The days of Steph Curry are over, yet people, for some reason, still think this is a mid-major conference. It is not. It is not close. This is low-major basketball, and this might be the season that most exemplifies that. This was an incredibly shaky year up and down the SoCon as evidenced by the fact that an untalented Chattanooga team can go 12-4 and finish second place. Just look at the tempo-free stats, which puts SIX SoCon teams that couldn’t crack the top 290 teams in the country. Even Davidson, who won another regular season title, had a down year, winning just 3 of 13 noncon games against D-1 opponents. When you see Davidson as a 16-seed (or another SoCon team in the First Four) on Selection Sunday, don’t fall into the trap of thinking they’re underseeded.
Davidson is the overwhelming championship choice in the CTC, as 20 of the 25 took the ‘Cats. A couple people believed in The Citadel as the surprise of the opening round and GA-Southern as the surprise semifinalist. #6 UNC-Greensboro is the lowest selected finalist. Bry is trying to defend his 2013 SoCon championship. He, Lynch, Stri, and GrossJr all have the chance to become the first multiple-time SoCon winner, as we have had 6 winners in 6 years in this league.
CHAMPIONSHIP (March 10th – 18 points)
#3 Wofford vs #5 Western Carolina
Not exactly the SoCon championship people were expecting – at least the WCU part. It is hard to believe that the SoCon title won’t have either Davidson or Elon. Western Carolina has certainly earned this spot here, slipping past Elon in the quarters and then winning an OT thriller over Davidson in the semis. Wofford, on the other hand, has had the one of the cushiest paths to a title that I can remember, as everything has broken their way. That said, they are still a very good team, who should be considered the favorite here on Monday.
Only two people have anything to gain here in this one. No one even had WCU reaching the finals, let alone winning it, so a Catamount title (which will be a very impressive run) will zero out the SoCon championship. Colton and PapaCim are the only two with Wofford and stand to gain a quick 30 points on the rest of the field if the Terriers take care of business here. With a Wofford win, PapaCim will win his second CTC conference title of 2014 (having already secured the MVC). If WCU wins, the current standings will hold, which means Lazarow will back into the title based on an excellent performance in the earlier rounds.
Wofford 56 – Western Carolina 53
I guess the future is now for this incredibly young Wofford team. Ranked 301st out of 351 D-I teams in experience, the young Terriers took advantage of a ton of breaks throughout this tournament and are going dancing. The grizzled veteran, JR Karl Cochran led the team with 23 in an ugly game that felt just as sweet. Former walkon and now WCU’s leading scorer, Trey Sumler, had an incredible tournament and led a big comeback in this game, but just rimmed-out a three that would have tied it at the end of regulation. It is hard to believe that Wofford punches a Dance ticket after beating The Citadel, Georgia-Southern, and Western Carolina, but that’s exactly what happened. You can only play who is in front of you.
Colton and PapaCim picked up a free 30 points on the rest of the field with this win. It also clinched PapaCim’s second CTC conference title of the year.
SEMIFINALS (March 9th – 12 points)
#1 Davidson vs #5 Western Carolina
Both teams in the first SoCon semifinal are coming off impressive quarterfinal performances. Davidson in a blowout win over Samford; Western Carolina in a nice win over a solid Elon team. Now, they meet for the right to play in a game on national TV for all the SoCon marbles.
No one has WCU here. Lazarow, Scoot, and Stumpf have already lost it. The other 22 all have the Wildcats, including an incredible number of 20 that have them winning the tournament.
Western Carolina 99 – Davidson 97 (OT)
MADNESS! First of all, I have to reference the preview I wrote for the Wofford game, where I predicted a WCU 7-overtime win. I was only off by 6 overtimes, but still – what a break for Wofford! But, this is all about the Catamounts here, as they snapped a 13-game winning streak by erasing a 15-point deficit. Davidson – a huge favorite to win this tournament – went 15-1 in the SoCon this season and yet are NIT-bound, despite shooting 55% from the floor on this day. There just wasn’t enough defense in this game. The loss ends the great SoCon career of De’Mmon Brooks and is probably the biggest shock of the day on Sunday.
