SoCon Basketball 2023-24: mid-season report cards and awards part (2 of 2)

Wofford point guard Corey Tripp vs. Western Carolina (photo courtesy of Wofford athletics)

Wofford (13-10, 6-4 SoCon)

MVP: Corey Tripp (16.1 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 3.4 APG)

First Half Grade: A

The team that has overachieved in the first half of league play this season, in many respects, has been the Wofford Terriers. That's a testament to the type of coach Wofford got when it hired Dwight Perry, who was already one of the top assistants in the league when he was at Furman, and now he's ready to show what he can do as a head coach. 

He's shown us a lot this season already, and when Wofford played tight in an exhibition against South Carolina, it should have been a sign of good things to come, although most didn't know what Lamont Paris and the Gamecocks had at that point in the season, especially after South Carolina struggled so much a year ago in Paris' first year. 

Corey Tripp is one of the most underrated players in the Southern Conference, and he's put the Terriers in position to make a run at three seed for Asheville, and the Terriers remain with a remote chance at something greater, but it's more realistic to say that a top three seed would be absolutely attainable.

The Terriers canned 17 threes in their recent loss at Samford, and it was the first time the Terriers have lost a game this season in which they have knocked down double-digit threes. The Terriers have shot the ball well from beyond the arc for a vast majority of the season, shooting 36.2% from three overall, and since entering league play, the Terriers have shot it even better, connecting on 38% from long range. 

The 213 made threes for the Terriers this season rank the Terriers fifth in the SoCon in made triples, which is just 17 behind league-leading Chattanooga. The 36.3% shooting clip from beyond the arc has the Terriers ranked third in the league in shooting from long range.

Tripp has gotten excellent support as Wofford's leading scorer this season, with Jackson Sivills (9.9 PPG, 4.6 RPG), Dillion Bailey (12.0 PPG, 2.4 RPG) and Kyler Filewich (10.4 PPG, 9.2 RPG) providing the scoring support. Filewich has absolutely been a huge factor for the Terriers in the paint all season, and while he's not the most athletic big man in the league, he makes up for it in intelligence, toughness and hustle. 

Will Finish in Top Six If: 

The Terriers have been tough at home this season, and if they can maintain that by winning home games and hold serve on the road, the Terriers have an excellent shot of not only finishing inside the top six, but perhaps creeping inside the top three or four before all is said and done. 

Latest Game: Wofford 88, Western Carolina 86 (OT)

Wofford was able to score an 88-86 overtime win over Western Carolina to begin the second half of Southern Conference play, as the Terriers moved into a tie with Furman for fourth place in the Southern Conference standings, as both teams are 6-4 following Furman's 89-87 home loss to UNC Greensboro at Timmons Arena on Sunday afternoon. The Terriers improved to 13-10 overall with the win.

The Catamounts fell to 16-7 overall and 5-5 in league action.

Corey Tripp finished 27 points on a 13-of-17 shooting performance, which included hitting the game-tying bucket to send the game to overtime. The 13 field goals made by Tripp were the most since Fletcher Magee against Samford in 2019. 

It was the third overtime win of the season for Wofford, which is the most it has enjoyed during a single-season since the 2003-04 campaign.

ETSU point guard Quimari Peterson (photo courtesy of ETSU athletics)

East Tennessee State (12-11, 4-6 SoCon)

MVP: Jaden Seymour (15.3 PPG, 4.9 RPG)

First Half Grade: C+ 

ETSU has been one of those teams that has seemingly found its way in a close game in nearly all of its SoCon games this season. With its 62-60 win over The Citadel Saturday, coupled with a road win to complete the seasonal sweep of Mercer in its previous outing, the Bucs appear to be starting to figure things out and gain some chemistry as a team moving forward. 

At least two of its wins can be directly tied to plays on the defensive end of the floor that have either led to a game-winning bucket, or prevented one from being made. The Bucs have a talented lineup, and the Bucs usually have three scorers on a given night, and now that Karon Boyd is back healthy, he gives them a defensive and rebounding presence that sorely lacked when he was out with a lower body injury.

Seymour has begun to establish himself as truly one of the best players in the SoCon. He is the one player that seems to have scored the ball consistently this season, and when others have failed to step up to join him, the Bucs have struggled offensively. 

