The second half of league play got underway this weekend, and the plot continues to thicken in the nation's most competitive NCAA Division I Basketball Conference.
As we gear up for what figures to be a crazy March Madness once again in the nation's oldest conference tournament, I am going to take a look back at each of the past five decades of SoCon basketball on the decade. So, since this is the 2024-25 season, today we begin taking a look back at what transpired during the 2014-15 campaign, which was a very significant season in Southern Conference Basketball.
SEASON OF EMERGENCE
In terms of excitement, the Southern Conference now isn't all that much different than it was then in terms of the excitement factor, as the league, which was less heralded in strength, but every bit as competitive on the hardwood, and when it was all said and done, it was the defending champion with four starters back and the league's best overall player that ended up cutting down the nets in Asheville. Wofford remains the last team to successfully defend its SoCon title in the past decade, highlighting the league's overall improvement and dedication to the sport.
In many ways, the 2014-15 campaign on the SoCon hardwood would be represenative of the league’s meteoric rise as one of the top mid-major basketball conferences in the nation in the very near future.
In truth, when No. 10 seed Furman faced top-seed and defending Southern Conference champion Furman before a packed house at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center in the 2024 championship game, it showed the league’s overall strength.
The Paladins, which were young and had been close to getting some big wins during the regular-season, yet hadn’t put together three wins all season prior to the SoCon Tournament, had won three-straight in Asheville and were looking to become the first team to win four-straight from the tournament’s opening day until the title game since Clemson in 1939.
The Terriers would go on to triumph in Asheville, claiming their fourth Southern Conference Tournament title under head coach Mike Young, as Wofford held off the pesky Paladins, 67-64, in the championship game.
The title game both looked good and played well over the ESPN2 airwaves to a national audience, and after the league had spent some years in the doldrums after Davidson’s magical run in the NCAA Tournament in 2008, and following the departures of Appalachian State, Davidson, Georgia Southern and Elon for good following the 2014 tournament, the 2014-15 season was represenative of a rebirth for the league, or a resurgence if you will.
When Wofford would win its fifth and most current title some four years later, the league had reached a level never witnessed before nationally in strength, national exposure and overall prestige. It had taken nearly a century for the league to build its brand and marketability to the point which it reached early in the 2018-19 season, maintaining it throughout the entirety of the season.
It was sort of fitting, then, that the two teams that met in the 2015 championship game would again be the two teams that grabbed national attention early in the 2018-19 season, as both managed to remain in the conversation for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament throughout the season, as did both East Tennessee State and defending champion UNC Greensboro, who also helped bolster the league’s NET Ranking highly throughout the season.
So how did the league arrive at the place it would ultimately reach four years later? It likely started with Wofford, and though the Terriers would have to wait another four years to garner the program’s first NCAA Tournament win in school history, the seeds of what it would become--a national mid-major power--would be elevated during those back-to-back title runs in 2014 and ‘15, respectively.
It’s true that the Terriers had completed the back-to-back titles before, as they would do so on the backs of former greats like big men Tim Johnson, Noah Dahlman, and Terry Martin, as well as guards Cameron Rundles, Junior Salters and Jamar Diggs. That was Wofford’s version of “OGs” and it was no real surprise, then, that the team, with four starters back, would win the title again in 2011.
The 2014 season had seen the Terriers do the unlikely in the tournament, and it was the only time the Terriers entered one of the five SoCon Tournaments they have won as somewhat the underdog. The Terriers defeated Georgia Southern 71-57 in the 2014 semifinals, and as fate would have it, Western Carolina stunned Davidson, 97-96, in the semifinals to set up an unlikely title matchup.
The Terriers would survive a pair of attempts at the buzzer from the Catamounts, with the last one coming from Josh Boggs, and the confetti was once again raining down on the Terrier players for a third time in five seasons.
And while Wofford wasn’t the favorite to win the title in 2014, they were the prohibitive favorites to begin the 2014-15 season. The Terriers were strong throughout the season, and their opponents in the championship game--Furman--had seen the Terriers make easy work of them in the regular-season in Spartanburg, as the Terriers handed the Paladins a 25-point (75-49) setback in late January.
When the two teams met again, the Paladins would be without top player Stephen Croone, but will still play an outstanding game against the Terriers in front of a rowdy crowd on-hand at Timmons Arena, as John Davis III replaced Croone in the Furman lineup, scoring a career-high 20 points in what turned out to be a 69-67 home setback. Still, the Paladins headed to Asheville with plenty of momentum.
With veterans like Spencer Collins, Lee Skinner, Eric Garcia, and league Player of the Year Karl Cochran, the Terriers were no doubt going to be a tough out at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville. Wofford arrived as the top overall seed and had posted 25 regular-season wins and finished the league season by winning 16 of their 18 games.
Wofford's Winning Ways
During the regular-season, Wofford had non-conference losses to Stanford (L, 59-74), at William & Mary (L, 62-66), at No. 25 West Virginia (L, 44-77), at No. 3 Duke (L, 55-84) and in league play, suffered setbacks at The Citadel (L, 66-69) and at home vs. Chattanooga (L, 46-56).
The Terriers and the SoCon’s most impressive win during that 2014-15 season was a 55-54 regular-season triumph over the North Carolina State Wolfpack. The Terriers were the only team in the SoCon to capture a major win over a power conference foe during the 2014-15 season.
For the second time in three seasons, Wofford was able to take down power conference foe with a 55-54 win over ACC member North Carolina State. Junior forward Justin Gordon hit the game-winning bucket with just 1.9 seconds remaining, as the Terriers rallied to get the big-time win on the road.
The Terriers had the ball with six left, and Spencer Collins, who had an open look from about 15-feet, opted instead to pass the ball inside to Gordon, who converted the layup at the rim to give the Terriers the one-point lead with 1.9 seconds remaining.
Wofford had nine offensive rebounds, while limiting NC State to only three. Karl Cochran led the Terriers in every statistical category, as the Marietta, GA, native posted 14 points, seven rebounds, three assists, three steals, and three blocks, as he played all but three minutes of the contest. Eric Garcia was the only other Terrier player in double figures, as he finished with 10 points.
The win by the Terriers marked the best 10-game start for the program in its Division I era, and marked the best start overall for a Wofford team since the 1993-94 team started the season with a 9-1 record. Wofford moved to 2-1 in its last three games against ACC opponents, and overcame a 42-33 deficit in the second half to come away from Reynolds Coliseum with the win. While Wofford’s win over the Wolfpack was the only one the SoCon could count to its credit during the season, there were several opportunities that slipped through the proverbial fingertips of some teams in the league.
