As the regular season of Southern Conference play has come to an end, all eyes shift toward Asheville, N.C. — where one team will be crowned as the conference champion. With this title comes the coveted automatic bid into the NCAA March Madness tournament. For the eight SoCon women’s teams and the ten SoCon men’s teams, nothing else matters but what happens in the Harrrah’s Cherokee Center on March 6-10.
As a mid-major basketball conference, the SoCon is unique in that every team is given a fair and equal chance to make the NCAA tournament. Most mid-major conferences are known as a “one-bid leagues” meaning that the only team who will represent the conference in the big dance is the champion of the conference tournament, regardless of regular season success.
For the women’s basketball team, the regular season left some to be desired. Finishing the regular season with a conference record of 5-9, the Dins enter Asheville as the sixth seed in the conference tournament. This means that the women’s team will kick off their title campaign against third-seeded Eastern Tennessee State University on Thursday, March 6 at 3:30 p.m.
The two prior matchups between these teams saw ETSU defeat the Paladins, first by a score of 72-62 on Jan. 30 in Greenville, S.C. Then, in the final game of the regular season on March 1, ETSU also defeated the Paladins 62-50 in Johnson City, Tenn.
The rest of the women’s quarterfinal games will also take place on Thursday, March 6 at Harrah’s Cherokee Center and be streamed on ESPN+.
1st seed UNCG Spartans vs. 8th seed Western Carolina Catamounts at 11 a.m.
2nd seed Chattanooga Mocs vs 7th seed Mercer Bears at 1:15 p.m.
3rd seed ETSU Buccaneers vs 6th seed Furman Paladins at 3:30 p.m.
4th seed Wofford Terriers vs 5th seed Samford Bulldogs at 5:45 p.m.
For the men’s team, the season has been one of many ups and downs. The Dins entered SoCon play with a franchise best 12 wins, and then the beginning of conference play stopped all momentum. Furman found themselves fighting to hang on to the 7th seed in the tournament with a little less than three weeks left in the regular season.
However, with four games left, the Paladins figured it out and have been rolling since with several big wins, including on the road against Samford and Wofford to close out the year. The Dins enter the tournament on the second longest win streak in the conference at four games and have set themselves up as the fifth seed in the tournament.
As the fifth seed, the Paladins secured a first-round bye in the tournament and will begin their championship journey on Saturday, March 8 against the fourth seed Samford Bulldogs at 8:30 p.m.
In the two regular season matchups between these two teams, Furman came out victorious in both games. In each game, Furman jumped out to large leads and had to fight back against second half surges from the Bulldogs. On Jan. 29, Furman defeated Samford 72-70 in a thriller in Greenville, S.C., and on Feb. 19, Furman went into Birmingham, Ala. and defeated Samford 80-72.
The rest of the men’s seven through ten seeds will play on Friday, March 7, and then the quarterfinal matchups will commence on Saturday, March 8 — with all games being streamed on ESPN+.
Friday, March 7:
8th seed Mercer Bears vs 9th seed Western Carolina Catamounts at 5 p.m.
7th seed VMI Keydets vs 10th seed Citadel Bulldogs at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 8:
1st seed Chattanooga Mocs vs Mercer/Western Carolina winner at 12 p.m.
2nd seed UNCG Spartans vs VMI/Citadel winner at 2:30 p.m.
3rd seed ETSU Buccaneers vs 6th seed Wofford Terriers at 6 p.m.
4th seed Samford Bulldogs vs 5th seed Furman Paladins at 8:30 p.m.