At times during non-conference play, the Bucs have had to endure long scoring droughts due to shots not falling, but the Bucs have been able to hang their hat on the defensive end. In fact, ETSU has struggled to make shots from anywhere, ranking ninth in the SoCon in scoring offense (68.2 PPG), last in field goal percentage (40.0%) and last in three-point percentage (29.8%)

Quimari Peterson (13.3 PPG, 4.6 RPG) and Ebby Asamoah (15.2 PPG, 4.1 RPG) have been an important addition to the Bucs roster this season, as has Jadyn Parker (7.0 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 48 blks) on the defensive end of the floor. In fact, both Peterson and Parker have factored in to a pair of Bucs SoCon wins thus far, with Parker's block on Brennan Watkins helping ETSU pull out a 74-73 road win over VMI, while Quimari Peterson's layup following a Jaden Seymour blocked shot at the rim helped the Bucs to their most recent SoCon win over The Citadel (62-60).

The good news is the play on the defensive end of the floor the Bucs have been good all year for the most part, and that has been enough to keep the Bucs in a vast majority of their SoCon games. 

The Bucs have already navigated probably the toughest part of their schedule in league play, and after two-straight wins over Mercer and The Citadel. the Bucs will now host Wofford (Feb. 7) and Furman (Feb. 10) in back-to-back home games with an opportunity to climb the standings even more. Those two games will be important, as the Bucs still have upcoming road trips to Western Carolina (Feb. 17) and Samford (Feb. 21).

The Bucs Will Finish in the Top Six If?

ETSU needs to protect its home turf. Every team usually has a hiccup or two at home during league play, but any more than that and it because more treacherous. The Bucs have fallen in tough fashion on the home hardwood to both Western Carolina (L, 66-80), Chattanooga (L, 74-81) and Samford () already this season. There's no margin for error, however, if the Bucs can win their four home games, which includes maybe the toughest test on the final day of the regular-season against UNCG (Mar. 2), they have an outstanding opportunity to finish within the top six and garner a first-round bye for a second-straight season. 

Latest Game: ETSU 62, The Citadel 60

The Bucs have won games in not only closing fashion of late,  but also in dramatic fashion, especially when it has faced the two league's military institutions. The Bucs needed a Jadyn Parker block of a potential game-winning layup from Brennan Watkins to pull out what was a 74-73 win at VMI last week, and on Saturday and back in front of the home folks at Freedom Hall, the Bucs were able to come up with a 62-60 home win over The Citadel on a combination of a Jaden Seymour blocked at the rim on a potential game winner from The Citadel's Quentin Millora-Brown, and on the other end, Quimari Peterson drove in for what proved to be the game-winning layup with 6.4 seconds left, as Madison Durr turned it over at midcourt and the Bucs were able to hang on for the win.

The Bucs built a 15-point second half lead, however, saw it evaporate late as Bulldogs took just their second lead of the contest at 60-59 late just 1:02 remaining, setting the stage for the late-game defensive-offense heroics for the Bucs.

ETSU was led in the win by Ebby Asamoah, who finished with 17 points, while Seymour notched his seventh-career double-double for the Bucs, with 12 points and 10 boards.

The win saw ETSU improve to 12-11 overall and 4-6 in league action, while the loss saw the Bulldogs fall to 9-14 overall and 1-9 in league action. 

Mercer G/F TJ Grant (picture courtesy of Mercer athletics)

Mercer (10-13, 3-7 SoCon)

MVP: Jalyn McCreary (14.8 PPG, 4.8 RPG)

First Half Grade: D

it's been a strange season so far for Greg Gary's Mercer Bears, which we probably should have known that might indeed be the case when the Bears started off the season with a head-scratching loss to non-Division I Clark Atlanta.

If head coach Greg Gary wasn't  on the hot seat coming into the season, he likely is now. The Bears could have at least one more win through the first half of their Southern Conference slate, having surrendered what was as much as a 16-point second half lead at The Citadel earlier this season only to lose the game, 68-66, in Charleston.

The Bears have almost seemingly been a better on the road in league play at times than they have been at home. In fact, two of Mercer's league wins have come on the road, with the biggest of those two having been a 70-64 win at UNC Greensboro a little over a week ago. The other two wins in league action for the Bears have come against VMI, with the latest of those victories coming last time out in 90-69 triumph at Hawkins Arena. 

The Bears are the lowest scoring team in the Southern Conference this season, averaging just 69.8 PPG and in league games so far this season, the Bears rank eighth in the SoCon, averaging 69.5 PPG in 10 league games. 

