By Malcolm Price
3 22 2025
The Chattanooga Mocs men’s basketball team was well represented on the All-Southern Conference award list including Coach of the Year Dan Earl and Frank Champion, who earned SoCon Newcomer of the Year honors.
SPARTANBURG, S.C. (March 5, 2025) — Leading the Chattanooga Mocs men’s basketball team through a historic 2024-25 regular season, head coach Dan Earl was named the Southern Conference Anton Foy Coach of the Year and highlights six total selections for the program as the league office announced the awards, voted upon by league coaches, Wednesday afternoon.
In addition to Earl’s top recognition, senior forward transfer Frank Champion was tabbed the 2024-25 Southern Conference Newcomer of the Year while junior sharpshooter Honor Huff garnered All-SoCon First Team honors. The trio of Champion and seniors Trey Bonham and Bash Wieland all earned selections on the All-SoCon Second Team.
Dan Earl ∙ Southern Conference Anton Foy Coach of the Year
Dan Earl earned SoCon Coach of the Year honors for the second time of his career after picking up laurels following the 2020-21 season while at VMI. Earl becomes the sixth head coach in program history to earn the award and is the fourth different UTC bench boss to win the award over the past 12 seasons (Will Wade, Matt McCall, Lamont Paris).
Earl, who is in his third season at Chattanooga, guided the team to a 23-8 record during the regular season and led the program to its 13th SoCon regular season title while finishing the conference slate 15-3. UTC enters SoCon tournament play as the No. 1 seed and is riding a current 11-game winning streak, the second-longest active streak in NCAA DI.
Earl has amassed a 62-37 (.626) overall record in his three seasons with the Mocs including a 34-20 (.629) mark in SoCon play. Earl’s 62 overall wins and 34 SoCon victories are both tied with Mack McCarthy for most by a UTC head coach over their first three seasons (DI era).
Honor Huff ∙ All-SoCon First Team
Honor Huff was named to the All-Southern Conference First Team for the first time in his career after picking up second team honors last season and all-freshman laurels at VMI in 2021-22. Appearing in all 31 games, Huff finished the regular season with team bests in PPG (14.7), 3FGM (101), 3FG% (41.7), FT% (85.1) and MPG (35.2).
Huff’s 101 threes made this season currently ranks sixth across all of Division I (leads the SoCon) and is fifth most in single-season program history. Huff has totaled 210 threes in his two seasons at UTC, third most in school history, while his career 2.73 threes-per-game average is 15th among all active players in Division I.
Frank Champion ∙ SoCon Newcomer of the Year & All-SoCon Second Team
Transferring (North Georgia) to UTC for his final collegiate season, Frank Champion was tabbed the SoCon Newcomer of the Year and earned All-SoCon Second Team honors after finishing with a balanced 11.4 PPG, 4.7 RPG and 3.8 APG stat line on an efficient 56.3% shooting total. Champion appeared in the final 23 games after missing the first eight.
Champion averaged 12.8 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game during SoCon action and recorded three 20+ scoring efforts while reaching double figures in 13 of 18 games. Champion tallied at least 13 points, seven rebounds and five assists in five different SoCon games this season including a stretch of four straight from February 8-19.
Trey Bonham & Bash Wieland ∙ All-SoCon Second Team
Rounding out Chattanooga’s all-league selections are guards Bash Wieland and Trey Bonham, who sit second and third on the team in scoring, respectively. Wieland finished the regular season averaging 14.0 points per game while Bonham followed with 13.5 per contest, in addition to a team-best 42 steals.
Wieland, who appeared in 29 games, put together an efficient offensive season that featured a 56.5% (156-276) field-goal percentage, which currently ranks second in the league and 34th nationally. Wieland reached double figures in all but three games in SoCon play and recorded eight 20-plus scoring efforts for the entire season including a career-high 26 points in his McKenzie Arena debut during a 76-62 win over Morehead State on November 14.
Bonham, the SoCon Preseason Player of the Year heading into the season, earns all-conference honors in back-to-back seasons after securing first team laurels last season. Bonham, the only Moc to start all 31 games this season, reached double digits in scoring 23 times and eclipsed the 1,500-point milestone for his collegiate career during the win over Western Carolina back on February 19.
All-SoCon Men’s Basketball Teams
Malcolm U. Pitt Player of the Year
Quimari Peterson, Sr., G, ETSU
Newcomer of the Year
Frank Champion, Sr., F, Chattanooga
Sixth Man of the Year
Josh Holloway, So., G, Samford
Defensive Player of the Year
Karon Boyd, Jr., F, ETSU
Anton Foy Coach of the Year
Dan Earl, Chattanooga
First Team
Quimari Peterson, Sr., G, ETSU
Jaden Seymour, Sr., F/C, ETSU
PJay Smith Jr., Sr., G, Furman
Kenyon Giles, Jr., G, UNCG
Honor Huff, Jr., G, Chattanooga
Second Team
Rylan Jones, Gr., G, Samford
Trey Bonham, Sr., G, Chattanooga
Bash Wieland, Gr., G, Chattanooga
Frank Champion, Gr., F, Chattanooga
Corey Tripp, Sr., G, Wofford
Third Team
Nick Anderson, Gr., G, Furman
Donovan Atwell, Jr., G, UNCG
Trey Fort, Sr., G, Samford
Rickey Bradley Jr., Jr., G, VMI
Kyler Filewich, Sr., C, Wofford
All-Defensive Team
Karon Boyd, Jr., F, ETSU
Cooper Bowser, So., F, Furman
Josh Holloway, So., G, Samford
AJ Clark, So., G, VMI
Justin Bailey, Jr., G, Wofford
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