**These games are listed in no certain order, but are games that are of overall general intrigue, as well as some games that could boost the league substantially if the SoCon team were to pull out the upset**
1. Nov. 2, 2026 East Tennessee State at Arizona State—One of the league title favorites opens the season with an intriguing road battle at Arizona State on Nov. 2, and it will mark just the second all-time meeting between the two programs, with the only other clash coming back in 1953, with the Sun Devils handing Madison Brooks’ Bucs squad one of their four losses during that campaign, as Arizona State survived to get what was an 81-79 win. The Sun Devils were picked to finish 12th in the 16-team Big 12 preseason poll, and it’s a game in which the Bucs can not only be competitive in, but could pull off the upset. ETSU will have to find a way to deal with preseason Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Paulius Murauskas, who comes aboard from Saint Mary’s, where he spent the previous three seasons. He is one of the top transfers coming out of the portal, finishing the 2025-26 season by starting 32 of 33 games for the Gaels, averaging an impressive 18.4 PPG to lead the team. He was a First-Team All-WCC selection last season. The Bucs, likewise, signed one of the top portal classes in the SoCon, as it is highlighted by guards Jayden Cooper (South Alabama) and BJ Ward (SEMO), and forward Marquis Marion (Wake Forest) will be a player to keep an eye on in the front court with Jordan McCullum being forced to miss the season with a substantial knee injury.
2. Nov. 2, 2026 Furman vs. Bethune-Cookman—One of the best things the Field of 68 does is their preseason marathon, which highlights some of the best mid-majors in college basketball. Last season, Bob Richey’s Furman Paladins started the season against mid-major juggernaut High Point, and the Panthers’ three-million dollar roster, led by Rob Martin, who led a high-octane High Point offense with 22 points, as the Panthers scored a 97-71 win over the ‘Dins and handed the Paladins both their first and worst loss of what would turn out to be a championship season. This year, Bob Richey’s team will be a little more experienced and have a challenge that is seemingly more in their wheelhouse, as the Paladins will do battle with SWAC Preseason favorite Bethune-Cookman. The Wildcats and Paladins will be meeting for the It will mark the fourth all-time meeting between the two programs, with the Paladins holding the 2-1 all-time series edge. The 8 p.m. EST contest between the Paladins and Wildcats will mark the final of eight games played over the course of 24 hours at two different venues. Bethune Cookman came close to making its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance last season, posting and posted a 17-15 record, which included a 14-4 mark in the SWAC, claiming the regular-season title last season. Bethune-Cookman lost a heartbreaking, 72-66, contest to Prairie View A&M in the championship game. The Paladins and Wildcats haven’t met on the hardwood since Dec. 29, 2003, as part of the Furman Holiday Classic at Timmons Arena, as Furman was able to come up with a 64-49 win on that occasion.
3. Nov. 5, 2026 Chattanooga at Penn State—
 |
| Former PSU guard Dan Earl |
Earl would finish out his career with 1,256 points, 574 assists, and 194 made threes and helped the Nittany Lions to a 73-46 record during his four seasons in Happy Valley. He now coaches at Chattanooga team looking to rebound following a season which saw the Mocs finish an uncharacteristic 13-19 overall and 8-10 in SoCon play, which was placed them eighth in the final league standings.
At the heart of what the Mocs do will be a player very much after Dan Earl’s own heart, in Tate Darner, who established himself as one of the best young point guards in SoCon last season. Penn State is a team that is very much ripe for a good SoCon team to upset it. That team could be Earl’s own Chattanooga team, as the Mocs are picked fifth by the league’s head coaches in the 11-team SoCon, while the Nittany Lions are selected to finish 18th in the 18-team Big East this season.
Chattanooga and Penn State have at least a little bit of a history with one another, as the two have not played each other since Earl was a player at Penn State, back in the 1995-96 and 1996-97 campaigns, with Earl’s Nittany Lions winning both of those previous clashes.
The first meeting between the two came on Dec. 17, 1995, as the Nittany Lions posted what was a resounding 81-48 win over the Mocs in State College, PA. Earl had seven points, nine assists and five rebounds in 26 minutes of floor time. He put together a complete performance on that afternoon in the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
The sharp-shooting Pete Lisicky led the way for the Nittany Lions in that contest, posting 18 points to lead four Nittany Lions players in double figures in the contest, knocking down 6-of-7 shots from three-point range in the game. The Mocs, meanwhile, struggled on this night and were as cold from the field as the temperature was outside, with Johnny Taylor and John Oliver the lone two Mocs to end up in double figures in the game, as the duo added 11 points apiece in the loss.
The two met once again the very next season and this time the Mocs and Nittany Lions would face off against each other at the Roundhouse, with Penn State able to hold on for the 73-63 win at McKenzie Arena. This would be the Sweet 16 season for Chattanooga of course, as the Mocs went on to win 24 games and knock off both Georgia () and fellow Big Ten member Illinois () in the NCAA Tournament. Chattanooga has a high potential of winning a major early upset for the SoCon in this clash, as the Nittany Lions, are as I stated earlier, expected to be a lower tier team in the Big Ten this season.
4. Nov. 7, 2026 Western Carolina at UNC Asheville—The rivalry between Western Carolina and UNC Asheville is a mid-major rivalry that has featured some truly outstanding basketball games between the two in recent years, and last season the end-of-game drama with players coming on the floor from Asheville, which in the mind of Asheville coach Mike Morrell, should have led to WCU getting a technical foul and ultimately, him being ejected following a Cord Stansberry jumper that put the Catamounts ahead with just over four seconds remaining and was a part of a 9-3 run over the final 32 seconds remaining, and saw the Catamounts emerge with their first meaningful win of what was an incredibly tough non-conference slate last season, with an 80-73 escape at the Ramsey Center in front of a boisterous crowd at the Liston B. Ramsey Center. Neither team led by more than seven points for the duration of the contest and it was Stansberry’s 29-point effort that helped fuel the Catamounts to the win, as it was also one of the better individual scoring performances of the non-conference slate.
It’s a rivalry that spans nearly a century in the Blue Ridge Mountains, as the two first engaged each other on the college basketball hardwood on Feb 3, 1930, with the Bulldogs capturing the first-ever win in the series, posting what was a 31-28 win on that occasion. When the two battle early November this season, it will mark the 60th all-time meeting between the two, with the Catamounts holding the 34-25 series edge.
Asheville has become a perennial Big South title contender under the direction of head coach Mike Morrell, who heads into his ninth season at the helm in Asheville, and the Bulldogs were recently picked to finish fifth in the nine-team preseason Big South Coaches’ Poll, which was released in the second week of October. Morrell is the winningest head coach in the Big South, owning a solid 131-116 record over the course of eight seasons.
The first meeting between the two came on Dec. 17, 1995, as the Nittany Lions posted what was a resounding 81-48 win over the Mocs in State College, PA. Earl had seven points, nine assists and five rebounds in 26 minutes of floor time. He put together a complete performance on that afternoon in the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
The sharp-shooting Pete Lisicky led the way for the Nittany Lions in that contest, posting 18 points to lead four Nittany Lions players in double figures in the contest, knocking down 6-of-7 shots from three-point range in the game. The Mocs, meanwhile, struggled on this night and were as cold from the field as the temperature was outside, with Johnny Taylor and John Oliver the lone two Mocs to end up in double figures in the game, as the duo added 11 points apiece in the loss.
The two met once again the very next season and this time the Mocs and Nittany Lions would face off against each other at the Roundhouse, with Penn State able to hold on for the 73-63 win at McKenzie Arena. This would be the Sweet 16 season for Chattanooga of course, as the Mocs went on to win 24 games and knock off both Georgia () and fellow Big Ten member Illinois () in the NCAA Tournament. Chattanooga has a high potential of winning a major early upset for the SoCon in this clash, as the Nittany Lions, are as I stated earlier, expected to be a lower tier team in the Big Ten this season.
