SoCon Edition: FEB-FRENZY in the SoCon!

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. The Super Bowl is in the books and now it's time to turn our attention to college basketball and the chaos about to happen. SoCon Fast Break starts now. Alright Darren, here we go. Football's over. It's time for college basketball chaos. Get ready. SoCon, we've already started to see it at the beginning of the season. We talked about it. Observations versus conclusions. We made a lot of observations at the beginning of the season. And now I don't know if we realized how these conclusions were going to play out based on some of those early observations. But we're starting to see some of the chaos that's happening in the Southern Conference. Because in all reality, I'm not sure anyone's safe right now. No, I mean, we may have to go back and look at our conference preview episodes. I'm a little nervous on that, though. Well, I can tell you two that are off right now. That's the old Wofford Terriers and the Chattanooga Mocks. But no, it is time. It's that time of the year now where it goes in the blink of an eye between now and National Championship Monday. Like you mentioned, we're almost in the middle of February now. For the most part, your team is your team. You have your identity or you don't have your identity. That's right. For better or for worse. You're baked. Yes, you definitely are. And that's not to say that you can't get better from here on out, but you are at a point now where you are starting to hit your stride if you are a good basketball team. No doubt. There's something to be said. If you're struggling with rebounding right now, you're not all of a sudden going to become a rebounding team in the next six games of the regular season in the Southern Conference. That's just not going to happen. And that's with every conference, every team across the United States. You're not just going to magically change the identity of who you are. Now, can you do some things to improve? And I think that's what we're starting to see with some of these teams. Maybe they're finding out a little bit more about their team in terms of how they can put some of the pieces together because that's what we've talked about just in terms of the jigsaw puzzle for so many of these teams. And as we take a look at the standings right now, man, you look at VMI, and they just don't have the pieces. They just don't. They just don't. Ricky Bradley Jr., not in the lineup. They still have battled injuries throughout the rest of the season. And I think we're probably at a position right now where Ricky Bradley Jr. is not playing. He's not playing. No. He's not. I think we can make that conclusion right now. There's no reason. If VMI is maybe in contention to finish even in the top six of the regular season standings to have that double bye, maybe he comes back. But I don't even think you do at that point because we've talked about it. With college basketball, you play one minute and your redshirt opportunity is gone. Yeah, I think this is one that's just we're not going to see him, unfortunately. And even if they're in contention, I don't – I mean, I take that back. If they're in contention, I think they do everything they can to get him back. But as we all know now, too, with the new landscape of everything, there's a lot more that comes into play than just, hey, we have a chance to maybe go compete for a championship. Let's bring you back. That's right. Which is unfortunate in some respects, but it's the nature of college basketball in 2026. It is. It's just the reality of it. That's right. Okay, Western Carolina sitting there at 9, Chattanooga 8, Citadel there. Now, you say Citadel at 7, but they're 6-6. So we've got a bunch of teams, I should say, with the Citadel, Sanford, UNC Greensboro there, all at 6-6. And then somewhat of the separation, at least, that's what we've been talking about. ETSU, Wofford, Furman, and Mercer. Are those the teams that have separated themselves as the top four teams in the conference? And for the past two or three weeks, it has seemed that way. But after this past week, I don't know if we can definitively say that anymore, that we have four teams that have truly separated themselves because I think we have some performances that are making us scratch our heads a little bit when you look at some of these games. Yeah, certainly a really tough and likely frustrating week for players and staff on the campuses of Mercer and Furman. Did not anticipate either of those teams going 0-2 this week. I still do think those are the four best teams, those two, and Wofford and ETSU. But I think one of the 6-6 teams that's starting to play better, and I'm very intrigued by, and you and I have talked about this, and you've been a big proponent of this throughout the season, is the Sanford Bulldogs. Sitting here at 6-6 now. And to your point, you've got 7-5, 6-6. We talked about the top four. The reality is, and we'll talk more about this later, but Furman and Mercer play each other at Mercer this week. The loser has six losses. Presumably at least one of those 6-6 teams is going to win. That's right. You would think. The first game this week. So now you do start talking about can any of those 6-6 teams close the gap, and now Furman and Mercer, can they finish the