SoCon Edition: FIRST Wins + Streaks Snapped

This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. The winless streak is over and one team sitting at 4-0. SoCon Fast Break starts now. All right, you know, Darren, as a coach, we look at perspectives of a game where you're breaking it down in four-minute segments. And you do that for each half. But now we also can do that for the conference schedule. As we know, we've got 20 games, so we're looking at it from a 20-minute half. But we're four games into the conference schedule. So when we're looking at the first four games, it's easy to start seeing some separation that's happening right now. We talked about a team that's 4-0, ETSU. But how about the Citadel? Getting their first Division I win in almost two years, basically, and 37 consecutive losses to Division I opponents. And they beat Western Carolina there at McAllister Fieldhouse in overtime. And that place was electric after the game, knowing that they finally broke through that hump, so to speak, that ceiling of being able to get their first win and 37 losses against Division I opponents. Yeah, no, congratulations to Coach Conroy and that staff. I mean, as a coach, that's a situation that, man, I mean, that's a tough spot to be in. Because you, in the back of your mind, whether you talk about that at all, you know that as a staff, that you have a very long losing streak against Division I opponents. And the season is a grind enough as is. Of course. I'm really happy for them. And look, I mean, they battled. That's a team that could have given up there late. That one went back and forth, and they find a way to pull it off in overtime. And I'll tell you one thing, too. You mentioned the atmosphere after the game. I'm not saying I'm in the majority on this. Maybe I am. But I actually love that facility. After like a small college gym. I know it's not sexy. There's several people have mentioned that. Yeah. But like, when the cadets show up, Yes. It's loud. It's kind of like an old armory gym. You know, good backdrop for shooters. I was always a fan of playing there. And I think two times that I played there, it was like a night that they made the students show up. And so it was loud. They are on top of you on our side, the opposing side of the bench. Doesn't shock me when that place gets rowdy after a win. But it's a fun place to play. That's right. And I think it impacted this game against Western Carolina. And I had felt also that any team playing the Citadel at this point, if it's close, then all of a sudden You get tight. You get tight because the pressure starts building up because you're sitting there thinking as a coaching staff, as a player, especially out on the court, we don't want to be this team that loses to the Citadel because they're on this 37 game, a winless streak against Division I opponents. And that starts playing mind tricks on you. And I felt that that's what happened in overtime. And Carter Kingsbury hitting some big shots down the stretch. And Braxton Williams also hitting some big shots allowed them to force that game into overtime. And then you can see at that point, that's when court Stansbury got tight, missing some shots. And in the short, the legs were given out. And then they miss all the free throws in overtime. And that was the difference for Western Carolina in this game. They just got too tight when it mattered the most. And obviously still give the Citadel a lot of credit because they kept battling. They kept being there within reach to be able to grasp that victory. And they were obviously able to do that. Yeah. And look, you bring up a really interesting point. Knowing because the flip side of that, while that staff knows they've lost 30 something in a row, maybe they don't know the exact number. But they look, it's human nature, whether it's the right thing or not. You're walking in there thinking, OK, we probably don't have to have our A plus game to win tonight. And I'm not saying that's the right mindset, but it's just human nature. It's human nature. And I'll tell you as much as I don't want to admit it, there were a lot of games when I was at Furman that maybe you would think, man, I could see you guys getting tight for this game. Or in a moment, I could see you being tight. And I, the rest of our staff and our guys weren't tight. Two straight years at Furman, one we lost, which was the year that we beat Virginia, which was a kind of shocking loss for us because we had won, I think, 10 or 11 straight. And we're just pounding teams. But even the next year, we found a way to sneak one out in overtime. And both those times, I'll fully admit it. It was late. And I was a little tighter than I normally was because it was just like, man. Look, again, no disrespect to the Citadel. But man, we know we're a better team. I believe that this is a tight game right now. And I think that's real. And to your point, you saw it in overtime. Western looked a little bit tight. And the mindset of almost like, man, I cannot believe we're in overtime against these guys. That's