The Bears have a good mix of talent, and probably should have a better record overall and in league play, however, much of that reliable talent outside of big man Jayln McCreary is young talent, which is still developing. Between forward Jake Davis (9.6 PPG, 4.6 RPG) and forward David Thomas (8.4 PPG, 1.9 RPG), the Bears have a good chance of seeing one of those guys win SoCon Freshman of the Year, while both should end up on the league's all-freshman team.

The Bears haven't necessarily had trouble scoring the basketball, as the low scoring numbers are kind of their niche they have found in a league that seems to have teams trending more towards up-tempo, transition type offenses that won't to score 75-80 points a night. That's not Mercer, and under Gary, they are banking on their defense and size to win games in this league.

It's been a tough path so far in this now Gary's fifth season at Mercer, as Mercer has a 36-45 mark in SoCon games during that span, winning 11 of those league games in year one. Last season, the Bears posted their lowest win total since joining the SoCon prior to the 2014-15 season. 

The Bears most reliable offensive option comes off the bench, in 6-8 Jayln McCreary, who's been a strong force once again in the post. McCreary is coming off a career-high 30 points in Mercer's win last time out against VMI, and currently ranks fifth in the SoCon field goal percentage (53.1%) in league only contests. 

Mercer takes good care of the basketball, ranking third in the league behind Samford and Furman in turnover margin (+1.00), while ranking fifth in overall assists (13.8 APG) in conference only games. 

The Bears don't shot a lot of threes, however, are one of just four teams in the conference to connect on less than 200 triples this season, ranking ninth in the 10-team league in three-pointers made. The Bears have made 151 long-range shots this season, ranking one ahead of The Citadel, who is at the bottom of the SoCon in threes made, with just 150.

The Bears seemingly have a true point guard for the first time since Gary has taken over at this point in the season, as Mercer has been plagued by injuries and depth issues at the position in his previous four seasons. This season, the Bears have been led by 5-11 freshman Anthony Bernard (2.7 PPG, 2.0 RPG), as he has started 19 of 23 games for the Bears at the point this season. Bernard has started alongside Jalen Cobb (5.9 PPG, 2.6 RPG)and Jah Quinones (6.3 PPG, 4.7 RPG) this season. 

For a team that struggles shooting the three, freshman guard Jake Davis has by far been the best shooter for the Bears from long range this season, having knocked down a team-high 44 triples this season, and is shooting 40.0% (44-of-111) from long range so far this season. Davis is the second-leading scorer on the team, and is hovering right around double figures, at 9.6 PPG. 

Mercer has a better mix than it did a year ago, but the overall weakness of the team is still the point guard spot, only now that's more due to inexperience. 

Overall, the Bears do enough defensively to stay in games, however, outside McCreary, the Bears are asking two freshmen to step up and be the second and third scorers offensively, which is a very tall ask for a pair of talented, but young players. 

The Bears Will Finish in the Top Six If?

Mercer has had to play on the opening night of the Southern Conference Tournament each of the past four seasons in Asheville, and at the turn this season, the Bears have some work to do. The Bears currently sit alone in eighth place, two games ahead of VMI and The Citadel and two games behind ETSU, who is currently In seventh and owns the season sweep of the Bears.  The Bears need to find some more points from somewhere, as its not enough to just slow the pace. The good news is that Mercer signed an outstanding freshman class, and with each game, they are gaining in both experience and confidence. But unless the Bears can find some more offensive consistency, they are going to be playing on the opening night again. The good news is the Bears still four of their final eight league games at home, starting Wednesday night vs. Furman, who the Bears have yet to face this season. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. EST at Hawkins Arena.

Latest Game: Mercer 90, VMI 69

Jalyn McCreary enjoyed his best outing as a Bears player, scoring a career-high 30 points, with 20 of those coming in the opening half of play, as Mercer picked up its third Southern Conference win of the season with a 90-69 win over VMI.

The win saw the Bears complete the season sweep of the Keydets, as the Bears picked a second win in their past three outings, improving to 10-13 overall and 3-7 in league play, snapping what had been a three-game losing streak inside the friendly confines. The Keydets fell to 4-19 overall and 1-9 in league play. 