season strong enough where there's not a concern of them falling back into it? That's right. Do we have to go play? With only six games left, you're running out of time. Yeah. That's the reality. Now, ETSU and Wofford sitting there at the top of the standings, those two do seem to be separating themselves, and even more so with ETSU. They've won three straight Wofford 2-0 this past week. Also, they don't have Kamari Holmes. So you do take that into consideration. But right now, again, I think the middle of the pack is unpredictable right now because we're starting to see some better performance from UNCG, even on the defensive side. Samford that we were just talking about, you've got a prolific score with Jaden Booth, and Dylan Faulkner is going to give you a double-double, it seems, every night. And so there can be some of those teams that are starting to build some momentum. And then you've got the Citadel Bulldogs. Six and three in their last nine conference games. What the what? In a disparaging way. No, it's encouraging. It is. And I felt that, okay, what was going to happen when they went on the road? Yeah. And they have three straight games on the road, and they get a big one in that victory on the road against Chattanooga. Now, we know Chattanooga is completely up and down, not the Chattanooga that we thought preseason favorite, all of that. But regardless, road wins are extremely difficult. As some of the other teams that just went on the road and couldn't win. And that's why it's impressive that the Citadel is sitting there at 6-6 and somewhat being in contention. because if they can go two and three on the road in their last three games that they're going to have, I mean, that's impressive because I felt that going on the road, that's when you're really going to test a team's DNA, and I want to see how the Citadel is going to respond. Well, and you start getting into the nitty-gritty of it. You know, you get to nine wins for sure. I think you're probably – I shouldn't say probably, but there's a good chance that you're not having to play opening night if you can get to nine wins. It's not a guarantee the way teams are bunched together right now, but you put yourself in a much better position to not have to play the first night in Asheville. I don't care who they play. They found a way to get two wins without Kamari Holmes. To your point that you just made, road wins and winning in general at this point in conference play is not a walk in the park. So to go get two this week, they and ETSU have essentially made this a two-horse race. Yeah, I think they definitely have. And I think for Wofford, in the absence of Kamari Holmes, I mean, you've got Caden Vasco stepping up big time. I mean, he's just delivering as a stabilizer for the team. And then you've got the German sniper, Nils. Yeah. I mean, again, quietly, I think you look at him and say, oh, he's not a physical type of guy, but he just had a double-double there in the game on Saturday. So there's no doubt that Mahofsky, he can be a guy because one thing that they're missing with Kamari Holmes is the physicality at that guard spot because Kamari Holmes is a finisher but he's a really good rebounder tough defender all of that and so they need him to come back they do and I think one thing that stands out about ETSU and Wofford today a consistent balance throughout conference play is both those teams have limited their peaks and valleys. They've not had pretty even keeled. Yes, each of them have lost games that they on paper shouldn't have lost and wouldn't have anticipated losing, but they've been able to make it a singular moment and not let anything carry over. And I don't think regardless of if there's injuries or anything that has been a hiccup, there's really been nobody else in the league that has been able to limit those peaks and valleys to even keel throughout. That's the one thing that we've talked about so many different times, the rollercoaster ride on some of these teams. And to your point, yeah, ETSU and Wofford, they haven't been on that rollercoaster ride per se. Doesn't mean they're not capable of getting beat. We've seen it. And you know I think it does ring true what you even said at the beginning when we started the podcast in terms of the teams that can win this They still might be sitting there with four or five losses at the end of the regular season but still be in the top spot because the league is the parity is really there. And on any given night, a team can get beat. And we're seeing some of that. But to be consistent, you can't be consistent in the inconsistency of your play. And that's where we see some of these teams like a Chattanooga that have struggled with inconsistency. Absolutely. All right. Speaking of some games, though, how about this one? Western Carolina at UNCG and the craziness that ensued, not only with Justin Neely going to the free throw line 21 times and knocking down 19, but the end of the game when it's the turnover there at half court and Justin Neely had just made two free throws to tie it up. And then Western Carolina throws it to half court. Marcus Kale tries to catch it. And maybe Justin Neely pushes him in the back a little bit. But the ball bounces off Kale's hands. And Neely grabs it. And then he just heaves it from half court, which