Three Point Play

1) The top half (or the afternoon half) and the bottom half (or the evening half) of the bracket are very similar. Five teams finished within two games of the best record in the SoCon. Of those five, two (Western Carolina and Wofford) are in the top half of the bracket, while three are in the bottom half. However, when the other two teams with winning SoCon records are included, the top half has four of the top seven, while the bottom half has just three. In fact, if you look at just the SoCon record, the top half has a 53-55 record, while the bottom half has a 55-53 SoCon record. If all the favorites win on Friday (Davidson, Appalachian State, Elon, and Furman), then the top half will have a 46-26 SoCon record by Saturday and the bottom half will have a 45-27 SoCon record. Yep- the top and bottom halves are pretty much dead even.

2) The North and South are fairly even. Yes, the South is better- there's no doubt about it. But preseason, people were saying that the second place team from the North would be lucky to have a better record than the fifth place team from the South. That just isn't true. The 4N actually has a better record than 5S. The biggest debate could be over who should get the byes, and Wofford and Charleston are obvious since they are 14-4. But of the three 12-6 teams, only two could get byes. Against the other four teams in contention for the byes, College of Charleston had the best record, at 5-2. Wofford was next at 4-3. Western Carolina went 3-3, Chattanooga 3-4, and Furman 2-5. Against the other two teams involved in the tie, Western Carolina went 2-1, Chattanooga 2-2, and Furman 1-2. So, it seems pretty clear that Furman should have been the odd team out in the bye race.

3) The thing that makes this tournament so interesting is that the top five teams were so tightly bunched, but also that there are two great X Factors in Davidson and Appalachian State. The Wildcats and the Mountaineers are both good teams capable of making big pushes in this tournament. They could possible win the whole thing if things line up right. The fact that Davidson is the hottest team at 8-1 in their last nine conference games and that Appalachian State has two of the most dangerous scorers in Donald Sims and Omar Carter is part of what makes this tournament so appealing. The X Factors this year are very dangerous.