Much the same as it did in the earlier win in Lexington, VA, in early January, Mercer came out and took control of the game early, but despite that. led by just five points (41-36), however, the Bears turned up the pressure down the stretch in the opening half holding the Keydets to just 1-of-5 shooting from the field and were able to take a 49-38 lead to the half before coasting home from there. Also getting lost in the win for the Bears was the performance of Alex Holt, who charted his first-ever double-double, with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

The Citadel head coach Ed Conroy

The Citadel (9-14, 1-9 SoCon)

MVP: Elijah Morgan (15.1 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 68 3pt field goals)

First Half Grade: C

The Citadel went out and had a non-conference that saw it  finish with an 8-5 record, which included a 20-point ACC win at Notre Dame, and could have had two ACC wins if things had gone right at McAlister Field House against Boston College.

The Bulldogs have promptly gone out and lost nine of their 10 Southern Conference games to start league play,  however, seven of their 10 league losses have come by 10 points or less, and the Bulldogs have also lost three league games by one possession.

The final week of the first half of league play kind of sums up the rough journey Ed Conroy's club has had, dropping a home heartbreaker to Furman, 82-79, in overtime in a game that they led by as many as 18 points in the opening half and then held a 12-point lead at the half only to see Furman's JP Pegues hit a three with less than a second remaining to force overtime where the Paladins eventually came out victorious.

The Bulldogs even lost a 70-63 road game at VMI, which was the Keydets' first and only win over a Division I program this season.

The Bulldogs have one of the premier coaches In the profession, in Ed Conroy, and it's been a tall order in this his second season in his second stint as the head coach. Conroy has certainly added the right mix of talent from the portal, and relative to the talent you can get to come to The Citadel from the transfer portal, he's hit a home run. 

Getting Elijah Morgan to come over from Notre Dame last season and getting Quentin Millora-Brown (10.4 PPG, 9.4 RPG) from Vanderbilt to come in this season has given the Bulldogs a good inside-outside mix.

Freshman forward Kenyan Davis (6.4 PPG, 1.7 RPG) should find himself on the all-freshman team at season's end, and he's given the Bulldogs a nice one-two punch in the paint. Madison Durr (11.0 PPG, 4.6 RPG) and AJ Smith (15.8 PPG, 4.2 RPG) have been excellent compliments to Morgan in the backcourt.

With that said, The Citadel, like Mercer, takes the air out of the basketball and tries to win games by its stellar play on the defensive end. In theory, that should have worked more than it has so far. 

Realistic Goal: The bottom two teams of the SoCon are likely out of the conversation for a top six finish, however, there can be a realistic and achievable goal to attain. That goal should be to break 5-4  on the back half of the schedule, and the Bulldogs are already off to an 0-1 start after the 62-60 loss at East Tennessee State. I am not sure at this point if it would be wise for the Bulldogs to change the identity of who they are because I think slowing the pace and with the way they play defense, can be effective. If the Bulldogs could get to five or six league wins, I think that would be absolutely be a win for the Bulldogs. 

VMI: (4-19, 1-9 SoCon)

MVP: Brennan Watkins (15.4 PPG, 2.0 RPG) or Taeshaud Jackson (9.0 PPG, 10.3 RPG)

First Half Grade: B-

The Keydets have weathered adversity once again this season, and once again have one of the youngest teams in college basketball under the direction of second-year head coach Andrew Wilson.

In complete contrast to The Citadel and Mercer, the Keydets want to play extremely fast, and with that, you can tell top assistant Dave Davis has his fingerprints all over this team offensively, especially in terms of pace and tempo. Only Samford is playing with a faster tempo this season. 

When those two teams met a couple of weeks ago on the SoCon hardwood, it simply produced one of the craziest games in Southern Conference history, with the Bulldogs scoring 74 first-half points en route to a 134-96 win. It is one of the highest scoring contests in the modern era in Southern Conference history. 

The Keydets are not very good defensively, which is part of the reason they want to play fast. The Keydets have surrendered 100 points in four of their 10 league games to this point in the season, and rank No. 343 out go 351 teams in NCAA Division I basketball in scoring defense, as the Keydets surrender 81.1 PPG. 

For head coach Andrew Wilson, however, he's managed to be able to keep his team in games in league play more often than not this season, and that's a particularly good sign. 

Taeshaud Jackson and Stephen Olowoniyi (7.4 PPG, 5.4 RPG) have been outstanding in the paint, giving the Keydets athleticism and providing support on both ends of the floor on the backboards, and currently rank fourth overall in the league in rebounding average (37.9 RPG). 