was a very smart play. Because he knew. I mean, he had to get it off. And was there potential of getting fouled? And sure enough, they call the foul. And the question was, initially when I was watching it, were they going to call the foul on the floor, but it would still be free throws, or were they going to give him the active shooting foul? And they ultimately gave him the active shooting foul, sent him to the free throw line for three free throws, and ice in his veins, knocks them all three down, and UNCG escapes with the win there at home. Yeah, and he's just been fantastic, and we've talked about him a fair amount on the podcast, but he has been incredibly consistent all year, but particularly in conference play, where if they can get contributions from other guys, he is that rock. That's right. And, you know, big week for him, like you mentioned. Ice in his veins, not only against Western, but against Furman as well. But that one, man, if you're Western, you're sitting there saying, we let one get away. That's right. That we really needed to get if we want to find a way to not have to play first night in Nashville. And they've dug themselves after coming off, which is really frustrating, coming off a great win against ETSU. We've now lost three straight. They swept ETSU in the regular season series, and that's what we're talking about, the inconsistency. So how do you beat ETSU twice and then have the struggles that you're having right now? And I think that's what is frustrating if you're looking at it as a Western Carolina fan or any of the other teams that are down the bottom of the standings. We've talked about it, and I know it sounds like a broken record, but it's the inconsistency because you don't know what you're going to get night in, night out. No, and the irony of this is that Western is 2-12 on the road. Can you guess where their two road wins have come? Oh, that's a great question. At Furman. And at ETSU, that's right, yes. Which are arguably the two toughest places to go on the road and win in the Southern Conference. Yeah, exactly. And they've won at both of those, but they're 2-12 on the road. And, you know, we talk about it, are against, you know, two of the better teams in the league and arguably, like I said, two of the toughest places on the road. And I think it's one of the most frustrating things to me about Western is because they've got the pieces, especially offensively. No doubt. But they just don't seem to be able to consistently. Right. It's one player steps up and nobody else is ready. It doesn't seem they can get three or four guys locked in. Now, they did against ETSU and they did against Furman, but you've got to be able to go and win on the road. And that's why Wofford is sitting there in Seoul second place right now because they've got eight road wins on the season. And that's something significant. And eight road wins right now in college basketball, that's one of the top in the country in terms of actual road wins. So, again, if you're able to play that well on the road, you're going to put yourself in position to win some of these games. All right, Furman at ETSU in overtime. Woo-hoo! Yes. Here we go. A masterpiece that actually needed some extra time there is Cooper Bowser. He's back. He's back. He couldn't be stopped for a period of time. And it looked like Furman was in complete control of this game, up by 15 points. Yeah, up by 15 in the second half. You know, in ETSU, when they were up 15, it was at the 15-minute mark-ish. So ETSU did chip away at it over time. It wasn't like, hey, you blink, and they blew that lead. But Furman looked to be in complete control of this one, and credit to ETSU. They kept grinding. They kept fighting. And 21 turnovers doomed the Paladins here. And we talked about it going into this one. How would Furman handle the pressure, and how would they handle ball control? That's right. They've struggled with this throughout the season. They have. And, you know, you look at going to ETSU, and you try not to think of moral victories, but you go to ETSU, a really tough place to play. You control the tempo for, you know, a good portion of the game. You're playing well. By four or five, you probably, you think you probably win that game by eight to ten points. That's right. So don't want to necessarily find silver lining in it because it has been a concern throughout the season for the Paladins of having high turnover games. but give ETSU credit though that they they didn't settle on just trying to get back quickly and shooting threes and that's not necessarily their game their physical game you get it inside Cam Morris the third you get it to Blake Barkley you let Brian Taylor the second you get him going but then when they needed a big bucket when they needed a big three-pointer Jalen Smith delivers well and to your point but in the end it ended up being a slower paced game overall that then Furman wanted to play more in line with how ETSU wants to play you know I can't I can't reiterate that enough like that's a mass problem that Furman cannot solve right there and you have to take care of the basketball and I'll say this I thought and I kind of figured that this would be the case because of the way ETSU plays defensively. I thought they did a good job on Alex Wilkins. He still got 19. Yeah. He had 11 turnovers though. 