Not a single person got this one right, but Lazarow, Scoot, and Stumpf are thrilled to have this game completely zeroed out. Also, PapaCim and Colton – who have Wofford winning this tournament – are now the only two left with any shot at getting the SoCon champ right.
#3 Wofford vs #7 Georgia-Southern
Could Wofford have caught any better breaks? They finish in a three-way tie for 3rd and win the tiebreaker, which means the other two had to play each other in the 4/5 game on the same side if the bracket as Davidson. Whereas, Wofford gets the 3-seed on the opposite side and gets 11th-seeded Citadel after an upset and now 7th-seeded GA-Southern after another upset. Chances are WCU will beat Davidson in like 7 overtimes and have nothing left for the final. But, I guess don’t sleep on GA-S, as they do have some talent, though they didn’t come within 10 points of Wofford in two regular season meetings.
8 people (Alexi, GrossSr, Lohse, Primm, RDoc, Scoot, Stumpf, WaTers) have already lost this game with either Chattanooga or Greensboro. No one has GA-S winning this game, and the other 17 all have Wofford, including Colton and PapaCim, who have the Terriers winning this tourney.
Wofford 71 – Georgia-Southern 57
Like I said, this is working out incredibly well for Wofford, as they got the bye, then rolled over 11th-seeded Citadel and now they easily handle 7th-seeded GA-Southern playing their 3rd game in 3 nights. And, the early game was an overtime win for WCU (it wasn’t 7 overtimes, like I predicted, but wow was I eerily close!). Now, the Terriers are a win away from making the Dance with a good, but young team.
17 people got this right, including Colton and PapaCim, who now have the inside track towards a really nice championship pick.
QUARTERFINALS (March 8th – 6 points)
#1 Davidson vs #8 Samford
Bob McKillop just gets it done. Many mid- and low-major programs bubble up on the backs of a stud that fell through the cracks or a perfect combination of seniors or an elite coach passing through on their way to a major conference. But, very few are consistent winners. Davidson didn’t just come up when they somehow got Steph Curry to go to a school of 1,200 kids. Davidson has stayed relevant for a decade now. In the era of Gonzaga, that might not seem all that impressive, but it is. Butler and VCU are big schools with a lot of resources. Wichita State and Creighton have long histories and a whole lot of money invested in athletics and play in stadiums 8 times the size of the entire student body of Davidson. But, the Wildcats just keep getting it done. Led this year by the stud, D’Mon Brooks, the ‘Cats went 15-1 in conference, with the only loss coming in overtime to an Elon team that was actually picked to finish ahead of them in the preseason by many prognosticators…not smart ones, obviously. McKillop’s squad opens the quarterfinal quadruple-header against 8th-seeded Samford, who took care of App State on Friday.
All 25 people have Davidson winning here to go to the semis. Everyone except Lazarow, Scoot, and Stumpf have the ‘Cats going to the finals. And, everyone except those 3 plus Colton, PapaCim, and WaTers have them winning the championship.
Davidson 77 – Samford 54
#4 Elon vs #5 Western Carolina
As I mentioned above, a lot of preseason predictors picked Elon to win the SoCon over Davidson this year. And, in their defense, it did look like “their year,” and Davidson was rebuilding – at least for that program. But, I personally never bought into it even when Davidson was going 4-10 in the noncon, and Elon was beating the likes of Georgia State, Marist, and VMI. In the end, Davidson won the SoCon handily and Elon was left picking up the scraps. But, the Phoenix are almost certainly the second-best team in the league, but as the 4-seed in a conference that has 5 good teams, Elon is stuck playing a really tough quarterfinal before a probable semifinal date with #1. Western Carolina is like the forgotten contender in the SoCon this year. Davidson is the alpha; Elon is the runner-up; Wofford is the solid program coming back to contention; Chattanooga is the out-of-nowhere contender. What is WCU? They are a very talented team that is flying completely under the SoCon radar. This should be easily the best SoCon quarterfinal with the winner probably on a collision course with Davidson in the semis.