right. Yeah. And I think also, I wonder if there was something that played into it because we saw earlier in the week where Western has the big lead against Samford. And then they end up losing that game. And so is there that situation that we talk about consistently? Don't let a loss beat you twice. And did that happen with Western Carolina? Yeah. I mean, look, those sorts of things happen. And I think at the end of the day, too, when you're a team, it's kind of in that mix in the league right now. We're on nights that you're on. You can probably play with just about anybody. But nights where maybe you have some lapses. You can get beat by anybody. I think those are the sorts of things that unfortunately either start to creep into your mind or are just part of the makeup of what your team is when you are up and down and just cannot quite have the consistency that you need to be able to kind of compete in that upper quadrant of the league. That's right. C plus games are not going to carry you in this league because anybody can beat anybody. And I know when we start looking at even the power rankings, they're all compacted. And there's starting to be some separation that we talked about. But you can't expect to have a C plus game, and especially on the road. For field, there is the energy there. And you could tell the team afterwards. I mean, they were almost emotional, just so excited, obviously, to get that win. But give Citadel a lot of credit. This was Western Carolina coming in at the time. They were the best rebounded team in the conference. And they dominated them on the boards. And that's all about effort. And that's what you saw with the Citadel, being able to get that win. It is. And it was encouraging to see out of the Citadel because that's an area that they had not necessarily been great throughout the start of the season. And again, they haven't shot it great. So there are going to be more opportunities for offensive rebounds. So to see them get on the glass like they did, I'm curious to see if that's something they can keep up. Or was that just maybe a one-off thing? Because if they can rebound like that, look, it's just one piece of the puzzle. But if you can rebound like that, that's going to allow them to be in more ball games. Oh, yeah. No question. And you got some rebounding from Shola, BC. Nine rebounds there. Simeon German, he ended up with 10 rebounds. So you got some production out of your bigs. And that's going to be imperative for the Citadel moving forward if they can now search for that next victory. Because it's one thing to get that first victory. Now you've got to follow it up. Now the pressure to getting two victories here in the Southern Conference. What was it the manager in the major league said? They won the first one. And you get the second one. And that's called the winning streak. That's right. Exactly. That's all that matters. No doubt. All right, looking at the rest of the standings, as down at the bottom at 1 and 3, we talked about the Citadel. You've got Western Carolina right there. Chattanooga and VMI. Chattanooga gets their first victory of the season. Also, a big win against Samford. And we're starting to see some play from the bench producing there. Billy Smith with some big plays down the stretch. But Jordan Freizand just continues to be a fantastic addition for Dan Earl's team. Yeah, I mean, he's been really the one bright spot in what's been a really probably frustrating and up and down year so far for Chattanooga. He's given them the level of consistency that I think they were probably hoping for from a couple other guys. And then you throw in the fact that they've had some key injuries. I mean, you have to feel from all how, and the poor guy just can't consistently be out on the floor. And that's a major loss, especially not only from an interior perspective for the depth of your team. But that's also a guy that you were expecting to take that step how he played in the NIT last year. You're kind of relying on that from him this year. And unfortunately, because of the injuries that he's been dealing or injury that he's been dealing with, they just haven't been able to get that. But a huge win. And look, let's call it what it is. If they want to have any chance. That's right. You want to talk about Furman being a must win. That Sanford game at home is a you can't start 0-4. You just can't. I mean, you just can't. I'm not going to say you're done at 0-4, but you have dug yourself a hole that's going to be really. I'm going to go and say it. You're done at 0-4. That's just the reality. I'm good with that. I'm good with that. Massive must win for them. And conversely, man, if you're Sanford, you've got an absolutely really chat nougat team that is really struggled with consistency. And what an opportunity to go in there. And frankly, here's the thing too. Not only a win for your program that is a key road win, but two, you know, like what we just talked about, you potentially kill off a team that you're going to be competing with for seeding. If you're