11. And I thought they guarded him physically. Yeah. They extended out where they guarded him. They tried to get the ball out of his hands, which I don't know why more teams haven't done throughout the year because when he gets the ball on his hands, especially when he gets a step on you, bad things for the other team usually happen, whether it's him scoring or him creating a play for somebody else. I thought ETSU did a good job defending him. They did. Making his 19 shot the ball decent from the field, but they made it challenging by forcing him into a... Yeah, he's just that good that he can still create and still make contested shots. That's the beauty, and that's why he was named Player of the Week last week for the Southern Conference. And to your point, I mean, when he gets downhill, if he gets the defender on his hip and he gets two feet in the paint, he's making a play. Whether it's him or whether he's, you know, throwing a lob. That's right. I don't think it's, yeah, I don't even think it's close in terms of in the SoCon. Furman has the best pick and roll lobs out there. I mean, it's just ridiculous how good they are. But that's a tough one right there for Furman for certain. And again, because Jalen Smith did a great job defensively right there at the end of regulation. He did. And then it was almost lights out. ETSU had the momentum. They had the crowd. They're at Freedom Hall. And they came out and hit a big shot to open up overtime. And it seemed to be done. That's one of those that this sounds cliche, but that's one of those if you're Furman, the way that game went. You got to get that one in regulation. And the last piece I'll add to that is kind of credit to ETSU. held Furman to just two fast break points, and they got 19 bench points to six from Furman. Just, again, showing ETSU, showing their balance and their depth. That's right. Yes, I think that's a big part of ETSU's success. All right, this one was a head-scratcher. Man, Mercer at Sanford, only scoring 49 points. What the what? Mind-boggling. I just don't understand that. This is a Mercer team that was averaging almost 85 points per game. And I know tough loss before that against Chattanooga, and I get that, and I'm wondering, was there this malaise, yes, this little hangover effect letting one loss beat you twice here for the Mercer Bears? Because outside of a Koje, they just couldn't get anything going offensively. I mean, they scored 22 points in the first half. And just a few weeks ago, they scored 21 points in five minutes against VMI. Yeah. I mean, that's how lethal and explosive they can be. Now, that was at home against VMI. And VMI, as we talked about, they gave them a run for their money. But, I mean, my goodness. Limiting Mercer to 49 points That why I looking at Samford and saying okay Samford might be figuring some things out because we also know they got some offensive firepower They do And if they can get stops consistently it does seem to be coming into form The Norris brothers are playing better Not that they were playing poorly, but they are continuing to play better. And like you said, you've got a bucket getter in Jaden Booth. And then Dylan Faulkner is obviously going to give you a double-double. We remember we were saying it's Jaden Buckets. Yeah, Jaden Buckets. That's true. No more Jaden Booth. It's Jaden Buckets. Jaden Buckets. But, you know, I look at this game, and I see for the game 23% from three. They shot 16 of 59 from the field, 4 of 17 from the three-point line. Field goals. And Mercer had 59. Yeah. And it was an easy victory for Sanford. That shows you the efficiency and what you're talking about, inefficiency there from Mercer. I genuinely, as of today, I genuinely believe this is a hiccup for the Mercer Bears this past week. I think it's a hiccup. The one thing I do want to keep an eye on is because one of the things that I think if we were to critique Mercer throughout the year is pace. They do. Pace, yep. One thing I do want to keep an eye on, are they getting a little tired? That's the second leg of a road trip game. And so there's no doubt from a perspective that weighs on you. And Mercer's had a tough schedule in terms of back-to-back road games. And it all evens out. I totally understand that. But at the beginning of the season, it was at Firm and at ETSU to start the season. And then now here you've got in the seventh and eighth game left there for Mercer, their own back-to-back road trip. They are. And so that's why I do genuinely believe as of right now that this is just a little bit of a hiccup. Teams have some hiccup throughout the year. There's one game you just say, throw out the film. Yeah. We're not even looking at that. Don't worry about it. Okay, that's the one we get to throw out this season. That's it. Move on. And I'm not trying to give them an excuse or take anything away from Sanford to win right now. Because I do think Sanford, they may be on to something here with a three-game win streak. But they haven't been, for all this year, dominant enough defensively to say, wow, this is Sanford's defense coming through here, holding Mercer to 27% from the field. I just think that this was a rough week for Mercer. They'll bounce back. They're well-coached. They've got two first-team