Scanning the SoCon- Week Ten

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. Also, don’t forget to play SoCon Pick ‘Em!

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- SoConJohn
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

Monday
Warren Wilson at Western Carolina

Tuesday
Appalachian State at  Wofford

Wednesday

Lees-McRae at UNCG

Thursday

Chattanooga at The Citadel
Samford at College of Charleston (ESPN3)

Saturday
UNCG at Western Carolina
Chattanooga at College of Charleston (ESPN3)
Davidson at Furman
Elon at Appalachian State
Samford at The Citadel
Georgia Southern at Wofford

POWER RANKINGS

1) Davidson 119 (9)

2) College of Charleston 110 (1)
3) Elon 97
4) Wofford 91
5) Western Carolina 81
6) Chattanooga 64
7) UNCG 57
8) Georgia Southern 50
9) Appalachian State 45
10) Samford 35
11) Furman 22
12) The Citadel 12

GAME OF THE WEEK

Chattanooga at College of Charleston- 3 votes

Others Receiving Votes- Georgia Southern at Wofford (2), Elon at Appalachian State (2), UNCG at Western Carolina (2), Appalachian State at Wofford (1)

QUESTIONS

Sum up your team since the last time you wrote.

Chattanooga- The Mocs have won four out of five right now, and are looking like a much more efficient offense. Yes, they still struggle some, but they look like they know what they are doing, and have become enjoyable to watch on the offensive end for much of the game. The Mocs wins have not been over great competition, but with no Davidson ahead on the schedule, there is not just a ton of elite talent left on the schedule. The Mocs could pick up some wins over the remainder of the season.

Davidson- Since I last wrote about the Wildcats, they've played 5 games. Those 5 were a home win over UNCW, a road loss at Drexel, a road win at Richmond, a loss in Charlotte to Duke, and a home win over UNCG. The Drexel loss was hard to stomach, primarily because of the huge rebounding deficit. Drexel won the boards 40-14. But the Wildcats rebounded really well in the other 4 games. +11 against UNCW, +12 against Richmond, +1 against Duke, and +30 against UNCG. Against Richmond, the Wildcats established a huge lead at 35-12, eventually gave it all back at 61-61, and then saw Nik Cochran score the final 9 points for the Cats to preserve a narrow win. The Duke game was fun. 13K+ in attendance, tied at the half, down 10 at the under-4 timeout, excellent defensive game plan, and the rare opportunity to play a #1 team. There was some worry among Wildcat fans that it would be hard to respond from a Wednesday loss to Duke and be ready for UNCG on Saturday. The game started out 8-0, was 45-27 at the half, and reached 77-40. It was easily the best game that the Wildcats have played this season. Coming up are road games at Furman and GSU and then home games with The Citadel and CofC.

Samford- When last I wrote, the Bulldogs had just finished getting drilled by Bowling Green. The Bulldogs took another loss to Sam Houston State (73-57), won at UT-Martin (75-62), and then took another loss against Wisconsin (87-51) in its last buy game. But look! Shiny objects! SoCon play started yesterday! Samford lost again. Chattanooga is a team that was hanging around during the second half of games against Kansas and Georgia Tech, but still only had three D1 wins entering the game on Saturday. I figured that this would be a fairly even game, and it was. Raijon Kelly’s admirable 27-point game was capped by missing a potential game-winner with seconds to play (after Samford freshman Clide Geffrard Jr. missed an open three-pointer that also would have won the game). Tim Williams continues to be a very special player. He contributed 18 points and 6 boards against the Mocs (and is averaging 14.4 ppg and 7.6 rpg). Pretty solid numbers for a true freshman. It is now time for Samford to try and climb up the standings on the backs of its (to this point) similarly ineffective peers.

The Citadel-The Citadel has now lost eight straight games. After a series of non-competitive contests, the Bulldogs did have their moments against Western Carolina on Saturday, but could not sustain quality play for an extended period of time. The Citadel has struggled on defense and with its turnover rate all season, and both of those issues were problems again in the game versus the Catamounts. The Bulldogs do have a bit more depth now with the return of freshman guard Raemond Robinson and forward P.J. Horgan (who originally was going to redshirt this season). Both performed well against WCU. I think Robinson, in particular, can be a big help for The Citadel. He has excellent athleticism (was a football and hoops star in high school). The Citadel has to find some way to stop teams from devoting all of their defensive game plans to stopping Mike Groselle. He isn't getting the ball nearly enough. If the Bulldogs can do that and cut down on their turnovers, they will start winning sooner rather than later -- but those are big ifs.