Kojaycuff, you're probably sitting there kicking yourself like, man, how did we let this one get away? You can't have these slow starts. They had the slow start against Western Carolina. And we're able to come back there in that second half. Jaden Booth, one of the best scores in the country, he went off. And then against Chattanooga, you had the same type of situation. You're down by almost 30 points in this game. And now give them credit that they clawed back. They fought their way back. But on the road, you can't do that. You can't spot a team that big of a margin there and expect to win, not on the road. And they're down. And I'm truly not. But they haven't been good enough offensively from a production perspective to get down 30 points without it almost just being like a lack of effort or attention to detail on the other side to your point. You just cannot do that. The chat, Coach Earl clearly had those guys ready to go for that game. They found their why, but they're in that game. Yeah, 100%. And so look, maybe that's a momentum builder for them. They obviously got a big one tomorrow night at Wofford. We'll talk about that. But I don't want to sound like kind of giving them almost like a backhand of compliment there, but you just cannot get down 30 points to Chattanooga the way that they have played thus far in conference season. And what you talked about too with Colin Mohalland not in the lineup. And yes, it's important from a depth perspective. And could he have those next steps. But that puts even more pressure on the perimeter guys. 100%. But they have to make shots. And they're going to have to make even more contested shots. And it's harder because you don't have the ability that the defense is going to have to play off of some of the perimeter guys to help out with Mohalland down low. And we've talked about this before. When Coach Earl has had his best teams, themes, he's had a good passing big man that can help facilitate offense. No doubt. And they just don't have that. They don't have that right now. And it's all with injuries from that set of things. All right, at the 500 club, we've got Samford, who just obviously have been talking about. UNCG and Mercer gets their two victories this past week. And UNCG now had two losses in their second week in conference play. And both of these games against ETSU and Wofford, you saw some fight from UNCG. But they just not able to get stops when they need to. And now I do like some of the components that UNCG has in terms of KJ Younger. He's going to be a really good player in this league as a freshman. I think Noah Norgar is going to be really good. Donald Whitehead seems to be playing a little bit more consistent. And then you've got Justin Neely. I mean, now he is second in the country in total rebounds. He was number one until last night. And Kent State player is able to actually get an extra game. So now he has six more rebounds. But then Justin Neely is also third in the nation in rebounds per game. And he is just doing Yeoman's work out there. And I love what I see from Justin Neely. But at some point, UNCG, you're going to have to get stops. And I cannot believe the one thing we're talking about with UNCG is their inability to get stops and play consistently on the defensive end, because that is just a Mike Jones staple. We've talked about it at Nauseum. They are, when he has what he wants strategically on the defensive side of the floor, they are not fun to go up against. That's right. But to your point, I mean, look, you score 85 points. But you give up 97 to Wofford. You think you're going to probably win. But you give up 97 to Wofford. And you let Wofford shoot 50% from the field and 43 from three for the game. And to put that into perspective, UNCG shot 49% from the field and 55 from three. I know. But they just couldn't get stops in particular in the second half. Wofford shot six. I'm sorry, in the first half, not the second half, the first half, Wofford shot 65% from the field and 50 from three. Yeah. They scored 56 points there in the first half. And so, I mean, certainly they came back down to Earth a little bit. But to me, you mentioned some really key components of they've got some guys that have now really, look, Neely's been doing it all year. But it looks like they're finding a couple other guys now that are going to be consistent contributors. But man, they've got to get stops. They just have to. And if they do, who knows? I'm curious about this group. If they can figure out a way to get stops. The problem is, is that we are saying, can they start to get stops? And we're a quarter of the way in the conference season. And we're now 16, 17 games in a year. I am wondering if we're starting to see their identity. That they're just going to be inconsistent in getting the stops. And especially when you're playing elite level teams. And that's why Wofford right now, sitting at three and one alongside Firm in there, Wofford is elite offensively and from an efficiency standpoint. And so that's why it is difficult when you're looking at UNCG and