The Keydets also have one of the league's best young guards, following in line with a strong lineage from the recent past, which has included the likes of Bubba Parham, Honor Huff and Travis Evee, as Tyran Cook (12.9 PPG, 3.0 RPG) is among the SoCon's leading freshman scorers. 

VMI is not as a good perimeter shooting team as each of the previous two seasons, as they are one of four teams to not have reached 200 three-pointers through the first 10 games. 

I think one coach Wilson can find a way to keep this group together, in a couple of years Cameron Hall will again be a place folks don't want to go play, which was much like it was in Dan Earl's final two seasons in Lexington. That's a big if though, and it's perhaps the hardest job Wilson has as a head coach. After all, he's already lost talented freshman Koree Cotton, who committed to Jacksonville State after entering the transfer portal before Christmas. 

Realistic Goal:

Like The Citadel, a top six finish and subsequent bye in the opening round of the Southern Conference Tournament in March is out of the question, and for a team that is 1-26 in its last 27 road games, including an 0-11 record this season in true road games, it might be a goal to try and forge a road win at some venue before the conclusion of league play, and a great place to ttry and do that might once again at The Citadel on Feb. 17. Finding a way to finish out league play with four or even five wins would be a huge accomplishment for Wilson and staff in year two, but even getting three would show progress, as it would eclipse last season's 2-16 final league mark. 

First Half Notes:

--JP Pegues has hit three shots with under one second remaining this season, with two of those giving Furman the lead, while the other sent a game to overtime, which the Paladins eventually won, 82-79, over The Citadel. 

--JP Pegues has connected on the final shot of the opening half in five of Furman's last seven Southern Conference games.

--Samford is continuing on its torrid pace to start conference play and the Bulldogs have now won 20 games for a third-straight season with its 78-56 win at Chattanooga this past weekend. The Bulldogs are 24-4 against Southern Conference teams in the regular-season over the past couple of seasons, with three of those setbacks coming to Furman.  The Bulldogs could take a huge step towards garnering a second-straight league title with a win Thursday night at UNCG, which would mark a sixth-straight win over the Spartans. 

--Eleven times a player in the Southern Conference scored 30 or more points in a game a year ago, with Jake Stephens of Chattanooga (4) and Mike Bothwell of Furman (3) accounting for seven of those occurrences. All told during the 2022-23 season, five players would account for the 11 thirty-point scoring games. So far this season, it has already happened 14 times between 10 different players. The latest occurrence of that came when Keyshaun Langley posted 30 in UNCG's 89-87 road win at Furman. 

--With his 26-point performance Sunday against UNC Greensboro, Marcus Foster now has 993-career points. 

-- Furman's Bob Richey picked up his 150th win as a head coach against Samford...His 100th came a couple of years ago against Mercer.

--Keyshaun Langley continues to be the league's career-active scorer (1,499) and three-point shooter (274 threes made). Langley was named SoCon Player of the Week for his performances over the course of the week in wins over Furman and VMI.

--Vonterius Woolbright was named the SoCon athlete of the month for the opening month of league play, as he averaged 23.6 PPG, 13.2 RPG and 6.1 APG in the month of January. 

My Fearless Predictions for the second half of the 2023-24 season

--Samford will win the regular season, however, will break a string of six-straight No. 1 seeds to win the tournament in Asheville, as the Bulldogs will fall in the semifinals of the conference tournament.

--JP Pegues will hit at least one more shot with under a second left to win a game this season

--Vonterius Woolbright wins Player of the Year and Western Carolina wins 20 games

--ETSU will head to Asheville as one of the hottest teams in the SoCon

--Vonterius Woolbright will have a 40+-point night

--Western Carolina will lose only two more league games

--Jermaine Marshall goes on a tear over the second half of league play

--Samford finishes with an identical 15-3 league mark as last season.

--VMI wins a road game

--UNCG blows a chance a to win the SoCon regular-season title with a loss at ETSU on the final day of the regular-season

SoCon Power rankings for the first week of February:

1. Samford 

2. UNCG

3. Chattanooga

4. Furman

5. Wofford

T-5 Western Carolina

7. East Tennessee State

8. Mercer

9. The Citadel

10. VMI

This week's slate Wed Feb. 7, 2024

Furman at Mercer, 7 p.m. EST

The Citadel at Western Carolina, 7 p.m EST

Wofford at East Tennessee State, 7 p.m. EST

Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024

Chattanooga at VMI, 6 p.m. EST

Samford at UNC Greensboro, 7 p.m. EST