4. Nov. 7, 2026 Western Carolina at UNC Asheville—The rivalry between Western Carolina and UNC Asheville is a mid-major rivalry that has featured some truly outstanding basketball games between the two in recent years, and last season the end-of-game drama with players coming on the floor from Asheville, which in the mind of Asheville coach Mike Morrell, should have led to WCU getting a technical foul and ultimately, him being ejected following a Cord Stansberry jumper that put the Catamounts ahead with just over four seconds remaining and was a part of a 9-3 run over the final 32 seconds remaining, and saw the Catamounts emerge with their first meaningful win of what was an incredibly tough non-conference slate last season, with an 80-73 escape at the Ramsey Center in front of a boisterous crowd at the Liston B. Ramsey Center. Neither team led by more than seven points for the duration of the contest and it was Stansberry’s 29-point effort that helped fuel the Catamounts to the win, as it was also one of the better individual scoring performances of the non-conference slate.
It’s a rivalry that spans nearly a century in the Blue Ridge Mountains, as the two first engaged each other on the college basketball hardwood on Feb 3, 1930, with the Bulldogs capturing the first-ever win in the series, posting what was a 31-28 win on that occasion. When the two battle early November this season, it will mark the 60th all-time meeting between the two, with the Catamounts holding the 34-25 series edge.
Asheville has become a perennial Big South title contender under the direction of head coach Mike Morrell, who heads into his ninth season at the helm in Asheville, and the Bulldogs were recently picked to finish fifth in the nine-team preseason Big South Coaches’ Poll, which was released in the second week of October. Morrell is the winningest head coach in the Big South, owning a solid 131-116 record over the course of eight seasons.
Western Carolina enters its third season under former Gardner-Webb head coach Tim Craft, who led the Catamounts to a 15-16 mark last season, as the Catamounts were one of the hottest teams heading into the tournament, winning their final six games of the regular-season and after defeating Mercer, 77-73, in the quarterfinals, made it seven-straight. Unfortunately for WCU, they would run out of gas in the semifinals against East Tennessee State, dropping a 69-67 contest. The Catamounts have won six out the last 10 meetings in this series.
5. Nov. 10, 2026 Mercer at Georgia Southern—Yet another great local non-conference rivalry in the SoCon is the one between Georgia Southern and Mercer, or if you will, the battle between essentially middle Georgia and South Georgia on the college basketball hardwood. Both programs find themselves located in the deep south and deep in football culture, with Georgia Southern having won six FCS national titles from 1985-2001, while Mercer recently re-started its football program after a 72-year hiatus 13 years ago, and have won back-to-back SoCon titles and are in contention to win a third.
The basketball programs from each school are now trying to fight their way out of the middle tiers of their respective conferences, with the Eagles having been picked ninth in the recent Sun Belt poll, while the Bears have been picked to finish seventh overall in the SoCon preseason poll. The Eagles will be entering their fourth season under head coach Charlie Henry, while Mercer will be entering its third under the direction of head coach Ryan Ridder.
The Eagles and Bears will be meeting for the first time since the 2020-21 season, with the Eagles holding the narrow 33-27 lead in the all-time series, but its been the Bears that have won the previous two in the series, which began back during the 1971-72 season. Mercer actually claimed the first three matchups in the all-time series between the two before the Eagles scratched out their first win the series during the 1973-74 season. The Eagles and Bears spent two decades as bitter conference rivals in the Trans America Athletic Conference, which would later evolve into the Atlantic Sun.
Interestingly, that is the league where both schools last NCAA Tournament appearance came in, with the Bears last making it to the Big Dance during the 2013-14 season, knocking off Duke in the opening round of the postseason,. Georgia Southern hasn’t been to the Big Dance since 1991-92, although came pretty close last season after getting all the way to the championship game of the Sun Belt Tournament before getting knocked out in the championship, losing its sixth game in six days, 77-61, against Troy.
This game will mark a great guard matchup between Mercer’s backcourt of Shane Cherry and KJ Lamonte, as well as Dallas Gardner and athletic wing Truman Claytor IV. Cherry is quick and shifty, which is like Gardner’s game, as the latter was recently selected second-team All-Sun Belt Conference. Lamonte and Claytor are both athletic and can get to the hoop, as both are three-level scorers. This should be a tremendous basketball game.
6. Nov. 13, 2026 Wright State at Samford—It’s one of the more intriguing mid-major clashes of the non-conference season in the SoCon, as perennial Horizon League power Wright State takes on Samford in a key clash on Friday The 13th at the Pete Hanna Center. The Raiders are once again the prize pick to take home the league title in the Horizon League, and for a little while last March in the second game to tip off at the 2026 NCAA Tournament at the Xfinity Center in Philadelphia, the Raiders hung tough against No. 14 seed Virginia before eventually falling the Cavaliers, 82-73. The Bulldogs finished the campaign with an impressive 22-13 record.
Yours truly can attest to how talented the Raiders were to the naked eye and how good of an in-game adjustments coach that Clint Sargent was, as he enters his third season at the helm of the program. This will be a tremendous coaching matchup between the up-and-coming Sargent going up against a wily veteran and an offensive savant, in Samford’s Lennie Acuff.
The Raiders are not only the preseason pick to take the Horizon League crown, but the Raiders also have the league’s projected preseason Player of the Year entering the 2026-27, in 6-9 forward Kellen Pickett. Pickett comes off a strong performance a year ago, starting 24 of 35 games for the Raiders in finished tallying double-figure scoring games in 24 of contests, including posting three double-doubles. He finished the season averaging 8.5 PPG and 5.4 RPG and shot an impressive 55.6% from the field.
Samford had to bid farewell to SoCon Player of the Year Jaden Booth, who had one of the best individual scoring seasons in Samford history, but did manage to pick up a guy in Cooper Noard from Cornell, who was a spectacular scorer last season for the Big Red at 18.3 PPG. Should he retain his fifth year as a part of the 5-for-5 case against the NCAA as one of the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit against the NCAA, I look for the Bulldogs to be right in the thick of the SoCon race once again this season. In the only meeting between the Bulldogs and Raiders, it was the Raiders that was able to pick up the win, taking down Samford, 61-50, in the Hispanic College Funds Classic played in Baton Rouge at LSU’s Pete Maravich Center on Dec. 28, 2006.
7. Nov. 28, 2026 VMI at Richmond—The game between VMI and Richmond will offer a unique opportunity for the Keydets, who are expected to be much better in Andrew Wilson’s fourth season at the helm, as in two of those seasons, the Keydets have struggled to put out a full team on the floor due to being hit with some pretty major injuries over the previous two seasons, and the Keydets were of course without Rickey Bradley Jr. in last season’s clash in what was an 87-54 loss at Richmond last November. It was part of what was a 5-0 start to the season by the Spiders, as it would be Furman that would hand the Spiders their first loss of the season, posting a 73-72 win over Richmond in Orlando, which was one of the most impressive non-conference wins garnered by the SoCon last season.
VMI and Richmond both share a rich history playing against each other, with the Spiders having been once a SoCon member. The Spiders have won the last six in the series, however, dating back to a 73-70 win by the Keydets in Lexington on the final day of 2008, as at that time VMI was playing as a member Big South Conference after their exile from the SoCon following the 2002-03 season.
That win came in what was one of the more impressive seasons in the recent history of Keydets basketball, as VMI went on to finish 24-8 overall and that included an early-season, 111-103 win at Kentucky. That three-point win in Lexington some 18 years ago moved VMI’s record to 6-0 at Cameron Hall for the season and was part of the program’s best start (10-2) since the 1976-77 season, which was the last time VMI made an appearance at the NCAA Tournament.
5. Nov. 10, 2026 Mercer at Georgia Southern—Yet another great local non-conference rivalry in the SoCon is the one between Georgia Southern and Mercer, or if you will, the battle between essentially middle Georgia and South Georgia on the college basketball hardwood. Both programs find themselves located in the deep south and deep in football culture, with Georgia Southern having won six FCS national titles from 1985-2001, while Mercer recently re-started its football program after a 72-year hiatus 13 years ago, and have won back-to-back SoCon titles and are in contention to win a third.
The basketball programs from each school are now trying to fight their way out of the middle tiers of their respective conferences, with the Eagles having been picked ninth in the recent Sun Belt poll, while the Bears have been picked to finish seventh overall in the SoCon preseason poll. The Eagles will be entering their fourth season under head coach Charlie Henry, while Mercer will be entering its third under the direction of head coach Ryan Ridder.
The Eagles and Bears will be meeting for the first time since the 2020-21 season, with the Eagles holding the narrow 33-27 lead in the all-time series, but its been the Bears that have won the previous two in the series, which began back during the 1971-72 season. Mercer actually claimed the first three matchups in the all-time series between the two before the Eagles scratched out their first win the series during the 1973-74 season. The Eagles and Bears spent two decades as bitter conference rivals in the Trans America Athletic Conference, which would later evolve into the Atlantic Sun.
Interestingly, that is the league where both schools last NCAA Tournament appearance came in, with the Bears last making it to the Big Dance during the 2013-14 season, knocking off Duke in the opening round of the postseason,. Georgia Southern hasn’t been to the Big Dance since 1991-92, although came pretty close last season after getting all the way to the championship game of the Sun Belt Tournament before getting knocked out in the championship, losing its sixth game in six days, 77-61, against Troy.
This game will mark a great guard matchup between Mercer’s backcourt of Shane Cherry and KJ Lamonte, as well as Dallas Gardner and athletic wing Truman Claytor IV. Cherry is quick and shifty, which is like Gardner’s game, as the latter was recently selected second-team All-Sun Belt Conference. Lamonte and Claytor are both athletic and can get to the hoop, as both are three-level scorers. This should be a tremendous basketball game.
6. Nov. 13, 2026 Wright State at Samford—It’s one of the more intriguing mid-major clashes of the non-conference season in the SoCon, as perennial Horizon League power Wright State takes on Samford in a key clash on Friday The 13th at the Pete Hanna Center. The Raiders are once again the prize pick to take home the league title in the Horizon League, and for a little while last March in the second game to tip off at the 2026 NCAA Tournament at the Xfinity Center in Philadelphia, the Raiders hung tough against No. 14 seed Virginia before eventually falling the Cavaliers, 82-73. The Bulldogs finished the campaign with an impressive 22-13 record.
Yours truly can attest to how talented the Raiders were to the naked eye and how good of an in-game adjustments coach that Clint Sargent was, as he enters his third season at the helm of the program. This will be a tremendous coaching matchup between the up-and-coming Sargent going up against a wily veteran and an offensive savant, in Samford’s Lennie Acuff.
The Raiders are not only the preseason pick to take the Horizon League crown, but the Raiders also have the league’s projected preseason Player of the Year entering the 2026-27, in 6-9 forward Kellen Pickett. Pickett comes off a strong performance a year ago, starting 24 of 35 games for the Raiders in finished tallying double-figure scoring games in 24 of contests, including posting three double-doubles. He finished the season averaging 8.5 PPG and 5.4 RPG and shot an impressive 55.6% from the field.
Samford had to bid farewell to SoCon Player of the Year Jaden Booth, who had one of the best individual scoring seasons in Samford history, but did manage to pick up a guy in Cooper Noard from Cornell, who was a spectacular scorer last season for the Big Red at 18.3 PPG. Should he retain his fifth year as a part of the 5-for-5 case against the NCAA as one of the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit against the NCAA, I look for the Bulldogs to be right in the thick of the SoCon race once again this season. In the only meeting between the Bulldogs and Raiders, it was the Raiders that was able to pick up the win, taking down Samford, 61-50, in the Hispanic College Funds Classic played in Baton Rouge at LSU’s Pete Maravich Center on Dec. 28, 2006.
7. Nov. 28, 2026 VMI at Richmond—The game between VMI and Richmond will offer a unique opportunity for the Keydets, who are expected to be much better in Andrew Wilson’s fourth season at the helm, as in two of those seasons, the Keydets have struggled to put out a full team on the floor due to being hit with some pretty major injuries over the previous two seasons, and the Keydets were of course without Rickey Bradley Jr. in last season’s clash in what was an 87-54 loss at Richmond last November. It was part of what was a 5-0 start to the season by the Spiders, as it would be Furman that would hand the Spiders their first loss of the season, posting a 73-72 win over Richmond in Orlando, which was one of the most impressive non-conference wins garnered by the SoCon last season.
VMI and Richmond both share a rich history playing against each other, with the Spiders having been once a SoCon member. The Spiders have won the last six in the series, however, dating back to a 73-70 win by the Keydets in Lexington on the final day of 2008, as at that time VMI was playing as a member Big South Conference after their exile from the SoCon following the 2002-03 season.
That win came in what was one of the more impressive seasons in the recent history of Keydets basketball, as VMI went on to finish 24-8 overall and that included an early-season, 111-103 win at Kentucky. That three-point win in Lexington some 18 years ago moved VMI’s record to 6-0 at Cameron Hall for the season and was part of the program’s best start (10-2) since the 1976-77 season, which was the last time VMI made an appearance at the NCAA Tournament.
Last season, VMI posted just a 6-26 record and was just 1-17 in SoCon play. The Keydets were without preseason SoCon Player of the Year Rickey Bradley Jr. the entire season, and he didn’t end up being the only one to miss a significant portion of the season, with AJ Clark and talented forward AJ Daushvili also missing a significant amount of action in the lineup last season for VMI.
This time around, the Keydets will have two of the top players in SoCon, in both Bradley Jr. and TJ Johnson, who is the league’s leading returning scorer and my pick to garner that distinction this season. The Keydets will be looking for their first win over the Spiders in Richmond in two decades, with the Keydets taking a 93-84 win at the Robins Center back on Dec. 20, 2006.
Richmond is picked ninth in the 14-team Atlantic 10, which is considered by many to be the toughest mid-major conference in the country. The Spiders are under the leadership of veteran head coach Chris Mooney, who is entering his 22nd season at the helm and has a total of 373 wins under his belt as the head coach. The Spiders posted a 10-3 non-conference mark a year ago, finishing out the season with a 15-17 record, which was a five-win improvement from the previous season. A 5-13 mark in conference play last season shows just how tough and unforgiving the A10 can truly be. The Spiders have one of the best guards in the A10, in Aiden Argabright, and he was a preseason All-Atlantic 10 selection.
8. Dec. 9, 2026 The Citadel at Georgia Tech—One of the early December matchups that has the potential to be more interesting than Georgia Tech fans probably will think that it should be is the matchup between Georgia Tech and The Citadel, which will see the Bulldogs be in Atlanta for the clash with the Yellow Jackets in what an interesting battle.
The Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets will be meeting for the sixth time in series history, with the Yellow Jackets having won all five previous matchups between the two. The Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets will be meeting on the hardwood for the first time since 2012, as Georgia Tech rolled to what was a 73-41 win on that occasion.
The game was just before the Christmas Holiday, and the Ramblin’ Wreck did their best to play the Grinch that stole The Citadel’s Christmas, as Kameron Holsey scored 14 points, while Robert Carter pulled down 10 rebounds, and the Yellow Jackets swarmed the visitors from Charleston defensively all night, especially from three-point range, holding the Bulldogs to just 3-for-22 from long-range in the game.