Wofford, however, while it was the main story that highlighted the 2014-15 season, it certainly wasn’t the only one. There was added intrigue with the addition of both former members and one new member, looking to make splash in its new conference membership.
Bears Beginnings
The 2014-15 season also marked the very first season as a SoCon member Mercer (19-16, 12-6 SoCon/3rd). The Bears joined the league fresh off that stunning NCAA Tournament of Duke in its final member of the Atlantic Sun in 2014.
The Bears came into the Southern Conference Tournament as the No. 3 overall seed and entered the Southern Conference Tournament with an 18-16 record, which included a solid 12-6 mark in Southern Conference play following their first season of play in the league. The Bears would suffer a three-game losing streak entering their first Southern Conference game, losing to three-straight SEC foes, with losses to Tennessee (L, 54-64), Georgia (L, 77-86) and Texas A&M (L, 50-65).
The Bears lost a good deal of that talent that helped it make that magical run to the Atlantic Sun title in the 2013-14 season, which included that historic win over Duke, however, plenty of talent returned from that team that might not have necessarily saw starter’s minutes, but played a significant role in aiding in that 28-win team.
Guys like wing Ike Nwamu, guards Phillip Leonard and Darious Moten, forward Jibri Bryan, and add in center TJ Hallice were all significant pieces of that team that made a magical run a year earlier, and were evidence of the recruiting efforts and the developmental aspect of the Mercer program under Bob Hoffman.
The Bears opened league play with a pair of early league wins, defeating VMI, 90-81, in Macon before downing UNC Greensboro (76-55) and VMI () in Lexington, as the Bears got off to a 3-0 start in their new league. In fact, the first of six league setbacks, and the first setback in the SoCon the Bears would suffer in their history as a Southern Conference member would come on the road in Johnson City against its one-time Atlantic Sun rival--East Tennessee State--as the Bucs handed the Bears a 71-70 setback at Freedom Hall.
The Bears would lose only five more times, with two setbacks coming against the Terriers, dropping a 49-46, contest in a defensive struggle at Benjamin Johnson Arena in Spartanburg. The return matchup in Macon would see more points, with the Terriers increasing their margin of victory by a point, posting a 76-72 win over the Bears.
The other team to sweep the Bears on the hardwood in their first season in the league would be Western Carolina, as the Catamounts handed the Bears a 60-52 loss in Cullowhee, while Western Carolina posted a 58-54 win in Macon. The only other regular-season Southern Conference loss the Bears would suffer in their first season as a Southern Conference member, with the Mocs handing the Bears a 74-61 loss at McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga.
The Bears would open as the No. 3 seed and would face sixth-seeded VMI in the final quarterfinal game of the opening day, and Mercer would make easy work of the Duggar Baucom’s Keydets in what was the biggest blowout of the quarterfinal games in the tournament, posting an 89-61 Led by a career-high 19 points from center TJ Hallice, the Bears were able to notch their first-ever Southern Conference Tournament win. Hallice just missed posting a double-double, as he also posted nine rebounds in the wi
In addition to Hallice’s 19 points for the Bears, Ike Nwamu also contributed 19, while Jibri Bryan and Stephon Jelks added 14 and 10 points, respectivey.
Unfortunately for Mercer and its large fanbase, which showed up en masse to Asheville to see the Bears take on the surprising No. 10 seed Furman, who had knocked off seventh-seeded The Citadel (W, 73-57) before the Bears were posting the upset of the tournament so far, as the Paladins had knocked off No. 2 seed Chattanooga, 69-67, setting up the semifinal clash with the Bears.
In what would be another defensive struggle, the Paladins kept the stunners coming with a 52-49 win over the Bears to move on to the championship game. Despite the loss, it wouldn’t be the end of the season for the Bears, who would end up taking part in the College Basketball Invitational in their first season as a SoCon member. The Bears claimed a hard-fought 72-70 win over Stony Brook in the first game only to drop what was a 71-69 contest to Louisiana Monroe in the second game of the tournament, which was played at Hawkins Arena.
Mercer might have been the brand new member in the SoCon, but it was the return of both East Tennessee State (16-14, 8-10 SoCon/5th) and VMI (11-19, 7-11 SoCon/6th) that had many around the SoCon abuzz.
ETSU had long been a conference power, and so its fans eagerly anticipated a return to the Southern Conference under head coach Murry Bartow. Bartow had been the ETSU head coach the last time the Bucs called the SoCon home back in the 2004-05 season, and like that swan song in the league, which was a year removed from a championship in Bartow's first season as the head coach, the first season back in the league was nothing to write home about. For Bartow, the 16-14 season would end up being his last of 12 at ETSU, with the last few testing the nerves of more than a few fans that are diehard supporters of the hoops program in Johnson City, Tenn. Bartow's unceremonious exit came at the hands of No. 4 seed Western Carolina, as the Catamounts would claim a 67-61 win over the Bucs at the Harrah's Cherokee Center.
In Bartow's final season as the head coach and the Bucs first season back in the SoCon following a decade in the Atlantic Sun, ETSU finished fifth overall in the league standings with an 8-10 mark. ETSU was led by the league's leading scorer, in guard Jalen Riley, who finished the campaign averaging 20.2 PPG, while backcourt mate Rashawn Rembert finished the campaign averaging 14.4 PPG to rank seventh overall in the SoCon in scoring average. Bartow would resign at the end of the season, and it was a season that had started so promising for ETSU after a 4-1 start in league action before a 74-71 setback to its biggest rival and nemesis rival Chattanooga, falling 74-71, in Johnson City on a Casey Jones triple with two seconds left in overtime in Johnson City.
It was a heartbreaker no doubt, however, wins over The Citadel and Western Carolina and a loss to VMI still had the Bucs 6-3 before disaster hit and ETSU would lose its next four league games to fall to 6-7 in SoCon play. It was a mid-season swoon that ETSU was never really able to recover from, prompting the change.
The good news is that change would pay immediate dividends, with ETSU hiring former Tennessee assistant Steve Forbes, who had been in exile for four years coaching in the JUCO ranks as a part of his show-cause penalty at a time when you could actually commit an NCAA violation. Forbes would be another major reason why the SoCon would see a rise to national prominence among mid-major conferences.
