Scanning the SoCon- Week Five

Each week, twelve bloggers/message boarders (one representing each team) all will vote on a Game of the Week and Power Rankings. At least four will answer a series of questions on their team and around the SoCon. Don't forget to check back Monday through Friday to read Daily Dribbles from around the SoCon here on MocsMania.

CONTRIBUTORS

Appalachian State- Yosef's Cabin T-Dog
Chattanooga- Mocs Mania- JohnMoc
College of Charleston- King Kresse CougarSurf11
Davidson- Davidson Cats Message Board David Sink
Elon- Elon Pendulum Student Newspaper- Zachary Horner
Furman- The UFFP Message Board- Hawg
Georgia Southern- GSU Fans Message Board half-n-half
Samford- Samford Bulldogs Message Board AP
The Citadel- The Sports Arsenal- Sandlapper Spike
UNC-Greensboro- UNCG Basketball Fan DashSpartan
Western Carolina- Purple & Gold Jerry Love
Wofford- Terrier Fans Message Board

 

SCHEDULE

Tuesday

Samford at Kentucky
Dartmouth at Elon
The Citadel at Charleston Southern
Western Carolina at Illinois
Louisville at College of Charleston

Wednesday

Gardner-Webb at Wofford
Charlotte at Davidson

Saturday
Samford at Bowling Green
Appalachian State at Western Carolina
Brewton Parker at Georgia Southern
Eastern Kentucky at Chattanooga
Wofford at Davidson

SOCON MONSTER GAME OF THE WEEK

Charlotte at Davidson- 6 votes

Others Receiving Votes- Louisville at College of Charleston (5)

POWER RANKINGS

1) Davidson 131 (10)

2) College of Charleston 122 (1)

3) Elon 109

4) UNCG 90

5) Wofford 86

6) Western Caroloina 78

7) Chattanooga 59

8) Samford 49

9) Georgia Southern 42

10) The Citadel 41

11) Appalachian State 31

12) Furman 21

QUESTIONS

Sum up your team since the last time you wrote.

Appalachian State- Oh the humanity. Mike Neal is out until mid-December with academics issues so Chris Burgess has been thrust into the PG role. He is nowhere near Neal’s level. ASU started out their Division I schedule by being blown out at home by High Point. Then they went on the road and got blown out by Campbell. The next two games at ECU and VT were better performances, but the team can’t close out games. Then it looked like the team completely regressed in the first half at home this past Wednesday against Duquesne, but then came back and made it a game, but fell in the end 73-72 to fall to 0-5 in DI play. Then on Saturday the Apps fell at Mizzou 72-56 despite a 29-point effort from Canty. One good thing about these last four games is that ASU has beaten the spread each time. This team doesn’t play good defense and gives up way too many open looks. And then when other teams get on their inevitable runs, they regress to taking transitional jumpers that rarely work so when it rains, it pours. Right now fans should hold off buying pitchforks and torches because they could be a completely different team when Neal returns. One other good thing is that something finally clicked for Okam in the second half against Duquesne and looked light years ahead of what he’s been. Canty is as good as advertised, but he can only do so much. At this point, anywhere between 4-14 and 10-8 in the SoCon wouldn’t surprise me. We'll definitely beat some SoCon teams we shouldn't.

Chattanooga- The Mocs got pounded by Davidson this week. The Mocs continue to be a solid rebounding team, but they are a bad offensive team right now. They have got to start playing more efficiently on the offensive side of the ball. Until they do, they will be an average team at best.

 

College of Charleston- After stumbling out of the gates in the Charleston Classic the Cougars have rattled off three straight road victories against some very solid teams. First was the upset of a ranked Baylor team, then a victory against city rival Charleston Southern (who is in the running for a Big South championship) and yesterday’s defeat of the North division-leading Elon Phoenix. This is all being done without starting power forward Trent Wiedeman. In his absence Willis Hall has really stepped up to the plate. Hall, who missed all of last season with an ACL injury, scored the final seven points of the game to ice the victory in Waco and posted a 19 and 12 double-double against Elon. Adjehi Baru as well has developed nice chemistry with Hall and is showing us a lot more offensively to go with stellar defense and rebounding. A very vulnerable Louisville team is the next test for the Cougars as they return to TD Arena Tuesday.