knowing that you're having to play against elite level teams like Wofford. And then you go on the road at ETSU. Yep, those are two elite teams from an offensive standpoint. And we know ETSU is also elite from a defensive efficiency standpoint as well. But at the end of the day, if you're UNCG, if you're going to win in Asheville and get that monkey off their back, because we know that's still the narrative with UNC Green's Borough, I should say, that you're going to have to win in Asheville. And that means you're going to have to beat an elite team in Asheville. And that means you're going to have to get stops against an elite team in Asheville. And that's the concern. No, 100%. I mean, again, I agree with you in terms of you went up against two of the top four teams in the league and had to go on the road to do that, percent from the field for the week. That's just not going to get it done. And that's what we saw with the Citadel. They were giving out these over 50% shooting to these teams. And you can't consistently win when you're giving up that much, because I know it's one thing to be able to outscore opponents. But in this league, it's too difficult to night in, night out to outscore every opponent. No, you want to talk about consistency. You want to find the best way to be inconsistent is have nights where you let somebody shoot 50, 55% from the field against you. That's the model of inconsistency. That is the model of inconsistency. That is for certain. All right, so completely looking at the standings again, we've got the bottom one in three teams. You've got the 500 teams at two and two. And then the three and one teams, Furman and Wofford, as we talked about, sitting right there. And then the lone 4-0 team, ETSU, as they win the four minute, the four game segment, basically. They're 4-0 and Brooks Savage gets his 50th career win this past weekend. So congratulations to him. Yes, congratulations Coach Savage. Well deserved. And they're winning because they're playing on both sides of the court. Man. Offense, defense. Watch out. And it's funny their stride right now. Look, they've played well throughout the entire portion of the year, minus a couple of hiccups on the road. But they seem to be transitioning into that. The look of, hey, we know. Yes. And it's going to take a pretty big effort to beat us. And I think some of that, obviously, playing well on both sides of the floor like you talked about. But I think one thing to bring up, and we'll talk more about this in the player highlight segment, but Blake Barkley is emerging. And they already had enough guys contributing. On the preview show, what would they get out of him? Because high major transfer. Yes. Really good size. Seemed to be a guy that could really make an impact. And he is in conference starting to come on and make an impact and just gives them another option. And a big piece on the interior. That's right. And you've already got Cam Morris, the third there. And then Brian Taylor, second, he can get out on the perimeter. And that's the difference with Blake Barkley in terms of looking at him and Dylan Faulkner, because both of them are so efficient, especially scoring around the rim. But Barkley, he can step out. That's the difference. And that's why ETSU is sitting in their spot right now, not only from an offensive standpoint, but you're talking about playing connected as a unit defensively. Again, they held what UNCG to what, 26 points there in the second half, created 21 turnovers. I mean, they are playing at such high level from a defensive standpoint. It's easy to see. It's an easy mathematical equation. That's why they're 4 and 0. Yeah. Well, and look, as much as we've talked about the defensive end of the floor for UNCG, they actually, for the most part, at least in league, have been scoring it in a pretty good clip and shooting it pretty efficiently. They shot 34% from the field in that ETSU game. Yeah. That's shut down defense right there. Yeah. That's not, hey, we had an off night shooting. That's because ETSU is an elite defensive team. That's right. There's something to be said about what ETSU is doing right now. Now, I do want to talk about the Mercer-Wofford game. Yeah. So 109 to 97. So back to back 97 point performances there for Wofford. But you give up 109 to Mercer. And Mercer scored 101 versus the Siddl before that. So we're talking about a rare situation back to back 100 games, and then to score 109 in 40 minutes of play. You don't see that too often. And I know Coach Giltner has talked about that they're still trying to find their defensive identity. And again, going back to that theme of you're going to have to get stops, all of that. So to give up 109 points, that's a concern. Some of a red flag maybe for Wofford that also they gave up 85 points to UNCG. The reddit here. They also, I mean, I watched that game. And it wasn't Wofford playing horrible defense. Yes, they could definitely close out better. They could do some better things. Maybe double teaming in the post, that type of situation. But give Mercer a lot of credit in terms. They were just making shots. And sometimes, as you know, players make plays. And when you've got a high major big in Armani Mighty and a high major point guard in Baraka Kojie, you're going to have success. I don't care how quick a pace you play. You average 105 points for a week in two games in a 40 minute game. That's a lot of claps. That's high level octane offense. Exactly. No, look, I mean, we've talked about it before too. That is a high level offensive team there and making. And they continue to illustrate that. But and some of this can be said because of the pace of those games. That's right. But yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, you're certainly, I don't think they're going to be able to average 105 points a game throughout the rest of the season. So you are going to continue to have to be able to figure out ways to get stops in the defensive end of the floor. But as we talked about it in our power rankings last week, we still felt very good about Mercer. And I think that they illustrated this week. Look, we're going to we're here. Yeah, we're here. We are an operational on team in this league right now. They started the season with two tough games. Back to back road games at Furman at ETSU. And still could have won both of them. Yeah, they were in both. No question. Yeah, they definitely were. 63% from the floor and 63% from beyond the arc for the board in that game. Exactly. I'll take that. Yeah, I think head coach Ryan Ritter will take that all day long. All right, team of the week, say the Citadel, getting their first victory after 37 consecutive losses to Division One opponents and their first Sokan victory in over a year since they didn't get a victory last year in the conference. But I'm going with ETSU. Ooh, OK, I like it. 4-0. They boast the league's best scoring defense, number 29 nationally, and then also number 42 nationally in field goal percentage defense. They're number 20 nationally and steals per game at almost 10 steals per game. Elite efficiency, shooting 55% against VMI and improving that to almost 60% against UNCG. And then they also now, just from a perspective of getting those other type of players, the Blake Barkley that you're talking about, just getting consistent play for him, then you add that with Cam Morris, the third, Brian Taylor there, Alan Struthers, Macai Johnson. It just goes on and on in terms of the list of players that they can roll out there. So Brooke Savage, his team right now, I do think is separating themselves from the rest of the conference. Yeah, and one key to them, actually two keys to them, one you just referenced, is they're able to get double digit scoring out of like five, six guys. That's right. I mean, they are deep. They have significant and real depth. And the other thing, and some of this, I mean, unfortunately, some of this is luck. They've stayed healthy. And a couple of other teams in the league, unfortunately, that they've dealt with some injuries. So credit to them. I think that's a very excellent choice. Yeah, and I forgot Jalen Smith. Don't forget about him, either. I mean, my goodness. Absolutely. I see nothing wrong with that choice at all. And I echo the same sentiment about Citadel. I went with Mercer. I went with Mercer Bears this week. Start in terms of where they had to go the first week this season, but lutely had to take care of home court this week, this past week. No question. If they wanted to be competitive. Truly competitive in the league in terms of winning it. And kind of say to the rest of the league, look, no. Look, we're one of the top four teams in this league. And to me, they prove that. And then they beat a really good Wofford team that we've talked about of how efficient they've been offensively. And frankly, just overall, how good and connected they've been. And they took some. But watch that Wofford game. They took some punches from Wofford, making multiple comebacks. And I believe it was cut to one at one point late. And Wofford, and I think this is what typically, especially at this point in the season, you start to see good teams show, is they can take those punches from other good opponents, stand them. And Mercer did that multiple times last Saturday afternoon and found a way to take care of home against a really good Wofford. That's right. And I just think them getting back to two and two, we talked about their scoring efficiency, the way that they put the ball in the basket this week. And frankly, the way that their best players played, I think that they put themselves right back in the hunt here to be able to win this league. Now, someone's obviously going to go have to knock off ETSU. No doubt. But look, they're sitting two games back, four games in. I think they're right there. And I know we both like the makeup of this Mercer team. Oh, no doubt. But I think that this past week really sent a message to say, look, we are a top 14 in this league. They needed to go 2-0 in the week. They did that with impressive performances also. All right, so stat of the week, how about this stat of the week? And I'm looking in that we talked about. I'm going to continue the theme with Mercer. 