Southern Tournament Betting Guide: Can Samford Be Stopped?

Southern Tournament Best Bet: Furman (+500)

When betting on conference tournament winners, it's not just betting on which team you think is the best. If you aren't going to go with the top seed, you need to ask: How does this team match up against the best team in the league? College basketball expert Jordan Majewski gave a golden nugget in his blog on the coaching advantage for Furman: "It’s been a struggle for BuckyBall and Samford vs. Bob Richey and Furman, with McMillan down 1-6 in the head-to-head series, with Furman averaging 1.14 PPP in the seven games. Bucky’s trapping, zone pressure denies pick and roll and forces you to beat it with elite ball movement and shooting, which is the calling card of Richey’s offense at Furman."

While we believe Western Carolina is the second-best team in the league, Samford swept them in the regular season, including a 26-point shellacking on the road. Furman was one of three teams to hand Samford a loss this year and narrowly missed out on the season sweep with a two-point loss in Birmingham just two weeks back. The Paladins match up great with Samford, and they have a real chance to create chaos in the semifinals if they can get past the Catamounts.

Southern Tournament Favorite: Samford (+155)

BuckyBall is in full effect in Birmingham. The patented uptempo style of play named after head coach Bucky McMillan, the Bulldogs never stop running. With the 12th-fastest pace of play in the country, Samford is fourth in the nation in points per game at 86.9. They have the potential to run anybody in the league out of the gym and have done so throughout conference play. The worry for the Bulldogs comes with the status of A.J. Staton-McCray, the team's second-leading scorer. He has missed the team's past four games, and we have no word on his availability ahead of the SoCon Tourney.

Southern Tournament Challenger: UNC Greensboro (+450)

Greensboro made out like bandits with this draw. Three of the four teams mentioned in this article with the shortest odds in the field are in the top half of the bracket, while the Spartans only have to deal with Chattanooga to make it out of the bottom portion. Mike Jones's team lives and dies by the three. They rank seventh in the nation in three-point percentage and fourth in percentage of points coming from beyond the arc. Mikeal Brown-Jones is a force in the paint as a 6'8" forward, averaging 19.3 points and 7.6 rebounds per game.

Southern Tournament Dark Horse: Western Carolina (+500)

No Southern Tournament preview is complete without mentioning Vonterius Woolbright, the conference Player of the Year and a legitimate All-American candidate. Woolbright is averaging a ridiculous 21.4 points, 12.1 rebounds, and 5.5 assists as a 6'5" do-it-all guard. He already has five triple-doubles under his belt this season, and we bet you'll see at least one more come this postseason. He is accompanied by Tre Jackson, Russell Jones, and DJ Campbell in the backcourt, all double-digit scorers. This is one of the sport's most dangerous groupings of guards, and we wouldn't be surprised to see them take over and make a deep run in this bracket.

Southern Tournament Best Bet: Furman (+500)

When betting on conference tournament winners, it's not just betting on which team you think is the best. If you aren't going to go with the top seed, you need to ask: How does this team match up against the best team in the league? College basketball expert Jordan Majewski gave a golden nugget in his blog on the coaching advantage for Furman: "It’s been a struggle for BuckyBall and Samford vs. Bob Richey and Furman, with McMillan down 1-6 in the head-to-head series, with Furman averaging 1.14 PPP in the seven games. Bucky’s trapping, zone pressure denies pick and roll and forces you to beat it with elite ball movement and shooting, which is the calling card of Richey’s offense at Furman."

While we believe Western Carolina is the second-best team in the league, Samford swept them in the regular season, including a 26-point shellacking on the road. Furman was one of three teams to hand Samford a loss this year and narrowly missed out on the season sweep with a two-point loss in Birmingham just two weeks back. The Paladins match up great with Samford, and they have a real chance to create chaos in the semifinals if they can get past the Catamounts.