all-league caliber guys and a number of other guys that are very good. So I think it's a hiccup. But this is the first three-game winning streak that Sanford's had all year against all Division I opponents. They did have a four-game winning streak earlier in the year. Two of them were non-one opponents, though. That's why this is significant in terms of building momentum and how hot can you get down the stretch. We've talked about that. This is when you want to get hot. Ultimately, you want to be playing your best basketball come Asheville. We get that. But to be able to get into that position, you've got to have some of these runs. And can you turn this three-game win streak into a five, six-game win streak? And then all of a sudden, you're well within the top of the standings. Absolutely. And look, I think this week we're going to start to see some separation again because four through seven right now is within one game. And so I think we'll probably start to see a little bit of separation based on wins and losses. But as of right now, on a three-game win streak, and they're one game out of technically being in a tie for third place. So coach basketball team. No doubt. All right, let's also real quick, UNCG at Furman. I was there at this game, and Justin Neely solidified what type of player he is, 24 points, 13 rebounds, and also clutch performer hitting two free throws there in the last few seconds of that game to ice it there for UNCG. And there's no doubt that is a huge win for the Spartans on the road. And we talked about how difficult it is to win on the road. But this was a situation where, Darren, I think, are we starting to see some signs of a defensive unit that we were expecting for Mike Jones type of coach team and being able to basically control this game wire to wire and dictate the pace here against the Paladins and not allowing them to get out in transition, not allowing them to get in the corners for their threes, and then ultimately playing really good defense limiting Furman from a poor shooting night from beyond the arc. Yeah, you know, I mean, this is the sort of effort that you anticipate seeing out of a Mike Jones coach team. Obviously, controlled this sucker from wire to wire, like you said. This was a grinded out kind of game that they typically want to play. I mean, frankly, yes, they did shoot 53% from three. You're going to win a lot of basketball games when you shoot 19 threes and you shoot 53%. Yeah, 10 of 19. Furman was five of 19. Right. There's the difference. And that's a big, you can circle that as, hey, that's a big difference maker from just a pure box score perspective. But you look at UNCG and, you know, yes, Justin Neely was great. And Noah Norgard, you know, chipped in with 11. But this was not a game where they had four or five. Yeah, huge. I mean, frankly, arguably sealed the game. That's right. But this was not a game where, you know, four or five guys went off for UNC Greensboro. This was just a Mike Jones staple defensive physicality kind of win here. And, you know, we talk about Mercer. You know, was this a little bit of a hangover for the Paladins? Totally. Coming off a really tough road loss. You come back home, a UNC Greensboro team that is not what they've been over the last number of years coming in. National televised game. Totally. ESPN 2, all of that. ESPN 2. Asa Thomas is back. A.C. Thomas is back. Hall of Fame weekend where Matt Rafferty gets inducted into the Furman Athletics Hall of Fame. One that you would think. So, you know, again, hopefully just a tough week for them. They are now finally starting to get healthy. That's right. You know, when you get guys back in your lineup that have missed a significant amount of time, A.C. Thomas illustrated that. He shot three of ten. And they shoot three of ten for a hundred and a half to win the way that they historically want to win games. And they had one guy dominating. Yeah. And that was Justin Neely. Yeah. That was part of it. Okay, team of the week then. On the performances that they were able to do with clutch free throws in the stretch or at the end of the game by Justin Neely, but it's also even more so in terms of going on the road at Furman and how important it was for the Spartans to get themselves to 500. Because if they lose both of those games, then I don't know if they can really climb themselves out of that type of hole. But now, knowing that you're 6-6, you're right in the mix of this to be able to finish in the top six there in Asheville. And ultimately, that's where we're going to measure UNCG's success, how they're going to do in Asheville. We know the history there with UNCG and Asheville. We know the storyline, all of that. But that's why I'm going with the Spartans here. I mean, there's some other teams. There's no doubt when you're looking at ETSU on the three game winning streak, Wofford 2-0 this past week, even Samford, you know, with the three game winning streak, they're 2-0. I'm going with Spartans though. Look, you're not, you made compelling arguments to me on that. They had a great week. I'm going to go with the Bucs in Johnson City. Huge comeback win against Furman. And you go back-to-back. Like you mentioned, you have a three-game winning streak now, but you go back-to-back with a win against Wofford and then a