Bracketology 2024: Green Bay and Richmond among surprise title contenders

High Point Panthers 21-6, 10-2 in Big South

The Big South is always unpredictable, especially when it comes to the conference tournament, but this late in the season the conference leader has been unpredictable as well. The High Point Panthers find themselves above all others in the conference right now except for, preseason favorite UNC-Asheville.

Although there was one voter in the poll who knew what they were talking about, giving the Panthers who were picked to finish 7th a solitary first-place vote. Head coach Alan Huss is in his first year with the school and has them just four wins away from 25 on the year, a win total they haven’t seen since the 1978-79 season as an NAIA school.

Unlike the first two teams on this list, high point scores at a high rate netting 84.4 points per game with four players scoring at least 11.8 per game. The exciting thing for Panthers' fans is that all four are underclassmen. Duke Miles and Kezza Giffa are juniors and Kimani Hamilton and Abdoulaye Thiam are just sophomores.

Not only can the Panthers put up a lot of points, but they’re also 12th in offensive rebounding which helps them get to the free-throw line where they are the 11th-best team in the country shooting 78%. They are also good at creating turnovers with five steals per game and net 13 points off those turnovers.