7 people (Alexi, Caleb, Colton, Dave, GrossSr, Primm, Teddy) took the minor upset of WCU here, though none of them have the Catamounts going to the finals. The other 18 all have Elon, with Lazarow, Scoot, and Stumpf all picking the Phoenix to make the finals. Lazarow has them winning this tournament.
Western Carolina 66 – Elon 64
#2 Chattanooga vs #7 Georgia-Southern
The Moccasins of Chattanooga were picked towards the bottom of the league and, while their tempo-free numbers aren’t pretty, they just flat-out won games. 12-4 in the conference and 18-13 overall and the Mocs earned the 2nd-seed here in the tournament. Their first hurdle is a GA-Southern team that hammered Furman in the opening round.
7 people (Bry, Chris, Lazarow, Mac, PapaCim, RDoc, Stritts) went with a decent upset pick here with GA-S. The other 18 all have Chattanooga here. Only 6 (Alexi, Lohse, Primm, Scoot, Stumpf, WaTers) have the Mocs making the finals, with the latter 3 all picking them to win it all.
Georgia-Southern 62 – Chattanooga 55
#3 Wofford vs #11 The Citadel
The surprise of the opening round here in Asheville was the last-place Citadel taking out UNC-Greensboro with relative ease. They now have a shot at a Wofford team that is a legit threat to anyone in this league right now. And, there are few teams anywhere that have come as far as Wofford over the course of the season. The Terriers are very young, and the future is very bright, but they are focused on the now, and, like most good, young teams, they are playing their best ball here in the later part of the season. From January 20th to February 20th, the Terriers went 9-0. Then, they lost a close one at Davidson before going on the road to beat Elon. They finished the regular season with a head-scratching loss to UNC-Greensboro, but after back-to-back road games against the top 2 teams in the league, the young squad was due for a letdown and better then than now. And, if it was matchup-based, Wofford dodged a huge bullet, as Greensboro was due to face them here in the quarters, but they were taken out by The Citadel, winners of just 2 conference games all year (though, they did take the Terriers to OT in one of their two meetings). With Davidson and Elon both on the other side of the bracket, and Greensboro getting upset, it seems to be breaking right for a potential Wofford run here – or maybe they just have to wait a year for these young’ins to mature. They will be very good.
Alexi, GrossSr, RDoc, Scoot, Stumpf, and WaTers have all already lost this game with Greensboro. The other 19 people all have Wofford, including Colton and PapaCim, who have the Terriers winning this tournament outright. 15 people besides Colton and PapaCim have Wofford making the finals, but losing, so another Citadel upset would be a huge bracket-buster.
Wofford 68 – The Citadel 51
OPENING ROUND (March 7th – 3 points each)
#8 Samford vs #9 Appalachian State
Samford was one loss away from making this a matchup of 20-loss teams. The sad part is that both of these teams were picked in the top 5 in preseason projections. App State was actually picked 3rd behind Davidson and Elon, but they were just awful all year. Samford wasn’t much better, and whoever gets through this should be no match for #1 Davidson in the quarters.
Only 10 people (Alexi, Caleb, Chris, Dave, Gersh, Lazarow, Lynch, Primm, Scoot, Teddy) went with favored Samford here. No one has either of these teams beating Davidson on Saturday.
Samford 70 – Appalachian State 56
After a back-and-forth first half, Samford took control in the second half and sent App State off to the Sun Belt with a ho-hum 14-point victory. They will now take a shot at #1 Davidson on Saturday.
10 people got this one for a whole 3 points.