This time around I expect the score to be closer and this is a Bulldogs team that has knocked off two lower level ACC foes—Pitt (2021) and Notre Dame (2022)—in recent seasons.
Ed Conroy’s team was building momentum with this group over the final month of the season and The Citadel even made things interesting in the SoCon Tournament and even made things interesting in the quarterfinals against East Tennessee State before eventually bowing out of the tournament.
This will be a better shooting Bulldogs team than the one last season, and with the additions of two players from rival programs, in Eddrin Bronson (Furman) and Chase Cormier (Wofford), I expect this to be a more confident basketball team this coming season.
As for Georgia Tech, the Yellow Jackets were picked 18th in the 18-team ACC in the coming season. The Yellow Jackets will have a new man at the helm in Atlanta, with Scott Cross from Troy assuming the head coaching responsibilities for the upcoming season. One of the big-time leaders for this Georgia Tech squad heading into the 2026-27 season will be first-team All Patriot League guard Nasir Whitlock, who comes to Georgia Tech from Lehigh. He ended up averaging 20.5 PPG last season for the Mountain Hawks, and ended up garnering Patriot League Tournament MVP honors last March, helping lead Lehigh to the Patriot League title and a subsequent NCAA Tournament berth.
9. Nov. 21, 2026 Western Carolina at Wake Forest—Western Carolina is probably going to be one of the sleeper teams in the Southern Conference this season, and like The Citadel’s game with Georgia Tech, will face a team in Wake Forest that it can garner an upset against.
Tim Craft has a talented and athletic team that with its top five can compete with bigger programs, especially with a defensive presence and presence on the glass like big man Samuel Dada. Isaiah Manning is another player to keep an eye on this season as an athletic wing for the Catamounts, and that was evident in both preseason exhibition games won by Western Carolina against both Appalachian State and USC Upstate. Manning is a player that will be one of the impact transfers in the SoCon this season.
This time around, the Keydets will have two of the top players in SoCon, in both Bradley Jr. and TJ Johnson, who is the league’s leading returning scorer and my pick to garner that distinction this season. The Keydets will be looking for their first win over the Spiders in Richmond in two decades, with the Keydets taking a 93-84 win at the Robins Center back on Dec. 20, 2006.
Richmond is picked ninth in the 14-team Atlantic 10, which is considered by many to be the toughest mid-major conference in the country. The Spiders are under the leadership of veteran head coach Chris Mooney, who is entering his 22nd season at the helm and has a total of 373 wins under his belt as the head coach. The Spiders posted a 10-3 non-conference mark a year ago, finishing out the season with a 15-17 record, which was a five-win improvement from the previous season. A 5-13 mark in conference play last season shows just how tough and unforgiving the A10 can truly be. The Spiders have one of the best guards in the A10, in Aiden Argabright, and he was a preseason All-Atlantic 10 selection.
8. Dec. 9, 2026 The Citadel at Georgia Tech—One of the early December matchups that has the potential to be more interesting than Georgia Tech fans probably will think that it should be is the matchup between Georgia Tech and The Citadel, which will see the Bulldogs be in Atlanta for the clash with the Yellow Jackets in what an interesting battle.
The Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets will be meeting for the sixth time in series history, with the Yellow Jackets having won all five previous matchups between the two. The Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets will be meeting on the hardwood for the first time since 2012, as Georgia Tech rolled to what was a 73-41 win on that occasion.
The game was just before the Christmas Holiday, and the Ramblin’ Wreck did their best to play the Grinch that stole The Citadel’s Christmas, as Kameron Holsey scored 14 points, while Robert Carter pulled down 10 rebounds, and the Yellow Jackets swarmed the visitors from Charleston defensively all night, especially from three-point range, holding the Bulldogs to just 3-for-22 from long-range in the game.
This time around I expect the score to be closer and this is a Bulldogs team that has knocked off two lower level ACC foes—Pitt (2021) and Notre Dame (2022)—in recent seasons.
Ed Conroy’s team was building momentum with this group over the final month of the season and The Citadel even made things interesting in the SoCon Tournament and even made things interesting in the quarterfinals against East Tennessee State before eventually bowing out of the tournament.
This will be a better shooting Bulldogs team than the one last season, and with the additions of two players from rival programs, in Eddrin Bronson (Furman) and Chase Cormier (Wofford), I expect this to be a more confident basketball team this coming season.
As for Georgia Tech, the Yellow Jackets were picked 18th in the 18-team ACC in the coming season. The Yellow Jackets will have a new man at the helm in Atlanta, with Scott Cross from Troy assuming the head coaching responsibilities for the upcoming season. One of the big-time leaders for this Georgia Tech squad heading into the 2026-27 season will be first-team All Patriot League guard Nasir Whitlock, who comes to Georgia Tech from Lehigh. He ended up averaging 20.5 PPG last season for the Mountain Hawks, and ended up garnering Patriot League Tournament MVP honors last March, helping lead Lehigh to the Patriot League title and a subsequent NCAA Tournament berth.
9. Nov. 21, 2026 Western Carolina at Wake Forest—Western Carolina is probably going to be one of the sleeper teams in the Southern Conference this season, and like The Citadel’s game with Georgia Tech, will face a team in Wake Forest that it can garner an upset against.
Tim Craft has a talented and athletic team that with its top five can compete with bigger programs, especially with a defensive presence and presence on the glass like big man Samuel Dada. Isaiah Manning is another player to keep an eye on this season as an athletic wing for the Catamounts, and that was evident in both preseason exhibition games won by Western Carolina against both Appalachian State and USC Upstate. Manning is a player that will be one of the impact transfers in the SoCon this season.
The Catamounts and Demon Deacons will be meeting for just the fourth time on the hardwood all-time, with the Demon Deacons having taken the most recent clash between the two programs, which was an 82-69 win in the first season that Tim Craft was at the helm in Winston-Salem.
Former East Tennessee State coach Steve Forbes (110-82 at Wake Forest) heads into his seventh season at the helm of the Wake Forest program, and the Demon Deacons enter the 2026-27 campaign The Demon Deacons are picked to finish 14th out 18 teams in the ACC preseason poll.
Former East Tennessee State coach Steve Forbes (110-82 at Wake Forest) heads into his seventh season at the helm of the Wake Forest program, and the Demon Deacons enter the 2026-27 campaign The Demon Deacons are picked to finish 14th out 18 teams in the ACC preseason poll.
The Demon Deacons lost both of their preseason exhibition contests, falling to Georgetown (L, 94-77) and South Carolina (L, 78-69). The Demon Deacons lost leading scorer and ACC Player of the Year canddiate Juke Harris to the transfer portal, as he decided to transfer to Tennessee during the offseason. Harris led the ACC in scoring last season, averaging 21.4 PPG. One of the best “gets” from the transfer portal is Monmouth guard Justin Ray, as he averaged 11.3 PPG and shot 42% from three-point range during his time with the Hawks.
In the last matchup, Western Carolina stayed in the game most of the way, but that was a team that almost totally reliant on the three-point shot to stay in basketball games. The Catamounts connected on 11 triples in that 13-point loss two years ago, with Cord Stansberry and Ice Emery leading the way with 20 points apiece.
10. Nov. 17, 2026 East Tennessee State at Marshall –One of the great Southern Conference basketball rivalries of the 1980s and ‘90s will be renewed when East Tennessee State heads to the Cam Henderson Center to take on the Marshall Thundering Herd in an early-season clash between two teams that are expected to be among the top tier in their respective conferences this season.
