OOC Review and SoCon Outlook

[apaladin]

Overall record 12-1 SoCon 1-0
Schedule and opponents record.
Bob Jones 1-11
Loyola-Chi 7-6 Best win Niagara
G-Webb 9-5 Best win Georgia Tech
N. Greenville 1-10
Villanova 9-4 Best win #11 Florida St.
So. Wesleyan 2-10 only 2 wins were BJU and NGU
UNCA 2-10 No D1 wins
WCU 3-11
Elon 4-9 2 D1 wins
SC Upstate 4-9 2 D1 win-best win W. Michigan
CSU 5-7 2 D1 wins
UNCW 4-9 3 D1 wins Lost to Mercer 77-73 Saturday
LSU 9-3 Best win Furman
Opps. Record(All) 60-104 37%
Opps. Record(D1 Only) 56-73 43%
D1 Opp vs D1 Only 43-73 37%
Furman wins vs. winning teams: 3
Furman wins vs. losing teams: 8
Furman best wins: Villanova(9-4), Gardner-Webb(9-5)

SoCon Outlook and Prediction:
It has been an incredible season so far and more fun than we ever expected. In reality our schedule has been less than stellar to say the least. The ball has bounced our way and overall the team has been clutch. We got a lot of mileage out of the Villanova win. Even though they have 4 losses I think they are still very good and will likely be in the big dance and this was an excellent win and one to be remembered. The SoCon looks to be unusually tough this year. 6 of the 10 teams have winning records, which is unusual but there are 6 teams with at least 9 wins. There are 2 with 12, 2 with 10 and 2 with 9. Very strange for the SoCon. IMHO, I think we will have a good season but I do not see us winning the league. I do think whoever wins the league will have 3 to 4 losses. I see the Paladins winning between 10-12 games which would be outstanding and give us 22 to 24 wins overall. On the other hand if Lyons can find his shooting eye again and Mounce and Gurley play consistently well we could do better than I think. Rafferty has been consistent all year and Hunter has been outstanding as well. The addition of Brown will also help, of course. Looking forward to the SoCon season and it should be fun. Love watching this team play. How do you see the rest of the season?

[CharlieFU]

I would take 14-4 right now. I think we have much room for improvement. And if we keep getting better, I like our chances of doing well.

SoCon will be tough. Maybe 14-4 wins it. I will be disappointed if we do worse than 12-6.

I like this team. When we are good, we are really good

[Fessor]

I think your assessment is on the money. Nice review of schedule thus far: Loyola has proven to be a pretender rather than a contender; FU with only 4 wins against winning teams; BJU, NGU, SWU, UNCA, WCU are a combined 9-52, with some of those wins being against each other. Wofford has already thumped ETSU by 17, albeit in Spartanburg. So, outcome of FU's next game should be revealing.

[soconjohn]

I think it's as good as it has ever been, but Furman's win over Nova will help it during conference play...Furman has the marquee win for the league this season, and while everyone is making a big deal about their own talent, truth is UNCG, Wofford nor ETSU won any of their big games. ..Furman has big-game win experience to draw upon when push comes to shove, and that matters more than you think.

[soconjohn]

Basketball is not like football in terms of score comparisons...Although UNCG likes to point out it only lost at LSU by six...A closer look reveals UNCG connected on 19 triples!!! A team that loses connecting on 19 triples is almost unheard of...UNCG is good, but saying because it only lost by six in Baton Rouge, and Furman lost by 18 is very much a pseudo-science in basketball...Or that because Furman only beat a 3-10 WCU by two in double-overtime...Basketball can't be measured in comparisons like that...Each game takes on its own identity under different circumstances each time out...I don't understand what Wofford has accomplished to be considered stronger that Furman hasn't other than people just throwing something out there...There's no proof that.

[Paul C]

I think your assessment is on the money. Nice review of schedule thus far: Loyola has proven to be a pretender rather than a contender; FU with only 4 wins against winning teams; BJU, NGU, SWU, UNCA, WCU are a combined 9-52, with some of those wins being against each other. Wofford has already thumped ETSU by 17, albeit in Spartanburg. So, outcome of FU's next game should be revealing.

Don't discount Gardner-Webb win....they beat Ga Tech.

And we play ETSU next week with their 7 footer Ok St being declared eligible....