win against Furman. Team sitting second and third in the conference. And you don't have a letdown game against VMI. Next thing I was going to say, you're absolutely right. You have to go to Lexington after that. Team that just got one conference win. They're really struggling. could be a letdown game. And they go in there and they're just their methodical selves. I mean, they get five guys in double figures and go in and take care of business on the road at VMI. And so now you're sitting there with a one-game lead still over Wofford, but really a two-three-game lead or a three-game lead over everybody else. That's right, yeah. You're in the driver's seat. Yeah, driver's seat, whatever you want to say. So I'm going with the Bucs. There you go. Okay. Player of the week then, we saw some great performances. I talked about Caden Vasco, again, just the engine for the Terriers. Jaden Booth, just what he was able to do, 28 points against Mercer, including going 14 of 14 from the free throw line. You could talk about Dylan Faulkner also. You could talk about Niels Mahofsky had a really good week. There are so many players that you could highlight. I going though I sticking with the Spartans theme right here And I going with Justin Neely 25 I mean 24 points 13 rebounds there against Furman and also going 19 of 21 from the free throw line. Record-tying performance there in terms of number of free throw attempts, and he also had 25 points and 11 rebounds, double-double. And even more so, he had the free throws to win both of the games. So Justin Neely, again, we don't know what the Southern Conference is going to do officially because we're recording it Monday morning. But I said it last week for Alex Wilkins, and I'll say it again for Justin Neely. There ain't no way Justin Neely is not player of the week. No player has been named player of the week twice in the Southern Conference. It's always been a different player each week, which is crazy. Yeah, because in a lot of past years, you've kind of had a couple guys. That's right. They get multiple. I would agree with you. I think this one has got to go to him. The stats that you mentioned are clearly elite. It's a big-time week no matter how you look at it. But for me, I think what would separate it is the clutch factor. That's what I'm saying too. He hits the free throws. He's in the right place at the right time, just making winning plays. He's a force multiplier in terms of how effective he is out on the court because it's not just from the stats perspective, but he commands attention from the opponents and also from his team. I mean, he directs that. He's almost the point guard of the team. He can bring the ball up the floor, and again, you allow him to get any type of action down low. He's just too tough to defend because he might not score, but you're going to foul him, and that's the reality of it. That's why he's able to get to the free throw line 21 times there against Western Carolina. He's physical. He's big. And when he tries to post up, I mean, he gets his body wide. And I contend so many times that, like, hey, Spartans, he's open. Get it to him. Yeah. Because he's going to make something happen. Yeah. Let's run it. Run it through him. Yeah. No, I mean, I think I do think honorable mention, though, to your point. I think you got to give a little honorable mention here to Jaden Booth. Of course. 28 against Mercer. You know, he was the leading scorer with 15 against Citadel in very efficient, very efficient week. from a shooting perspective. He's leading the conference in scoring 21 points per game, or 20.7, so we'll be exact here. But he's also leading the nation in three-point field goals made. That's impressive in itself. Yeah, and for them to have that 2-0 week like they had, they've got themselves right back into the mix. Yes, that's right. How about this stat of the week since we're talking about Jaden Booth? We've already mentioned it, 14 of 14 from the free-throw line there against Mercer. Mercer only had 13 free throws made in that game. Yeah. So that's crazy. And we've talked about Jaden Booth just in terms of we know he's a prolific scorer, but I'm still trying to understand how he gets to the free throw line so much because we know he's lights out from a three-point percentage. He's shooting over 40% from beyond the arc. And it's not low volume. It's high volume also. He's made 93s on the season so far. So he's putting up shots. but he also is second on the team in free throw attempts and first on the team in free throws made, shooting 90% at the free throw line. So, again, I'm just wondering, I need to watch a little bit more film in terms of how he's getting to the free throw line as much as he does because we talked about it, he's not like Baraka Koje or Alex Wilkins or even Kamari Holmes that can get a guy on their hip, get downhill, attack the rim. He doesn't necessarily do that. I don't think he has the same type of first step, but they get him in space. They find gaps for him to get shots off. I mean, it's a well-run offense when he's going. Yeah, I think that last piece you mentioned is kind of the thing that allows him to do what he has done, is that offense is very well tailored for him, and they have done a really good job, they being that staff, of getting him in positions