 OT). Losses have come against Tulane (L, 72-85), No. 21 Arkansas (L, 75-79), vs. Florida Gulf Coast (L, 62-77), at New Mexico State (L, 72-81) and at VCU (L, 83-57).

With that said, it’s hard to get a real good gauge on Samford as a whole. They’ve looked like one of the best teams in the SoCon at times this season, and such was the case in the Bulldogs’ performance against Arkansas earlier this season, putting up a valiant effort before losing a 79-75 thriller.

There is no word on the length or severity of the injuries to both Keaton Norris and Dylan Faulkner, however, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that those two are vital to Samford’s overall chances of lifting a SoCon title trophy in Asheville for a second time in three seasons. The Bulldogs continue to be led by Booth, who along with Wofford’s Kahmare Holmes, has been arguably the SoCon Player of the Year through the month of November.

Booth leads the Bulldogs with an 18.8 PPG scoring average through his first nine games with the Bulldogs, while also posting 3.8 RPG, and is also shooting a scorching 40% (32-of-80) from 3-point land this season, and he’s also been one of the nation’s top free throw shooters, connecting at a 90.5% (38-of-42) from the charity stripe so far this season.

Joining Booth in double figures scoring average through the first month of the season is center Dylan Faulkner, who is posting 13.8 PPG and 5.6 RPG through the early part of the season, while also shooting at a 54.3% (44-of-81) clip from the field and has also been a reliable rim protector, with 15 blocks through the first nine games. Keaton Norris rounds out the Bulldogs averaging in double figures so far this season, posting 12.8 PPG and 4.4 RPG.

As a team, the Bulldogs finished out the opening month by ranking sixth overall in the league in scoring offense (73.6 PPG) and were ninth in scoring defense (79.2 PPG). The Bulldogs haven’t shot the ball particularly well this season, ranking ninth in the SoCon in field goal percentage (39.7%), while also ranking ninth in free throw percentage (65.9%) and fifth in 3-point field goal percentage (32.5%).

7. WESTERN CAROLINA (4-4)

Western Carolina played a strange, mid-afternoon game against VU Lynchburg as I was putting together their small writeup for the first release of the power rankings, as the Catamounts won going away, 124-64. The stats I will be using for this particular write-up were prior to the lopsided win.

The win over VU Lynchburg was the last non-conference home game, and the win also was a milestone one of sorts, as it was Tim Craft’s 200th victory as a head basketball coach at both Gardner-Webb and Western Carolina. The Catamounts will close out non-conference play with games on the road at USC Upstate (Dec. 6), at Virginia Tech (Dec. 11), and at Georgia (Dec. 18) before getting almost exactly a two-week break before opening up Southern Conference play on New Year’s Eve at the Ramsey Center against Wofford.

Western Carolina played early games against Cincinnati (L, 63-94) and at No. 6 Duke (L, 64-95) before getting on the winning track with three-straight wins over Voorhees (W, 95-44), Stetson (W, 76-65) and vs. UNC Asheville (W, 80-73) in what is also a thrilling rivalry game, and had a bit of drama to it this year as well, with Bulldogs head coach Mike Morrell being ejected in the waning moments of that contest. It was also arguably Western Carolina’s best performance of the season, as Cord Stanberry’s step-back three-pointer with 0.9 seconds left gave the Catamounts a 76-73 lead.

After the win over the Bulldogs, Western Carolina would end up ultimately hitting a bit of a snag with losses on the road to a pair of teams that could very well win their respective leagues, in Atlantic Sun foe Lipscomb (L,62-83) and High Point (L, 73-93).

With that said, like Chattanooga and Samford, the Catamounts have also been trying to get a fully healthy and when I say get healthy, I am more specifically referencing CJ Hyland, who continues to work himself back to 100% from an injury.

For the second-straight season under Craft, the Catamounts have struggled to shoot the ball from the beyond the arc, and that could change with the offense moving better as Hyland gets healthier and is able to return to his full-time status at point guard. The Catamounts ranked ninth out of 10 teams in the league in 3-point field goal percentage to close out the month, connecting on just 28.9% (52-of-180) from long-range, and the 52 triples made ranked as the lowest made total in the SoCon.

The Catamounts finished the month ranking eighth of 10 SoCon teams in scoring offense (71.8 PPG), while finishing November shooting at a 42.7% clip from the field this season, ranking sixth in the league. Western Carolina also held foes to 78.1 PPG through the opening month of the season, ranking fifth in the league.

WCU has been led in scoring through the opening month of the season by Cord Stansberry, who averaged 14.8 PPG, while newcomer Julien Soumaoro averaged 14.3 PPG and forward Marcus Kell has picked up right where he left off last season, averaging 13.3 PPG, while also posting 5.1 RPG.