[Paladin91]

I like the chemistry of this team. In a sense, I'm glad we got the loss over with before conference play. Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but this team has the drive to win the SOCON. Jalen Williams needs more playing time if we are going to win this down the stretch. Rafferty is a great player, but it would be nice to have another solid big in there performing to give Rafferty more breathers. I expect a SOCON championship this year - this team has the drive to do it and will get better.

[DungeonRealm]

Basketball is not like football in terms of score comparisons...Although UNCG likes to point out it only lost at LSU by six...A closer look reveals UNCG connected on 19 triples!!! A team that loses connecting on 19 triples is almost unheard of...UNCG is good, but saying because it only lost by six in Baton Rouge, and Furman lost by 18 is very much a pseudo-science in basketball...Or that because Furman only beat a 3-10 WCU by two in double-overtime...Basketball can't be measured in comparisons like that...Each game takes on its own identity under different circumstances each time out...I don't understand what Wofford has accomplished to be considered stronger that Furman hasn't other than people just throwing something out there...There's no proof that.

Any UNCG fan who mentions that is not very bright. If a UNCG fan even brings that nonsense up just reply with our score and their score against Elon, we smoked Elon by 21 and they were lucky as hell to pull out a 1 point win.

[apaladin]

FWIW despite the loss we moved up 11 spots in the RPI and down one spot to #27 in the NET. Goes to show you how flawed and meaningless the RPI is.

[The Jackal]

I think it is also important to emphasize how this has grown our coaches and players. This sort of thing pays dividends not only this year, but in the years down the road.

This is my opinion, but Furman has had to deal with increased pressure and scrutiny that no SoCon team has faced since Steph Curry's Davidson team 10 years ago. Furman had pulled off 18 consecutive regular season wins. They earned a ranking in the Top 25 and with that faced a lot of noise, doubters, and pressure.

This is different from a flash-in-the-pan win that brings a team increased notoriety for a couple of days. Last season, Wofford upset #5 UNC. That was newsworthy for a week. Wofford was 7-4 at the time and promptly lost their next game to UNCG. That win was immediately forgotten about by the national media.

I think the same thing happened to Mercer after beating Duke in the NCAA tournament. Mercer went from a complete unknown to a household name for a few days, almost exclusively because of who they beat. The Bears lost by 20 in the next game. While I think given the laser focus on the tournament the press for Mercer was greater, that press (at least in terms of coverage) lasted a relatively short time.

In those instances, a team had to face media and news outlets for a few days and no one really took them seriously on a national stage. Furman's players have been dealing with national coverage for weeks. It is far more impressive, I think, to have sustained success and breach the hallowed ground of the top 25 than having one really good day against a good team, even though the latter arguably makes you more "famous."

I think Furman's coaches and players have handled the increased attention marvelously and are going to be better for it.

[purplehorse]

I see wins against only 3 winning teams not 4?

Schedule overall has been weak. Lots of the publicity was because we beat two final 4 teams from last year.

If we play as a team, play defense and shoot well we can absolutely beat any team on our remaining schedule. Play poorly and we can lose to anyone.

Nobody expected us to be 12-1 at this point and the national exposure has been amazing.

The potential is there to have a great season but only time will tell. But nobody can take away the fun ride we have had.

[tya1]

UNCG nipped Samford yesterday at Samford after falling behind by 12 at the half. Samflord's 7'0" transfer was a force in the first half but UNCG made their comeback after he picked up his third foul early in the second half. That could be a good indicator for what to expect in conference this year. A lot of teams with good records so you had better play the full 40 minutes if you want to win.

The SoCon winner will be the team that plays with consistency and mental toughness. I don't think anyone has a dominant athletic advantage. We need to develop that consistency. The only thing that is worrying from the OOC schedule is the that some players have had big swings in performance. Rafferty, Brown, and Hunter have been most consistent. We need everybody playing every night.

[tim]

I like the chemistry of this team. In a sense, I'm glad we got the loss over with before conference play. Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but this team has the drive to win the SOCON. Jalen Williams needs more playing time if we are going to win this down the stretch. Rafferty is a great player, but it would be nice to have another solid big in there performing to give Rafferty more breathers. I expect a SOCON championship this year - this team has the drive to do it and will get better.

Agreed, this squad has a chemistry that seems to pull us through the close games. I think the struggle will come from strong inside teams like UNCG and Woffy, although UNCG has somebody inside hurt, don't they? Either way, I wasn't expecting this with all the graduation losses. Looking forward to the conference and the tourney.