The #24 Wofford Terriers earned a spot in the recent AP Poll Top 25 for the first time this season and the top team from the Southern Conference is on the verge of returning to March Madness for the first time since 2015.
Wofford, located in Spartanburg, South Carolina, represented the SoCon for the first time in 2010. They went four times between 2010-2015, but lost all four opening round games.
Over the last three seasons, three different schools won the Southern Conference Tournament in Asheville, NC. East Tennessee State, UNC Greensboro, and Chattanooga represented the SoCon in March Madness. However, none of them managed to win an opening round game.
Mike Young coached Wofford for 17 seasons. The first seven were rough and he did not have a winning season until season eight. Since then, Wofford had seven winnings seasons in the last decade. He has a 293–243 career record, but he is 0-4 in March Madness.
Sparkle City Treys
Wofford has a perfect 16-0 record in SoCon play. Wofford is the second-best team in the country in three-point percentage. The Terriers knocked down 41.5 percent of their treys this season. South Dakota State and Mike Daum are right behind them.
Wofford hit 310 three-pointers for fifth best in the country. They made 11 per game, while attempting an average of 27 per night.
Wofford’s top four scores are all hitting 41 percent or better from beyond the arc. Storm Murphy averages only 8.2 points per game off the bench, but he leads the team with an astronomical 51.6 percent clip from downtown.
Fletcher Magee, 6-foot-4 senior guard, leads the Terriers with 20.2 points per game. Magee drains 41.4 percent of this treys. Last year he hit nearly 44 percent. He hit at least five three-points in eight of his last nine games.
Cameron Jackson, 6-foot-8 senior forward, averages 14.8 points per game for second-best on the team. He hits 43.8 percent of his treys.
Upset Special
In 2015, the selection committee gave Wofford a #12 seed but they were unable to upset #5 Arkansas. The NCAA initially saw Wofford as a worthy role of Cinderella, but in that instance, the #5 seed held off the #12 seed. The Terriers had not been back to the tournament since then.
Can Wofford really be upset material if they are in the AP Poll Top 25? The fact they are popping up on the radar makes them a little less stealth. They should get a #5 seed, but the committee does not have as much respect for the SoCon like it does for the second-tier teams from the ACC, SEC, and Big Ten.
Wofford is one of the slew of mid-majors that could do some damage in March Madness. The PAC-12 slipped substantially as a competitive conference and they will only be sending one team to the tournament this year. The Buffalo Bulls from the MAC have been quietly sitting in the back of the Top 25 poll most of the season. They are primed to pull off an upset in March. The Houston Cougars have yet to lose a game at home this season, but the American Conference is finally getting some recognition.
Ja Morant is a bona fide lottery pick, but he’s hoping he can pull off some early upsets for Murray State in March Madness. Meanwhile, Liberty and Lipscomb are competing to find out which team will represent the ASUN Conference this March.