8. UNC Greensboro (1-8)

It goes without saying that UNCG basketball isn’t quite used to struggling out of the gates like they have in the early going in the 2025-26 season, and they have already begun the month of December with a loss, falling at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center to UNC Asheville, 82-77, inside the confines that will host the Southern Conference Tournament this coming March. For head coach Mike Jones, that building itself has become a house of horrors, as the fifth-year head coach of the Spartans fell to 0-5 all-time inside the facility.

But before he worries about winning there for the first time in March, picking up wins in general looks like it won’t be easy as a whole this season, as the Spartans went through the opening month of the season losing eight of their first nine games out of the gate.

The Spartans lone win of the season in the opening month is an impressive one, however, as UNCG knocked off Youngstown State (W, 68-62), who is a team picked third and is one expected to challenge for the Horizon League regular-season title. The eight losses in the opening month of the season have come at Kansas State (L, 64-93), vs. Elon (L, 90-92), at North Carolina State (L, 64-110), vs. Austin Peay (L, 63-69), at Queens (L, 94-101), vs. Delaware (L, 60-73), vs. Miami of Ohio (L. 71-82) and at UNC Asheville (L, 77-82).

Like a majority of teams in the league, the Spartans have had to produce virtually all of their scoring production from a year ago, but while UNCG was able to maintain its defensive edge last season following a season with that similar type of turnover, duplicating that this season hasn’t come close, or at least so far. Jones is a coach, who prides himself on making sure his teams play with tenacity at all times on that side of the floor. The Spartans ranked eighth in the 10-team SoCon at the end of the month of November in field goal percentage defense (46.8%) and dead last in the conference in scoring defense (85.2 PPG).

The other problem for Jones is that while the Spartans have decent at times on the offensive end of the floor, they have been a long way from his previous teams have been in terms of overall offensive efficiency, as well as they haven’t been a consistently good shooting basketball team. The Spartans ranked ninth at the end of November in scoring offense (71.7 PPG) and eighth in team field goal percentage (39.7%).

The Spartans’ best player on the offensive end of the floor through the first of the season was wing Justin Neely (13.5 PPG, 11.5 RPG), and he led the league and ranked fourth nationally following the opening month of the season. Guard Donald Whitehead Jr. (12.7 PPG, 1.9 RPG) and forward KJ Younger (11.6 PPG, 3.9 RPG) are also in double figures. Freshman guard Lillian Marville (9.0 PPG, 1.1 APG) is another player that has had a good first month with his new program. Marville hails from Orleans, France.

9. VMI (4-7)

If the first month of the season is any indication of how things are going to go without preseason SoCon Player of the Year Rickey Bradley Jr. in the lineup, it certainly doesn’t look good should Bradley Jr. end up being out for an extended period of time. Bradley missed all 11 games in the opening month of the season with an injury, and from the looks of it, he could be out an extended amount of time or even the entire season.

The Keydets looked decent enough at least early on in the campaign. VMI at least started off the season playing decently without there star guard. The Keydets opened the season with a 122-58 win over Johnson & Wales before going on the road to get a 78-74 win at Southern Indiana before losing on the road at SEC member Missouri (L, 68-106) after putting up a solid fight in the opening half of play. Then came a win over VU Lynchburg (W, 106-54) and the wheels seemingly stopped turning for Andrew Wilson’s team.

After the win over Lynchburg got the Keydets to 3-1, losses followed against Jacksonville (L, 67-69), at Richmond (L, 54-87), at Stetson (L, 80-99), vs. Buffalo (L, 70-78), vs. Bowling Green (L, 48-81) and at Central Florida (L, 57-82).

Now it’s about managing the rest of the non-conference and finding some kind of confidence that the team can hang its hat on moving on into league play at the end of the month. The schedule certainly hasn’t been easy for VMI, and without the team’s best player and overall production leader, the Keydets have struggled.

Much was made about VMI’s retention in the offseason, but the one other guy they did lose from a year ago, big man Augustinas Kiudulas, who transferred to Colorado State, was also the team’s second-leading scorer and its leading rebounder. Without Kiudulas and now Bradley this season, the Keydets are essentially without its top two scorers from a year ago.

There have been some positives, with others like TJ Johnson, who has two 30-point scoring outings this season to lead the league. He’s averaging 18.4 PPG to lead the SoCon, highlighted by his 32-point effort in VMI’s road win at Southern Indiana. Johnson also has four games with 20 or more points four times this season, but has struggled to find his normally accurate perimeter shot this season, connecting on just 25.8% (24-of-93) from deep through the first 10 games.

Mario Tatum Jr. has been another bright spot and one of the best young point guards in the SoCon this season, averaging 11.7 PPG, 1.4 RPG and 1.0 APG this season. Tatum has also been the team’s best perimeter threat this season, connecting on 41.0% (16-of-39) from long range this season. Rounding out the VMI players averaging in double figures is Walker Andrews, as the redshirt sophomore guard is averaging 10.8 PPG.

