Note: The following piece was prepared by Dean Keener, who provides commentary on Southern Conference men’s basketball broadcasts.
Keener played collegiately at Davidson before embarking on a successful 20-year coaching career. He served as head coach at James Madison from 2004-08. You can follow him on Twitter: @DeanKeener1
The Dean’s List
Dec. 18, 2019
I. Inside SoCon Hoops
The college basketball season is well underway and with that, Southern Conference hoops is alive and well. League members have accumulated big wins as well as holding serve at home. As of Dec. 17, SoCon teams are 46-9 (.836) in home games thus far this season. While there are a number of non-DI games included in that record, it’s great to see the league is taking care of business at home. But just 55 of 112 total games played have been home games for Southern Conference members (more on scheduling below).
Wofford and UNCG hold the biggest wins to date. The Terriers beat No. 17 North Carolina on Dec. 15 in Carmichael Arena. That was the second time in three years they have beaten the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill! UNCG beat Georgetown 65-61 on Nov. 30. Speaking of the Spartans, they have lost two heart-breakers as Montana State and NC State have both hit half-court buzzer-beaters to defeat the Spartans. Wes Miller’s group is due for some good luck in the very near future.
Furman has also played well in the nonconference season and gave Auburn all it could handle falling in overtime 81-78 on Dec. 5. All league members have several more chances in the remaining two weeks of 2019 to accumulate quality wins in order to help the league NET. The first NET was released on Dec. 16 and has four SoCon teams in the top 106. As a point of comparison, Conference USA has four in the top 106, the Mid-American and the Missouri Valley have two and the Colonial, Horizon and Sun Belt have none.
Three teams (ETSU, Furman and UNCG) should enter 2020 with at least 10 wins and it’s my opinion that league play will be more competitive than last year. While it may take 15 or 16 SoCon wins to capture the regular season title, I don’t believe we will see a team run the table like Wofford did last year.
II. Did You Know?
• As mentioned above, Wofford has defeated North Carolina during its last two trips to Chapel Hill. On Dec. 20, 2017, the Terriers won in the Smith Center and on Dec. 15, 2019, they won in Carmichael Arena, yet ACC member Clemson is 0-59 against the Tar Heels in games played in those arenas. That is the longest home winning streak against a single opponent in NCAA history!
• Southern Conference Commissioner Jim Schaus has a family connection to the league. His father, Fred Schaus, was the head coach a West Virginia from 1954-60, earning SoCon Coach of the Year honors four times during that span.
• Fifth-year ETSU coach Steve Forbes is third in SoCon history in career wins per season. He has averaged 25 wins in his first four season in Johnson City.
• Three SoCon teams are ranked in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 this week, as ETSU is No. 5, Furman is No. 10 and UNCG is No. 12.
• Wofford enters 2019-20 conference play with an 18-game winning streak after going undefeated last year. Its first conference game? At ETSU on New Year’s Day!
III. Five Observations thus Far
1. Furman lost the most versatile player in the league (Matt Rafferty) and has not missed a beat. In fact, Clay Mounce is currently ranked in the top 10 in five offensive categories.
2. Something special is brewing in Cullowhee. Western Carolina is off to a 7-2 start.
3. Josh Sharkey (Samford) continues to pile up the assists. With the Bulldogs’ game against Hawaii, he become eligible to be ranked in the NCAA stats (a player must play in 75 percent of his team’s games for eligibility) and is second with an average of 9.1 per game. At his current pace, he will finish second all-time in SoCon history, behind only the great Keith “Mister” Jennings (ETSU 1988-91).
4. Attendance looks to be up at several league members.
5. Alex Hunter (Furman) is third in Division I in assist turnover ratio at 5.75. He has committed just 8 turnovers in 411 minutes!
IV. Scheduling
Head basketball coaches must perform the following: Recruitment of student-athletes, create/sustain a system of play, develop a positive culture, stress player development, and have the ability to work with the media as well as boosters. The list of duties a head coach needs be competent in is long. But besides recruiting, scheduling is absolutely the critical component to winning. If a program has players and schedules correctly, chances are it will be successful.
That said, scheduling is difficult. And it’s different for every team in every season. A coach must be able to put together a schedule that fits his team from year-to-year. For Southern Conference schools, it varies from taking over a program and simply needing a manageable schedule to the need to raise money for the athletic department (playing “buy” games) to attempting to fill out a home schedule with a certain number of games to satisfy the AD and fan base. More recently, several SoCon schools have made scheduling a priority to improve their regional and national standing, but it’s getting more difficult.
The NCAA allows teams to play 29 regular-season games if there’s no tournament on the schedule or 27 games plus an exempt tournament that can include no more than four games. With several Power 7 conferences (ACC, American, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12 and SEC) moving to 20 conference games, the pressure is on teams outside the Power 7 to get creative with their scheduling needs, and here’s why.
As part of its agreement with ESPN on the new ACC Network, the ACC moved to a 20-game league schedule for the 2019-20 basketball season. Increasing the number of conference games will provide more content for the new ACC Network. The Big Ten has already moved to 20 conference games. So, here is why I think this could impact Southern Conference schools.
As an example, if Clemson plays in an exempt tournament, that only leaves seven games to schedule. Assuming they are in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge and continue their rivalry game with South Carolina, that only leaves five games to schedule. Like most ACC schools, Clemson will want many of those open dates, if not all of them, at home, so they may not want to schedule a “home-and-home” series.
Further, because of the added conference games, there are 30 fewer “buy” games scheduled in the ACC this season than there were last season. Therefore, it’s going to become increasingly harder for SoCon teams to get these Power 7 schools at home, and that’s sad. As an example, how much fun were the North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia Tech games at Wofford in previous seasons? To further complicate matters, many Southern Conference schools need to play “guarantee” or “buy” games. They need to go to a Power 7 school for a one-time game and receive as much as $100,000. This money helps athletic departments’ bottom lines. If a
Power 7 team only has a handful of games to schedule and is looking at “buying” a few to start the season, my guess is they will do it with lower level schools/conferences. Thus, SoCon schools will lose out on the money and the opportunity to beat a Power 7.
This doesn’t even mention how Southern Conference coaches use scheduling of ACC, SEC and Big 10 games in recruiting. Recruits are sold on the opportunity to play some of these high-major schools. Equally important, because “high majors” have more opportunities for quality wins, these teams have the upper hand as it relates to NCAA tournament bids.
With many Power 7 conferences moving to 20 league games, it may require Southern Conference teams to schedule more “mid-major” teams during the nonconference season. No doubt, this will be an interesting (and very important) challenge for SoCon coaches and administrators in the coming seasons. The further shrinkage of potential “high major” nonconference games puts teams in leagues such as the SoCon in a challenging spot. This is definitely something to watch at a member school near you.
VI. New Year’s Resolutions
It’s hard to believe, but 2020 is just two weeks away. With that, our annual New Year’s Resolution list is back. I think I have found some pretty realistic goals for each program as we enter the New Year:
The Citadel – Continued balance. After starting 0-3, the Bulldogs have won five of their last seven. They have four players in double figures and are shooting 37 percent from 3-point range as a team. Now they need to do it in league play.
ETSU – Don’t change a thing. Steve Forbes has another really good team. He’s got seven players averaging between 7.0-14.6 points per game. They also defend and rebound as well as anyone in the league. And yes, they are really good at home as ETSU has gone 57-11 (.838) inside Freedom Hall in the Forbes era, including 6-0 this season.
Furman – Continued chemistry. The Paladins have all the ingredients for success and it’s showed thus far. They have talent, depth, coaching and great chemistry. They simply need to keep playing team ball.
Mercer – Stay focused on the process! First-year coach Greg Gary has done a terrific job in six short months. That said, it’s going to be a process for the Bears.
UNCG – Keep handling their business (especially on defense). This Spartans team is really good. Wes Miller has created a true “program” that sustains time and we’re seeing it again this season. The Spartans lead the SoCon is scoring defense holding, opponents to just 57 points per game!
Samford – Fans! The Bulldogs are a solid team and deserve better than 594 fans per game. They are partly to blame as three of their five home games to date have been against non-Division I teams. Here’s hoping once the new year hits and student return to campus, the Pete Hanna Center fills up during league action!
Chattanooga – Stay focused on the long-term. Third-year coach Lamont Paris continues to put things together, but it’s going to be a process for the Mocs. Chattanooga will play five of seven at home from Dec. 29-Jan. 22, which should help.
VMI – Patience. The Keydets have played some good basketball at times this season; they just need to continue to have patience as this groups jells.
Western Carolina – Continued confidence. The Catamounts are a confident bunch and rightfully so. Mason Faulkner and Carlos Dotson are playing at all-conference levels and the supporting cast is pretty good, as well.
Wofford – Understand that it’s going to be a bit of a process. The Terriers will be just fine if they understand it’s going to take time to find their way to the top of the league. The victory at UNC shows what this group is capable of in league play.
We will start the SoCon Ladder as well as talk about happenings in the Southern Conference and college basketball in our next edition of “The Dean’s List” on Jan. 8, 2020. Happy Holidays to all!
Follow me on Twitter: @DeanKeener1