SoCon Basketball: Can this be a two-bid league in 2019-20 season?

LEXINGTON, VA - JANUARY 10: The Southern Conference logo on the floor before a college basketball game between the Furman Paladins and the Virginia Military Keydets at Cameron Hall on January 10, 2019 in Lexington, Virginia. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** /

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LEXINGTON, KY – DECEMBER 01: Isaiah Miller #1 of the UNC-Greensboro Spartans (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /

UNC-Greensboro Spartans (20-6, 10-3)

As I said earlier, UNC-Greensboro was the first team left out of the NCAA Tournament last season despite 28 wins and reaching the SoCon tournament final where they fell to Wofford for the third time on the year. Head coach Wes Miller and his squad are looking to do a little more this year to make sure they don’t get left out again, even if they don’t win the conference tournament.

Isaiah Miller is their star and strong conference Player of the Year candidate. The junior guard leads the team in scoring with 18.2, his 4.7 rebounds are second on the team and he registers nearly as many steals per game (2.7) as he does assists (2.8). Miller is the only player averaging double figures but the rest of the Spartans’ offense is balanced with seven guys that net at least five per game. But it is their defensive chops is where the Spartans hang their hats, giving up just 61 per game which is 11th best nationally.

At 10-3 in the conference, they sit just one game out of first place and are one of the hotter teams in the conference, having won eight of their last nine. The Spartans are 60 in the current NET ranking and have a 3-4 record over the top two quads with the losses coming to Kansas, NC State and one of the leaders in the SoCon, East Tennessee State. They also have a chance for a season sweep over Furman in the next to last game of the year which would give them another key notch in their resume.