And So It Begins.....

Welcome back college basketball! It's time to get the season started.

As you all know by now, this blog is dedicated to two things:

1) Chattanooga Mocs basketball
2) SoCon mens basketball

There are 160 days between now and the SoCon Championship Game in Asheville, North Carolina on March 9. I hope you will join on me on this 160 day journey as we try to determine who will represent the SoCon in the NCAA Tournament.

It's a time full of change in the world. The thing you care the least about- I moved from Kentucky to North Carolina. Very recently. Still trying to sort it all out truthfully. My job transferred me out here. What does that mean to you? Almost nothing. What does it mean to me? It means I will be much closer to a lot of other SoCon schools and hopefully able to attend a handful of games at various schools this year. I'm really looking forward to this opportunity.

The SoCon has changed drastically since we last met. For one, a SoCon team is coming off a win in the NCAA Tournament. Two teams currently in the SoCon are coming off of NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time ever. Mercer won a game in the NCAA Tournament over Duke before falling to Tennessee. Wofford lost to Michigan in the first round.

Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, Elon and, of course, Davidson all left the SoCon. No more trying to squeeze into Elon's gym. No more hoping Georgia Southern and Appalachian State get it turned around. No more seeing if Davidson will do enough to earn an at large bid to the NCAA Tournament. It's all gone. Just. Like. That.

ETSU, VMI and Mercer are coming in. We might as well face it up front. Mercer just won an NCAA Tournament game. ETSU is a program back on the rise. VMI is a tricky team to play because of their offense. If Davidson had not left, the SoCon would be in better shape today than it was last year.

Even with Davidson leaving, there is a chance that the SoCon can improve it's overall RPI. Don't forget the SoCon was pathetic last year. They were 30th out of 32 conference last year. With Chattanooga rapidly improving, ETSU, Mercer and VMI replacing Appalachian State, Georgia Southern and Elon (which I think is a net positive for the SoCon), and with Wofford probably better than the team that won the SoCon Tournament a year ago, the conference RPI is likely to be better this year.

As strange as that sounds.

There's plenty to talk about in the coming weeks as we prepare for the SoCon season and the Mocs basketball season. I'll talk about all sorts of things in the coming days and weeks. I am working on getting a group together for Scanning the SoCon. I have five teams already committed and am working on the other five still. I'm assuming that we'll find them. We'll see.

If anyone has any thoughts on ways to improve the blog (especially as it concerns the SoCon aspects of it), please let me know.

I'll try to post every day from here on out, with some Mocs-centric and some SoCon-centric. Check back regularly.

Let's get this journey started!