Photo Credit: Furman News
Nothing gets my juices flowing more than when a mid-major conference gets multiple bids to the NCAA Tournament. We have a wild possibility this year that a low major conference, the SoCon, gets multiple bids. There are 3 top dogs in the conference Wofford, Furman, and UNC Greensboro. It gets a little funky because these 3 teams still have to play each other this season. This is how it has to play out.
UNC Greensboro currently is 21-3, but their best win in the nonconference was against Louisana Tech who has a KenPom rating of 137. They have no shot at getting an at large bid, even if they win out, so they will need to win the conference tournament to make the Big Dance.
Wofford sits at 20-4 with a KenPom ranking of 31. They don’t have any notable wins but all 4 losses came against tournament teams in North Carolina, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Mississippi State. They need to win out the regular season, except losing to Furman to build Furman’s resume up. If they do that they have a strong at large bid chance
Furman is 20-5 right now with a KenPom ranking of 58. They started off the season hot beating Loyola and Villanova and ranked inside the top 25, but they have fallen off in conference play losing 4 SoCon games. Furman needs to win out and lose to UNC Greensboro in the conference championship game for them to have a solid resume for an at large bid.
I would rather see these teams in the tournament than some 13 loss Big Ten team. It adds new flavor to the tournament and gives new teams a chance to shine on the big stage. Inject the 3 bid SoCon into my veins!!
