Southern Conference Basketball Power Rankings Week 2:
For the second week of Southern Conference basketball, the league had a solid week with some impressive wins. On Saturday alone, the league saw Samford go on the road to get a win over Belmont (92-86), while Chattanooga won a key home game against Horizon League power Northern Kentucky (79-72), and Furman got possibly the strongest win of any team, defeating their longtime Southern Conference rivals 81-57 at TD Arena in Charleston. It’s been a strange season with scheduling.
Both Furman and College of Charleston were slated to play No. 19 Richmond this past week, however, the Spiders had to cancel with both due to COVID-19 protocols. That left the natural opening on the schedule for both Furman and CofC to take advantage of. Here are the power rankings this week for the Southern Conference.
1. Furman (4—0, 0-0 SoCon)—The Paladins went 2-0 on the week, and boy were they were impressive doing it? The Paladins got an 89-49 win over Southern Wesleyan and without question, the best performance of the season for the Paladins was the 81-57 win over the Cougars to improve to 4-0 on the season. Bob Richey’s club has not given up more than 63 points to any one game this season. Mike Bothwell has been on fire to start the season, and is coming off a season-high 26 points in the win over College of Charleston. Jalen Slawson nearly became the first Furman player to ever record a triple-double against the Cougars, as he finished the contest with 16 points, 10 boards and nine assists. The Paladins head to Cincinnati Wednesday night.
2. Mercer (5-0, 0-0 SoCon)—Mercer continues to have the best win of the season so far in Southern Conference hoops, knocking off Georgia Tech in the opening week of the season, 85-75. The strong 5-0 start to the season was highlighted by a 96-85 win over Southern Wesleyan Sunday evening, and was enough to help the Bears to their best start to a season since the 1966-67 Mercer team, which also matched the 5-0 start this season by the Bears. Ross Cummings, the all-conference guard that missed all but six games in Greg Gary’s first season in 2019-20, is off to a fast start to the 2020-21 season, as he now has 190-career three-pointers to tie the school’s all-time career mark. On Sunday against the Warriors, Cummings scored 24 points and knocked down six triples in helping the Bears to their fifth win of the season. Point guard Neftali Alvarez is the reigning Southern Conference Player of the Week, and he has made all the difference in allowing the Bears to have a player that is able to beat folks off the dribble, and that has a real positive difference for the Bears through the early portion of the schedule. Mercer returns to action with the first Southern Conference game of the season Thursday night when the Bears battle VMI in the first Southern Conference in Lexington.
3. UNC Greensboro (1-2, 0-0 SoCon)—Give UNC Greensboro credit. Wes Miller’s Spartans went out and tested themselves early on this season in a multi-team event at Louisville. The Spartans took on Little Rock, Winthrop and Duquesne, while having games canceled against both Prairie View A&M and Louisville due to COVID-19 protocols. The Spartans won the opener against co-Sun Belt favorite Little Rock, buoyed by 24 points from Isaiah Miller. The Spartans faced Winthrop in one of the best mid-major matchups no one talked about from the opening week the next time out, and it was the Big South favorite Winthrop, which made all the right plays down the stretch to come up with the 75-67 win in what was the first meeting between the two programs in two decades. Miller’s 19 points marked the 75th time in his career that he finished in double figures. The Spartans have added some nice pieces, and though they haven’t shot the well yet this season from long-range, at just 28.8% from beyond the arc, the Spartans have more shooters that can stretch a defense to the perimeter this season than last, with the likes of center Hayden Koval and 6-8 forward Jarrett Hensley join Angelo Allegri as instant perimeter threats for the Spartans this season. That will make them only more versatile, and you know Wes Miller’s club is already one of the best defensive teams in mid-major hoops.
4. Chattanooga (4-0, 0-0 SoCon)—Chattanooga has been one of the early surprises of the Southern Conference early-season, as Lamont Paris’ club has gotten off to its best start since the 197-88 season, starting the campaign with a 4-0 mark, which includes three-straight Division I wins over Tennessee Tech (62-54), Northern Kentucky (79-72) and at Middle Tennessee State (80-70) Monday night. The most impressive win during that run might have been handing Northern Kentucky its first loss of the season, with a 79-72 victory at the McKenzie Arena this past Saturday. The Mocs have one of better newcomers in the league, in Malachi Smith, who was a fixture at Wright State before transferring into the Mocs’ program, but it was the veteran all-conference guard David Jean-Baptiste that led four Mocs in double figures with 25 points in the win. Baptiste knocked down all four triples for the Blue and Gold. The win over the Norse was impressive since it came against a perennial power in the Horizon League, and a team that was picked to finish third in the pre-season poll this season and finished second behind Wright State in the Horizon League regular-season standings last season. On Monday night in Murfreesboro, Jean-Baptiste and Smith were sensational once again, with the former leading the way with 20 points, while the latter added a double-double with 18 points and 13 boards.
5. Wofford (2-1, 0-0 SoCon)—Wofford had to wait nearly two weeks to get its first test of the college basketball season, and when they had it, despite numerous injuries and only seven players with prior experience, the Terriers went toe-to-toe for 40 minutes with the No. 19 Richmond Spiders before finally succumbing in defeat. We might know little about Wofford now, but it’s pretty clear who has stepped up for the Terriers in the paint for the Terriers in the absence of Chevez Goodwin, and that is Messiah Jones. Jones posted 20 points and 10 rebounds, while point guard Storm Murphy did his usual thing, posting a team-high 21 points to go with four assists and a steal in the victory. Tray Hollowell rounded out the Terriers in double figures with 15 points, and freshman forward Sam Godwin gave the was outstanding in 20 minutes of court time, despite going scoreless. Getting other guys like Max Klesmit healthy will be vital as the Terriers move forward. Wofford returns to action on Thursday when it travels to South Carolina for a 6 p.m. tip off against the Gamecocks.
