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Big South Tournament Preview

Season in Review
The Big South has gained some national attention this year thanks to one Chris Clemons at Campbell. The 5'9" point guard leads the nation in scoring at 30.1 points per game, and recently eclipsed the 3,000 point mark for his college career. He has led the Fighting Camels, one of the many great nicknames in this conference, to a 12-4 record and the top seed in the conference tournament. Also of note is reigning conference champion Radford, who won the play-in game last season before losing to Villanova, and they are once again very good. They pulled off road victories over Notre Dame and Texas, and also finished 12-4 in the conference. Behind them, there are 6 teams sitting at either 10-6 or 9-7, so there is a chance for absolute anarchy in this conference tournament. I think this could be one of the most fun tournaments in the entire country this year, so be sure to tune in.

Bracket
2019 MBB Splash Page

Contenders
Campbell (19-11, 12-4)
As I mentioned earlier, the Fighting Camels are led by Chris Clemons, who basically does whatever he wants on the floor. With the ball in his hands often, they rarely turn the ball over, and they have the second best offensive efficiency in the conference per KenPom. One thing they are going to do is shoot from threes, taking roughly 50% of their shots from three, despite just shooting 33.6% as a team from deep, but they do pretty much everything else well offensively. They do lack size, and they struggle on the defensive end, but good luck stop Clemons from getting to March in his senior season. They went 3-1 against High Point and Radford, the two best defensive teams in the conference, and they have beaten every team in this conference except Winthrop at least once. They will go as Clemons go, and that should take them pretty far in this tournament,

Radford (20-10, 12-4)
The Highlanders represented the Big South in the NCAA Tournament last year, and they might even be better this season. They probably have the best one-two punch in the conference with Ed Polite Jr and Carlik Jones, who are both on my first team All Conference. Polite is a very solid big man, and I'll get more into him in a minute, and Jones is a stat sheet stuffer, averaging 15.7 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 6.1 assists on the year as a sophomore. They have proven their merits already this season, as they took down Notre Dame and Texas on the road in non-conference play, before dominating the Big South for the majority of conference play. They have a top 3 offense and defense in the conference, and while they aren't the sexiest team, they are very good and should be able to make a deep run.

Sleeper Team
Hampton (14-15, 9-7)
Saying that the Pirates are streaky would be an understatement. After starting 5-2 in conference play, they lost five straight game before winning four straight games to close out conference play. They have beaten both Campbell and Radford this season, and they can certainly score. They are 20th in the nation at 82 points a game thanks to the fastest pace in the Big South, and their backcourt of Jermaine Morrow and Kalin Fisher is probably the best in the conference. They will rarely turn the ball over and if they can get hot, they are tough to stop. The one thing holding them back is a matchup with Campbell should they win their first game, but they could very easily get hot and make a run.

Players to Watch
Chris Clemons
Stats: 30.1 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 2.9 APG, 1.5 SPG, 0.3 BPG, 45.5/37/87
Clemons is the star of the show in the Big South, as you can tell by his 30.1 points per game this year. He is so dynamic with the ball in his hands, and while he isn't the best facilitator, there are very few players in the nation I want taking a shot late in the clock. He can either blow by his man, pull up from three, or pass despite not having great vision. His rebounding ability is also great because he can grab and go in transition, where he is so explosive. If there is one guy who can carry his team to a tournament victory in the Big South, it's Chris Clemons.

Ed Polite Jr
Stats: 13.2 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 1.6 APG, 1.5 SPG, 1.2 BPG, 57.6/33.8/73.5
I could've gone with either Polite or Carlik Jones here, but I decided to go with the senior from Radford for this spot. Pretty easily the best big man in the Big South, Polite is a load down low for every other team in the conference. He is ruthlessly efficient in the low post, and he leads the conference in rebounds per game at 9.8. He's a double double machine no matter who they play, positing 16 and 11 against Notre Dame, 16 and 10 versus Clemson, and his best game was recently, with 23 and 11 in a loss to Hampton. He exemplifies the Radford way, as he isn't grabbing headlines, but he is very efficient and will cause a lot of problems for his opponents in the Big South tournament.

Jermaine Morrow
Stats: 25.3 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 5.1 APG, 1.7 SPG, 0.2 BPG, 46.4/38/80.6
If it weren't for Chris Clemons, Jermaine Morrow would be one of the bigger stories in the nation. I mean, look at those stat lines. He's second in points per game and third in both assists and steals, and his stat lines look sort of similar to players like RJ Barrett or Ja Morant. Look at the game he had against High Point: 40 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, and 5 steals. That is absolutely wild, and he's been doing that all throughout Big South play. In his last game, he had a casual 30/4/6/3 performance, and as I mentioned with the sleeper team earlier, he and Hampton could get hot and make a deep run in the Big South tournament.

My All Conference Teams
First Team
G: Chris Clemons, Campbell
G: Jermaine Morrow, Hampton
G: Christian Keeling, Charleston Southern
G: Carlik Jones, Radford
F: Ed Polite Jr, Radford

Second Team
G: Nych Smith, Winthrop
G: Jose Perez, Gardner-Webb
G: Kalin Fisher, Hampton
F: David Efianayi, Gardner-Webb
F: Malik Moore, USC Upstate

My Pick: Campbell over Radford
I know I've talked about the potential for chaos in the Big South tournament, but I went chalk in the final. While there are a lot of teams with good conference records, it should be noted both Campbell and Radford won the conference by two games and beat up on the other teams in the conference, so I think they will be able to take care of business even against the other teams. We've also seen Campbell beat Radford twice, and in conferences where there is little separating the teams, I think the way to go is with the best player, and that is Chris Clemons, so I think he will finally get to go dancing after an illustrious career. 

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