Finally, VMI returned to the league after leaving the league to join the Big South following the 2002-03 season. The Keydets basketball program now re-entered the league under the leadership of Duggar Baucom, and the Keydets' style of basketball was not all that much unlike the version it last left with as a SoCon member, with then head coach Bart Bellairs making some waves in the league with a full-court press style that is much like what Bucky Ball is today. The Keydets were of course not as successful under Baucom and Bellairs as the Bulldogs are under Bucky, however, the pressure style, shoot a lot of threes style was enough to keep the Keydets in games most of the time.
On Dec. 4, 2014, the Keydets would win their first game back in the league, knocking off Samford 88-86, however, wins would be at a premium in VMI's first back in its former league. The Keydets would finish in sixth in their first season back in the SoCon to avoid the play-in round of the tournament, finishing with a 7-11 league mark and an 11-19 record overall.
The Keydets were involved in one of the wildest games of the SoCon season when they visited Cullowhee on Feb. 23, 2015, claiming a 113-111 double-overtime thriller, as guard Julian Eleby paced the Keydets with 43 points and finished 11-of-22 from the floor, which included an 8-for-15 effort from three-point range in the wild win. The game would see the Keydets connect on 20 threes in a road venue. Eleby's 43-point effort was almost not enough against the Catamounts, who got 40 from James Sinclair in defeat.
VMI's 20 threes against the purple clad Catamounts were not even the most threes in a game for the Keydets that same season, as the Keydets set a Southern Conference record 11 days earlier in what was a 93-59 home win over Furman at Cameron Hall. The Keydets knocked down a school-record 24 triples. Individually, VMI's Brian Brown connected on a program single-game record nine three-pointers to finish with a career-high 29 points. The Paladins would effectively outscore the Keydets by 30 in the paint (46-16), however, would by 34.
The Keydets would finish the 2014-15 season with 342 three-pointers made, with the next closest team being 62 threes behind, as the Bucs made 280 made triples.
The Keydets' season would end in the opening round of the Southern Conference Tournament, with a lopsided 89-61 setback to No. 3 seed Mercer. Baucom would leave shortly after the reason to replace Chuck Driesell as head coach at The Citadel during the off-season. VMI hired Dan Earl from Navy to replace Baucom. DeChellis had been an assistant at Navy under former ETSU head coach Ed DeChellis.
Chattanooga’s Climb
In many ways, the 2014-15 season helped solidify Chattanooga’s (22-10, 15-3 SoCon/2nd) climb back to the top of the league, as the Mocs posted a second-place finish in the league standings and were one of two teams in the league to take down regular-season league champion Wofford in the regular-season.
In fact, Will Wade had rebuilt the Mocs in just two years on the job in the Scenic City only to up and leave shortly thereafter, as he took the VCU opening at the end of the season. It was clear he was on the fast-track to success, and the Mocs basketball program had provided only a minor stepping stone along the way. Wade had added a brash, young recruiter named Brooks Savage to his staff, and Savage went out and procured talents such as point guard Greg Pryor, as he the Mocs staff had put together in Wade's two seasons a team that would end up winning the league a season after his departure to become the head coach at VCU
Chattanooga’s season ended far sooner than anyone could have predicted, which came with a 69-67 loss to Furman in Asheville in a quarterfinal stunner. The Mocs were forced to take some measure of satisfaction with 22 regular-season, however, after finishing a game back in the Southern Conference regular-season to Wofford and entering the tournament in Asheville as the No. 2 seed, the Mocs felt the SoCon Tournament was as much there’s to win as it had been Wofford’s to win.
Chattanooga started the season with a three-game stretch on the road that was a tough assignment. Losses to Wisconsin (L, 45-89), Butler (L, 48-70) and Tennessee Tech (L, 67-69) would end up representing one of the toughest stretches for the Mocs during the 2014-15 season. They would recover to have an outstanding season, and it would represent the longest losing streak of the season for head coach Will Wade’s club.
The Mocs would drop games to Kennesaw State (L, 69-77) and Georgia (L, 55-86) on the road, but after that, would end the non-conference slate in strong fashion, taking down mid-major perennial power UAB (W, 83-67) and Lipscomb (W, 78-60), and though the Mocs had already started SoCon play with a with a 67-48 win at The Citadel in mid-December, UTC would start league play in-earnest following the win over Lipscomb.
Wade had assembled a roster full of talent in what was his second season in the Scenic City. It included sophomore guard Greg Pryor, forward and rim protector Justin Tuoyo, forward Tre’ McClean, forward Duke Ethridge, guard Ronrico White, forward Chuck Ester, and guard Casey Jones just to name a few. It was an uber-talented team, and one that would prove that from start to finish when it started Southern Conference play.
Much like the 2024-25 Mocs under heard coach Dan Earl, the 2014-15 Mocs under Will Wade were no strangers to close finishes, causing some heart palpitations among some of their diehard fans more than once during the campaign.
Following the final two non-conference games, the Mocs would improve to 2-0 in the league by capturing a 72-60 in their SoCon home opener over Furman. In that contest, the Mocs captured their sixth win in their previous seven games by getting an outstanding performance from guard Casey Jones, who finished the night pouring in 20 points, pulling down 11 rebounds, and dishing out four assists. Justin Tuoyo also produced a strong effort, which saw him post 14 points, five rebounds, four blocks and three steals in the win.
Next up was Wofford, and the Terriers would come to the Scenic City and hand the Mocs one of their three regular-season Southern Conference losses, posting a 68-64 win at the Roundhouse. The Mocs at one point in the game had as much as a 14-point lead (39-25), however, obviously that wouldn’t hold up.
The Terriers, who were led by their talented, do-everything guard Karl Cochran, saw the senior lead the way with a career-high 33 points, scoring 27 of those in the second half, leading his Terriers to a memorable come-from-behind win. With just over three minutes left in the game, Wofford’s Cochran hit the Terriers’ fourth-straight three, and the Terriers assumed their first lead of the game--57-56--with 3:12 remaining.
The game would see-saw back-and-forth from there in the final three minutes, with Justin Tuoyo’s slam dunk with 1:27 remaining giving Chattanooga what would turn out to be their final lead of the game, as well as their final points of the game.
The Mocs would get hot after that, however, winning their next five league games before suffering a second league setback at Mercer, dropping a close 75-72 contest to the Bears in Macon. The loss came despite then career highs of 24 points and 15 rebounds from Mocs wing guard Casey Jones. The overtime loss, however, wouldn’t set the Mocs too far behind, as they rebounded by getting wins over The Citadel (W, 78-73) and survived a scare at Furman (W, 74-71).