#7 Georgia-Southern vs #10 Furman
GA-Southern actually looked semi-decent at times this year, but that might be because they got to play teams like Furman all through this pathetic season in the SoCon. These two teams just played on Thursday, with GA-Southern going into Furman and beating the Paladins on their home floor. The winner of this game will take on the 2nd-seeded Chattanooga Moccasins in the quarters.
Only Caleb, Dave, Gersh, and GrossJr went with Furman in an upset here, though none have them going any further. GA-Southern could bust some brackets with a loss here, as 7 people (Bry, Chris, Lazarow, Mac, PapaCim, RDoc, and Stritts) have them beating Chattanooga in the quarters.
Georgia-Southern 65 – Furman 50
GA-Southern dominated a really bad Paladin team in every way. The Eagles shot 50% and held Furman to 36%. They forced 16 TOs to only 12 of their own. They outrebounded Furman 34-23. This game was never in doubt. GA-S now moves on to Saturday’s quarterfinals to take on 2nd-seeded Chattanooga.
4 people missed out on an upset pick here, while 7 others keep alive a nice upset in the next round.
#6 UNC-Greensboro vs #11 The Citadel
The worst of this bad league, The Citadel, actually showed some promise and had a really tough-luck season (not that that means they’re any good). Of the 14 conference losses, 1o of them were by single-digit margins, and two were in overtime. One of those OT losses was at UNC-Greensboro in the only matchup these two had in the regular season. As crazy as it sounds, The Citadel might actually be a live underdog here. If they can pull it off, they will face off with the other team they took to OT, 3rd-seeded Wofford.
Bry, Doogan, Lazarow, and Lynch all swung for the fences with The Citadel here. None of them have them any further. A Citadel upset would be most devastating to GrossSr’s and RDoc’s SoCon brackets, as they have Greensboro reaching the finals. Scoot, Stumpf, and WaTers all have Greensboro beating Wofford in the quarters.
The Citadel 86 – UNC-Greensboro 76
In one of the more surprising results of the week, The Citadel moves on to the quarterfinals to face 3rd-seeded Wofford. The winning side of this game wasn’t as much a surprise as the thorough domination that the Bulldogs put on the Spartans. The last-place Citadel went up early and never relinquished the lead.
Bry, Doogan, Lazarow, and Lynch all hit a really nice upset pick here. GrossSr and RDoc got hit hard with this result, as they lost a finalist. Scoot, Stumpf, and WaTers also took a hit here, as they had Greensboro in the semis.
CTC UPDATE
Championship Picks
- #1 Davidson (20)
- #2 Chattanooga (3) – Scoot, Stump, WaTers
- #3 Wofford (2) – Colton, PapaCim
- #4 Elon (1) – Lazarow
Biggest Upsets
- R1 – #11 The Citadel (Bry, Doogan, Lazarow, Lynch)
- QF – #7 Georgia-Southern (Bry, Chris, Lazarow, Mac, PapaCim, RDoc, Stritts)
- SF – #6 UNC-Greensboro (GrossSr, RDoc)
Previous CTC Champions
- 2008 – Ina
- 2009 – Lynch
- 2010 – Stri
- 2011 – GrossJr
- 2012 – Lil Lohse
- 2013 – Bry
Final 2014 Scores
- PapaCim – 83 (’14)
- Lazarow – 74
- Bry – 71 (’13)
- Colton – 71
- Chris – 56
- Lynch – 53 (’09)
- Mac – 53
- Stritts – 53
- Doogan – 50
- Teddy – 44
- Caleb – 41
- Dave – 41
- Becks – 32
- Gersh – 32
- J – 32
- Stri – 32 (’10)
- RDoc – 30
- GrossJr – 29 (’11)
- Primm – 27
- Alexi – 21
- GrossSr – 21
- Lohse – 15
- Scoot – 12
- Stumpf – 9
- Waters – 9