The Bucs have been picked to finish second in the Southern Conference this season, while the Thundering Herd come into the 2026-27 season having been picked to finish fifth in the 14-team Sun Belt this season. The Thundering Herd and Bucs had some real donnybrook clashes in the SoCon during the two decades in which the two shared a SoCon rivalry. Especially during the late 1980s and early 90s, when ETSU rose as high as No. 10 in the nation during a stretch when it won four-straight SoCon crowns from 1989-92.
In the last matchup, Western Carolina stayed in the game most of the way, but that was a team that almost totally reliant on the three-point shot to stay in basketball games. The Catamounts connected on 11 triples in that 13-point loss two years ago, with Cord Stansberry and Ice Emery leading the way with 20 points apiece.
10. Nov. 17, 2026 East Tennessee State at Marshall –One of the great Southern Conference basketball rivalries of the 1980s and ‘90s will be renewed when East Tennessee State heads to the Cam Henderson Center to take on the Marshall Thundering Herd in an early-season clash between two teams that are expected to be among the top tier in their respective conferences this season.
The Bucs have been picked to finish second in the Southern Conference this season, while the Thundering Herd come into the 2026-27 season having been picked to finish fifth in the 14-team Sun Belt this season. The Thundering Herd and Bucs had some real donnybrook clashes in the SoCon during the two decades in which the two shared a SoCon rivalry. Especially during the late 1980s and early 90s, when ETSU rose as high as No. 10 in the nation during a stretch when it won four-straight SoCon crowns from 1989-92.
The Bucs had players in that era like Keith “Mister” Jennings and seven-foot center Greg Dennis, while the Thundering Herd had players like scoring machine John Taft, who was the 1989 SoCon Player of the Year. The two would meet in the 1989 SoCon title game, with the Bucs taking a 96-73 win in the tournament championship game in what was the beginning of a dynasty for ETSU. The Bucs and Thundering Herd were two of the top SoCon hoops programs during the late 1980s and early-mid 90s.
Marshall left to join Conference USA after making the SoCon Tournament title game in its final season as a league member in 1997, losing 72-71 to Chattanooga in the championship tilt some three decades ago. Marshall has made the NCAA Tournament on six occasions, with three of those coming as a Southern Conference member, posting tournament titles in 1984, ’85 and ’87 under the direction of Rick Huckabay, who led the Thundering Herd to a 129-59 record, winning three tournament titles and four regular-season titles, as he led the Herd to three NCAA Tournament appearances and an NIT appearance in six seasons (1983-89) at the helm. The fallout from the Huckabay era also brought with it NCAA sanctions.
Huckabay managed to recruit two of the top scoring guards in both school and SoCon history, in former standouts Skip Henderson and Taft. The two haven’t met on the college basketball hardwood during ETSU’s brief membership in the Atlantic Sun back in 2013, with the Bucs posting what was an 88-78 win in Johnson City at the Memorial Center. The Bucs have won four of the past five meetings between the two, with Marshall’s last win over ETSU coming on Nov. 20, 2007, posting what was a thrilling 84-83 overtime win at the Cam Henderson Center in Huntington. Four of the past five meetings have also been decided by 10 points or less. It will be the 48th all-time meeting between the two, with ETSU holding the 26-21 all-time series edge.
The Thundering Herd are under the direction of third-year head coach Cornelious “Corny” Jackson, as Marshall returns four players off its roster from a year ago, which includes 6-4 guard and All-Sun Belt guard selection Noah Otshudi, who is the team’s leading returning scorer and assists leader, averaging 14.5 PPG and 3.4 APG last season. A win by the Bucs on the road in this contest would be a big mid-major road win for the league, and it would against a reputable foe that is a perennial top team in its league.
11. Nov. 3, 2026 Wofford at Tennessee—One glance at the early-season schedule might cause some to question why I don’t have the Wofford at North Carolina clash on this list, which occurs just three days after the season-opening battle between the Terriers and Tennessee Volunteers.
However, the more winnable game for Wofford might be the game in Knoxville, as Tennessee looks like it might be in for a long year on the hardwood under legendary head coach Rick Barnes. The Vols were handily defeated by top ACC team Duke (L, 103-64) as well as losing at home to a good Xavier team (L, 86-70).
The last time the Terriers and Vols met each other was in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, as the Vols captured a 77-62 win in an opening round matchup in the NCAA Tournament two years ago. Last season, the Vols had trouble putting away Mercer in the opening game of the season before Tennessee would eventually go on and get what was a 76-61 win over the Bears.
The expectations might be a little more muted this season, despite the fact that the Vols were picked fourth in the SEC in the preseason, as well as starting the season ranked eighth and ninth, respectively, in both major preseason polls. The Vols did manage to get one of the best players in the transfer portal during the off-season, bringing in last year’s leading scorer from the ACC, in transfer guard Juke Harris, who led the conference at over 21 PPG. Harris was notably a first-team All-SEC selection earlier this month at the SEC’s Media Day. The Vols are a program that has had some pedigree under Rick Barnes, however, reaching the Sweet Sixteen in each of the past four seasons, including having made three Elite Eight Apperances in that four-year span. The Vols have won all nine previous meetings between the two programs. I’m not saying this will be an upset, but I wouldn’t be shocked if the Terriers kept this one pretty close.
12. Nov. 8, 2026 Western Kentucky at Tennessee Tech—One of the intriguing early tests for Tennessee Tech in its first season as a Southern Conference member will come in early November, as the Golden Eagles will do battle with Western Kentucky at the Hooper Eblen Center.
The two faced off against each other in the 2025-26 season opener, and it was Western Kentucky that was able to come away with what was an 82-70 win at EA Diddle Arena to open the 2025-26 season in a game that the Golden Eagles could never quite overcome what had been 13-point, 41-28 halftime deficit.
The Golden Eagles enter the SoCon with some high expectations under a new head coach, in Tobin Anderson, and he went out and stacked a roster full of talent to make sure the Golden Eagles could more than hold their own in their first season as a SoCon member. The Golden Eagles are loaded with backcourt talent, including big-time scoring guard Davante Hackett from Stonehill, as well as Cbo Newton from Abilene Christian, who is another player that should have an immediate impact as a scorer and offensive facilitator. The Golden Eagles enter the season picked to finish sixth in the new 11-team Southern Conference.
They’ll meet a Western Kentucky team that is picked to win Conference USA entering the 2026-27 season, with five first-place votes, as the Hilltoppers just edged out Kennesaw State in the preseason poll, getting five first-place votes as opposed to the Owls, who finished with three first-place votes.
The Hilltoppers are led by two of the top guards at the mid-major level, in both Armelo Boone and Teagan Moore, as both were selected to the preseason All-Conference USA team. Boone averaged 10.9 PPG and 6.1 RPG a year ago, while Moore finished the season by contributing 18.7 PPG and is also the 2026-27 CUSA Preseason Player of the Year selection. He poured in 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds against the Golden Eagles in last season’s 12-point win at Diddle Arena.
The clash between the Golden Eagles and Hilltoppers will mark the 105th meeting between the two programs, with the Hilltoppers owning a significant 84-20 all-time series edge. Tennessee Tech hasn’t defeated the Hilltoppers on the college basketball hardwood since a 99-92 win on Dec. 5, 1992. It was also the last time the two teams played each other in Cookeville.
13 Nov. 13, 2026 Chattanooga at Elon—Though Chattanooga and Elon weren’t what I would call storied rivals during their time that the two programs shared a league together, which was roughly a decade, there were some intense battles between the two programs over that span.
When the two get together at the Schar Center on Friday the 13th. The Phoenix are picked to finish eighth in the 13-team CAA this season, while the Mocs come in picked fifth in the SoCon. This one of those key early-season road games that Dan Earl’s team needs to get on the road, not only for the program itself, but also for SoCon in general. The Mocs were injury-plagued last season, stumbling to a 13-19 record and an opening night exit in the SoCon Tournament a year after winning the NIT and after having been picked to win the SoCon by the coaches at the league’s media day in Greenville, S.C. prior to the season on Oct. 1, 2025.
