Embrace a Mid-Major: Appalachian State Mountaineers

The Fundamentals:

Name: Appalachian State Mountaineers
Conference: Southern Conference
Mascot: Yosef, who is awesome
Last Year's Record:
This Year's Record: 11-3 (3-0)
This Year's Current RPI: 10

Big Wins: By 11 over Virginia, by 11 over Central Florida, and by 8 over Vanderbilt.

Unsightly Losses: By 30 to Clemson and 32 to Virginia Tech, against whom they scored 37 points. Ouch.

Player You Should Know: D.J. Thompson is a fantastic scorer at guard. He can shoot from outside (though his percentage is a little down this year) and he can penetrate, and he's a bitch to guard. He only stands 5'8" and weighs 170 pounds, though. You'd like to see a little higher assist numbers and fewer turnovers from a point guard. He averages 15.1 points a game, which is excellent, though it is down 4 points a game from last year. Part of the reason for that, though, is the emergence of 6'8" junior forward Donte Minter, who sat out last year because of NCAA transfer rules. Minter averages 14 a game, and had 27 points off the bench against Vanderbilt.

Outlook: The Mountaineers went to the semifinals of the SoCon tournament last year, and they return five starters, not to mention that Minter is eligible this year. So yeah, they expect to win the Southern Conference, and if they can't, they expect to be one of the mid-major teams that can make a solid argument about an at-large bid.

Oh, and one last thing you should know about Appalachian State ... they are HOT, HOT, HOT.