Chattanooga would then drop their third and final Southern Conference game of the season on the road in Cullowhee, with a 73-70 loss to the Catamounts. The Mocs trailed by as many as 14 points in the contest late, but came back to tie the game late. Western Carolina went to halftime locker room with a 39-25 lead. Justin Tuouyo came out of the locker room on fire for Chattanooga, and he scored 12 of the Mocs first 14 points to open the second half.
In the second meeting with eventual Southern Conference champion Wofford in Spartanburg, and the Mocs put an end to the Terriers' 11-game home winning streak by posting what was a 56-46 win at the Benjamin Johnson Arena, which marked just the second conference loss for the Terriers and just their sixth loss of the season, as the Terriers fell to 20-6 overall and 11-2 in league action.
Casey Jones would pace the Mocs with 23 points, and Duke Etheridge added a career-high 12 rebounds, as the Mocs turned the game into a rock fight and were able to end up with a key SoCon road win to tighten things at the top of the league race.
In the final game of the regular-season, Chattanooga was able to clinch the No. 2 seed for the Southern Conference Tournament in dramatic fashion, as Ronrico White's three-pointer beat the buzzer, and that allowed the Mocs to slip past UNC Greensboro, 61-58.
In the tournament, it appeared the Mocs were going to be in good shape, facing No. 10 seed Furman in Asheville. That was the wrong assessment, however, as the Paladins did enough to stay in the game and would then spring the surprise of surprises, shocking the Mocs, 69-67, in the tournament to claim just their 10th win of the season, while ending Chattanooga's campaign at 22-10 overall. With no postseason in the future, it would also bring an end to the short-lived Will Wade era in the Scenic City, as he posted a 40-25 record in just two seasons as the head coach.
The new leader of Chattanooga basketball would be Matt McCall, and in the 2015-16 season, he would inherit a roster ready-made for a Southern Conference title run, with the Mocs heavy favorites to win the 2015-16 SoCon crown, with the return of all five starters off a team that won 22 games. Wade moved on from UTC to take the opening at VCU.
As for the quarterfinal loss to the Paladins, the Mocs were held to just 33.0% shooting (10-of-30) in the second half, and shot 40% (4-of-10) from three-point range after shooting 56% in the opening half of play to take a five-point, 31-26, halftime lead. The second half, however, would see the Paladins shoot just 40% (8-of-20) from the field ands only 28.6% (2-for-7), however, the Paladins went 25-of-30 from the charity stripe alone and finished the game 27-of-32 from the line, as the Paladins outscored the Mocs 25-12 from the line, attempting 14 more charity shots.
Catamount Grit
During its Southern Conference membership, which began in 1976, Western Carolina (15-17, 9-9 SoCon/5th) has been known for electric guards and wings that could score points in bunches and in a hurry, with the likes of Terry Boyd, Frankie King, Anquell McCollum, and Trey Sumler, and during the 2014-15 season, the Catamounts had another gem that could easily go for 40 and could keep WCU in most any game, as James Sinclair was back and looking to lead head coach Larry Hunter's Catamounts to a big season in his final season in Cullowhee.
Along with what Sinclair could do on the offensive end of the floor, the Catamounts had some "gritty-ness" and "toughness" about them on the defensive end of the floor, ranking fourth in the league in field goal percentage defense (42.5%) and ranked second in the league in offensive rebounding average (35.3) and fifth overall in rebounding margin (+0.3).
The Catamounts took on a tough non-conference slate, which included three SEC foes and one Big Ten foe. The Catamounts were in at least two of those games, dropping a 66-56 decision at Mississippi State, while dropping an 80-74 contest at Alabama.
Sinclair, who finished second in the league in scoring average, finishing the campaign with an impressive 19.4 PPG scoring average, was given support by three other scoring options that would end the season averaging in double figures, with Mike Brown and Rhett Harrelson, with Brown averaging 13.8 PPG and the sharp-shooting Harrelson adding a three-point threat and averaged 11.8 PPG, while Torrion Brummitt was WCU's enforcer in the paint, averaging posting 11.2 PPG and a team-leading 6.3 RPG.
Interestingly, the combination of Sinclair, Brown and Harrelson in the WCU backcourt connected on a combined 177 of the team's 197 triples on the season. Sinclair also got it done on both ends of the floor, as he not only second behind ETSU's Riley in scoring but also led the SoCon in steals (2.2 SPG) on the defensive end of the court.
The Catamounts had their most impressive run during league play from the end of January until the second week of February, was WCU won four out of five games, which included three wins on the road, getting wins at VMI (W, 85-70), at UNC Greensboro (W, 78-73) and at Mercer (W, 58-54). WCU's lone home win during the stretch was a 73-70 triumph over Chattanooga at the Liston B. Ramsey Center, while the lone loss came at home against Samford (L, 72-76). The consecutive wins over Chattanooga and Mercer were the most impressive of the season, showing the capability of this WCU team.
It would be a team that headed to Asheville as the No. 5 seed, however, the Catamounts were considered by many to be a dark horse, bringing one of the league's top backcourts to the tournament, and had a scorer in Sinclair, who had the capability to score points in bunches, as he showed in WCU's 113-1111 home loss in double-overtime to VMI, as the senior guard dropped a career-high 40 points on Senior Day at the Ramsey Center. The Catamounts followed with a surprising road loss at Furman (L, 49-53) before regaining a little momentum before arriving in Asheville for the SoCon Tournament, getting a 67-54 win in Charleston over The Citadel.
The Catamounts' quarterfinal round clash with East Tennessee State in Asheville figured to be among the most thrilling games of the opening two days of the tournament, as it would feature the league's top two scorers, in ETSU's Riley and WCU's Sinclair. The Catamounts entered their quarterfinal clash with Blue Ridge Mountain rival ETSU having lost 17-straight games, however, the Catamounts would have a surprise in store for ETSU's first SoCon Tournament game since a quarterfinal loss to Chattanooga in 2005, as the Catamounts and Bucs were involved in one of the best games in the first two days of the tournament, with WCU claiming a 67-61 overtime win against the Bucs to snap the long losing streak against ETSU.
It was Sinclair leading the way, as he posted 30 points and had a career-high 14 rebounds, notching his fourth-career double-double, leading the Catamounts to at least the semifinal round of the Southern Conference Tournament for the fifth time in the last six seasons, however, the only problem for Hunter and the Catamounts is that they faced an opponent, in Wofford, that had ended WCU's campaigns in three of the previous five, including just a year earlier, as Wofford handed the Catamounts a heartbreaking 56-53 title game loss before a packed house on-hand at the Harrah's Cherokee Center for the 2014 SoCon Championship tilt.