63%, field goal percentage in that win against Walford, and also 63% from beyond the arc. 109 points in 40 minutes as we talked about. That's rare. But here's what also is interesting is that they just didn't throw up shots. I mean, they were getting high percentage shots because they have the ability to suck in the defense there with Armani Mighty. So they're going to open things up out on the perimeter. And they only took 55 shots in this game. That's efficient. To put it in perspective, Walford took 68 shots in this game and finished 12 points behind. So you see that and you're like, OK, wait a second. That's a true difference maker. But when you're shooting above 60% from beyond the arc and just total from the field, it's going to be almost impossible to lose those type of games. It is. And when you've got a guy like Baraka Akkoj, who can create his own shot pretty much anywhere on the floor, he's a bigger guard. He can score in a lot of different spots on the floor and can create easy shots for him and others. And you combine that with Armani Mighty, who's still shooting a pretty high percentage overall. He's in around the rim. One of the top nationally. You're going to get easy opportunities. And it's one thing to have a high octane offense. But you also have to be efficient. And if they can maintain remotely close to this level of efficiency, again, I know I'm singing their praises a ton. But if they can continue to be remotely close to this level of efficiency, it's going to make up to three for some of their defensive inefficiencies. And so, no, I mean, that's an incredible stat. All right, so player spotlights. We'll get to the player of the week. But I didn't want to just highlight Carter Kingsbury, 22 points, 7 of 12 from the field, six rebounds in that victory over Western Carolina. Jaden Booth, my goodness. Jaden Buckets. Yes, Jaden Buckets, exactly. That's his new name, Jaden Buckets. And he might already be called that number one ranked player in the NCAA for three pointers per game at just over four and had 33 points in that comeback win over Western Carolina. And congratulations to him. He scored 2,000 career points. It's a big deal. Huge deal. I know it's not all at Samford, but I don't care. Anytime you score 2,000 career points, division two, division one, it doesn't matter. That means you're a bucket, a walking bucket. Blake Barkley, we talked about him, model of efficiency, 18 of 23 from the floor over the last two games. Man, we just got done talking about efficiency. We probably should have, you know, holy cow. Armani Mighty ranks number seven in field goal percentage at 66%. Jordan Freyzon, 16 points and went six of 11 and six assists in that win. And then 25 points going 10 of 20 from the field. They're in the loss though against Furman, but still scored 41 points in the past two games. That's pretty impressive. And don't forget about Niels Mahosky at Wofford. What he was able to do following up the big performance where he was player of the week last week and he dropped 33 against Mercer. He was eight three pointers in that game. So he's playing at a high clip also. And then also Justin Neely, we talked about him. And now the number two nationally ranked total rebounder, number three rebounds per game. And Brian, I actually want you to show this clip because this was something that I wanted to highlight. This is why you have the opportunity of leading not only the league in rebounding, but the nation in rebounding. Because here he's closing out against Caden Vasco here at Wofford in the corner. And then look at this, he decides, okay, I see that he's not going to try to get after the rebound Vasco's not. So Vasco's already running back down the court. So Neely says, well, the ball's off the rim. So that's mine. I'm going to get it. And so he grabs it, takes it down the length of the court, gets into the paint, misses the shot, but he's contested, gets his own rebound, and then takes it back up and gets fouled. That's effort right there. And that's what you want from a rebounder. And that's why, then I had to spot like that. Because I was there at that game watching it. And from a coaching perspective, you're like, those types of players I want on my team right there. That ball is mine. I'm going to get it. I'm going to leave it up for chance. I'm going to go after it even after I've already closed out on that three point shot. Yeah, and a long close out too. Like you mentioned. So no, I mean, look, that's the sort of clip that you pull and you show in the film. No doubt after that game. You definitely do. This is the sort of effort that it's going to take if we want to be competitive. Yes. All right. But the player of the week, Baraka Okoje, we've been talking about him. High major point guard, average 21 and 1 1⁄2 points per game, 8 and 1⁄2 assists in the two wins, 29.12 assists performance against Wofford. And you just have to look at him knowing how