How the SoCon Tournament Could Play Out

There are still about three weeks of regular season basketball left on the schedule, but let's take a moment now to look at how the Tournament in Chattanooga could play out. I know what you're thinking: "CofC is way too inconsistent for this preview to be a reasonable expectation" or "you're only writing this now because CofC is currently in 1st place" or "you're blog doesn't hold my interest for very long." Well, those first two assumptions are certainly correct. Now let's take a look at what our path to March Madness might look like. 

If the season ended today, Charleston and Wofford would receive byes for finishing at the top of the South division. I can be reasonably certain (but again you never know) that these two schools can retain those spots. The only remaining hiccups in the schedule for the Cougars are at Appy and at Citadel. For Wofford, they still could lose games at Chattanooga and at Furman.

On to the North Division. Chatty is comfortably in first place with a record of 10-3. Their remaining schedule is no cake walk. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if they lose 2 games out of: at App, at Western and Furman/Wofford in Chattanooga. WCU as well has a more difficult end-of season stretch and could be leapfrogged by App State for the 2 seed. That North Division is like the NFC West. Each team sucks but they manage to beat each other and two of them will earn byes. 

Having said this, let's take a look at what would happen if these top 4 teams kept it together and got byes. The first day of the tournament would be (My prediction for the winner is in bold) :

UNCG vs Citadel 

Furman vs Elon

Davidson vs Samford

App State vs GSU

If that plays out according to plan, here's day 2.

CofC vs Citadel

• Nice rivalry game in the 2nd round. Cadets elect to hang outside Berry dorm for the Weekend rather than travel to Chattanooga. Cougars roll.

WCU vs Furman

• I'll take a slightly tired Furman team over Western. It could be close (they were crushed by Western Carolina in Rednecksville, NC)

Chatt vs Davidson

• This is where it gets interesting. Chattanooga at home is very tough to beat (we oughta know), but the Curry holdovers WILL show up and I can see McKillop having a very clear game plan to knock out the Mocs. He did it once. I'll take Davidson.

Wofford vs App State

• Rematch of last year's final game. Wofford wins again.

Here's a look at what might happen in the all-south division semi-finals:

CofC vs Furman

• We've twice displayed an ability to defeat the Paladins. Call me biased but results don't lie. Cougars head to the championship game.

Davidson vs Wofford

• GREAT game between two fantastic, methodical squads. I think that Davidson's schedule finally catches up to them and they can't stay aggressive against Dahlman. Wofford heads to their 2nd straight championship game.

So there you have it, a Wofford/CofC Socon Final. Makes sense, the two best teams fight on ESPN2 for a spot in the big dance. Wofford will give the Cougars everything they've got and this might be the game where we really miss Jeremy. Who knows what will happen. As long as we don't have to face the Mocs on their homecourt with a championship on the line again, I'll feel good about our chances.

But let's take everything one game at a time. On to Elon.