There would be far less drama this time around, however, as the Terriers ended WCU's season for the fourth time in six seasons, with a 73-61 win over WCU to move on to the championship game where they would face a team with a different hue of Purple this time around. In his final game as a Catamount, Sinclair dropped 16 points , as the Terriers used a comprehensive defensive effort to hold WCU to just 32.4% shooting for the game en route to the 12-point win.
The loss would see the Catamounts finish the season with a 15-17 overall record, but with three of its top four scorers back, in Mike Brown, Rhett Harrelson, and Torrion Brummitt, there was a quiet optimism for Catamount nation heading into the 2015-16 season.
Chuck Driesell Era Comes to an End at The Citadel
As you likely already know, The Citadel (11-19, 6-12 SoCon) job is one of the toughest in all of college basketball, and for Chuck Driesell, who is the son of late legendary former Maryland head coach Lefty Driesell, the job at the military school of South Carolina proved to be a life re-assignment. Well, kind of, as after his The Citadel did not renew Driesell's contract after the Bulldogs dropped a 73-56 contest in the opening round of the Southern Conference Tournament to Furman in the second game of the 2015 tournament. The Bulldogs finished the season a disappointing 11-19 overall and 6-12 in league play.
For Driesell, the 2014-15 season brought an end to what was a five-year stint as the Bulldogs' head coach, posting just a 42-113 overall record, which included a 22-66 record in Southern Conference play. Driesell was hired in 2010 after Ed Conroy left his post to become Tulane's head coach after leading the Bulldogs to its best two-year stint in program history, as the Bulldogs won a total of 36 games in back-to-back seasons, and that was enough to draw the interest of the then Conference USA program.
As a city, Charleston is a deception. It's the easy life, but that's probably never been the feeling for any of 31 coaches (29 prior to Driesell) that have ever been asked to lead The Citadel's Basketball Program, which is one of a handful of programs that has never made it to the Big Dance in 125 years of sponsoring a program, as the job is stressful. Not necessarily to win right away, but having the knowledge of even legends like Norm Sloan (1956-60) and Les Robinson (1974-85) were able to break through and lead the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament.
With that said, the 2014-15 season was always going to be a tall task, and it was likely that Driesell was given a win total or an ultimatum going into the season, which he likely knew by the time the Bulldogs headed for Asheville and the 2015 Southern Conference Tournament.
The Bulldogs had not only one of the best scorers in the Southern Conference, in Ashton Moore, who would end up finishing out his Bulldogs career with 1,399 points, which was good enough for sixth-most points in program history at the time. Moore was obviously the go-to-scorer for the Bulldogs, finishing out his Bulldogs career by scoring 30 or more points three times in his career, posting a season-high of 32 points in what was a 79-63 setback to the Spartans at McAlister Field House in Charleston.
One of The Citadel's biggest wins of conference play would come in an 85-83 overtime contest against the Spartans at the Greensboro Coliseum, as the Bulldogs snapped what had been a 19-game road losing streak in the process. Moore posted a game-high 28 points, connecting on 9-of-13 shots from the field, including 3-of-5 from three-point land and was a perfect 7-for-7 from the free throw line.
Without question, though, The Citadel's biggest win of its 11 during the 2014-15 season came just 10 days after snapping that road losing streak, as the Bulldogs handed Wofford one of its two Southern Conference losses, handing the Terriers a shocking 69-66 setback, getting another absolutely huge performance from Moore, who finished with 29 points.
It looked as though the Bulldogs were going to lose the game before a packed McAlister Field House on a Thursday night against the league preseason favorite, as a pair of Spencer Collins free throws put the Terriers head by five, 64-59, with 3:30 remaining.
However, The Citadel's Jake Wright would convert a four-point play when he was fouled on a three-pointer from the left corner, which he made, and then followed that by making the free throw, whipping the corps of cadets into a frenzy as the decibel level reached its highest noise level all night, with the Bulldogs now trailing by only one (64-63) with just under three minutes left. Collins then made a jumper to put the Terriers back up three, at 66-63, which momentarily quieted the crowd.
Wright continued to make shots, however, shaking free of his Wofford defender to connect on a 20-foot jumper to get the Bulldogs back to within a point, at 66-65. A great defensive effort by The Citadel then forced Karl Cochran into a rare turnover with just 1:51 left. After Wofford called timeout, Moore would make it three-straight possessions with points for the Bulldogs, as he followed his missed three-point attempt with an acrobatic layup to put the Bulldogs up one, 67-66, with 1:22 left. It was their first lead since leading the game 4-2 in the very early stages.
After Wofford and The Citadel traded empty possessions, the Terriers would have the ball with 27 seconds left and the shot clock off, trailing the Bulldogs, 67-66. Cochran got heavy pressure from Moore, and it caused him to lose possession of the basketball, and then Moore scooped up the loose basketball and fed it to ahead in the forecourt to Marshall Harris II and he was quickly fouled by Cochran, sending the senior guard to the charity stripe for two bonus free throw shots.
The 83-percent foul shooter in the clutch in games decided by 10 points or less made both, putting the Bulldogs ahead 69-66 with 2.3 seconds left. Collins got a decent look at a three at the buzzer, but it clanged off the side of the rim and the Bulldogs held on for the 69-66 win, which marked its first victory over the Terriers since Jan. 31, 2013.
After defeating the league's top team on Thursday night on their home floor, the Bulldogs welcomed last-place Furman into McAlister Field House less than 48 hours later, and the Furman Paladins, who had played well on the road at Mercer a couple of nights earlier, came to Charleston and stunned the Bulldogs, handing The Citadel a 74-62 setback on their home floor. Though the Bulldogs would defeat the Paladins, 62-56, in overtime in Greenville a month later, the game would offer a harbinger of the how the season would eventually end for the Bulldogs on March 6, 2015, at the Harrah's Cherokee Center.
In addition to league wins over Wofford, Furman and UNCG, the Bulldogs would knock off Samford twice for a season-sweep of the league's other Bulldogs, defeating the Scott Padgett -led Samford team 77-67 in Charleston in early January before getting a buzzer-beating three from Moore a month later in Birmingham, as The Citadel held on for a 66-65 win on that occasion, as the The Citadel Bulldogs picked up their second SoCon road win of the season.
The final of the six league wins for The Citadel during the 2014-15 season would also come by just a point, as it was Moore to the rescue once again against East Tennessee State in the penultimate road game of the 2014-15 season, as he the senior guard connected on a 20-foot jumper with 1.8 seconds remaining, sending the Bucs back to Johnson City saddled with a 74-73 loss. The jumper by Moore was part of his first-career double-double for The Citadel, as he added 21 points and 11 assists in the win.