efficient he can be also because it's one thing that he can knock shots down from the perimeter, but he can take it to the basket. He finishes strong. And he's also getting to the free throw line. He ranks 20th nationally in free throws made with 97 on the season. So again, he's getting to the free throw line at a consistent clip because he's so hard to defend and he can get to the basket. Now that size and ability to be creative and crafty makes him a really tough guard. Yeah. And when he gets downhill, he's one of those guys that can score efficiently at multiple levels. And he really, really puts pressure on the rim, getting to that A level, and getting to the free throw line. Yes. All right. Power rankings time. We'll see if there's been any movement here. All right. So I'm looking at the power rankings. Citadel still at number 10. VMI moving down a little bit to number 9. Western after that overtime loss, they move down to 8. Chattanooga up to 7. UNCG sitting there still at number 6. Samford-Wofford, no changes there at 4 and 5. But I do have some movement right here. Got Mercer going up to number 2. And Furman dropping down 1 to number 3. And ETSU stays there at number 1, sitting 4 and 0 in the conference. And it's also thin the margin of error between these teams in terms of who's moving up or down with Mercer and Furman. But I'm just looking at it based on the performance that we saw this past week. Mercer just outperformed from an offensive standpoint and just showcased the firepower that they have. Now, I know Furman held VMI to 48 points. But he also had to look at it in terms of the competition that they're playing from that perspective. And that's why I've got Mercer moving up to number 2 right now. OK. Look, those are, I think, very good arguments to bump them up. I would still keep Furman at number 2 and keep Mercer at 3. But I think you make really compelling arguments there. I just think that from a talent and depth perspective and for a group that group itself, but a program that has just been there time and time again. And objectively, I'm going to bet on the program. And so look, and obviously, we're talking about this as today. This is over. And that's why, yes, make sure to keep this in perspective. This is not who we're thinking. This is not what we think the final standings are going to be. This is just in terms of where we rank the teams based on their composition right now, their record, the teams that they've played, and the performances that they had for this particular week. And so that's why I've got some slight movement in the power ranking just based on those criteria. You know, the one thing that we talked about a little bit prior to the show, and we've talked about it on the show previously, and that's the turnovers with Furman. That is the one thing that is. 20 turnovers against VMI. Yeah. And it was, I think you'd mentioned 16 steals. 16 steals. You know, and that was a physical, that was a pretty physical game. VMI played them very physical. But. And that zone of VMI is different. It can certainly throw you. Because it's got some man principles in there, and they can trap off of it, and they do a great job of rotating. Well, it's one of those things too, especially the way Furman plays against man to man. You know, one guy in particular that kind of puts in a different position more consistently is Charles Johnston. He's not able to play on the perimeter nearly as much against that zone, just with how you have to operate against that. So, you know, that is a very different look in a different level of comfortability, because he spends a good amount of the time out on the perimeter. That's right. One, because obviously he can stretch it and shoot it. But two, the way that Furman runs are offense. But, you know, they absolutely have to continue. And I know it's driving coach Richie nuts, because he, just like most coaches, does not like turnovers. He wants to take care of the basketball. And so I know that's got to be driving him nuts. But if they want to take that next step, they absolutely cannot, against especially the best of the best, you just cannot turn the ball over 20 times. And you want to talk about the team that's sitting there 4-0 right now, and the top team in the league. The team that's going to try to turn you over, and they are going to take advantage of that. And if you turn the ball over 15 to 20 times against ETSU, I don't care how much time you have. You're just not going to beat them. So that is a little bit of a concern there with Furman. This has kind of been a trend. The other thing, the 6-7-8, I agree with how you have it right now. But man, that 6-7-8 almost just depends on like, it's like a nightly basis for the point. Oh, it is. They can change game to game, in my opinion. But again, the margin is so thin that they are so compacted there together, there's really not much of a gap. So I wouldn't have a problem if somebody said, no, UTC should be number six, UNCG should be number seven, or vice versa, with Western Carolina there. I totally