NCAA Basketball: Top 10 mid-majors from first month of 2018-19 season

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DAYTON, OH – MARCH 13: Ed Polite Jr. #24 of the Radford Highlanders and Randy Phillips #32 of the Radford Highlanders attempt to keep the ball away from Raiquan Clark #23 of the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds during the game at UD Arena on March 13, 2018 in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images) /

10. Radford Highlanders 6-1

Like Furman, at the beginning of the season seeing a Big South team on a list like this, but defending champ Radford is here after earning a tournament win over LIU in the tournament last year and beginning this year 6-1 and the Highlanders are 3-0 in true road games with wins over William & Mary and signature wins at Notre Dame and No. 17 Texas.

What makes those last two wins even more impressive is that head coach Mike Jones’ best player, and perhaps the best player in the conference, sophomore guard Carlik Jones didn’t play against Notre Dame and just seven points on 3-12 shooting against Texas.

The 6-1 native of Cincinnati leads the team in points (16.2), assists (4.8), and steals (2.0), the diminutive guard is also second on the team in rebounding with 5.2 per game. Senior forward Ed Polite, Jr. is averaging a double-double this season with 12 and 10.4, he is also the just behind Jones in steals at 1.9. The Highlanders are more than just those two though, as they have had four different leading scorers in their seven games, the other two being seniors Caleb Tanner and Kansas State transfer Mawdo Sallah.

The rest of December sees the Highlanders with just one home game (against Georgia Southern) and five road games that include trips to Clemson, UNC-Greensboro, and Maryland.

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