Justin Glover is the RTC correspondent for the Southern Conference.

Standings (conference/overall):

NORTH

1. Western Carolina  (1-0/6-1)
2. Samford  (1-0/2-5)
3. Chattanooga  (0-0/4-3)
4. UNC Greensboro  (0-0/1-4)
5. Appalachian State  (0-1/4-4)
6. Elon  (0-1/2-6)

SOUTH

1. Furman  (1-0/5-1)
2. Charleston  (1-0/2-3)
3. Davidson  (1-0/2-5)
4. Citadel  (0-1/5-4)
5. Wofford  (0-1/4-4)
6. Georgia Southern  (0-1/3-5)

Quick Hits: Western Carolina is the hottest team in the conference right now with a 6-1 record with its only loss coming against #2 Texas.  The Catamounts are coming off a home victory over Wofford 72-67 getting a huge game from senior guard Brandon Giles pouring in 22 points and 5 rebounds to give WCU its first conference win of the season.  The Catamounts hosted part of the CBE Classic winning all three of its home games against Arkansas-Monticello (70-44), Binghamton (73-44), and Duquesne (83-77).  Western Carolina has an impressive 5-0 record at home in the Liston B. Ramsey Center.  The Furman Paladins aren’t far behind the Catamounts posting a solid 5-1 start to its season including a road victory against Appalachian State, 85-82, on Thursday December 3.  Junior guard Jordan Miller was lights out scoring 26 points going 4-5 from 3-point land.  The Southern Conference opened conference play this week with Samford, Charleston, and Davidson also earning victories.

Read the rest of this entry »

Justin Glover is the RTC correspondent for the Southern Conference.

Quick look at the early standings with overall records…

NORTH

1. Chattanooga 2-0
2. Appalachian State 2-1
3. Western Carolina 1-1
4. Elon 1-2
5. UNC Greensboro 0-2

SOUTH

1. Furman 2-0
2. Wofford 2-1
3. Charleston 1-1
4. Citadel 1-1
5. Georgia Southern 1-2
6. Davidson 0-2

Some of the top storylines from the Southern Conference are Wofford playing tough basketball early after nearly defeating Pittsburgh on the road before losing 63-60.  The Terriers held a 10-point lead with ten minutes to play after junior preseason all-conference honoree Noah Dahlman scored 20 points and seven rebounds to almost shock Pittsburgh at home.

Davidson opened its 2009-10 campaign with a tough loss on the road against #10 Butler, 73-62.  The Wildcats were only down two points heading into the second half but the Bulldogs pulled away late.  Sophomore forward Ben Allison scored 13 points and had seven rebounds in the loss.

Wofford continued its solid play by defeating Georgia 60-57 on the road and really boosted the conference RPI with that win.  Dahlman was again in double figures with 11 points.

Another nice storyline to follow in the next couple of weeks is how good can Furman and Chattanooga could be after both starting the year at 2-0.

Two players from the Southern Conference who came through for their respective teams were Josh Bonney (Elon) and Jordan Miller (Furman).  Bonney led Elon in scoring for the week, averaging 16.7 PPG in three games last week against Lipscomb, Charlotte, and Coastal Carolina, achieving a career-high 24 points in that season opener against Lipscomb, a 91-86 victory.  Miller scored 23 points in the season opener against Lees-McRae in a 88-49 win, then followed up that performance with ten points against Presbyterian in a 68-64 victory.

Read the rest of this entry »

Justin Glover is the RTC correspondent for the Southern Conference. Click here for all of our 2009-10 Season Preview materials.

Predicted Order of Finish:

North Division

1. Western Carolina (13-5 SoCon) 22-11 overall
2. Samford (11-7 SoCon) 16-15 overall
3. Applachian State (9-9 SoCon) 17-14 overall
4. Chattanooga (8-10 SoCon) 15-17 overall
5. Elon (7-11 SoCon) 16-16 overall
6. UNC-Greensboro (2-16 SoCon)  4-26 overall

South Division

1. College of Charleston (15-3 SoCon)  24-9 overall
2. Davidson (11-7 SoCon) 19-14 overall
3. Citadel (10-8 SoCon) 17-15 overall
4. Wofford (8-10 SoCon) 16-17 overall
5. Georgia Southern (6-12 SoCon) 11-20 overall
6. Furman (5-13 SoCon) 10-21 overall

All-Conference Team:

• Andrew Goudelock (G) – College of Charleston (Jr.) – 16.7 ppg
• Cameron Wells (G) – The Citadel (Jr.) – 15.6 ppg
• Harouna Mutombo (F) – Western Carolina (So.) – 14.4 ppg
• Bryan Friday (F) – Samford (Sr.) – 12.5 ppg
• Noah Dahlman (C) – Wofford (Jr.) – 17.8 ppg

6th Man. Jake Robinson – Western Carolina (Sr) – Led the team in three pointers made (60) and attempted (167), coming off the bench in 19 games.

