CHATTANOOGA (24-8) (12-2)
Everybody is back for the perennial conference champions, with one exception – veteran point guard Alicia Payne graduates, taking 3.8 assists, a 1.9 assist to t.o. ratio, a SoCon Defensive POY award, and several years of solid leadership with her. Still, the Mocs, with wins over Butler, East Carolina, Southern Miss and Harvard, and a 2 point loss to UT in Knoxville, and 3 returning all conference players (Jasmine Joyner, Queen Alford and Keiana Gilbert), are on another level from the SoCon competition (they went 2-1 against Mercer and 2-1 against Samford, dropping a January road game to each, but knocking each out of the SoCon tournament).

MERCER (24-9) (12-2)
Last year they lost 4 of their top 5 and seemed destined for a major downturn. Instead, they improved from 9-5 to 12-2!!! They did this without any strong upperclasswomen, putting together a rotation of all freshmen and sophomores. It was one heck of a job by veteran coach Susie Gardner who really earned her Coach of the Year Award. The freshmen and sophomores are now sophomores and juniors (their top 7 players all return, led by SoCon POY Jr. Kahlia Lawrence, all-freshman Keke Calloway and freshman of the year, Swedish import Linnea Rosendal, with years of experience on Swedish club teams and age group national teams) and should be even better. If Chattanooga slips at all, Mercer should be ready to take advantage.

SAMFORD (20-11) (11-3)
They are in the same position that Mercer was last year, losing their top 4 players from a team that upset LSU (a 10-21 team) and lost an overtime game at Indiana. But this is a team that relies even more on a solid system with the scoring spread around, and less on individual talent than Mercer. And they will get a boost from the return of Hannah Nichols: she was SoCon freshman of the year, led Samford in scoring with 14.2 a game as a sophomore and redshirted last year with injury. So they might be able to reload effectively, as Mercer did. The more common result with such losses is a down year.

ETSU (16-14) (8-6)
The Lady Bucs were a very one dimensional team last year – with 3 solid guards in Tianna Tarter (1st team all SoCon), Shamauria Bridges (2nd team all SoCon) and Chandler Christopher, and no inside scoring. And Chandler Christopher has graduated. The Bucs rebounding wasn’t terrible – they tied Chattanooga for best rebounding margin in the conference with +1.3. But they really missed the inside scoring of Destiny Mitchell, Serena Clark and Maria Bond. The Bucs had some good games early and started the conference 8-3. But they ended the season on an 0-3 skid (albeit to the top 3 teams in the SoCon) and were one and done in the tournament, losing by 3 to Furman (1-2 with them on the year). Their freshmen and sophomore class struggled – they hope to show improvement this year. 6’1” So. Raven Dean is a big strong gal with some impressive basketball skills for her size, but was very raw as a freshman, even though she made the SoCon all-freshman team. 5’11” So. Carley Lytton had a beautiful looking outside shot early, but seemed to completely lose confidence in it as the year went on. 6’1’ So. Sadasia Tipps and 5’10” Jr. Malloree Schurr were fighters, but had trouble scoring. Fortunately, this year may bring help in the middle with 6’2” Knoxville all-state freshman Anajae Stephney and 6’1” redshirt sophomore transfer Morgan Martin from Eastern Illinois. Most highly touted of the newcomers are 5’10” Elizabethton twins Kayla Marosites (twice Tennessee ‘AA’ POY) and her almost equally good sister Kelci. North Carolina all-stater 5’4” Jada Craig may bring help at the point, and 5'11" JUCO JR Micah Norris adds some size at guard, having played a limited reserve role in Chipola's march to a national title. There’s a lot of promise there, but the Lady Bucs need to turn some of that promise into results. It’s not enough for Jr. Tianna and Sr. Shamauria to get their points – they’ve got to try to make the others better.

FURMAN (15-16) (7-7)
Furman loses 2 of their top 4 scorers. Although returning 2 of the SoCon’s best players in 5’7” Senior Whitney Bunn and 5’11” Jr. Cierra Carter, the supporting cast is thin. They may have a harder time reloading than Mercer did.

WOFFORD (9-20) (3-11)
WESTERN CAROLINA (7-22) (3-11)
UNCG (8-22) (0-14)
The bottom 3 in the SoCon are really struggling teams: 3-11 for Wofford, 3-11 for Western Carolina and 0-14 for UNCG. Pretty much the same as the year before (3-11, 3-11 and 1-13). In fact, this seems to happen most years, and there’s not much reason to look for a turn around this year.