NCAA Basketball: Are SoCon, ASUN and Ohio Valley multi-bid leagues?

PITTSBURGH, PA - MARCH 15: A general view of the court with March Madness signage is seen prior to the start of the game between the OklahomaSooners and the Rhode Island Rams in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at PPG PAINTS Arena on March 15, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /

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CHAPEL HILL, NC – DECEMBER 20: Derrick Brooks #1 of the Wofford Terriers celebrates with teammates from their bench during their game against the North Carolina Tar Heels at Dean Smith Center on December 20, 2017 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Wofford won 79-75. (Photo by Lance King/Getty Images) /

The Southern Conference

Now let’s look at some of the mid-majors who are having fantastic years but yet are either barely in the field or on the outside looking in at this point. First, the Southern Conference hasn’t seen this kind of publicity since Steph Curry was at Davidson. Conference leader Wofford is 23-4 with an unblemished 15-0 record in conference. The Terriers are 26th in the NET and currently have six wins over the first two quads.

The reason they have those six wins is because the Southern Conference is stronger than it has been in years. Furman has two of the better wins of any mid-major team in basketball when they beat Villanova and Loyola earlier in the year. The wins put Furman in the top 25 at the time, the Paladins only other loss in non-conference play was at the hands of a team some think can win the SEC, LSU.

Furman is 22-5, 11-4 in the SoCon and with a 45 NET ranking, the one thing that could keep them out of the tournament would be their strength of schedule which is in the 200s. But, using that and ignoring the season Furman has had would be a disservice to them because, we all know teams like the ones being discussed here can rarely schedule the teams that would really help their profiles, and the ones they did schedule, they won two of three.

Furman is in third place in the SoCon, between them and Wofford is UNC-Greensboro who is also 22-5 but 11-3 in conference with two of those losses thanks to Wofford. The other Spartans’ losses were to Furman, LSU, and Kentucky and they rank 57th in the NET while their SOS sits at 126. All three teams also sit in the top 90 in KenPom ahead of South Carolina, USC, UCLA, and Stanford.

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