6. East Tennessee State (1-2, 0-0 SoCon)—Plenty of East Tennessee State fans sounded alarm bells after the Jason Shay era opened with a 70-47 loss to Southland Conference member Abilene Christian. However, aside from the fact the Wildcats are one of the favorites to challenge for Southland Conference title this season, as they were coming off a 20-win season and returned four of five starters to the fold. ETSU fan worries were somewhat quelled a day later, with a 67-66 loss to a very strong Austin Peay club, which came into the season ranked in multiple mid-major polls under the direction of fourth-year head coach Matt Figger, who helped the Governors to 21 wins and a second-place finish in the always-tough Ohio Valley Conference last season. Still, it felt like it was a game the Bucs let get away. The third time out for Shay and his new roster of talented players turned out to be the charm, as the Bucs finished the Beach Bubble strong with a 53-40 win over Middle Tennessee State. The bright spot offensively has been LeDarrius Brewer, who is the lone Bucs player averaging in double figures, posting 15.3 PPG. The good news is the Bucs haven’t really missed a step on the defensively, and that’s been one of the things that has, at least early on, ranking third in the SoCon in both field goal percentage in defense (36.6%) and scoring defense (60.0 PPG). The Bucs have a very intriguing battle with Tuesday night at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville against a UNC Asheville team picked to finish second in the preseason Big South poll.
7. Western Carolina (5-1, 0-0 SoCon)—The only blemish through the first six games of the season for Mark Prosser’s Western Carolina Catamounts came in a 66-64 loss to Troy in the Mako Medical MTE at UNC Asheville’s Kimmel Arena. While the Catamounts are an impressive 5-1 to start the new season, the loss to Trojans is a real head-scratcher, as Troy is off to a 1-3 start and its closest loss in those three setbacks being 22 points to UAB. Still, the Catamounts have an impressive win over UNC Asheville, 83-81, in overtime. It is important to not that Asheville was missing starters Coty Jude and De’Von Baker, and the Catamounts almost blew the lead in that contest. Western was able to hold on for the win in overtime, with both Matt Halvorsen stole the show for the Catamounts, with 20 points in the win. Another impressive Catamount win came in that same tournament was a 98-76 victory to open the season for the Catamounts. Mason Faulkner provided the latest heroics for Western, however, as his game-winning three-pointer with 0.6 seconds remaining helped the Catamounts to the 76-75 win over OVC member Tennessee Tech at the Ramsey Center this past Sunday. The Catamounts will next take on Saturday, traveling to face North Carolina A&T.
8. Samford (2-1, 0-0 SoCon)—By far the hardest team to figure out to this point in the SoCon basketball season is Bucky McMillan’s Samford Bulldogs. The Bulldogs took the college basketball world by storm scoring 174 points in an exhibition against Greenville (IL). Some of that luster may have worn off after Illinois State scored 177 points against the Bulldogs, and Samford opened its official home slate at the Pete Hanna Center with a surprising loss to Alabama A&M (L, 74-76) before going on the road this past Saturday night and coming up with what turned out to be a monumental 96-83 road win at perennial Ohio Valley Conference power and preseason favorite Belmont. As I said in last week’s power rankings, this is a solid collection of talent that head coach Bucky McMillan at his disposal for the 2020-21 season, highlighted by players like Myron Gordon in the backcourt, as well as true freshman A.J. Staton-McCray (15 pts vs Belmont). It was Gordon that posted a game-high 23 points for the Bulldogs, and guys like veteran Logan Dye, who has had battled back from injuries the previous couple of seasons to get off to a strong start this season, and Christian Guess, who originally signed with Missouri out of high school before taking the long route to Samford via North Idaho Junior College, that helped the Bulldogs maintain an edge and a grit under the basket. That has helped the Bulldogs rank a healthy third in the SoCon so far in rebounding margin, sporting a +10.3 on the backboards through the first three games.
9. VMI (2-2, 0-0 SoCon)—Give Dan Earl’s VMI Keydets credit. They went toe-to-toe with a pretty strong Penn State team early in the campaign before running out of gas and losing 86-65 in Happy Valley, while giving 16th-ranked Virginia Tech all it wanted before eventually dropping what was a 64-57 loss to the Hokies. Despite the loss, it was an outstanding evening for senior forward Myles Lewis, who posted a team-high 13 points and corralled what was a season-high 12 rebounds in the loss. Senior guard Greg Parham added 12 points, while junior center Jake Stephens added 11. Trey Bonham continued his impressive play in his first season with the Keydets, as the true freshman posted 10 points. The Keydets lone win over a Division I foe this season came in an 84-71 triumph at Cameron Hall over Longwood. The Keydets will return to the floor against its second non-Division I foe of the season, hosting Greensboro College Tuesday nigh, before Mercer comes to town for the SoCon season lid-lifter.
10. The Citadel (4-0, 0-0 SoCon)—The Bulldogs are 4-0, but three of those wins have come against non-Division I competition this season. The most impressive notch on the belt for head coach Duggar Baucom’s club to this point in the season was a 78-70 win over MEAC member North Carolina A&T back on Dec. 3. There’s little argument from anyone that Hayden Brown is an elite post player, not only in the SoCon, but also throughout mid-major college hoops. In the 96-57 win over Columbia International on Monday night, Brown posted 31 points, 21 boards and seven assists. He is the second player so far in a short amount of time that nearly posted a triple-double. The Bulldogs return to action on Wednesday night, hosting another non-Division I, in Carver Bible College at McAlister Field House.
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