to be able to get good looks and get open. And credit to him because that offense, you have to have a certain level of basketball IQ to be able to play in that Princeton-style offense out of the pinch post. And it takes an ability to be able to read the defense and be able to find the right read for you to make as a player. And he clearly fits well into that offense. Oh, he definitely does. Okay, power rankings. So let's run through these. Not a whole lot of movement. VMI, Chattanooga, Western. We also have the Citadel at seven. We've got UNCG at six. We've got Samford at five. Mercer at four. Furman still sitting there at three. Although, again, I know I flip-flopped Mercer and Furman in the past. Wofford at two. ETSU at one. And I mean, I am torn on, like we talked about earlier before we actually started recording that, I mean, I'm struggling with the power rankings because I mean, I could flip-flop so many teams here and we're splitting hairs in terms of how they're playing. But I mean, I could make an argument that Sanford could be in the top four right now. Yeah. I think that's probably the most intriguing team right there to maybe take a step up. You know, I think I 10 Western nine chat, eight Citadel seven and then Greensboro six. But I think Sanford has started to potentially put themselves in that. Hey, maybe either actually are five teams here that, that are a little bit better than everybody else. And, and look, you, you can say that Greensboro and the Citadel are both six and six. So, Hey, why not include them as well? But I do think the top four have separated themselves and I think they still are. I do think Mercer and Furman's weeks were hiccups. But is Sanford now getting to a point where they're saying, don't forget about us, we have taken a step forward. And like you said, look, you can make an argument. They're 2-0 this week, huge win against Mercer, a team that is in front of them, commanding 20-point win, three in a row. If they go string off a five-game winning streak, are they potentially not sitting in third place at the end of this week? That's right, yeah. And then now you clearly have them in that upper echelon. So I do think you've got your four, but Sanford is making a compelling case, if they can keep this up, that there are five teams that are probably a little bit better than everybody else. That's right. Okay, speaking of power rankings real quick, though, I will mention somebody who reached out on X, Bob Mulkey, who follows the podcast, and he actually helps the fans out there be able to create their own SOCON fan power poll, so their own power rankings. They have a respected fan from each team that's able to vote, but you can't vote on your own team. So I do think it's entertaining when you have fans getting into it also, and especially that you're able to corral a bunch of fans from across the Southern Conference. That's what we're talking about just in terms of the community and what we love about the Southern Conference because the footprint is right here. So it's a good follow at new underscore go mocks 57, Bob Mulkey and the SoCon fan power poll. So check that out. All right. Games to watch though, real quick. We do need to look at these because this is where we're going to start having some separation. Yeah. There's no doubt. I'm looking at even the Citadel at Western Carolina. We talked about it. Can the Citadel go get another road win there on Wednesday? Wofford at Samford. Okay. Wofford, you're going to have to take it on the road in Samford. Here you go. Here's your next test. Massive week for Sanford. They are home against Wofford and then go to ETSU. We're going to find out this week just how good Sanford is. That's right. Furman at Mercer? Okay. That's a must win for each. Look. Totally. It's a must win for each. They're fighting right now. I don't know how far either of those teams slide, but that's a must win for both programs if they want to make sure they definitively keep themselves out of that conversation. Yeah. What about the battle for Tennessee? Chattanooga at ETSU. OK, there we go. That's a that's a big one. Mercer at the Citadel also have that one because Mercer, you're going to have to go win on the road. Also in the Citadel, can they keep momentum going there? Samford at ETSU. Yeah, that's another big one. And then Wofford at UNCG. And we've talked about, OK, these teams are starting to separate themselves. So we're going to start seeing after this week, we'll have a much better idea of how the standings are going to lay out because we're getting to a point now where there's going to be certain teams that are already mathematically eliminated in terms of being able to catch the top two. Yeah, I think I would think this week we're going to start to see again a little bit of separation because there's so many teams bunched together within one game. I mean, obviously, I don't know the mathematics of how it breaks out, but I would suspect that we're going to start to kind of see a gap. So, I mean, Sanford, to me, has got the biggest test of the week. Can they go find a way to get on a five-game winning streak and make this thing real interesting? Very interesting. And what's also interesting is that you can subscribe or follow very easy. 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