Despite Moore's heroics, however, the season was largely a disappointment for The Citadel. That disappointment would play out in the Bulldogs' first game of the 2015 Southern Conference Tournament, as The Citadel arrived as the No. 7 seed, taking on arch-rival and No. 10 seed Furman in the opening round and second game of the tournament. The Bulldogs' stay wouldn't last long, as an upstart Furman team led by as much as 20 and never were really threatened the entire night.
Programs in Transition
If you look at the top two teams in the Southern Conference at the moment, you will find both Samford (13-19, 6-12 SoCon/9th) and UNC Greensboro (11-22, 6-12 SoCon/8th) at the top of the standings.
During the 2014-15 season, the two programs were being led by young, energetic coaches that played at a high level and won a national title during their time as college basketball players, with former North Carolina Tar Heel in his fourth year at the helm of the UNC Greensboro basketball program, while former Kentucky big man Scott Padgett was in his first season at Samford after taking over for Bennie Seltzer, as the new Bulldogs head coach and former Wildcats had to deal with a lot of the same issues that coaches in today's current culture, which is basically having to account for an entire roster of players leaving.
Prior to Seltzer being fired, as many as 14 Bulldogs players opted to transfer out of the program. Two months after being named the interim head coach in the spring of 2014, Padgett had the interim tage removed and he would go about trying to rebuild a program from almost scratch. Gone off a team that finished 13-20 overall and 6-10 in league play, which saw the Bulldogs finish eighth in the league standings. Some of the significant departures included: Hamilton Bailey (0.8 ppg), Tony Thompson, Jordan Capps (TR, 5.3 ppg), Raijon Kelly (TR, 10.1 ppg), Chris Longoria (TR, 3.8 ppg), Connor Miller (TR, 6.4 ppg), Isaiah Williams (TR, 11.9 ppg), Tim Williams (TR, 17.6 ppg), and Russell Wilson (TR, 3.0 ppg).
The Bulldogs would finish the 2014-15 regular season with a 13-18 overall record and a 6-12 league record, and the Bulldogs would head to Asheville as the No. 9 seed in the Southern Conference Tournament, despite sporting an identical league record as both league UNC Greensboro and The Citadel also finished the season with identical 6-12 league marks.
Samford appeared to be headed for disaster, as the Bulldogs, who were one of the youngest teams in the SoCon, but did have a couple of veterans to look to at least. The Bulldogs had a good backcourt, and that included one of the league's top freshman performers, in Christen Cunningham. lost its first eight SoCon games until playing UNC Greensboro on Jan. 22. An 89-78 win over the Spartans would be the start of a five-game league winning streak for the Bulldogs, and suddenly the Bulldogs found themselves back in the mix in the league's middle of the pack.
One of the key veteran leaders of the Bulldogs team during the 2014-15 season was 6-6 wing Tyler Hood and he would be a catalyst in a season which would serve as a learning experience for both Padgett and the team as a whole. The Bulldogs utilized a style of basketball that is not too unlike the one which they utilize currently and that is a high-octane press, which Padgett referred to as his "Talladega Press" and it would be one that caused major chaos for Bulldogs opponents.
In the Bulldogs' first league win over the Spartans, the Bulldogs forced the Spartans into 16 turnovers, which they converted into 22 points. Hood and senior guard Darius Jones-Gibson would help turn around the season in league play, as the two veterans played a big role in the Bulldogs; five-game winning streak.
Following the win over the Spartans, Samford went on to post wins vs. Western Carolina (W, 78-72), vs Furman (W, 68-58), at Western Carolina (W, 76-72) and at East Tennessee State (W, 71-68), as the Bulldogs improved to 5-8 in league action with five games left in the league before the start of the SoCon Tournament.
That five-game skid would be followed by four-straight losses in what was a strange first season for Padgett as the head coach. The Bulldogs would win their final SoCon game of the regular-season, as Samford posted an 80-69 win on the road over VMI.
As fate would have it, the Spartans and Bulldogs meet in the opening game of the 2015 Southern Conference Tournament, and the Spartans would emerge with what was a thrilling 81-76 win.
The Bulldogs would trail the contest by 11, at 51-40, with 13:30 remaining in the game before mounting a rally. Over the next eight minutes of game time, the Bulldogs would pull within two, at 67-65, of the Spartans following an Evan Taylor layup in the paint with 5:02 left in the game. However, Nicholas Paulos helped lead a quick 8-2 spurt by the Spartans by knocking down a three on the next possession, as the Spartans pushed their lead back to eight points, at 75-67, with just over three minutes remaining.
The Bulldogs will close to within two, at 78-76, when freshman guard Christen Cunningham knocked down a jumper with 24 seconds remaining. The Bulldogs were forced to foul, however, and UNCG's Diante Baldwin went to the line and knocked down both shots, and UNCG extended their lead back to two possessions and held on for the five-point win.
If anything, the 2014-15 season for the Bulldogs was a bit of a crossroads, and it was one that should have been a springboard for Padgett and the Bulldogs moving forward.
It seemed that the ball was rolling in the right direction under Padgett. After winning 20 games in 2016-17 he even earned himself a contract extension, which was supposed to take him through 2022. The extension was certainly understandable, especially after leading the Bulldogs to a 20-16 record and the first postseason win in program history in 2017.
Padgett did not exactly inherit an easy situation after Seltzer was fired. He had to figure out a way to pick up the pieces after 14 players transferred out of the program during Seltzer’s two seasons at the helm.
It was true the Bulldogs still had guys like Christen Cunningham and forward Alex Peters around two years removed from their dynamic freshman campaigns, and others had joined up with that dynamic freshman duo like Walker Wyatt like sharp-shooting guard Triston Chambers and dynamic UMass transfer wing Demetrius Denzel-Dyson, who entered his second season as one of the SoCon's top pure scorers in Padgett's third season at the helm, which was the 2017-18 season. Samford also added even more talent via the transfer route, as Justin Coleman had transferred in from Alabama to handle the point guard responsibilities.
The Bulldogs came into the 2017-18 campaign as one of the league favorites, however, the Bulldogs were hit by a rash of injuries, and by things wouldn't go exactly according to plan for Padgett and the Bulldogs.
After injuries decimated the Bulldogs in 2017-18, Samford was not the same as it was a year earlier by any stretch. Wyatt and Cunningham — two all-conference players — suffered early season injuries and did not return the remainder of the season. Add to that a season-ending injury later in the season to post Alex Peters, and the depth only got thinner underneath the basket.
