Coach Steve Forbes arrived at East Tennessee State in the spring of 2015 with the intention of having his basketball team playing in late-season games that matter.
He definitely has such an opportunity tonight.
His Buccaneers host Furman tonight at Freedom Hall in Johnson City, with the winner claiming the inside track at the top seed for next week's Southern Conference tournament in Asheville, N.C. Those two teams have a one-game lead in the loss column over UNC Greensboro and a two-game lead over the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga headed into the final week of the regular season.
ETSU is 22-6 overall, 12-3 in league games, while Furman is 20-9 and 13-3.
"This is huge," Forbes said Tuesday by phone. "Our goal is to play our best in March; it's either March Madness or March Sadness. It's late February and we have a chance to compete for a title."
The Paladins won the first meeting 75-62 in Greenville, S.C., scoring 24 points off 20 ETSU turnovers.
"They whipped us," Forbes said. "We played bad, but they gave us a good whipping."
Besides the four men's teams with double-digit SoCon wins, Wofford has nine and Samford and Mercer each has seven. The only thing really settled about the league standings is that Virginia Military Institute (3-12), The Citadel (2-13) and Western Carolina (2-13) will be playing in tournament play-in games.
The women's side seems pretty clear. Mercer (22-5, 11-2) technically holds a half-game lead over UTC (16-10, 10-2), but if the Mocs defeat Furman and Wofford at home this week, they'll be the top seed by virtue of their season sweep of the Bears by an average of 19 points.
ETSU and Furman are battling for third, each 7-5 in the SoCon, while UNCG is 7-6 after upset wins over UTC and ETSU last week. Samford (4-9), Wofford (2-10) and Western Carolina (2-11) fill the final three slots with a week to play.
Joyner honored
UTC's Jasmine Joyner was named the SoCon women's player of the week after averages of 15.5 points, 12 rebounds and 3.5 blocks in the team's 1-1 week on the road. She shot 56 percent from the field and had back-to-back double-doubles, giving her 11 for the season.
It was her third honor of the season and seventh of her career.
Holland men's POW
Mercer's Ria'n Holland was the men's player of the week after a 32-point performance against The Citadel.
He finished 9-for-15 from the field and 9-of-10 from the free-throw line and tied a season high with eight rebounds. He was 5-for-7 from 3-point range.
Other top performers were The Citadel's Preston Parks, ETSU's Tevin Glass, UNCG's Diante Baldwin, Samford's Alex Thompson and Wofford's Cameron Jackson.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.