affirm wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 7:49 am
Would we have done better against Clemson last night than Richmond did?
And would we have done as well as 7-4 Davidson did yesterday if it had been us instead of Davidson* playing #1, 11-0 Purdue?
Two surprising outcomes.
(As you may know, and documented elsewhere by affirm in UFFP, Richmond and Davidson are 2 of the 22 colleges considered as “peer colleges” by Furman.
Others with athletics programs similar to Furman include Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, and Bucknell. None of those is doing super so far this year, although Colgate won at Syracuse. Holy Cross had a super year in FCS, but in basketball so far they’re 3-8 with no wins of particular note.)
*Davidson stayed close to Purdue entire game (played at Indy). Davidson appears getting stronger in time for A-10. So far, other than the “close” loss to Purdue, their only losses were a couple of 2-pt games (one in OT), and one “bad” loss to CofC.
Richmond also lost to William and Mary, who are sub 300 in the Pomeroy rankings. Richmond made the NCAA tourney last year mainly because they had about 5 5th and even 6th year seniors who decided to stay and use their extra Covid year. Those guys are are all gone now and replaced by less experienced guys who have been inconsistent. Richmond has been bad away from home and mediocre at home. Clemson also lost to Loyola Chicago which has only one win against a team rated in the top 240 in D1. Yes, I think we would do better than Richmond.Oh yeah Clemson also lost to South Carolina who we beat by almost 20.
Purdue had to go to OT to beat 6-6 Nebraska the game before they played Davidson. They have some good victories on their resume but have played down to some opponents. I haven't seen them play this year but most seasons they are big man focused and can have trouble in games that they aren't hitting enough threes to open up the post.