The Bulldogs struggled to win as half as many games as 2016-17, and finished the season with just a 10-22 overall record and a 6-12 mark in the league. Adding to the frustration for Padgett and the Bulldogs was an 89-79 opening-round loss to 10th-seeded Chattanooga in the conference tournament. It would be the beginning of the end for Padgett.
The Bulldogs would finish with a 17-16 record in 2018-19, capturing their biggest win of the season on the road at Furman, claiming what was a 77-72 win over a Top 40 basketball team in mid-February. The 6-12 league mark was not enough to keep the Bulldogs out of the play-in game in Asheville, as the Bulldogs beat The Citadel in the play-in game before dropping a 77-70 contest to one of the tourney favorites UNCG, who had transformed into a league juggernaut in the same amount of time that Samford had seen struggles emerge within its program.
A year later would prove to be the end for the Padgett and his time as the Bulldogs' head coach, as the Bulldogs finished 10-23 overall and just 4-14 in league play, and though Padgett's contract was through 2022, he would decide to leave Samford at the end of the season and his frustration in those final few seasons came from the inability to retain players from one season to the next, and many of the same continuity issues that Seltzer encountered, Padgett had to battle as well. Today, Scott Padgett, who is one of the really good guys in college basketball, is an assistant coach at Mississippi State.
Padgett's departure ultimately help pave the way for Bucky Ball to by born under local high school legend Bucky McMillan, as part of the vision and out of the box thinking from Director of Athletics Martin Newton. By the latter part of the 2021-22 season, Samford had established itself as a perennial title contender in the Southern Conference.
Like Samford, UNCG's road to the top of the league under Wes Miller wasn't easy, and when Miller took over mid-season during the 2010-11 season for Mike Dement, who stepped down suddenly in December of that season, it left Miller with all the work to do to try and revive a program that wasn't all that far removed from success in the Southern Conference, which came in the form of NCAA Tournament appearance some 12 years earlier under former legendary Spartans head coach Fran McCaffery and before that, Randy Peele, who was responsible for leading UNCG to its first NCAA Tournament appearance as an NCAA Division I program
The Spartans lost a school-record 25 games in a season in 2008-09, finishing that season with a 5-25 record. From 2008-13, the Spartans were 42-113, which is a stark contrast to the successful days they have enjoyed over the past four years. In fact, the Spartans had three-straight 20-loss seasons from 2008-11. The success of late has seen a definite uptick in the type of player that Miller and the Spartans have been able to attract.
Flipping the script at a place like UNCG hasn’t been easy. It’s a commuter school, and when kids are around on campus on a given weeknight or Saturday night, they are all usually supporting their local favorite ACC school. Basketball is big here.
With that being said, the Spartans had a nice mix of players under Miller, who was by now in his fifth season at the helm of the Spartans, and it had taken some patience from the UNCG athletic administration to see it through to finally see the Spartans and their transformation become complete. It would really have its genesis towards the end of the 2014-15 season, which is one that the Spartans would end up finishing eighth in the 10-team league, as the Spartans would finish the season with an 11-22 record, including a 6-12 record in the league. The Spartans didn't have any wins to write home about during the non-conference portion of the slate, finishing just 5-10 in non-league games.
If the Spartans had anything going for them during the 2014-15 season, it was a good nucleus of players that was learning how to win together. Players like forward Kayel Locke, center RJ White, sharp-shooting forward Nicolas Paulos, veteran all-conference guard Tevon Saddler, and lightning quick point guard Diante Baldwin were really a collection of players that showed glimpses of what UNCG was capable in the future during the 2014-15 season. Other young players that were part of that 2014-15 roster that would become key pieces of that winning formula and future championship success were guys like Marvin Smith--a lockdown defender--and Jordy Kuiper--a big man that hailed from the Netherlands that could step out and shoot the three.
Under Miller, the Spartans were a program under construction, and by the time Miller, who was the architecture of the rebuilding project that had started four years earlier, it would ultimately land Miller a job in the Big 12 as head coach of one of the more storied programs in the sport, taking over as the head coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats following UNCG's second SoCon title in a four-year span. The seeds of UNCG's first championship and NCAA Tournament ticket punched for the first time in 15 years three years later were planted in the 2014-15 season.
UNCG's talent was young but had some momentum rolling by the time the Spartans reached Asheville and the tournament, having won two out of its final three games in the regular-season, and had it not been for a Ronrico White buzzer-beater in Greensboro in the regular-season finale, the Spartans might have won three-straight. The Spartans played maybe their best game of the season in its 84-49 demolition of Furman in the latter part of the regular season, which was then followed by an 81-67 home triumph over Samford to help avenge an earlier season in Birmingham.
After knocking off the Bulldogs, 81-76, in the play-in game, the Spartans played well at times but eventually ran out of gas in a 70-52 loss to top seed Wofford in the first quarterfinal in Asheville. Miller would use that loss to Wofford to help propel the program forward and get over that proverbial hump in the next couple of seasons.
The very next season the Spartans would break through and put right their wrongs, as UNCG would leave no doubt as to who the best team was in the SoCon this time around, as UNCG avenged its SoCon title game loss from a year earlier, with an emphatic 62-47 win over East Tennessee State. The difference between UNCG and Samford? The Spartans were able to maintain the momentum they established towards the end of the 2014-15 regular-season, while Samford, who at the time was every bit as talented, if not more under Padgett, couldn't retain talent and had trouble getting its culture to move forward. Miller did move the UNCG culture forward, using a toughness and "us against the world" mentality to become the SoCon's version of the Detroit Pistons late 1980s "Bad Boys" of the SoCon. By comparison, Samford became more the SoCon's version of the Phoenix Suns--loaded with talent but always diminishing returns.
Furman's Resurrection Story Under Niko Medved
Someone once said that your attitude towards the bad things that happen to you in life determines the altitude in which you operate in during your daily life. A lot of bad happened to Furman basketball program during the 2014-15 season, however, it was how Furman handled that 'bad' that determined all that 'good' that it would culminate the season, fittingly, in the altitude city of Asheville, N.C.It's a story that former Furman head coach Niko Medved had lived once before in his in a different proverbial lifetime in his coaching career and the 2014-15 season would end up being a major breakthrough for Furman basketball, as the Paladins put together one of the more remarkable runs the league title tilt as the No. 10 seed entering the tournament. Over the span of 96 hours, the Paladins transformed from perennial league doormat over the previous three seasons to perennial title contender over the next decade, offering a glimpse of just how powerful the combination of collective belief can be.
