The Southern Conference men’s basketball season is set to start.
Furman and Elon will play the first 2011-12 league game tonight in Elon’s Alumni Gym. The other 10 SoCon schools will play Thursday, and each of the teams will have two games that count in the standings by the end of Monday.
The standings, of course, will shape the seeding for the SoCon tournament March 2-5 in the Asheville (N.C.) Civic Center.
“For us, it’s kind of neat that while everybody is in the middle of nonconference games, we get two games that count on the permanent record,” SoCon commissioner John Iamarino said. “I don’t know how much the coaches like it, but it’s the only practical way we can do an 18-game [league] schedule without forcing teams to play three games in five days.”
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Davidson were selected in preseason polls to win their divisions and earn first-round byes for the tournament. So far, SoCon men’s teams are a combined 33-32 with Elon having beat South Carolina from the Southeastern Conference and the College of Charleston having defeated Clemson of the Atlantic Coast Conference.