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Roster Depth the Key in the Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Race
It determined the first game between ETSU and Furman a week ago. It will determine the rematch today between the defending champ and preseason favorite Saturday afternoon.
The announcement that Samford has postponed their next four men’s basketball games, including February 1 against East Tennessee State, has emphasized what the remainder of the 2021 Southern Conference hoops season is going to come down to.
Depth.
It’s going to be a factor for the Bulldogs as they try to fit 11 games in to the shortest month of the year, but Samford doesn’t figure to be a real contender in the SoCon race this season.
Saturday’s 4 pm tip-off against ETSU (8–5, 4–1) and Furman (10–4, 4–1) in Johnson City is different. It’s a rematch of the defending champion and preseason favorite in the conference, and the first meeting of these two teams, exactly seven days ago on Furman’s Greenville campus, came down to depth.
It’s easy to read the box score and say Furman star Mike Bothwell’s 32 points carried the Paladins to their 78–66 victory, but the absence of ETSU leading scorer Ledarrius Brewer was a leading factor in the game, and not just because of the 17 points per game Brewer averages.