However, for Medved's Paladins, their remarkable run in early March was much more about frustrating losses than it was any remarkable run of three wins, which included two over two of the league's top three in the standings,
Furman basketball has been in the doldrums of Division I college basketball since the late 1980s and and early 90s under the direction of Butch Estes. The Paladins have seen their program struggle for the better part of the past 23 years--the last Southern Conference title for the Furman basketball program.
But for Medved, Furman was in a place as a program, which he recognized and understood the dynamics of, having to manage the academic standard of the curriculum, while finding the best talent available to the mid-major program. It's what made him so eager to become the head coach when the job came open in the spring of 2013.
Medved spent six years under former Paladin boss Larry Davis, who made a name for himself last season after leading Cincinnati to the NCAA Tournament last season after Mick Cronin had a blood clot discovered and was forced to sit out the entire season, and he has proven his worth as a recruiter and an offensive mastermind.
As fate would have it, Medved would find his way back to Furman in April of 2013. That's because Jeff Jackson's tenure was coming to an end after Furman endured one of its worst seasons in school history, finishing with a mere seven wins.
Medved's Return
Medved's return came in 2013, and the 2013-14 season would be a lean one to say the least, as the Paladins struggled to gain confidence, injuries and transitioning to a new motion offense from a variation of the Princeton offense employed by Jackson.
The bit of good news was that Furman had a guard named Stephen Croone, and the sophomore guard was a talent that Medved knew he could build an immediate future around.
Though the Paladins won only nine games, Croone would rank second in the Southern Conference in scoring, at 19.1 PPG, and he really became the first player to warm to Medved's system.
The recruitment of Kris Acox in 2013 proved to be a diamond in the rough and was the final one brought in by Jeff Jackson, as the Reykajivk Iceland product broke his foot early in the 2013-14 season, but returned to play a big role in Furman's stretch run this past season only to fracture his foot once again early on in the title game against Wofford.
Players Medved inherited like guard Larry Wideman and forward Kendrec Ferrara brought their respective games-to a higher level, especially on the defensive end.
Laying The Foundation
The Paladins would bow out in the opening round of the Southern Conference Tournament, not making much of a ruckus. However, the pieces were beginning to take shape. The signing of Daniel Fowler, Devin Sibley, John Davis III and Geoff Beans were about to take Furman to the type level it was in 2004, when the Paladins brought in the star-studded group mentioned above.
But a talented signing class by Medved in his first two seasons, which would eventually materialize as a team that believed in its talent and believed it belonged among the SoCon's had a lot to do with Medved retaining talented assistant Bob Richey, who the only coach that Medved decided to invite back from Jackson's staff. In some ways, I wonder if Medved thought about being a top assistant and candidate for a Furman job he wanted after Larry Davis left, and instead, was not hired and to add insult to injury and was not retained by Jackson, and how he felt after that when the decision was made to retain Richey.
Richey had strong roots and a loose tie to Furman, having spent five seasons under former Furman assistant Barclay Radebaugh at Charleston Southern. Radebaugh served as a top assistant, along with Greg Nighbert, on Furman's staff headed up by Butch Estes in the late 1980s and early ‘90s.
The 2014-15 season featured the kind of growing pains one might expect of so many young players, but one thing was evident from the outset that hadn't been evident since Medved's first stint under Davis, and that was Furman had big-time talent. They had scoring and outside shooting, and it was a team that was growing as the season went along.
Unfortunately, the regular-season was more of the tough type of growth, which featured a mixture of competitive losses, which accounted for the majority, and also the blowout losses, with some ugly losses in February on the SoCon road. The non-conference schedule was stacked full of games which challenged the Paladins, especially on the road at places like Florida Gulf-Coast, Gardner-Webb, Minnesota, TCU and Duke.
By the time the Paladins made it to the Southern Conference Tournament, the Paladins' could either have the attitude that it could beat any team in the league after playing the top three within a possession in at least one of their meetings with those teams, or they could let those losses continue to affect them as a team inferior and one that didn't belong. Furman would ultimately choose the former over the latter and had joy in doing it.
The 2014-15 season looked as if it would be another dismal campaign for the Paladins. Late in he season, Furman suffered an 84-49 setback at UNC Greensboro. The next day, then head coach Niko Medved challenged the Paladins and their collective mental toughness--a three-hour practice without a basketball will do that.
The Paladins then started to play well down the stretch. The Paladins closed out the home slate in 2014-15 against Western Carolina and a powerful Wofford team that ranked as high as No. 54 in the RPI that particular season, and also had an early non-conference win over North Carolina State. In what was far from anything considered to be a basketball masterpiece, the Paladins were able to gut out a 53-49 win over defensive-minded, tough Western Carolina. The Catamounts had handed the Paladins a 70-52 setback in early January at the Ramsey Center.
The Catamounts, who would end up taking the No. 5 seed for the upcoming league tournament, were shut down by a stingy Paladin defense. Despite shooting just 28.3% for the game, Furman's defense would limit head coach Larry Hunter's Catamounts to just 25.8% shooting from the field. Though it was not a pretty win, it would be the start of a very bright future on the horizon for Paladin basketball. Junior guard Stephen Croone provided one of his gutsiest performances of the season, finishing with a team-leading 15 points, while Kris Acox showed his toughness by adding a double-double of 12 points and a career-high tying 17 boards.
Then a young freshman from Toledo, OH., sharp-shooting Geoff Beans came off the bench to post 11 points, including nine during a crucial 14-0 run that had seen Furman turn a four-point deficit (33-37) into a 10-point lead (47-37). It was the first time the Paladins showed the kind of toughness, leadership and killer instinct that would come to define this senior class over the next three seasons.
The 2015 regular-season finale provided even more adversity and drama. It was going to be hard enough to face league juggernaut and tournament favorite Wofford with Stephen Croone in the lineup. However, without him, it seemed nearly impossible for the Paladins to have a fighting chance of thwarting any SoCon regular-season title hopes of the visiting Terriers.
2014-15 SoCon Men's Basketball
Player of the Year: Karl Cochran, Wofford
Freshman of the Year: Devin Sibley, Furman
Defense Player of the Year: Justin Tuoyo, Chattanooga
Coach of the Year: Mike Young, Wofford
G-Jake Wright (The Citadel)
G- Devin Sibley (Furman)
G-Christen Cunningham (Samford)
G/F-Daniel Fowler (Furman)
F-Stephon Jelks (Mercer)
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