UNCG- If I would have wrote this on Friday night, it would be completely different than what I am writing tonight. UNCG has played well against BCS conference opponents at home in the past 2 weeks. Falling just short against Virginia Tech and Rutgers. Most Spartan fans assumed they would be able to handle cross town rival NC A&T on Wednesday night. However, the Aggies always seem ready for this game and they thoroughly dominated the Spartans (regardless on it only being an 11 point loss). However, the Spartans turned around and utterly destroyed the Citadel Bulldogs just 3 days later. It is all about defense for the Spartans. They looked lost all night against A&T and brought a lot of intensity against the Citadel. Personally, I think UNCG is a lot better than their record. They just have to bring the defensive energy every night. The Spartans are now off for 15 days before playing road games against lower tier CAA teams (JMU & UNCW).

Which division do you believe is going to finish with more wins against the other division- the North or the South?

Appalachian State- The South as Davidson and CofC will likely finish somewhere between 16-0 and 12-4 against the North. GSU will likely finish with a winning record against the North, Wofford is a toss-up and despite Furman and El Cit, the final tally IMO will be around 26-22 for the South.

Chattanooga- I’m not sure, because the way I see it, both Davidson and Charleston are likely to win almost all of their games against the North. I’ll project those two to combine to go 14-2 against the North. That means that in the remaining 32 games, the North would have to go 23-9 against the South to beat them outright. That’s an awfully big leap for the North to make. I don’t think they can go that far, but I do believe that the North will have a winning record against the remainder of the South.  I’m taking the South overall, but I am a big believer in the North being closer than previously believed.

College of Charleston- It’s hard to say. Davidson and College of Charleston will get a lot of victories over division opponents but after that the South is pretty weak. The North meanwhile is so cluttered. Elon passes the eye test but I think any of those teams have a chance to rack up SoCon victories. If I had to choose I’ll go with recent history and say the South by a small margin.

UNCG- I think the south will, eventually. Their top 2 teams are better than the entire north division. However, their bottom 3 teams might be worse than anyone in the league. So, it'll be close.

Which coach around the conference do you believe is on the hottest seat?

Appalachian State- I honestly thought John Shulman was gone after last season where UTC
finished last in the North. Right now, I think it’s between Jeff Jackson and Jason Capel. Jackson is in his seventh year at Furman and with the results badly regressing, he needs a good showing for the rest of the year. With Capel, he’s in the third year of a four-year deal so he very much needs to show results when Neal returns for conference play. If ASU wins single-digit games, then I think a change will have to be made. CharltonYoung is fine right now as he’s coming off a good season, but the Samford loss will make the chorus louder.

Chattanooga- As I read the message boards, I’ve decided that it is probably Jeff Jackson at Furman. The Paladins fan base is agitated and angry. They seem to be angrier than any other fan base at their coach right now. They want him gone. I don’t know if Furman has the money to get rid of him, but I don’t see how they keep him based on what everyone seems to be saying.

College of Charleston- I thought for sure John Shulman was getting canned last year. Now he’s got the excuse of youth and potential on his side (and he has a point), so I think Chattanooga will let things play out. I think Charlton Young has until his big recruiting class graduates. That leaves App and Furman. Both teams look terrible. Jason Capel seems to pull some victories out late in the season; I’ll go with Coach Jeff Jackson up at Furman.

UNCG- Jason Capel's seat seems the hottest. They are really struggling and can't even get anyone to show up to watch them play. Their fan base was split on the hire in the first place and hindsight being 20/20, I think most wish they had went with Matt McMahon.

We all look at boxscores of basketball games. What stat/stats do you look at first? What do you think those stats tell you about the game?

Appalachian State- Field goal percentage and turnovers. Mainly because turnovers have
been a big issue for ASU over the years and we’ve been given up some
gaudy FG% numbers this year.

Chattanooga- There are two things I look at first. One is rebounding for both teams. I am always curious as to who rebounds better, because generally that shows effort and hard work. That tells a lot about which team is going to win. The other stat is turnovers. If a team gets a lot more possessions than the other team and wins the rebounding battle, then that team normally wins the game.

College of Charleston- I usually look at FG% from both teams, rebounds and assist-to-turnovers first. I think those stats in combination can give you the best idea of how the game went.

UNCG- Two stats, (1) Free throws attempted - I think you can tell who was the most aggressive team based almost solely on that stat. If there is a huge discrepancy, you can guess the winner without seeing the score. (2) Turnovers - Huge discrepancy usually spells disaster for one team.