3MW’s All Conference Team:
Player of the Year: Isaiah Miller, Sr., UNC Greensboro
Coach of the Year: Dan Earl, VMI
Newcomer of the Year: Malachi Smith, R So., Chattanooga
Freshman of the Year: Damari Monsanto, East Tennessee St.
Season Storylines:
We begin our SoCon storylines with a salute to our nation’s finest: the military programs of VMI and The Citadel. Duggar Baucom and his runnin’ Bulldogs (not to be confused with Gardner Webb), surpassed the .500 mark for the first time in over a decade. Somehow, that was only worthy of second fiddle to the sweet, sweet music Dan Earl conducted in Lexington, Virginia. On the heels of a banner year in 2020, Earl’s 2021 encore blew those inflated standards out of the water. Just ask Baucom about the bang-up job Earl did this year. Per KenPom.com’s annual rankings, Baucom managed to crack the top-175 only once in his decade long stint at VMI, which preceded Earl from 2006 to 2015. Today, Earl has VMI sitting at 150th in those same advanced efficiency rankings, heights the program has rarely, if ever, seen over its 100+ year history.
Much like Baucom, Earl lets his teams run and gun at a high octane tempo, but he has his own Santa-sized bag of tricks up the sleeve. They certainly fooled UNC Greensboro, Wofford and Furman, the SoCon’s gold, silver and bronze medal recipients, respectively. VMI went 3-2 against that trio this season, an unimaginable feat by typical VMI standards. Earl and Co. will have to push that record to 4-2 to keep the magic alive this year, as an impending rematch with the Paladins awaits them in the opening round of the tournament.
Bob Richey’s bunch enters the SoCon championship on a tear, winners of four of their last five contests. In January, it was UNCG who went scorched earth. In February, it was the Paladins who stole the show, ignited by a convincing 20-point victory over the Spartans on February 8th. UNCG did get revenge two days later but had to scratch and claw to come away with the split in the rematch. Since then, Furman’s only slip up was a one-point loss in the regular season finale against Wofford, who swept the Paladins in the regular season series. Naturally, the two will square off for a high stakes rubber match if they advance to the Semifinals.
One could argue a pair of sleepers lurk in the play-in round, Mercer and Western Carolina. Collectively, their “good” is really good but the Bears and Catamounts bottled up that best version far too often this year. After sweeping Georgia Tech, Georgia State and Georgia Southern in the non-conference, Mercer was anointed king of the Peach State. The Bears looked poised to challenge for a top-4 seed in the SoCon but volatile in-game swings stunted any semblance of consistency.
The Catamounts, on the other hand, are eligible to pull the injury card, since stud maestro Mason Faulkner labored through injury throughout the entire season. However, Bucky McMillan, Samford’s first year head honcho, has little sympathy for WCU. The Bulldogs were a pleasant surprise in the early going but McMillan watched his talent-laden nucleus break apart as the season progressed. All things considered, the young McMillan proved he belonged in the SoCon coaching fraternity after many questioned his qualifications for a Division I head coaching job last summer.
Tournament Preview
Tournament Predictions
(9) Western Carolina over (8) The Citadel
(7) Mercer over (10) Samford
(1) UNC Greensboro over (9) Western Carolina
(4) Chattanooga over (5) East Tennessee St.
(2) Wofford over (7) Mercer
(3) Furman over (6) VMI
(1) UNC Greensboro over (4) Chattanooga
(3) Furman over (2) Wofford
(3) Furman over (1) UNC Greensboro