Get to Know a College Basketball Mid-Major: Big South

You know all about the Power 6 conferences in college basketball. You hear about those more than any other, and those groups often dominate the March Madness conversation. There are 31 other conferences out there, however, and our goal is to get you up to speed on the teams, players and fights in the standings to know before the conference tournaments, Selection Sunday and the official start of March Madness. It’s time for you to get to know a mid-major: this time, it’s the Big South. The Big South formed in 1983, and is not spread out all over the south but instead is concentrated within three states: North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. There are nine full members in the conference, with associate members in other states and sports besides basketball. This is a mid-major that historically gets just the automatic bid in both the men’s and women’s versions of March Madness, and things won’t be any different in 2025-2026. That’s not to say that just which teams will win the auto bids is set in stone — there is some competition there — but there are also clear favorites. All nine Big South teams will participate in the conference tourneys, with the first seven getting a first-round bye into the quarterfinals, while the eighth and ninth seeds face off against each other to kick things off. The top seed then faces the winner of that matchup as a reward for being the regular-season champion. Big South — Men’s College Basketball Leaders: There is a battle at the top of the Big South, and it’s between High Point and Winthrop. The Panthers have won eight games in a row and are 12-1 in conference play. Their lone loss? That came against second-place Winthrop, which lost the Big South opener to Longwood, and then rattled off 11-straight wins to end up half-a-game back of the top of the conference. Behind these two is Radford (7-5), Presbyterian (6-6), UNC Asheville (6-6), Longwood (6-7), USC Upstate (3-9), Charleston Southern (3-9) and Gardner-Webb (1-11). High Point is the lone top-75 team, coming in at 75th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET); Winthrop is second in the conference in NET, at 121st — no other Big South team is in the top-200, with UNC Asheville, Radford and Charleston Southern at least within the top-250 and the rest of the conference comfortably within the bottom-100 teams. The rankings don’t look much different by KenPom, either, with High Point coming in at 90th and Winthrop 132nd: the Panthers’ offense is the key to their ranking, as they are 55th in unadjusted Offensive Rating thanks to scoring 118.4 points per 100 possessions. The defense is below-average, at 110 points per 100 possessions and a rank of 199th, but every other defense in the conference is even worse, and without the offense to make up for it. The keys to High Point’s offense are a deep roster of players to turn to for scoring. Senior forward Terry Anderson (averaging 15.6 points, 5.5 rebounds), senior guard Rob Martin (15.1 points, 3.5 assists), senior forward Cam’Ron Fletcher (14.3 points, 6.8 rebounds), junior guard Conrad Martinez (10.5 points, 3.8 assists) and senior forward Owen Aquino (9.4 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists) lead a unit averaging that is 12th in Division I in field goals per game (31.1) and 18th in shooting percentage (50.1%). The Panthers have actually shot a little worse in conference play, but still good enough for first in field goals per game and second in shooting percentage, and have scored, on average, 15.4 more points per game than they allow. Winthrop cannot compete as far as pure scoring goes, but it is first in the conference in offensive rebounds, second in defensive boards and first in overall rebounds, helping to make up for its shooting percentage woes. And while the defense isn’t noteworthy, neither is High Point’s — there is a reason that Winthrop was able to hand the Panthers their lone loss, and it’s because the Eagles can pick up second-chance points and force turnovers via rebounds, which High Point — sixth in a nine-team conference in rebounds — comparatively struggles with. Senior center Logan Duncomb is Winthrop’s leader in both points (18.6) and rebounds (8.8), while three other starters are averaging double-digit points. While no one else on the roster is a significant rebound threat, as a unit, the Eagles excel: of the 13 players besides Duncomb who have picked up minutes in 2025-2026, nine of them are averaging between 2.2 and 4.3 rebounds per game. Big South - Women’s College Basketball Leaders: High Point is ahead in the women’s portion of Big South, as well, with an 11-2 record. Longwood and Radford are tied for second, at 9-3, followed by 7-5 Gardner-Webb. The rest of the Big South is under .500: Charleston-Southern is 6-7, 5-8 Winthrop and UNC Asheville, 3-9 USC Upstate and 1-11 Presbyterian. While the Panthers aren’t as high in NET as the men’s team, at 124th, they are further ahead of the next-best team than their counterparts. Radford is second in the Big South in NET, but at 212th. Every other team in the Big South is ranked between 307th and dead last in Division I — Presbyterian is unlucky 363rd, which is saying something in a league where there are three teams yet to pick up their first win of the season through Feb. 15. That all being said, High Point has lost twice against these teams that trail so far behind it in NET. Radford defeated High Point handily, 72-57, then Longwood took it down in overtime the next game. Which is not to say that High Point isn’t the favorite or that it’s doomed in any way, it’s worth remembering that it has two conference losses against Quad 4 teams, and another Quad 4 loss besides: that means the Panthers are susceptible to future losses to even some of the worst teams going. The problem is that, despite being the clear best team in the conference, it has a middling offense and slightly worse defense: High Point’s Offensive Rating is 145th, and Defensive Rating 158th, resulting in a Net Rating of just 0.77. Junior forward Macy Spencer leads the conference at 18.9 points per game, and senior guard Aaliyah Collins is second on the Panthers at 15.6, but that’s it for scorers. There is no one great rebounder, and Spencer (2.4) and Collins (4.3) are the lone players with over 2.0 assists per game. The Panthers are first in shooting percentage and 3-point percentage, but at 43.7% and 32.7% — if they have a cold day shooting, or an opponent has a better-than-usual one, it can spell doom. It’s not the most-likely outcome, sure, but there is little cushion here for a fall.