The SoCon Lowdown: The moment of truth
Plus: the Chattanooga run, Samford and UNCG stunned, and VMI finally done
The Southern Conference is not one known for its consistency. What defines this league—and what makes it so fun to watch—is how dangerous just about every team can be. There’s a clear hierarchy in most seasons, at least at the top and bottom, but nobody is immune to an upset bid. Even the steadiest teams struggle with bottom-feeders more than you’d expect.
To separate yourself and earn an NCAA tournament bid, bucking this trend by building a reliably good team is typically the winning formula. Last year, that exception to the rule was Chattanooga, which used a senior-laden roster to tear through the regular season (aside from an uncharacteristic stumble in mid-February) and kept rolling through the conference tournament. Giving up a big run in Asheville won’t kill you, but you have to be able to lean on depth and fundamentals to get back up after taking your opponent’s best punch.
Bob Richey and the Furman Paladins saw that face-to-face in the 2022 SoCon tournament final, where they threw just such a haymaker by using an 8-0 run to take a 28-16 lead in the first half. The Mocs leaned on the ropes and, when the shots started falling, hit back with a 22-4 run that put them back in the driver’s seat. In a more miniature form, the pattern repeated itself at the very end of the game: Mike Bothwell hit a heartbreaking layup to give Furman the lead with just five seconds left, but Chattanooga stayed calm and got the ball downcourt, getting a makeable three-point shot for David Jean-Baptiste that sent them to the NCAA tournament.
The Paladins saw in that game what they needed to do to snap a 43-year March Madness drought, and they effectively became the 2022-23 version of the Mocs. Led by fifth-year superstars Jalen Slawson and Mike Bothwell (both Lou Henson Award finalists), they played just one truly bad game after New Year’s Day (a loss to rival The Citadel) and weathered runs in the SoCon semifinals and final. On Sunday, they will learn who they face in their first tournament game since the year of the Miracle on Ice.
Here’s how it happened.
The Paladins soared past Mercer in the quarterfinals, then jumped out to a twenty-point lead against punchy Western Carolina. But they had to handle the Catamounts’ best shot, a miraculous second-half comeback that culminated in game-tying and go-ahead shots from Vonterius Woolbright. Furman collected itself, Bothwell hit two free throws to force overtime, and he and JP Pegues matched WCU blow-for-blow and nailed down a win in the final seconds. The story against Chattanooga was similar: the Dins surged to a 30-11 lead, but that shrank to just 39-38 early in the second half. Once again, Furman hit back, holding the Mocs to just two points in a span of nearly four minutes to spark a run and put them up by about ten points, where they’d remain most of the rest of the way. They’ve never been more resilient, and as they head into a historic tournament bid, they’re about to make a 3 or 4 seed very unhappy on Selection Sunday.
Well, that is why the one seed mattered so much. While Furman was (mostly) taking care of business against Mercer, both #2 Samford and #3 UNCG suffered stunning quarterfinal losses. The Bulldogs have more of a right to complain, having suffered the grave misfortune of running into Chattanooga just as Jake Stephens returned from injury, but it’s still a disappointing end to the season for a team that looked like the clear autobid leader for long stretches of the year. The offense came alive late in the second half, scoring 39 points over the final 12 minutes, but they couldn’t hold an 82-80 lead in the final minute. Alongside UNCG, the Bulldogs will be right on the fringe of the NIT field, depending on results elsewhere.
Well, this one was just weird. BJ Mack’s game-winning buzzer-beater layup will, of course, go down in SoCon Tournament lore, but the Spartans were only in position to lose on it thanks to letting Wofford hang around all game in a defensive struggle. Beyond a sensational performance from Keondre Kennedy (26 points, 9-for-13), they simply couldn’t get in a groove offensively until the last minute, when it was too late to pull away for the comfortable win that should’ve been locked up much earlier. They’ll look for a bid to the bottom of the NIT bracket or the top of the CBI, potentially joining Samford for their last dance. It’s still an excellent season for the Spartans and for HC Mike Jones, a finalist for the Ben Jobe award honoring the best minority coach in D1.
Western Carolina entered their first-round match against ETSU—who they’d swept in the regular season to finish ahead of by two games—as an underdog in Vegas. The Catamounts hardly needed to prove themselves, having joined the top three as the only other SoCon team to go over .500 in league play, but they delivered an authoritative 69-57 win in which they led by at least ten points for all but 19 seconds of the final 35 minutes. They nearly went a step further and stunned eventual champion Furman, too, led by Vonterius Woolbright’s 30-point, 11-rebound, 5-assist masterclass. The twenty-point comeback fell just short thanks to some debatable foul calls in overtime, but the Cats left no doubt that they belonged in the four seed they clawed their way to in a breakout season. The CBI thought so too, offering them a spot today. They absolutely deserve it.