The Keydets have shot a ton of threes this season, hoisting up 343 and ranks fifth nationally in threes hoisted up per game, taking an average of 34 3-point attempts per game. The 108 threes made this season tops the country by one over Cornell, however, the Keydets are shooting just 31.5% from long-range this season to rank 256th out of 361 in the country.

10. THE CITADEL (2-7)

You have to kind of feel for The Citadel head coach Ed Conroy. He’s one heck of a basketball coach and one heck of a human being. However, we’re only nine games into the season, and the prospects of getting a win over an Division-I foe this season seem slim.


Games against Bellarmine (L, 58-70) and Houston Christian (L, 65-72) offered excellent opportunities to end the streak of losses to DI foes, which has now reached 29 games dating back to a 74-52 win over Stetson last season at McAlister Field House.


While losses to both Bellarmine and Houston Christian were bad enough, the Bulldogs might have reached a new low in their outing against Presbyterian at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center last Sunday afternoon, as the Bulldogs could muster only 41 points and were blown out, 69-41, by the PC Blue Hose. That 28-point loss to the Blue Hose, which got them to 5-5 this season, should have been a harbinger of the bad news to follow, which was that on Monday, the Bulldogs were ranked 365 out of 365 in the first release of the NET rankings for the 2025-26 season, or aka for the worst team in college basketball at this point in the season.

In addition to the three losses mentioned above, the Bulldogs also have setbacks at Boston College (L, 47-76), Charleston Southern (L, 86-96), and at West Georgia (92-100).

Charleston Southern’s Brycen Blaine put up one of best performances of the young basketball season so far, as he posted 42 points, 11 rebounds, dished out eight assists, and recorded a pair of steals and turned it over only once in leading the Bucs to the key non-conference road win. It was a stat line, that according to Charleston’s Southern’s sports information department, has never been recorded in the history of college basketball. The Bulldogs two wins have both come against non-Division-I competition, with wins over Erskine (105-61) and North Greenville (W, 70-57).

So, what can Conroy and the Bulldogs look to as something to build on? Well, despite surrendering 42 points and 96 points to the Bucs in that home loss in early November, the Bulldogs have played pretty good defense at times this season and currently rank fourth in the league in scoring defense 75.1 PPG. However, that is off-set by the fact that pretty much everyone the Bulldogs have faced so far has lit it up shooting-wise, as the Bulldogs are allowing opponents to shoot 49.3% (222-of-450) from the field this season, which ranks last in the SoCon and 346 out of 361 nationally.

The Bulldogs also rank last in the league in scoring offense (70.5 PPG) and are seventh in the league in field goal percentage (42.1%). The other real positive is that the Bulldogs are shooting the ball at about 10 percentage points higher at the free throw than they were a year ago at this point in the season, connecting on 66.5%.

As far as scoring leaders go, the Bulldogs have two averaging in double figures through the first eight games of the season, with Christian Moore (11.0 PPG, 2.4 RPG) and Valdosta State transfer Braxton Williams (10.8 PPG, 2.8 RPG) accounting for the only other Bulldogs player to average in double figures. The Citadel has also been slowed an injury to their leading returning post player, in Sola Adebisi, who started the first five games, then missed the last three with a knee injury he suffered in the win over North Greenville. At the time of his injury, Adebisi was averaging 9.6 PPG and 6.1 RPG. His 6.1 RPG led the team.

November Superlatives

Best KenPom Win: Furman 73, Richmond 72 (Terry’s Chocolate Imagination Bracket Semifinal presented by ESPN Events)
Best Game: Western Carolina 80, UNC Asheville 73 (Nov. 16, 2025/Liston B. Ramsey Center)
Best Player in the Opening Month: G Kahmare Holmes (Wofford)/G Jadin Booth (Samford)
Best Coaching Job: Kevin Giltner (Wofford)
Best Individual Performance: Brian Taylor II (ETSU) vs. Central Arkansas/ 14 pts, 10 rebs, 10 assists
Most Embarrassing Loss: The Citadel’s 72-65 loss to KenPom No. 293 ranked Houston Christian)
Best Freshman: G-Alex Wilkins (Furman)
Toughest Schedule(s): T--Western Carolina, Chattanooga and Furman
KenPom Conference Rank: No. 21 of 31

KenPom Rankings By Team:
ETSU--132
Furman--168
Mercer--172
Chattanooga--204
Wofford--214
Samford--230
UNCG--253
VMI--341
The Citadel--363


NET Rankings By Team (When they were originally released on Dec. 1)
Mercer--95
ETSU--105
Wofford--172
Furman--225
Western Carolina--248
Samford--271
Chattanooga--283
UNCG--313
VMI--332
The Citadel--365