understand it. Yeah. And can one of those three teams in particular put any sort of consistency together to separate themselves? I don't know. I know. It's going to be interesting to find out, because we're going to have some big games coming up, including ETSU at Western Carolina. So now ETSU, can that defense travel? Can that, in an opportunity in Western Carolina, can you find some offensive rhythm and also talking about turning the ball over? Yeah. They lead the league in turnovers right now. So you're going to have to play much better against ETSU and make sure that you don't have the hangover effect after that loss to the Citadel, because you're going to have to come out to be motivated now facing ETSU. Like we just talked about with Furman, that's a scary stat. If you're going up against this ETSU team, you have to figure out a way to take care of it. And yeah, the hope is you don't have a hangover, because losing a game like Western did to the Citadel, depending on the mental toughness of your team, is going to be tested. Yes. Because that can spiral in a negative way. No big time. Or it can be a way to reset. So. And also tomorrow, Chattanooga at Wofford, you mentioned that one. That's a big game for both of these teams. Obviously, Chattanooga coming off the win, Wofford coming off the loss. Furman at Samford also on Wednesday. OK, Furman's disciplined. They don't foul much. And Samford holds on to the ball extremely well. They don't turn it over that much. So that's going to be a fantastic matchup. And then a Thursday game that did highlight, because it's Mercer at VMI. And I know VMI is decimated right now from an injury standpoint. Ricky Bradley, Jr. still out. Still hasn't been cleared medically to be able to get out on the court. But Mercer, now you're on this high. Yeah. Now this is one of those games. You got to go win on the road. And you can't have a letdown. No, you can't. And we've talked about it before. Roller coaster, VMI, that is, in terms of when they're hitting shots, they can be really, really competitive. And when they're missing them, massive runs against them, you want to go into that place early. And you want to set the tone. And if I'm Mercer, let's go in there. And let's end this thing in the first 15 minutes. No doubt. Because if the key debts show up and that place is crowded, that can be a good atmosphere in there. If they hang in there for a half, can they keep it tight the whole game? They're at home. Who knows? You mentioned that they're decimated. Do they have enough depth where they're just not necessarily going to run out of gas? Because Furman in that second half, but VMI just clearly, they ran out of gas. They did. Yeah. They just didn't have the legs. They didn't have the depth. They didn't have the firepower to match Furman. And Furman, we know is going to play great defense. But like you said, this is a trap game for Mercer. You cannot have a left-handed. Yeah. You've got to go up there and win. And then on the 17th Saturday, ETSU at Samford, you've got Jaden Booth meeting the top scoring defense. Can they slow him down? ETSU, two games on the road this week. And then also on Saturday, the military classic Citadel at VMI. And I don't care what you say. That's just a special game. It is. It matters. Because of obviously the military implications. But then even more so, this is an opportunity for, can you get out of the bottom dwelling, so to speak, of the conferencing and hopefully get another victory? Yeah. No, look, I mean, if I'm the Citadel, I'm sitting here thinking, can we go on the road here and steal one and get a big one? We finally got the monkey off our back. VMI is dealing with a lot of injuries right now. They don't have great depth. Because of that right now, can we get them on some tired legs here? Probably going to have to get up and down against Mercer. I would anticipate Mercer is going to be able to dictate the tempo of that game. Either way, like you said, it's going to be a fun one. It's going to be a fun matchup. The students are going to show up for that one. And it is going to be a wild atmosphere. Yeah, no question about it. And then the big one here locally, Greenville versus Spartanburg, Furman and Wofford. They're at Timon's Arena. I'm excited about this one. You know the rivalry. Everybody in this area knows the rivalry. I'm going to be on the call for that game. I love P.E. Annerdy. They're on the CW. So that place is going to be rocking at 5 PM. Sold out already. Yes. First one in New Timon's. It's going to be electric. It is going to be fantastic. And we're going to see exactly the rivalry coming into shape. Because it's also going to start having some implications as far as the so-called standings. We know that also. Big time. Going to be a fun one. Well, we know there's going to be a lot of fantastic matchups. And all you have to do is hit that subscribe or follow button, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, including the iHeart Radio app. Until next time, may all your jumpers hit nothing but the bottom of the net.