Nothing sums up Wofford’s profoundly weird season better than shocking three-seed UNCG, then succumbing to seven-seed Chattanooga without much of a fight. All right, fair enough, Stephens was a game-changer for the Mocs against the Terriers too, but it still feels like a fitting contrast. This is a team that played LSU and Vanderbilt within a single possession before delivering Texas A&M its fifth (and still most recent home) loss, a team that knocked off Samford in league play and UNCG in the tournament. It’s also a team that got rocked by High Point in its first D1 game, fell in overtime to an awful VMI, and lost to Chattanooga by 12 after beating them by 12 a week prior. I don’t know if they deserve a spot in The Basketball Classic, but it’d definitely be a recipe for some fun, weird basketball.
The metrics and the oddsmakers believed in ETSU to the bitter end, but—outside their regular-season finale upset of UNCG—it never really paid off. The Buccaneers went a disappointing 4-9 in non-conference play, beat only one team with a better record in the SoCon, and promptly bowed out as a Vegas favorite and seed underdog in their quarterfinal meeting with WCU. This is the first team that we can confidently say has no postseason hopes; given that fact, their game score of 3 in the loss to the Catamounts marked their worst game all year in their final game of the year. On the upside, most of the Bucs’ strong depth is set to return for 2023-24.
Chattanooga, on the other hand, could be looking at a CBI or TBC bid for two reasons: their remarkable tournament run, nine points short of the first 4-0 SoCon Tournament since Clemson, and the reason for it. Jake Stephens, as had been loosely suggested by head coach Dan Earl, did indeed return in Asheville and made the most of it. Playing four games in four days after a month and a half off, Stephens scored 20 points in every outing, averaged 23/8/3, shot over .500 from the field in every game, and earned a spot on the all-tournament team. If the Mocs make it to the postseason, you know he’ll be there; if they don’t, he’ll pursue dreams of a role in the NBA that look far more feasible than they did at the start of this season.
In Asheville, we saw both versions of Mercer. The Bears played one of their finest games of the season in the first round, throttling The Citadel’s offense to the tune of unbelievable 16-1, 23-4, and 27-8 first-half margins and a dominant 66-41 victory. Considering their recent 70-67 loss to top-seeded Furman, it looked like the quarterfinal might be interesting, and it was for a first half they led 32-29…until the Paladins rocked them 44-26 the rest of the way. Still, Mercer can feel all right about a season that looked far better at the end than in their 0-5 start to conference play. 2023-24 is a clear prove-it season for Greg Gary, who has yet to improve on his 17-15 mark in 2019-20, his first year with the Bears.
Ed Conroy has his hands full. It probably doesn’t help the matters that four of the Bulldogs’ five most-used players—Austin Ash, Stephen Clark, Elijah Morgan, and David Maynard—were seniors this season. It’s going to be rough next year barring a sensational transfer class, but at least the rebuild will be properly underway. The Bulldogs haven’t been well below average in experience since 2018, thanks in part to COVID-19 eligibility. Next year will mark a return of sorts to the cycle The Citadel has needed to get into for a while now.
Given how low expectations were at the start of the season, every little success for VMI was going to feel big. The Keydets started 350th in Torvik and now stand 354th, but in a year like this you have to dwell on the positives. They did show some signs of life at times, winning two conference games (one over The Citadel on the road, one over Wofford), but they did they did ultimately finish with their worst record in conference play this century. Next year should be a little better, considering five of VMI’s top six players were freshmen this year, but losing senior Sean Conway is going to sting. The road back to contending for anything meaningful is still fairly long.
Around the former SoCon…
Auburn capped their regular season with a win over Tennessee that effectively clinched a spot in the NCAA tournament.
Charleston put any discussion of their at-large viability to bed with a run through the CAA tournament, clinching their second postseason bid in the last twenty years.
Duke extended their winning streak to seven games with a dominant 96-69 win over Pitt in the ACC quarterfinals.
Kentucky rebounded from a loss to Vanderbilt to beat Arkansas in their final regular-season game, locking up a three seed in the SEC tournament.
Overcoming long stretches of struggling in SEC play, both LSU and Ole Miss won their first games in the SEC tournament.
Sewanee closed the book on a remarkable season with a tournament loss to #19 North Park, finishing 19-10 as Russ Marr became their second player with 600 points in a season.
Tulane sealed the AAC’s three seed with a pair of narrow season-ending wins over East Carolina (81-78) and Temple (83-82).
Vanderbilt finished the regular season on an 8-1 tear, soaring into the six seed for the SEC tournament.
West Virginia picked up an impressive home win over Kansas State, then added another in the Big 12 tournament over Texas Tech.
Chattanooga overcame an early 17-7 deficit to roll past Wofford in the women’s basketball championship, moving to 19-0 in the final all-time. Martin Stiegwardt, whose ETSU tennis teams have gone 31-0 in conference play under his watch, announced that this will mark his final season at the helm. Fifteen SoCon wrestlers earned bids in the 2023 NCAA championships, led by 125-pound five seed Caleb Smith of Appalachian State.