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Relive the SoCon Hoops "Decade of Glory"! Dive into the 1994-95 season, key teams, and stars like Billy Donovan, defining a golden era of college basketball.
Written By
John Hooper
Correspondent
Written By
John Hooper
Correspondent
While the current structure of the league is playing at its highest standard in history over the better part of the past decade, in many ways the 1990s were a golden era for Southern Conference Basketball--both literally and figuratively.
The SoCon was home to maybe one of the top mid-major hoops rivalries in the won between Tennessee-Chattanooga (now referred to as just Chattanooga or UTC) and East Tennessee State, and much like the current era of Southern Conference hoops, the league was hope to both great scoring talents, great shooters and tremendous coaches.
It's important to note that at this particular time, the Southern Conference was split up into two divisions, with both the North Division and the South Division. In the SoCon's North, Appalachian State, Marshall, East Tennessee State, Davidson and VMI were all part of that division. In the SoCon's South Division, Chattanooga, Western Carolina, The Citadel, Furman and Georgia Southern were grouped together in an effort to create rivalries and place teams within a radius and distance based on closest proximity. It also led to new format changes in the league's oldest postseason college basketball tournament--The Southern Conference Tournament--as it would be playing its final tournament in the friendly confines of the Asheville Civic Center after the facility and the Altitude City had hosted the previous 11 editions of the tournament, and the 1995 tournament would mark the final one for the league as host before moving to the Greensboro Coliseum for the next four years.
The tournament, which had found a natural home at the Civic Center, with the size of the facility, proximity of each school, and the crowd support at all sessions creating one of the top college basketball atmospheres in the nation during championship week each of the previous 11 seasons.
It would be 17 years would ultimately make the return to the facility, which is now referred to as the Harrah's Cherokee Center, but it was like it never left. When the SoCon commences the 105th edition in 2025 in early March, it will mark the 14th-straight edition of the league's oldest college basketball tournament.
That was called into question due to the effects of Hurricane Helene on the Western North Carolina region back in September, but as we learned the first time the tournament moved around trying to find a home, there truly is not a city nor venue like the ones that Asheville and the Harrah's Cherokee Center, and it's proof you can go home again.
The SoCon and Asheville have been the perfect marriage, producing one of the greatest spectacles in all of college basketball every March. Much of that success was born back in the 1990s, and in particular, the 1995 tournament, which was one that only two games out of the nine total played in the 83rd edition of the tournament decided by 10 points or more.
Marshall's basketball team was under new leadership in the form of Billy Donovan before leaving after only two seasons to go on to make more of a name for himself as back-to-back national champion head coach of the Florida Gators in 2005 and '06.
His two years in Huntington, however, were among the most exciting in program history. Donovan would end up being named the 1994-95 Southern Conference Coach of the Year, leading the Thundering Herd to a final record of 18-9, which included a 10-4 record in the SoCon's North Division, which was good enough for a divisional title, as the Thundering Herd headed to the 1995 tournament in Asheville with the top overall record in the league.
The Herd had its share of explosive players as well, like wing forwards Shawn Moore and one of the most athletic forwards in the SoCon, in Troy Gray, the Thundering Herd had real star power at their disposal during the 1994-95 season. Moore was a pure scorer, while Gray was a pure terror coming down the lane and flying through the air with a plethora of acrobatic dunks.
Moore followed in the footsteps of another former Thundering Herd prolific scorer from the recent past, in John Taft. Moore would end up leading the Herd in scoring, at 19.9 PPG, 6.9 RPG and 2.5 APG, and was one of four Thundering Herd players to finish the season averaging in double figures, as the Thundering Herd finished as league scoring leader, averaging 84.4 PPG.
Gray added 12.6 PPG, 5.3 RPG and 1.0 blocks-per-game, while Malik Hightower
The Bucs were still good and still had one of the best in the business leading the charge, in Alan LeForce, but there had been quite the noticeable step back during the 1993-94 season, which had seen the Bucs drop from 19 wins in 1992-93 to just 16 in 93-94.
In 1994-95, the Bucs had to replace their top player overall, in Trazel Silvers, who was one of the top players in the SoCon the year before and averaged 17.3 PPG during his senior season. Silvers would go on to become a star member of the Harlem Globetrotters following his standout career with the Bucs.
So what was left over for LeForce and ETSU in 1994-95? Well, there was talent still around in a player like forward Junior Floyd or incoming transfer guard Robert Doggett, who came to ETSU from Wake Forest, were two players that would make the Bucs a tough out more often than not. And, the Bucs still had some players around that had won a lot of games in their career, like senior center Tony Patterson. The Bucs also had one of the league's most athletic and exciting players, in 6-7 forward Phil Powe.
While ETSU's descent could be attributed to many things, it was more gradual than rapid in hindsight. It was a bit crazy to think it was Bucs hoops program that sported a Top 10 ranking during the 1990-91 season.
Even with the challenges ahead, the Bucs were, in fact, good enough to swing what was a second-place finish in the SoCon's weaker of the two divisions, which was just behind Billy Donovan's Marshall Thundering Herd, as the Bucs finished conference play with a 9-5 mark in league action, which was a game behind the divisional league champion.
Head coach Tom Apke would end up coaching his final season at Appalachian State, as the Mountaineers would fail to meet the standard of previous seasons, despite having a good amount of talent within the ranks.
Despite having several of the league's most talent players, including guards William Cook and Junior Braswell, as well as a pair of the league's top big men, in both SoCon Freshman of the Year Kareem Livingston, as well as veteran player and all-conference honoree Chad McClendon.
Ultimately, the Black and Gold would finish with just a 9-20 overall record and won only four league contest, posting a 4-10 league mark. That was last place in the SoCon North, finishing behind even VMI. Just four years earlier, the Apps had made back-to-back tournament title games only to run into the buzzsaw that was East Tennessee State at the time in both of those games, and at that time the Bucs were pretty much untouchable.
In McClendon, though, the Mountaineers had truly one of the league's top players and he would be a enough to help Appalachian make more than a little noise when it arrived in Asheville for the Southern Conference Tournament. Which is pretty amazing, considering the Mountaineers lost six of their final eight regular-season games heading into the postseason.
While App State's success was few and far between, the Mountaineers were more often than not a team that was either considered a top four team in the league, and when it wasn't, punched above its weight more often than not.
While the league's western North Carolina programs would make their presence known in March in Asheville, it was Davidson that, in just its third season since returning to the league, was once again a title threat with Bob McKillop at the helm. The Wildcats had been on the brink of winning the title a year earlier before dropping a heartbreaking, 65-64 championship game to Chattanooga the previous season.
A lot of those players were now veterans under McKillop, who routinely had one of the top shooting teams in the SoCon, as well as one of the league's perennial efficiency leaders on both ends of the floor every season, he coached in the SoCon.
Some of those veterans that helped the Wildcats learn how to win and making an NIT appearance a year earlier were back. The Wildcats had gotten hot to close out the 1993-94 season, winning 15 of their final 18 games to finish 22-8.
Brandon "Ozone" Williams was one of the league's best dunkers and wings, while George Spain was among the league's top big men. Junior power forward Quinn Harwood was the team's leading scorer during the 1994-95 season, averaging 13.3 PPG and 7.1 RPG to highlight what was a balanced attack.
Point guard Chris Alpert was one of the best distributors in the SoCon, averaging 5.5 APG, while also averaging on the verge of double figures, at 9.7 PPG. Ray Mineland was a highlight-reel, and he gave "Ozone" a run for his money when it came to be among the league's best athletes and dunkers.
Mineland represented part of the international flair that the Wildcats featured most every season under McKillop during his time at Davidson, hailing from Yaoundé, Cameroon. Both he and sophomore center Narcisse Ewodo, who was another tremendous athlete and human pogo stick, were both from Cameroon--"The Indomitable Lions" of that Wildcats team if you will.
Despite so much talent, however, the season was one filled with mixed results, as the Wildcats finished just 7-7 in the SoCon's South Division, which was good enough for third spot behind Chattanooga and WCU.
VMI, which was of course the other military school in the Southern Conference, ended the 1994-95 season with almost an identical record to that of the Bulldogs under first-year head coach Bart Bellairs, as the Keydets would finish a respectable 10-17 overall and were 6-8 in Southern Conference play.
The finish would be good enough for the Keydets to finish the campaign with a fourth-place finish in the five-team SoCon North Division.
The Keydets would feature a new style of basketball under head coach Bart Bellairs, and if you're familiar with more current times in SoCon hoops, such as "Bucky Ball" at Samford, it was a style of pressing 94-feet and causing chaos, as Bellairs' style was very similar, and VMI basketball would become known as the "Runnin' Roos" during this particular era.
There was a roster of players that did possess some good talent, which translated to the Southern Conference hardwood during this era. Players like point guard Bobby Prince, forward Lawrence Gullette, guard Bryan Taueg, and center Lester Johnson, and it would be a core group that would ultimately help lead a turnaround for VMI basketball.
Prince and Gullette would turn out to be two of the SoCon's premier players at their respective positions during the '94-95 season, with Prince being arguably the league's top point guard, while Gullette was not only one of the league's top scorers, but was also one of the league's top power forwards.
Prince finished the season by leading the league in assists-per-game, dishing out 6.4 helpers-per-game, while also setting a school record for single-game assists at 13 in an overtime road loss to Western Carolina. It would be a record that would end up standing for three decades. Gullette would end up leading the Keydets in scoring, averaging 16.4 PPG.
Chattanooga entered the season as the defending champs, having survived a year earlier to post a 65-64 win over Davidson, who had made the title game in just their second team since re-entering the league after having left the league following the 1987-88 season before becoming an independent for two years and joining the Big South for two seasons.
However, the Wildcats proved that, under head coach Bob McKillop, they were going to a perennial thorn in the side for the rest of the league, which had its power base in the Volunteer State for the better part of the previous decade, stretching back to the mid-1980s, with the rise of both Chattanooga and ETSU as the true league powers of the time.
The Mocs were the heavy favorites to repeat their title under the unflappable leadership of one of the league's all-time great coaches, Mack McCarthy, who just two years later would lead the Mocs to their greatest hardwood accomplishment as an NCAA Division I member--a Sweet Sixteen appearance.
With players like Gary Robb, Brandon Born, Roger Brown, Pat Henderson and Isaac Connor, and those extremely talented players would end up living up to the expectations that were bestowed upon in the preseason, although it might not have transpired most would have thought. By now, however, Chattanooga was beginning to outclass its bitter rival and league juggernaut East Tennessee State.
When Western Carolina made noise at the Civic Center in the tournament, it was if a western North Carolina mountain revival was happening in the Altitude City, and it was former Wyoming and New Orleans head coach Benny Dees that fans could thank in the immediate, as he had brought Catamount basketball back from the dead after taking over a program that had descended into college basketball's wilderness during the 1992-93 season, winning just six games.
In Dees' first year on the job, he doubled the Catamounts' overall win total, as WCU went from six wins in Greg Blatt's final season to 12 wins in Dees' first. In the 1994-95 season, Western would take yet another step in a positive direction, winning 14 games.
The upstart Catamounts would face the Mountaineers for the right to play Cinderella in Asheville in the SoCon Championship game the following evening, but we'll get to that later.
While Dees was the right choice and no doubt the right man for the job, it was his eye for talent in the JUCO ranks that ended up changing the narrative for Catamount basketball in what was a time long before NIL or the transfer portal. Dees would help blaze a new path never before reached in WCU's NCAA Division I era, but he wouldn't do it alone.
During this particular era, the JUCO ranks were a pipeline of talent for not just one or two teams in the SoCon, but several. Western Carolina had mined that reservoir of talent and came away with one of the top scorers in all of college basketball, as well as one of the most dynamic scorers in the modern era of SoCon basketball, bringing in Frankie King.
The 6-3 guard was a player that should have been playing power five basketball, but his academics had kept him at the JUCO level and it was Dees' discovery in recruiting that helped change the fortunes of WCU basketball.
But getting King was only part of the puzzle. He had to convince one of the best guards already on the roster when arrived--Anquell McCollum--not to transfer after his first season on campus in Cullowhee. He was able to do that, and King played Batman-to-McCollum's Robin, forming one of the top backcourts in the Southern Conference.
During the 1994-95 season, the dynamic guard combo averaged over 43 PPG between the two of them, with King leading the conference and nation at 26.5 PPG.
King's scoring caught national acclaim in his first season with the Catamounts. After spending two seasons at Brunswick Community College, where he scored 20 or more points in 62 out 63 games as a JUCO product, garnering Georgia Junior College Player of the Year accolades. It was a steal for then Catamount head coach Benny Dees, who was rebuilding the program, needing a guard and scorer to playing alongside another future Hall-of-Fame Catamount guard, in Anquell McCollum (1992-96).
King was the SoCon Player of the Year in 1993-94 and 1994-95, scored 30 or more points in 22 games, and posted a whopping 1,495 points in just two seasons. He averaged 26.9 PPG and 26.5 PPG in two seasons, ranking among the nation's top five scorers in both campaigns. The Catamounts would go on to finish the season second among the five teams in the SoCon's South Division, posting an 8-6 overall league mark.
The 1994-95 season for Furman basketball was one of significant change. It was the beginning of the Joe Cantafio era in Greenville, as the highly successful tenure of Butch Estes ended when the Paladins lost a heartbreaking, 85-81, contest eventual champion Chattanooga in the first quarterfinal on the Mocs' route to the '94 championship.
Cantafio's first team in Greenville had some of their old winning pieces that were still around from the Butch Estes era along with some new ones, and the Paladins were competitive most nights. However, the overwhelming majority of the time the Paladins were outmatched, despite being competitive on most nights.
The Paladins had several reputable players during that would be among the league's best, despite the transition, with the most recognizable of those being Steve Harris, who had transferred in from Clemson prior to the 1993-94 campaign, and he would end up being Furman's leading man during the campaign. He would end up averaging 15.8 PPG.
That team-leading scoring average was good enough to land the Simpsonville, S.C. product among the league's top players, as he was named consensus All-SoCon by the league's media and coaches. He was a second-team media selection.
A young, promising big man from Durham, N.C., named Chuck Vincent would come on to the scene and show his future promise in the program, and by the time he was a senior in 1997-98, he would not only mold into an All-SoCon talent, but a talent that would be named the SoCon's Player of the Year as a Senior. Vincent was SoCon Freshman of the Year during the 1994-95 season, averaging 12.4 PPG and ranked second in the league in rebounding, at 8.7 RPG.
Anthony Smith was a senior guard that could stroke the three and like Harris, transferred in from Clemson. He wouldn't quite become the hit that Harris was offensively, but he could be a consistent outside threat that teams had to be aware of at all times. Like Harris, he had also come to Furman prior to the 1993-94 season, but had one more year of eligibility than Harris did when he transferred.
Smith would see his scoring decrease, however, in his second season with the Paladins' basketball program, as he went for nearly averaging double figures to averaging about 6.9 PPG.
Jeff Sexton would prove to be another reliable scorer underneath for the Paladins and ended up as the Paladins' second-leading scorer, at 12.5 PPG.
Despite a season that would see its fair share of overall struggles for the Paladins, Furman would manage to be one of the better defensive teams in the SoCon during the 1994-95 campaign, leading the league in scoring defense (69.0 PPG).
Early signs of concern in Cantafio's first season as the head coach could be found in the earliest portions of the campaign, as the Paladins hosted NCAA Division II member Wofford, but the Paladins found a way past the Terriers in the second half for a 69-55 win.
Furman would take on ACC power Georgia Tech (L, 73-94), who was still a strong force within the ACC under Bobby Cremins, and with players like point guard Travis Best, sharp-shooter Drew Barry, and forward James Forrest, breezed past the Paladins by 21. That trio alone accounted for 70 of the Yellow Jackets' 94 points in the win, with none of the three scoring fewer than 22 in the contest.
The Paladins would later face off against the twin towers of Tennessee, in Steve Hamer and Kevin Whitted, as the Volunteers scored a regionally-televised win on the VolNetwork of 68-51 over Furman on New Year's Eve. Harris scored a game-high 20 points and grabbed eight boards, but Whitted led three Vols with 17 as Tennessee went on to the 17-point win.
The Paladins also played a pair of strong mid-majors during the time, in UNC Charlotte and James Madison, who were headed up by two coaches that were at different points in there respective careers, yet recognizable to all those who know ball. Bobby Lutz was UNCC's young, brash head coach that always had a smile on his face, while JMU was led by wily veteran and future Hall-of-Fame head coach Lefty Driesell, who made a name for himself first in the SoCon at Davidson and following that in the ACC at Maryland.
Now he was in Harrisonburg, and he had a Dukes team that could shoot the basketball. In the meeting with the Dukes, Louis Rowe's 28 points was enough to lead the Dukes to a 79-72 win over the Paladins at the Convocation Center in Harrisonburg.
In the matchup against Lutz's Forty-Niners, the Paladins had few answers and less replies as to how to stop UNCC's talented wing, Jarvis Lang, who scored 24 points and added 10 boards in what was a Forty-Niners 70-52 win in early December at the Memorial Auditorium in downtown Greenville.
Furman headed into league play with just four wins to name, with only two against NCAA Division I competition, however, despite that, would be competitive and a tough out on most nights in league play.
The Paladins also ranked highly in several defensive categories during the 1994-95 season, which included leading the league in scoring defense (69.0 PPG), while ranking second in field goal percentage defense (44.2%).
The Paladins posted a total of six conference wins, finishing 6-8 in the league, which was good enough for fourth overall in the league's South Division. The Paladins had a trio of impressive wins, with two of them coming inside the friendly confines of the Memorial Auditorium a little over a month apart, as Furman was able to get what was an 80-71 win over Davidson on Jan. 16, and a month and two days later bested Anquell McCollum, Frankie King and Western Carolina, 83-72.
However, the most impressive win of the entire 1994-95 season came on the road a the Cam Henderson Center on the campus of Marshall University and took home what was a 77-68 win before better than 5,100 fans in the final game of the opening month of conference play.
The Paladins would come up with the win getting a pair of 21-point performances from Sexton and Harris, while Pat Marshall posted a key 15 points and eight rebounds against Marshall, delivering one of his signature clutch performances in the road win for the 'Dins. Freshman big man Chuck Vincent would close out the game by adding 12 points and seven boards.
In February, the Paladins would start the final month of the regular-season in strong fashion, downing Tom Apke's Mountaineers, 76-60, in Greenville, with Steve Harris leading the way with 23 points, while Chuck Vincent added another impressive rookie performance, posting 17 points and 14 rebounds.
In what was a rare, late-season out-of-conference game, which seemed to often involve the Clemson Tigers during the mid-late 1990s, the Paladins would fight hard at Littlejohn Coliseum before eventually dropping a 69-63 contest on Feb. 8, 1995. Clemson's "Slab Five" under head coach Rick Barnes would see Merl Code go off for a game-high 26 points in the win over the Paladins.
The Paladins would then hit the Volunteer State swoon, dropping what was a hard-fought, 75-66, setback in Johnson City to East Tennessee State before getting nipped, 71-70, at the Roundhouse by the Moccasins. Chattanooga would score 49 first-half points and lead by 13 at the break, however, the eventual league champions would have a fight on their hands, but held off the Paladins in the end, getting strong performances from both Brandon Born (19 pts) and John Oliver (10 pts), holding off a pesky Paladin team.
After a narrow 60-59 home win over VMI a day before Valentine's Day at the Big Brown Box, the Paladins would avenge an earlier loss to Western Carolina in Cullowhee by handing the Catamounts an 82-73 setback in a late-season clash. The Catamounts got a combined 52 points from eventual league player of the year Frankie King (36 pts) and 1996 SoCon Player of the Year Anquell McCollum (16 pts), as the duo had established themselves as one of the top scoring guard tandems in all of college basketball.
Unfortunately for the Paladins, the win over Western Carolina would end up being their final win of the 1994-95 season, as the Paladins would fall in their final three contests of the season, starting with a 72-64 setback at The Citadel.
That would be followed by a historic regular-season finale, as the Paladins played their final game in their downtown home facility at Memorial Auditorium, and combined with Textile Hall, the program had played its home basketball games in the heart of Greenville's downtown area for 38 years. It was also Senior Night, as Bob McKillop's Davidson Wildcats would end up spoiling Furman's ultimate send-off to Timmons Arena, which was still a year-and-a-half away, as the Paladins would drop a 65-55 contest to the Wildcats in their final home game.
The loss to Davidson meant Furman had to play on the opening day of the Southern Conference Tournament for the second year in a row, and the Paladins' stay in Asheville didn't last too long, as Appalachian State handed the Paladins a 78-73 setback at the Civic Center to bring an abrupt end to head coach Joe Cantafio's first season in charge as the head coach.
Georgia Southern would be in its third season as a Southern Conference member, and the 1994-95 season would be one worthy of being forgotten by all involved, as the Eagles posted just an 8-20 overall record, and that included just a 3-11 record in Southern Conference play.
It would also be the end of an era for Eagles basketball, as Frank Kerns would end up resigning as the head coach of the Eagles, as he would resign amid an NCAA investigation into the Georgia Southern basketball program as a result of an investigation into Kerns and some allegations of serious academic infractions.
Kerns would submit his resignation later to the Georgia Southern athletic administration. Kerns had completely changed the face of Georgia Southern basketball when he came to Statesboro in his early 40s back in 1981.
The former Chattanooga assistant coach would help turn things around almost immediately, leading the Eagles basketball program to three NCAA Tournament appearances in a decade span, as the Eagles won three Trans-America Athletic Conference (now A-Sun) titles (1982, '87 and '92), as well as a pair of NIT appearances (1988 and '89) during his tenure as the head coach.
But with Georgia Southern's entrance into the Southern Conference, it would be almost if the luck ran out for the Eagles basketball program as a result. Georgia Southern's first season in the Southern Conference, which was the 1992-93 season, would be one in which the Eagles came into the SoCon off an NCAA Tournament appearance, and the Eagles would come into the league as one of a handful of favorites to win the league in their first season of participation.
The Eagles would end up putting together one of their best seasons during their two decades of membership, finishing that 1992-93 campaign with a 19-9 record and ended up with a 12-6 mark in Southern Conference play, which was good enough for a tie with East Tennessee State in the league's final regular-season standings.
However, the Eagles would be dealt a harsh fate in that 1993 Southern Conference Tournament in Asheville, as the Eagles were on the doorstep of reaching the championship game in Asheville, but the ETSU Bucs had other ideas, handing Kerns' Eagles an 84-76 overtime setback in the semifinals of the tournament. In their two decades as a member, Georgia Southern never reached a SoCon title game.
Things started to go in the opposite direction for the Georgia Southern basketball program in 1993-94, as the Eagles, while still competitive in the league, finished just 14-14 overall and posted a 9-9 mark in the league, which would see Georgia Southern post a fifth-place finish.
Kerns and two assistants came under scrutiny during the summer 1994 after an unnamed player was given help on a final exam for a correspondence course with another school that would have made this particular player academically ineligible without a passing grade.
In the school's own self-imposed investigation of this particular violation, there were other academic violations that were discovered in addition to the major academic violation involving the player and the final exam. It was also alleged that an assistant coach had paid for this player to be enrolled for this particular correspondence course. There were also allegations of wire and mail fraud, which brought with them, potential federal charges.
Little known Southeastern Bible College was one that student-athletes were basically gaming the system to remain eligible by stealing credits, and the courses had a wide-ranging spectrum.
Georgia Southern's academic improprieties were part of a huge NCAA investigation that involved larger programs such as Baylor, Mississippi State and Arkansas were initially highlighted in the NCAA's investigation, and it would trickle all the way down before reaching smaller schools like Georgia Southern and Eastern Washington. In essence, the NCAA had uncovered a giant credit-laundering scheme designed to help keep players that were struggling academically eligible to play.
With the resignation of Kerns and two top assistant coaches, the Eagles were left under the leadership of the lone remaining assistant coach, Doug Durham. Despite the scrutiny and the cloud lingering over the men's basketball program, the Eagles ended up starting out the season with a surprising 4-2 record, and with only 10 players on the roster, and a third assistant leading the team, it was almost a minor miracle that the Eagles had gotten off to such a positive start.
Things would soon come crashing down, however, and the reality of a roster of only 10 players would make life tough by the time the Eagles reached SoCon play. However, the Eagles did open league play in positive fashion, playing on the road at Furman in the Paladins' downtown Arena, Memorial Auditorium. Georgia Southern would take home a thrilling, 61-60, win over the Paladins.
Lonnie Edwards, who would end up being one of Georgia Southern's best players during the 1994-95 season, led the way for the Eagles, adding 17 points to the fold and his three-pointer with 64 seconds remaining in the contest would prove pivotal, as the Eagles were able to escape with the one-point win.
Edwards would end up putting the Eagles ahead for good when he put the Eagles ahead for good with 6:29 left in the contest, as he broke what had been a 51-51 tie by knocking down a top-of-the-key three to give the Eagles a lead they would not relinquish in the contest. Edwards, in fact, would score 14 of Georgia Southern's final 19 points to close out the contest.
The Eagles would end the night by connecting on an impressive 54.2% from the field, while holding the Paladins to just 46.7% shooting in the friendly confines of the Big Brown Box. The road win by the Eagles snapped what had been a five-game losing streak.
Just nine days later, Georgia Southern faced that same Paladins team at Hanner Fieldhouse in Statesboro, and the Eagles would deliver the same result, sending the Paladins back to Greenville saddled with a 62-56 setback to garner what would be a season-sweep of the Eagles.
This time, it wasn't Lonnie Edwards that delivered the goods for the Eagles offensively, although he did play all 40 minutes and did finish with 10, but rather athletic guard Dante Gay, who had a couple of highlight-reel dunks en route to finishing the game with a game-high tying 20 points for Georgia Southern, as he matched Furman's Chuck Vincent, who also finished with 20.
The Eagles recorded their final Southern Conference win of the season on Jan. 30, 1995, as the Eagles produced what was their arguably their biggest upset win of the SoCon season, taking down a good Davidson team at Hanner Fieldhouse, as the Eagles went on to get a 59-52 win over Bob McKillop's Wildcats.
It was again Dante Gay that would rise to the occasion once again, scoring 10 of his team-high 16 points in the second half, as the Eagles played excellent defense to hold Davidson to just 37.0% shooting for the game en route to the win. Gay would also be supplemented in double figures in the game by Emmanuel Christophe, who finished with 13 points and seven boards, while Lonnie Edwards contributed 12 points to the winning cause.
February would prove to be a brutal month for Georgia Southern, starting with an 84-79 loss at VMI and that would be followed up a 60-53 loss to Appalachian State in Boone, and finally, Marshall delivered a 50-point, 103-53, beatdown in Huntington to round out a tough start to the final month of the regular-season for the Eagles. The 50-point setback to the Thundering Herd was Marshall's worst loss as a program in nearly two decades.
The Eagles would finish the month of February going winless, heading into the 1995 Southern Conference Tournament in Asheville having dropped seven-straight. However, the Eagles would open the tournament on a good note, as the Eagles would play in one of the two Thursday play-in round games and the Eagles would actually end up being the very first game of the tournament, facing off against VMI.
The Eagles would play one of their best basketball games of the entire season, as the Eagles would shoot an impressive 58.6% (34-of-58) from the field en route to earning what was a 94-71 win in the 1995 tournament opener at the Asheville Civic Center.
The game would see six lead changes through the opening 13 minutes of play, as the two teams went back-and-forth. With the game tied, 25-25, with just under eight minutes remaining in the half, the Eagles proceeded to go on what was a 21-5 run to close the half and took a 46-30 lead into the locker room. It would prove to be the ultimate separator in the contest, as Georgia Southern opened as much as a 23-point lead (55-32) in the early portions of the second half.
VMI never quit, however, and would get to within eight, at 62-54, with 9:31, however, could never get any closer and the Eagles earned their place into a quarterfinal clash with top overall seed Chattanooga.
The Eagles, which lost regular-season clashes by 19 and 14 points, respectively, against the Mocs, would fight valiantly in what would prove to be the final game of the season. Despite one of the better scoring performances of the tournament from Lonnie Edwards, who finished the contest with 25 points on 10-of-21 shooting from the field, which included a 4-for-8 effort from three-point range, the Eagles would ultimately see their season come to an end at the hands of the eventual league regular-season and tournament champions, as Chattanooga claimed the 70-66 win to end Georgia Southern's season. Edwards' outstanding scoring performance in the game would see him land on the SoCon's All-Tournament team.
Things wouldn't get any better for Georgia Southern basketball in the immediate future at least, as Gregg Polinsky, who was hired off Wimp Sanderson's staff at Alabama to take over the program for the 1995-96 season. However, the Eagles were still battling the NCAA infractions and cheating scandal that seemingly affected a wide-ranging landscape of NCAA Division I basketball the following season, as the Eagles were among the worst of those programs penalized.
Georgia Southern would be forced to serve a one-year probation for its basketball program during the 1995-96 season, and in Pollinsky's first season as the new head coach, the Eagles wouldn't even be allowed to participate in the Southern Conference Tournament.
The Citadel's basketball program, meanwhile, would enjoy some success during the 1994-95 season under the direction of head coach Pat Dennis. The Bulldogs would end up finishing out the season third in the SoCon's South Division, posting a 6-8 mark in league play, which included an 11-16 overall league mark.
The Bulldogs would finish tied in the South Division league standings with bitter rival Furman, however, The Citadel would garner the No. 3 seed by virtue of having one more regular-season win than the Paladins, as the two split with each other during the regular-season. The Bulldogs also swept Georgia Southern, which finished last in the South Division, while Furman was swept by Georgia Southern, which accounted for two of the Eagles' three SoCon wins.
The Citadel had a unique mix of players, that unlike a lot of the rest of the league, wanted to slow the pace and win halfcourt battles, relying on solid defense in the halfcourt. With players like forwards Matt Newman and Moncrief Michael, the Bulldogs would go about doing just that on most nights. Add to that the fact that the Bulldogs had one of the best perimeter shooters in the league, in Filipino Noy Castillo, and the Bulldogs, despite the recruiting challenges, found themselves in most games in league play on a given night.
One of the best stretches of play enjoyed during that 1994-95 season by the Bulldogs came during the early part of February over a two-week span, which saw the Bulldogs go in a run of winning four out of five games, including three-straight win open the final month of league play.
After opening the final month of regular-season basketball in the Southern Conference with a 76-62 loss at Marshall, the Bulldogs proceeded to pull out wins over arch-rival VMI (W, 84-69), at Western Carolina (W, 69-68) and at Georgia Southern (W, 69-62) before finally seeing the three-game winning streak come to an end in McAlister Field House against Davidson (L, 51-70). However, on Feb. 20, the Bulldogs made it four wins in five games by knocking off bitter rival Furman, 72-64, at McAlister Field House.
The Bulldogs would then hit a bit of a swoon entering the Southern Conference Tournament in Asheville, losing their final three regular-season games, with setbacks coming against non-conference foe College of Charleston (L, 58-65) before dropping the final two league games of the season at home against Chattanooga (L, 48-72) on senior night, and then finished the season with a 75-66 loss at VMI.
The Bulldogs would head to Asheville as the No. 3 seed out of the South Division, which meant they would face the No. 3 from the North Division, in East Tennessee State, as the Bulldogs looked to end what was a nine-game losing streak in the SoCon Tournament.
The Bucs, under Alan LeForce, were able to establish tempo early, and that wasn't a good sign for the Bulldogs, and that would end up leading to The Citadel's ultimate demise, as the Bulldogs would see their season come to an ultimate end, with an 85-65 loss in the quarterfinals of the SoCon Tournament.
VMI, which was of course the other military school in the Southern Conference, ended the 1994-95 season with almost an identical record to that of the Bulldogs under first-year head coach Bart Bellairs, as the Keydets would finish a respectable 10-17 overall and were 6-8 in Southern Conference play.
The finish would be good enough for the Keydets to finish the campaign with a fourth-place finish in the five-team SoCon North Division.
The Keydets would feature a new style of basketball under head coach Bart Bellairs, and if you're familiar with more current times in SoCon hoops, such as "Bucky Ball" at Samford, it was a style of pressing 94-feet and causing chaos, as Bellairs' style was very similar, and VMI basketball would become known as the "Runnin' Roos" during this particular era.
There was a roster of players that did possess some good talent, which translated to the Southern Conference hardwood during this era. Players like point guard Bobby Prince, forward Lawrence Gullette, guard Bryan Taueg, and center Lester Johnson, and it would be a core group that would ultimately help lead a turnaround for VMI basketball.
Prince and Gullette would turn out to be two of the SoCon's premier players at their respective positions during the '94-95 season, with Prince being arguably the league's top point guard, while Gullette was not only one of the league's top scorers, but was also one of the league's top power forwards.
Prince finished the season by leading the league in assists-per-game, dishing out 6.4 helpers-per-game, while also setting a school record for single-game assists at 13 in an overtime road loss to Western Carolina. It would be a record that would end up standing for three decades. Gullette would end up leading the Keydets in scoring, averaging 16.4 PPG.
The 1995 Southern Conference Tournament, which was also the 75th anniversary of the nation's oldest college basketball tournament, will always hold a special place in my heart for its sentimental value to me personally.
After all, this was the first Southern Conference Tournament I would ever attend in-person, and it would be one of my most cherished memories of an event that has become an annual event that look forward to each year.
It was fitting that my first tournament then, was in Asheville, and is of course the sight where the current tournament is held. As of this past tournament (2025), I have attended some part of 27 of 30 tournaments in my lifetime, and I remember some part of each one, but the one that sticks out the most is the first one.
One of the main reasons it remains emblazoned my memory is that first Southern Conference Tournament I attended, which was the fact that I really only went to the opening Thursday night of the tournament, and was allowed to miss both Thursday and Friday from school to attend.
I had planned on being back for Friday's games, and perhaps even Saturday's semifinal games, however, a series of events had kept me from doing so, with the most notable being the fact that my mom, who attended with me instead of my father, who couldn't get off work, actually got lost coming back from Asheville late that Thursday night after the second game, which saw Furman's season end with a 78-73 loss to Appalachian State in the second of two play-in games. Georgia Southern had won the first play-in round contest, with a lopsided, 94-71, win over VMI.
When we asked to stop and ask for directions on the way back, the man at the service station, which was like one of those you might see in a horror movie in the newest edition of the "Wrong Turn" series, told us to "Beware of 'em hairpin turns but if ye keep goin' a this way, you'll eventually come to a gravel road where you wanna take a left."
I'm not sure my mom listened to the directions, or didn't believe the man, but it was probably the latter if I had to guess, however, we somehow ended up at Lake Lure. By the time mom actually found the right road to get us back home, which was probably US Highway 25 because I don't think we ever made it to the actual interstate, it was about 1:45 am and we would arrive home around 3 am. It was a wild ride home.
I basically slept almost until the noon tip-off between Georgia Southern and top seeded Chattanooga the next day, and witnessed a better-than-expected game, with the Mocs squeaking out a 70-66 win. Chattanooga's ultimate shot-makers ended up being the difference against a scrappy Eagles team, which was headed for probation in the very near future.
In the second game of the day, East Tennessee State's guards Robert Doggett pushed the tempo, while big men Tony Patterson and Phil Powe would be too much for The Citadel and sharp-shooting guard Noy Castillo and the game would get out of hand early, as the Bucs never looked back en route to an 85-65 win.
The two night session games would end up offering the most intrigue, with top seed out of the North Division, Marshall, taking on an Appalachian State team that lost both regular-season meetings, but the most recent meeting in Boone had seen the Mountaineers come so close to pulling the upset in a mid-February clash, but ultimately fell 70-69.
The Mountaineers played maybe their best game of the season, and it would be the final win for the Black and Gold under then head coach Tom Apke. The Mountaineers would end up taking a 93-82 decision in the first game of the evening session, producing what would be considered the first major upset of the 1995 Southern Conference Tournament.
The Mountaineers were a program that had been a lot of games throughout the season, however, the primary issue was they didn't win many of them. However, in Asheville, it was if the boys from Boone were playing outside of themselves, and with a confidence they hadn't displayed previously during the season.
All good things come to an end, and for the Mountaineers and their "Cinderella Story" in March, the exit would be provided by bitter mountain rival Western Carolina. Led by the dynamic backcourt tandem of King and McCollum, the Catamounts downed the Black and Gold, 74-64, in the second semifinal game of the evening.
Appalachian State's guard play would prove elite in the '95 tournament, and diminutive point guard William Cook would lead the Mountaineers throughout the tournament, as the Mountaineers would record a remarkable 64 assists in three games, setting a new Southern Conference Tournament record in the process.
The championship game between Chattanooga and Western Carolina would turn out to be a classic, with the game being cotnrolled for much of the way by the Catamounts, as the guard tandem of King and McCollum was providing the Mack McCarthy's Chattanooga Mocs all they could handle defensively and then some.
In what was a game between a pair of teams that could score the ball well, the two teams eventually settled into a defensive slugfest inside the Asheville Civic Center, as points for both teams didn't come easy at any place on the floor. The Catamounts would get 35 of their 61 points in the game from King (18 pts) and McCollum (17 pts), while small forward Kevin Kullum added 14.
Chattanooga countered with strong evenings from both Brandon Born (17 pts) and Mario Hanson (15 pts), while Marcus Watkins and Pat Henderson ended up playing big roles off the bench for UTC, adding 10 points respectively.
The game would ultimately come down to Chattanooga's maturity and know-how winning out. The Mocs, who had won the SoCon tournament title six times previously, were a program groomed for success under Mack McCarthy and one that was starting to hit its stride just as East Tennessee State's program began what turned out to be a decline.
Over the final six-and-a-half minutes, the Mocs slowly showed why they were the favorite of many in the preseason, relying on the senior leadership of Born and Hanson. The Mocs would have had a third leader in the lineup, however, much like this past season, Roger Brown, who was the team's most reliable scorer in the paint, suffered what was a season-ending injury late in conference play and that would force the Mocs to figure out things without their fourth-leading scorer and leading rebounder in the paint, averaging 8.5 caroms-per-game.
Despite the adversity, however, the Mocs did enough to cut down the nets for the seventh time in Asheville in just an 18-year span since joining the SoCon. It was a third-straight tournament title for UTC and the Mocs had officially established themselves as the SoCon hoops dynasty, and with the 63-61 win over the Catamounts in come-from-behind fashion, had officially staked their claim to being the king of the SoCon mountain.
Following a narrow 65-64 win over Davidson in 1994, the Mocs needed a complete effort once again to survive Western Carolina's upset bid, as the Catamounts, which joined the league in the same year as UTC in 1976-77, were looking for their first SoCon hoops title and subsequent trip to the NCAA Tournament to follow.
The Mocs would go on to garner the No. 15 seed in the 1995 NCAA Tournament and would be the lone Southern Conference team to participate in the basketball postseason. The Mocs would run into a buzz-saw, in No. 2 seed UConn, which was led by the likes of Donny Marshall, Ray Allen and Kevin Ollie, as the Huskie routed the Mocs, 100-71, in the West Regional opening round clash.
The 1994-95 season was particularly special for me because it was the season in which I fell in love with Southern Conference basketball. It was the season that I really started to pay attention to and really begin to start writing about and keeping up with the league and the matchups from November-March. It was where my lifelong love affair began and it has never wavered since.
It was also my first Southern Conference Tournament, and it was one in which I have was allowed to miss school to attend. My mom is awesome for that. I was the envy of many in my Shannon Forest 8th grade class for that year and for the following years, as I made treks to Greensboro in the coming years following the final edition--at least for a while--in Asheville. I will never forget that 1994-95 season of SoCon hoops, as it was certainly a special one for a number of reasons.
