Three Things I Think I Know About Samford Basketball
Samford basketball returns to the court on New Year’s Day as they start Southern Conference play at VMI. The Bulldogs in year one under Lennie Acuff finished non-conference play at 7-6 with three straight wins to end 2025. Samford erased a 15-point second half deficit to beat Cornell then took care of two non-D1 opponents.
It has not been easy for Acuff trying to battle through this tough non-conference schedule only being at full strength for just seven of the 13 non-conference games. Samford hopefully was able to use the 13 day break between games to get healthy. The Bulldogs had the fourth toughest non-conference slate when it came to their opponent strength per KenPom.
As Lennie Acuff told assembled media after the win over Cornell that he would “put our schedule aginst anybody in the country at our level.” Samford has traveled all over the North American continent from playing in the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Virginia, New Mexico, and even Mexico.
There have been plenty of ups and downs so here are three things we think we know about Samford heading into SoCon play.
1. Samford has two player of the year candidates in Jadin Booth and Dylan Faulkner.
Booth and Faulkner were named to the preseason All-SoCon teams and have lived up to the hype. Booth has scored in double figures in eight of 11 games played which includes two 30-point games. He is second in the SoCon in three point percentage with 50 or more attempts at 40%. Booth has been Samford’s go-to scorer and as he goes Samford goes. Booth has the sixth best offensive rating in the league per EvanMiya. If Booth continues to fill up the box score as Samford wins, he will have a great case to be the player of the year. He is averaging 18.6 PPG and 3.7 RPG per game.
While the numbers Jadin Booth puts up are flashy, the offense runs through Dylan Faulkner. Samford wants to get as many touches as possible for Faulkner per possession to run their offense. Faulkner was playing his best basketball in the last few games of 2025 as he already has a SoCon Player of the Week honors. He is averaging 15.5 PPG and 6.8 RPG so far with 10 games scoring in double figures.
He has the seventh best offensive rating in the league right behind Booth. There are some other quality big men in the SoCon with Furman’s Cooper Bowser and Mercer’s Armani Mighty Faulkner fighting for that top spot. He is also second in the conference in blocks per game giving Samford true rim protection something they lacked last season.
2. The Samford perimeter defense and team free throw shooting has to improve.
Two pain points for Samford have been specifically the three-point defense and the team’s poor free throw shooting. Per KenPom, Samford opponents are shooting 38.8 percent behind the three-point arc. Four of their 11 D1 opponents have made double digit threes against Samford. Four others made at least seven threes against the Samford defense.
In Samford’s defense, the team that made the most threes against them was Cornell. Cornell is the fourth best three-point shooting team in the country and Samford won that game. In what could possibly work in Samford’s favor, only two SoCon schools are in the top 170 in the entire country so far in three-point percentage. Samford’s perimeter defense has to improve if Samford wants to get to where they want to be. Defense creates offense and that is what Samford needs to do more of.
Moving over to the charity stripe is where Samford has struggled mightily. As a unit, Samford is shooting just 66.1% from the free throw line which sits at eighth in the SoCon. Furman and The Citadel are just below Samford. Jadin Booth leads shooting at a 91% clip followed by Judson Bjornstad who is at 81% but just on 16 attempts. Keaton and Cade Norris are both at 80%.
Dylan Faulkner is just 42-81 at a 52% clip, that has to improve no doubt. He is top 25 in the country in fouls drawn per 40 minutes so he does a great job at getting to the line. In his 15 games played at Lipscomb a season ago, Faulkner shot 70% from the free throw line, that was on 34 less attempts however. Freshman guard Isaiah Campbell-Finch has struggled as well, being just a 45% free throw shooter on 38 attempts.
In these close conference games, it is all about winning on the margins and free throw shooting is just that.
3. Samford can win the Southern Conference regular season.
This is not a full blown, “hear me out on this” situation. There are a couple of things playing in Samford’s favor. Firstly the conference as a whole is down, there is no doubt about it so far. Right now the SoCon sits as the 22nd best conference in the country per KenPom. For reference two seasons ago, the SoCon was ranked 12th and then ranked 13th last season. There is not a dominant team as of yet. ETSU has been playing the best so far.
Another thing is that Samford has two guys, as mentioned earlier, that could be vying for the player of the year honors. Furman fans would call this sunshine pumping but with players like Booth and Faulkner, Samford can keep pace with anybody in this league. Again this is not predicting Samford to win the league but it is certainly a possibility.
Provided Samford gets to stay fully or relatively healthy which was not the case during non-conference play remains to be seen. Not many coaches get the chance to win the league in their first season at a new stop but it is possible. Some things like good health have to go right for this to be a reality.
After the SoCon opener on New Year’s Day at VMI, Samford will play at UNCG on Saturday, January 3rd. Then their home SoCon opener will be on Wednesday, January 7th against Western Carolina.
