SoCon Basketball: Ranking of 25 best players from last decade (2013-23)

12. QJ Peterson

A 6’0 guard from Hedgesville, West Virginia, Peterson became a potent scoring machine while spending his career at VMI. He’d arrive in 2013 and would start nearly every game across the next four seasons with the Keydets, spending two seasons apiece under head coaches Duggar Baucom and Dan Earl. As VMI only joined the SoCon in 2014, we aren’t really including his freshman season in our consideration, but that’s not a big deal.

Peterson was a consistent part of VMI’s offense throughout his collegiate career. He would actually average at least 19 points a game in each of his four seasons, though he would miss nearly half of his sophomore year, the program’s first in the SoCon. While the program had early struggles in their new conference, Peterson was not part of the problem. As a junior, he had a 46-point game against Mercer and he dropped 40 at Chattanooga the following year, just two examples of his offensive prowess.

Peterson scored 2200 points in his career, with more than 1550 of that coming in the SoCon. He earned First Team All-SoCon honors for his last two seasons and was putting up impressive numbers throughout, including finishing 4th in the nation in free throw shooting during his junior year. Throughout his career, he was a heavily utilized and impressive offensive player, and despite VMI’s struggles he had plenty of chances to show that talent.