Much has changed since then with the roster, however, the expectations for Earl’s club have not entering the season. Tate Darner and Zach Bleshoy are two players to keep an eye on this season in the backcourt for the Mocs, with Darner having already garnered preseason All-SoCon recognition. Bleshoy missed the entire 2025-26 season with an injury, but is expected to make an immediate impact and is one of the most talented players on the entire roster. The team is stacked with backcourt talent.
Add to that others like highly-touted freshman Christian Matos, who might already be the best shooter on the roster, as well as a quality big man, in Yonathan Levy, who has had stops at Pepperdine and Wisconsin Green Bay before his arrival in the Scenic City.
Much has changed since then with the roster, however, the expectations for Earl’s club have not entering the season. Tate Darner and Zach Bleshoy are two players to keep an eye on this season in the backcourt for the Mocs, with Darner having already garnered preseason All-SoCon recognition. Bleshoy missed the entire 2025-26 season with an injury, but is expected to make an immediate impact and is one of the most talented players on the entire roster. The team is stacked with backcourt talent.
Add to that others like highly-touted freshman Christian Matos, who might already be the best shooter on the roster, as well as a quality big man, in Yonathan Levy, who has had stops at Pepperdine and Wisconsin Green Bay before his arrival in the Scenic City.
Elon is under the leadership of Billy Taylor, who heads into his fifth season leading the Phoenix basketball program and is coming off a campaign, which saw Elon finish the 2025-26 season with a 14-18 overall record and posted a 6-12 mark in the CAA. The top returnee for Elon heading into the upcoming season is junior guard Bryson Cokley, who is coming off a season, which saw him average 12.3 PPG and 3.8 RPG, finishing the season with 22 double-figure scoring performances. Cokley finished the season shooting 45.3% from the field, including an impressive 39.2% from three-point range, averaging 2.3 made threes per game.
The meeting will mark the 24th all-time clash between the two in series history, with Chattanooga owning the narrow 23-10 series edge. The Mocs have won each of the past two meetings between the two programs, with both of those wins coming back in the 2013-14 season, which was Elon’s final season in the SoCon. Chattanooga ran its winning streak to nine-straight games in the most recent meeting between the two, which was back on Jan. 23, 2014, as the Mocs picked up what was a resounding 84-63 win at the Roundhouse. Z Mason did his thing, leading the way with a double-double of 27 points and 11 rebounds, while Gee McGhee and Ronrico White added 13 apiece in the win. Elon got 11 points apiece from wing Sebastian Koch and Luke Eddy, while Lucas Troutman and Tanner Samson added 10 apiece in the losing effort.
14. Nov. 14, 2026 Furman at Belmont—When these two last met at the Curb Events Center in Nashville, it was an absolutlely epic game, with Furman getting a three-pointer from PJay Smith Jr. with just 2.3 seconds remaining, as the Paladins held off Belmont, 76-74, in an outstanding basketball game between two elite mid-major programs.
Smith’s triple was one that would help kick-start a campaign that would end up resulting in a 25-win campaign for the Paladins, and one that would see Furman find its way into the NIT. It would also be part of a big season for Smith individiually, who finished out his final season in Greenville as arguably the best player in the Southern Conference.
The meeting between the two mid-major power programs will mark the fifth in the past seven seasons, with the Paladins having won four of those clashes. This is a series that should be played every year, as there is both a healthy rivalry and healthy respect between the two programs.
When I first interviewed Furman head coach Bob Richey as a young assistant back in 2016 when I was doing a story on young assistant coaches around the Southern Conference, I asked him about some coaches and programs that had been especially impactful on his coaching style and how if he was one day a head coach, what program would he try and emulate or take things from. There were two coaches that he named, with one of those being Lennie Acuff, while the other was Rick Byrd--the Hall-of-Fame coach of Belmont at the time.
Two of the meetings between the two have been absolute thrillers, which were both played at the Curb Events Center in Nashville. No true mid-major program has been more successful than Belmont has over the past two decades.
The success for Furman has a similar to that of Belmont over the last 12 seasons, but the Bruins have been one of the most consistent college basketball programs of any major or mid-major program over more than two decades.
The Bruins continued their winning ways last season, topping the 20-win plateau once again and finishing off their best season as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference, finishing with a 26-6 mark and winning the league with an impressive 16-4 record.
Unfortunately, the Bruins would get upset in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, as Drake posted a 100-79 win over the Bruins and suddenly the NCAA Tournament hopes were likely finished. The Bruins still would find themselves in one of college basketball's two major postseason tournaments, but disappointment often lingers after the last game in the National Invitational Tournament is played--championship or not--because the standard is always the NCAA Tournament.
Since the start of the 2020 season, the Bruins have won 166 games and are one of three programs to win 20 or more games in 16 consecutive seasons, joining both Gonzaga and Kansas as the only teams to accomplish the feat in college basketball. There's no catchy phrase to encapsulate how Belmont has been able to win games for such a sustained period. The Bruins success last season would eventually lead to Casey Alexander leaving the program after eight seasons to become the head coach of the Kansas State Basketball program.
Looking to carry on that winning legacy now will be Evan Bradds, who was at one time a star at Belmont before spending time as both an NBA assistant coach, as well as being a part of Jon Scheyer's staff at Duke, helping the Blue Devils to the 2026 ACC Regular-Season and Tournament titles just this past season, which was good enough to help Duke garner the No. 1 overall seed in March Madness.
The Blue Devils made it as far as the Elite Eight before being knocked out on a () Murphy buzzer-beater from about 40 feet out to send the UConn Huskies to the Final Four. The Huskies would eventually fall, 69-64, to No. 1 Michigan in the NCAA Tourney title game. The Bruins actually traveled to Durham to take on Duke in a recent exhibition, dropping what was a 102-62 game to the Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
A 2017 graduate of Belmont, Bradds spent eight seasons working as an NBA Assistant with the Boston Celtics (5 seasons) and the Utah Jazz (3 seasons) where he served in a number of different capacities, with least of all surprising being player development. In 2023, Bradds served as the Utah Jazz's Summer League head coach. He coached the likes of Keyonte George, Walker Kessler, Cody Williams and Colin Sexton.
In his five seasons with the Boston Celtics, Bradds worked with NBA Champions Brad Stevens, Joe Mazzula and Ime Udoka. He helped coordinate video analysis and specialized player development during his time with the Celtics.
During his time as a player at Belmont, he helped establish himself as one of the best Bruins players in program history, as well as being one of the most efficient scorers in college basketball history, leading the nation in field goal percentage as a sophomore (68.8%) and junior (71.7%) and had a career field goal percentage of 66.7%, which ranks sixth all-time in NCAA history.
The 6-7 forward was part of 91 career wins and helped the Bruins win four conference titles, helped the Bruins make three postseason NIT appearances, and the 2015 NCAA Tournament where the Bruins knocked off second-seeded Virginia. He finished out his career as the Bruins' all-time leading scorer, with 1,921 points.
Now he will look to sustain the culture first established under Rick Byrd and continued under Casey Alexander. The Bruins were picked to finish fourth in the 11-team Missouri Valley Conference and won the regular-season title last season with an impressive 26-6 overall record, with Eoin Dillon and Jack Smiley, who were both named to the Missouri Valley All-Freshman Team last season, have been named to the preseason Missouri Valley Watch List.
15. Nov. 7, 2026 Mercer at Davidson—Two teams that were essentially traded for each other meet in an early-season clash at Belk Arena on the campus of Davidson College in an early-season test for both teams. Mercer joined the Southern Conference on the hoops hardwood prior to the 2014-15 campaign, while Davidson joined the Atlantic 10 just prior to the 2014-15, as the Wildcats joined the A10 out of the SoCon.
