Southern Conference has earned extra respect

The Southern Conference was able to post a number of quality nonconference men’s basketball wins this season.

With that came a small level of respect.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga highlighted the SoCon’s success, which included six wins over teams in higher-regarded conferences.

The Mocs defeated Georgia of the Southeastern Conference, Illinois of the Big Ten and Dayton of the Atlantic 10. East Tennessee State won over Georgia Tech of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Mercer defeated Arkansas in overtime in Fayetteville, Ark., and Samford went on the road and beat Nebraska.

The SoCon’s RPI currently ranks 17th, higher than that of the Sun Belt and Conference USA, among others.

“It’s been a great year for our league,” Mercer coach Bob Hoffman said recently. “There are going to be lots of wins for all the teams in the league because they’ve played such a great nonconference schedule and done well. It’s really historic; it’s been a while since that’s happened, and what Chattanooga did is beyond historic. That’s as good as it gets.

“You couldn’t ask for anything more.”

UTC junior center Justin Tuoyo said the depth in the league this season makes the conference competition “fun.”

“You look at the scores and see that any team can come out and have a great week,” he said. “Furman and Samford are good teams in the conference. They might not be at the top, but if you don’t bring your ‘A’ games, you’ll lose. ETSU, Mercer and Wofford are great teams that you’ve got to prepare for, so it’s something to look forward to every week.”

There are two SoCon teams currently in the top 100 in RPI: UTC (61) and Mercer (96). ETSU is ranked 123rd out of 351 Division I teams, but the fourth-highest RPI belongs to Samford at 196. That likely means that, as usual, only the league tournament champion will receive a bid into the NCAA tournament, while others scramble in hopes that their resume is good enough for a National Invitation Tournament bid or a chance to play in one of the lower-level postseason tournaments.

Within league play, every SoCon team has a loss. UTC is currently first at 5-1, while ETSU and Mercer – who meet Thursday – are both 4-1. Wofford stands at 4-2, while Furman, which beat UTC 70-55 on Jan. 9, Western Carolina and UNC Greensboro each has three losses.

“There are no nights where you can just show up and win a game. That ain’t happening,” UTC coach Matt McCall said. “Games are going to come down to the wire, with one or two games determining the league championship and one or two possessions for the tournament champ. I think our league has got to continue to earn respect, and this year we’ve been able to do that. We have to continue to play, continue to compete and continue to win those games to continue to earn respect over the next couple of years.

“One thing about this year is there are tremendous coaches, so there are no nights off for any team, and that goes for the guarantee games as well. If you play a team from the Southern Conference, you have to be prepared, and that’s because there are really good coaches in this league.”

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleyfp.