College Basketball Betting: Big South Conference Preview

The 2021-2022 college basketball season will offer a tangled and contentious race in the Big South Conference. This is a mid-major league where one school has the gleaming and established reputation but other schools will mount fierce opposition in the attempt to wrest away league superiority.

Team Likely To Surprise

The Campbell Camels have not been a regular year-in, year-out contender in the Big South. They have often finished in the lower half of the league over the past decade. For that reason and others, the Camels might not be the first team you think of as a top-tier contender for the league championship, but this season could be something special. There is no dazzling freshman newcomer in the lineup, nor is there a high-voltage transfer who is shaking things up in a big way. This is one of those teams which gains stature and credibility because it is a pain to play against. College basketball had Princeton and Pete Carril in the 1990s. It had Rick Majerus and Saint Louis in the early 2010s before Majerus died. There are always a few teams which go far in college basketball because they are annoying in the best, most complimentary sense of the term. Campbell runs very precise and rigorous halfcourt sets. The Camels, under coach Kevin McGeehan, will use the full shot clock and will make opposing defenses work on every cut and screen. Any slight lapse will be punished. The Camels are a system team which will try to ride their formula into March. They just might be able to do it. They will make a run at league favorite Winthrop before it’s all over.

Team Likely To Disappoint

The UNC-Asheville Bulldogs have been a regular presence in the Big South basketball over the past decade. They made the NCAA Tournament in 2011, 2012, and 2016, and they also won the regular-season championship in the Big South in 2017 and 2018 on top of their March Madness appearances. Given that track record of being right in the hunt for NCAA bids and conference titles in recent seasons, one might expect Asheville to be a top-two team, maybe even the favorite, for the conference title. The Bulldogs also have two quality players, wing Tajion Jones and big man Evan Clayborne. Yet, there doesn’t seem to be enough depth around those two guys to field a complete roster which can withstand the rigors of conference play. Asheville might be a tweener team: almost in the top tier, maybe slightly better than the middle tier, but ultimately not good enough to be the last team left standing.

Conference Champion

The king of the Big South is Winthrop. This is how it has been in most years when the Eagles had a chance to do something. Winthrop has won its conference tournament three of the last five years and in each of the last two. Coach Mark Prosser lost some of his stalwarts from last season’s lineup but has reloaded by hitting the transfer portal, which any really good coach has to do in this day and age. Other teams such as Campbell might make a strong run at the brass ring, but Winthrop is likely to fend them off.