What was the most impressive performance of the out of conference season for the SoCon?

Chattanooga- It is obviously College of Charleston’s win over a ranked Baylor team that went on to beat Kentucky in Lexington, ending their long home winning streak. It was amazing to see the Cougars pull that one off.

Davidson-College of Charleston's win at Baylor. Baylor was ranked at the time. Excellent road win.

Samford- The best OOC win for the SoCon was probably Charleston’s 63-59 win at #24 Baylor. It was a win over a ranked team on the road. Nice one, Cougs! Other contenders were Wofford’s one-point win at Xavier and Davidson’s wins against West Virginia and Richmond.

The Citadel- The best win in OOC play was the CofC's win at Baylor.

What was the least impressive performance of the out of the conference season for the SoCon?

Davidson-There are several candidates here. Davidson's loss at UWM was ugly. WCU's home loss to a Liberty team that was without a D1 win was tragic. Up 4 at home with 10 seconds to play should be safe. But the winner has to be CofC's home loss to Anderson.

Samford- Charleston lost at home to D2 Anderson University by 16. Pack your bags and get out, Cougs! Just kidding; Anderson is a respectable team from the SAC, which is one of the better D2 leagues. This isn’t nearly so clear—lots of SoCon teams embarrassed the league out of conference. Other contenders include Samford’s 69-65 overtime loss to Alcorn State, the 22-point home beatdown AppState took against High Point, and the 21-point home thrashing Greensboro got from NC A&T. Furman gets a pass on their 21-point home thumpin’ by perennial Ivy League doormat Columbia who has turned out to be a really decent team.

The Citadel- Maybe Samford's neutral-site loss to Alcorn State.

UNCG- Losing to NC A&T at home. Ga Southern and UNCG can fight over this one.

UNCG was the preseason favorite to win the North. They are 1-9 against D1 competition. Their OOC schedule ranks 187. What's wrong with the Spartans? Do you think they will make a run at the North title?

Davidson-They closed last season with 4 losses in the last 5 games. They've lost 10 of 12 games this year. In those 17 games, their only wins have been over ASU, Citadel, and Winston-Salem State. They are a team without much size in the middle, a very inexperienced coaching staff, and not much of a culture of winning. Until last night, though, their losses have been relatively close. They have some skilled and dynamic players. When Trevis Simpson gets fully healthy and their freshmen get more experience, they'll get some wins. I don't think they'll make a run at the North title. I've always thought that Elon was the clear favorite in the North. I still expect the Spartans to battle the Catamounts for 2nd.

Samford- First, I’m not sold on Wes Miller. Nothing against the guy, but I’m not convinced he’s as good a coach last year’s bounceback made him look. Second, they’re somewhat justifiably over-reliant on Trevis Simpson (who I’m totally in the tank for) on offense; they need to diversify their production. Third, and most importantly, they can’t get enough stops or string them together at critical moments. That should be masked some once they run into other bad defensive teams, because the Spartans are actually pretty good offensively. Furman, AppState, Samford, and Citadel are all at least as bad as (maybe worse than) Greensboro on D at this point and not nearly as good as G on offense. The Spartans probably end up in the top third of the league and could win the division if they stay healthy. But don’t be fooled—they are not good.

The Citadel- I'm not sure UNCG's record is that big a surprise. The Spartans may have won the North division last season, but they lost 19 games while doing so. Despite struggling in non-conference action this year, UNCG is currently projected by KenPom to finish 10-8 in SoCon play, which conceivably could be a good enough record to win the North again (though I tend to doubt it).

UNCG- It's awful hard to pinpoint UNCG's problem. Been a little all over the place with this one. Defense is the obvious problem, but I think coaching is the underlying problem. Now don't get me wrong, I was fine with Miller getting the job and I don't think he's the problem himself. I just think last year he had a system in place and didn't tinker with it too much. He was able to make slight changes and get bigger results. This year has almost been a complete reset of offensive strategy, defensive strategy and even somewhat in personnel. Plus, I think this staff is still settling on what works and doesn't work. So I do think they will eventually turn things around. Will it be enough to win the north? That seems unlikely at this point, but not impossible. I do think they can go get a bye and that's what I want to see happen.