The Wildcats are now under the direction of head coach Matt McKillop, who is the son of legendary Bob McKillop, and he was able to help Davidson to a 20-14 record in 2025-26, which included a solid 10-8 record in the Atlantic 10, which was good enough for a sixth-place finish in the 14-team league. The Wildcats are picked to finish eighth in the preseason Atlantic 10 poll.
The Bears and Wildcats will be meeting for just the fourth time in series history, with Davidson having won all four of the previous meetings between the two teams. Mercer is coming off a 19-win season, which ties it for the most wins since the 2013-14 season. The Wildcats and Bears haven’t met on the hardwood since in a decade, with the Wildcats able to garner what was a 78-67 win in the previous meeting between the two programs.
In the 21-point win by the Wildcats over the Bears a decade ago, Davidson was able to connect on 39% (14-of-36) from three-point range and finished the game a solid 45.3% (29-of-64) from the field, while holding the Bears to just 37.5% (21-of-56) from the field, which included a frigid 22.2% (4-of-18) from three-point range in what was a complete effort on both ends by Davidson in the win. Jack Gibbs was sensational in the win for the Wildcats, scoring 33 points on 11-of-20 shooting from the field, which included an 8-for-14 effort from three-point land. He was also 3-of-4 from the charity stripe, and dished out four of the Wildcats’ 20 assists in the win. Peyton Aldridge chipped in 18 points, while Will Magarity rounded out the Davidson players in double figures with 10. Mercer had only one player in double figures, with Ryan Johnson finishing with 10 points off the bench, while big man JJ N’ganga being a beast off the bench finishing with eight points and a game-high 13 rebounds.
Mercer was picked to finish eighth in the SoCon and have a dynamic backcourt tandem with KJ Lamonte (Indian Hills) and Shane Cherry (Tallahassee CC) providing the scoring punch in the backcourt, while Brady Shoulders, who was Mercer’s lone preseason all-conference selection, might be the most complete player on both ends of the floor, and is the epitome of what a “glue guy” is.
Davidson had eight players depart for other NCAA Division I programs from last season’s 20-win team, including double-figure scorers Devin Brown (11.3 PPG) and Roberts Blum (10.4 PPG), but the Wildcats return Josh Scovens, who was a preseason All-Atlantic 10 (2nd Team) selection. He started all 33 games he played in during his first season at Davidson after transferring in from Army, and finished the his first seaosn with the Wildcats averaging 11.1 PPG and led the league in field goal percentage at 58.7% in 18 league games last season.
16. Nov. 14 (Spartanburg) and Nov. 24 (Charlotte), 2026 Queens vs. Wofford—Both Wofford and Queens enter the season with high expectattions in their respective conferences, with the Terriers having been picked to finish third in the preseason SoCon poll, while Queens, which posted a 21-14 record last season, as the Royals finished second in the regular-season (13-5) conference standings before going on to win the Atlantic Sun conference tournament under the direction of Grant Leonard, who enters his fifth season at the helm.
The Atlantic Sun will look completely different this season, with five teams having departed the league, as North Alabama, Central Arkansas, Austin Peay, West Georgia and Eastern Kentucky all left to join the newly formed United Athletic Conference (UAC), making Queens what many feel to be the prohibitive favorite in that conference in the coming campaign. The 2025-26 season was a historic one for Queens basketball, as the Royals qualified for their first-ever NCAA Tournament, garnering a No. 15 seed and drawing the mighty No. 2 seed Purdue Boilermakers in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The Royals held their own for a half against the bigger, more physical Boilermakers, falling 104-71 in St Louis.
Despite the lopsided loss, there are good vibes surrounding this program and there’s reason to believe an encore season might be in the cards for Leonard’s Royals in 2026-27. They’ll play Wofford twice within a 10-day span, first on Nov. 14 in Charlotte and then on Nov. 24 in Spartanburg. Jordan Watford will be one of the top guards in the Atlantic Sun next season, as the former four-star recruit returns to the fold to play before friends and family for a second-straight season after a standout career at nearby Lancaster High School. He was the 2025-26 Mid-Major Madness Freshman of the Year and averaged 11.8 PPG and 3.8 APG as a freshman a year ago. Avantae Parker is one of the more exciting dunkers in the Atlantic Sun, and he’s back after averaging 11.1 PPG and 5.3 RPG last season, as well as posting 45 blocks last season. Nasir Mann is also back and averaged 13.3 PPG and 5.7 RPG, and is another dunker worth the price of admission.
Kevin Giltner is entering his second season at the helm and knows a little something about being part of a foundational championship program, helping lead the Terriers win their first two SoCon tournament titles in 2010 and ’11. This is a great opportunity for a good mid-major win for both teams. It will mark the 12th all-time meeting between the two, but the first since 1995, as the Terriers hold a 7-4 all-time series edge.
The meeting will mark the 24th all-time clash between the two in series history, with Chattanooga owning the narrow 23-10 series edge. The Mocs have won each of the past two meetings between the two programs, with both of those wins coming back in the 2013-14 season, which was Elon’s final season in the SoCon. Chattanooga ran its winning streak to nine-straight games in the most recent meeting between the two, which was back on Jan. 23, 2014, as the Mocs picked up what was a resounding 84-63 win at the Roundhouse. Z Mason did his thing, leading the way with a double-double of 27 points and 11 rebounds, while Gee McGhee and Ronrico White added 13 apiece in the win. Elon got 11 points apiece from wing Sebastian Koch and Luke Eddy, while Lucas Troutman and Tanner Samson added 10 apiece in the losing effort.
14. Nov. 14, 2026 Furman at Belmont—When these two last met at the Curb Events Center in Nashville, it was an absolutlely epic game, with Furman getting a three-pointer from PJay Smith Jr. with just 2.3 seconds remaining, as the Paladins held off Belmont, 76-74, in an outstanding basketball game between two elite mid-major programs.
Smith’s triple was one that would help kick-start a campaign that would end up resulting in a 25-win campaign for the Paladins, and one that would see Furman find its way into the NIT. It would also be part of a big season for Smith individiually, who finished out his final season in Greenville as arguably the best player in the Southern Conference.
The meeting between the two mid-major power programs will mark the fifth in the past seven seasons, with the Paladins having won four of those clashes. This is a series that should be played every year, as there is both a healthy rivalry and healthy respect between the two programs.
When I first interviewed Furman head coach Bob Richey as a young assistant back in 2016 when I was doing a story on young assistant coaches around the Southern Conference, I asked him about some coaches and programs that had been especially impactful on his coaching style and how if he was one day a head coach, what program would he try and emulate or take things from. There were two coaches that he named, with one of those being Lennie Acuff, while the other was Rick Byrd--the Hall-of-Fame coach of Belmont at the time.
Two of the meetings between the two have been absolute thrillers, which were both played at the Curb Events Center in Nashville. No true mid-major program has been more successful than Belmont has over the past two decades.
The success for Furman has a similar to that of Belmont over the last 12 seasons, but the Bruins have been one of the most consistent college basketball programs of any major or mid-major program over more than two decades.
The Bruins continued their winning ways last season, topping the 20-win plateau once again and finishing off their best season as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference, finishing with a 26-6 mark and winning the league with an impressive 16-4 record.
Unfortunately, the Bruins would get upset in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, as Drake posted a 100-79 win over the Bruins and suddenly the NCAA Tournament hopes were likely finished. The Bruins still would find themselves in one of college basketball's two major postseason tournaments, but disappointment often lingers after the last game in the National Invitational Tournament is played--championship or not--because the standard is always the NCAA Tournament.
