Scanning the SoCon Week #13

Scanning the SoCon - Week #13

Power Rankings
1. Chattanooga
2. Davidson
3. Western Carolina
4. Wofford
5. Elon
6. UNCG
7. Samford
8. App State
9. Ga Southern
10. Furman
11. Citadel

Game of the Week
Chattanooga @ Davidson

Player of the Week
Tim Williams

Sum up your team
Following the UNCG Spartans this season has been interesting. Just when I think they've figured everything out and are playing well, they completely crap the bed. Then I temper expectations and they will play lights out for several games in a row. Rinse. Repeat. Ever since a home win against Furman several weeks ago, UNCG has been on one of its downward swoons. It took overtime to beat the Citadel in a game that honestly UNCG didn't deserve to win. That was followed by the first 3 games losing streak of the season.

The Spartans have began to clean up their turnover problems of earlier, but have started a new awful trend. Silly fouls and arguing with refs. UNCG players can't help but to foul and they have compounded it with a lot of pouting, bitching and moaning. It's resulted in 4 technical fouls in the last 4 games. Even worse it seems to be the sole focus of some players and coaches. Good teams ca put marginal calls behind them and fight on. The Spartans are young and just haven't shown that ability. They are now looking at 2 winnable home games this coming week that should really tell us where G will stack up at the end of the season.

Which team with four or more SoCon losses (after Saturday) do you think has the best chance to win multiple game in Asheville?
This might be odd to say, but I don't think any of them will win more than one game in Asheville. Three teams look to be much, much better than everyone else in the league. Davidson and Western Carolina are very good and I just don't see them losing to any inferior opponent. I've been waiting for the Chattanooga Mocs to lose at some point. But there's just so many "this is the real test" games they can win before you just have to say that they are very good. By Sunday in Asheville, I expect to see those 3 teams and the 4/5 winner and I don't think any of the other 8 teams will come home with more than 1 win.

Dean Keener says in his post on SoConSports.com that there are no superstars in the SoCon. How do you define a star player and a superstar player? Do you think there is one in the SoCon right now?
I would define a star player as that can draw me to watch a team that I had no interest in seeing play otherwise. It's hard to say anyone in the SoCon has generated even a portion of the buzz that Stephen Curry generated several seasons ago. However, I think there are still stars on a more scaled down basis. Z Mason and De'Mon Brooks definitely qualify this year.

It was around this time that BracketBuster match-ups used to be announced. Of course, the BracketBusters are no more. Do you miss them? Or are you glad that they are gone?
Honestly, UNCG very rarely ever played in the bracketbusters. So, the fact that they went away didn't even occur to me until reading this question. Even though that event was billed as a mid major showcase, it really was only a WCC and MVC showcase. So, it doesn't bother me that it's gone. It was a nice idea that had outlived its time.