Southern Conference

Justin Gray.

Yes, Justin Gray did a hell of a job in the SoCon.

I am buying

stock

Sunbelt, right?

Yeah.

Well, no, he was in the SoCon.

With Western before this.

Same thing happened against Charlotte.

And so now, here comes this West Carolina Catamounts team, who's a pretty new team, but last year, they led the SOCON in, guess what, offensive rebound percentage.

And the guy that led the entire conference in offensive rebounding percentage is back in the form of 6'9", 225-pound Samuel Dada, which is an incredible last name.

And for Donna, he's not their starting five.

You got a job to do, my guy.

This is actually, as you look at Western Carolina and what they do and what Carolina has struggled with, a great test.

Because yes, this is a mid-major SOCON team, but they've got some good size along their starting lineup.

And we'll talk more about that here in a little bit.

They had a bunch of roster pieces that didn't seem to fit.

They only won 13 games and they got knocked off in the first round of the SOCON tournament.

So they did what everybody does at that level.

They brought in 11 new players.

you know, unproven.

Some high scores from the JUCO level, some international players with some size.

They do go 6'9", 6'10", in the front court, so they've got more size than you expect out of a SOCON program.

But they will not play the kind of breakneck, up, scale pace that Earl coached at VMI.

Shout-out Tennessee Tech right here in our own home state, baby.

You know, sorry to those listeners in the Tri-Cities, but a big one in the SoCon, and they take the driver's seat in the SoCon.

They go on the road and beat a previously undefeated in SoCon play ETSU team.

Really fun game there, and I hope both of those teams have some postseason success.

On to our losers from the week, and...

SEMO is in a first-place tie with Lindenwood and Western Illinois in the OVC.

Tennessee Tech in a first-place tie in the Southern Conference after their 24-17 win at East Tennessee State.

Tennessee Tech is ranked number 10 in the FCS.

ETSU is ranked number 18.

Two teams with really, really high expectations this year.

Bethune-Cookman, your favorite in the SWAC, taking on Furman, your favorite in the SOCON.

Howard, your favorite in the MEAC versus Yale, the best program in the Ivy over the past couple years.

So there's good games all the way through.

Mocs were 13-19, 7-11 in conference play, but injuries derailed that season.

They had 15 different starting lineups, which was... top of the NCAA or close to top of the NCAA in different combinations of starting lineups, but they are projected to finish fifth in the SOCON this year.

They have one returning starter.

That returning starter is Tate Darner, who averaged about 10 points a game as a freshman last year.

We want to close out the show today with a really, really special moment for Furman men's soccer over the weekend.

Not only did they capture the SoCon regular season title over Wofford, but they honored one of their former players, Luke Munson, a star sophomore who had a traumatic leg injury happen earlier in the season.

He also had that leg amputated.

He was honored at the game, spent a moment with his teammates, the support that's meant a whole lot to him over the last few months.

That was the other really, really big game.

They go on the road, beat ETSU 24-17, moved to 8-1, 5-1 in conference, kind of take control of this SoCon race.

And this team was down.

I mean, they were down going into the... fourth quarter here and to a field goal early in the fourth quarter then a big 12 play 90 yard touchdown drive there to me I thought Tennessee Tech looked like the better team the whole game again man like this team is not going to win anything meaningful in the postseason if they cannot stop the penalties 14 penalties for 126 yards this weekend on the road.