Impact Newcomer. Rashad Wright – College of Charleston – Intimidating presence inside with his 6’9″ frame, averaged 10.8 points, 8.2 rebounds and four blocks a game at South Kent High School last season will look to contribute to a team that is lacking in size.

What You Need to Know. Although this conference lacks the star power of a certain recently departed, diminutive guard from Davidson, the conference is not devoid of talent as witnessed by the fact that the aforementioned guard didn’t even make the NCAA tournament last year. While the Wildcats will certainly fall off this year, don’t be surprised to see the second most famous basketball personality in the league last year (Bobby Cremins) getting plenty of airtime in March.

Predicted Champion: College of Charleston (NCAA Seed: #15) – Made it to the SoCon Championship game last season after a Cinderella type run knocking off the favorite in Davidson on their way to the finals. They have always been an athletic team that uses stellar guard play to offset lack of size inside. With the starting back court of Tony White Jr., who scored 31 points in the SoCon finals game against Chattanooga, and junior all-conference candidate Andrew Goudelock who led the team in points per game and three pointers. CofC should be the team to beat in the Southern Conference this season with close to 75% of its scoring coming back from a team that made the finals in the conference tournament.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ed. Note: the previous posts in this series (Northeast and Mid-Atlantic) are located here.

Here we are with the third installment of our RTC 2009-10 Impact Players series, the ridiculously loaded South Atlantic region.   Each week we’ll pick a geographic area of the country and break down the five players who we feel will have the most impact on their teams (and by the transitive property, college basketball) this season.  Our criteria is once again subjective – there are so many good players in every region of the country that it’s difficult to narrow them down to only five  in each – but we feel at the end of this exercise that we’ll have discussed nearly every player of major impact in the nation.  Just to be fair and to make this not too high-major-centric, we’re also going to pick a mid-major impact player in each region as our sixth man.  We welcome you guys, our faithful and very knowledgeable readers, to critique us in the comments where we left players off.  The only request is that you provide an argument – why will your choice be more influential this season than those we chose?

South Atlantic Region  (DC, VA, NC, SC, GA)

• Al-Farouq Aminu, Soph, F – Wake Forest.  After a recruiting class compiled by the late Skip Prosser that included first-round selections Jeff Teague and James Johnson, third year coach Dino Gaudio managed to lure five-star talent Al-Farouq Aminu to campus the next season. By all accounts, Aminu had a tremendous freshman season when looking at the big picture. He averaged nearly 13 points per contest, grabbed over eight rebounds a game and shot over 50% from the floor. He starred in Wake wins against BC (26/7), Clemson (21/10) and Duke (15/10). Aminu led all ACC rookies in rebounding, including 11 games as the Deacons team leader while scoring in double-figures 22 times. Due to his superior talent, Wake fans will still maintain they expect Aminu to take it to another level in 2009-10. Too often the 6’9 forward disappeared, though, scoring four points in 28 minutes in a 27-point loss to Miami or nine points in a close loss to bottom-feeder NC State or an 8 point, 2/12 FG performance in the ACC Tournament defeat at the hands of rival Maryland. These peaks and valleys are typical of even the most talented freshmen (besides maybe Kevin Durant), so Aminu shouldn’t be held accountable for Wake’s slide from the #1 team in the land to March goat. But with Teague and Johnson departed, it’s now Aminu’s team in Winston-Salem. With first-round talent and ability, the sky’s the limit for AFA in his second season leading a young Wake Forest squad back to the Dance to avenge last season.
• Trevor Booker – Sr, F – Clemson. Trevor Booker is the best player that most people still have never heard of.  Consider this: there are three returning players in America who were more efficient than Booker last season and you would have no problem picking all three out of a photographic lineup: Luke Harangody, Patrick Patterson and Cole Aldrich.  But do you even know what Booker looks like?  You will this year, as the beefy, athletic 6’7 forward can do it all and should vault into ACC POY territory with another year under his belt.  Let’s take a closer look.  As a second-team all-ACC selection and the top vote-getter on the all-defensive team last season, he trailed only Ty Lawson among high-usage (>20mpg) league players in eFG% (58%), led the conference in FG% and rebounding (first ACC player to do so since Tim Duncan) and averaged a double-double (15/10) in last year’s tough ACC.  But most importantly to Clemson fans, Booker is only 20 wins away from becoming the winningest player in the history of the Tiger program.  In his three seasons at Clemson, his teams have averaged 24  wins against 10 losses, and the 26 ACC Ws and two NCAA Tournament appearances the Tigers have achieved in large part through his ferocious dunks and tenacious defense represent the best three-year period in the program’s history.  Booker had a slight scare last month with a low-grade stress fracture in his foot, but he’s expected to be completely healthy for the beginning of practice in October.  It’s a good thing, because when Booker hangs up his kicks for the last time as a Clemson Tiger next March, he may very well be in the argument as the most accomplished player in the history of Clemson basketball.

Read the rest of this entry »