All-American

Skip Prosser Man of the Year award

BOSTON, MA -- Western Carolina head coach Mark Prosser is the recipient of the 2019-20 Skip Prosser Man of the Year award.  The award is named after Skip Prosser (Mark's father), who died suddenly in 2007 while the head coach at Wake Forest. The Man of Year award is presented annually by CollegeInsider.com to someone who has not only achieved success on the basketball court but also displays moral integrity off the court as well.

2020 SKIP PROSSER AWARD FINALISTS
Casey Alexander, Belmont
Steve Alford, Nevada
Chris Beard, Texas Tech
Tony Bennett, Virginia
Jerrod Calhoun, Youngstown State
Tim Craft, Gardner-Webb
Rick Croy, California Baptist
Steve Forbes, ETSU
John Gallagher, Hartford
Greg Gard, Wisconsin
Joe Golding, Abilene Christian
Anthony Grant, Dayton
Chris Holtmann, Ohio State
James Jones, Yale
Greg Lansing, Indiana State
Frank Martin, South Carolina
Ritchie McKay, Liberty
Matt McMahon, Murray State
Joe Mihalich, Hofstra
Steve Pikiell, Rutgers
Mark Prosser, Western Carolina
Pat Skerry, Towson
Damon Stoudamire, Pacific
Andy Toole, Robert Morris
Russell Turner, UC Irvine

In his only his second season a head coach at Western Carolina, Prosser nearly tripled Western's win total, finishing with a 19-12 record. The Catamounts advanced to the semifinals of the Southern Conference Tournament and the 19 wins were the most since the 2013-14 season.


PAST RECIPIENTS
2019: Robert Jones, Norfolk State
2018: Casey Alexander, Lipscomb
2017: Danny Manning, Wake Forest
2016: Zack Spiker, Army
2015: Keno Davis, Central Michigan
2014: Brian Wardle, Green Bay
2013: Joe Mihalich, Niagara
2012: Jimmy Patsos, Loyola MD
2011: Chris Mack, Xavier
2010: Bob Marlin, Sam Houston State
2009: Ed Conroy, The Citadel
2008: Mike Brey, Notre Dame

The Skip Prosser award committee is a 21 member panel, consisting of 12 current or retired coaches, three members of the national media and five collegeinsider.com staff members.

Cat Chats

Cat fans in at #11 nationally on Twitter

Covid-19 and Athletics in the SoCon

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Due to the ongoing threat of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the Southern Conference, at the recommendation of the league’s Council of Presidents and directors of athletics, will suspend all athletic competition through March 30, Commissioner Jim Schaus announced Thursday.
 

NCAA :  As of now, all remaining winter and spring NCAA championships and related events, including the Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, have been canceled. While we understand how disappointing this is for everyone, our decision is based on the current understanding of how COVID-19 is progressing in the United States.

Dotson & Faulkner named to All-Tournament Team

Senior forward Carlos Dotson and redshirt junior guard Mason Faulkner named the 2020 Southern Conference Men's Basketball All-Tournament Team

Onno Steger

Courtesy WCU Media Relations          

SoCon Tournament - Sunday's Brackets

ETSU - SoCon MBB Semifinals

Fifth-seeded Western Carolina meets first seeded ETSU on Sunday afternoon at 4 pm in Asheville. The Bucs downed VMI, while the Cats finished off Mercer to reach the conference tournament semifinals. The Catamounts are making their 15th semifinal appearance, the first since 2016.




Game #31 - ETSU Bucs 

When: Sunday, March 8, 2020, at 4 pm
Where: Harrah's Cherokee Center Asheville, Asheville, NC
Radio: Catamount Sports Network
-announcers: Gary Ayers & Daniel Hooker
TV/video: ESPN+/Nexstar
-announcers: Pete Yanity, Dean Keener, and Erin Summers
Fan Message Board: Buccaneer Nation

The Series: The Cats are 24-54 against the Bucs overall, and are currently on a ten-game slide against ETSU, however, the Cats lost the regular season final game against ETSU by one point in the final seconds of the game.

ETSU's 2019-20 record: 28-4 overall, 16-2 SoCon

The top seed ETSU Bucs beat the VMI Keydets 70-57 in the first quarterfinal matchup of the 2020 Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Championship. Daivien Williamson led 4 Bucs in double-figure scoring for the heavily favored Bucs with 15 points. Tray Boyd III and Isaiah Tisdale has 12 apiece with another 11 from Joe Hugley.

ETSU moves on to the semifinals for the 18th time. The Bucs are making their fifth consecutive final four appearances
ETSU is ranked #2 nationally in the most recent mid-major top 25, just behind #1 Gonzaga.

SoCon Saturday Brackets

SoCon MBB Power Rankings (3-3-20)

This is the twelfth and final power ranking of the season, after 17 weeks of SoCon basketball, this is how we see the rankings.



1. (1) ETSU
2. (3) Furman

3. (2) UNCG

4. (4) Western Carolina
5. (5) Mercer
6. (6) Chattanooga
7. (7) Wofford
8. (8) Samford
9. (9) VMI
10. (10) The Citadel



Last week's ranking in parentheses

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Mercer - SoCon MBB Quarterfinals

The  #4 seeded Mercer Bears and the #5 seeded Western Carolina Catamounts will meet on Saturday, March 4th in game #4 of the 2020 SoCon MBB Tournament in Asheville. The two teams split the regular season games, each team winning at home.


Game #30 - Mercer Bears

When: Saturday, March 4, 2020, at 2:30 pm
Where: Harrah's Cherokee Center Asheville, Asheville, NC
Radio: Catamount Sports Network
-announcers: Gary Ayers & Daniel Hooker
TV/video: ESPN+
Fan Message Board: MU Bear Down
The Series: The series between Western and the Mercer started back in 1978 and Western owns a 9-10 overall record against the Bear, and a 6-6 record in conference play since 2015 when the Bears joined the Southern Conference. The two teams have not met in the conference tournament until this season.

Mercer's  2019-20 record: 17-14 overall,  11-7 SoCon

Head Coach Greg Gary, in his first season at the helm of the Bears, had only two starters return from last season's 11-20 team. Not only did the Bears lose two seniors from last season, but they also lost 5 freshmen and one sophomore from that roster, possibly due to the coaching change. While much is made of building a team with transfers for ETSU, the Bears have 3 of 5 transfers as starters, and a total of 5 transfers on the roster.

The Bears come into the game having won 5 of their last 6 games and are riding a 4 game win streak.  However their last 4 games were verses the lower third teams in the conference.

The 2020 SoCon MBB Tournament Bracket

First round // Friday, March 6 // Harrah's Cherokee Center Asheville 
Game 1  #8 Samford  vs.  #9 VMI   5 p.m.
Game 2  #7 Wofford  vs.  #10 The Citadel   7:30 p.m.

Quarterfinals // Saturday, March 7 // Harrah's Cherokee Center Asheville 
Game 3   #1 ETSU  vs.  Game 1 winner   12 p.m.
Game 4   #4 Mercer  vs.  #5 Western Carolina   2:30 p.m.
Game 5  #2 Furman  vs.  Game 2 winner   6 p.m.
Game 6   #3 UNCG  vs.  #6 Chattanooga   8:30 p.m.