Since the start of the 2020 season, the Bruins have won 166 games and are one of three programs to win 20 or more games in 16 consecutive seasons, joining both Gonzaga and Kansas as the only teams to accomplish the feat in college basketball. There's no catchy phrase to encapsulate how Belmont has been able to win games for such a sustained period. The Bruins success last season would eventually lead to Casey Alexander leaving the program after eight seasons to become the head coach of the Kansas State Basketball program.
Looking to carry on that winning legacy now will be Evan Bradds, who was at one time a star at Belmont before spending time as both an NBA assistant coach, as well as being a part of Jon Scheyer's staff at Duke, helping the Blue Devils to the 2026 ACC Regular-Season and Tournament titles just this past season, which was good enough to help Duke garner the No. 1 overall seed in March Madness.
The Blue Devils made it as far as the Elite Eight before being knocked out on a () Murphy buzzer-beater from about 40 feet out to send the UConn Huskies to the Final Four. The Huskies would eventually fall, 69-64, to No. 1 Michigan in the NCAA Tourney title game. The Bruins actually traveled to Durham to take on Duke in a recent exhibition, dropping what was a 102-62 game to the Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
A 2017 graduate of Belmont, Bradds spent eight seasons working as an NBA Assistant with the Boston Celtics (5 seasons) and the Utah Jazz (3 seasons) where he served in a number of different capacities, with least of all surprising being player development. In 2023, Bradds served as the Utah Jazz's Summer League head coach. He coached the likes of Keyonte George, Walker Kessler, Cody Williams and Colin Sexton.
In his five seasons with the Boston Celtics, Bradds worked with NBA Champions Brad Stevens, Joe Mazzula and Ime Udoka. He helped coordinate video analysis and specialized player development during his time with the Celtics.
During his time as a player at Belmont, he helped establish himself as one of the best Bruins players in program history, as well as being one of the most efficient scorers in college basketball history, leading the nation in field goal percentage as a sophomore (68.8%) and junior (71.7%) and had a career field goal percentage of 66.7%, which ranks sixth all-time in NCAA history.
The 6-7 forward was part of 91 career wins and helped the Bruins win four conference titles, helped the Bruins make three postseason NIT appearances, and the 2015 NCAA Tournament where the Bruins knocked off second-seeded Virginia. He finished out his career as the Bruins' all-time leading scorer, with 1,921 points.
Now he will look to sustain the culture first established under Rick Byrd and continued under Casey Alexander. The Bruins were picked to finish fourth in the 11-team Missouri Valley Conference and won the regular-season title last season with an impressive 26-6 overall record, with Eoin Dillon and Jack Smiley, who were both named to the Missouri Valley All-Freshman Team last season, have been named to the preseason Missouri Valley Watch List.
15. Nov. 7, 2026 Mercer at Davidson—Two teams that were essentially traded for each other meet in an early-season clash at Belk Arena on the campus of Davidson College in an early-season test for both teams. Mercer joined the Southern Conference on the hoops hardwood prior to the 2014-15 campaign, while Davidson joined the Atlantic 10 just prior to the 2014-15, as the Wildcats joined the A10 out of the SoCon.
The Wildcats are now under the direction of head coach Matt McKillop, who is the son of legendary Bob McKillop, and he was able to help Davidson to a 20-14 record in 2025-26, which included a solid 10-8 record in the Atlantic 10, which was good enough for a sixth-place finish in the 14-team league. The Wildcats are picked to finish eighth in the preseason Atlantic 10 poll.
The Bears and Wildcats will be meeting for just the fourth time in series history, with Davidson having won all four of the previous meetings between the two teams. Mercer is coming off a 19-win season, which ties it for the most wins since the 2013-14 season. The Wildcats and Bears haven’t met on the hardwood since in a decade, with the Wildcats able to garner what was a 78-67 win in the previous meeting between the two programs.
In the 21-point win by the Wildcats over the Bears a decade ago, Davidson was able to connect on 39% (14-of-36) from three-point range and finished the game a solid 45.3% (29-of-64) from the field, while holding the Bears to just 37.5% (21-of-56) from the field, which included a frigid 22.2% (4-of-18) from three-point range in what was a complete effort on both ends by Davidson in the win. Jack Gibbs was sensational in the win for the Wildcats, scoring 33 points on 11-of-20 shooting from the field, which included an 8-for-14 effort from three-point land. He was also 3-of-4 from the charity stripe, and dished out four of the Wildcats’ 20 assists in the win. Peyton Aldridge chipped in 18 points, while Will Magarity rounded out the Davidson players in double figures with 10. Mercer had only one player in double figures, with Ryan Johnson finishing with 10 points off the bench, while big man JJ N’ganga being a beast off the bench finishing with eight points and a game-high 13 rebounds.
Mercer was picked to finish eighth in the SoCon and have a dynamic backcourt tandem with KJ Lamonte (Indian Hills) and Shane Cherry (Tallahassee CC) providing the scoring punch in the backcourt, while Brady Shoulders, who was Mercer’s lone preseason all-conference selection, might be the most complete player on both ends of the floor, and is the epitome of what a “glue guy” is.
Davidson had eight players depart for other NCAA Division I programs from last season’s 20-win team, including double-figure scorers Devin Brown (11.3 PPG) and Roberts Blum (10.4 PPG), but the Wildcats return Josh Scovens, who was a preseason All-Atlantic 10 (2nd Team) selection. He started all 33 games he played in during his first season at Davidson after transferring in from Army, and finished the his first seaosn with the Wildcats averaging 11.1 PPG and led the league in field goal percentage at 58.7% in 18 league games last season.
16. Nov. 14 (Spartanburg) and Nov. 24 (Charlotte), 2026 Queens vs. Wofford—Both Wofford and Queens enter the season with high expectattions in their respective conferences, with the Terriers having been picked to finish third in the preseason SoCon poll, while Queens, which posted a 21-14 record last season, as the Royals finished second in the regular-season (13-5) conference standings before going on to win the Atlantic Sun conference tournament under the direction of Grant Leonard, who enters his fifth season at the helm.
The Atlantic Sun will look completely different this season, with five teams having departed the league, as North Alabama, Central Arkansas, Austin Peay, West Georgia and Eastern Kentucky all left to join the newly formed United Athletic Conference (UAC), making Queens what many feel to be the prohibitive favorite in that conference in the coming campaign. The 2025-26 season was a historic one for Queens basketball, as the Royals qualified for their first-ever NCAA Tournament, garnering a No. 15 seed and drawing the mighty No. 2 seed Purdue Boilermakers in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The Royals held their own for a half against the bigger, more physical Boilermakers, falling 104-71 in St Louis.
Despite the lopsided loss, there are good vibes surrounding this program and there’s reason to believe an encore season might be in the cards for Leonard’s Royals in 2026-27. They’ll play Wofford twice within a 10-day span, first on Nov. 14 in Charlotte and then on Nov. 24 in Spartanburg. Jordan Watford will be one of the top guards in the Atlantic Sun next season, as the former four-star recruit returns to the fold to play before friends and family for a second-straight season after a standout career at nearby Lancaster High School. He was the 2025-26 Mid-Major Madness Freshman of the Year and averaged 11.8 PPG and 3.8 APG as a freshman a year ago. Avantae Parker is one of the more exciting dunkers in the Atlantic Sun, and he’s back after averaging 11.1 PPG and 5.3 RPG last season, as well as posting 45 blocks last season. Nasir Mann is also back and averaged 13.3 PPG and 5.7 RPG, and is another dunker worth the price of admission.
Kevin Giltner is entering his second season at the helm and knows a little something about being part of a foundational championship program, helping lead the Terriers win their first two SoCon tournament titles in 2010 and ’11. This is a great opportunity for a good mid-major win for both teams. It will mark the 12th all-time meeting between the two, but the first since 1995, as the Terriers hold a 7-4 all-time series edge.
